I agree, we had a newer Chaparral that we ended up having to re-do the stringers. All depends on how the boat is stored and maintained.

Folks bought a 87 Sea Ray with a rotted transom - fixed up nice. He ran it a couple of times with the rotted transom and it didn't fall apart. The boat developed a large crack at the transom that would open up when it was put in the water, it almost sunk the first time he left it in the slip. $5,000 later that boat was more sea worthy than the new one.

wellcrafts are notorious for rot.. other than that...I think a ket factor is how they were built in the first place. if theres a way for water to find its way in, it will and once it gets inside a stringer or a transom, its not going anywhere. the quality of wood is important to. A boat made with good quality marine ply is going to last a lot longer than one built with whatever ply the mfg could get at the cheapest price. a lot of cheap ply is made with glue that water will eventually break down on top of that. I redid the transom and stringers under the engines in my nova last year, but theres still work to do under the floor. a friend has the same year bertram (77) thats solid a the day it was built...no gel cracks all of ike mine, now wet or rotted wood etc. if your buying an old boat, think of it as a contionous restoration project.

Our avanti sat outside for 10 years (built in 85) and still has no rot. Granted, we did put a new trnasom and strings from the cockpit back in.

Mine just surveyed great. I had both engines out couldn't find any soft spots. No spider cracks yet. Still feeling pretty lucky with this one.

How much are they asking for your old boat. Looks really cool.

Jeff...the keyword is Cig...

my 87 cafe is dry as a bone...

biggest factor is how they were put together at the factory. My old 1985 scarab had only a start of rot around the exhaust holes...but luckly i got to it before it got worse and sealed them up when i cut it open for bigger 4" tips.

Seems like wellcraft didnt bother to seal the freshly cut transoms before assembly.
My buddy's 28 cig sat outside its entire life for the most part till about 5 yrs ago when they bought a 75 sqft factory and now it sits indoors....but when i was working on that boat i saw that everything that was cut open was sealed up....so its as dry as the day it rolled out of the factory.......if anyone worked on the boat after the factory guys then its anyones guess how it will be....

Keep it on a lift, put a small bilge pump all the way in the stern bilge against the transom to get that last bit of water out, store inside in winters uncovered with everything open and rot should be much less of a problem.

Nice, I will be adding an old cig to my collection soon.