I agree to a point. The main factor is how long someone's expectation of life expectancy for a boat is.

If it's 15-20+ yrs, they, as an owner need to do what they can and obviously hope the boat manufacturer did what they can.

Just finished a 27 Fountain, kept dry. Had to put a new transom and stringers in it, before installing a new 540 EFI package. Complete derig, steering ram mounts and 4 bulk head line fittings never sealed properly from factory. Not only that, the factory, re welded a screw hole for the fuel level sender, leaving a hump. Just found that, we thought at first the tank was leaking. After all these years the rear part of the foam was saturated with fuel.

Agree, Had a Velocity that the transom went all to chit due to chit workmanship, hardly an effort to seal things up right.

And Disagree, Some Formulas have had the super high tec glue chit fail on their glass grid / stringer systems, as well as deck bond system, one of the claimed top manufacturers, so go figure.

Yet there are 30 year old Bayliners out there that are just fine!

They just cover the whole boat with a chopper gun, shooting glass and resin. LOL

What year was the 27'. That's scary!

I've owned several over the years. Probably 50/50 in regards to the over 10 and under. Never had any issues with any and that even includes the 79 32' Project I'm working on currently. I have see some though with stringers saturated do to setting in the water all summer with bilge pumps and or batteries not working. Not good when water sits at or above any bolt/screw holes etc.

Id like to see the same question posted in ten or twenty years time. (If I'm still around. Lol)

Boats are generally a lot better made than they used to be. Fiberglass boats should be practically impervious to water if they're properly built. I think a new boat now will still be 'rot free' in twenty plus years if maintained. Water collecting and siting in a boat is part of owner maintenance, if you're new boat collects water somewhere, find out why and fix it!

We buy old boats and fix them up because we like the style, enjoy the restoration and the budget fits. In twenty years time, those buying boats built in 2010 or newer should have much less to do than we do with 1990 model boats.

Just my opinion.........

RR

All I can say is that we had a very old boat 1976. Being the lazy person I am and not wanting to clean the bottom of the boat at the end of the season - every time we finished with the boat - it was put on the trailer and put in the garage - where it was kept very dry. Even with this treatment - water did leak (I guessed thru the seal by the outdrive) and rotted the transom. I was VERY surprised to see how soft it had become - considering how we babied the boat. After this experience - our next boat- was a Cobalt with no wood-- ergo no rot.

3pointstar

It just blows me away to see a $100K+ boat that is rotting out ten years after it was built because the factory didn't want to spend $50 extra and maybe 30 minutes to make sure thru-hull fittings are sealed properly, screws are bedded to be water tight, etc. That's just ridiculous.

It is. I agree.

(Getting me fired up) So does:
Blows me away that 200k-1 Million dollar NEW homes being built like pieces of schit

New car parts that either don't fit or don't work out of the box...or break shortly.

Leeching fields that stop working after a few years.

60k trucks that rot out in 10yrs or quicker

20k trucks too.

HVAC systems installed that have totally kinked off flexible tubes going to ducts.

Septic lines that aren't buried far enough and thus freeze each winter for a month or two. Believe it !

I'll stop....don't have a few hours tocontinue.