In February, I bought a 1972 16′ skiff from a boat yard in Ft. Myers. It’s a rolled edge skiff, similar in style to many of the flats skiffs manufactured at that time. This one was made by Mitchell out of Bradenton, FL.
It didn’t look too bad at first glance. There wasn’t much to it.
Pulling the floor up revealed rotting stringers and moldy and saturated foam.
I pulled almost 500lbs out of the boat from the foam alone. It was truly nasty. It seems as though someone had previously ripped up the floor, and did a half-assed job of putting it back together. No worries, My plan from the start was to bring it down to nothing and replace transom, and stringers. I never found any soft spots in the fiberglass, and for that I am thankful.
After getting the transom out, it has been all sanding, sanding and more sanding. It is itchy and seemingly endless work. Around mid June it got too hot to suit up and grind on the boat, so I took a break. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new filter for my respirator, and have been back at it. I have the new transom cut out of Penske Board, and will be ready to glass it in soon.
