Good morning to all.
I am seriously considering an N26. However, a lot of moisture readings came up in and around the stern pulpit, the rudder and the engine stringers.
I am a novice moisture reader user, so I know that what I found has to be taken with a grain of salt. Many materials can give a “false positive”
So…is there metal plate or other material inside of the engine stringers that I am unaware of which would peg my moisture meter in the engine bed?
Any wisdom or advice appreciated.
Nonsuch 26s have solid fiberglass hulls, but the deck is plywood-cored and engine stringers were plywood.
There’d only be other materials in those places if work was done after manufacturing.
I believe the rudder, if original, would be a stainless steel frame with fiberglass covering a foam core. If you’re an INA member, you can find a rudder drawing on the website by going to NONSUCH SHOP DRAWINGS on the MEMBERS tab and looking at the NONSUCH 26 DRAWING PDFs.
-- Bob
I’m unsure which configuration of the 26 you are looking at, and what engine. I will address the issue based on what I found on my ‘86 Nonsuch 26 Ultra, hull 200, with a Westerbeke W-18 engine. Perhaps the following is what you are dealing with
There are hex nuts that hold the actual engine mount to a piece of angle steel. The nuts screw onto bolts, the heads of which are on the underside of the horizontal portion of the angle steel. The heads of these bolts protrude downward. In order to accommodate the heads, the top of the stringer (two pieces of 3/4 inch plywood laminated together) was “dimpled” in order to create a recess to accommodate the head. These allowed fluids to accumulate in this recess, especially on the rear port side where repeated changes of the heat exchanger zinc leaked salt water there. I had copious rot there. The starboard side was wet, but not rotted. By the way, these angular pieces of steel are then horizontally lag bolted into the vertical inside of the stringer.
I was swapping out my engine to one with a different footprint so I cut the rot out and sistered solid oak to the inside of the stringers via stainless steel bolts and epoxy. No problems after 5 years.
My surveyor did not find this issue at all! So you are doing a good job. I hope this helps.
Steve Tulka
“Good Enough”
Mystic, CT
Steve…Thank you for your reply and details. I am learning and you helped me.