www.iFourWinns.com

Oy, boat maintenance is a hassle. While I was at the boat today, changing the spark plugs, I noticed what looked like a bubble of foam coming out from under the port lounger headrest cushion. Uh, no. That's not foam. It was some sort of foam-like fungus. Eeeewww.

I lifted the edge of the cushion and it CAME RIGHT OFF. The entire backing of it was rotted out. More or less nothing but fungus-infested splinters of wood. They did at least use stainless staples to hold the strapping for it in place. So much for small favors. I've no idea how the hell this happened. It's not like the cushion is in some dark, isolated place. It's right up there in the sun most of the time. Yeesh.

Glad I noticed this now, not the wife upon resting her head on it. Or if our 14mo. boy decided to give it a taste test (a stage he's growing out of, yeah!)

I can probably salvage the vinyl cover. I'll probably make a new backing board out of starboard or outdoor PVC board. No point in using wood as it'd only rot out again. I can't tell if the existing wood was marine plywood or not. Perhaps I'll be able to tell once I pull it apart.

Meanwhile, do yourselves a favor and check under the edges of all your upholstery. Rot never sleeps.

Two other places to check are the side panels at the bottom of the radar arch. I noticed one of mine was a bit out of place and discovered the channel running under it had gotten clogged with debris. Which, in turn, had swollen up and was bulging out the panel. I caught it in time. No such luck with the headrest though.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Bill: Can't understand the rot issue. Our 268 is the same year as your 348, so I,m guessing FW used the same material for seat construction on both our vessels. Just happen to have the aft cockpit backrest sitting 10 feet away. Have the whole aft interior out for ease of engine maintenance.

Can't really tell if the plywood is marine grade or not, but it looks fine on my boat. Can post a picture if you think it would help. There is a series of holes drilled along the back, I guess to let it breath? Don't have a radar arch, the boat is stored on a lift behind the house, it's under roof and I keep the camper canvas on when not using the boat.

It does tend to be pretty humid here in south FLA.

9BALL

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2005 V268

I just took the upper cushion off. It's a curved assembly that goes up the seat back and then up onto the area below the windshield. It's held on in the typical fashion with a screw driven in through the seam in the lower part of the seat back. Then a series of L-shaped clips up on the top. You remove the screw, lift the cushion some and push forward to release it from the L-shaped clips. I'll take some pix of the seat back when I get it home. The rear of the seat back is not made of wood (thankfully) but some sort of plastic sheet. No signs of crud on it. But the headrest is a separate cushion that was attaced TO the seat back. Using a series of three straps that were stapled to the back of the cushion, then threaded through the seat back and again stapled to the inside plastic sheet of the seat back. Can't say it's a bad design but the use of wood seems sorta stupid here since they'd already used plastic for the seat back. Perhaps that's more because the seat back is curved and wood wouldn't have worked as well.

The hassle is the rotted wood left a wood-grained stain onto the seat back vinyl. The area is covered but I don't like leaving things with stains on them. So I'm taking it home to see about cleaning it more effectively.

I'm thinking of pulling apart the old headrest cushion and re-using it's vinyl on top of new foam and a new non-wood backing board. I'd like to find a better solution than using straps and staples to hold it down. But there's no way to get to the back of the seat back without unscrewing it. Perhaps some sort of elastic straps and some snaps would work. I'd have to find something that pulled tight enough to have it stay in place, but also have enough stretch to let me lift it off to remove it for cleaning in the future.

What's a bit worrying is there's a small amount of fungus in one of the holes for a strap. I'll hopefully be able to effectively kill it so it doesn't further ruin the seat back foam.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Bill: Any idea regarding the origin of the fungus? is this a salt water environment issue?

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2006 348 Vista
"some days you're the bug and some days you're the windshield"

I'm no mycologist so I've no idea what kind of fungus it was. The growth was about a 1/2 inch so it's not like it was enough to be very identifiable. Sorta like the shelf-looking kind would be my guess. I don't think it's a salt water issue. Fungus spores are airborne so it could've come from anywhere. Might even have been from the factory that way. For it to have rotted out the wood so thoroughly means it was there for some time. There just wasn't any outward sign of it. I had no reason to think there was wood inside the headrest, nor that it was something that could even be a problem in that location. There weren't any drips or smudges visible.

My advice to anyone with a boat, regardless of brand or model, is assume the worst and always be on the lookout for it. Do yourself a favor, poke and prod into all the nooks and edges around and under your upholstery. You'll no doubt be a bit disgusted by what you discover.

While it seems like the seating is "permanent", it's NOT. It's actually pretty easy to remove most of it. Feel along the seams near the middle of the seat backs. At some point you'll feel an opening inside the seam, this is where it was screwed into the fiberglass behind it. Use a long Philips head screw driver and remove it. The give the seat back an upward push. This will lift it up off the L-shaped clips holding it in place. You can then pull it straight toward you to remove it. Note the amount of crud under it, then give it a thorough cleaning. Inspect the backing of the upholstery and if it's showing any signs of rot then make plans to get it fixed.

I'll try and get some pix posted later today.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista