Re: Grady White Transom Rebuild
Theres nothing wrong with ply.
I like what works and either way works great.
If I were starting out ripping out the stringers then ply is a sensible route.
But what I hear is hilarious, its the same thing they were saying about those newfangled fiberglass hulls 40 yrs ago.
Well, to be honest, I read many more positive comments on the seacast-type rebuilds than negatives. It was my intention to go that route when I began the project, but as I got deeper into it, and discovered how severe the wood damage was in my transom, it made more sense to me to change plans.
When I first started I cut only top of notch area off and started digging out wood. After going down over 16-18", using sawsaw, chainsaw, 3' crowbar, etc., and still getting bad wood both going down and out to sides, it became more and more difficult to access these areas.
The rough dimensions of this transom are, almost 8' width, 25" down from notch to bottom, 16" up from notch to top on both sides, and 2" width inside transom fiberglass. On top of this, transom was being raised three (3) inches to place newly installed twin engines at optimum running height.
I then cut notch side caps off and knew then that all wood had to be removed. It was at that time I weighed seacast repair to a conventional rebuild. I considered things like, how will I ever completely remove rotten wet wood from inside transom, how can I ever be sure that interior fiberglass will be cleaned and prepped enough to accept and bond securely to seacast product, how will I get the seacast product to go higher up on the sides (16" up from notch) than the notch area that is opened up, how will I be sure that seacast product will completely pour around existing cockpit drains, bilge drains, upper and lower corners, without air pockets (weak points).
Another consideration was that I am removing a single outboard and adding twins. Roughly 800lbs + will be hanging back there, and all my boating is offshore. With all due respect to you jonesg, hitting a piece of plywood with a sledgehammer is nothing like falling off an 8-10' wave in a 5000+lb boat (with engines, fuel, gear, occupants) and having twin engines dig in and climb up over the next one, for hours at a time. I don't say this to question your boating skills, only to point out that I know for a fact that four (4) layers of 1/2" marine plywood encapsulated with fiberglass will serve me well in conditions like this, as well as when and if I strike a hard object with my outboards, or smack a dock too hard, etc.. I know this, because I have done it, more times than I cared to.
I know, from being a carpenter for 35 years, that I can easily handle this type of repair using conventional material. I also know that if I completely encapsulate this wood with multi layers of epoxy coated fiberglass, that it will last indefinitly. Weighing all of this, as well as info found while researching seacast-type repairs, I came to the conclusion that for me, even though it would be more work, that rebuilding with top grade marine type plywood, and superior epoxy, would be the way I would perform this project.
So, bottom line for myself, and the best course for this rebuild in my point of view, was to go with the tried and true method.
I'm sure that a seacast-type repair could most likely achieve similar results if done properly, and problems I saw when considering using it were resolved. If it were a lesser height transom perhaps, or going straight across without a notch, or one of many other configurations, then it would most likely be a viable alternative.
Mike
Utter nonesense.
