Yes, it is possible on any boat. It's called tabbing the hull and deck together and it's done from the inside. Have you crawled inside a boat with a molded in swim platform and looked at how hard that is to do in the real world? It's not easy and thus quite expensive. BTW, Fountains are all tabbed together.

A little more confident that the 1990 Lightning I'm looking at is dry. Still having a survey done. It only has 180hrs on the hull. Engines maybe 60hrs of that. It looks clean.

Formulas have very nice fit and finish. They used plex to glue the decks down for a while and that can fail. They are mostly slower than fountains, but the 353 can be pretty fast with mild power.

Fountains are really fast. Lots of stories of them rotting out. IMO the last wood transom boats were the worst. Old pre step fountains may have been built better.

The 1996 32' Fountain we owned for 14 years spend 50% of its life rack stored and 50% in a wet boat well each season. When we sold it one engine compartment inner stringer and the engine compartment bulkhead were wet due to poor tabbing. Transom and three remaining stringers were dry. The estimate to repair was appx. $5K in 2017 dollars and we sold the boat as is with engines removed.
Ed

Yeah, until that plexus fails and the grid separates. We've got a 2005 Formula 382 with separated plexus on the grid and rub rail, as well as rotted stringer. Pulled the drive assemblies and extension boxes, and nothing appeared sealed very well in the hull cutouts.

I don't understand the hours. I wouldn't trust it. Hell, we only boat 1 or 2 times a month and have racked up 36 hours this season. I have heard 50 hour/year average. That would be over 1500 hours on the hull. No doubt many people don't use them every year or much but that seems unlikely to me. Just my opinion. Good Luck

The owner (original too) is an old guy. Lives on a lake and has other boats more suited to the lake. So the Fountain is rarely used. Its been in storage most of its life. He replaced the engines 3 years ago, his son wanted the originals for his Fountain.

remember, most of this work was done by low level employees that probably arent paid that well. it would be easy to get a little sloppy , its not like your boss is going to find out next month and know who did it poorly.

Over on THT there are enough thread/posts regarding poor construction in all composite hulls.

Great,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:)