tcelano

It the steel/aluminum boatbuilding business, we use the term "rathole" for a relief cut a lot smaller than that. I would call that a gopher hole...

US1 Fountain

iTrader: (1)

How do you guys install the drain plug in that hole with no wood to screw into? Meaning if you fill it with a filler/resin, wouldn't the screws split or strip the filler?

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

The outer skin is always pretty thick there and when you open it up like the pic of the mouse hole you end up tabbing right over the cut out. It ends up being sometimes upwards of a half to three quarters of an inch thick there. Plenty of meat to hold a screw and sometimes thick enough to even hold a ten twenty four tap.

Aiken02

It's from the edge grains being left to the weather. A strip of glass covering the edge grains epoxied in place could have prevented this along with some other cap/trim edge treatment considerations. Sometimes, suitable wood cannot be found or afforded in which to glue up a solid transom. What would the result have been if solid boards would have cupped throughout the entire transom? okoumePlywood can be made to last as long as anything else on the boat. Just because the original builder didn't find it necessary to cover their work more than 5 years down the road does not make the product inferior overall. Next go around, seal the edges and keep the boat from the weather via a cover if it is kept on a trailer. The delam has been happening over a long period of time. It could have been addressed before it got to such epidemic proportion.

cliff_m_b

Are not the better manufacturers now using "no wood" construction in the newer vessels? If this is case would it not be better to go back with some form of composites such as foam or sea cast? will be needing to redo and old Scarab and a Squadron XII before long. Do not mind paying a little more using materials that will never require do the job again.

phragle

iTrader: (3)

Use wood for the transom.and stringers that the motors mount too.

Black Baja

iTrader: (2)

The better manufacturers use wood in the transom and engine stringers. Foam or composite in these areas can be a recipe for disaster. Foam is coming out of mine and wood going back in as we speak. A high end sheet of marine plywood costs about as much as a sheet of composite...

apex808

you use epoxy or poly?

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

neither, use Vinylester

It really does not make sense to shoulder the extra expense and very linear product range of epoxy to justify any gains over VE. A good VE carries similar physicals to an epoxy and in the real world both are at a level performance that will never be approached anyway.

BUP

iTrader: (9)

I agree with you on that. Also I will be calling you after the holiday -- giving you a fair warning haha. TTYL