Well, here I am making my first post in a boat forum, and this post is in the resto/repair section, haha. Two weeks ago, my wife and I decided to start looking at boats with the hope of picking one up by next season. Naturally, I asked my brother (who is a boat guy) to be on the lookout for something that would fit what we were looking for. In less than 24 hours he had found me a boat that he wasn't going to let me walk away from, so I let him pick it up for me - a 1987 Power Play XLT-185 with a MerCruiser V8/260 and an Alpha One out drive, sitting on a Power Play trailer. The engine runs fine but it has a soft floor and the upholstery needs to be re-done. I got it for so cheap, I figure I can throw some money at the repairs and do them mostly myself and hopefully have a decent first boat on the water by next season, or if I dig into it and see that the repairs needed are too extensive, I can try to sell it again. I'm an engineer and love projects and learning new skills, but my wife is expecting to have a boat we can put on the water next season, so I am going to try to not let this drag on into eternity.
Last weekend I went down to my brother's house to lay eyes on what he spent my money on. The hull looks good but the floor was toast. The initial look at the transom and engine mounts look/feel/sound solid, but we haven't drilled into them yet. We cut most of the floor out and the stringers are also rotten surrounding the ski locker, but appear to become more solid under the dash. We have not looked at the stringers under/behind the bench seat yet to see where the rot stops. I was kind of surprised that the stringers were plywood with no fiberglass cap on them - the glass stops on the sides about 1" from the top of the stringer. The bottom of the floor/deck was also raw, un-fiberglassed wood.
I'm going back down this weekend to do more deconstruction and hopefully get a full picture of the extent of the rot and make a game plan to fix it. I'm new to boats and fiberglass so hoping to learn from the folks in here. I've already been reading lots of good info here and elsewhere on the process. I attached some pictures of the boat from the CL ad.
My hope was that we would be able to get away without pulling the cap if the rot is limited to the deck and only part of the stringers. After cutting out the floor, I looked back under the bench seat / cooler and the floor is not extremely rotten but not great there either. The bench seat / cooler is part of the cap, but my brother and I discussed potentially cutting out the lower portion consisting of just the cooler, and leaving the back-rest to not have to pull the cap. This could give us access to the rest of the deck and the portion of the stringers that are under there. Does anyone have any opinions on doing that vs. pulling the cap? I don't want to do a poor repair but I also want to see this thing on the water next summer.
UPDATE
The restored Power Play XLT was Launched on November 28, 2021. A video of the launch.
Last weekend I went down to my brother's house to lay eyes on what he spent my money on. The hull looks good but the floor was toast. The initial look at the transom and engine mounts look/feel/sound solid, but we haven't drilled into them yet. We cut most of the floor out and the stringers are also rotten surrounding the ski locker, but appear to become more solid under the dash. We have not looked at the stringers under/behind the bench seat yet to see where the rot stops. I was kind of surprised that the stringers were plywood with no fiberglass cap on them - the glass stops on the sides about 1" from the top of the stringer. The bottom of the floor/deck was also raw, un-fiberglassed wood.
I'm going back down this weekend to do more deconstruction and hopefully get a full picture of the extent of the rot and make a game plan to fix it. I'm new to boats and fiberglass so hoping to learn from the folks in here. I've already been reading lots of good info here and elsewhere on the process. I attached some pictures of the boat from the CL ad.
My hope was that we would be able to get away without pulling the cap if the rot is limited to the deck and only part of the stringers. After cutting out the floor, I looked back under the bench seat / cooler and the floor is not extremely rotten but not great there either. The bench seat / cooler is part of the cap, but my brother and I discussed potentially cutting out the lower portion consisting of just the cooler, and leaving the back-rest to not have to pull the cap. This could give us access to the rest of the deck and the portion of the stringers that are under there. Does anyone have any opinions on doing that vs. pulling the cap? I don't want to do a poor repair but I also want to see this thing on the water next summer.
UPDATE
The restored Power Play XLT was Launched on November 28, 2021. A video of the launch.
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