boat floor help?

[flatsfishingallday]

i have a 1980 rinker 15' tri hull and i noticed the floor started getting mroe soft and the fiberglass has begun to crack. So im just thinking about buying a 4x8 1/4 " piece of exterior grade plywood and painting kilz on it then sealing it with lumber seal and finishing it off with some deck paint. do you think that would work or do you have any more ideas that would be cheaper? because i dont want to spend much on this boat because its so old and i still want to get at lesast a year from the plywood.

 

[palace]

Re: boat floor help?

Dude if you are not attached to the boat just unload it and sink your money into something you are willing to keep. You will not stop the rot by putting ply ontop of it. Send some pic's of the damaged area. Sounds like you have rot and water logged foam which is only screwing up your performance.

i have a 1980 rinker 15' tri hull and i noticed the floor started getting mroe soft and the fiberglass has begun to crack. So im just thinking about buying a 4x8 1/4 " piece of exterior grade plywood and painting kilz on it then sealing it with lumber seal and finishing it off with some deck paint. do you think that would work or do you have any more ideas that would be cheaper? because i dont want to spend much on this boat because its so old and i still want to get at lesast a year from the plywood.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: boat floor help?

Are you talking about covering your existing deck with 1/4" plywood? I hope not. It is not a good idea to cover rot since you could create a place where the rot will grow!

You probably should consider surgery. Cut the rotted deck (Not called a boat floor)and you can piece some plywood provided you do not find other problems below the deck such as rotted stringers and water soaked flotation.

Doing it the right way is better.

 

[rickryder]

Re: boat floor help?

There is no quick fix for your deck..... There will be more issues below deck that compromise the hull structure and make the boat unsafe for use.... Only real way to know is pull up the deck and do core samples of the stringers and transom.