Rebuilding "i550"

[Bfrancis]

On closer inspection, there are a lot of bits of hull panel that are soft. I cut out all of the bad and put in new bits it would be a lot of patchwork. I'm worried that if I started cutting big holes in the hull panels that the boat would lose it's shape ???

Another alternative would be to entirely replace all of the hull panels from about 1/3 of the way back from the bow. There is a bulkhead at about 90 inches from the bow, just aft of that there are butt blocks which join the hull panels, I am thinking it might be better to try to remove all of the hull panels from there and start again.

[Tim Ford]

I think you are right, I'd remove all the suspect panels and work around the frames if that is feasible, e.g,, the frames are still solid. If you remove patches, you'll be replacing what has been twisted into a non-flat shape (for the most part, in the more forward sections at the very least) with something that's just flat. It would be hard/impossible to replicate the shape of what was once there with a small, flat piece of plywood. You'd have to fair it in and probably do some high build of pox and fairing filler...that gets tedious and expensive (don't ask me how I know .