I have been researching second hand fibreglass boats from the early to mid 2000s for over six months and it seems the deeper I delve the more cases of rot are found. I know rot can be a result of misuse or exposure but it seems some brands need attention earlier than others. As an example, Southwind boats of the late 90s and early 2000s seem to be one brand that is susceptible. So......I would like to pose the question, What brands of glass boats are constructed in a way to best resist rot? Your thoughts?
Look for any that don't use timber, it's probably the only way to be pretty sure there's no rot, almost every brand, including some of the "legendary" names were pretty roughly constructed, then add to that bad engine and accessory installations and the boats fate was sealed (pun intended)
Saw if i had a decent budget i would go out and buy a shitter one with rot and is rooted spend all your dough on the repairs and use all composite material for stringers, floor and transom the boat will out live you its a good idea as the next generation these days like to carry on from where dad finished so the boat can be passed down in generations
I would have liked less masonite and more marine ply glassed on both sides or no wood.
When did the non wood floors and other non timber elements become available?
How much would non wood add to the cost of initial boat manufacture?
On an other topic but related aspect; what is a good and a better alternative to the original ply floor in an Express Cavalier? (Not al checkerplate)
Cheers
C
C
What could go wrong.......................
I think some of the Alison's had no timber, some had timber transom though, Masonite was in almost every Australian made boat from the '70s to late 80's that I have seen, some might be the exception, but all the ones I have seen cut to bits for rebuilding we pretty rough construction from new.
I think Smuggler boats were built without wood. Hardly ever see them for sale.
TMC
Baysport boats are timber free, they use a composite system!
It's probably too hard to single out brands as it depends so much on how the boat was stored and looked after and how it was modified/ fitted out. Probably better just to do a good inspection if you are buying second hand.
Also if it was made without wood there might be a question mark as to the strength of the build. Ie the use of fiberglass stringers/ foam etc may not match the strength of wood.
Later model Tournaments were no wood.
A big part of the issue with rot is installation of accessories. On more than one occasion I have drilled into transoms beside existing transducers, only to be met with a stream of water meaning I had to let it dry out prior to installing the one I was fitting so the sika would stick. On several of these occurrences, further investigation has revealed little to no sealant on the existing transducers screws. The other area that can cause big issues is seating mounts and depending on construction, screws for battery boxes, bungs and the like. Boats left outside in the rain are a special for rot around these. Boats kept out of the weather can still have problems but IMO it's a lot less likely. My old man's rig - A Cave and Ferguson built Easyrider is rock solid - and older than I am - closer to 50 than 40 years. It's lived under the house unless it's in use and after use the bilges are mopped dry.
Sealants will degrade/ fall off over time. It's worth treating any drilled holes firstly with Evadure - a penetrating epoxy which will make the wood waterproof.
Looking back to my days in the marine business, (and to be honest, looking back I am pretty sad to say this) we sold a couple of brands of boats, and Johnson and Mariner outboards, all the installs I helped with involved simply putting the template on the transom, drilling the holes through the rubbish timber transom and bolting the motor on, with just a dab of silicon (silastic) on the inside washer to stop leaks, no sealing of the timber exposed was ever done, and this was standard practice across most dealers, batteries had screws through the floor to hold the nylon strap that held the battery down, transom caps were those silly aluminium flat strip, simply screwed to bare timber with self tapers from the factory, fast forward a few decades and all these boats have rotten transoms and floors, so, add the barely adequate sealing from new, then people like us mounting motors, rot was/is inevitable in older boats.
Get a Polycraft, and leave the fibreglass rot and aluminium electrolysis problems behind.
And get the irrepairable sunrot/UV deterioration instead! At least ally and fibreglass is fixable.
As Noelm said, a lot of it is just down to bad practice by installers, both amateur and professional. It mighn't be a great job by the builder to start with, and some supposedly legendary boats were as bad as the lesser regarded breeds. And some were just plain awful--I mean bloody masonite in a boat under the deck? FFS. At least transom mounting holes are standard now, and any brand worth looking at ( I'm guessing all of them, comments?) will come with the mounting holes predrilled and solidly sealed with expoxy, as mine were.
I mounted a TM sliding bracket on the new boat, and just hated drilling into it, although I knew i was going to be epoxy sealing it. And now that that idea had proven to be a flop, I'll be drilling out those holes, making sure they are dry, and filling with epoxy or cabosil /resin mix, and flocoat repairing.
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