Need Advice on Building a New Deck

[ERock82]

I am looking into redoing the deck in my 1995 14' Bayliner Capri. I have inspected as much as I possibly could without tearing any of the floor up. I have looked into the process of redoing stringers, bulkheads and foam and it is just too much for me to take on. Upon my inspection, I see that my stringers are encased in fiberglass. They seem solid except for about a foot or so back behind the bilge on one side. The floor is de-laminating in several places and cracked in about two to three places. I have researched materials, and with such a small deck it seems very affordable. $50-70 each for 1 or 2 sheets of marine plywood, $5 sq ft fiberglass sheets, $30 for a can of resin and $100 for enough brand new carpet to put back. I'm thinking $200-$400 to redo the deck, resin, glass and re carpet that area. Does this sound right at all?

Also, I have attached some pics showing what might be an issue for me. The issue would be removing the seat bases which are rotted. my plan was to cut 1 inch inwards along the edge of the deck, make traces of the bad pieces onto the new plywood and put back. In the seat base photo you can see that there is a piece going along the edge of the base up against the gunwales that are glassed on. I am not sure how to work around this. Also, I am guessing that the seat bases are just built on top of the deck?? Can anyone tell me how I can do this deck the easiest way possible. I would ideally, like to just build new bases on top the deck after re-carpeting.

Finally, if the stringers are bad here is what I would like some input on. If they are badly rotted, I am junking the boat. I am in no way taking that project on with my limited skills and time. I really like this boat and want to keep it. I think drilling out holes and injecting epoxy would be very doable for me if that would help. I am not looking to have this deck last me 30 years. I would like a solid deck and boat to last me 5 or 6 years. 10 years would be great! So, with that said, is just the deck repair on possible partially rotted stringers (with solid fiberglass shells) good enough to get me here? Thanks!

 

[Tnstratofam]

Just my .02 cents here, and I'm sure more qualified people will chime in, but I believe you are about to open up a huge can of worms. If the deck is rotten then what's underneath is at the very least badly compromised. Your hull relies on both the stringers and the deck for structural support as well as to keep its shape when pounding through the waves. From what I've observed on this site it is beyond rare for a fiberglass boat to have a rotten or weak deck and not have rotten stringers and transom. Patching your deck or trying to fill rotten stringers with gunk isn't a good fix or a safe one. My advice is junk her or spend the $2000 to $3000 dollars to fix her right. Ot save your money and buy a new one. Then take better care of it than the previous owner of your Bayliner did.

 

[tpenfield]

20 year old Bayliner with some evidence of rot . . . probably not going to turn out positively in terms of the extent of the issues underneath. No sure way to tell until you rip up the floor.

the epoxy idea is a no-go . . . you could do it, but it will not have any positive effect. Will not bond to the wet/rotted wood and really does not have the strength characteristics that would be needed.

Post some more pic's when you get the floor up, then you can decide what to do.

 

[jc55]

I just replied to your post on THT. You'll get a lot more indepth resto help here. Welcome!

 

[Woodonglass]

I agree with tnstratofam, Bayliners of this vintage are notorious for rotting from the bottom up. I fear once you get the deck torn up and inspect the stringers you'll find she's in a LOT worse shape than you're willing to repair. However, Spending $2-3K on another boat is NO guarantee that it will be any different than this one. If you Do spend the time, effort and money to repair this one at least you'll have a boat that will be better than new and last for decades.:joyous:

 

[ERock82]

Thanks for the replies. Well, this is my first boat. I pretty much got screwed on the deal as I spent 2,500 on it. The motor was **** but I got a little use out of it. There were 2 reasons why I bought this boat: One, bc I hardly knew anything about boats when I did last March but really wanted to get into boating. 2.) This boat and motor set up was EXACTLY what I was looking for. I needed a small V Hull that was under 1,000 lbs and could do at least 30mph and not be so bad on gas. That is this boat to a T.......except it is a piece of ****, lol. I looked for months online and it is VERY hard to find a 14' V-hull (non-jet) that is not an old project boat (i.e. Glastron). They made them in the 50's to 80's but are practically non-existent today. Since my motor will take approx $700 to make good, here are my options:

1.) Pay $700 in parts, fix Force motor (may just break again), live with deck until it falls through or patch deck.
2.) Buy nicer motor (i.e. 2000's model Mercury 50hp with power tilt/trim). Fix deck while saving 6 months for motor, be on water by late spring.
3.) Sell boat and motor as is. Hope to get $600-800 for everything....suck it up and be done with it. Buy brand new SeeDoo spark which my Scion XB can tow with no prob bc finding another boat with my strict requirements could take years. New jet ski means no problems...for awhile at least but that means A LOT.
4.) Get rid of it, wait a year or 2 (need to keep car for now), buy better tow vehicle, buy 16 footer which is easy to find.

So....as you can see.....patching the deck doesn't seem so bad if it would allow me to boat a few more years. Then I get a better vehicle and a better boat where the stringers are already good.

I live in an apartment and don't have the woodworking exp, assistance needed, right tools, time available to do the repair the right way on the deck. I really would like to keep boating in this thing though. Any advice on the deck repair regarding this? As you can see, spending the money and time on a full deck restore just doesn't make sense.....and just getting rid of it really sucks.

 

[Tnstratofam]

That's a tall order to fill indeed given your circumstances. I pretty much did the same thing when I bought our Stratos. Paid $2500 for her and used her most of the summer last year till we had some fuel problems. Decided to rebuild her last winter. Realized real quick how big a job, and how expensive a job it was.

So here was my solution. We bought a 16 ft Starcraft aluminum fish/ski. Redid the transom, and repaired the outboard. Did all the work, and bought the boat for $1700. That got us back on the water rhis spring, and gave me time to save for repairing the Stratos.

If you decided to go that route an aluminum boat is light enough to pull with your Scion, and they can easily pull a skier. My Starcraft is the one in my sig pic, and we love it. To be honest the only reason I'm still saving for the Stratos repair is because the Admiral loves the big V8 and all the noise when we go down the lake.


What's wrong with your Force engine? It may be an option to repair the Force and find a good hull to put it on.

 

[Woodonglass]

Uhmmm, Again, I'm in total agreement with tnstratofoam. Based on your second post, an aluminum boat seems like the logical solution. I'm almost 100% certain that if you core sample your stringers and transom you're gunna find that you have a lot of issues with your boat and Force motors are notorious for having issues and also parts are becoming harder to come by. I'd prolly try to sell and look for a "Tinner"

 

[ondarvr]

If you don't have a place to work on it, don't even touch it, just sell it and go aluminum.

 

[tpenfield]

If you don't have a place to work on it, don't even touch it, just sell it and go aluminum.

Now that it has been posted on an Internet forum, it might be hard to find a buyer :noidea: . . .

. . . but then again . . .