stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

[Charles_Nelsan]

I have a 1976 fiberglass 14 foot starcraft. The hull looks to be in good shape except for the stern were the engine sits its cracked on the flat part of the transom and bowing out under the weight of the motor. Not sure how to fix this, I thought of cutting a peice 3/4 ply wood and put it on the inside of the transom to give it some support. Or should I get a fiber glass kit and fix the problem or am I out of the luck and the hull is shot?
Here are some photos.

 

[57crestliner]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

Boat Restoration, Building, and Hull Repair

Post here. You have a few issues.

 

[Charles_Nelsan]

stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom



I have a 1976 fiberglass 14 foot starcraft. The hull looks to be in good shape except for the stern were the engine sits its cracked on the flat part of the transom and bowing out under the weight of the motor. Not sure how to fix this, I thought of cutting a peice 3/4 ply wood and put it on the inside of the transom to give it some support. Or should I get a fiber glass kit and fix the problem or am I out of the luck and the hull is shot?

 

[electric603]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

Your transom is rotten. The only way to fix it is to cut the inside fiberglass skin to get to the wood core. Get all the wood out and glass in new wood. Also if the transom has rotted away the stringers could also be rotten. There are tons of transom and stringer replacement threads on the forum. Read some of them, that will help you decide if you want to take it on. It is fixable though.

 

[Charles_Nelsan]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

if i just ran this for the summer do you think the whole transom will fall off? i'm running a 78 mercury 500 50hp motor on it. there is no way to brace it so it wont continue to bow out? I've never worked with fiberglass before. thanks for your input. i'll look at those other threads

 

[GWPSR]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

if i just ran this for the summer do you think the whole transom will fall off? i'm running a 78 mercury 500 50hp motor on it. there is no way to brace it so it wont continue to bow out? I've never worked with fiberglass before. thanks for your input. i'll look at those other threads

If you take this boat on the water as it is, please respect your friends and family enough not to let them come along. You'll want to make sure you're wearing a PFD at all times, and it might be a good idea to have your affairs in order before leaving the slip.

Seriously, yes, the whole transom could fall off. More than likely though, it will rip part way off, but you'll still be stranded out in the water with a boat half full of water, and a motor about to become an artificial reef.

Before it gets any worse, follow along with one of the hundreds of threads by people who were, literally, in the same boat as you, and who conquered rehabbing their boats, one piece at a time.

It's a safety thing. Really.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

Thats a sure sign its time for a new transom, no question about it. The next thing to happen is the motor and whats its attached to rips off of the back.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

If you want to sink it go right ahead.

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

Are you feeling lucky?

Trust what your eyes, and the members here are telling you.
No putting it off, your boat's not safe to use RIGHT NOW.

 

[Chasin Tail]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

I would say that you can't know that just from looking at the picture that it is just going to rip off. How much play is in the transom when pull on the motor. You might can get away with a couple of fishing trips. I haven't torn a transom off in awhile.. But with that being said I had a weak transom on my 15 ft trophy hit a log floating right under the water and almost lost that one. I would ask someone in your area. Again it is very difficult to tell what the extent of how roten it is just by pictures alone. I understand sometime you might not want to put in the time, money, time, or money into a project this close to summer. If you have the resources and time to do it now and the fish aren't biting in your area within the next two months. Get after it! haha Best of luck to you Charles.

On second thought and second look at those pictures.. Go get your fixin gear together

 

[Charles_Nelsan]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

i'm going to replace it, just sucks because i still have to get the motor running before summer. thanks for all your advice guys. i'll call up a boat repair shop see what they say about how to exactly go about this. at least i'll have a project to keep me busy, this should be fun : )

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

Remotely, via limited pix thru the 'magic' of the internet, there'd be no way to tell 'IF' you have no safe trips, 1 safe trip or a season of boating left in a transom that is CLEARLY compromised:

How much deflection is this ^^^ ????

It looks like a BUNCH in that ^^ photo & this one:

The transom is a major structural component of your boat.

You'd be surprised how fixable that is. NOTE: I did not say EASY fix. Unfortunately, w/ vintage fiberglass boats, it's all fixable, but none of it is easy.

But please, for your own & the safety of others, remove the motor this holiday weekend, and don't launch this boat again until you've replaced the transom wood. <<<-- this will likely evolve into a full teardown & rehab. The deck (floor) needs to be partially removed to access the transom, the splashwell &/or cap need to be removed, just to repair the transom. The deck & some portion of the stringers that support the deck & hull are likely compromised to some degreee & will likely need attention too.

It is a labourious, time consuming, dirty, itchy, stinky, and expensive process. But no matter how much money you spend, you'll end up w/ a much better boat then you'd ever be able to buy for the same money. Most sub $5k boats and some much much more expensive boats have similar problems looming, and most used boat sellers & buyers don't know it.....

