Cap separation

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by plusone876

. . . The cracking above the deck line is only the paint peeling away. There is no cracking of the actual transom above the deck or below as far as I can tell. The flexing of the sides is only in the stern but stops about 1' from the transom. Suggestions? A guy in town did the restoration, maybe I can reach out to him.

If it's just thick paint that didn't adhere well, then maybe it is just cosmetic, but I'd be inclined to grind off the paint in that radius with a Dremel tool sanding drum to see if there are any cracks under it!

I noticed what looks like a scupper going out thru the transom, which tells me the original aft seats and splashwell were removed, original vertical scuppers removed/plugged and new cockpit sole extended all the way back to transom. Sometimes most of the interior of a boat is gutted as part of a repair like that, so hard to tell how much of the original liner is still there. If it's done by a guy that doesn't know what he's doing, it's easy to remove some important structural elements! A pic of the entire aft cockpit of the boat would give us a better idea of how much structure is there.

So is there noticeable flexing of the hull sides and/or cap in the back of boat if you push on the hull sides? Were those outside cracks there when you bought the boat?

[plusone876]

I think the cracks were there on the outside. The guy that did the work is very reputable and has done several SeaCrafts, Makos, Chris Crafts, etc. Just minor flexing on the outside of the hull, no movement in the cap at all.

[plusone876]

Pics

[Bushwacker]

Still can't tell much from those pics. Is the view of the cap separation from the top looking down? Unless camera has a macro lens/close up setting, most cameras will be out of focus if you're closer than about 3-4' from subject, so maybe try backing up to about 4' from it and taking a shot from top and side to see if you can get some clearer pictures. Maybe it's just damage from a severe dock walloping incident it it's past life!

Also can't see enough of the inner liner to tell if it's intact. Does it look like the one in attached pic? I suspect the reason that Moesly didn't put any cut outs in the aft portion of inner liner is because of the significant stiffness it adds to the hull. The curvature of the flare in the hull further forward would add significant stiffness up there, so openings that reduce the rigidity of the inner liner in that area are probably ok.

[plusone876]

That picture is from underneath the rub rail and is about 3" away. So no major separation. Definitely no separation on the top. The picture that you posted is too small for me to see. So it sounds like you don't think that it is that major, correct?

[shine]

major loss in stiffness by eliminating the boxes. The cracks at the bottom of the transom/deck and the one on the side show that the transom is flexing the rest of the boat. so the transom is not flexing, but it is transferring forces to the rest of the hull in concentrated area that are too far spread apart.

I don't like to be critical but that is just an awful design. The starboard thing is not helping in any way structurally. You cant cantilever an outboard on a bracket/lift without something more significant back there. Thickness of the transom is only one part of it.

You really need to add some knees or boxes or both.

[Islandtrader]

Originally Posted by shine

I don't like to be critical but that is just an awful design. The starboard thing is not helping in any way structurally. You cant cantilever an outboard on a bracket/lift without something more significant back there. Thickness of the transom is only one part of it.

You really need to add some knees or boxes or both.

That was my thought also...That whole back area should of been a built in, and tabbed in to the floor and sides...that way creating a stronger "box"

This is something that's not a catastrophe...but should be addressed.

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by plusone876

. . . So it sounds like you don't think that it is that major, correct?

Can't say it's NOT major until we know what's under that paint! If it was just one small tight crack in one spot, that's one thing, but to have cracks in 3-4 different areas, it seems like the boat is trying to tell us something!

What does the port side look like? Any cracks like on stbd side or anything going on at the hull/deck joint? Shine is a professional fg guy, so if he's concerned, I wouldn't ignore it. I've heard other professional glass guys say that when they start grinding away glass to do a repair, they often find that damage is much more extensive than they initially thought. That's a very high torque motor you have, and it's not only trying to twist the bracket, the setback creates a 2' or so lever arm to put an additional bending moment into the transom, much more than if the motor was just mounted directly to the transom. If the bracket has a big flotation tub and swim platform like a Hermco, that will spread the motor loads across the entire transom, but if it's only about 1' wide with minimal flotation like a Stainless Marine bracket, that not only concentrates the load, the lever arm created by the setback multiplies the bending moment on the transom!

I stole that picture from the reed smith post in For Sale section but it came out much smaller than I expected. Here's a link to his pictures which include a couple of good shots on a B/M SF cap/inner liner.

[kmoose]

I my opinion it is a tragic mess and needs to be completely reworked. I've seen better laid out transom support on a sailboat.

Sorry, I get a little worked up when I see what some folks get trusting what the last guy did it right.

[ricciprice]

One other thing improper support on a trailer will cause this too, specially with a bracket hanging in the wind.....