'89 Winner Alpha II - Squishy Floor Sections

[EMorel22]

New to the forums and to this boat!

I've had a few 12' aluminum boats that I decked into small single person fishing boats. But this is my first real bass boat. It's a 1989 Winner Alpha II with a Johnson 70.

Overall, the boat is solid and in good shape. There are just a few squishy spots on the floor. The main deck near the two drains is a bit spongy and the bow deck under the seat mount is as well. The main deck feels like wood under the carpet. Is that true? If so, can I just cut out the offending wood, put in some new encapsulated wood and re-carpet?

The bow seems to be all glass. How should I go about restoring that to a nice sturdy floor so that I can sit up there and fish without a worry?

I'm familiar with fiberglass, I used to make custom speaker enclosures for cars and such, so I'm comfortable enough doing the work. Just want to make sure I go about it the right way!

 

[DeepCMark58A]

If you have soft spots in the floor you have soft spots in the transom and stringers.

 

[EMorel22]

Ok... that seems a little conclusive but I’ll double check... haha. As far as I knew from prior research, these boats have composite stringers. And the deck up front doesn’t even touch the stringers, the live well is beneath it. But I’ll check the transom better and see what it feels/looks like etc.

theres a wild lack of info on these boats online. Does anyone have a good resource for Winner boats as far as mfg information?

 

[EMorel22]

So I spent this afternoon realllly taking a look at it. I stuck my head in the livewell with a light. The front deck isn't rotted. The front seat mount looks like a very heavy person may have leaned a little too hard while sitting in it. A few of the mounting bolts started to pull through the fiberglass underneath.

the main floor is a little spongy near the drain so i took the drain cover off and it looks like it was never sealed so water has just been seeping into the floor near the drain.

It's not so bad that I want to attack it right away.

 

[JASinIL2006]

That is interesting, but unless you actually checked stringers and the transom, you still don’t know much. Fiberglass-encapsulated wood floors don’t generally buckle under the weight of a heavy guy, unless the wood is rotting.

A 30 year old boat is a good candidate to have big-time issues beyond the squishy floor. No one wants to hear about some new boater and his family or friends going down because the boat was unsound.

 

[EMorel22]

I hear ya. I'm still going to check it all out. I have plans to replace all of the carpet anyway, so before I do any of that and I tear up the carpet, I'll take that time to thoroughly inspect the floors and make an assessment on whats worth it or not.

Thanks guys!