Thread: The 1985 Skeeter SF-175 will need a transom repair

Sometimes it is handy to have a boroscope or endoscope to see what I'm working on, especially when I cannot get a good visual due to barriers preventing a good look. I did capture a decent picture and a couple of videos of what I've been working on today; I'm taking a break because I got tired of sitting on the rolling stool in the same position for a while and need to charge the battery of the boroscope. Apparently, mine is discontinued, although there are plenty of inexensive ones that are good enough for home project use: Amazon.com



A video of carving out the wood:


A video of vacuuming:

After an hour earlier this week, an hour yesterday, and a few hours today, the shop vac collection from last empty to now looks like this.

Because we all (wife, kids, and me) happen to be off for MLK and not much going on Sunday and today, I got bit of carving and scraping done on the boat today. While there are some chunks of wood still needing to be scraped away, it is getting closer to where I can start sanding and planning cuts of coosa board and fiberglass with Rojo (remotely). Below are what my port (left photo) and starboard (right photo) sides of the transom look like going all the way to the side walls:



I know that I still need to do more work on the transverse brace, although ironically, it has been some of the strongest wood that I found in this transom. The is the middle, although the edges (not show still have some wood but are almost done getting chipped away.



Port knee brace (left photo) still needs some work, although the starboard knee brace is mostly cleaned up (right photo):



I still ended up pulling some nice chunks; the rest of the bits that I sucked up with the shop vac are below the chunks:

Looks like a tedious but fun project. Following

Originally Posted by TerryD

Looks like a tedious but fun project. Following

Yes, it is tedious, although it should be worth it in the end. I’m definitely learning a lot as I go through the process.


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I got $5K a transom because nobody here would do the job right. Once you get this done it's done forever. This job is a instance (till you drag another 30 year old boat home. lol) not a pattern. I have never seen a punch thru job that I fixed because of a rotten stringer, no it was because they hit something very solid on a plane. It looks like you're doing everything right to me. Keep Cleanin'

While I did manage to dig out some chunks of wood stuck to the fiberglass skins and opening up passage for 1.5" Coosa board yesterday (not pictured), I finally cleaned up the middle and starboard sections of the transverse brace so that they are ready for sanding.



I plan to chip out the port side tomorrow, which probably won't take but an hour or so now that I figured out a technique with a hammer and long-handle chisel that does wear out my arms, hands, and wrists too badly. So far my 240V 4800W garage heater is keeping the garage around 60-65 degrees F, which is comfortable with a light jacket; when the temperature starts dropping below freezing tomorrow morning, I'm about to find out if it can keep up or not.

That's what I'm talking about. Remember Epoxy is 3000psi adhesion not 300psi like polyester resin so just be sure to butter well before installing new core material. You are looking for enough butter that when tapping the replacement core in place thickened epoxy squeezes out around the sides. At that point once cured the transverse brace can only be removed by cutting it out. That and the knee braces is the same as the foundation of your house. You get that right and movement within the transom is arrested forever.

Check the inner skins for deflection. I used a screwdriver and pressed on areas within the transverse brace. If you find it a bit thin wrapping the inside with a layer of 1708 that has been saturated with epoxy before installing the core should be considered.

I realized after typing a response that I didn't tell you this; the inner 2 edges of the replacement core should be radiused, leave the side facing out square. The radius prevents trapping butter kinda the same reason you radius PVC Pipe before gluing. A square inner edge can scrape away butter where you want it and trap air in the back.