So I took the boat out on Saturday to Lake Wawayanda for a float test. Happily, it passed with flying colors, so I loaded up my trolling motor and did some fishing.
Less happily, the fish decided to not cooperate with the venture. It was pretty rough fishing conditions anyway... water temp was 37°, air temp upper 20°s... I had to keep picking the ice off my guides.
Anyway, now that I was sure it was not taking on water, it was time to make the boat ready to hang an outboard on. So that meant replacing the old worn out transom.
I don't know if this was the original transom or not. The model plate has been remounted at least once, so I am guessing it was replaced at some point. Then again, the hardware seemed to match the rest of the boat, so maybe not. I haven't been able to find any more information on this type of boat to know for sure if this was the original design. It was constructed of a strip of 3/4" x 6" plywood with an additional layer of 1/2" plywood for mounting the motor. It was held to the boat with 5 rivets.
The motor mounting strip is just held in place with 4 brads. I have no idea how this little thing was rated for a 10 HP motor.
After the 5 rivets were drilled out, I was able to remove the old transom and see that it was rotted on the back side. Good riddance!
After doing a lot of reading on this website and whatever else I could find on google, I decided that I was going to use solid hardwood to rebuild the transom. I came to this conclusion because I could build the main part of the transom from a single piece and not have to deal with lamination or big areas of open grain to seal against water intrusion. At the lumber yard, I selected a 5/4" x 8" white oak board (actual measurements slightly smaller).
Using the old transom as a template, I cut my board to size. The new transom is 2" deeper and about 1/3" thicker than what it is replacing. It is immensely stronger. Because it is larger, I had to notch the back side of the transom in order to clear the aluminum transom to floor bracket.
I put a scrap wood block on the outside of the transom and then used clamps to pull the aluminum back in line with the transom where it should be. While held in place with clamps, I drilled holes at the location of the original 5 rivets and installed stainless bolts. I then added two additional bolts along the new bottom edge of the transom.
The rear grab handles had just been riveted to the sheet metal originally, so I went ahead and drilled and bolted them through the transom as well. Now the boat doesn't want to bend when you lift it and I have 4 more bolts strengthening the transom. I don't know why they didn't do it this way at the factory.
So, the 5 little rivets are now replaced with 11 stainless bolts and the transom is nice and
strong. I put the motor on it and see how things sat.
This is a piece of 1x1 wood clamped to the cavitation plate to make it easy to see where things sit with relation to the bottom of the boat.
Cav plate is sitting 3" below the bottom of the boat. "Crap" I think to myself, that is too low. I'm pretty new to boats, but again research here and elsewhere seemed to indicate that I would be better off with the cavitation plate about 1-2" below the boat.
So, I built a small transom extension from a 10 1/2" length piece of my oak board.
3 more bolts hold this on there, bringing the total to 14. Overkill? Perhaps... but after seeing how bent up the transom got with the old set up (towards the back, from the weight of the outboard), I just don't want to have to do it again.
Using my table saw, I notched about 1/3" thickness off of the top 2 1/2" of the board in order to provide clearance for the motor clamps.
Then I sliced some spacers from my oak board until I got the outside of the extension to line up with the aluminum transom rail.
Sears boat gets a Sears motor, it is only right. My Gamefisher looks a bit happier at its new higher perch.
Now the plate sits exactly 1" below the boat at the most reasonable trim hole setting. Idea achieved.
I was anxious to see how my new transom and extension worked before waterproofing them in case modification was required. It was pretty cold and windy today, but I decided to get the boat on the water headed over to Lake Hopatcong this afternoon. Here's my little boat at the dock of the Lake Hopatcong State Park boat ramp.
She sits pretty well in the water with just the motor, 5 gallons of gas and some safety gear aboard. Sits not quite as nicely in the water when I am on the driver's bench, but not so bad. I need to get some longer hoses and some straps to mount the gas tank all the way in the bow.
So, on to performance... I have to say that I found the results to be "scary fast"!! :shock:
:twisted: At least for me who has not done very much power boating it was quite amusing. Getting on a plane from standstill was easy, and took between 3 and 4 seconds. Wide open I was doing about 24 mph. The boat sure was bouncing and rattling around though because there was about a 1' chop on the lake today with 15 mph sustained winds and higher gusts. Things could get a little squirrely when a gust changed direction real quick. I am thinking that on a day with better weather I should be able to hit 26 maybe 27 mph.
At the trim setting I though would be good (3rd hole out from transom of 4 on motor bracket) I was getting some porpoising at speed. Moving to the 2nd hole seemed to reduce this somewhat, but at the expense of some directional authority and turn stability... she power slid through turns. I want to go back on a day with calmer winds to see if that was part of the issue.
When I am happy with it, I am going to pull it out and bond all the parts together and laminate a sheet of aluminum the size of the extension in the middle of the stack. Then seal it up with a couple coats of fiberglass resin and bolt it back in with some 5200 on the bolt shafts and heads.
Any thoughts? Suggestions for improvement?
Tom