I just bought an 05 288 mcob today. I'm dying to know why there is resin or some sort of hard brownish adhesive in the crease of the step on both sides of the hull. It looks like someone put resin in the corner and then pressed a round dowel into it. It would have alarmed me more but the 288 I looked at in oshkosh wi had the same thing but only on one side of the keel, and that boat had a large stress crack in it under the resin so I thought it was an awful attempt at a repair.

anyone have any insight?

Likely where the depth finder puck was located at one point.

It's not from a transducer, it's on the outside of the boat and a strip about 3 for long and 1/2 wide. I'll have to get a picture tomorrow in the daylight.

Pretty sure what you are describing is the "turbo tubes" that we installed on the boats. A photo would help out. Send me an email. [email protected]. These tubes helped with ventilation on the step. Normally we only mounted them to the starboard side and only on the 288 model boats.

Thanks jeff, that sounds like that's what I'm looking at. The tubes are long gone at this point. Can I get replacements and any advise on putting them back on? Any idea why they were typically only on the stbd side? I imagine my boat was one of the first full step 288s, but it had one on each side. Also how did they work?

PLease give me a call and I can go over this with you. 810-794-4888. Anytime before 3:30pm.