Got any pics of the whole boat? I just looked at an older Aerocraft, about a 1966-67. It's a bowrider, sort of a cross between a trihull and a skiff. The dash area resembles yours. I'm curious as to how its built. The deck to hull is super shallow in this boat. Less than 3 inches if I'm guessing right. It appears also to be a trapped bilge with no deck access. There's a drain plug but it's above the deck on one side. There is no way that I can see to drain the actual bilge. I looked at another one about two years ago, it had the same type of construction, no stringers, no lower bilge drain, and the transom wood was only at the top 6" of the transom. The rest was just glass. It also had sealed flotation tubes in each gunwale. Neat boat but I passed on that one, the one I looked at the other day has more potential. Both that I've seen had Chrysler 50HP motors. The first one I looked at had a self bailing forward bow area and the side seats were made in a way as to accommodate a drop in platform or casting deck. I'm not really sure if they intended it to be a casting deck or some sort of bed or bunk area, but since I'd be fishing off it, it would be a casting deck. The edges of the seat were recessed to accept a 3/4" thick panel in between the bow seats. It also had a separator or step to step over getting to the bow area. This was designed to prevent any water that may come over the bow from draining into the main area of the boat. This force it to drain via a left and right drain tube which was connected to two drains just below the level of the front deck, just foward of the windshield area.
Anyhow, the type of construction can make a difference in how much the rotted deck will affect the hulls integrity. On the one I saw here, it looks like the deck forms both the main structure of the hull as well as providing some trapped air space for flotation.
There are many posts from lots of folks whe done deck replacements, so surf on in and read what they have done. Good luck!
