How to tackle the SeaCraft 23 restoration
• Remove the deck liner top and the deck to access the stringer system and transom.
• Cut open the stringers and remove the foam.
• Remove the deteriorated wood-core material in the transom.
• Grind the back of the transom, vacuum-bag a new core in place using epoxy resin and encapsulate in fiberglass.
• Reglass and retab the stringers; raise the stringers so they are flush with the bottom of the deck, using Metan molds.
• Reinject the stringers with foam and finish encapsulating them in fiberglass.
• Replace all bulkheads, also cored and resin-infused.
• Fasten and bond to the top of the stringer system a half-inch-thick aluminum grid, using mechanical fasteners and Plexus methacrylate adhesive.
• Place a new vacuum-infused deck on the aluminum grid; fasten and bond the grid to the stringer system; fiberglass the perimeter of the deck.
• Secure the superstructure — T-top, leaning post and console — to the deck/aluminum grid/stringer structure with mechanical fasteners (bolted into the aluminum grid, which is tapped) and bonded with Plexus.
CONTACT: (781)-293-2755; www.metanmarine.com
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This article originally appeared in the July 2011 issue.
