Is my transom supposed to look like this?

[FishStretcher]

A little bit of nautical forensic sleuthing (looking at the semi-filled holes in the transom) told me that my 37 year young 20 foot Master Angler was equipped with twin engines at one time. Easy to tell when I can pop the dowels out of the transom like that. After pulling the aluminum trim and drilling the dowels, I found a mulch sandwich. No surprise, the top of the O/B cutout was less rigid than I would like, and out of flat by about 1/2 inch over 38 inches from years of outboards tugging on it.

The temporary repair was to fill the crack with 5200, brace it with aluminum C channel, essentially from the top of one stringer to another. The bolts draw the "glue joint" together and seals up the transom a bit better. Enough for this season. But a new transom is in my future.

Gory pictures below. The first is the installed band-aid. The rest are the carnage. If you look closely you can see the transition from ~3/8" thick laminate to ~1/8" at about the top of the cutout.