Soft spot on deck of 330 DA

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 other post about this but I want some advice. I have a 1995 330 Sundancer that has a small soft spot near the starboard side of the front hatch. I bought the boat 4 years ago and it was there. The surveyor said it wasn’t a problem. It hasn’t gotten worse..yet. I’ve been reading posts and it’s like when you have a sore throat and you Google the symptoms and all of a sudden you think you have cancer. I will have it looked at. I plan on keeping this boat for at least 5-6 more years. Just wondering what you would all do. Is it possible it’s a small benign spot and I can inject resin? Or am I gonna have to tear out the headliner and cost me $6,000.

Thanks as always
 
Well if your like me it will probably drive you nuts until you know. I would pull the hatch, that we you could see the core around the hatch opening and get an idea of how wet it is. If the moisture does not go to far from the hatch you might can repair from there. Anything more and your looking at the traditional job of cutting out the coring and replacing, usually from the inside and it's not a small job. Another thing I might look at is Dry Boat (dryboat.com) they have a much less intrusive process of drying out wet coring. All I know about them is an episode of Ship Shape TV, so take that for what it is worth, but it could not hurt to call them if you are serious about getting to the bottom of that soft spot.
 
Is this fairly common on these boats? do people always fix them? Can they go years without problems?
 
I would say it's a fairly common problem on any boat that is 20+ year old. I would not say it is a SeaRay specific problem. Wood coring is a common construction method in boats that has a lot of advantages, but one negative is everywhere you mount something on the deck is a potential place for water to enter the core. A soft spot on a deck is a lot like a hull that has a few blisters - many times the cure can be worse than just living with the disease. Over the course of that many years, sealants fail and places on decks of boats that are under flexing - think bowrail stantions, windlass mounting areas, large decks without a lot of support below (ie your 330). Then, if it's a boat that spends most of it's time moored outdoors, there is the constant barrage of the elements. Not just rain, but the endless cycle of hot/cold and morning dew on the decks. I would venture to say about every boat in the same age category as yours has some area of wetness somewhere on the deck - the owner just doesn't know it yet. On an old boat, re-bedding the deck hardware is a good idea - most people never do that because it can be a tedious job, but it sure can prevent a lot of of problems. In your case since the soft spot is adjacent to a hatch, it would be relatively easy to pull the hatch and inspect and possible repair it. You could at least tell how wet things are and make a decision about repairing it. And, seal the hatch so no more water gets in.

I am by no means an expert on this, there are others on here that know much more than I do and have real experience in fixing these things. The experience I have is my 290DA that I bought new had a hatch, several stantions and some hardware on the transom leak - all things I fixed myself before any damage was done.
 
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I second the idea of pulling the hatch and seeing what the core look like from that point of view. It's not a tough job to rake out the wet core and replace with new wood and epoxy. Rebed the hatch and you're good to go.
 
Common problem, seems more common on the 97 years. Had it and fixed it on the old boat. It was a lay up issue and not a rot/leak issue. They fixed it from the top and they did a less than stellar job and it was very noticeable. When they opened it up they realized it was not water/leaking at all. It is a pain to match the non skid and takes a very very talented repair person to do it. I would tackle it from the inside, I would pull the hatch first and see, if you find it's dry then it is a lay up issue and won't get any worse. But the gelcoat will start to crack as you walk on the boat, mine started to have spider stress cracks in it. Good Luck!!
 
Common problem, seems more common on the 97 years. Had it and fixed it on the old boat. It was a lay up issue and not a rot/leak issue. They fixed it from the top and they did a less than stellar job and it was very noticeable. When they opened it up they realized it was not water/leaking at all. It is a pain to match the non skid and takes a very very talented repair person to do it. I would tackle it from the inside, I would pull the hatch first and see, if you find it's dry then it is a lay up issue and won't get any worse. But the gelcoat will start to crack as you walk on the boat, mine started to have spider stress cracks in it. Good Luck!!

+1 - I own a boat that was repaired from the top by a "very talented repair person" and was shown an invoice that was north of $10k for the job. They did an outstanding job on the fiberglass but you can see just a hint of "blush" where they made the cuts. They basically peeled back the foredeck from the forward hatch to the windshield to repair my boat. Outstanding, lifetime repair but bookooooo dollars.
 

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