Boat Question

[waxworm]

Been a lot of talk about boats on here lately and I thought I would ask a question and see if there are any takers. Here is the background - I have a fiberglass boat (16 ft. Procraft). It is about 8 yrs. old and spent part of its life living outside under a cover. Moisture would get in there and mildew my carpet a little but no big deal. It now lives in the garage.

Well, the other day I was walking around in the boat getting it ready for the season while the boat was on the trailer. I stepped off the back deck to the middle of the boat where the drain is in the floor and I felt a spongy give to the floor. Not a crunch, or crack, but just a little give in about a 4 inch circle surrounding the drain in the floor. This part of the floor, I think, is fiberglass like the hull. Anybody ever deal with this? Would a fiberglass repair shop be able to do something?

[Barnacle Bill]

Hey Waxworm, usually the deck of a boat like that is fiberglass over marine plywood. Over the years, that plywood can rot like any other piece of wood. In fact, fiberglass can rot if it is not covered with resin. That is why its important to slap some resin on any dings you might get in your hull. To answer your question, yes it can be fixed. If it were me, I would grind out a section of glass from around the drain and see whats going on under there. Perhaps you can take the drain out and see if you can feel around and perhaps get an idea of whats going on. I do all my own glass work but I am certainly no expert.

[PanMan_VA]

I had a similar thing happen on an old Glastron I used to own. The wood floor under the fiberglass was rotted away right under my seat. I ended up cutting out the old floor, replacing the plywood, and glassing over the new flooring. The main stringers were ok and did not need any repair. The rotted area was large enough that a spot repair between stringers was not feasible. A boat repair shop should be able to take are of that for you if you are not comfortable doing it yourself. The winter is a great time to have a shop do this for you because their business will be slow. Be sure to check everywhere (including the transom) for additional areas of soft or rotted wood.