Cracks in Stringers

[Pat R]

Hi All,
I did a sea trial today on a 1987 C 34 and the surveyor discovered cracks in (at least) two of the stringers and they were water logged, but probably not rotted, so is the speculation. Does anyone have any experience with this problem and if so, is it major?

[Ken Juul]

Welcome to the site Pat,

We need more information to be able to help you.  Do you mean where the the engine is mounted?  In the bilge?  Somewhere else?

Structurally the C34 is very sound, so it probably isn't a problem unless the boat has been severely abused.  But please come back with some better location information and I'm sure you will get some more hits.

[Pat R]

Actually as it turns out this one is not that sound. There are three stringers going through the bilge. Two of them were cracked and while the third (in front of the engine) is out of sight - it's assumed it's cracked as well. Catalina's engineer Gerry Douglas was contacted and he assessed that it would cost probably around $15,000 to repair and take a while. The guess is that this boat was run aground hard. They are going to get back to me on what happens next. Thanks for writing Ken - all the best!