1989 Outrage 22 Cuddy Whaler Drive Rot

[tequinn2595]

Hi all, long time reader first time poster. I just purchased my first big Boston Whale boat after browsing for a few years and waiting for the right deal to come along.

I bought a 1989 OUTRAGE 22 Cuddy with Whaler Drive. The boat is in overall decent shape but needs a good cleaning.

The Whaler Drive has rot from the previous owners installing a transducer but not caulking the screws, and the splash well drain O-rings failing.

The starboard engine mounting bolts have significantly pulled in the fiberglass and cracked the gel coat.

I work in the marine industry and have some experience in doing fiberglass and gelcoat repair so I feel fully confident that I can repair this myself.

Q1: to anyone with first hand experience re-coring the Whaler Drive: is there anything I need to know ahead of time?

Q2: is re-coring a Whaler Drive like replacing a transom?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. For those wondering, I am planning on using either Seacast or Arjay 6011 as a coring material.

Q3: given the age of the boat should I remove the Whaler Drive and re-seal the bolts where they go through the transom?

[BDBinWV]

I have a 1989 REVENGE 22 Whaler Drive. The Whaler Drive has some cracking and crushing at the Whaler Drive mounting bolts.

Within the next year or two I plan on re-coring with Coosaboard.

I will either attempt to dig out the old plywood from the top using a chainsaw or I will cut off the fiberglass exposing the plywood.

The YouTube channel, Boatworks Today, re-cored the transom of an older Boston Whaler a few years ago. Although it was not a Whaler Drive, the process should be the same.

Please keep us posted on how your project goes.

[jimh]

Does the 1989 OUTRAGE 22 CUDDY Whaler Drive boat have twin engines?
Or a single engine?

I am guessing it had twins, because I would not expect the transom splash well drains on a Whaler Drive with a single engine to rest submerged in the water. I have a 1990 REVENGE 22 Whaler Drive with a single engine. The outlets of the transom splash well drains are well above the static waterline.

If the 1989 OUTRAGE 22 CUDDY Whaler Drive boat had twins, there should be an exposed center support tube between the hull transom and the Whaler Drive transom. This was always added on twin engine rigging to give additional support.

On my boat a slight depression can be seen in the gel coat and laminate on the outboard face of the Whaler Drive transom where the four large support bars (that are concealed from view inside the Whaler Drive) exit. I suspect the cause of this was probably from the boat spending about 98-percent of its time on a trailer with no support for the Whaler Drive other than the mounting tubes. Also, my boat has plenty of highway miles getting towed around the upper Great Lakes, and road bumps and jolts may have put some added strain on the mounting tubes.

[jimh]

As far as I know, and as far as I can reasonably anticipate, I would expect the transom of the Whaler Drive was made just like every other Boston Whaler boat transom: there is internal marine plywood reinforcement under the laminate and gel coat.

I have never given any thought to how I would remove the Whaler Drive from the boat. As you know, in addition to the four or five big support tubes, there are a dozen or more large screws that hold the Whaler Drive to the hull. Removing the Whaler Drive looks to me as a big project. Before pulling off the Whaler Drive from the hull, inspect some of those below-the-water-line screws to see if they are still holding and screwed into solid and dry hull and wood.

[tequinn2595]

Thank you for the replies all.

[My 1989 OUTRAGE 22 CUDDY Whaler Drive boat] is currently rigged with twin c.1984 Yamaha 130-HP V4 engines.

I've watched the video regarding the transom replacement. Very informative, and just a great guy to watch.

The depressions in the gelcoat and laminate is mainly around the starboard side engine mounting bolts on the inboard side of the transom. After talking with the previous owner I believe that the starboard motor was removed at some point in the recent past for a powerhead replacement. Perhaps the mechanic greatly overtorqued the mounting bolts causing the depression and cracking.

The Whaler Drive has the center support tube in the splash well.

I purchased the boat with the intention of re-powering with my 2006 E-TEC 250-HP.

