Trolling motor mount - spacers and sealing holes

[TNTall]

Hi all,
I recently bought a 2004 Stratos 201 ProXL with a 80 lb Minn Kota Maxxum. The trolling motor bridges across a recessed area on the bow that was covered by a cobbled up rubber non-slip piece that the PO apparently cut and tried to glue on. I had the boat out in the rain yesterday and removed the motor today. There was water trapped all under this rubber that I pulled off, and all the six motor mount screws were soaked thru to the nuts underneath. Is this something I should be concerned about? Is ok to mount the trolling motor directly to the fiberglass without a piece of rubber? I may have to use some spacers or trim the plastic base to make account for the recessed area.

Thanks,
Greg

[billnorman1]

You can mount it without a pad but it will borehog the gel coat and maybe even the fiberglass under it. Water won't bother the mount hardware and there will always be some water intrusion unless you put some kind of sealant on the screw heads. On my (older) Pro XL I use a pad about 1/8 inch thick, stainless 1/4 x 20 locking hardware and fender washers under the top cap. On the other hand, I'm not anal about a snazzy polished boat either. You shouldn't have much water up there unless you spear waves.

[TNTall]

I'm not worried about the stainless hardware but about the thru holes being soaked. It only gets wet when it's out in the rain, but it takes a long time to dry in the garage. Maybe I'm worrying about something I shouldn't. I've had water damage on boats in the past, but they weren't made as well as this one.

[billnorman1]

I will comment on water damage on my older Stratos. There are a couple of connector plugs that connect the front panel to the hull wiring. On my boat I had issues with the livewell pumps and lights. I traced the problems to deterioration of the pin interfaces in these connectors. I had to cut the plugs out, install "ring terminals" and put in a terminal board mounted on a piece of Azek board to replace the plugs now everything works as advertised. If your plugs lay in the center of the keel they could be damaged by excess water.

[CastingCall]

If there is any wood supporting structure under the bow area where the mount is located, you should remove the mount and thoroughly dry out the area. Then seal the insides of any holes that have exposed wood with a coat of epoxy.
Remount the TM with big rubber washers (most hardware stores carry these), with big stainless fender washers and Nyloc nuts underneath.

[billnorman1]

All that sealing is kind of moot, if water hits the front control panel, they generally leak like a sieve.