Since I knew that the boat had been abused, I had to look for issues--and we found this even before we floated the boat. For those who do not know the story, this boat was from New Jersey, and was put up for sale for about $60,000 and described as being in good condition. A C Brat from the West Coast hired a surveyor to evaluate the boat (wisely), and of course was upset when he found out that the cockpit floor around the hatch in the floor was broken and caved in. There was obvious rot in the cockpit floor. There were some cracks in the splash well around the transom, and high moisture content in the transom. I was interested in buying a 25, and had no fear of re-doing the boat, if the price was right. I watched the price slowly come down, to the high 40's--still no takers. On a Thursday at about 1 PM, the owner posted he would sell the boat as is, where is, for $30,000. I immediately called him, and made arrangements to transfer $10,000 to his bank account--a sales contract was part of that deal. I had to get a trailer made which took about 2 weeks, and then drove about 1200 miles to pick up the boat. Some of the damage was worse, and some was less, but it had to be fixed. I had also been in contact with the factory, and felt that they had an obligation since the floors and transom had not been properly sealed. As it turned out, the factory did reimburse me for the materials, but not labor. Fair enough. The boat had been used hard for several years--probably pounded into chop, rather than slowing down and going ova to one side. There was some delimitation of the forward "V"Berth, and also some gap in the side of the aft cabin bulkhead. I believe that the first owners wife wanted nothing further to do with the boat, and it sat out in the weather, with no shrink wrap for at least one winter, and the cockpit filled with snow--freeze thaw cycle made the damage worse.
When we got the boat to Pensacola, I hired a gal who had worked for me since the mid1990's to help with the cockpit floor (mostly because of my back problems), but I crawled in and started to inspect, as well as tear apart the area around the transom. We only cut out about 4 feet of the floor--the core of the rest was fine, but we did remove the fiberglass on the top, so we started with a fresh surface, and could seal any wood which was there, and avoid any future problems. The tabbing of the V Bunk area and the aft cabin bulkhead also was easy. As Boris noted the caulking in the Front of the cockpit floor was showing cracking, so it was removed and replaced.
The transom was an enigma, because we did not know the extent of damage to the plywood core. We went over it carefully with a moisture meter and even drilled some test holes--no water in the majority of the core--only where there had been the depth sounder transducer screws, the screws for the trim tabs, a little around the scupper, and some in the corners at the top. All of these areas were ground out,(mostly using a carbide router bit in an air dye grinder, and then filled with epoxy and micro balloons. New glass was placed over these and the gel coat patched.
I agree that salt water was coming in around the scuppers--with the depressed area aft, normally that water would have run back out--however with the crack--and I suspect that some of the other boats have the same defect, salt water would get into the bilge. While we were at it, all penetrations into the core (screws holding pumps, bulkheads and fittings) were removed, the core checked, then epoxy filled and new SS screws put in place. We also re-enforced the transom from the inside. At the end of all of this, the boat was better than new, and served us well for the trips we wanted to make on it. We visit the boat each time we go to Lake Powell, since it is kept in the water there most of the year.
