Fast Forward

I owned a 1985 Scarab about 15 yrs ago with pretty much the same problem, or at least heading that direction. It was only 5 years old when I bought it and while replacing the tabs notice water coming out of the transom where the screws went in. Simply looked like a lack of caulk when it came out of the factory. Also removed the clam shells up higher with the same issue. The boat I had, had the finished liner in it so I'm not sure if maybe there was water getting trapped in bewteen hull bottom and liner with no where to go ?

syclone

i fitted 2 water pick-ups to my transom just today. when drilling the holes for it (about 2" from the bottom up), the wood was moist and soft. i didnt have any skin damage in this area so i had to find an explanation. heres what i think:

• scarabs have a good hull design
• scarabs are very lazily built. i have all sorts of wrongdoings in my hull, starting with extreme variations in layer thickness. if you find gelcoat spider cracks in no-stress areas, chances are the next layer underneath (most likely chopped fibers) is thin or non-existent in this area
• wellcraft used the worst quality wood i have ever seen
• in my boat, water that entered at the seam between hull and deck (badly sealed; the two halves fell apart when we removed the screws to take the rubrail off ) was able to run down between the wooden transom reinforcement board and the outer skin. there are lots of cavities there as the wood is glued/sealed in without any care (in fact, the board is out of angle in whatever direction you will check it

i still love this boat (i have to since i am putting $$$ into it...), but the craftsmanship sucks big time.

i will post the whole story when i have finished it (loads of pics taken from the beginning on)

peter
austria (not australia)

Fast Forward

I'll agree on the poor quality! My old Scarab had large areas with spider cracks in areas that there should not have been any. I to ran into completely rotted out areas of the interior and the boat was only 5 years old. But what more could you expect when they put cup holders with drain holes that would drain inside an all wood panel?? I still will admit they have some of the most beautiful lines of any boat out there. Just a shame they couldn't take a little more time on how they built them.

Greg Mc

I too own an older Scarab. '86 21'. Right after buying the boat I had to replace the bulkhead just under the cabin door. When it comes to the hull liner in the engine compartment, has anyone cut out the bottom out of it so you can get to the trapped water without removing the plug to drain it? Due to a spun rod bearing the engine is out of the boat right now so it would be pretty easy.

Cord

iTrader: (2)

Through your searched you'll come across a "pourable transom filler". The product looks pretty neat. You take your rotted transom (which is hollow) and you pour this product into it. Presto! A new transom! I call BS! The transom will be heavy and have poor structural integrety. This might work for a 18' fishing boat, but it's not acceptable for a high performance boat.

syclone

couple more tips:

bottom of the bilge, there´s a piece of wood laminated in where the bilge pump is mounted with self-tapping screws. "laminated" is actually ironic, it is just a piece of glass soaked with resin and thrown over the wood. of course, no way is it water tight and the pockets around the wood are full of bilge water and oil. rip it out in any case, you will then have to remove (grind away) the most likely delaminated parts of the bilge floor.

while youre at it, also rip out all the floorboards in the engine bay, the wood will be deteriorated and there may be a lot of chopped fibers which they sprayed in but without enough resin to soak them; this you will find again and again in all of the boat, most likely behind the transom, too (between transom wood board and the swim platform, that is). must be removed or soaked with resin or they will trap moisture big time.

oh yeah, and for the cockpit floor: rip it out, too. its the same crap material and too weak, i added a 3mm thick aluminum plate under a new floorboard. no more rocking-chair feeling.

after putting all new wood in i poured polyurethane foam into all the cavities which adds strength and, unfortunately, weight.

btw, your boat looks really nice aside from the restoration needed.

good luck

peter
austria

kmiller

Well I went to the Port Huron races to day. Did not see much but it did give me a need kick to get working. So I came home at 5pm and took a peek behind a small section of glass, the wood was like cedar chips. So from 5-9pm I got a good start. The only good wood was 3" around the drive, and from the drive up between the exhaust. I will have to take that layer by layer. Not vary hard so far, a Little itchy. Kyle

bryanspeedracer

Don't get discouraged. I'm sure that when my Fountain was built, they used quality materials. Twenty years of use and any boat will have rotten wood. The bottom line is that any time you drill a hole in the hull (anywhere) seal it with resin.
I too looked at the SeaCast product. For me, using wood (marine grade) and epoxy the end result was still less expensive than the pourable composite. Plus, do you really want to leave ANY of the old wood in a repair? Rot is like cancer and after the transom is sealed, the moisture just eats away at the wood. This job is not easy, but it isn't impossible.

Hey Peter, Throw another shrimp on the barbie!!!

CAP071

The joys of boating.

Audiofn

I used a air chissle and gasket scraper to get as much of the wood off as I could. You could also use a wood chissle also.

You can not be all that itchy, your boat does not look like this yet.....