I am currently working on beefing up the glass work on the stringers in the engine room. The builder only glassed the stringers in with 2 layers of 1.5Oz. mat and 1 layer of 24 Oz. Roving for a total glass thickness of 1/8" which is about 1/3rd the thickness it should be.
The first job was to move the engine forward to the front end of the engine room. I bought 4 - 4" diameter landscaping posts which fit perfectly between the inside of the engine room hatch and the outside of the engine stringers. I held them in place with C clamps then bolted a beam across the tops. I hung a come along from the beam to lift the engine. You can just see the wire of the come along in the center of this picture. I had moved the engine about 10 inches forward at this point. After releasing the weight off the come alongs I moved the posts forward about 12 inches. Then when I started lifting the engine again it slid forward as it was lifted. It's not high tech, but it worked fine and the engine was never more than a fraction of an inch above the stringer, very safe.
Here is the engine moved all the way forward. You can see the 4 dark rectangles where the feet sat on the stringers. I found that the engine mounts had 1/4" shims under the tapered shims to raise the engine slightly???? I do not know why they did not just raise it using the screw adjustments on the mounts. Good news is that with the shims gone I have the room on top of the stringer for the extra glass I will be adding to the stringers.
Last pic of the engine showing it tucked up into the front end of the engine room. This si where the generator normally sits.
On to the grinding!!!!
Here are the main and outer starboard stringers after a lot of grinding and glassing. At the aft end where the grey water tank sits there are now 5 layers of 1.5Oz mat and 4 layers of 24 Oz. Roving laid in alternating pattern mat-roving-mat-roving-mat-roving. This brings the total thickness up to 3/8". I also added 3 layers of 1808 Biax tape on the outside of the stringer where it meets the hull. I built a nice 1-1/2" fillet in there, because the turn is less than 90 degrees. I was not worried about the inside of the stringer, as you can see the angle is about 135 Degrees. I glassed the outer stringer first and then the main stringer. I still need clean up the few loose strands of roving on the outer stringer and gussets.
Here is a close up of the inside of the main stringer where it meets the grey water tank. The forward bulkhead of that tanks is glassed in with about 8 layers of glass now!!!
The angled section you see at the bottom is the hull where it meets the keel. The keel is about 8" deep, I wonder what they filled it with????
Another shot of the main and outer stringers with their new glass work. I added only 2 layers of mat and 2 layers of roving to the outer stringers. They do not have the same load and are not as tall is the main stringers.
I still need to strengthen the gussets between the two stringers. There's always tomorrow...
The hole in the hull you see is where the main engine thru hull goes. I took it out to do the glass work, I needed to replace the rotted backing block anyway. I will be building up fiberglass ones.
Stay tuned.
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