[ Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Matthew Woodward
Date: 01 Aug 2003
Time: 03:48:50
Remote Name: 66.102.68.44
Hi again, all... From what I've learned so far (several library books plus a copy of Allen Vaitses Fiberglass Boat Repair Manual), you can check the transom (with the motor mounted) simply by seeing if there's any flex if you try to rock the motor up & down. There can be some, but too much ought to be fairly obvious. Mine had lots of flex. The top of my transom has a chrome steel cover across it, through-bolted. When this was removed, some rot was obvious, but I was unsure as to how far down it went. Naturally, it was worst-case scenario - upon removing the inner skin, the rot proved to extend all the way to the floor and for almost the entire width of the transom. It was fairly easy to remove the rotten stuff with the inner skin off. However, you need to leave a 2-3" lip all around the outer edge so as to be able to have a surface to bond the new inner skin to - this outer edge of the transom wood was still in pretty good shape, making the removal of the remaining plywood very difficult. Using a 1" drill bit and cursing a lot helped. You can check the floors for rotten or delaminated areas by simply tapping with the handle of a screwdriver - good areas will sound hard like a desktop, but rotten/iffy spots will give a muffled thud, almost like the same desktop with a wet rag over it. I thought I could just patch a few areas here and there - to paraphrase Vaitses, apparently one of the biggest mistakes amateur repair people make is attempting to "bandaid repair", rather than doing what should be done, ie. replacing the problem entirely. Since my floor was rotten in several places, it seemed to me that the route to go was to replace the entire floor, which will likely be easier in the long run. At the end of it I'll be confident that it's all (including the bond b/w the transom and floor core) good. I'll likely store my boat in my Canadian driveway over-winter, and even a little bit of water can freeze and expand, causing further delamination. Initially I had hoped to replace only the stern section of floor, and was leery about seeing what was under the foredeck (a raised platform on my boat, with floatation beneath, over the keel). When I decided to do it all, and removed the foredeck (which was kind of rough anyway), I found about two inches of water sitting in the deep V of the keel. When I removed the inner skin from stem to stern, rot was all way along, stringers included - they were soaked! I've read that for small wet-core repairs one can drill 1/4" holes spaced 2 - 3" apart through the inner skin into the core and pour acetone into these holes. The water in the balsa core mixes with the acetone and evaporates quicker than it would on its own. As it is, I'm stalling...must get out to the driveway to do some more removal of core material. Hope this helps, Matthew Woodward p.s. consider this...I'm doing this repair in my driveway with the boat on the trailer - with the deck off the boat, the hull flexes like mad. If I push in on one of the sides of the boat's hull I can see the floor flex! Because of this, my latest problem has been to find a good way to shore up the boat with planks beneath it (on the trailer) so that it will retain it's original shape as closely as possible when I start replacing the floor - I've taken measurements from side to side of the deck at 2' intervals, and will be cutting and notching lengths of spruce strapping to span the upper edges of the hull, keeping it in shape. I'd hate to put the boat in the water and hear a cracking sound as the boat tries to assume its original contours...