I called Pacific Power boats on the advise of Pliant and the service manager was not on duty today. I will be calling and speaking with him on Monday and possibly taking it in for an estimate. Does anyone have any advise on what I need to ask him in regards to materials or specific techniques etc. that I want used? I almost know enough to be dangerous...at least to myself lol!

Its quite simple ask them for a survey and the cost of any repair's, Same as getting a bid on your wrecked car no difference dont be a sucker. Dont tell hey ive got 5k and want to spend it on any imperfection's......

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/HullFailPart1.htm

If the estimate is more than you are willing to spend you may decide fixing it yourself is what you want to do. If you want to try it yourself, glassdave has some awesome cut away drawings that spec out exactly what to do. He is super helpful. I would be curious to hear what it costs to have done vs DIY.

Remove your drain plug and housing and see how wood looks there, being it's the lowest point in the transom. The exhaust tip holes on the 32's would be my guess as most likely to be the 1st to leak water into transom, pull a tip and check the wood there too.

5 yrs ago we bought a cruiser from our dock in July. End Oct comes and we haul it home for an (we thought) easy winter clean and detail job. Pulled the transom assemblies off to repaint them. Next day noticed a water trickle coming out of 1 of the TA mounting holes. A couple of checks showed areas of the transom soaked, other areas dry as ever. 1 area even had what appeared to be microscopic bugs swimming in the water soaked areas. Having never done any FG work before, no idea what we where in for. Anything else, I can or have done it. Having it done was not an option. Many topics with descriptions, pics and advice on OSO allowed me to spend hrs reading up on all that I could find. With a circular saw and chisels in hand, started the demo. What I found was a total hit or miss areas. With transom being built up with layers of plywood and glass in between, I found areas that 1 layer would be soaked, the layer next to it was like new. Either way, it all came out. Luckily my stringers where good as new, so they were left alone. The wife and I did the job ourselves. Ordered all the VE resin and supplies from US Composites...the glass I had unlimited access to in rolls at no cost. I'm guessing $750ish my expense for this job. We had right at a month from demo start to last piece of tabbing installed working/researching info all along. Also a couple of phone conversations from a couple guys on here that did same thing for moral support and advise.
When started with no experience, we thought no way this was going to work and hold up doing it ourselves! But once it was done, the relief and confidence of doing it was rewarding enough. I can guarantee you, if you do it yourself doing it correctly, the end result will be better than when it left the factory. You will spend more time doing it, and sealing everything. My boat can sink to the bottom go the lake and sit there for yrs, the boat itself will be gone, but that transom will be bone dry inside.

On to your engine reinstall (if you do end up with new transom,) that will require some mechanical knowledge since both motors use the same mounting bolts for the inside mounting al brackets. You gotta get 1 motor aligned perfectly and held in position, while aligning the 2nd motor, then thru bolting both brackets at same time. You can't just premeasure, drill holes and go boating.

What ever you decide, good luck. A lot of us have tackled it and reaped the rewards.

If you could sweat the summer going easy on the throttles, you would be in a much better place time-frame-wise to do this. Cuz you are gonna look at those water pumps and say might as well do impellers while they are out. Check out those transom assys. Maybe new boots, cables and steering pins might be a good idea. There is a whole buncha stuff in there you can justify redoing since it is out anyway.

I ran mine for a season with a soft transom and it was fine. I wasn't super easy on it either. I would wait until the end of the season like these guys are saying.

I' ll double down on this get the survey and plan a course of attack for next winter

Dd where do you do most of your boating at? You can go for it now or maybe take it easy this year and have a plan in place for the next off season, being as you had a good time and enjoyed the boat last summer. What you're finding didn't just occur this winter.

I bet a large portion of boats running out there have rot and don't even know it. One more summer probably won't kill it.

I think that is awesome you and the wife did it together I wish I could get that kind of help! The more stories I hear about people doing it with no experience really makes me want to tackle it mself. I never would have thought that the transoms could be great in one place and soaked in another. I almost want to pull the drives, the tabs and the steering rams off and check it completely... what you said sure makes me nervous tha something will be overlooked. I totally agree I could do it if I had the time and guidance. $750-1000 sounds a hell of a lot better than 5k or whatever it is. You all really have me thinking I must say...

