Questions

[Eastporter]

I am wondering if anyone can answer these questions (builders). Thanks.

1) Do you have to remove (grind off) glass to seam the two sides of the transom together after removing from the mold (two sides back to one in the mold)? To make it flush, or do you glass over the butt joint and then remove some of your core material?

2) If you are building an open transomed boat for a fishery do you need to make the hull thicker or add knees/structural supports etc. to compensate?

 

[F/V First Team]

The way I do transoms in two-piece molds; after the skin coats and the first few layers (2 or 3) of structure the transom is left alone aside from a few tapes to reinforce the corners. Once the two halves are slid together now the full width transom layers are put in, overlapping the corners here and there just to tie everything in that much more. Once the hull is popped from the mold the seam is ground down on the transom, a few layers of mat are put in as a skin for that seam and it's gelcoated and faired down to match.

A cored boat would be done the same pretty much. After the molds are slid together there should be a few full length layers across the transom then the core material put in and covered over.

For cut out transoms there really isn't much difference, secure it to the top, make your channels on the side so things don't fetch up on their departure and grab the saw. You could go thicker but under normal layup conditions there isn't that much wiggle once you tie everything together and it's not like the hull will collapse onto itself when you cut a section out.

After all, it's not a bayliner

 

[Eastporter]

Thank you Travis. I'm always curious and learning. I appreciate your thoughtful answer. Any new boats on your drawing board? I thought you were toying with a 30' x 13' DE.

 

[F/V First Team]

I have a few projects I'm working on in my spare time