I am in the process of restoring my fathers 1979 Hallett that he picked up new from the factory in SoCal. 'Old Yeller' has been an integral part of our family summers. My extended family (15-20 of us) have a yearly summer trip to Lake Tahoe where we rent a large house in the Tahoe Keys and spend time together out on the lake. We have been every year for the last 42 years with the exception of one year! So, lots of sentimental value to all of us. That being said, I acknowledge that this project makes NO financial sense at all.

As with most projects, the scope has grown a lot amount. It started with a plan by my father to replace the tired Mercruiser 5.7L 260 with an inexpensive 383 stroker. I will inherit the boat and have had bigger long-term plans for upgrading it. I explored what the options were and realized we could have a ~409sbc or even a 427sbc built for not much more money. I figured, why not? (Queue Jeremy Clarkson "MORE POWER!!!!"). I am having a marine customized version of Smeding's Mighty Mouse 427 built along with a custom Jones Cam, which should be good for about 525hp/550tq. This led to the need to replace the Alpha transom assembly and stern drive with a Bravo HP transom assembly and Bravo 1XZ stern drive along with a more free flowing exhaust (Stainless Marine headers and custom exhaust design).

I'm sure I am going to have more questions for all of you OffShore Only gurus through this process, so I created this thread to consolidate my questions in one place instead of peppering the forums with lots of new threads!

Here are a couple photos of the boat

I started disassembling the boat over the last two weeks (interior, pulled the stern drive, pulled the engine, and removed the transom assembly). I found that at least the right stringer and a portion of the transom has dry rot, so I dropped it off with a marine shop near Sacramento to be fully inspected. Initial report confirmed that is that the full right stringer, rear part of left stringer, and a portion of the transom have dry rot. The shop is saying that the whole transom should be replaced because the non dry-rotted regions are wet, so its just a matter of time until it rots. I don't have a quote yet, but I am sure it won't be pretty.

I do want to get multiple quotes for the repair. Do you guys have any recommendations for good fiberglass repair shops within 150 miles of the Bay Area?

*Update from the first shop*
- Right stringer fully dry rotted.
- Left stringer 30% dry rotted, but will need 50% minimum patch for structural reasons.
- Transom is partially rotted, but wet throughout, so shop is suggesting full replacement.
- New floor will be needed since the existing will be ripped out to access the stringers.

Labor and materials quote is about $15k

Yikes! First of all....awesome boat/build! Not a huge amount of stuff like this on here but I love the old day cruisers...my old man is in the process of building an old beisemeyer as we speak.

Anyway...I think 15k is a little extreme on price but maybe what the going rate is now? If you are handy in the least and can watch youtube, I can promise you could figure out the transom and stringers and save about 13k lol especially in that boat with everything pretty much wide open its not that hard at all.

15k is way high. Go shopping!

Thanks guys. Yeah, although the project is turning into something much bigger than I intended, I am still enjoying the whole process. It will be worth it when the whole boat is ready for the next 45 years!

I have been calling around and lining up some other shops to get competitive bids. Fingers crossed they are lower than this first shop.

I also work with a team of composite engineers that built the Oracle race yacht in their former lives. One of them thinks that this is something I could take on myself with him advising, but I (and my old man) are skeptical of our abilities to do this properly. Seems like a huge job for someone with no glass experience.

I would think with his help you could. You already have the boat stripped. If I was you I would do the full transom and stringers.

I found a shop that is doing the work for a substantially lower price. They have discovered that, although not all of the stringers/bulkheads/decking are rotten, they are all 100% water logged. At this point, I'm leaning towards having them replace everything. They are planning to replace the transom with Coosa, but I have to decide if I want to have them replace the stringers, bulkheads, and deck with Coosa as well.

My understanding is that the Coosa is not as stiff as laminated marine plywood. Does the stiffness of the stringers depend on the core material (Coosa vs wood) or on the layers of glass wrapped around it? Besides the cost increase, are there other reasons to not use Coosa for the stringers and deck?

I am not a pro in this but most will use it in the stringers, on the transom it is a bit strange. Some old school guys I know do not like it on the transom because how it will compress when putting the transom assemblies in.

Last one we did even thought its a low tq number you still hear the compression. Talked to a guy the other day and he said he will TQ, then wait a day or to and TQ again just to make sure. I forget what Scott told me he uses at Velocity in the transoms.

Big thing is making sure rigging is sealed. I will run a screw in then back it out, put 4200 in the hole and run the screw in tight.

After talking though the options, we decided to have them replace the transom, stringers, and bulkheads with 26lb Coosa and the floor with marine grade plywood with a veil on both sides to seal it up. The transom is essentially done and they are starting on the rest of the structure this week. The engine should be on the dyno next week, so seems that things are coming together.

Updates...

Does anyone in the central valley or bay area have the bravo transom drill jig (Mercury P/N 91-43693A2) that I could rent from you?