Rotted floor/stringers on 1999 370. Help!

Ok, before this gets hijacked as the "what did you ignore conventional wisdom and buy anyways" thread, I'd like to share a bit of information I came across today in my very own 370 Sundancer that relates to the original subject. Can we stay there for this thread? I think it's going to turn out to be important for a lot of owners as our girls pass puberty into the 20's and beyond. More in a bit.
 
What was your friend's prognosis? Did it get repaired during COVID? What was the final cost to the insurance payout?
I've had a venture of my own, and I am convinced that fresh water will always find it's way to that center bilge "void".
I have mitigated my issue. If others find the same situation, start a conversation with me. I will show you the path.
 
SkiPharmer said:
I posting this on behalf of a friend of mine. He bought a 1999 370 Sundancer this past summer. Survey showed that one of the stringers inside the cabin in the mid bilge had rot. So bad you could poke your finger through it. When I saw/heard this I thought it was a bizarre place for rot, especially since the boat and bilge was spotless. He bought from via broker from Marine Max. He had the local marina that it was at givr him an estimate for repair..$4000. The seller took that off the price and the sale continued. he now keeps the boat at my marina (different marina that gave the first estimate)and is going to have them do the work. They pulled it into the shop this week and uncovered much more rot. The floor under the aft cabin is rotted and there is white mold growing all underneath there. My buddy is devastated. They are now thinking $10,000-$20,000 to repair depending on what they keep peeling back. The shop says the stringers involved are holding the floor up and are not involved with the engine. Attached are a few pics. The water you see is coming out of the wood as it thaws (we are in MN). What would you do? What can he do? They think the boat either sunk or somehow got water in and it never drained. The bilge looked great cause it was discovered that they repainted it. You can see how they painted over it, covering water stains? This was discovered by my marina. Sad case. Gorgeous boat otherwise. Thanks!
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And he bought that and had a survey after, not before??
 
read it again. Buyer was misled (maybe). Insurance paid out. The thread is nearly 3 years old. Just wanted to get the end story. I hate it when threads die before someone finishes the tale.
 
And, it died....... too bad. There's going to be a lot of this going around with the late 90's boats.
 
SkiPharmer said:
im still here...im part of the Formula family now (Formula 41 PC) so don't come on here much. yes the boat was fixed by insurance. still running well and solid!
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Did they ever determine the source of the fresh water leak into that compartment?
 
Since this thread has revived, I will put in a kudos to State Farm. My daughter was in a car accident. SF was the insurer of the faulty driver. They actually reached out to us for medical expenses instead of us chasing them down. Wow. I am looking at them hard now for my list of insurance needs.
 
SkiPharmer said:
not 100% sure....hard to diagnose but they think it was coming from the water heater some how.
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If you can glean the work order or invoice from him (black out all PII), I'd love to see what they did vs. what I did, and whether or not I missed something. Private conversation would be better for that so I can give you an email address.
 
370Dancer said:
If you can glean the work order or invoice from him (black out all PII), I'd love to see what they did vs. what I did, and whether or not I missed something. Private conversation would be better for that so I can give you an email address.
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you can DM me and I can give you my buddies cell
 
I'm still wondering where the "spotless" part of that bilge was? The shower sump missing its lid and gunky bilge...
 
This thread is exactly what scares the bajesus out of me. We are looking to go larger and between selling current boat and upgrading it definitely means loan as can’t swing the cost and would need to be an “older boat”

Even with a survey you can still get burned.
How can you really look for the rot? Surveyor didn’t even find the extent of the damage.

Not that it matters at this point but I’d walk if rot was found on a survey. And if I did have to fix something you don’t just lop off the cost there should be a hassle factor adder as well.

I really struggle looking at boats and the doubt sinks in as to getting a loan on something that could have huge hidden damage. Mechanical/engine/electronic issues while frustrating aren’t as devastating as structural rot.
 
Jdawgin said:
This thread is exactly what scares the bajesus out of me. We are looking to go larger and between selling current boat and upgrading it definitely means loan as can’t swing the cost and would need to be an “older boat”

Even with a survey you can still get burned.
How can you really look for the rot? Surveyor didn’t even find the extent of the damage.

Not that it matters at this point but I’d walk if rot was found on a survey. And if I did have to fix something you don’t just lop off the cost there should be a hassle factor adder as well.

I really struggle looking at boats and the doubt sinks in as to getting a loan on something that could have huge hidden damage. Mechanical/engine/electronic issues while frustrating aren’t as devastating as structural rot.
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Sounds like you won’t be finding many older boats then. Most have small “rot” issues here and there. The key is location and the extent of the damage, and whether it’s been mitigated or not. Most can still give you years of enjoyment.
 
Golfman25 said:
Sounds like you won’t be finding many older boats then. Most have small “rot” issues here and there. The key is location and the extent of the damage, and whether it’s been mitigated or not. Most can still give you years of enjoyment.
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Plenty of 20 year old boats without rot.
 
spikedaddy99 said:
Since this thread has revived, I will put in a kudos to State Farm. My daughter was in a car accident. SF was the insurer of the faulty driver. They actually reached out to us for medical expenses instead of us chasing them down. Wow. I am looking at them hard now for my list of insurance needs.
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This happened to me when my daughter was rear ended…she wasn’t hurt at all… SF called me and said how can we get her to sign off on no personal injury claims…. He said will $2k do it?….. I said no $5k ….he said done.
 
Jdawgin said:
This thread is exactly what scares the bajesus out of me. We are looking to go larger and between selling current boat and upgrading it definitely means loan as can’t swing the cost and would need to be an “older boat”

Even with a survey you can still get burned.
How can you really look for the rot? Surveyor didn’t even find the extent of the damage.

Not that it matters at this point but I’d walk if rot was found on a survey. And if I did have to fix something you don’t just lop off the cost there should be a hassle factor adder as well.

I really struggle looking at boats and the doubt sinks in as to getting a loan on something that could have huge hidden damage. Mechanical/engine/electronic issues while frustrating aren’t as devastating as structural rot.
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I wonder if you could buy a special insurance product for something like this. I gotta figure there's some kind of "integrity of purchased goods" policy that would pay off if a thing of some kind was found to be seriously flawed.

Of course it would come with a ton of strings attached -- like you might have to pay for the insurer's surveyor to do their own survey, damage capped at half the purchase price, etc, and it would be a spendy policy with a narrow time window for payout (they're not paying off 3 years later).
 
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