new deck boat owner

hello, I have recently purchased a hydrodyne deck boat from my wife's uncle. I have researched it and i belive it may be a a 1965 I found an original brochere on a site called fiberglassics.com and it looks like the same boat. only differences is my uncle reglassed the deck and enclosed the center hatch. and no fore seats. I have just got it and am learning about it and hydrodyne so I am very glad to have found this site. i am sure i will have many questions in the future. buccaneerdave :hi:

 

Thanks for the response. Mine has the outboard well and looks like it was designed outboard. Check out http:fiberglassics.com and search hydrodyne flattop. the brochure there looks just like mine. Still trying to get more info from wife's uncle in mich where I have it stored for now. He refurbishes poontoon boats and such so i left it there for now and going to make trips up to work on a few things. it has a 70hp crysler engine. old engine but been rebuilt and gives plenty of power. take care

Dave

 

Some how I have this boat now and I found it on craigslist. It was in a small town just over the border of South Bend Indiana in Niles Michigan. Was lookin for a bow fishing/gigging boat and this is perfect for that, so I went up and got it. Supposedly, the guy used it as a dive boat, don't know for sure. It now resides in the Ozark foot hills of Missouri where the sport of gigging originated. However, when I went to look at the boat, it was single digets which I guess is pretty common weather for Michigan in November. We did get the70 hp Chrysler motor started but found that it wasn't going in gear right and it wasn't getting water. As long as the motor ran, that's all I was really concerned with cause I figured I could fix the other issue pretty easily, which I did. It was just a linkage issue along with a new impeller. I looked the boat over pretty good I thought until I got the boat home. Once there, we had 45 to 50 degrees, which allowed the floor to thaw. Once this happened, it revealed a delaminated floor. The whole bottom of the boat was mush. When I sell something, I feel it proper to disclose any issues. Oh well, its mine now and I still like the boat. It still works for gigging and bow fishing cause all we do is troll. Got alot of fish this season so far. So much for that. What I was wondering is if anyone has experienced bottom failer or delamination of your hydrodyne. If so, what have you done about. I'd like to fix it. Just not sure where to start. I can wrench, but I'm not a fiberglass guy. Would like to learn though. Is it possible to dry between the delaminated layers and to inject product in and compress?

 

I think you will need to replace the deck and the core, if it is bad too.

The deck is straight forward, just replace the plywood and glass it.

If the core is bad, it needs to be removed from the inside and recored with end grain balsa. The balsa is dipped in resin and laid against the outer hull and glassed over.
This forms a glass balsa sandwich that is quite rigid and is the strength of the boat. Operating the boat with a rotten core can overstress the hull and crack it.

Where is it mushy?

jim

 

Thanks for the reply Jim! The boat is mushy on the entire bottom. My guess is once the water started getting in, then the freezing did the rest of the damage, pushing it apart when moisture was still in it. I found the problem under the helm compartment. When I went to remove some foam dabree, I supported myself by putting my hand on the bottom floor of the interior under the helm and the floor went down about a half inch. I suppose this is where this balsa wood is? or was.

 

I am still not clear if you are talking about the hull or the deck.

jim

 

hull

 

The balsa is between the inner and outer skin of the hull.

The floors including foot wells are plywood glass covered.

jim

 

Thanks Jim, Sounds like you've been through these before. Have you had the experience of replacing the inner balsa and inner layer of glass? As I examine it more, it looks like the top should come off, which intails cutting the two fiberglass covered plywood partician supports that run the length of the boat. This would allow me to access the hull area for repair. This seems like alot of work, but I hate to see this boat go to salvage. I don't see many of these out there. After seeing what "swarlen" did to his, it shows what this could be after a restoration. Hyrodynes definitely have a unigue look and style. Everytime I pull this into a fuel station or are at the boat ramp, people come over to look at it.

Thanks for your input!