Transom Repair

[FishStretcher]

In my opinion, the outer skin keeps the water out of the (usualy plywood) core. The core transfers to load to the inner skin and makes the sandwich core construction of the transom stiff in bending. It also resists the point loads of the O/B mounts or outdrive. But this could be resisted with lots more glass.

The inner skin has the important job of taking the thrust load and the cantilever load of an outboard and connecting that to the hull via the knees and the stringers.

So it can be repaired either way- as has been shown. I think it is a little easier to get at the outside, usually. And perhaps safer structurally if you aren't quite sure of how to reconnect the stringers to the transom. And a lot more fairing work.

Caveat- I haven't done this. I have done some structural analysis on it.

I will do mine from the inside very carefully, maybe. With a lot of glass and a lot of thought to the layup schedule. Or not, depending on my confidence on the secondary bond in vinylester, and my confidence in my ability to develop a good laminate schedule and actually develop a void free laminate.