Scope creep: The stringers are shot.

The port side floor and seat have been removed from the boat, allowing a good inspection of the stringers, or "riblets" that provide an anchor point, as well as some structure to the mid-boat hull area.  Unfortunately, that inspection ended in bad news.

Once clear of the wood framing, all but one of the stringers was found to have de-laminated from the hull with cracks in the laminate, and in most cases complete tabbing failure that allows between 1/4" and 1/2" of play from the push of a finger tip.

So, all the stringers will need to come out.  Once out I can assess the condition of the wood, which I believe to be western red cedar.  I suspect it has lost its integrity as well by the way all of the screws were stripped out.

Since the boat had three inches of sitting water, and none of the holes had been properly potted, it's not all that surprising to find laminate and core issues in this area.  The good news is that it's relatively simple to fix.  I just need to acquire some board material, and a whole bunch of fiberglass cloth.  Shouldn't be too hard to laminate in new stringers.

So far I have only checked the port side.  I left the floor and bench in place on the starboard side to provide a guide for me in case I needed to see how it all looked.  I think it's coming out soon too so I can see if I need to plan for double the structural effort.

Splashing the boat this season is very much in jeopardy, but I'd rather do the job once the right way than have to come back and do it again.