Reginald P. Smithers III wrote:
Vic Smith wrote:

--Vic

Vic,
Harry knows everything about boating, so our comments are not directed
towards him. If you have been around long enough, you will see he
spends every weekend and weekday logged onto rec.boats. When he goes to
sell this boat in a few years, you will see it has very very few hours
on the engine meter. But if you also noticed, those regulars who
actually use their boats and boat in salt water, no of them, would have
picked a boat with an open transom. So this discussion of open transom
vs. brackets or engine well is really designed for those people who
don't know everything yet, but might be interested in buying a CC to
actually use.

I find any discussion that actually involves a boating topic to be far
superior to one that involves cut and pasting a political argument into
a boating NG, just so one can call other assholes. So in that respect,
I would have to say the NG is the winner, and there are no losers.

Vic,
As someone who doesn't know everything there is to know about all
subjects, I do learn something new just about everyday. David Pasco, a
professional marine surveyor and author
(http://www.yachtsurvey.com/surveyorrelated.htm)

had this this to say about open transom boats:

Open Transoms or boats with no transoms have been appearing on the
market with more frequency lately, and many of these are just accidents
waiting to happen. A boat without a transom cannot reasonably be called
seaworthy unless the internal compartments of the hull are made
absolutely watertight. This is almost never the case because the
builders never put absolutely watertight hatches in the decks.

They make a mistake by ignoring the probability that at some point in
time the vessel will encounter circumstances where waves are crashing
over the nonexistent transom, flooding the deck, and thereby endangering
the vessel and its passengers. Builders of such boats don't have the
foresight (which they should have) to consider what would happen if such
a boat lost power while navigating a dangerous inlet, or breaks down
while at sea. Under these circumstances, the lack of a transom becomes
very dangerous. Even large sport fishermen with large, open cockpit
scuppers or non-sealing transom doors have gotten into trouble under
such conditions. If you are the owner of such a boat, you had better
think carefully how you use it.

I have no doubt Harry will not have any problem using his boat on
perfect days in the Chesapeake Bay, so it is the perfect boat for his
application, but if I was buying a boat to go offshore in less than
perfect conditions.

When I used to hear all of the Bayliner Bashers I said that they were a
great boat for inland lakes, bays and close to shore use, but to compare
them to a true offshore battlewagon (as Skipper used to do) was silly.
I think before anyone purchased an open transom boat, they should review
how they plan on actually using the boat.