Stringer Crack - Opinions needed. (Pic)

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Shel

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This is a picture of the stringer of a boat I am looking at purchasing. There is a crack in the stringer.

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The upper left corner is the engine mount. I'm not sure what is connected to that stainless pipe in the bottom right.

Does this look like something serious, or does its position indicate that it may not be a big deal and could be easily fixed? This stringer is bulkier in that location for the engine mounts. That bulky section is about 1-2' long, and then goes back to the narrower part of the stringer.

I am wondering if I should walk away from the this boat because of this.

Thanks,
Shel
 
That Harware looks BRAND NEW. Was something replaced in there recently? Are they trying to hide something? How bout some pics of the entire bilge/engine area?
 
the crack could be gel coat that's too thick, you'd have to see ho deep the crack is to be sure.

in any case, this is one lousy stringer system and that would make me close the engine room door and walk away as that stringer is too tall and too thin to support the weight of any engine, even gas.

and those bolts should have been short, they're dangerous, I wonder how many legs have been scratch on those. The SS tube is probably a deck support or a grab rail, i wonder if it's original or an add on.

what kind of boat is this?
 
The covers for the engine area are in two long sections, and are lifted manually off for access. That SS tube in the pic supports the middle section on which the covers sit when in place. It is original.
 
Here is a picture of what I think is the other side of the same stringer. Though is may not be.

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Tanq, the hardware all looks fairly new in the engine room. So I don't think it was replaced.

Yes, Pascal, I believe that pipe is a deck support. This is a 9 year old 328 Four Winns. I agree Pascal, the stringers do appear thin, but do you really think it is inadequate? It seems to be properly bulked in the area of the engine mounts, and the bulk piece seems to be properly angled. I have seen many of these boats with the same stringer design, and this is the first time I have seen what could be stress in the stringer. Nor have I ever seen any indication anywhere else on the boat that the stringers are inadequate. I would expect stress cracking elsewhere as well. But maybe the boat is not old enough yet.

Thanks for your honest comments guys. I appreciate it.

Shel
 
again, the crack could be be gelcoat that was sprayed too thick in that spot. no big deal unless you know it goes deeper.

is this an inboard/Vee or stern drive? maybe for a stern drive boat with some of the loads being taken up by the transom this stringer will be fine... my previous boat was maxum 37, with Vees. the stringers were as tall at 30% thicker than the thicker section i see here... thru out the entire ER.

If they cut corners there, i'd wonder where else they did. I'm sure 100 FW owners are going to say they have the same design stringers and it's fine... maybe. but it looks flimsy to me.
 
This is a stern drive boat.

They for sure have cut corners to keep the cost down. However, I have indications that they are not interested in cutting corners in the area of construction. These boats have an epoxy soaked wood backing strip along the entire hull/deck joint. That is not really something I'd expect in a boat that was cutting too many corners.

Shel
 
As Pascal notes, that's just gel crazing because its a a little thick and that flimsy stringer is going to be moving. My 23 foot had more substantial stringers than that. My 28 Slick had 6 inch fiberglass box stringers running the entire length of the boat, not just where the engines mounted. That Sir, is what's wrong with boats. Few people look at stingers and pay more attention to the cup holders.

I sure hope this boat has realy really nice cup holders. I wouldn't want to take that kind of quality into the back yard kiddie pool.

Your really talking about a 32 foot boat huh? No joke?
 
Unless I'm not seeing this correctly....it looks to me like the fron engine mount is on a plate that is fastened to the stringer by 3 bolts and suspended in the air by these bolts? how the heck would that sustain all the bouncing of the engine for any length of time? It just seems to me that those bolts would have to eventually (and that's anybodys guess as to how long it would be) elongate themselves and create some slop resulting in poor engine alignment etc.
Or am I missing something as usual?

I would certainly hope there's something more than that flimsy set-up holding up the weight of the engine.
 
Shel, that crack may not be a big deal, probably the gelcoat finish. I have a few (albeit much smaller ones) in my boat and that's what it surveyed as, surveyor didn't even mention them. The location of this one though, combined with the size, would have made me worry a bit. I'd make sure to get the surveyor to look at it closely.

I'll have to say honestly though, I'm with Pascal... That's the flimsiest stringer I've ever seen holding an engine on what looks to be a decent sized boat. That's simply unreal, how skinny/tall it is and then it becomes just a bit wider at the mounts, but not really that much... Looks to be the size of what I would expect from the perpendicular stiffners between the real (and much bulkier/heavier) stringers.

I probably would have walked away after looking at the stringers, but OTOH you can make the case that they've held up to this point....... So they may be appropriate if you're not pounding the heck out of the boat.
 
You gotta love Crusader engine mounts.

993574911112_0_ALB.jpg
 
tanq, these mounts are fairly standard on boats that size, although usually 4 bolts not just 3...

Depending on boat size, it's easy to fit the engine on top of the stringers but sometimes the stringers need to be a little wider so you use those thick plates. nothing wrong with that except that a 4th bolt woudl have been nice and maybe a backing plate instead of washers.
 
In your secodn picture, the stringer under the wiring appears to be thicker (and shorter) maybe the perspective of the picture is throwing it off but they look too thin for that height to me as well.

In your first picture, what is the grey behind the SS tube? That loosk older than the stringer, but mayeb it's wood.

Any indication of stringe repair?
 
Scott, I'm not sure what you are referring to about something grey behind the SS tube. Can you explain?

Does anyone know any numbers on height to thickness ratios for stringers and at what point it may be inadequate for lengthwise hull strength and engine support? I think these stringers are about 1.25-1.5" in thinkness at its thinnest point, I'd be guessing at the height. I'd say they are molded over 3/4-1" ply. I have had people tell me that Four Winns used non-wood stringers in earlier models and in about 03-04 they started using wood again, I don't know how true that is. If these stringers had no wood, would that in anyway affect the strength in a positive or negative way? They really look like they have wood though.

Thanks again guys for your honesty. Though, you are really bumming me out. That was the last boat left on my short list. :-(

Shel
 
gardnersf, I think you are referring to the other stringer. There's two parallel stringers as shown in the second picture.

Shel - you probably want to listen to more opinions before giving up on it. I'm just used to seeing the main stringers, at least for the section where the engines are mounted, to be a lot thicker, like in the pic of the engine mount that I posted, and here's another shot of our 29:

793574911112_0_ALB.jpg
 
The stringers in mine are set up the same way and the engine mounts don't actually into the stringers themselves either. But in mine there is another piece that runs across the front of the engines and across the stringers that the mounts are bolted to. The design shown here just seems like it's lacking something and I agree with you on this one Pascal.....Three Bolts just doesn't seem like enough when there's obviously room for a 4th. (strength in numbers)
I'll try to remember to get a few pics this week of how mine is to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.
 
One would think if this design was lacking in integrity there would be a lot of info on the problem, especially being 9 years old.
 
beechw. true.. it depends on how the boat is used and i think the fact that it is a stern drive helps.

Ernesto, these beefy mounts and stringers maybe supporting a crusader but most importantly they were designed by Tiara! it's all about what the boat is designed for and it's safe to say that Tiara designed these boat to run in harder conditions than FW
 
Oh... OK, so today I just learned something new. These are my first Crusaders, so I thought this was a standard mount on them.
 
Shel - my outdrive Doral Intrigue had stringers that seemed sturdier compared to the ones on your pics. They seem to be a consistent width, maybe about the same as the ones on your boat at the widest point? Hard to tell. Same engine mount concept though.

Mechanical_EngineRoom1.jpg


Mechanical_EngineRoom2.jpg
 
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