Soft Deck, What Would You Do?

SkiPharmer

Active Member
Jul 27, 2014
282
St. Croix River, MN
Boat Info
2001 Formula 41 Performance Cruiser
Engines
Twin 8.2. Liter Mercruisers Direct Drives
I've read every post on here about this and I want to know what you would do (I already have an idea). I have a 1995 Sea Ray 330 Sundancer, love the boat, we boat in MN. I've had a small spot on the front of the deck near the big hatch towards the starboard side and back a bit. It is getting bigger. I had the marina look at it and they quoted me $3-$5k to fix it depending on bad it was when they started working on it. My wife and I have two kids aged 2 and 4. we spend a lot of time on the boat and treat it like our summer home in the summer. The boat is worth at most $40,000 and that is pushing it. I would like to think this boat can last us another 10 years until the kids start needing more room. Question is do I fix the boat and keep it or try to sell it next year and buy our next boat now. It is paid off, i LOVE not having a boat payment. I just put $2,200 in it last month replacing the holding tank (cracked and leaked), all hoses, new sump pump and new AC water pump. Engines and genny run like tops. Thanks for the advice as always.
-Chris
 
What is their plan to fix it? From above or underneath? Do they have a kick butt fiberglass guy? I would lean towards getting it fixed and continue using the boat. Might be tough to sell otherwise.
 
If you're convinced you're going to eventually sell the boat and want some form of return on it I'd suggest getting it repaired now. Deck rot will only spread. The more it spreads, the more money the repair will cost. Most (maybe an exaggeration?) buyers will care about a wet deck in a boat like this. And any surveyor worth two cents will quickly red flag it.

If you think you'd be fully happy with the boat for another 10 years I'd skip the repair and keep it as-is. Use the money for fuel next year. Just be prepared to sell the boat for $10-15k(?) in 10 years. At that point it's going to need a $10k+ repair to the foredeck and it'll have another 10 years of wear and tear on her.
 
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Our 28 footer (LWL) had a soft front deck area about 2 feet square, boat had a 10.5 beam and the deck was 7 feet long and flared up into the lower helm windshield.
The deck had one small soft area and we got a few drips in the area of the flair up to the windshield.
I have a friend who owns a large fiberglass marine repair facility. He looked at it and said best way to fix it was from under in the soft area and leak. He opened it up and found water had worm hold through out the entire deck. I also had a soft area on the upper helm this turned into a 3' by 3' area to get to solid balsa. In all it cost 12,000 in 2004. One person who used to fiberglass tank floors for me suggested dry area and inject resin, based on the cost and value of the boat I wish I had done that.
Two years later I sold the boat for 10,000.
 
yea I plan on keeping it and fixing it. They have done this type of repair yes. I only have had the boat for 4 years, no clue why the surveyor didn't catch it.
 
If it were me, I would sell it and buy something much newer. It is approaching the age where it will require a project every year. Just when you think things are under control something else will pop up. This is the nature of old boats.
 
Have you heard of Dry Boat? I talked to them at the Fort Lauderdale boat show and found their system interesting.
 
This is not a difficult repair to do :

if the spot is relatively small, and
if it can be accessed from the hatch opening.

Generally, the deck coring is balsa and is wet enough to rot. The only real way to fix it is to remove the rotted wood, replace it then fix any damage you do getting to the core. If you are lucky and if the soft core can be reached thru the hole where the hatch was installed.....which is very likely the place t he water got in . A bent rod can sometimes be used to rout out the rotted coring, then shopvac the grbae out, then more bent rodding then more vacuuming. Eventually when you are down to new wood, a piece of balsa coring can be cut and inserted using resin or epoxy to bond it to the deck and ceiling. Then reinstall the hatch, and remove all the others and rebed them.

If that won't work, the only fix is to remove either the deck skin or the ceiling beneath to access the rotted core. Repairing the non-skid finish on the deck is a challenge and very few fiberglass guys can get a decent match. Sometimes you can make the cuts in non-skid parts of the deck where getting a sound repair and a good match is easier because you aren't dealing with non-skid. Cutting away the ceiling is a possibility if it is a relatively small area, but it will trash the interior unless whoever does the repair is careful to maks and cover the interior.

