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i have an old tri hull manufactured by tennessee valley fiberglass. it is a bass boat and i believe it is called a challenger. back in 2000, i took the top half off and cut out a perfectly good floor to try to find a place that water was coming in. long story short broke leg bought house, project put on hold. circa 2007---- gotta do something with this lawn ornament. i took the top half off and found more rotten wood than i originally had. (a big shocker) all of the encapsulated wood was rotten. it appeared to be a stiffening system for the hull as i recall taking out laminated plywood stringers that ran down the center with floatation devices (that were full of water)sitting in between them. on the sides of the hull where it arches up from the center out to the edges there was encapsulated wood that ran down the hull from the center to the sides. this wood appeared to be balsa and was roughly about the size of say a 1 x 6 and encapsulated to the bottom of the boat. after finding a small area of wood that was not completley rotten it appeared this wood was installed in a bunch of very thin strips. however i can not be sure. does anyone know if this is how it was done in the 1970's. should i replace it the same way or could i just use 1 x material and encapsulate it back down to the bottom and use plywood laminated together as the stringers fill with pourable foam and install new deck. looking for some suggestions. have pictures i could post. in another question the transom is rotten was thinking of going with seacast. does anyone (who has used it) have anything positive or negative to say about the product. the boat is rated for a 115 but an 85 is all ihave to put back on it

My first question would be: "Is this boat even WORTH it?"

If it IS worth it to you, and you're willing to put in the effort, time and materials, then you're a long way down the road. But I'd do some serious thinking on it. However, IMHO, if a person is a little intimidated by building a boat from scratch, renovating an old fiberglass boat might be just the ticket to getting started. This is a great hobby.

I really believe that the biggest reason that older fiberglass boats suffered from so much wood rot is because the polyester used in building fiberglass boats is not compatible with wood. It doesn't soak in well enough to form a good bond and so what's commonly called "encapsulation" is really nothing more than a fancy coat of paint. And it won't be long that it seperates from the wood and the whole rot process starts. If this were my boat, I'd go all the way down to the hull. I'd remove all the wood peices that I could find and use them for patterns to make new supports. Then I would EPOXY everything back into place. Once I got that done, it would be a matter of building the rest back with cloth and resin. Hope this helps.

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Isn't it amazing!! The person that never has the fortitude to pursue his own dreams, will be the first to try and discourage you from pursuing yours.

I cut up a boat that had the same problem. My neighbor basically sold me a trailer with a bad motor and he said the boat was in great shape. I knew better. The transom was split and water had gotten into it. Water laid in the bottom and seeped into the wood sandwiched into the fiberglass. To end this story, the boat is in 16 parts in the landfill.

If there was some rare about the boat you have it maybe worth it. Mine was a dime a dozen cheap trihull, built in the 60's.

ok there is nothing special about this run of the mill tri hull built in the 70's. when i first started messing with it, it was in the water one day and torn apart the next. it was taking water from somewhere under the floor and being the guy with the mindset of "I CAN FIX IT" i tore into it and refinished the entire bottom of the boat. after i fixed the large crack in the front of the hull, the top half had issue with some fiberglass so i fixed these as well. the fiberglass work does not scare or bother me. as was said though i have to think on it long and hard. i appreciate the input and thank you for responding. i have a glasstron bowrider with another story mabe i can get some advice on the next post