hi i have a 84 offshore that i was going to put drive back on until i noticed the screw holes are wet. i then scraped the sealer off the ends of plywood and is also wet. located that the deck drain by scupper was leaking water. its been drying for 2 weeks now and drying out. but water traveled that far what should i do? when i was blowing the screw holes out i noticed the plywood seperating a little i haven't tried since i noticed the problem. water was at the side 3 holes up. also what would you use to seal the ends of plywood? something like dolfinite bedding compound or interlux seam compound.
fix wet transom wood,sugestions
- Thread starter rcgtsport
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Yup. X2 on what C said. 30 years on that transom. Go Grady! If you love the boat and see keeping her, do it right.
Fishtales
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As I recall, there are a couple of threads on this site that detail transom replacements. I've seen it done by cutting the inside out (preferred to keep the exterior hull in tact) and outside in if access is an issue. I'd start talking to glass guys in your area if you are not going to do yourself. My only advice is fix it. You really don't want that thing to fail on you in the water.
this only happened since it was untarped couple months back. i was hopeing it would dry out. it has been out of water for few years now i bought as project needed fuel tanks,reseal outdrive, ect.i was wishing for better news. thanks for input.
Most of the worst transom problems by far occur on the "notched outboard" powered Gradys. This is because of the factory installed aluminum angle molding located at hull/cockpit liner leaking water down into transom wood core, plus lower exterior transom mounted attachments. If I'm not mistaken, you have an I/O model with a closed transom that may be only getting water into core via your cockpit scupper drains. If this is the case, I personally would not rush to have the complete transom recored before determining extent of core damage. I would first remove everything attached to outside of transom, such as trim tabs, transducers, speedometers, scuppers, etc., and then use an ice pick type probe, and/or a moisture meter to see if perhaps wood core damage might be isolated around the scupper area, or other screw attaching areas. If that turns out to be the case, and the majority of your transom core is solid and dry, then I personally would concentrate on replacing bad wood core only around isolated areas with epoxy resin paste, which will readily adhere to dry solid core and be stronger than factory original. I would get to these bad core areas by dremel cutting small section(s) of outer hull skin that are a few inches larger than damaged core area, do the core repair, then reattach the outer skin pieces into the epoxy core paste before it gets too dry. Smooth the paste so as when dried, you can sand and then paint to match hull. Reattach your outdrive, transducers, etc, and go fishing, with thousands of extra dollars in your pocket that you did not spend, not to mention time wasted.
I've done complete core replacement ( http://forums.bateau2.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19949 ) first 3 pages , and it is a LOT of very hard work! I would make absolutely sure that there were not any possible viable options, or possibly a complete recore is not necessary, before committing to one. You can take a 1/8" drill bit and drill holes approximately 1 1/8"-1 1/4" deep into suspect areas in exterior transom. Check wood core cuttings that come out when drill bit is extracted to determine if they are wet or dry. If wet, they are compromised core areas, if dry they are good areas of transom core. These drilled inspections holes can be filled with an epoxy resin paste, and painted over, and if done correctly will never be a future problem. A little touchup paint or gelcoat and you'll never know they were there.
You may indeed need a complete recore on your boat, but you have nothing to lose taking the steps pointed out here to be sure you're not overkilling an easy project, and potentially wasting a lot of time and money. Just my opinion.
I've done complete core replacement ( http://forums.bateau2.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19949 ) first 3 pages , and it is a LOT of very hard work! I would make absolutely sure that there were not any possible viable options, or possibly a complete recore is not necessary, before committing to one. You can take a 1/8" drill bit and drill holes approximately 1 1/8"-1 1/4" deep into suspect areas in exterior transom. Check wood core cuttings that come out when drill bit is extracted to determine if they are wet or dry. If wet, they are compromised core areas, if dry they are good areas of transom core. These drilled inspections holes can be filled with an epoxy resin paste, and painted over, and if done correctly will never be a future problem. A little touchup paint or gelcoat and you'll never know they were there.
You may indeed need a complete recore on your boat, but you have nothing to lose taking the steps pointed out here to be sure you're not overkilling an easy project, and potentially wasting a lot of time and money. Just my opinion.
Most older boats have WET transom of some sort. You hope for salt water intrusion over rain water since rain water will rot wood much easier.
These older Grady's with the notched transom outboards often have wet transom s and then they freeze and pop the skin away from it in spots. Usually the water enters thru the aluminum as previously stated or the brass drain tube (4). Especially when they crack from age or from the transom skin pulling away.
