Same cracks keep appearing. Plywood in boat

Jan 19, 2016
144
Under the Sand in Five Dock
Boat Info
Sea Ray 15 Sport
V8 5.0L 260hp MPI Mercruiser
19p Prop

Sea Ray
350 SunDeck on it's way!!
Engines
V8 5L MPI Mercruiser
In my sea Ray 195 sport 2006 I am to understand this has no wood what so ever in it.
(I'll get back to this)
So where the drain holes are on the deck that drain to the bilge area, I have a spiderweb crack that has a bit of a chip in the middle of it, right in the corner on the actual deck part, under the hole that sends any water to the bilge as that little hole/pipe is raised a tiny fraction from the actual floor.

I had this repaired and I had other spiderweb cracks repaired yet they , especially this one, continues to come back and continues to chip so it's more than just a spiderweb crack. I actually have it on both sides but worse on one side.

Now back to this plywood, there is a piece of plus wood that has been inserted under that area. The crack is at the base of the aft bench seat . So go through the engine compartment and there is a piece of plywood jammed in there under that specific area.
My guess is that maybe the old owner had the same problem as I have seen other repairs where other spiderweb cracks are up the front.
So I'm guessing they had the same issue and figured that the flex of the deck or bench seat was causing this cracking to happen. So they lodged a piece of plywood on the underside to stop the flex happening.
If it's still happening though, I'm wondering could them lodging in this plywood removing any flex, could this be what is actually causing the cracks by not allowing any flex to happen?

Another question is this boat is a 2006, and I have spent tens of thousands on it, mainly 15k on the entire outside of the box having major cracking which I noticed after I first used it the first time I purchased it. I honestly wonder if it was there before I purchased it and didn't notice it, but insurance covered this thankfully . So while getting that done I got all the other spiderweb cracking done and now they are all back the next time I took it out. I hardly ever use this either.
I'm wondering if the 'lifetime warranty' that I am pretty sure I read sea ray include on their boats would cover such a issue and I also wonder if sea ray lifetime warranty actually expires when it is sold and you are the second or maybe even forth owner of the boat. Will sea Ray take the boat away and inspect it or run tests or have a tech take a look ?

I'm pretty sure years back I read that this was a issue with these sport boats. Either you were lucky and you got no cracking or you got lots of cracking.

I also found loads of paint or some sort of coating in the engine compartment all cracking off and also the same with the sea locker. It was just peeling away in big chunks. So I had the sea locker and the engine compartment sanded out and re blasted so this was no more.
I haven't seen any other sea rays with all that type of damage in the bilge and engine compartment or the ski locker. I'm pretty sure I have photos of all the work I did on my sea ray in other threads people may remember. It's a yellow 195 sport. I put the monster tower on it.

Has anyone heard of cracking in the engine area or in the ski locker though I only noticed the ski locker area all cracked up after I washed it at a car wash with their pressure washing hose as the ski locker got filthy from when the oil closure rusted under the engine and dumped all the oil into the bilge and then that went up into the ski locker.

I'd really like to know of I should remove this piece of plywood Jamed under the bench seat and floor that's obviously there to remove any flex or if you think I should keep it there and also if having owners before me that sea Ray would get a tech involved ? I can't go back to a dealer I purchased it from because not long after I bought this he cleared out the boats from his yard overnight and hasn't been heard from in years. I got lucky him leaving like that because I got a warranty on the second hand engine and they paid out around $5000 on parts that were needed when my mechanic found that the exhaust was rusted and breaking off into itself.

I'm know I've pretty much painted the picture of a really bad boat but I'll look for all the photos of this work I posted in these forums of what we found, what happened and the amazing work put Into making this boat an amazing example of what it is. . If I can find these images I'll add them to this thread.
 
Here is a link to all the photos I've mentioned except for the floor corner spiderweb cracking I'm having issues with. I'll take new photos of that tomorrow but here are images of the before and after work all done to this boat. You can see how bad engine was and the outside Gelcoat cracking and the paint on inside of bilge cracking and the ski locker all peeling off. This link shows thsoe images.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GkfiPtKV3gaB7ShF9
 
This isn't going to make you any happier, but the "spider web cracks" you describe sound like stress cracking (can't tell without photos). Stress cracking comes from the fact that the gelcoat and the resin used on the structure have different coefficients of expansion. Sometimes the gelcoat is sprayed a bit too thick in certain areas, usually concave spots where thick gelcoat may pool a bit in the mold. Stress cracking usually occurs in those areas where the gelcoat is a bit thick, and is not considered a structural defect since it only affects the gelcoat, not the structure of the boat and is, therefore, usually only covered during the early (1 year) part of the warranty on pre-2018 models.

However, the 2019 Sport Boat warranty (Sea Ray SURPA5S*) provides five years of bow-to-stern factory warranty on the boat and its components** from defects in materials and workmanship on 2019 Sea Ray Sport Boats. In addition to the five-year bow-to-stern coverage, 2019 Sea Ray Sport Boats also have a Limited Lifetime Structural Hull / Deck Warranty to the original owner, sold in the U.S. or Canada.*

https://www.searay.com/page.aspx/pageid/164422/SURPA5S-Warranty.aspx

Several years ago, Sea Ray Customer Service was pretty liberal in extending warranty coverage to past 5 years and to second and even later owners. However, since the re-organization in 2018, Sea Ray is taking a hard line on warranties. The warranty on your new boat will be exactly what the warranty statement above covers, and no more.


NOTE: I have no idea where on earth "Under the Sand in 5 Dock" may be, but if you are buying a new 350SD and you are not in the US or Canada or if the boat is a used boat, then you may not have the warranty protection referenced above.
 
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