Yes I cut a hole in the boat,the same as Chuck. but I built strength back into the hull with the custom box that hold's the X-ducer.
I'm sure the 2 diffrent install's could be debated until the cow's come home.
In these pix's you will see next, you will not see a lot of glass. That's because I had my hand's full and didn't get all the pix's I should have. I assure you that the glass is there. I usually put a skim coat of fairing putty over to of my glass work while it's still green so I'm not sand on the glass I just installed.
In this pix you see the plaster mold I made. I used the large fairing block to make this mold.
Here is the mold with the stem hole cut in it. The dimple in the mold helped to get it just right.
Here the box was installed in the boat with an every so slight tilt to get better clean water to run across the face of the X-ducer.
Fillet's of epoxy bonding puddy were run on the inside of the hull and the outside.
More glass was added to the inside and the outside to strengthen and build the outside of the hull up to have a smooth transition.
Fairing putty was added to the outside after the glass was laid.
My boat has a inner linner in the ass end. The pice of the linner was reinstalled, glassed in and wiped with fairing puddy,
No this was not a 2 beer job.
But it made the hull as strong or stronger where a big hole was cut thru it.
One of the tech's at Airmar told me I could sell those box's. there is a small demand for them.
Here the fairing work on the outside has been primed and blocked.
