Am I screwed?

[FLNITRO]

So, long story short.....I have a 1997 nitro 884 that I purchased a few months ago. Was doing some work on it tonight and noticed that the thru hull fitting in the splashwell were loose, pulled them out to clean them and then reseal them. Put my finger in the hole and all I feel is mush. The motor does not flex on the transom, and the jackplate is not digging in at all.
1.) anyone know how much this would cost to fix as I assuming the transom is prob shot?
2.) any wa to fix this without having the boat torn apart?
3.) anyone know what year manufacturers stopped using wood?
I had the boat looked over before I bought it, trimmed up the motor and tried lifting, nothing moved. Checked inside and out and all looked good.

[Largemouthlou]

Not really screwed but not in great shape either.. You will need to find the real extent of the damage, but in the long run the transom will need to be replaced and this could cost ya but depends on rates in your area..

[FLNITRO]

Others have suggested a resin or epoxy that could be poured in to reinforce? Any experience with this? Does anyone know a ball park for having the transom rebuilt? I know it will depend on labor rates etc but are we talking 1000 or 5000?

[PRKRANGER2]

Well you are screwed but not yet. If is soft there the transom is rotten. So be prepared to spend some major dollars. The reason I say this is because I just went through this with my Stratos. Transom rot from the bottom up. I got off lucky because I found a certified marine repair guy who replaced my transom. I gutted the whole back end and he did his thing. It is going to cost about $3000 to get the transom fixed. Sorry I know you did not want to hear that.

[bundick]

Are you a do-it-yourslef kinda guy?

I've never done this to a Fiberglass boat, just on wood boats.
This is what I'd do.

Assuming the rot is in the area of the Plug hole, and not spread througout the transome....
If it's more than a few inches from that hole, it might be a even farther and you wont be able to tell unless you pull some of that glass off. Do it on the inside because you'll never be able to make the outside look as good as the Factory did.
Once you pull some of that glass off the inside, you can tell a lot more.
You can patch the glass back in place and "ALMOST" make it look good as new.
Almost!

Whatcha gonna do if you peel some of the glass back and the damage is rampant?
Leave it exposed as you have it and take it to the Porfessional for an estimate.

If its just local to the plug hole, there is a product sold by Smith Chemical out in California called CPES.
I used it some years ago on a wooden boat It's job is to follow a trail of rot and seal it up as if you mixed up some Epoxy and filled the Rot up with it.
It works.

It's part A n' B and is thin as Pi$$ when you force it in. You just sit there and keep feeding it in till it wont take any more. Be patient.

You can see now why the professionals charge so much. They are worth it!

[PRKRANGER2]

Those directions are correct. I removed a small section of fiberglass and did not like what I saw. I next removed the cap on the back and got my shop vac and sucked the transom out. Mine was completely rotten.

[reelman]

Been there...once...used rig...probably 3-4k for a top flight job at a quality shop...I know, its ugly.

[robertmee]

Sounds like a perfect application of SeaCast.

http://transomrepair.com/zk/

[bundick]

That SeaCast looks like pretty good stuff. Another version of Epoxy.
The problem here is that we are going to have to skin the transome to establish the damage.
We absolutly MUST get to some good material to bond the fix to.
That means modifing the 'good' boat material so the 'new' fix can bond to it with sufficient strength to emulate the original Mfg's assembly.

Then to use something like SeaCast or any other Epoxy you'd have to stand the boat on its end, or make a dam to hold the liquid fix in place. while it cures.
Fiberglass guys do that on a regular basis.

We dont know how far the Rot went. I'm guessing (just guessing) that ALL the wood in the Transome should be replaced. Rot is something you just almost cannot stop and will start again as soon as some humidity and warmth is present.

[ProcraftMike]

If you are going to tear into the transom, you have most of the work done already. Just go ahead and replace the transom using one of the acceptable means of replacment. If you just do a repair, you are always going to question the overall strength of the transom and whether it is still damaged.

An important repair like this has to be done right. There is too much RIDING on it to skimp here.

[ranger230v]

+1 What Mike said. You cant repair part of a bad transom. When I took out mine, there was dark rot in a few areas, but the entire transom was wet. If it got wet enough and has been wet long enough for dark rot to form, then that moisture has wicked through your entire transom. Now its just a matter of time before it gets worse.

I was in the same position you are in now. I kept telling myself that it's probably isolated damage that can be dealt with by a minimally invasive repair. After some time and finally realizing that you don't want to take any chances with a transom, I decided to dive in. When I cut the inside skin off, I got to see first hand how the whole wet transom thing works. Water only came in a few spots but like I said before, the entire transom was wet.

If your going the seacast route, I don't think you want to remove the inner skin though.

Look at it as a learning opportunity, I know more about boat construction now than I ever wanted to.

[bundick]

Ranger I'm curious about two things.
When you tore your transom out, did you find the transom tied to the sides by more wood?
In other words was that wood planks inside the glass of the boat sides?
What did the transom fasten to at the sides?

When I said to take the inside skin off, I meant that he (being a novice) might not get the real smooth outer surface when he put the skins back.
So do it on the inside where it might not show.
So what did you have in mind when you said not to remove the inside?

[PRKRANGER2]

What I found when I tore my transom out was 2 sheets of 3/4 plywood with fiberglass in between. There were two pieces of wood that were fiberglass to the floor attached to the stringers to support the transom. I had to remove all the inner skin to fix my boat because there was alot of wet wood. I was ready to have the repair guy come and fix it and this was 2 to 3 months later there was still wet wood back there. My boat was out of the water for 3 months and still found wet wood so I gutted the whole back end. When you get it fixed. If I can give you some advice us life chaulk to reseal all thru hull fitting, jack plate bolts etc. I did not drill any new holes in the new transom for fishfinder transducers. I mounted the transducers to the jack plate.

[PRKRANGER2]

The guy who fixed my boat used a mat woven mix that was real thick and used white gel coat on top of it.