Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

[faithful]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

I totally agree with ez. learn as much as you can, ask as many questions a possible from all the talent here and get that boat back on the water safely. next season or 2 put it up for sale while continue to use it. If you dig in there and fix up what needs fixed the right way then you will know exactly what you are putting your trust and lives into. Good luck and you are not alone. Our first buy needed a total deck replacement and had the infamous mercruiser no no motor in it and we didn't have any idea what we were getting into (at least your 4.3 is one of the good mercruisers)

I will do that. We haven't decided what to do for sure but I think we are leaning towards fixing it up and keeping it. At least we would know it's a solid boat. If we bought another used one, I think we would be wondering what could be wrong that we don't know about and can't see. You scared me with the "mercruiser no no" until I read the rest of your reply. Glad to know ours is a good one.

 

[faithful]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Well..you do kinda sorta have the knowledge here on Iboats .. but the other two .. Place and Time is a very considerable factor.

Yes nice hull and such..but If you dont have the Place to do a 3/4 full resto ..or the time ..then I think your making the right choice ( we are not privy to your life or lifestyle ).

The Main reasoning behind a full resto is Not for investment .. its " I know I will have a lifetime boat" or " this was grandpas boat" or its simply a collectors item that is very hard to find.

Remember this .. If you Start a resto..Finish it. You Could lose More $$ trying to sell off an incomplete rebuild to someone else ( they might suggest that your work has to be completely redone ).

As far as What to look for if your going to buy a boat .. thats hard to say. Getting an "out of the water" servey is a good choice. Talking with the PO and getting a "feel" about his integrity helps. Start taking an ice pic to the stringers? or banging around with a sounding hammer..? ( basically doing your own servey ).. Google up what Serveyers look for in small cruiser class boats will help. General overall condition and maintenance ( plus yearly drive train receipts from PO could help in " Care of Boat " rule of thumb ).

Let us know for sure how you want to proceed .

YD.

Well, I think I might have my husband on board with fixing it ourselves but I have quite a few questions before I can decide for sure if we can do this. You said place and time is a factor....what kind of place do we need? Can we do it outside? We don't have an inside place available to us but can work on it in our yard...just need to worry about weather here in NE so we would start on it in the fall when weather is good and not yet snowing. As for time...my husband is on call 24 hours a day and goes out of town for work but he can get days off if he has to. I will probably be doing most of the work...at least the taking apart stuff. I am a stay home mom and will have plenty of time to work on it when my kids are in school.

Some question I have are...assuming everything is going to have to be replaced (stringers, transom, etc.) how much should we expect to spend on the renovation?
How difficult is it to take the cap off if necessary (that's a very scary thought... any videos anywhere on that being done?) and if so, how do we keep the cap and hull from flexing while we are working on it? What kind of support are we going to need for the hull while working on it (I'm assuming you don't work on it while on the trailer)? What tool will we need? We have tools like grinder, sawzall, dremel, rotozip etc..

Sorry about all the questions. Hope I'm not sounding too dumb here. If I should ask them in a different place or just do a search, just let me know. Thanks for your reply and offered help.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Friscoboater seems to be able to do his outside, without removing the cap, all the while spending thousands of dollars. I think that answered your questions! And as you've seen, his SeaRay thread is pretty much the bible on this stuff at this point. All your answer are there.

 

[boatnut74]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Like EZ said friscoboaters thread has alot of valuable information. The work isn't so much hard as it is time consuming. Cost all depends on how far you want to go on your resto. Where in Nebraska are you from?

 

[faithful]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Like EZ said friscoboaters thread has alot of valuable information. The work isn't so much hard as it is time consuming. Cost all depends on how far you want to go on your resto. Where in Nebraska are you from?

Well, being a single income family, cost has to be considered. My thinking is that we either lose money on the boat if we try to sell it or we could spend what we would lose and make it a really good boat. I like the latter. The time consuming part doesn't bother me too much. I have the time to do it....and more patience than my husband for that kind of thing. Plus I kinda like tearing things apart and trying to fix them.....I'm a strange kinda girl.

