Transom Question?

[zeagle]

The other day I saw an early 1980"s IO, it was a go fast boat with a small cuddy cabin. The hull had pontoon like extensions sticking out past the outdrive approx. 20in. In these extensions were two steps molded into the fiberglass with a swim ladder on them. I have a 17' dixie cc, that I am still considering a hull extension on. I am thinking that these extensions would give my boat added flotation when boarding after scuba, and help it plane faster. My boat has an outboard. Any comments or info would be helpful. Thanks

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Transom Question?

Yes, they would do both. Extra buoyancy right where it's needed.

Of course, they'll also create extra drag right there too, especially if you don't fair the bottoms correctly to keep the water flowing smoothly.

There's a guy on here somewhere who fabricated box extensions for his hull and bolted them on... I remember thinking the bolts weren't enough, but I guess it depends on what you do with the boat.

The right way to do an extension like this would be to rebuild the transom so the structure of the boat (stringers) extends farther back to support the hull extensions. That would also let you take advantage of the extra space granted by the extensions for engine systems, battieries, or whatever.

Erik

 

[zeagle]

Re: Transom Question?

Eric,

Thanks for the reply, I was very curious