A lot of people freak out over this but what really matters is if the wood is all delaminated and rotten. Especially in important areas. Sometimes it's just on the sides below the serial number or near the top by where the aluminum was. I would pull the brass tubes and clean all the caulk out and look at the wood inside. Then bang around the transom all over looking for bad spots. A fiberglass boat guy knows exactly what to listen for. If it seems solid enough then dry it all out as much as you can with the proven methods on many threads on the forum. A good basic one is put the transom in the sun and shop vacation the drain holes. It takes quite a while. You may get another 20 years out if it before having to recore it.
But take it slow and easy for a while and look for transom failure signs before you head out to the canyon in 8 foot seas !
These older Grady's with the notched transom outboards often have wet transom s and then they freeze and pop the skin away from it in spots. Usually the water enters thru the aluminum as previously stated or the brass drain tube (4). Especially when they crack from age or from the transom skin pulling away.
A lot of people freak out over this but what really matters is if the wood is all delaminated and rotten. Especially in important areas. Sometimes it's just on the sides below the serial number or near the top by where the aluminum was. I would pull the brass tubes and clean all the caulk out and look at the wood inside. Then bang around the transom all over looking for bad spots. A fiberglass boat guy knows exactly what to listen for. If it seems solid enough then dry it all out as much as you can with the proven methods on many threads on the forum. A good basic one is put the transom in the sun and shop vacation the drain holes. It takes quite a while. You may get another 20 years out if it before having to recore it.
But take it slow and easy for a while and look for transom failure signs before you head out to the canyon in 8 foot seas !
thanks for info. its a i/o. i have everything open soaking up the sun. still not possitive where it came for but going over everything. talked to couple places seems none of them have like or will touch it. neighbor gave me a lead on who to talk to. seems every jump to worse case.
Well if your in Mystic Island your only a few miles south of me in Forked River. Im pretty sure there is a guy in the big marina on RT-9 you pass going NORTH on the GSP just before you go over the Mullica river. Also there is a guy here in the Bayville marina (all the sailboats) that does great work. I talked to him already and saw a grady overnighter and center console he did. But for now keep trying to dry it out and acess any damage. The other thing you can do is using a multimeter on continuity you can take a reading using two spots on the transom. If its wet it will definitely give you a reading. Then dry it for awhile and see if it decreases. Make your setting so it reads high on the scale initially.
Remember SUN, heat, gravity, and VACUUM is your friend here. If you get it nice and hot it will almost POUR out of the transom if you have a good opening. If it's and I/O then take the gimbal housing off (I forget if you did or not yet) and that's probably a GREAT spot for water to leave. Get any caulk or oils out of the wood there.
Remember SUN, heat, gravity, and VACUUM is your friend here. If you get it nice and hot it will almost POUR out of the transom if you have a good opening. If it's and I/O then take the gimbal housing off (I forget if you did or not yet) and that's probably a GREAT spot for water to leave. Get any caulk or oils out of the wood there.
thanks seafarer i know the one your talking about on the mulica. i have had hood up,little wood seat off and seams to be getting better. there is one spot that seams to be the main drain area. its level with the support that runs from the back forward on right side. i do see a crack on the motor mount support that i'll have to fix. going to cover the back and see what happens when it starts to rain. boats on blocks so cant trailer to a repair shop.
i ll look into muiltimeter test. tried it and got readings but # were bouncing around. just got meter recently. i was also thinking could this be drying out from Super storm Sandy, the out drive was off at the time so water could have gotten in but not enough to move boat from the blocks ?
Hello, all. New to this forum, but not new to Grady (1987 204C Overnighter, purchased almost new in 1989). My original teak swim platform mounting to transom was loose, so I took it off to rebuild and redo. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that the transom was soft in the area of the mounting screws and through-bolts. the boat has the stepped down transom fitted with a 1994 Yamaha 200 HP outboard that still runs great. Apparent transom wood core soaking is what led me to this forum.
Here's where I am: I have drilled numerous 1/8 inch holes in the transom from the outside, to determine the extent of the core damage. After drilling each hole, I blow compressed air in, which causes brown water to come out the other holes. The holes and apparent damage are in about a one square foot square area to the port side of center. When I got blond wood on my drill bit and no apparent water on the margins, I did not drill any farther outside the apparent damaged area. I started by using a wooden mallet to listen for the areas that had a "thud" rather than a "crack," which I had read was a sign of delamination of the outer fiberglass from the wood core. I have read several of the posts on this forum, and it appears my options are either some kind of filler repair, without disassembling the whole transom, or, redoing the whole transom by cutting out major portions and replacing the wood core.
At this point, here is my question: If I decide to try to "inject" some kind of filler, what should I use? I would only do this after I dry out the whole area, of course, to the best of my ability using moving air (the output on my shop vac, combined with a heat lamp). And after applying the repair filler I will fill in all holes with epoxy resin/glass paste, and then use through-bolts for my swim platform re-mount as the final step.
