Mike Ratko
Well-Known Member
Last summer I towed my '01 Nitro 882 from Detroit to Salt Lake City. When I went to put the plug in the boat before my first outing, I noticed a disturbing crack in the transom. Here is what it looked like after I took the motor off.
During my investigation, I also noticed that the transom had separated from the hull top. I posted a message about this last July. I thought the two were connected. It turns out that they weren't. The open transom cap did allow some water in the transom but I had it checked out and the transom was declared rot free. It was a good thing because the "specialist" (Ralph at Ralph's Boat Repair in South SLC) said there was no way to replace the transom in the [882]. But what he did explain was this:
The transom consists of plywood encapsulated in fiberglass (and gelcoat on the outside). He explained that what probably happened is that there was separation in the transom layer somewhere and this allowed flex. The gelcoat being very brittle, cracked from the movment of the motor on the long trip from Detroit. The two pieces of gelcoat kept rubbing back and forth and opened up.
Last summer I repaired the area of the crack with fiberglass cloth and this Layup & Laminating Epoxy from The Rot Doctor (www.rotdoctor.com). Subsequently, the area continued to crack - though less that before. Ralph suggested that I get a bit more agressive in my treatment and grind back to the wood and rebuild the affected area with fiberglass mat instead of cloth. So the next day, the motor came off once again and I took the grinder to the affected area. I went just a few millimeters past last summer's repair when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a void!:
I went a bit further and you can see that it just kept getting better:
I followed the "void" that was wet with water until it went away:
The plywood that I exposed was damp from the water that got in via the open transom crack. After drying that out, I rebuilt the area with the fiberglass mat and Layup & Laminating Epoxy and made sure to build it out past the transom so I could sand it back down to the right shape. This was recommended by Ralph to ensure that the surface was very hard and robust.
After sanding it down, I applied a coat of epoxy past to fill in some minor imperfections:
After sanding the epoxy paste down, I applied some gelcoat and reassembled everything.
I have not been able to take the boat out since I just finished it on Saturday. The weather out here is miserable. I am confident that this will do the trick.
I hope this helps someone some day. It has been a very frustrating year trying to figure this out.
Good boating....
Mike
During my investigation, I also noticed that the transom had separated from the hull top. I posted a message about this last July. I thought the two were connected. It turns out that they weren't. The open transom cap did allow some water in the transom but I had it checked out and the transom was declared rot free. It was a good thing because the "specialist" (Ralph at Ralph's Boat Repair in South SLC) said there was no way to replace the transom in the [882]. But what he did explain was this:
The transom consists of plywood encapsulated in fiberglass (and gelcoat on the outside). He explained that what probably happened is that there was separation in the transom layer somewhere and this allowed flex. The gelcoat being very brittle, cracked from the movment of the motor on the long trip from Detroit. The two pieces of gelcoat kept rubbing back and forth and opened up.
Last summer I repaired the area of the crack with fiberglass cloth and this Layup & Laminating Epoxy from The Rot Doctor (www.rotdoctor.com). Subsequently, the area continued to crack - though less that before. Ralph suggested that I get a bit more agressive in my treatment and grind back to the wood and rebuild the affected area with fiberglass mat instead of cloth. So the next day, the motor came off once again and I took the grinder to the affected area. I went just a few millimeters past last summer's repair when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a void!:
I went a bit further and you can see that it just kept getting better:
I followed the "void" that was wet with water until it went away:
The plywood that I exposed was damp from the water that got in via the open transom crack. After drying that out, I rebuilt the area with the fiberglass mat and Layup & Laminating Epoxy and made sure to build it out past the transom so I could sand it back down to the right shape. This was recommended by Ralph to ensure that the surface was very hard and robust.
After sanding it down, I applied a coat of epoxy past to fill in some minor imperfections:
After sanding the epoxy paste down, I applied some gelcoat and reassembled everything.
I have not been able to take the boat out since I just finished it on Saturday. The weather out here is miserable. I am confident that this will do the trick.
I hope this helps someone some day. It has been a very frustrating year trying to figure this out.
Good boating....
Mike
