1995 Grady White 272 Sailfish "Floating Transom Cap" excessive movement

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1995 Grady White 272 Sailfish "Floating Transom Cap" excessive movement
Owned her 17 years, located in Westport, South Eastern MA
Anyone else experienced similar and repaired?
Looking for recommendations of best solution and / or recommended repair shops near me.
Port and Starboard videos showing movement with one hand moving motors at mooring.
Port picture (showing rub rail coming off) and starboard picture (showing gelcoat cracking).
Exterior transom hull looks pristine, bought moisture tester and exterior hull tests fine.
Not sure how to attach video clips of the Floating Transom Cap moving but it moves 1/2-3/4"
UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_3707.jpgUNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_36ff.jpgUNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_3703.jpg
 
Get a good look below the rub rail. Put a picture up. Typically water gets into the transom from the bang cap. The freeze/thaw will cause the top of the transom to swell. In this photo you can see the fiberglass cracked. The corner was opened up to clean up the loose filler and repaired. That junk you see in the middle picture to top is the crap filler, etc that came out!

Transom 1.jpeg Star corner 1.jpeg Repaired.jpeg
 
Interesting, thank you Hookup1, appreciate your sharing. I to hope it is not the entire transom but rather just part of the top section. I have to figure out where to bring it for evaluation and repair as this is out of my league for sure.
 
It's something I see with all older GW's (including mine). The bang caps leak and wood transom get's wet. Just because the transom is wet doesn't mean it is falling apart.
 
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I had about a 1/2" movement in my transom. If you can, try to get some pics of the inside of the transom with you phone. Take several from one side to the other. What you are looking for is stain running down the inside of the transom. If that's the case...I got bad news for ya.
 

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Late Again Grady said:
I had about a 1/2" movement in my transom. If you can, try to get some pics of the inside of the transom with you phone. Take several from one side to the other. What you are looking for is stain running down the inside of the transom. If that's the case...I got bad news for ya.
Click to expand...
Ok Captain Keith, Thank you for this information and I will look and take some pictures
 
Hookup1 said:
Get a good look below the rub rail. Put a picture up. Typically water gets into the transom from the bang cap. The freeze/thaw will cause the top of the transom to swell. In this photo you can see the fiberglass cracked. The corner was opened up to clean up the loose filler and repaired. That junk you see in the middle picture to top is the crap filler, etc that came out!

View attachment 37777 View attachment 37778 View attachment 37779
Click to expand...
I think it is clean under the rub rail but will double check and put up a picture of it
 
After finding this thread, my transom looks almost exactly like yours.
What was your final decision on the repair?
 
'84_241_Offshore said:
After finding this thread, my transom looks almost exactly like yours.
What was your final decision on the repair?
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear this...I ended up having the transom rebuilt along with new gas tanks....not cheap...but I repowered a couple of years ago, new electronics this spring and have been maintaining most everything else on her so I was in too deep not to spend the money to rebuild transom and decided since gas tanks were original I should not take that chance either....I was afraid to go offshore and have my engines at the bottom of the Atlantic...
 
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Any more pics you could share?
I'm interested to see how the transom is assembled with the aluminum in there.

Thanks
 
Get a good glass shop to have a look at it. Likely some damage but left as-is it will get much worse.
 
JB said:
1995 Grady White 272 Sailfish "Floating Transom Cap" excessive movement
Not sure how to attach video clips of the Floating Transom Cap moving but it moves 1/2-3/4"
Click to expand...
How do you get it to "move"? Putting weight on the motor?
 
Did mine over in July, it was pretty bad
 
Single engine hump
 

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JB said:
Sorry to hear this...I ended up having the transom rebuilt along with new gas tanks....not cheap...but I repowered a couple of years ago, new electronics this spring and have been maintaining most everything else on her so I was in too deep not to spend the money to rebuild transom and decided since gas tanks were original I should not take that chance either....I was afraid to go offshore and have my engines at the bottom of the Atlantic...
Click to expand...
JB said:
Sorry to hear this...I ended up having the transom rebuilt along with new gas tanks....not cheap...but I repowered a couple of years ago, new electronics this spring and have been maintaining most everything else on her so I was in too deep not to spend the money to rebuild transom and decided since gas tanks were original I should not take that chance either....I was afraid to go offshore and have my engines at the bottom of the Atlantic...
Click to expand...
Hey did you replace your transom yourself if so how far did you cut? I’m thinking I need to do the same thing on an identical boat
 
I'm starting to get things together to do the transom project on my 1997 268 Islander. I painted the tower, topside and hull a few years ago. Looks like new - same as the day I painted it. Now it's time to do the transom. I have been gathering information. Thanks to all the member who sent me pictures, diagrams and notes on how theirs went. This will be carefully documented like my 268 Islander fuel tank replacement.

For those of you GW owners of boats of this vintage you can hope for the Santa Clause answer to fixing your transom. Unlikely to work out that way though.

IMG_0971.jpeg
 
Hookup1 said:
I'm starting to get things together to do the transom project on my 1997 268 Islander. I painted the tower, topside and hull a few years ago. Looks like new same as the day I painted it. Now it's time to do the transom. I have been gathering information. Thanks to all the member who sent me pictures, diagrams and notes on how theirs went. This will be carefully documented like my 268 Islander fuel tank replacement.

View attachment 39193
Click to expand...
Did anyone happen to tell you how thick the transom is?
I seen that some people are saying 2 1/2 but some are saying 3” thick
I’m trying to figure out how thick a 272 sailfish transom would be
 
Why guess...

This is supposed to be for a 268 Islander. The Sailfish is a little wider. In any case you will have to open it up and reverse engineer all the dimensions. The aluminum angle isn't going to give you access without opening up the top of the boat. If you go that far you might as well fix it.

Screenshot 2026-04-29 at 7.51.16 PM.png
 
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The problem with the transom isn't just transom rot. They separate from the stringer system. This is why you see flex when you apply pressure to the engines. Transom want's to rotate "out" of the boat.
 
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