The "filler" solutions i have read about to strengthen or fill the voids in the compromised wood core are: 1) Git-rot; 2) Nida Bond Pourable Compound; 3) Seacast; or, 4) Star Distributing Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES). I am open to redoing the entire transom if absolutely necessary, but don't really want to do that, because: a) I don't think the damage is that extensive, and the boat has never been stored in the water (it sits in my side yard, but the transom area is frequently exposed to rain), b) There are no current signs of transom cracking or stress; and, c) The boat will be due for repowering soon, when it will require motor removal and at that point it would be much easier to majorly repair.
Any advice and assistance is appreciated. i have not ruled out just letting a professional re-do it as needed in the Tallahassee area, because even a major repair would be way cheaper than a new boat, and it's otherwise been well treated and maintained. Thanks for any help.
Here's where I am: I have drilled numerous 1/8 inch holes in the transom from the outside, to determine the extent of the core damage. After drilling each hole, I blow compressed air in, which causes brown water to come out the other holes. The holes and apparent damage are in about a one square foot square area to the port side of center. When I got blond wood on my drill bit and no apparent water on the margins, I did not drill any farther outside the apparent damaged area. I started by using a wooden mallet to listen for the areas that had a "thud" rather than a "crack," which I had read was a sign of delamination of the outer fiberglass from the wood core. I have read several of the posts on this forum, and it appears my options are either some kind of filler repair, without disassembling the whole transom, or, redoing the whole transom by cutting out major portions and replacing the wood core.
At this point, here is my question: If I decide to try to "inject" some kind of filler, what should I use? I would only do this after I dry out the whole area, of course, to the best of my ability using moving air (the output on my shop vac, combined with a heat lamp). And after applying the repair filler I will fill in all holes with epoxy resin/glass paste, and then use through-bolts for my swim platform re-mount as the final step.
The "filler" solutions i have read about to strengthen or fill the voids in the compromised wood core are: 1) Git-rot; 2) Nida Bond Pourable Compound; 3) Seacast; or, 4) Star Distributing Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES). I am open to redoing the entire transom if absolutely necessary, but don't really want to do that, because: a) I don't think the damage is that extensive, and the boat has never been stored in the water (it sits in my side yard, but the transom area is frequently exposed to rain), b) There are no current signs of transom cracking or stress; and, c) The boat will be due for repowering soon, when it will require motor removal and at that point it would be much easier to majorly repair.
Any advice and assistance is appreciated. i have not ruled out just letting a professional re-do it as needed in the Tallahassee area, because even a major repair would be way cheaper than a new boat, and it's otherwise been well treated and maintained. Thanks for any help.
Greeting: This may not be what you want to hear but I'm just finishing up the transom and rear stringer replacement on my 1983 GW Overnighter Gulfstream 205. My problems started with a leaky bellows in the gimbal which for the engine wet so I pulled it to rebuilt it and I had always intended to clean up the engine bay so I could see what went where-it was black from 30 years of use. When I was reinstalling the blower and some of the other internal equipment I noticed that there was no ply in some areas of the transom so I called in a surveyor. I had thought the transom was Ok because I had drilled an access hole in the upper part of put the trolling motor cables thru and that plug came out dry and very solid.
The surveyor took about three taps and said the transom was shot and needed to be replaced; he was more than correct! The extent of the root was alarming when I got in there to remove the transom, most of it was just crumbles of long gone ply and it fit nicely in a garbage can; the top foot or so was OK but all the bottom area was shot. Then I did a careful examination of the area around the stern drive access there were voids in the original fiberglass of the transom which had allowed the water to migrate lateral toward the scupper drains. What I also discovered was that the aft two feet of all the stringers were also rotten and the horizontal corner pieces when brace the inside rear corners where also shot.
Since my aft floors were soft I opted to cut the interior liner laterally ahead of the soft floors and pry the liner out of the boat. This was a good approach as it gave my unobstructed access to the entire rear section of the boat including the stringers. This is a lot of work, but the message is that you will not know the extent of the rot until you open her up, and there is no point in doing half the job only to find out in a few years what yo have to do it again.
Since I'm new to the site I do not know how to add pictures to this-might not be a good idea for you at this point if I did!~
I did consider options before I took this on; the surveyor suggested the work done by a shop would be a minimum of $10K and could go to $15 when they found the extent of the damage (it would have). Since I'm a woodworker with a good shop I opted to do it myself and have a fiberglass guy help with the final patching. This worked well and I think my material cost using the best marine ply was about $2k and the glass guy was $1600. Since I'm essentially restoring/moderizing the boat that's not the whole extent of the work but I'm now comfortable that I know what I have and all the major systems have been rebuilt or serviced.
