Soft spot in transom!!

[tsnowIII]

I have a small soft spot (1 sq.ft.) in the port side transom above the waterline... Everything else on the transom sounds very solid! I was told I could drill a few holes and inject a type of epoxy and let it drain and fill to harden up the area instead of ripping out a section from the inside wall and re glassing it that way...

any thoughts on this!!

Capt Trey

[JohnB]

If it is wet, I don't think putting epoxy in there is going to do much good. If it's dry, maybe. Most of the transoms you see tore out on this site are wet. Also, if you ever have to pull that apart, and the epoxy sticks to the skin, your probably going to destroy the skin getting it out.

There is a company here in florida that has something called SeaCast, but they require you to "clean" out the coring before pouring it in. On a smaller boat, with a 50hp motor or less, I think that might not be a bad idea, in bigger boats/motors, I don't think I would do that.

[Bigshrimpin]

For the transom to get "soft" the wood has completely rotted . . . That takes a long time. There's a good chance that the majority of the transom is toast.

[alejmend]

It may sound solid, but its probably not. I thought my transom only had a small area that was "soft", turns out when i cut the outer skin out it was completly rotten. Remember, at least with my boat, thats 30+ years of that wood in there with all those mounting holes which probably let some water into the transom.

[bigeasy1]

Ditto all the above replies.
I thought the transom on my Tsunami I/O only had one small bad spot,so i drilled a few inspection holes with a holesaw in the inside skin.
You guessed it,the whole transom was toast for the most part,and the few areas that weren't rotted,were saturated and on their way to becoming peat moss at some point.
I'd agree with John B about pouring in epoxy,maybe you would luck out,and it would work,but the odds IMO would be against it.