I'm posting this thread because a buddy of mine just recently bought a 2006 (?) 28 Heat mid-cabin with the 496 HO and Bravo X drive. He is getting a pretty steady stream of water coming in around the transom assembly. He took it to a nearby dealer, and he verified it was the transom seal leaking, apparently by filling the hull with water from the inside and looking for the leak from the outside. (I know, sounds strange to me - hopefully he had the boat jacked up at an extreme angle so the starter wasn't floating.)

His dealer told him that he may be able to make it through the summer by applying some silicone around the outside of the transom assembly, and then waiting until fall or winter to pull the engine and transom assembly. My only concern would be the possibility of doing more damage to the hull if this leak is not addressed. I know some boats are not particularly glassed in very well around the transom opening, and a water leak here could lead to a rotten transom. I read that Nordic is no longer using any wood for the coring of their boats. Would this make this a non-issue? When was this change made?

Thanks for any input!

Here is what we found on a 1999 35 Nordic a customer just bought. It had a small leak.

Wow - are you kidding me? On a high end, 35 foot boat they didn't even glass in the cutout for the transom assembly? I sure hope they don't find anything like that in this one! That is just shocking to me. Even my lowly 88 Baja Force 235 had the edges of the transom cutout glassed and woven over. Have you seen multiple boats done this way, or is it possible that someone changed the x-dimension or something and recut the hole without glassing it in?

nordic went to wood free construction in 2008

See this thread:

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...le-marine.html

Mine was a 2005 Rage. There was no identifiable reason for the leak. No impact, nothing. I think this may have been a Nordic issue? When Bob and his guys pulled the drive they noticed that where the template had been screwed on to the transom to facilitate cutting the drive hole there were still holes. They had not been filled. Mind had no transom rot issues, I guess I caught it quick enough.

My advice would be to bite the bullet and have it done as soon as possible. We pay toooooooooooo much money for these boats to squeeze some silicone in and hope it works out.

Copy that, XX14. He called me tonight, and said he had been considering just trying the silicon route, but decided to keep it in the shop because the missus insisted that they get it fixed right. Sometimes Mama knows best!

It can be checked with a moisture meter. No one wants to be down on June 1st, but I would have it checked and repaired properly now. Depending on what repairs need to be done, a good fiberglass shop should be able to turn this around in a week or two.
Regards,
Steve

Was the opening for the transom assembly glassed in, or just raw wood as in the photo above?

Bob told me they use something called forever wood. I didn't see it when the drive was out. Call either Nordic or Bob at Full Throttle Marine.