Hull feels soft, Water in Hull? ....anyone had this?

The hull of my friends boat (only maybe 6 years or 7 years old) feels soft. It is a Vdrive with auto ballast and has the grate for filling ballast which is the only thing I can think of...... It has never been wrecked and never had any other damage to the hull. Only has maybe 450 hours. Has anyone had their hull get soft? I can push on it and it gives like almost a quarter inch. How would water get in the fiberglass or under the gel-coat? How dangerous is this the keep running it?

This does not sound good....

Well, if he is the original owner, sounds like a perfect case for a hull warranty claim.

No bueno. Maybe you should try rubbing viagra all over it to stiffen it up (sorry couldn't resist)

I had a boat that got water in the floatation foam compartments on the port side and saturated it. It leaned really badly to the side that was water logged. I had to tear up a huge section of the floor to dig out all of the water logged foam which had become a huge sponge. If I hadn't taken care of it, I can imagine that it may have caused something like this to happen.

Originally Posted by gene3x

The hull of my friends boat (only maybe 6 years or 7 years old) feels soft. It is a Vdrive with auto ballast and has the grate for filling ballast which is the only thing I can think of...... It has never been wrecked and never had any other damage to the hull. Only has maybe 450 hours. Has anyone had their hull get soft? I can push on it and it gives like almost a quarter inch. How would water get in the fiberglass or under the gel-coat? How dangerous is this the keep running it?

Post pictures of what is soft. Is it a spot that is delaminating? A spot that has water behind the gelcoat? Is it just the hullside flexing?

1/4" is pretty small

It is just the hull flexing and is not delaminating. i don't have pictures as it is not my boat but I thought most of the major inboard manufacturer's these days had a lifetime on the hull no matter who owns it. Is that correct? He is the second owner.

Oh and it is not just a spot. It is the whole underside of the boat! The sides and all other places look and feel perfectly normal. ie. hard

What kind of boat?

Boat and MFG would help a ton. Would give us an idea on the dead spaces to check for water n other things. There can be airpockets is some gel coats tht come to light. Also does he leave his boat in the water for periods of time? I have seen some crazy stuff happen to hulls.

More than likely not under warranty. "Most" manufacturers do offer a lifetime on the hull to the original owner. Some manufacturers allow those warranties to be transfered to the second owner, but only within a certain time period. Most of the time 3-5 years. If the boat is 6-7 years old I would confidently guess he is out of luck. Definitely would help to know MFG though and I am in no way saying this is fact, this is just what I've typically seen.

Not sure if he wanted me to give that info out. Older Supra.
Never sat in water for long although he has had it on a lift this year and it had a slow leak in it so the boat did sit for a week or two I think.

Please take this with a grain of salt, but from my understanding, the transferable warranty on any Supra needed to be transfered and the boat inspected within 14 days of the date of sale (second owner). I am assuming your friend did not do this and therefore is excluded from warranty. If he did in fact transfer the warranty within the 14 days when he bought the boat from the original owner, than it would be covered. I'm sure there is some fine print in there as well, but that's the reality of it.

http://www.supraboats.com/images/warrantyStatement.pdf