Working thru the hatch opening will save a lot of money since there is no gelcoat or non-skid match to deal with. If the wet area it is small enough to access that way, then the cost should be closer to $1000 than to $4000. If the area is confined to the edge of the hatch and running 8-12" out, the core can be dug out, the area dried out and refilled with thickened epoxy as a core...replacing balsa isn't necessary and that repair would be even less.

Note: Those costs are Gulf Coast estimates where 2/3 of the ex boat yard workers with a 1/2 pick up are running around doing fiberglass repairs.......I have no clue what MN prices would be.

Selling the boat without fixing it isn't a good plan. It will not pass a survey with a soft deck and you will end up taking a bath to get it sold. If you want a new boat, get this one fixed, detailed and prettied up, then go shopping and you will be money ahead.
 
Are there any brands or models of Sea Rays where this is not a common problem?
 
Are there any brands or models of Sea Rays where this is not a common problem?
It's a common problem with most boats. Whenever you put a hole in the deck, you're bound to get water intrusion at some point. The only way out is to seal the hole first. Unfortunately most builders nor people do that.
 
It will cost you money to fix it, it will probably cost you more money if you sell it because the buyer will want a big discount for taking on a project.
You’ve had the boat for a few years now and know it’s strengths and weaknesses.
You’ve also gotten used to not having a payment.
If you would be selling to get something significantly different then I say take the bath and sell it as is at a discount. It will probably cost more money to go bigger or newer, but at least you’re going to feel like you got more.
If you would be selling to get a similar size and style boat then I say have it fixed and stick with the devil you know.
 
could I go the cheap way and have them inject resin? will that hold up for 5 years or so? will that stop the spread?
 
My response was going to be the same as what Frank said. I just did this same process to mine last summer. The repair is stronger than it was from the factory, all of the rot is gone and no gelcoat or fiberglass was damaged in the process. I really feel that this is the only way to go. Injecting resin will stiffen it up for a time, but the rot is still there and it will grow. So it's only delaying the repair that needs to happen and this repair will only get more expensive the longer you wait. If it's a $2,000 repair job today, you could spend $1,500 now for injection and then still need $2,000 - $3,000 in repairs in 5 years (ultimately costing more - not less). My suggestion is to fix the boat you have. Buying a different boat doesn't mean you won't still be fixing issues. At least you know this boat and like it. It's worth it to you and your pocket book to get it fixed before it becomes a bigger issue.
 
Injecting resin or epoxy will only work if you remove the rotted wood because the wet core is filling the void where the resin needs to go. That means you cannot get nearly enough resin in the area that you need to form a good bont between the deck and the ceiling beneath. The labor in this repair is in removing the wet core and drying out the structure anyway, so why not do a permanent repair and be done with it forever?

If you do try to sell the boat with a soft deck the discount you will have to take is going be in the $10-12,000 area, if a buyer doesn't reject the boat out of hand, and most knowledgeable buyers will rather than take on a project with unknowns like a wet deck.
 
Thank you all! I will fix it this winter. To those of you saying sell it and buy something newer I would then have a rather large payment AND I could still have stuff go wrong. I love not having debt and this boat works very well for us now...plus it is fast and that is important for my 4 year old!
 
Thank you all! I will fix it this winter. To those of you saying sell it and buy something newer I would then have a rather large payment AND I could still have stuff go wrong. I love not having debt and this boat works very well for us now...plus it is fast and that is important for my 4 year old!

Smart move!
 
1+ on smart move! GOD bless. JC
BTW, Debt free IMHO is always the way to go when you have a choice.
 
I just got a quote from a yard to fix it. $4100-$5000 to fix it. they will need to take the top non-skid off and fix it that way. UGH............
 
I just got a quote from a yard to fix it. $4100-$5000 to fix it. they will need to take the top non-skid off and fix it that way. UGH............

What did they say about Frank's suggestion to repair through the hatch opening? Where did the water intrusion come from?

MM
 
What did they say about Frank's suggestion to repair through the hatch opening? Where did the water intrusion come from?

MM

I did suggest that to them and they stated it wouldn’t be an OEM repair and they couldn’t guarantee that they could fix it to be strong enough to hold up. I’m gonna get a few dock neighbors and clean it out through the hatch as Best I can and fill it with some marine plywood or marine epoxy/resin. I will then re-bed all three hatches and call it good. I can’t justify spending $5000 on this.
 

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