Hi – I am thinking of purchasing a mid 90’s Sailfish with the Euro transom. In particular, I’m looking at 1994 252 sailfish and 95-96 or so 272 Sailfish. I’m hearing some not so good things about the transoms in those boats. The link and quote below summarizes my findings. Should I stay away from this boat if the transom has not already been rebuilt? Are there issues with nearly all of them as the author suggests or only a small number?
The link is
http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-for ... ilure.html
where “Dunk” says
“ Grady's with stern drives or Grady's with bracketed outboards usually have solid transoms. Outboard Grady's with open transoms [Euro Transoms] with that damn alum dress cap they put across the transoms causes the rotten transoms. They screw the alum dress cap into the top of the transom with stainless wood screws. Yes, they seal it with 5200, but contrary to Internet belief....5200 is NOT permanent. 3-4 years after the boats leave the factory the 5200 washes out and the plywood in transoms starts getting wet..
Saltwater will take 25-30 years to rot a transom. The problem is once the 5200 quits then rain water starts getting down thru the holes Grady drilled to put the alum dress cap on.. The spors that create the fungus come down in rain water and get into the transom and the party is over.. 3-4-5 yrs later the transom is well on it's way to rotting away..
The Grady's that have the full transom's like the stern drives and the ones with Grady Drives for outboards can be bone dry even when they are 25-30 yrs old.. I've seen 100's of them that were dry that were that old..
I spent 10 yrs rebuilding rotten Grady's. Grady's are high buck boats.. Why rebuild something no one wants....so I picked Grady's to rebuild. I got sick of epoxy setting up in my hair and under my figure nails and figured I was looking at so many boats to rebuild I'd be better off getting paid to look at them, write a report and let someone rebuild them.. It's worked out nicely..”
The link is
http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-for ... ilure.html
where “Dunk” says
“ Grady's with stern drives or Grady's with bracketed outboards usually have solid transoms. Outboard Grady's with open transoms [Euro Transoms] with that damn alum dress cap they put across the transoms causes the rotten transoms. They screw the alum dress cap into the top of the transom with stainless wood screws. Yes, they seal it with 5200, but contrary to Internet belief....5200 is NOT permanent. 3-4 years after the boats leave the factory the 5200 washes out and the plywood in transoms starts getting wet..
Saltwater will take 25-30 years to rot a transom. The problem is once the 5200 quits then rain water starts getting down thru the holes Grady drilled to put the alum dress cap on.. The spors that create the fungus come down in rain water and get into the transom and the party is over.. 3-4-5 yrs later the transom is well on it's way to rotting away..
The Grady's that have the full transom's like the stern drives and the ones with Grady Drives for outboards can be bone dry even when they are 25-30 yrs old.. I've seen 100's of them that were dry that were that old..
I spent 10 yrs rebuilding rotten Grady's. Grady's are high buck boats.. Why rebuild something no one wants....so I picked Grady's to rebuild. I got sick of epoxy setting up in my hair and under my figure nails and figured I was looking at so many boats to rebuild I'd be better off getting paid to look at them, write a report and let someone rebuild them.. It's worked out nicely..”