correct angle on deck stringers

[Dick White]

I have just mounted the deck to the boat. I have noticed that the side deck stringers now have an angle that is very large in the stern and stem sections of the boat. This angle makes it impossible to match the top and and bottom so that I can attach the sides. Do I need to correct by gluing on some additional wood to the stringers so that I can reshape the angle?

I'm also interested in eliminating the cabin to increase cockpit space and make the weekender into an open day sailer. I've only seen one modification such as this. Any suggestion as to ways to stiffen the boat in this configuration and seat modifications would be appreciated.

[Barry Pyeatt]

The deck and bottom stringers need to be faired in to attach the side panels. The angle is only an average as it changes from bow to stern along the length of the hull. A straight edge yardstick will work just fine to see where it needs to have a little wood removed to accomplish just that. I found that in a couple areas it was necessary to remove some of the deck plywood to make this happen and in a couple spots I couldn't get it completely flat across the entire thickness of ply and stringer. This is one of the more time consuming tasks in the process. Patience and use of the straight edge across between the two areas will pay off on a nicely faired in side panel with good glue surface contact. The rest of the small gaps that remain can be filled after trimming and shaping the joint for glassing.

As far as making the Weekender an open boat, Bill Paxton can probably explain how and what he did to accomplish this with his beautiful boat.

There have been some others as well, a couple of them not such good examples over time, but a gentleman whos last name is Butler has done a beautiful job of it in Canada. Unfortunately, it may not have a great deal of application to what you are doing since he has pulled a mold off of a Weekender hull and laid it up in glass to make it. Entirely different approach and building techniques involved. Beautiful work however.

This type of construction with its stressed skin over bulkhead type of construction depends a lot upon the integrity of the main bulkhead for its strength. If you eliminate it, you will need to somehow replace that with a rigid frame of one form or another to achieve the strength. Pretty much it will leave the bulkhead, albeit a bit shorter in height. I would reshape the deck at that juncture in the earliest stages so it carried a bit more of the load and was an even width sweep fore to aft and most likely box it in with a seat and seat back coupled with some internal plywood mini frames that supported it and tied directly to the hull and bottom and extended up in one piece to the deck. I would plan on extending the seat backs above the deck and at the same angle to function as the cockpit coaming as well.

I would think that building the seat/seat backs and bottoms as a full length, curved structure with internal cross frames would result in enough strength to make it work. Rigid closed cell insulation foam could be added behind the seat backs full length to provide positive flotation characteristics. Below the seats could be left open in the cockpit area to allow for additional leg/foot room which is pretty scarce normally.

Closed in storage in the seat bottoms could extend from the seat support partition forward to the main bulkhead and thru the cabin to the front bulkhead. That would add some additional rigidity to the structure.

That is one approach that I would consider. The Stevensons Removable top Weekender Prototype apparently worked well.