Under the seat, which has the 'deck' on it, is like a brace that must support the seat. It looks like there were a lot of little pieces of wood that were glued in there to give the deck/seat more stability. These little pieces have gotten loose, fallen out, or are gone.
Do I need to take the deck off, which looks pretty fixed in order to reglue these pieces, or do I need to worry about them?
Hi Randy,
Under the seat deck the original structure was just the 1/4" thick red cedar keelson, which joins the keel on its lower edge and the seat deck on its upper. Those pieces either side of the keelson are "aftermarket", as are the two big curved whatevers off to port that look like they're trying to support the hull. Where the rower's seat comes to a pause at the end of the drive there should be a set of diagonal struts from the keel up to (I think) the track stringers. I'll check on this last point. At any rate, these units help support the rower's weight there, and are much like the diagonal keel props seen elsewhere in the boat.
I consider the seat deck a permanent fixture. It's fastened from the underside with screws into the deck wedges and gun'ls, and is done before the hull is attached. One of those places where you can't get to from here. So somehow you just have to make do.
So what do you do with all those extra pieces under the seat? The splints on either side of the keelson don't inspire confidence in how poorly they appear to be fastened, and look to be undesirable moisture traps as well. Can they come out without much trouble? Maybe they were put in to address a crack in the keelson. If so then either try to directly glue the crack or refit new, better splints.
The curved hull supports on port look well glued to the hull and may be difficult to remove. They may well be contributing support and shape to the hull, but they're also likely to be moisture traps. If they can cause any water inside the boat to puddle, over time that's a problem. Do they need to be there? My guess is they were put in when the hull was replaced there and there was no other notion of how to maintain the hull shape. Maybe they are no longer necessary. Your call.
I've heard how your weather has been eerily warm. A friend of mine in Mpls told me the ice went out on Lk Calhoun a couple days ago, the earliest ice-out since 1871! What's the typical date for WBL?
Meanwhile, in my corner of the map it's been colder and wetter than average and the snowpack is above normal.
Best Regards,
Steve