Does not look too bad from the outside. Notice the hole I cut in the top(two dark squares). I was able to push a long screw driver all the way down to the bottom of the stringer.
But this is what I found when I opened it up. The picture did not come out very clear. This is a view looking forward. The dark areas at the top and bottom of the stringer are what is left of the 3 X 6 teak beams. The two timbers were connected on each side with 1/2 thick plywood. The plywood was so rotten I was able to vacuum it out with the shop vac. The timbers were still soaking wet.
This view is from the same side looking aft.
You can see how thin the fiberglass is. Luckily the rot ended at the engine room bulkhead. I was able to look forward inside the stringer aft of the engine beds and see that it was fine.
I ended up removing the entire stringer up to the engine room bulkhead. They had sliced it there raising the level of the stringer under the aft cabin sole. I replaced the upper and lower beams with treated pine lumber that I dried in the workshop. I used 2 x 6 that I laminated together with epoxy resin. I used 1/2" thick DuraPly to rebuild the box beam. Duraply not only uses a marine glue, each laminate is also treated against rot. This time there is a resin bond between the plywood and solid members. At the worst it should provide a vapor barrier if one of the pieces get wet. Then the glass work was replaced. This time I used 3 layers of 24 Oz. Combo mat. The stringers are now also dividing walls of the new water tanks. There are baffles every 30" inside the tanks. They are glassed in into the hull and stringer. The building of the tanks are covered in subsequent posts.
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