[Finster]

Humm, you'll probably find that most guys here have replaced their transoms. As rule of thumb a 30 year old transom is bad. Even boats that have sat in dry storage have had dry rotted transoms.
Though in a case like yours, having solid but wet core and putting a floatation bracket on, you have the option of using a bracket such as Hermco's which is designed for applications such as that, that stiffens up weak transoms.

In my two cases I felt that wasn't an option even though I have a Hermo bracket. One was so rotted most of the wood actually fell out, in the other I had a massive blackant colony living in it. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I'm sure Don will chime in here and give you the skinny. He's our resident expert.