Transom rebuild

[starcraftlegasea]

I've been on this site for a couple of weeks and have been getting some really good advice (Thanks to all). Anyway, my problem now is that I think I may have done my transom rebuild incorrectly. Last year I had brought the boat to a mechanic to have an engine installed and he said that the transom was rotted. He said that the only way to get the transom in would be to stacker the joints (he was right) and then use an epoxy to seal the whole thing together. However, I was told by another mechanic this year that the transom sections have to be in one solid piece across or they loose their structural integrity. I set the boards (two 1 1/2'' pieces of marine grade plywood cut into two sections each) up in the following fashion.
(rear of boat)
_______ ________________________
________________________ _______
The boat will have a 115hp on it, so now I'm afraid I'm going to go out in the ocean, hit a wave, and have the back of my boat fall off. Should I really be worried or was this guy just pulling my chain. Thanks.

Brett

 

[gcboat]

Re: Transom rebuild

The actual intergrity of your transom is with the epoxy and cloth. The wood helps, don't get me wrong. From your diagram it looks like it would be O.K. but in my opinion a one piece construction would of been better. Since all is said and done how many layers of mat and glass are on there now? If you've only applied one layer than I would seriously consider adding more. A lot of pushing going on back there with that much HP. My $.02

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Transom rebuild

A lot of people have done the overlap stagger that you show.When you epoxied it together did you use screws or thru bolts to hold it tight until the epoxy set? If done correctly with the epoxy it will hold.I doubt you need to worry..

 

[starcraftlegasea]

Re: Transom rebuild

When I placed it together I used heavy duty clamps to hold the entire transom tight against the back of the boat. In addition, the wood was held tightly in place by the metal brackets on the bottom and sides of the transom walls (had to use a sledge hammer to squeese it in there). The epoxy I used was the strongest outdoor contractors epoxy on the market. Actually when I tried to remove the triangular piece of wood that was used to clamp the transom together, the epoxy was so strong that I had chip away at it because the wood snapped in two. Here are some pics. Do you think I'm good to go?

 

[starcraftlegasea]

Re: Transom rebuild

Also I forgot to mention that the transom is bolted all the way through on the two sides and in the middle where the center bracket comes up from the bilge. Moreover, it is also bolted through in four other places besides these. The red dots represent where it is bolted through. Forgive my drawing.