96 Crownline 266 BR soft floor

[jck3120]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of advice. Looking at a 96 crownline 266 BR and the boat seems solid however there is one spot in the floor maybe 12" in front of the rear bench and maybe 24" in front the port side that feels a bit soft. Moves maybe 1/2" when you step on it. There's obviously a plywood seam there because anymore towards the outside of the boat and it's solid as a rock, and I know the edge of the fuel tank is in this vicinity, but I just wanted to know from those of you who've had experience with this if it's something that I could possibly re-sheet this small area or if likely I'm getting into a bigger issue with stringer rot. The boat appears to be well taken care of and the rest of the floor is solid. Thanks for any input you can provide!

 

[tpenfield]

You won't know until you open the floor up and also check a few other areas of the boat. Not much more can be said until you see what things look like underneath

 

[Woodonglass]

Ditto!!^^^ 20 yr.Old boats can hold many surprises. Do you KNOW the actual Maintenance and Care History of the boat, OR are you just going on appearance??

 

[Lou C]

Is the deck gelcoated 'glass or carpet over lightly 'glassed plywood? If the latter there could be a lot more rot because the only thing carpet in a boat is good for is trapping moisture...

 

[Rickmerrill]

After 20 years my '94 Crownline 182 had a soft spot in the deck where the power trim pump was screwed into the deck near the back of the boat and my troubles only began when my knee squished down some of the deck. After a complete gut I found rotten wood in many places and most of them were from water in the bilge being sucked upwards and forwards from places where water found flaws in the production process, got into the wood and started wicking it's way through out the wood below the deck - this included stringers, bulkheads and the transom.

​I took very good care of the boat (garage kept with everything opened up so it would dry out and the bow high so any water would drain out). They wouldn't have a decking ply seam without a stringer or a bulkhead below the seam so if it's moving 1/2" it's probably rot and if the deck has rot you can pretty much count on rot in the wood below.

It's going to be hard to find a boat of that vintage and for that price that doesn't have some bad things going on below decks. Like TP said, you won't know until you get into it but you can probably forget about it being a quick/easy partial deck repair. Most owners/buyers don't know what a squishy deck really means but now you do!