Transom Strength

[sunkShips]

I am in the process of rebuilding my Transom on my 16' Bass Boat. I tore out the old rotten transom and am now ready to put in a new one. I am planning on using Ply wrapped in Fiberglass, completely sealed. Then fiberglass it into place.

My concern is will the motor when remounted just rip the transom right off?

I will post some pics tomorrow, but basically the total back end of the boat was rotten. From the deck up from the left side of the boat to the right.

The floor and stringers are in great condition, only the transom was rotten. I was able to leave the Skin on the back of the boat, but there is little or no support to mount the new transom to, so I think once I put the new transom in and fiberglass it to the skin and put it all back together again that the motor will rip it off.

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You will notice the expanding foam in the pics. I used that to fill some holes in the plywood edge that was left. I piped in the foam then today leveled it off and fiberglassed over it. I wanted to have a tight smooth edge to sit the new ply on.

My bigest concern/question is : with no angle suport or support on the sides how will the motor not just rip off the transom? Is fiberglass that string to hold from the bottom and edges of the boat?

I was thinking of putting some kind of Angle Supports from the floor to the transom, but ??????

Even if I was just replacing 2 feet of the transom, how will it hold and not rip off? I dont understand.....

What are your thoughts.?

 

[Kevin70]

Re: Transom Strength

Sound like you need transom and corner gussets glassed in with everything else. It would be much easier to give you some advice if we could see pictures of the outside and inside of the transom. The side of the wood that's facing the skin has to be matted and resined before you put it on the transom. Roll more resin onto the skin itself, too. Clamp the crap out of this before the resin kicks. I would halt progress here until the rein has cured completely so that you can make sure you have a good bond to the skin before you seal up the inside. When you glass the exposed side, you going to be wrapping the mat and cloth across the transom and then about two feet onto the gunwales. So the gunwhales have to prepped for this, also. ANYWAY...see if you can get us some pics and then we'll give the LONG version of the fix. Welcome to iboats.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Transom Strength

This is pretty much my standard transom reinforcement or repair. You could run an 18 wheeler into it and it wouldn't move. I seem to have a lot of trouble posting thumbnails so if you want to see better photos, go the Chrysler Crew, join, and go the photo albums--Frank's boats.

 

[sunkShips]

Re: Transom Strength

Ok, New to this fancy terminalogy.

What are "corner gussets" and "gunwales"?

I assume gunwales are the sides of the boat!? and the corner gussets are some sort of support I can probaly make to anchor the transom to the sides and the transom to the floor or stringers?

Another question is I only have access to one side of the stringers, the side where the floor was rotted and I removed it. Should I remove the floo all along the back to gain access to teh stringers and Glass the transom to the stringers?

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: Transom Strength

Have you removed the entire transom, or just down to the floor? Hard to tell from the photos, but you really ought to replace all of it - not just part of it. A new transom spanning the entire side-to-side and top-to-bottom area will be plenty strong and likely stronger than original.... Tape the new transom into the sides, bottom, stringers and floor...
- Scott

 

[sunkShips]

Re: Transom Strength

I removed the top of the boat. I lifted the top off and slide it foreword. the bottom of the boat, HULL is all in one piece and in pretty good shape.

The back of the boat, the Transom was rotten from the left side all the way to the right just short of 8 inches of the right side. and from the top down to the floor, but one piece of the transom rotted below the floor. About a 1 foot wide by 6 inches down piece. Here is a drawing of the shape of the back of the boat, maybe it will help.

I would perfer not to have to remove the back of the boat. I woudl perfer not to have to refiberglass the outside of the boat, it is in good shape.

 

[Robj]

Re: Transom Strength

I would remove all of the transom. That way you have lots of strength where you fillet and glass it to hull in the corners. Otherwise you have a seem and it may not be as strong. If you also wanted to you could also add knees from the stringers to the transom.

Have a great day,

Rob.

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: Transom Strength

Yep, definitely remove all of the transom so you can glass it to the stringers, side, bottom and (new) floor....
- Scott

 

[sdunt]

Re: Transom Strength

You REALLY need to replace the entire wooden transom as one piece. Thats the way the factory installed it. IMHO you will have structural problems otherwise.

Not to blow my own horn, but follow the process in my share a project for pictures and description of gussets and taping the transom in.