- Fixing transoms is not an area I'm involved in, but looking at it from a
long way away I'd say you can't do a proper job with the outboard still in
place. My experience in cutting out rot is that it's easier to cut out a
complete piece of wood and replace it rather than cut out 10% and try to fit
something to fill up the hole. Wish I'd known this a while back.
- Any time you spend in removing and replacing the outboard will be saved
several times over by the time you are done.
- you need to do ALL the demolition before you start to do the repair (
it's true of most things ) It's no more work to patch a little more area
than it is to fill several more holes.
- with the motor off and the demo done, try a small electric fan heater
under a cheap tarp - 24 hours at 30 degrees C does a lot of drying. But
control the temperature, too hot and it will be too dry. It takes time for
moisture to migrate to the surface where it can evaporate.
- read and believe the info from the epoxy suppliers
David

"Chris" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to dry the transom out a bit before I dig further into it.
Clearly several days won't be enough, and who knows if weeks will ever as
long as it is outdoors. So, I may have to get digging into it sooner,
regardless of the still wet wood.

To recap, I've got almost 1 foot square cut out around the drain hole
(drain hole and up), which was the really punky stuff. I've also got 1/4"
holes drilled in various places on both sides to checkout the wood. (note
that pouring something in won't likely help here with it exposed and open
now).

The outer hull is thick, really thick (fiberglass), but the inner side is
almost done 3/4 the way up and pretty thin, I don't even think it adds
strength.

Currently the motor is still mounted (however many pounds of it).

To visualize the transom on this boat, consider the typical outboard
transom, but on a V type hull. Inside under where the motor mounts
(centre), there looks like there is a big timber there, such as a rough
cut 2" x 4", or maybe 2x6 or 2x8. Its hard to tell as I suspect it may go
all the way through to the outer hull and be glued in. Below this timber
about 2-3 inches down are the other motor engine bolts that tie it in
lower. And below this for the next 1.5 feet perhaps is the area of the
drain plug. To each side of this the floor is elevated clearly due to the
V, as well the solid wall (inner/outer fiberglass) goes up higher to the
full length of the transom. I can actually see plywood near the top as it
wasn't covered in glass.

I suspect so far that the wood beneath the timber is rotten, and likewise
straight across from there on both sides. Above that things appear strong
and solid, and a few drill holes have proved that there's nothing punky
there.

So, I either take the outboard off now, or leave it on. My guess is to
clear the wood from under the timber level all the way to both sides, and
then put new wood in right across. Glass it in, and to finalize it, glass
a 2x4 or 4x4 to the outside of this new area (to the inner transom, and
floor).

Now it'll be strong. What do you think?


"Steve Weingart" wrote in message
.. .
If the transom is suspect, check out http://www.transomrepair.com, they
have a whole system for removing all of the wood in the transom and then
filling the space with a pourable resin/chopped filler system. I was
going
to use this in my 21' Mako (the Mako factory approved), but sold the boat
before it needed the work (just had a few rotten spots, but the majority
of
the transom has still been strong).

Cheers,

--
Steve (remove anti spam XYX in return address for correct email)
http://www.gulf-stream.net/patandsteve