1983 22' C-Dory Angler - Design information

S

surveyor8120

New member
I am looking for information on thickness of the floor, material and etc..
I just bought 1983 22' C-dory and works great, however i would like to make some modifications and some repairs. In the cabin I need to repair some of the wood that is attached to the floor , small screws have come loose and I would like to put bigger screws in it but do not want to mess anything up. I have been searching the internet looking for info, but have not found anything. Anyone out there have copies of a design drawing or anything that would help me out. Is the floor solid thru fiberglass or is there wood in the middle, an airspace??

Thanks for any help.
Anthony
 
Anthony-

The floor on your Classic 22 C-Dory is plywood, probably ~1" in thickness, made from a large flat sheet, and encapsulated on both sides by fiberglass. (Starting with the 1987 Cruisers and Anglers, the floor was made of balsa core.)

You can determine how thick the floor core is by drilling a small pilot hole in the fiberglass to measure it's thickness until it hits the softer plywood, then continuing on down through the plywood to the outer skin, which you won't want to penetrate.

Do it along side an area you want to repair and re-seal anyway with a loose screw.

I'm guessing the inner skin is about 1/8" in thickness, the core about 1', and the outer skin closer to 3/16" .

Let's see what other have to say. Maybe someone with that specific boat has some measurements already, but they could vary a small amount from boat to boat or era to era.

There was an thread on transoms recently that indirectly touched on the bottom construction of the Classics. Someone there said they thought there were some voids in the plywood.

Good Luck!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Anthony,

I've got an '84 and have opened it up more than most folks. Below - well, way below - is a shot of the sole core looking forward from where the transom used to be. The core on my boat is 3/4" plywood. It's not marine plywood as you'll see in the second photo. I've found no design drawings and the designer is apparently getting up there in years - over 90 - and not doing much email... There is no intentional airspace; just the bottom of your foot, 3/16" fiberglass, 3/4" plywood, 1/4" fiberglass, and the ocean... Similar to a torsion box in woodworking, this sandwich - properly made - is really quite rigid for a structure that is so lightweight, relatively speaking. On my first trip with this boat I hit the top of a tree that was just below the lake surface doing about 30mph. The boat shuddered like hell and so did I. When we loaded it on the trailer there was no evidence of any traumatic event; and none seen since that time after more detailed inspections. At that time I wrongly assumed the sole core was an inch and a half like the transom - it's not. My experience was certainly testament to the strength of this design. Rocks might be a different story at 30mph, however...

In regard to screws into the sole, there are a number of approaches that you can use to keep water out of the core. If one thinks that because the hole penetrating the fiberglass is in the cabin so it isn't going to get wet - think again. It is less probably less likely to get regular soakings like in the cockpit but... As I redo the cabinetry in my cabin, I'm considering epoxying a strip of epoxy-coated old-growth white oak to the cabin sole fiberglass for mounting screws instead of the bottom of the boat. Before I do, I'll carefully fill the existing mounting holes through the inner sole skin with epoxy. There are other approaches, but I think this'll work best for my situation. In regard to bigger screws, watertight is more important - in my opinion. You could also embed T-nuts in epoxy into the sole and bolt the cabinetry down that way, but it's a more persnickety process than some others; I've considered it...

You mentioned needing to repair some of the wood that's attached to the floor. What's in need of repair?

What's your handle 'surveyor8120' refer to?

Tom

FiberglassThicknessAtTranso.jpg


Rough_Core.jpg
 
Tom,

Thanks for the Pictures that is a lot of help.

Well in my Cockpit the under the seats the wood that makes up the litle cubby storage areas have angle brackets with little screws into the floor. and does not look like they were stainless and they are rusting and I have a couple screws come out.
 
That was my situation as well. Further, the bottom edges of the cabinets and aft cabin walls on my boat had rot beneath the teak veneer. I've remade all of the interior cabinetry and aft cabin walls from a hardwood plywood with four coats of epoxy and three coats of UV-filtering varnish.

There is a good description with clear technical drawings in a PDF on the West System Web page.
http://www.westsystem.com/ss/use-guides/

If you visit this page, navigate down to Advanced Techniques and find the manual: 002-550 Fiberglass Boat Repair & Maintenance. You can download it; it's a handy reference in my opinion. Section 7.2.2 Screw type fasteners provides a good description of how to prepare locations where you want to use a screw to mount something to the boat.
 
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