 

[boatnut74]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Were about 45min southwest of lincoln. If you were closer i'd offer to lend a hand but that's about a 3 hour drive. Nothing wrong with tearing things apart and trying to fix them. I've been doing that my whole life. I think that's the best way to learn. My parents weren't to happy when they found the can opener tore apart. Still havn't figured out how that happened.

 

[relocyo]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Oui vei... :facepalm: I read most of the 1st thread... :sigh: lesson learned? Even the title made this a sad read... Before I read it...

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

I would start taking pics and measurements .

Can you get some over all pics of the boat for us please ( I cant seem to get to your photobucket pics ) .

YD.

 

[Ciera2450]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

+1 on the pics and measurements!
After you've done that, do some more. They will help greatly.
For what its worth....I spent $2500 roughly, restoring a 15' trihull. If all your upholstery and such is in good shape, you could get away much cheaper.

Good luck on your project!

 

[goboating]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

I also second the motion on Friscboater. He thought he was getting a great deal, untill he got home and started looking at what he had. If you are thinking about doing it yourselves...then take a few hours and go over his posts. He's up to 55 pages now. What seperates him from alot of other people are the videos!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He says it all, seeing how this is his second time doing this. Planned on the first not the second. Good luck.

 

[Cadwelder]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Well, I've been following this thread for a while...I got your photobucket pictures to come up okay. You have a really nice looking boat, but with an obvious rotten sub structure. You can rest assured you'll find the transom in the same condition.

This is certainly a full redeck and stringer (post #10), and the end result will be a great boat that will last for years to come (if all done properly), but it will also result in a boat that you have way more money in that you will ever get out of it, but don't worry about that either since 99% of the boats restored here are the same way. You have to look at it from the standpoint of "Do I want a good boat?, (yes I do) "Can I afford a new one?" (no I can't), "Do I look for another used one?" This is a option but if you look at the same year model you run a VERY high risk of finding one in the exact same shape as what you have, as rotten boats are very common.

So the bottom line here is, do I have the time and place to work on it. (post 19). Your can do it in your backyard or driveway...many, many, many here have. The time is soley up to you, as we don't know your schedule. If you decide that you have the time, tools, place and the needed funds, then pesonally I would rebuild it. You'll have the satisfaction of knowing exactly what is under the deck and the piece of mind of knowing you and your family are safe in this boat for years to come.

I've restored a ton of boats (all bass boats, but still boats) and I feel the knowledge base here on iboats is second to none anywhere. So if you decide to join the madness, you're at the right place. Just post away with ANYTHING that comes up and we'll all help anyway we can.

Good luck and happy boating

CW

 

[faithful]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

I would start taking pics and measurements .

Can you get some over all pics of the boat for us please ( I cant seem to get to your photobucket pics ) .

YD.

http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e192/amwalker/boat pics 2/

Hope this link works. I took a ton of pics....probably too many. Let me know if you cant see them and I will post the ones I think are the most helpful.

I'm sure this will sound like a dumb question but what and where exactly to I need to measure? Just from side to side?

 

[faithful]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Oui vei... :facepalm: I read most of the 1st thread... :sigh: lesson learned? Even the title made this a sad read... Before I read it...

Definitely a lesson learned....and an expensive one at that....at least for us. Hoping we have learned enough to prevent this from happening to us again.

 

[faithful]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

+1 on the pics and measurements!
After you've done that, do some more. They will help greatly.
For what its worth....I spent $2500 roughly, restoring a 15' trihull. If all your upholstery and such is in good shape, you could get away much cheaper.

Good luck on your project!

