[JohnB]

Ed, I agree that the best thing to do if you have any question about a transom's integrity is to get a professional opinion. The problem with getting an opinion from someone in the transom repair business, is that they have a conflict of interest in that they are evaluating the condition of something that they may have the opportunity to work on (recieve financial gain), where as a GOOD marine surveyor is only interested in accessing the condition of the transom. If you use a repair professional, I would get a couple of opinions from well referenced reputable repairmen. In any case, I would probably get a couple of opinions.
As far as moisture in the transom I left out a few important considerations:

1. Not all moisture meters are the same. I have a pretty high end one here in my shop and have had it/used it for 2 years. I have had a few people use it on their boats that have rebuilt their transoms, and when it says a transom is soaked, it's shot. The strength of the fiberglass in these old seacrafts will hold for a time, but after a while it will give way. You also need to check for moisture on the inside and outside. If it is just on the outside, from a screw or something, and it is localized, it's probably no big deal. Take the screws out, put a hair dryer on it for a couple of days, and seal it back up. If you are showing moisture on both the inside and outside, you have problems on your hand. It winds up being a judgement call.

2. Another consideration is that if the boat has been in fresh water, the wood seems to rot alot faster than in salt water. I'm not sure of the cause of this, but alot of bass boats that are only used in fresh water seem to go really fast. If I had a boat that was used in fresh water, and it showed a wet transom, I would be more conserned than if one was used in salt water.

3. Another issue if you have a wet transom, and your boat is up north, and it freezes in the wintertime, you could have some real problems, since when the water/ice expands, it may crack out, and create some immediate structural problems with the fiberglass.

4. If you have bottom anti-foul paint on the transom, you won't get an accurate reading, but you can still check from the inside.

5. Flex is an important consideration, but so is sag. If the transom is sagging/distorted, or the motor mounting bolts on the bottom are pushed into the fiberglass, you may have some problems.

6. You can remove a few screws from trimtabs/transduser mounts, or even a motor mount bolt, and take an ice pick to see if the wood is deteriated. If it is just localized, you can clean it out and repair it with west epoxy (I did this on mine).

[ July 23, 2003, 08:40 AM: Message edited by: JohnB ]