Do I really need to tear all this out?

[84EdH]

I found some rotted stringers in the motor mount part of the stern. We tore out the fiberglass around the wood stringers to replace. On the port side of the transom, where the stringer ran into the transom wood, the transom wood is rotted. I took the transom plate off and found the wood around the transom plate where it is tripled up seems firm. The transom seems solid. The coupler was perfect, implying there was no transom movement. If i must tear out the whole transom, I will. I would just hate to do it unnecessarily.

I have posted some photos, which I know dont tell the story.

Can test drill holes determine how bad the transom is?

You can see from the photos, there is still a "box" of fiberglass covering the lower part of the transom. Any way to test this area without tearing out the fiberglass box? Can you test drill from the outside? or is that just not good sense?

the one photo shows the only area obviously bad, just beside the transom mount where the rotted stringer came up against the transom....

another photo shows where the stringers were tore out and cleaned down to the boat bottom, with the fiberglass box (covering other stringers) still sits. No movement or soft spots anywhere.

I weigh about 200lbs. I hung on the swim platform and pushed my feet up against the transom from the outside and got no deflection. does this imply a still decent transom?

all help really appreciated.