One Soft Spot

[Blasanch92]

I have a 1984 Wellcraft 180 American that I have just purchased I got a really good deal on it I took it to the boat shop got it winterized and they say the engine runs very well in the open Bow I have a soft spot I was wondering if I could simply cut out the plywood there and replace it with normal marine plywood I'm not planning on keeping this boat for several years this boat is my very first boat and I bought it with the intentions on teaching me proper boating etiquette so I can upgrade to a better boat in the next few years

 

[Old Ironmaker]

The quick answer to your question is NO unfortunately. If you have a soft floor everything wood below it has deteriorated as well. It's a big job for someone that knows what they are doing. Not technical just plenty of labour and hard work. The raw materials you need isn't an astronomic amount of cash. If I were you I might sell it now and move onto a boat without wood rot. I don't know what a good deal is on a 40 year old boat. If you are going to the trouble and expense to strip the interior of the boat out you and rebuild the thing I would think you are going to keep it more than a few years. Good luck.

 

[Newbie@boats]

My dad had a few boats growing up with a soft spot here and there in the floor he did exactly what you planned on doing. Learning with it. Bumping into docks. Etc. it served its purpose till he was good enough with it to purchase a brand new boat that he wouldn’t ding up and get bumps and bruises on. It’s probably rotting from bottom up.....but no real way of knowing until you tear into it. If it’s a beginner beater boat maybe just leave it alone for now. It’ll be hard to find a boat from that era without soft wood

 

[racerone]

Agreed-----The factory brochure says ----" World Class Boats "-------But that is not really true.-------Lots of rotten wood found in boats that are 40 years old.

 

[Woodonglass]

It's impossible to know what the substructure under the deck is like without tearing into it. I'd bet the bank that is ALL rotten. The boat could be unsafe or it could be usable for a couple more years. Do you want to gamble with you and your family's safety?

 

[roffey]

or... if its just in the bow why not just use it and skip the repair? Run around in it for a couple of summers then sell it once you have figured out what you really want. Who knows you may even decide boating is to expensive and time consuming and get out of it completely?

 

[Mad Props]

If your willing to take the family out on the lake, hit a big wake and crack the hull because the structure is gone, have it go down and hope everyone was wearing their PFD and get picked up by a kind soul cruising on by...thats your gamble and you have to decide if you wanna take that risk... If so, then sure, go boating, if not, then no one here is going to recommend that you just ignore it out of good concience...

Just my $0.02

 

[roffey]

Wow, you can tell all that from one soft spot...

 

[Mad Props]

Nope, but neither can you or anyone... and you also can tell that it won't happen... hence the risk.. Not trying to be obtrusive or mean, but just trying to make you aware that a rotted out boat has a lot of potential risks and I'm not willing to take that risk especially with my kids/wife/friends on board.

 

[chevymaher]

Google deck over see what pops up. Junk boats and people cussing because they got tricked. Not a single good boat will come up. Why hide damage if there is none. Pull the deck up and check the stringers and replace the deck on the only boat ever that had good stringers. Then call ripleys and you can have the record.

My boat had zero soft spots. It was wasted. If the deck is rotted it been wet from the deck down for 10 years. There alot of water down there.

We are not trying to be dicks just honest we been there done that.

Stages of boat ownership are
1 Denial
2 acceptance
3 repair

Kind of like a used car. Nobody sells a car because it was the best most reliable thing they ever owned. They sell it because they just found out it is going to cost big bucks to keep it.

Same with boats. Well they rot and I let it sit out in the rain until it had a soft spot. Dry it and cover it and swear it was always covered and sell it quick.

That is my boat there. 30 year old cover looks like new. That was a red flag. It never been on the boat to get wore out.

 

[Blasanch92]

How would I possibly remove the carpet to look underneath that without damaging the carpet? I would like to lift the carpet and see what I'm working with underneath it any advice on that because f the stringers aren't bad I will just replace the plywood

 

[Blasanch92]

Because this is literally the only soft spot in the whole boat so if it's not as bad underneath what is carpet normally held down by? And if I get it up how do I put it back down? I'm not planning on ripping the whole deck out because the rest of the wood is nice and firm only the bow area.

 

[Newbie@boats]

I would just listen to the guys who have more experience in this than I do, but the floor is the last to rot, the carpet is usually held down by some sort of glue. More than likely you’ll ruin the carpet trying to pull it up. Even if you ripped up the wood just in the bow you’ll never see what the rest of the boat looks like underneath the flooring.

 

[Blasanch92]

I highly doubt for a itty bitty soft spot that my boat will just crash and sink my transom is solid it's a small soft spot.

 

[froggy1150]

Make a small hole about the size of your wet spot. That needs fixin. Then just keep nibbling a inch at a time til you hit dry wood n foam.. (don't forget water is heavy and is sitting at the bottom of the foam). Let us know how far you have to go to be safe.....

 

[Scott Danforth]

I highly doubt for a itty bitty soft spot that my boat will just crash and sink my transom is solid it's a small soft spot.

I will bet you $100 cash that you find the foam wet, the stringers rotten, and the transom rotten

the reasons that we are concerned is that we see hundreds of new boats in the restoration forums every year that have one little soft spot. and every single one of them looks deeper to find a rotted structure. we also see pictures of boats that have sank because of a hull breach. I personally know two people that sank their boats because the hull breached from rotten structure and the foam was wet. one boat sunk in less than 45 seconds when the transom was ripped loose from the outboard

your boat was made in the early 80's. a hay-day for disposable income for the middle class...... so boats were churned out by the millions. boats designed to last only 15 years and be replaced. if well maintained, they lasted 30 years

your boat is now 37 years old.... if garage kept and washed after every use. age isnt an issue.
your boat was built in the 80's which was a time of lack-luster build quality because they were slapping them together as quick as they could
you have a soft spot in the floor. I bet you will find that simply pulling up the cover for the ski locker and sticking your head in there you find the stringers under there dark and rotten. do a simple drill test (just search the forums for drill test)
you may even find that you have a layer of wood screwed over the top of your fiberglass deck and then covered with the carpet. this is known as a deck-over

read links 14, 15, 18, 2, 3, 4a, and 4b. specifically read link 14 in its entirety. https://forums.iboats.com/forum/boa...r/295740-how-to-s-and-other-great-information

you may also want to read this https://forums.iboats.com/forum/boa...52-perspective-of-fiberglass-boat-design-life

 

[kcassells]

 

[chevymaher]

Thank you Scott. I wrote 15 responses and finally just got tired of erasing them. I couldn't find a way to say it with out just being a ****.

 

[Blasanch92]

I'm new to boating so please excuse me with the Newbie questions I took my boat in for service today and had the transom inspected they say it is Rock Solid so I'm hoping for the best I'm going to work on it this weekend and start cutting some wood open I bought some carpet to replace it with I'm going to see what I'm working with if anything I can get a season or two out of this boat and then I will toss the engine and outdrive into a boat with no engine.

 

[chevymaher]

Here is your boat without carpet so you can see all the wood.

https://forums.iboats.com/forum/gen...ine-topics/503431-1983-wellcraft-american-180