88 bayliner getting wider?

circeseye

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Nov 22, 2014
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his sounds weird but it true. at the window area it is now almost an inch wider. the center window doesnt touch any more. wth? i know this is a crap made boat but damn. me and my friend is at a complete loss as to what is going on. we looked everything ove and for the life of us cant figure out why the center area of the boat is getting wider.
 

tpenfield

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Jul 18, 2011
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Check the floor or the console structure. Usually structural problems (rot) show up by the walk-trhu windshield not fitting any more.
 

MH Hawker

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Yep your stringers have rotted and thats lets the floor under the supports drop.
 

smokeonthewater

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x3

her bones are rotten... spend the winter shopping for your next boat

EDIT: Nov 26

I believe based on my experiences that the odds are about 95% that the structure is compromised and only about 5% that there is some simple easy to fix issue that you have yet to find... this is ONLY my opinion and the you should not simply trash the hull based on just my/our input but should investigate further.....Because of the potential danger to life and property I would pull the boat out of service until such time as the cause of the defect can be determined and the structure of the hull can be declared "safe for use"

Normally I would suggest finding another boat but since you have expressed a desire to do the work and spend the money to make it perfect that doesn't seem to apply

I think most here would agree..... Best of luck to you!
 
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JimS123

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Its not a crap made boat. It merely suffers from 26 years of neglect, improper maintenance and improper storage.
 

NYBo

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Oct 23, 2008
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Welcome to iboats!:welcome:

Weird, indeed. What usually happens is the sole ("deck") rots between the consoles, which then sag towards each other. There are no stringers under the outside of the consoles. I guess the only explanation is that the bases of the consoles themselves have rotted.
 

smokeonthewater

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no it's the floor and stringers... his trailer has the bunks nearer the keel and or higher keel rollers than some so it sags outward... if the trailer bunks were further spaced and or the keel rollers lower it would sag inward.

O/P don't take this as a suggestion to "fix" it by adjusting the trailer or a claim that the trailer is somehow at fault.... that boat was built to be wet on the outside and not on the inside but it has spent much of it's 25 years getting rained on and has reached the end of it's life.... had it been garaged and ventilated it might have outlived you and me.
 
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Grub54891

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Mt 85 larson sagged outward. Required a complete rebuild.
 

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circeseye

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Nov 22, 2014
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12
great. thanks everyone. it was my wifes grandpas boat and was given to us. it had rot floor above the gas tank which i replaced but didnt see or feel any rot elsewhere. hell the motor and outdrive look brand new and runs like a top.

oh and ive been on iboats for a few years. guess cause i didnt log in they deleted me :(
 

GA_Boater

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great. thanks everyone. it was my wifes grandpas boat and was given to us. it had rot floor above the gas tank which i replaced but didnt see or feel any rot elsewhere. hell the motor and outdrive look brand new and runs like a top.

oh and ive been on iboats for a few years. guess cause i didnt log in they deleted me :(

We don't delete users for inactivity. We still have some who joined up when iboats went live in 1998 and never made a single post. Do you remember your original username? Admin might be able to to some magic.
 

NYBo

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Oct 23, 2008
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no it's the floor and stringers... his trailer has the bunks nearer the keel and or higher keel rollers than some so it sags outward... if the trailer bunks were further spaced and or the keel rollers lower it would sag inward.
:facepalm: Makes sense. The bunks on my trailer are pretty much below the stringers so the thought never occurred to me.:redface:
 

circeseye

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Nov 22, 2014
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We don't delete users for inactivity. We still have some who joined up when iboats went live in 1998 and never made a single post. Do you remember your original username? Admin might be able to to some magic.

same user name and email. hell i even buy most of my boat products from iboats. its where i got all my props and bahimi cover. i believe i joined back in 08 or 09. one of my main posts was trying to figure out what boat i had. it was a 18ft 1970 trisonic deep tri hull by roy rogers. and trisonic didnt have a tri hull then.
 
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smokeonthewater

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I searched "trisonic"... only found a couple threads and none of them by anyone who seemed to have any doubt as what boat they had....... I wonder if you were one of the casualties from our recent update nightmare...... It was BAD... I mean people's boats were sinking just because they logged on here!... or at least you would have thought so listening to us complain LOL

Either way I'm glad you made it back!
 

circeseye

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Nov 22, 2014
Messages
12
yea must have been. its all good thou. im definitely going to have to do another thread on my trisonic. i still to this day have no clue to its existence.
 

Scott Danforth

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I would look for a new hull to put the driveline into. However since this was your wifes Grandpa's old boat, you may want to restore it vs replacing it (the mushy sentimental thing). if that is the case, we can help.

first, you will need to pull the drive and motor, build a cradle, then remove the floor and all the rotten mush below. from there rebuild.
 

circeseye

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Nov 22, 2014
Messages
12
me and my friend are considering options. been looking at other boats that need motors and they are in worse shape then this one. hell now that i know what to look for im seeing a lot of other boats with the same issue.
so for now. how safe is this boat. i figure its still good to fish and troll with. but with bad ribs is speed is an issue? basically trying to figure out what i can be used for till we actually tear it down to rebuild.
 

Chris1956

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Mar 25, 2004
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27,033
My '88 SeaRay Bowrider (similar boat) had that issue as well. On a dual console boat, there can be a shortage of structure to prevent the boat from widening. Some of your issue is probably just some sag and flex. Fiberglass often does that. Not to say that the boat should not have been built better, but it may still be seaworthy. I simply riveted a piece of flat aluminum stock to the windshield flange, so the window would not fall thru. The balance of the hull seemed fine., and I used it for some years afterward. I never felt that 1 " of sag, across a 6 foot span, in an older boat was all that unusual.

You might take a look at the very bow and see if there are cracks in the fiberglass supports that hold the hull shape. The same goes for the deck between the consoles. If you see those cracks, you likely have some structural issues, which is not good.
 

smokeonthewater

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It PROBABLY won't come apart at idle speed but there is NO certainty to that statement...

You certainly don't need to see cracks to have structural issues... it absolutely has them now.... A problem doesn't have to be uncommon to be lethal.

The best advice is retire the boat now but IF you choose to continue to use it make sure you have good insurance (environmental fees can be very high after sinking a boat) restrict yourself to idle speed and don't boat at any time, place, or temperature that you aren't ready to swim.

Sure you could shrug it off as "not unusual" and continue to use it for years... even if the odds were 90% that you'd be fine and 10% that something really bad will happen. would that be worth it? I think not!


Don't give up on your search.... you have only looked for a short time.... it could take several months to find the right boat... remember spring is right around the corner and people will start figuring out that their antifreeze and muffs didn't work or their light bulb burned out or it got colder than they expected.... boats with cracked blocks will start showing up around march or april.....shortly after that the outboard boats with popped 2 stroke engines will start to show up because the owner let the bottom carb gum up and pluf the main jet so one piston burned up from running lean.
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
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I wouldnt keep boating with damaged stringers any more than I would try to run a marathon with broken legs.
 
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