Aquasport 196 with cracked deck - easy fix or move on?

[floridafishergm]

Have gotten alot of good advice from this blog by reading other posts so figure I would give it shot with my own question.....
Looking to buy a little 20 foot aquasport to run around and go to the sandbar with the kids. Came across this 1985 model with a 2002 yamaha 130. Everything looks great except that it has cracks all over the deck and a couple on the transom. I've attached the pics. Can anyone please let me know if this is an easy fix/not a major structural issue or if it is a bad sign of something and that I should just move on.
Exactly the kind of boat I wanted and a good price so if there is a little work involved to make this a great boat for the kids I would like to buy it just don't want to end up with a disaster and lost $
Thank you!

 

[harringtondav]

Fixable? Yes. Easy, no. I'm guessing the plywood base is soft. Years of foot traffic caused the cracks, cracks allowed water to penetrate.

From your pics it looks like the cracked floor can be removed and replaced with some sweat and know - how. A bigger problem may be lurking beneath. Mushy floors/decks are often an indicator of mushy stringers and structure. That warrants walking away unless you get a super sweet price, and have the time and knowledge to do a resto.

 

[Scott Danforth]

that will cost you about $2500-$3000 in materials and about 500 hours of your sweat to fix. your choice if you fix it or pass.

the deck is rotten and by your description the transom is too. keep in mind that the deck is the last thing to rot after the transom, stringers and bulkheads.

personally, a 35 year old boat is a project boat.

 

[scoflaw]

No big deal.. The deck is wood under that but the stringers are glass. Take your pics over to Classic Aquasport.com for more opinions. I own a 1982 20' ccp and it's 1 rugged boat and mine looks worst than that.

 

[floridafishergm]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!
From what I could tell, there were absolutely no soft spots on the floor even with all these cracks which surprised me. The t-top was added later and I wonder if the weight of that contributed to the cracking.....they also replaced the gas tank 5 years ago. Could that contribute to the cracks?
Not a single crack in the hull which also surprised me with how the deck looked.
I also removed one of the side hatches and the foam underneath looked a little dirty but was completely dry.
I think it's a good price - even with putting the $3000 in that the first response projected I would still be well under $10k invested which seems like a good deal right?
Does anyone have an opinion on the cracks on the transom? Is that "needs to be fixed immediately" or could I run it for a bit like this without worrying about the engine breaking off the transom?

 

[Scott Danforth]

cracks in a transom is always bad

 

[scoflaw]

Transom replacement is common on them. How solid it is only you, being there, can tell.

Quick test, get both feet up on the cavitation plate and jump up and down , see if it flexes.