Well, thanks in advance for the help. I love this boat and am a bit crushed about what I found today. Also, sorry for the double post, I had this in another forum and it was suggested I move it here.
First, the boat in question is a 1998 Astro, 18 foot fish and ski.
I mostly use this boat for fishing, but sometimes for pulling family in a tube. Today I was cleaning the ski locker which runs right down the middle of the boat. I noticed a cracking sound, so peeled back the carpet and found some major rot in the plywood that forms the deck there.
I have noticed this area getting wet in the past, and figured it wasn't due to a leak as much as water coming over the transom when coming off a plane at high speed. Plenty of times, especially wehn fishing and doing a lot of trolling, I don't see a bit of water in the boat when I go to pull the plug. I always thought the water was rolling forward, and that this particular comparment tended to stay damp becuase it was closed up.
The boat has an odd design in that respect maybe. This part of the boat is the low part when sitting in the water, and even on the trailer. So, I can see how water would collect there. I lifted the trailer tongue about 4.5 feet tonight and it still wouldn't totally drain.
I had hoped this was some isolated rot, but on another forum, was basically told the stringers and likely transom were totally rotten. I am including a pic with some comments based on additional troubleshooting tonight, and have a whole lot of questions.
- In my pic with the labels, "A" is what I believe is the stringer. On each side of "A" are some channels, labeled "B." The "B" areas, are very dirty, but feel solid both to touch and when I tap them with a hammer and mallet. I know that is not conclusive, but they aren't mushy to the touch.
- I ran a drill in about 4 spots on A. The fiberglass shavings looked pretty white - pretty much like any fiberglass I have ever cut or drilled. The wood, I can best desribe as a hair reddish, maybe similar to pencil shavings. It didn't look like pine, but didn't neccesarily feel [img][/img]wet and certainly didn't look black or rotten. It was a hair clumpy on the bit, but I had the drill on pretty low speed and pretty much fell apart when I touched it.
- Also in my pic, I have a label "C" in blue and a line. This is the really rotten plywood. The side to side dimension of that playwood is roughly 16 inches, at which point it appears to perhaps be beveled into another stringer. That plywood would be the bottom of the ski locker. The really rotten wood was within 2 inches of each side of "A." The rest of the plywood is wet, but not disintegrated. I can't actually pull it up. I need to go to Home Depot or someplace tomorrow and try and get some type of saw that can cut down the side of it.
- Visually only, when you go past the plywood, things appear mostly OK. It appears dry and sounds solid to the touch, or to the thump. I tried to tap around in there with a mallet and hammer.
- As for the transom, I haven't really gotten to that yet. The batteries are in the way and I haven't pulled them. However, I was able to get to what appears to be the same stringer as in "A." I ran the drill into that, and again got white fiberglass and the wood appears to be solid and dry.
So, I guess my questions just start generically with - what does everyone think?
More questions -
-How likely is it that the plywood is the majority or all of the problem?
- Does that wood serve as any stabilizing or bracing element to the boat? Meaning, if I run with out it in place, does that increase possible torqueing on that stringer?
- How likely is it that that wood is one piece or two pieces? Thinking that trying to replace that wood in and of itself doesn't look terrible, but trying to do it through the comparment door does look kind of terrible.
- Should I run any test holes on each side of the stringer? If I understand correctly, that woul tap into the foam to let me see whats in there.
I am thinking a couple things, so let me know how crazy I am here.
- I am thinking that since the wood in the stringers might be wet, but isn't totally rotten, at the very least, I might just be able to replace the plywood, get me through the season and then in the off season dig in deeper.
- I am also thinking about running the boat a bit with the plywood out of it, and see what kind of pooling occurs in there.
This is all new territory for me, so any and all advice is appreciated.
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