[Scottie1961]

Thanks guys for all the great feedback. I don't feel quite as crazy for questioning this design. Fortunately no soft spots on my boat but i'm going to pull that carpet from underneath the threshold and provide a good path for water from the forward storage compartments. I'll just use short but larger diameter screws for attaching the aliminum strip to the threshold and not go into the subfloor as I was thinking before. I think jjt1276 is right about leaving a gap underneath the transition.

[jjt1276]

I don't know where the carpet ends going towards the bow. I expect it might go all the way into the anchor locker! I never felt bare wood that I remember when scraping the rot out.


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[pllevine]

As far as I understood from the archived Mariah Factory Tour video (available on this site), there is NO wood in the later year original Mariah boats in the 202 size. The larger boats over 22 feet use encapsulated balsa wood to further strengthen the hull in major stress points.


1998 202 Shabah 5.0L Alpha 1

[Firestone]

Huh. Well I pulled a bunch of it out that was water logged at the transition. I will try to get a picture next time.

[jjt1276]

I think the wood is just encapsulated in fiberglass. No exposed wood. This board was mostly encapsulated except the edge facing the cockpit. The underside is very thin, and not structural. My boat had carpet in the cockpit and none in the bow from the factory. If you have the ivory color fiberglass in the interior I have some vinyl trim left over from fixing mine. (Aluminum trim piece was lost so I bonded a vinyl one in its place) I can take a picture next time I have it out.


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[Scottie1961]

I'm going to get under that transition on Friday and see if I can tell where the carpet ends or if it does end! The more I look at this the crazier it seems they would lay carpet all the way under the front seats and storage and then leave open drains on top of the carpet. When I first looked in the storage under the front middle seat I saw a drain and assumed it went out the side. Saw something that I thought was clogging the drain so tried to dig it out only to discover the drain ended on top of the carpet.

As impressed as I am with Mariah quality this seems like a flaw in the design as others have already pointed out. I think the best solution for me is to leave that threshold open as much as possible to promote drainage and drying. I might leave the carpet out just to help that process. No wet stuff in the front lockers!

[Paul F]

I always assumed the bow cooler drained into the bilge down through the ski locker. I'll have to check that out on my boat.

[Firestone]

Well I only pulled out carpet when I went to clean it. It was about 95 degrees and the wet water coming from the transition was ice cold. I just stopped using it after the repair

[Paul F]

I just used mine to store wipe down towels and an beach umbrella anchor.

[jjt1276]

Just my last few comments/thoughts on this subject... First, it seems like the floor rot problem is going to be an issue for almost anyone that has themselves, or purchased from someone who used the lockers for wet stowage, used the front cooler regularly, got rain/ice into the bow, non vented covering etc.
Probably more of us than not. Can this somehow be made into a sticky? I tackled this project without all of this insight and ideas and it would have been easier (and less stressful) if I had this info first. Second, it makes sense from a manufacturing standpoint to have one drop of carpet cover the entire bow section, starting at the pass through and extending all the way to the bow and extending outboard to the sea wall? I suspect that only one drop was used.
I believe my cooler at the front is just "drained" to the carpet on the floor as well. Easy to believe because inside the back seat there are two drains that "drain" to nowhere but the floor/carpet underneath. I also prop the whole back seat up a bit to promote drying under the back seat, otherwise it's wood on top of wet carpet. If you need a new trim piece on the threshold I used commercial vinyl corner guard. It looks nicer than the aluminum in my opinion. I think the best idea mentioned is use the bow stowage for dry stowage only!


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