Raise the transom?
 

I have recently thought I was about finished with a 1978 23' Sceptre. When I took it into the yard for transom Bracket mounting (on the floor in one of the pics), bottom job and a complete re-wire the yard found the transom was soft. It was so bad they called it coleslaw! They are in the process of removing the transom and doing a full replacement the proper way. There is some question about whether they should raise the transom while they are at it. I would love some experienced input!!?? I plan on fitting it with a Suzuki 300. Here are a couple pics as it sits in the yard now.

Eric B

If you are putting a bracket on you should not only raise the transom but you should enclose it. Since they'll be cutting on the transom anyways. It won't take that much more work to enclose it. If you weren't going with a bracket I would still raise it to 25" or 30" depending on the leg of the motor.

Thanks for the feedback but I am just putting a 10' adjustable bracket on the stern. Don't think I should enclose it for that ????

I would set it up for a 30" leg motor if it was mine. The 25" is still ok but the higher you can get the motor out of the water the better sometimes. Also you want to measure the 300 you are going to use (not all 30"or 25" are the same) Set it up so that the motor all the way down sitting on the clamp it will set the AV plate even with the bottom of the hull. That way you can raise the motor up from there and get it to optimum height with out running out of adjustment. You will never need the motor AV plate lower than the hull bottom and with a 10" set back bracket. You may even want to start it at 1" above the hull bottom because you will gain around an inch of water height off the transom per 12" of set back. So at 10" back you will be around an inch lower than if it was directly on the transom due to the rise of the water off the back of the hull. My 25" motor AV plate ended up a bit higher than 4" above the transom bottom with a 22.5" setback bracket. Also to get a 25" motor AV plate at transom bottom usually takes a 26-27" transom height also on the boat. If you cut it at 25 inches you will max out your adjustment and still be too low possibly.

Thanks for the help flyingfrizzle! I met with the boatyard and the Suzuki tech collectively yesterday. The tech recommended a 30' transom right off the bat! They both agreed however not to use the 10" bracket as it was designed for a 2 stroke 150hp and felt the direct transom mount would be a better, more secure arrangement. Thanks again!

Sounds like you're getting good advice! If you were to install a bracket, it's major benefit is the safety of a solid transom, so it makes no sense to install a bracket and leave the cutout. At one time the Potter/Hermco bracket offered a simple starboard transom closing option.

Transom time
 

Thought I would share some photos. Here is the start of. New 30 inch transom. The original one was in pretty poor shape!

Pic 2
 

Here are some more

Pic 3
 

One more

Man o man!! That brown goo wood brings back some "fun" memories!!! The 30" transom is a good idea! Good luck!!

The 30 inch is a great move and while they are back there I would seriously consider modifying the engine well. Mine was removed and replaced with a much more space saving layout. The room you gain from removing the well is priceless and greatly reduces the clutter.

Here is an old before pic of mine.

Here is what it looks like now with all that room recovered...

No way all that blood is from one fish!!!!

Had a couple of schoolies hit the deck as well.

Are you in the Keys yet? We should be seeing some blood on your deck soon...

Getting there!
 

Turning out pretty good!

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Hey Kmoose! I like the modification to the stern. I really like the set up in the stern on my 78. Do you still have a livewell back there? Can't wait to put some blood on the deck but not as much as that! Did you gaff your foot or something!!!!

Leaving Saturday. You guys still heading to Bimini?

I'm hoping for a year more like 2014, not so much a wimpy repeat of last year. In '14 we had everything from 40 - 45 pound dolphin down to so many obnoxious peanuts you had to put the boat on plane to get away from them. I told the not too happy family members fishing with me the "peanut rule", if you have to measure more than three fish out of a school we are leaving them. They got over it.

Transom is now 30' !!! Getting there!

I'm going to doing my transom on my '79 ,23' cc after the 4th.. I have to do it from the outside in too. Please post more pics! I will do the same. There's safety in numbers... I hope.

One more

looks good. You'll be glad you raised it to 30".

Glassing and fairing in

More

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Again

Another Sceptre being saved from rotting away............good for you ! :)

With these ( and some other classics) now aged upwards of 40 + years, I'm sure very hard to find " original condition" without wood related rot.

Even if the skin looks great, stringers, transom, tank areas.........moisture, heat, cold, for 40 years and wood turns to soil !

Only the original Moesly 21 had wood stringers. All later SeaCrafts have FIBERGLASS stringers!

Yeh well then the transoms are rotted away.......... and the wood, like soil.

It looks like they cut out what was left of the original transom along the sides and bottom edges. Are they wrapping glass outside the cut to tie it all together?

Finished
 

Finally ready for power!

Linesider36, I'm a newbie but I'd like to know why wrapping glass would be necessary? Without doing that do you feel the new skin isn't properly tied into the existing fiberglass skin? I assume you're suggesting the fiberglass is more likely to fail and crack at the cut wihtout wrapping the glass like you mentioned?

On some transoms i've seen they ground out the outer sides of the hull to wrap glass around the corner . the grinding makes room for the new glass so it's flush and I'm sure a lot stronger. I'm a fiberglass newbie too so thats why i'm asking.