Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

[beach]

Starting to replace the transom on my 63 glasspar seafair sunliner. I have removed the old transom, looks like this has been done before, and need some advise on how to fix it right. I will be putting a 150 hp motor on so I'm sure this needs to be solid.<br />I will post some pictures shortly.

 

[beach]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

 

[phatmanmike]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

i think a 150 is a bit much... i have a glasspar myself, 1960 citation.... you can make it real stong, ive seen pople use 3 layerts of 1/2 inch dry plywood, not the water proof kind, dry, and cover each one with epoxy and mat and then sandwich all of them together, its harder than steel... dont use resin, i know its cheap and all, but epoxy will be stronger and last longer, and strength is what you need with a boat that old and a motor that big

 

[beach]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

I had a 100hp on it and barely got 25 mph. I don't know if this boat has had a lot of glass work but it seems to be a heavy beast. Its an 18'.

 

[Bass Runner]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

Are you sure the floatation isn't soaked up with water? It should run a lot better than that with a 100 hp on it, I had a aristocraft 18 1/2' with a 7' beam and it was real heavy, It ran like a scalded cat with a 75 hp scott. I'd check the flotation for water, the boat i'm rebuilding right now was soaked up and probaly holding about 500lbs of water if not more. (better safe than sorry).

 

[beach]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

Where do I start to look?

 

[phatmanmike]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

unfortunately you have to look UNDER the floor to find the foam. bassrunner is onto something here. glasspars foam is real absorbant, and if your is anything like mine, there is no direct accses to the bilge...<br /><br />before you go putting that big beast of a motor on there thinking it will solve all your spped woes, first look at your earlier setup with the 100 and find out why it was so slow. you may end up wasting a lot of time and money. <br />i can almost guarantee that if the boat is that heavy and the transom is toast, the stringers and foam are gone too. glasspars were really light weight boats. the glass is put on thin and not a lot of it... <br /><br />i hope im wrong, but you need to check it out first<br /><br />mike

 

[beach]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

I pulled back some carpet in the front floor and drilled a 1 3/4" hole, no foam. The floor is 5/8 thick ply with about 3/16 of glass each side. <br />Any chance someone restored the floor and went a little heavy with the glass to add this much weight. The floor is solid everywhere, no flex at all.

 

[phatmanmike]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

i have a glasspar citation 1960 and the floor was solid and strong, untill...<br /><br />i thought id make an acess hole to gain room to the bilge area, and when i did, the stringers and foam were mush...<br /><br />i dont mean to be the bringer of bad news, but glasspars were notorious for being very conservative with their resin and glass. my stringers werent even covered, they were just bare wood...45 year old bare wood

Any chance someone restored the floor and went a little heavy with the glass to add this much weight

that would have to be an awfull lot of glass to make your boat that slow with the 100hp, are you sure the motor was up to snuff, they came with 60's and 75hp when they were new, and people used em as ski boats

 

[phatmanmike]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

by the way, classicglasspars.com rates your boat at a dry weight of 800- 850 lbs when dry, saying that they"werent as heavy as they look"<br /><br />you shouldve been flying with a 100hp on a 800 lb boat

 

[Bass Runner]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

Did you look on the side of the floor? Normaly the foam will run to the outside of the stringers on both sides. I don't know what size your boat is but the coast guard rates the motor capacitys like this (2 X length X the beam - 90)like if you have a boat that is 16' with a 5' beam it would go like this 2x16=32 32x5=160 -90=70hp motor maximum. A quick check for weight would be unload your boat all the gas tanks and junk you have in there find out how much your boat and motor is supposed to weigh go to the local scale and weigh it (you have to allow for the trailer) your boat and motor should only weigh around 1200-1300lbs+ the trailer. Hope this helps (The lake patrol also knows about the formula of max hp rating and will write you a ticket.) I got run off the lake for having a 115hp on a narrow beam 15'. It was a water rocket but the lake patrol said no having fun here

 

[beach]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

By the formula you posted I came up with 157 as max hp. My boat is 85" beam 17'6" LOA. The chart on the classicglasspars.com site conflicts with the measurements I got for the year of my boat. Maybe the year is wrong on the title? There are no plates on the boat itself to state year or model.

 

[phatmanmike]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

but that still takes us off track as to why your boat was so slow in the first place.... i would find the weight of the max motor that came with it and not go too much above that, if at all... most came with 75hp v4's...wich i believe at the time, mid 60's, weighed in at around 240 about the same as a 115v4 nowadays...hope this helps.....

 

[beach]

Re: Starting Transom Repair, Need Guidance

Well all of this is "off track" since my post was for help in rebuilding a transom. The fact is the boat is very heavy, that's not going to change without tearing the whole thing apart. I am happy with the fact it is heavy since I do alot of fishing in the bay and the boat sits nicely in the swells. <br />I'm not tring to solve a heavy boat issue, I'm just rebuilding a transom that was cut out for a 15" motor.