Removing cap from small boat

[Hydrilla]

Re: Removing cap from small boat

Yep, I was still adding when you posted. Thanks for looking. I just added a bunch more, plus I ran out and took 3 more pics today, a couple are pretty good ones of the transom, and the other showing the rub rail off.

 

[Hydrilla]

Re: Removing cap from small boat

With the rub rail off, I picked up on the inside lip of the cap to see if it would move, and even with my gimpy self not able to exert too much, the whole right side of the boat obviously would lift off, including the splashwell. The left side might take a little rubber mallet coaxing but it's obvious that this cap is light and won't be too bad to remove.

Now I feel like I've wasted a whole lot of time digging the wood out of the transom from the top, when I'm just going to cut the inside shell out and remove the rest of the wood that way.

 

[imported_74baja]

Re: Removing cap from small boat

I did the transom on my 16' Baja winter '06-'07... have fun... It was a big project, but felt pretty rewarding at the end. i did just the same as you are all talking about. Just took off the rubrail and drilled out all the rivets (I'm still finding little pieces of them in the boat from time to time). We were able to lift the top of the boat with five people, it wasn't that heavy (about 300#), but we had to be careful not to stress it too much. The only annoying part we encountered was with putting the op back on. We were very... thorough... with the new inner skin, four layers of 22 oz. biaxial cloth, so when we went to put the top back on, even though we removed all the wood-floured epoxy that was between the back of the splashwell and the transom, the top was a bit of a squeeze to get on the back corners. We went crazy sealing it up after that: bronze sleeves epoxied into drain hole and splashwell drains, epoxy coated and silicone in the motor mount holes. We did half the floor that year too... i recommend Jamestown Distributors for epoxy and cloth. They were very helpful. We used West System epoxy in some parts and MAS epoxy in other parts, both seemed good, although West System is more expensive, it is more for penetration.
Anyway... Good Luck,
Jack

 

[Hydrilla]

Re: Removing cap from small boat

Jack, do you have any pics or a project site? Sounds like a nice boat.

 

[Hydrilla]

Re: Removing cap from small boat

So on a somewhat related note... since I'm taking the cap off to do the transom, and since I found that even though the floor is mostly solid except where the pedestal seats were, the foam is soaking wet... should I rip out the floor and foam, and start over? The stringers look good to me from what I can see through the approximately 1' square hole I cut in the floor. I want to have raised casting decks anyway, and I was thinking without having a sub floor, that might help keep the weight from getting out of control. Not to mention what wet foam could do to the boat over time.

 

[imported_74baja]

Re: Removing cap from small boat

Hydrilla,
I'm pretty slow with computers, but I'll try to get some pictures up today. Water logged foam stinks, obviously the boat is heavier, thus slower. My floor was easy. My boat is a '74 shallow hull speedboat so the actual wood floor is only about 1' wide. The pedastal seats on my boat are mounted on glassed in pieces of plywood on the inside of the hull of the boat. Also, all of my floatation foam is up front, and it all seemed dry so i didn't mess with it, but if your's is wet, it would be pretty ridiculous to go through all the trouble of taking the boat apart and not replace it. I assume that your foam is under the floor, between the stringers? If it were me, I would either rip out part or the entire floor, depending on how big the floor is and what kind of condition the rest is in and replace the foam. I don't have any experience with casting decks or the like.
Jack

 

[Hydrilla]

Re: Removing cap from small boat

I got the cap to come loose completely today. I couldn't find my rubber mallet (moved recently) but I was able to pick up on the cap and jiggle it some until it came loose. Not too great for my gimpy ribs but it worked I then slowly drug it forward a few inches by going corner to corner, so I could see how things look, and take some decent pictures.

As you can see in my most recent 7 pics I posted today on my project site, I ripped away part of the inside transom skin. Here's my question- the bilge area has a box around it on the inside, will I have to cut this out and rebuild it to properly support the transom, or can I add supports in some other way? This looks rock solid down there and I'd hate to hack it up. Didn't know if the transom supports could be further up than the very bottom of the hull though, I kind of doubted it.