Read thru some of the resto threads, and Don's list of helpful how too's.

Lots of helpful folks in the iboats dry dock, and they can help you get this boat torn down, put back together & re-launched.


Boat resto & boat safely, this can really ruin your day:

Worse if it happens underway & away from the dock.......

 

[jigngrub]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

i'll call up a boat repair shop see what they say about how to exactly go about this. at least i'll have a project to keep me busy, this should be fun : )

All the information you need to know is right here in this forum, fiberglass boat transom replacement is a common task here with many threads on the subject showing just exactly how to do the project.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

Are you feeling lucky?
Trust what your eyes, and the members here are telling you.
No putting it off, your boat's not safe to use RIGHT NOW.

If you want to sink it go right ahead.

These ^^

On second thought and second look at those pictures.. Go get your fixin gear together

And this ^^^

But for sure not this:

I would say that you can't know that just from looking at the picture that it is just going to rip off. How much play is in the transom when pull on the motor. You might can get away with a couple of fishing trips.

The deflection shows there's a problem, and the cracks in the splashwell along the transom are further evidence of problems beneath the fiberglass.

Or this is extremely likely:

I haven't torn a transom off in awhile.. But with that being said I had a weak transom on my 15 ft trophy hit a log floating right under the water and almost lost that one. I would ask someone in your area.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

All the information you need to know is right here in this forum, fiberglass boat transom replacement is a common task here with many threads on the subject showing just exactly how to do the project.

Yep,

i'm going to replace it, just sucks because i still have to get the motor running before summer. thanks for all your advice guys. i'll call up a boat repair shop see what they say about how to exactly go about this. at least i'll have a project to keep me busy, this should be fun : )

Be wary of any 'repair' that doesn't involve more then thru bolting a large thick plate across the transom. IMHO, that'd still be courting danger. And give you a very false sense of security.

 

[Chasin Tail]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

These ^^

And this ^^^

But for sure not this:

The deflection shows there's a problem, and the cracks in the splashwell along the transom are further evidence of problems beneath the fiberglass.

Or this is extremely likely:

How did you blow those pictures up like that? I could not see any of that on my computer. They were much smaller. I know this isn't a computer class, but I sure couldn't see all that going on. That sure makes a hell of a difference when you can see it!

 

[Charles_Nelsan]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

either way i'm going to do it but how much do you think this is going to cost? under 500 bucks? also could you link me to the best threads for info on replacing the transom. here is a link to my photobucket with larger photos.... http://s28.photobucket.com/user/adamhendrick99/library/?page=1

 

[roscoe]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

I have seen transoms worse than that, but I would bet you have rotted wood n that transom.

Time to learn about transom replacements.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

From your photobucket page, there is an IMG code next to or under each pix (it's the last of the 4 choices) w/ a text box that has the actual IMG code in it. Copy that text, sometimes you have to highlight all the text to copy it others when you click on the text box, the text changes to 'Copied'. Either way, come back to your post & paste that text in your reply window, it will look like this:

IMG]http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c201/1120021350.jpg[/IMG

And the pix will show up large IN your post as opposed to as attachements that have to be opened to be seen:

There's a story I'm sure ^^^^

Esp during the tear down & putback, having the pix IN the posts makes it much easier to look thru, comment, ask questions & SEE what's going on...

Note: in photobuckets settings, there is an option to auto-size pix, choose that. Makes smaller pix a bit bigger (some cellphone pix are small) and large pix a bit smaller (huge 12MB+ pix are too big to post @iboats.)

But to actually answer your question, I just opened the attachments in your 1st post, right clicked the pix when it opened, chose copy image from the choices, and came down to my reply window & pasted the pix in my post. Which works when you're surfing the web, find a product or material you want to post & ask questions about, you can copy the pix from it's website & paste it in your thread:

Like: What do you guys think of this seat pedestal? Is it a good choice?

From iboats.com & currently on sale

Copyrighted images are prohibited & posting a competitor of iboats.com's info or website link is too. The mods will usually catch them & edit them out. If it gets to be a regular problem, you'll likely get a nasty-gram from a mod requesting that you stop posting competitor info.

Stop & no problem.....
Don't, and well frankly we haven't heard from that guy in quite a while..... I think the guys in the black out gear & the night vision goggles took him somewhere w/ out iboats access...... :spy:

 

[Charles_Nelsan]

Re: stern of 14 foot Starcraft bowing out were the motor sits on transom

thanks for all that info. i was feconing with the bobcat along bank of a stream (we were doing a stream reclamation project) the bank was undercut below were i was cutting, it gave way and i instinctively pulled back on the joystick to move backward. wrong move.... it made me endo forward. lol everything was ok had to kick out the escape hatch out the back and climb down