Transom question

[John R]

If you find out a boat that has had recent transom work and is in pretty good shape , what wopuld you do to get the transom height up another 5 inches??? Looking for temporary (1-2 years) or permananet solutions short of an entire R&R off the transom....

Thanks,

John

[ February 27, 2003, 07:45 AM: Message edited by: John R ]

[Trayder]

Fabricate a new section to raise it the five inches. Grind away the glass on the existing transom to form an area for the new glass to hold. Place your fabricated section into the notch of the transom and glass it in place. Refinish as necessary or fabricate an aluminum or stainless brace that would encapsulate the new addition, it would wrap around the transom, and spread the load out onto the existing transom.

I am sure there are other ways but this was the first that came to mind

[Trayder]

Here is a picture of the alum brace I was writing about:

[ScottM]

Jason,
Is this pic of a local boat? If so, I'd like to take a look at it since we'll be performing this same operation at the end of this season. An '03 Evinrude 225 Ficht will be available to us for short money around September, so we need to build up our transom for the 25" shaft.

[cSickNick]

John,

In line with Jason, i would probably think about adding a notch to the notch.

For example, usually the transom is 1 1/2" thick. Router a 1/2" pocket so that you could "tongue and groove" the 5" piece made of say 3 pieces of 1/2" ply laminated together.

Pre-drill to add a few long screws(keep them under 25"!) and then glass in.

Also, I remember someone tried to add "SEACAST", but with poor results.

My few thoughts .....

- Nick

[Trayder]

Hello Scott- The boat in that picture is Down in Key West @ Murray Marine, it has twin 150's. I will keep an eye out locally for one that has had the transome raised.

Nick- I like the screw idea, or even some dowells.

[Ed]

Hi Gents-

I'll add my two cents if you don't mind.

In John R's situation, if the transom is not totally rotten or wobbly, and he is not going to add a NEW EXPENSIVE MOTOR I would do the glass and aluminum overlay, with the expectation that it is only temporary . When you have the aluminum overlay fabricated be sure that it extends beyond (see photo) where the transom cutout goes from a horizontal to vertical plane. Many people who use/make these aluminum overlays make the mistake of only covering the area where the engine bolts on to the transom (plus a foot in either direction). This is pretty much useless because all of the stress on the transom is where the horizontal and vertical planes meet at that 90 degree angle in the corner.

Scott M. - considering that you're repowering with a new engine at the end of the year, I would not mickey-mouse around with the temporary fiberglass/aluminum fix. With $12,000 of brand new motor on your transom....you don't want to risk cracking it in the middle of next season or worse yet, lose the transom completely and having the engine go overboard.

If it were my boat, I would replace the entire transom from the INSIDE. I know I will get some arguments on this but that is the least structural evasive way of replacing a transom. If you cut the outer skin and replace it from the outside, you've lost a lot of the hull's integrity that is hard to replace. I know that the Gougeon Brothers of West System Epoxy tell you it is okay to replace a transom from the outside, but they're just trying to sell you more of their product.

Ask any old time boatbuilder/fiberglass guy and they will all recommend that you recore transoms from the inside. It is basically reversing the process of how the boat was built.

Phew....that was long.

[ScottM]

Ed,
The only thing with doing our transom is that from what we can tell (we haven't drilled core samples but have used a moisture meter), the transom is very dry, so instead of doing a $3K job of full transom replacement, we thought we could get away with maybe $750 on the notch replacement. You are right about the engine investment, but I've stood on the trim tab of the current engine while on the trailer and jumped up and down - that transom is solid.

[Ed]

I hear you on the $$$ situation Scott.

I guess I am just being devils advocate and overly cautious.

-Ed-

[FELLOW-SHIP]

IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED I HAVE ONE OF THOSE ALUMINUM BRACES SITTING ON THE SIDE OF MY HOUSE YOU CAN SEE PICTURES OF IS UNDER KEN MCGOVERN 23’ ON THIS SITE THE BRACE IS SET UP FOR TWINS BUT YOU COULD USE IS FOR A SINGLE BY EITHER DRILL SOME EXTRA HOLES IN IT AND LEAVE THE REST OF THE HOLES EXPOSED OR FILL IN THE REST.
FELLOW-SHIP [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]