Wow ... lucky or good?

You may recall I had to fabricate entirely new aluminum transom inside and outside skins for my 16' Starcraft. After hammer forming the sheets of 5052 aluminum and riveting them in place, I was extremely pleased to no end that my new transom lined up perfectly to all of the witness marks I had laid out on the boat.

Not only did the motor line up to the new holes, but today I drilled 1" holes in from the outside of the boat in towards the splashwell area. The stock splashwell insert was intact and I was worried about drilling through and making an egg-shaped hole on the inside of the boat. Keep in mind that the splashwell, while 6" deep by the motor, goes up at a pretty good angle, so there was no room to drill through the existing splashwell hole with any tool from the inside of the boat, never mind a 1" hole saw.

So, I took careful measurements, using a framing square and transferred the center of the splashwell hole from the inside current hole, to where I would need to drill through from the outside.

Lookie at the pictures ... a PERFECT strike, straight down the center! Woo hoo, launch weekend is coming up!

NOTE - while the splashwell piece shows is sitting off the inside skin, I have some 'deep throat' bar clamps and I will clamp them together before I use my homemade drain flaring tool to seat the new scupper drains.

Link to NEW aluminum transom fabrication and installation: https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=37548

That's so well done, I suspect you tracked down one of the original fabricators and made him do it for you. He'd be...say 40 when first did it, so...he's 95 now?

Well done.

It hit so close to home I would even suspect you cheated and used the template the boat manufacture had.

Well done my man! Awesome!

Dale, following your past builds, you have experienced so much through
"trial and error" that it is your second nature now to measure
half a dozen times and cut ONCE !! LOL
Your skill level is off the chart, we all stand back and say - wow - good job.

I MIGHT be able to do that if front and back were square to square. But, if the transom was angled, then I'll leave it to the experts....(you).....

I'd have to drill a tiny hole, and then a bigger hole, and then creep up on the real hole. Not much fun with hole saws, I am sure.

richg99