Flybridge / Cabin Top Flex - 41' Defever

[hankster2]

I'm looking at purchasing a 1979 41' Defever and had a question regarding the flex in the flybridge floor. I'm coming from the wooden boat/no-flybridge world so I have no experience in what is acceptable in regards to the amount of flex and whether or not what I'm seeing could be indicative of another problem.

This model has a pretty large flybridge. I'll go ahead and guess it's around 12' long but I only see 2 laminated support beams in the cabin. It doesn't appear that the flybridge or aft cabin top ever had teak. I had my friend walk on the flybridge (140 pounds) while I was in the cabin and do some light bouncing and the flex was noticeable as was the creaking fiberglass sound. If I had to guess I'd say 1/2" movement when in the area between the beams.

Having little experience with large flybridges or fiberglass boats (my last boat was a 30' wooden weekender) I'm wondering if this could be normal or is this definitely a sign of deteriorated plywood in the cabin top? (I'm assuming this is a glass over plywood cabin... maybe someone can correct me). Is a little give in the flybridge normal or are they supposed to be tight as a drum?

There are no other indicators of rot or water ingress anywhere else on the boat and obviously the surveyor should be able to give some good insight but I thought I'd check here first to get some insight. Thanks.

[Mark Zarley]

Don't have info on 41 but my 1978 49rph was constructed this way. The roof of the pilot house is the floor of the flying bridge. 1/8"of fiberglass- 1/2 or 3/4" of plywood (reduced to mulch)-1/4 in of fiberglass-1" of closed cell foam-1/4" of fiberglass. There was no interior damage as all the penetrations had been properly sealed. Quite a sturdy build. Hope this helps