That's very good news. I think I could even handle the 2500 if I had to. We were quoted (over the phone) $2500 to $3500 and if the cap has to come off, it would be closer to.......$6500. I'd rather sell it and take a loss than spend that much to have it fixed...and not even close to as good as we can fix it. I've seen the work of that boat shop and I'm not impressed....especially after reading on here. I don't care how big they are. If you look at the first webshots link I gave, you will see a couple pics of the new floor they put in by the consoles. The edge of the wood they cut to fit around the ski locker opening doesn't even look like they put any kind of sealer on it at all.

I'm not concerned with the upholstery right now. The back to back seats are in great shape but the rest have small cracks in them. Something I can live with for now. I've always wanted to take an upholstery class at the local college anyway so maybe after we get it fixed up, I can take the class and fix them myself.

 

[boaterinsd]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Hi, up here to the north and did have the same kinda luck in getting a boat, thought it was lake ready too. LOL
But I got it going and floated it a month ago. Now I am having some other issues with it, but its a 73 so You shouldn't have to worry about that for a long while. Good luck in the project, we all couldn't be luckier than to have a FRISCOBOATER around. I am thinking me and my one son have spent some good father/son time on the boat in the driveway garage working on things, hes 11 going on 19, LOL.

BTW , i want ed say also the the boat looks very nice and is a keeper in my book, I have 5 kiddos here at home so I have to keep about anything I can get my hands on, LOL

 

[boaterinsd]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

originally posted by Cadwelder
I feel the knowledge base here on iboats is second to none anywhere. So if you decide to join the madness, you're at the right place. Just post away with ANYTHING that comes up and we'll all help anyway we can.

If you do start do a new thread on the project so its all in one spot and let to flow like Frisco did, hes the man in the boat dept , IMO. GOOD luck to you.

 

[faithful]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

I also second the motion on Friscboater. He thought he was getting a great deal, untill he got home and started looking at what he had. If you are thinking about doing it yourselves...then take a few hours and go over his posts. He's up to 55 pages now. What seperates him from alot of other people are the videos!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He says it all, seeing how this is his second time doing this. Planned on the first not the second. Good luck.

Ya, it stinks when a good deal goes sour. (no pun intended) 55 pages! sounds like I have lots more reading to do....think I only made it to 17...kept finding other interesting threads and got lost in it all.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e192/amwalker/boat pics 2/

Hope this link works. I took a ton of pics....probably too many. Let me know if you cant see them and I will post the ones I think are the most helpful.

I'm sure this will sound like a dumb question but what and where exactly to I need to measure? Just from side to side?

I can see the pics now .. Its a looker for sure and considerably nice for its age.

However .. you still have the Rot issue on the deck which IMO is going to require to uncap the boat.

After the uncapping your 50/50 on the stringers ( partial or full replacement ) and 50/50 on the transom.

If your deck/ski locker has that much rot it suggests to me that some PO forgot to take the drain plug out..or didnt unplug the drain. Standing water for an extensive amount of time ?. Too many variables for the reason Why the wood is now shot but the vinyl and carpet looks very nice.

You should really consider an out of water survey. I dont like the idea that a Glass Shop giving out prices over the phone with prices that range in 2500-6500 .. They should know ( If you took your boat into my shop for an estimate I WILL tell you what you Need and what is required for the repair. I can 90% guarantee your going to pay the 6000+ ..

Self surveys normally turn out under diagnosed.

Keep us informed

YD.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Faithful.

In photobucket, if you hover over your pics, the following drop down will appear. Click the IMG code and then paste it into your iBoats post and the picture will Directly appear in your post instead of the link. Works a lot better for us to see your pics.

 

[faithful]

Re: Just found out our first boat has rot...how bad is this?

Faithful.

In photobucket, if you hover over your pics, the following drop down will appear. Click the IMG code and then paste it into your iBoats post and the picture will Directly appear in your post instead of the link. Works a lot better for us to see your pics.

Thanks for that tip! I didn't know you could do that from Photobucket. I took so many pictures and wasn't sure which ones were needed....don't think it would be appreciated if I put all 66 of them in my post. I will use this to post pictures from now on...thanks!