The time frame for me has been two years out of the wate, for part of that I thought I only had to do the engine so the transom and stringers started later. Unfortunately the boat is too hight to get into a shop so the work has been confined to the warmer months which on the west coast is not to limiting.
Good luck with your assessment.
Cheers, BCBryan.
The surveyor took about three taps and said the transom was shot and needed to be replaced; he was more than correct! The extent of the root was alarming when I got in there to remove the transom, most of it was just crumbles of long gone ply and it fit nicely in a garbage can; the top foot or so was OK but all the bottom area was shot. Then I did a careful examination of the area around the stern drive access there were voids in the original fiberglass of the transom which had allowed the water to migrate lateral toward the scupper drains. What I also discovered was that the aft two feet of all the stringers were also rotten and the horizontal corner pieces when brace the inside rear corners where also shot.
Since my aft floors were soft I opted to cut the interior liner laterally ahead of the soft floors and pry the liner out of the boat. This was a good approach as it gave my unobstructed access to the entire rear section of the boat including the stringers. This is a lot of work, but the message is that you will not know the extent of the rot until you open her up, and there is no point in doing half the job only to find out in a few years what yo have to do it again.
Since I'm new to the site I do not know how to add pictures to this-might not be a good idea for you at this point if I did!~
I did consider options before I took this on; the surveyor suggested the work done by a shop would be a minimum of $10K and could go to $15 when they found the extent of the damage (it would have). Since I'm a woodworker with a good shop I opted to do it myself and have a fiberglass guy help with the final patching. This worked well and I think my material cost using the best marine ply was about $2k and the glass guy was $1600. Since I'm essentially restoring/moderizing the boat that's not the whole extent of the work but I'm now comfortable that I know what I have and all the major systems have been rebuilt or serviced.
The time frame for me has been two years out of the wate, for part of that I thought I only had to do the engine so the transom and stringers started later. Unfortunately the boat is too hight to get into a shop so the work has been confined to the warmer months which on the west coast is not to limiting.
Good luck with your assessment.
Cheers, BCBryan.
Thanks, BCBryan. I'd rather hear the truth than what I want to hear, so thanks for the description of your GW's condition and repair. I ended up taking the boat to a local boat shop with a good reputation, and the owner told me the transom would have to be pretty much totally rebuilt. He showed me how moving the tilted outboard up and down by pulling on the skeg was causing the whole transom to flex in and out. That pretty well told the tale. Their fix, which is completed now, was to cut away the entire transom from the outside, replace all the wood core, and then redo the outer glass. He also redid several areas of the inner fiberglass skin where the motor mount bolts and others (for instance, where the swim platform was mounted) had caved in the inner glass since there was no solid wood core to back it up anymore. He replaced associated parts (scuppers and transom well brass drain tubes) as well. Overall, I am very impressed with the apparent quality of his work and it seems to have been worth the $3.5K that it cost. I am kind of wondering why other posts insist the job be done from the inside, which would be very difficult without removing the top liner, because I can't even tell where her faired in the new outer glass. He even matched the somewhat yellowed color of the sides of the boat. He said most boats require two pieces of 3/4" marine plywood, but the GW required that plus 1/2", so I guess the wood core is 2" total thickness. That's part of why I love my Grady, although I am not happy to have this type of structural issue in the first place on a boat that's never been stored in the water. I assume later model boats use more reliable composite cores. By the way, when I replaced the aluminum fuel tank a few years ago, the lateral stringers were well encased, and I saw no evidence of any issues with the stringers. I did not ask the repair guy yet how the stringers looked at their ends near the transom, but I will do that. He seems pretty straightforward, so I hope he would have informed me if the damage extended forward of the transom area. Thanks again for your information. Svenfran
Thanks BCBryan for the stringer and transom info. The GW 20.4 is a beauty and even has the original 1983 Johnson 175 that cranks right up.The question I have is that even with damaged stringers but a solid deck and solid transom would this still be a safe as a slow moving boat for the trout fishing in the Florida bays. The glass hull itself super solid and has no leaks. Please, no name calling. I'll bet there have been a lot of Gradys out there on the water with rotten stringers. Has any one had any experience with this?
Would really appreciate some input either way,
Would really appreciate some input either way,
There are 100's of transom replacements detailed with step by step pictures on the Classic Mako Site. If your reasonably handy you can probably re-core your transom on your own in a couple days. If your stringers are solid its pretty straightforward.
The most common method is to remove the back-side outer skin, remove the old plywood core, then use skin as a template for new core pieces. Laminate the core layers, glass them in and re laminate the skin to the new core.
The most common method is to remove the back-side outer skin, remove the old plywood core, then use skin as a template for new core pieces. Laminate the core layers, glass them in and re laminate the skin to the new core.