1961 Red Fish Flooring Repair

Just acquired 61 Red Fish with original Buccaneer outboard. Great shape EXCEPT rear floor spongy. Plan to remove flooring and inspect/repair. Any suggestions of drying out, removal, inspection points, etc.

Re: 1961 Red Fish Flooring Repair

There is no drying out, everything that's wet and/or rotten has to be removed. This includes decking, foam, stringers, transom, and anything else that doesn't look seaworthy. You should pay special attention to your transom.

Re: 1961 Red Fish Flooring Repair

Welcome to iBoats!
Lots of great info here on the forum. You might also want to check-out www.fiberglassics.com. They have a library filled with great info on your style and mfg of boat. JnG is correct that you will need to check your substructure and your transom for wetness and rot. If found, you will need to replace. Not hard to do, just labor intensive and time consuming. We will be here for your to help you through the process.

Re: 1961 Red Fish Flooring Repair

Red Fish built some cool boats- Which model do you have??

The 1961 brochures, along with lots of other info, can be found here-
http://www.fiberglassics.com/library/Red_Fish

If the floor is rotten, you can bet that there is probably rot elsewhere. You're going to have to remove the floor anyways, so you'll be able to inspect better then. Figure that there is a good chance that the stringers, and possibly transom, will also have some issues. Now- Here is the 'bad' part- I don't want to alarm you TOO much, but Red Fish used balsa core construction in the hull- and, as such, there is a pretty good chance that the hull coring will have issues, too, if water got in there, which is highly probable. It IS repairable- Just takes some effort.

Now that you've heard the worst case, dig in and inspect- And hope for the best

-Andrew