Repairing Soft Floor in 1987 Rinker V195??

Hello everyone.

I've recently purchased a 1987 Rinker V195.

In the process of chasing an electrical gremlin, I found a soft spot in the floor under the rear port side seat. Of course, as soon as I found it visions of horrible repair time and cost flashed into my head.

I started looking around, though, and it seems that the floorboard is rotting from the installation of some aftermarket battery tie downs. The boat originally had a single battery, and the previous owner installed a double battery setup. In doing so, he shot a few screws through the floorboard in that area in order to install the straps that hold the battery in place.

Upon inspecting these screws, they are clearly rusted and right in the center of the area of rot. This leads me to believe that most likely the rot started where these screws were installed.

It doesn't help that they are right behind the rear seat that is closest to the swim platform, meaning that anyone getting into the boat would have dripped almost all of their water onto that seat and that water would have ended up right where these screws are.

I'm going to be pulling up the floorboard in a week or two to inspect the totality of the damage, but I was wondering if anyone can give me an educated guess as to what I'm going to find??

I'm HOPING to avoid having to replace any stringers or other wood. I would love to be able to have this somehow be an isolated problem with just this floorboard.

However, it seems that everywhere I read it is said that when rot gets to the floorboards, it means that stringers and other components under the floor are rotted as well. Then I started seeing a lot of instances where people had rot around poorly installed aftermarket components...and this seems to be the case here.

Does anyone think that I'm going to luck out and end up just having to replace a floorboard??

Sorry for the long post. I'm just looking for opinions for what I'm getting myself into before I dive in hook, line, and sinker.

Thanks.
Jeff

 

It may be that the additional battery has spilled some acid while being (over) charged. That of course is lethal for the wood underneath, but the good news is that the damage is local.
A few minutes with a hacksaw can be very informative.

 

I had not really thought of the aspect that the battery acid would be very bad for the floor.

I'm hoping that this ends up being a really localised issue.

The boat spent it's entire life on a lift when it wasn't in the water, and stored for the winter. It also had an automatic bilge in it, so the chances of any amount of water being in the hull for any length of time seems extremely unlikely.

From my limited experience and knowledge, the transom and stringers around the motor seem solid, and nothing else seems like a problem. After finding the soft spot I went around the rest of the floor and found nothing else that even seemed remotely close to soft. It's only this one spot where these screws were installed.

I'm hoping that the screws being shot through the floor end up being the main culprit, as I'd rather not spend the time and money redoing stringers and other wooden parts.

Thanks for the insight about the battery acid...I had not thought of that at all.

Jeff

 

Drill out the screw holes with a bigger bit. Keep up sizing the bit until you get into good wood, then fill with thickened epoxy, after wetting out with straight epoxy. It's possible that you've gotten lucky and caught it soon enough. If you can't find good wood around the holes, then you'll have to start cutting. Again, start small and work out from the area, until you find good, solid material all around. Taper this perimeter back with a generous slope and fit a patch piece or plywood, epoxy in place, fill and fair as required. Log onto westsystem.com and download their free user's guide, so you can get a handle on techniques, fillers, procedures, etc.

Welcome to the forum . . .

 

Thank you for the welcome.

I've been looking at West's stuff the last couple of days.

I'm definitely going to be cutting, as I can feel the soft wood for a ways out from where the screws are.

It looks like I may end up getting lucky anyways, as it's a piece of wood that's only about 28" or so across, and it's pretty much square. So I think I may end up just cutting the entire sqare out and putting a new one in. It's in a spot where nobody would walk or step, so it doesn't have to be very load bearing, and it's also covered by the trim that goes behind the rear most seat, so you can't see it...which means that it can be ugly as all sin and nobody will ever even see it!!

I'm still hoping to get lucky and have it only be the floor. I'm a pessimistic guy by nature, so I've basically resolved that I'm going to be doing a lot of work and feeling like I spent a bunch of money on a boat that is rotting away.

I guess I take solace in the fact that we're only keeping it a few summers then buying something new. The wife and I, along with my mother and father, really want to gauge how we use this boat before we decide what we want when we go new. We're about 50/50 on another bowrider speed boat vs a nice pontoon just for chilling and lounging. After using this for two seasons, we should have a good grasp on what we're doing most with the boat. If we're doing water sports like skiing and tubing, we'll go with another speed boat. If we're just going out and hanging out on the lake, running my RC boats, and swimming, we'll go with a pontoon.

I keep kicking myself because I should have checked this area of the floor more thoroughly when I was looking at the boat. I don't know how I missed it, as I was positive I checked pretty much everywhere on the floor.

Oh well, live and learn.

I'm rambling...because I've been up for nearly 24 hours now. Sorry about that, and thanks for the help. It means a lot to get some helpful advice on what to do.

Jeff