Transom questions

[dan-k]

I just bought a 1991 Champion, 190 DC with a 200 yamaha pro v. The boat is awesome and for it's maiden voyage I took it out on the Cal Delta with 30 MPH winds and 3-4 foot rollers. The boat handled great and I averaged 35-40 MPH without feeling unsafe. I did find a sheltered channel and was able to get her up to 68.7 on the GPS!! Im sure it will do better as I learn to drive it, but that is pretty fast as it is.
My question is: after reading all these posts on rotten transoms, I pulled the corner pieces and aluminum strip from the transom to inspect it for rot. Prior to doing that, I checked for conductivity on different points with my multimeter. I found resistance on the starboard side between the transom tie down and a screw on the transom rail this afternoon on my lunch break. By evening, I checked again and the resistance was gone between those two points. After pulling the rail and corner pieces off, I stuck a small screw driver down each of the screw holes. I was able to push the screw driver about 1/4 inch into the wood at the bottom of two screw holes, which were located on the far starboard and far port side of the transom. I left everything apart to dry them out. I also forced a rolled up paper towel down a few of the holes to check for standing water and found none. Also, there is ZERO flex on the transom when jumping on the cavitation plate with the motor trimmed up and no stress cracks in the gel coat anywhere near the transom.

With that in mind, should I just seal everything up and get back to rippin' lips, or is more digging necessasary?

[Marooned]

Seal it up real good and enjoy your new ride.

[dan-k]

Are you sure? I also posted in the Champion section and Patt Goff says to pull the motor and put heat lamps on it for a week, then re seal everything and enjoy I really would like to avoid all that extra work, but Pat is the expert on these older Champs...

[Marooned]

Pat is most definitely the expert on Champs.

If you want the peace of mind that it's good and dry, then put it under the lamps like Pat suggested. It sure won't hurt anything. If you're already confident that it's dry, then seal it up good and go enjoy it.

[BASSCAT7]

Is the wood wet ?

A screwdriver will push into dry plywood a 1/4 " very easy

[dan-k]

Ok, I conducted another test today... I took a 1/4 inch drill bit and hogged out two old screw holes under the metal trim on the top of the transom which were not being used for anything. These holes DID NOT have any sealant in them whatsoever, so I thought it would be a good test of the condition of the transom wood. The results were for the first 1/4 inch or so into each hole, the wood chips were dark, but did not feel wet to the touch. When I drilled any further than that it looked like brand new wood. I sealed everything back up REAL GOOD with clear marine silicone and called it a day. I bought a real multimeter from Lowe's, as I was previously using a 5 year old harbor freight special. I rechecked everything for conductivity and was unable to get a reading anywhere without setting it to 200M, and even then the highest reading was around 10.00ish. Any thoughts?