Transom leak

Hi,

What is the boat made of?

It might leak worse in reverse as the water pressure is greater on the transom when going backwards than going forwards.

It's only a little boat can you not get it lifted and whilst it's in the slings have a poke around at the transom and see if it is rotten, I would have thought if it's that rotten your painter would have noticed it when prepping and applying the bottom paint.

The outdrives will need to be removed for the obvious reason that they will have nothing to attach to whence the transom is removed
The engines will be removed for two reasons- first is to protect them from damage being done through the course of a messy fiberglass repair. The second is to create working space for the re-glassing of the new transom.
You may have been steered a little off course with the method of letting the boat sit for 3 months. I would assume that they want to cut out the rotten transom and let the hull sit to dry. This process can be hurried along with the use of vacuum bagging the exposed glass in order to "suck" the water out. I did this on an old hatteras and let the vacuum work for about 5 days before we saw that there was no more moisture being drawn out.
Best of luck!

The outdrive will need to be removed, regardless. The boot is a continuous cylindrical part, so the unit needs to be removed for replacement. It will be obvious if it is the boot- any hole allowing that much water will stick out like a sore thumb.

Hi,

My ship building and maintaining specialty is steel but I would say that even with a Fiberglass boat that hauling is the only to tell for sure what is leaking and if the transom really is "goosed".

The Boots leaking would certainly be the cheapest repair of any of the given scenarios ( Rotten Transom vs perished Rubber)

I can't say for sure how much is involved in dropping the drives to inspect these Boots or if it is even required, no doubt someone with experience with these drives will read this and post with their is experiences.

I was taught that when and if the gell coat fails on a glass composite haul that micro orginisms will start to grow in the glass, then seperating the material causing rott. Poeple doing the repairs should have a devise for detecting the amount of moisture in the glass which I am assuming they did. After seeing how much moisture was in your haul they must had felt your vessel needed to dry out for what ever time before proper repair could be done. I have seen this before in ship yards...

From the initial post, it is my understanding that they haven't used a moisture meter yet- and that they are making an educated guess based on the water flow under different forces.

My guess is that the transom on the CC (although I'm not sure) is a piece of marine plywood laminated between 2 thicknesses of fiberglass. This is common in fiberglass boat building and rotten wood is a common problem.
I've even delayed a lengthy repair by sistering the interior of the transom with several piece of heavy plywood cut to match the transom and several lengths of angle-iron as a stop-gap to get me through the season (**legal disclaimer implied here**)

Hi,

Are the guys who are dealing with it now the same Co that did the bottom paint job when it was out of the water before?

That last post sounds like they may have mis-diagnosed last year and she's been soaking for a long time. Are you sure this boat is worth the trouble and expense? Late 80's and early 90's were not great time for Chris if I remember right. Have you checked the moisture content through the rest of the hull?