WOW

With our goose season over and fishing season right around the corner, I decided I needed to replace the waterlogged foam in the bottom of my hull. It's a Southern Duck Boats 18' x 54" w' 24" sides. I peeled up the hydroturf and backed out all the self-drilling screws holding the floor down to the stringers. (I think these should be riveted as a ton of them have backed out in the last two years)
I got the screws out and realized that the side panels overlap the floor. The only way to get it out is to either cut it or buckle the floor or tear the side panels off. Since I didn't want to take the boat apart anymore than needed, I buckled the floor and pulled it out. I pulled the white waterlogged foam out and tossed it.
I am only working on the first section of floor as there is a cross-brace that breaks the floor.
About a year ago, the cross brace popped loose while running on a lake. I had a local welder tack it down, but he couldn't really access the brace without tearing the floor out. SDB paid for his work. The cross brace has popped loose again so I pulled it out and realized why the hull has had these issues. The longitudinal stringers are overlapped under this brace. The cross brace is welded to the joint in the stringers. The floor flexes, the ends flex differently and the welds break.
My question is, what is the best fix for this problem?
I am going to tear the rest of the floor out and the foam also. I have seen the PD "roll cage" frame and it's obviously strong, but I don't think I can make that work. I need to fix the overlapped stringer issue or any fix to the cross-brace won't do much good.
Personally, I think this "design" is crap. Putting a gap in the stringers directly under a cross brace is begging for all sorts of issues..mainly the issues I've had.
What do yall think is the best course of action? I don't even want to sell it until it's fixed correctly.

u got to be shittin me.....

honestly, I think u should rip all dat mickey mouse crap out of der while u already into it and just redo all da bracing.

Opps

Clean your boat up so you can look for other damage.

so the long runners are two different pieces, butted up together under a cross-brace? I know I'm not a paul wilging boat building expert... but that's shit!

Mitchke--

I did clean my boat.

What about welding a scab plate on the back of the c channel?

man how did you post pics ??? ....but that aint right at all

Where's MarketHunter when you need him? I thought all that expertise he gained that put him a millinium ahead of all the coonass boat builders in LA was first rate. Is it just the Miller Lite or is the stringers not evenly spaced out? Wheres my glasses?

Mudgun are you trying to start another "Hey Willet" thread?

I have to agree with what Stump said,do it while its down

Not trying to start a Willet thread. Not trying to bash SDB. I don't give a crap about the interweb drama of "oh poor me" I want my boat to be right. It will be. Honestly, I don't see any real benefit to the cross brace. If you look, you can see the v-channel in the middle of the hull that acts a keel. I think one issue is that running the hull over logs and such pushes that V up and exerts force right in the middle of the cross brace. That's what caused the welds on the stringers to break. I can't remember which pictures I put up, but you can see the cross brace has a crown in it.