"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
ups.com...

John K Kudera wrote:
My friend bought a Bayliner 3170 boat this spring, without a survey, and
has
many water leaks, most from the deck of the flybridge, the question is
what
can be done to correct the damage at a reasonable cost? I am going to
help
with the repairs, and I need guidance.
There appears to be a fiberglass panel under the vinyl headliner, and a
fiberglass deck, anyone with an idea as to the area in between top and
bottom?

"Soft" deck?

Hope it isn't cored. Especially balsa cored. If you've got a saturated
balsa core in the
cabintop/flybridge deck layup you're going to need to cut away the FRP
deck, spoon out the soaked and mushy balsa, and then rebuild.

This is a really ambitious project for anybody without specific
experience.

You can do a quick test by drilling a few small holes in the upper deck
and examining the scavengings that come up on the bit. Dark, wet, wood
or sawdust? Major problems.

Then again, if this problem is extant on the flybridge, then the
foredeck, etc, may be close behind. If your friend doesn't have really
deep pockets, maybe the best course of action would be to look for
somebody else willing to buy a boat without a survey.....

If the boat has rotten decks and if your friend can prove the seller
knew about the rot and didn't disclose it (that could be tough to do)
your friend may have some legal recourse- but hiring a lawyer and
"maybe" getting some relief is likely to cost more than the boat did-
and certainly more than fixing the decks.


I believe Bayliner uses foam coring on their decks.