Rotten wood!!! How to remove?

[specialk342]

While working on the boat today I stepped down in to the ski storage compartment ('89 200 bow rider) only to feel it stress under my foot. Upon further inspection, with a screwdriver, I found significant rot and some wet foam. How do I go about repairing this area of the boat? Thanks

 

[Don Sr]

thats major work, cost to do it yourself is more than the boat is worth. I'd check the critical parts like stringers and bulk heads and try to see how much damage you have. If the structure has its integrity drive it a couple years while you look for a new boat. There are plenty of guys who do this type of work themselves and all swear they would never do it again. Check iboats.com - boat restoration and rebuilding forum there are tons of posts on this. Good luck.

 

[SCORPIO]

Is that a removable hatch or an intergral part of the floor? In the pic it looks like a hatch of some kind. Alot depends on the extent of the damage, have you determined how far it extends?

 

[specialk342]

It seems to only be in that ski compartment and resulted from standing water (the drain was clogged from debris). the compartment is not removabale, it follows the contour of the bottom of the boat. Im just going to start CAREFULLY cutting at it and see how far the rot goes. Worst case is it I have to build it back up.

 

[SCORPIO]

OK, just so I know what I'm looking at, in the photos we are seeing a hatch remved and looking down into a compartment at a plywood floor that is contoured to the bottom. There is foam between the boat bottom and the wood floor right? I really wonder why the bothered to put a floor in a compartment that is only a few inches from the bottom. You could reomve the old floor and wet foam and rebuild or possibly just remove the old floor and foam and leave it that way. I'm not sure how structural that floor is in that compartment. It doesn't have to support alot of weight and looks to be on the centerline of the boat so the keel would be below that area, and that should be one of the strongest parts of the boat. Lets see what the other gurus have to say.

 

[tobnpr]

The false floor isn't structural. It's just there to give a flat area for storage.
Q is can you access the entire area without pulling up the main deck? Looks like it's large enough to get down in there.

Problem is, aside from the rotted floor and saturated foam (with the extra weight) that you've got wet foam trapped against the stringers- and if there's any holes/voids in that glasswork the rot could have extended into that area. If the stringers are rotted because of it you've got much bigger problems...

You need to rip out the false floor and all the wet foam to see what you've got.

 

[specialk342]

Im going to be tearing into it tomorrow so we'll see. I just hope the previous owners transom and floor replacement (which is so good i barely recognized) wasnt built around rotten stringers. Wish me luck.