Re: Chris Craft Boats - 2001 20'
Can you explain some of your comments? What are the 'pads'? My '99 Had a wood cored transom. Don't know about the stringers as I never had a reason to drill into them, but there was definitely wood in the construction.
The boat the OP linked to does not appear to have a self-bailing cockpit. I'm sure it has rain channels and drains around the engine hatch, but that isn't the same thing. A self-bailing hull has several large scuppers that lead substantial amounts of water directly out of the cockpit and straight overboard.
My .02
I'm sorry to not have used the proper terminology - on the back of all the bolster pads, flip up seats, read deck, etc - they all are made with synthetic materials instead of wood. Its like a hard plastic but you can drill into it.
The deck I referred to as self-bailing as there are passages as you said which help the water drain off the deck and down into the bilge where they are pumped out - not exactly self-bailing (sorry) as it would be in a center console, but that was the best term I could find to concisely describe a solid fiberglass deck with channels to run the water off and down into the bilge vs a carpeted deck w/out drains.
To add a couple of other points, I've examined the underside of my deck and found no wood there either. Also, there was a thread a couple of months ago with someone with my same boat in a 1998 I recall who claimed to have spoken to CC about the build - their response was that all the stringers were fiberglass or synthetic with no wood. I've never drilled into my transom but I've not found any wood on my CC at all - not in the seats, deck, bolster pads, dash...not anywhere. I'd say if tapping the transom doesn't result in a low, dense thud and there are no spider cracks in the gelcoat, its likely fine. You can always ask the seller if you can run a test drill bit but if I were selling my boat in the condition he was, I wouldn't let a buyer do it- just not enough reason to question it IMO. You could always remove a couple of the screws which hold the pitot / speedo hose down and see if there is mush behind them.