Aligning the engines I'm still confused with... Are you saying you need to hang both engines from the rafters or whatever, align them somehow to something (drives?) and then drill the bracket holes in your new stringer for your mounts?

So I went out after work today and pulled all the exhaust tips they all look fine I didn't pull the last one because it was sealed really good and had no give like the others. I also pulled the plastic caps off the drive indicator cables and checked the sealant around them too and they were sealed very well also.










I then took the drain plug out as suggested by US1 and dug around in there a bit. It was really hard to get unsealed and I had to dig the sealant from out around the hole to get to the wood. It is looks to be very soild.









It looks ok but I then realized that the drain plug is at the very bottom yes but since the boat has a "notched transom" as they call it, the drain plug is set back from the main transom where the drives mount. So if the transom was rotten I think it may be hard to detect any rot from the plug due to this. I then noticed through the drain hole that I can see the main stringer ( the rotten one) and this funny little hole drilled in the end of the stringer! I thought for sure I found the culprit of my rotten stringer...until I poked someting in the end of the hole and it was solid... DAMN!
You can see the hole in this picture:



I then climbed back into the boat and started tapping on the transom a lot harder than before and I cannot detect anywhere where I can say it sounds rotten or "different". Granted the transom is a lot thicker and if it was only slightly rotten I would never hear a difference. Yes I also realize my method is more akin to a crystal ball so I'm not saying this is the "end all" test. I didn't want to start taking core samlpes until I get an estimate or have someone look at it least that has some experience.

I also tapped a lot harder everywhere on the main stringer and it sure sounds solid near the rear of the boat where it touches the transom and a few inches forward of that point. Only the very bottom of it near the bilge pumps and forward sounds hollow as well as the top of it in front of the engine mounts and to the bulkhead. If I was to bet I would say my transom is ok and was not the source of my problems.

I then started wondering about the drains at the bottom of the bulkhead since there was some dried brownish colored drips of nasty looking water coming out of the port side drain Which I had noted when I first started the exhaust project but thought nothing of it at the time and wiped it up. As stated earlier the newer boats do not have these drains but mine does for whatever reason. I started looking real close at the one "leaky" drain and it doesn't look to be sealed very well waaay underneath and behind it. Hard to tell in the pictures and I really wouldn't know until I tore it out if there was a chance water could seep in anywhere from there.







I then decided to follow them up into the very front of the boat and see what was going on and why there would be water coming out of the one into the bilge. I noticed in the compartments under the bed there was a tiny bit of moisture just a little tiny dried "pool". Very odd since I cleaned and dried that area out completely when I first cleaned the boat when we got it. (it was nasty) so there should be no reason for it to be there. (yes the boat is fully covered at all times so it could not have leaked in from the topside) I then remembered there was this funky acess hole/ plug that I never opened up and checked out in the compartment under the step that is leading into the cabin.





I opened it up and guess what? It was VERY wet inside there!!




What in the hell is this acess plug/ hole there for and why the hell is it wet in there?! The hole is not deep at all maybe an inch or two if that...

I know what you are thinking but this hull is a straight bottom so no step...

I store the boat with the front end WAY up so anything will drain back and into the bilge...

Is this moisture what has caused my rotton bulkhead and stringer? Where does this mystery glory hole go? Maybe wherever the moisture in that hole goes has somehow found its way into the rotten area and thus caused my problem?








Funny you mention boots I noticed today my starboard shif cable is not attached at the transom side. It looks like the hose clamp has come loose from where it should be clamped at. Can this cable only leak into the bilge or can it rot your transom also?

The two times we have taken it out since buying it we have put in at Ditlers and ran around on the Columbia in that area. I think you are right it didn't happen overnight so maybe we just play put put around this year and get it fixed next year. My fear with that plan is that by letting it sit over the winer or whatever time frame I have to is that it rots worse!

I bet you are right I wish I didn't know either....ignorance is bliss LOL!