I am slipping my boat for antifouling and to do some work on it.
One thing I have found is that at least one of the old Gal tube ribs has rusted away at the bilge end, leaving an empty cocoon of FB.
I have been warned that if the ribs get too bad the keel can come loose due to the excess flex in the hull!
I want to replace this with wood and glass over it. Thought this would be easier and quicker. But maybe not as stiff as gal pipe.
Given the shape it has to be. I am thinking marine ply. I would laminate 2, 16mm pieces together and then cut the shape out of it. Maybe 50mm high. Round the top edges. Then a heap of glass for added strength.
Any advice would be great.
Thanks in advance.
I should imagine your talking about a rib that passes down the hull from the chain plates to the keel. Probably only has the one rib with the steel encapsulated. This is quite common in that era production boat. The fibreglass thickness in an Endeavour 26 would be way thicker than necessary. There would be ribs glassed in to stop oil canning in a seaway.
I would just grind out the steel pipe till you get clean metal and grind out an area about 150mm wide in a strip down to the bilge in the flowcoat till you have exposed the fibreglass. I would then glue in an inverted U shape "Hat" same size as the original rib and "glass" it in with epoxy and cloth of your choice. The core could be plastic pipe or foam or cardboard or plywood. I would not use plywood personally as it would rot eventually if you get moisture inside the pipe again. Closed cell foam cut into strips and faired in with body filler and then shaped would be the easiest probably if you have some offcuts laying about. The strength is in the hat shaped rib not the core.
The carbon fibre I buy locally is twice as wide as the woven mat. This makes it only 3 times the price of mat. If your repairing a lightweight racing dinghy carbon fibre is the go, even if you use the 50/50 tape. Save all your offcuts of fibreglass mats/cloth etc and use them for jobs like this.
I saw somewhere locally in NSW someone is giving away an Endeavour 26 hull!