so my father in law is looking for a new boat...I told him a project boat might be fun ( because apparently I just cannot live with any free time in my life at all LOL!)

so I came across this...

I have never heard of a TaylorCraft before...but this boat...oh boy is it a PROJECT BOAT! The thing is gutted...but the compression test apparently came out fine and the seller says it starts and runs...

but the floor????

Does not look like wood...

Does not look like Fiberglass....

I am not sure what this is...

Could you please give me a wider view?  

actually no...I cannot get you a wider view

that is the picture from the web. it is what it is.

You have no other info but this picture?

An over all photo of the boat or a better description of the boat?

here is the site that the info came from...there are more pictures there...

http://basecampohio.homestead.com/us.html

but that is all I have got

If you would have given this info to start with we could do a better job helping out; while I'm not familiar with Taylor Craft it appears to be a copy of a Ray Craft. I will do some farther research but it's probably some type of Laminated Wood deck. I'm sure some of the older guys well have some input now that we can see what we are working with.

"Fix the floor and you have a nice, solid older boat."

Yep, that's all you'll have to do to make that solid....  :

If the floor is rotted and the bilge area is rotted out you've got some issues.  The biggest one will be how much longer the motor will continue to hang onto the back of that probably rotted transom.  The second issue will be when you're replacing the rotted floor and realize all you've got to attach the new floor to is rotted stringers.

That's just an old sponsoned Vhull bass boat, nothing great and not worth the work involved in making it "solid" again.  

BTW, that music sucked!  

IF the biggest word in the dictionary

Just be careful to check the entire boat especially the transom for softness, it the transom is soft then I would forget this boat. Many boats from this era are still just a sturdy now as they were the day they were built. I'm working with a friend rebuilding a '78 Skeeter Wrangler; we know it's solid because he is the original owner.

Catt, the big difference is you guys are working with a name brand of the era that's still in business.  The reason they're still in business is because they took the time back then to build it right to begin with.  Granted, any boat poorly maintained is destined for the scrap heap regardless of how well is was designed or made but at least you guys know that quality was built into it on the front end.   OTOH, you know as well as I that during the bassboat booms of the 70's and 80's a whole bunch of overnight, one-off boat companies sprang up and built some stuff using questionable construction methods.  Some of them merely slashed hulls (made a copy of an existing hull) and slapped a deck on it without care or concern for the buyer.  Poorly sealed wood along with a crappy chopper gun operator made for a bad boat right out of the box.   Longevity of design wasn't necessary since the boat company basically came into existance to take advantage of quick sales from less than knowledgable bassfishermen of the time.

My guess is that's what this Taylor craft is.  It's not uncommon to see these kind of oddball brand boats for sale on Ebay or the internet.  I'm not passing judgement on this boat in particular but anytime an entire floor is rotted along with rotting in covered compartments it's a warning to beware.  The quality of wood sealing used in construction, often one of the best ways to build something cheap, sets the one-off, oddball boat brands aside from the tried and true manufacturers.

I did some research on the web & found Taylor Craft built Jet/Ski boats while not a house hold name among bass anglers it was still a strong built boat.

The man asked of options you gave yours & I gave mine; the decisions is now his  

If you would have given this info to start with we could do a better job helping out;

you may be a wee bit too serious here...thanks tho

...thank you every body...

This is one of those things that...I am not really sure it about the money or the boat as much as it is about the project.

Any boat/project like this...be it a Ranger or FBN (Fly By Night) boat will likely cost you more than the actual value of the boat if the work is thorough and done well. I think anyone who enters into a project like this one hoping to make a sound financial investment is likely making a mistake. It is like restoring cars...unless you a really shrewd and really know which cars are in the most demand...most people wont make their investment back if they sell...but that is not really WHY they restored the car in the first place.

Yeah the transom could be rotted and yeah the stringer may be wood and in bad shape...but there are epoxies made for just that kind of thing...

The father in law wants to fish NOW...so a restoration is not really on the books. One of these days, when I have someplace to do this kind of thing...which I do not right now...I will do a project like this...just to do one, for the experience and the education.

...and my father said the same thing a Catt...Taylor Craft was fairly well known in the Jet/Ski boat world at one time. (My father was REALLY into skiing and  boating for a long time...used to belong to a Antique Chris Craft club and had hand built a few wooden boats) He believes that they were bought up by either Natique, MasterCraft, or one of their big competitors in the late 80's. He was not aware they ever made a fishing boat but he said that their boat was likely a copy of some other manufactuer. Apparently there are brokerages that sell the molds and equipment for boats from companies who have either gone under of have changed designs. He used his old boat as an example( I cannot remember the name of it...Morris maybe???...it was sold as a custom boat but was really a Browning. The company he bought the boat from bought Browning's old molds and started building boats.