Re: 12ft Fiberglass Boat, Worth saving ?
I put the trailer for sale on CL, already got a guy who wants to check it out today... if i can sell it for 450, dump the hull for 100 or free, and keep the motor... all will be good !!! only reason i would sell trailer, is almost all boats i see, come with trailers, and they are e-z-loaders, which im told are nice and alot lighter then mine, which would be great, cause my car likes to tow as little as possible.
That
is a nice trailer. Anyway, I was going to reply before I read the rest of the replies, but looks like you have decided to sell. I /like/ fiberglass boats and hate the sound of clanking in an aluminum boat every time you move, and I like the look of your boat. If you were in Vermont I'd solve your $100 re-coup right away!
Someone suggested about $400 to fix that boat, but I would not suggest trying (to fix it) if restoring a cool-looking little boat is not a part of your goals. For me, I would do it in a heartbeat.
I wouldn't use much wood. I would 'make' my own floor stringers and even the floor itself right in place with fiberglass and epoxy resin wrapped over corrugated cardboard forms: lighter than wood and never will rot. My 1972 MFG Niagara is made that way and the floors are concrete solid, and have held my 16" surface-mount seat bases very solidly for 12+ years. I wish I had pictures of my boat but it has never occurred to me to do that! Here's one (attached) when it still had the old 40hp Johnson.
The keel problem you have is solvable. It needs to be well dried out, and wouldn't be hard since the boat is small and light enough to turn over and have gravity help you. You would need to sand and grind out what appears to be a poor effort at patching the keel by previous owner. The "choppy" edge that shows is likely fiberglass roving or woven cloth with which it was originally constructed. It looks (to me, from the pics) to be worn from beaching, and it looks like P.O. used a black patching compound (hopefully epoxy, not bondo!) to attempt a repair- 50% of the effort and 20% of the results.
If you
do decide to keep it, a] I can answer repair questions, and b] 3 people would be pushing it in a boat that size.
There is a nice 12' v-bottom aluminum boat that went down on Lake Carmi in Vermont this summer. I know the guy who had it. Common sense is not not always common, and he had himself, daughter, and three 10- 14-year-old Boy Scouts in the boat along with a bunch of gear. They had a ski boat run by a ways out, but the wake didn't rock the boat as expected. Not being buoyant, the wave crested the maybe 6-inches of freeboard, immediately swamping the boat. No one was hurt, but apparently the boat had no flotation (or so much gear) that it dropped out from under them like a sawed-out floor in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
So a bigger boat might be your most usable option.
Good luck in your search, and post some pictures of your new boat.