I hope by May 16, 2010 I will have the old engines removed, and then I can examine the condition of the Whaler Drive core through the engine mounting bolts and the center support bolt that I will be removing (since I'm going with a single engine re-power).

I will report my findings back once I am at that point.

[jimh]

Here is an article that gives links to a rather long four-part presentation on transom repair:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5437

[quickenberger]

I have read on other forums that replacing the whaler drive bracket with an aluminum Armstrong style bracket reduces significant weight on the transom. If you're going for all original then I suspect there will be a lot of work to do if that needs rebuilt. Are you trying to keep this all original?

[biggiefl]

If going with a single I would not worry about the rot if contained only to the starboard side. If the center is still solid, mount and go.

[tequinn2595]

UPDATE: I removed the original twin engines. The wood in the mounting holes was dry and solid. I decided to push on and removed the center support tube since I will be mounting a single; once again the wood was dry and solid. Drilled the new holes for mounting the a single engine on center line and the wood shavings coming out were consistent with healthy" plywood. For now, I have plugged the old engine mounting holes and center support tube holes with caucked in stainless bolts.

I remounted the single running Yamaha 130-HP engine. I took out the boat yesterday--I was very excited couldn't wait to get it on the water. Much to my surprise the boat handled very well powered by that single 130. The hull planed out nicely and got boat speed topped out at 29.3 MPH SOG. My wife and I instantly fell in love with the new boat once we got it into open water. My wife kept taking the wheel from me and driving.

I think at this point I am convinced that the depressions in the laminate, as another post suggested, are from the boat spending most of its time on the trailer and possibly over-torqued engine mounting bolts.

I am going to run the 1989 OUTRAGE 22 CUDDY WHALER DRIVE boat as-is for the summer.

Once I get the E-TEC engine mounted. I will keep a very close eye out for signs structure breakdown. I want to keep the boat original

I have not much interest in replacing the Whaler Drive with an Armstrong bracket or similar.
I still plan on replacing all drain tubes, as some of them look suspect.

[jimh]

I have read on other forums that replacing the whaler drive bracket [sic] with an aluminum Armstrong style bracket reduces significant weight on the transom.

The Whaler Drive is not a bracket. It is a hull extension with an intentional air gap and hull bottom step. It also creates considerable buoyancy to support its own weight and the weight of large twin engines.

Using an aluminum Armstrong bracket might reduce weight, but it also removes all the buoyancy created by the Whaler Drive. This might work with a single engine re-power, but for twin engines on an Armstrong bracket, the loss of the buoyancy created by a Whaler Drive would be significant.

There is only one classic Boston Whaler boat I can think of that has a full transom and has been fitted with an Armstrong bracket and twin engines. That boat is an OUTRAGE 25 and the twin engines are light-weight small-displacement V6 classic two-stroke engines. That boat rests with a noticeable bow-up trim due to the weight on the transom and lack of any buoyancy in the Armstrong bracket. The bow on that OUTRAGE 25 is very light, and in head seas a lot of engine down-trim is used to keep the bow from being deflected upward by wave action.

[jimh]

By all means, keep the Whaler Drive. The general ride characteristics of a 22-foot classic hull with a Whaler Drive, really a 24-foot boat, are much better the same 22-foot hull without the Whaler Drive . The ride of a 22-foot classic hull with Whaler Drive is extremely gentle. Transition to plane involves almost no bow rise. The longer running surface smooths the ride in short-spaced choppy seas. Having operated a 22-foot classic hull with a Whaler Drive as a REVENGE 22 W-T Whaler Drive for more than ten years, I would never get rid of the Whaler Drive and replace it with an engine bracket that had no buoyancy contribution. I may be losing 1 or 2-MPH of full-throttle speed and 0.1-MPG of fuel economy, but I gladly give up those minor differences in speed and efficiency in return for the ride characteristics of the Whaler Drive. Also, over hundreds of hours of operation, the amount of time spent underway at full-throttle engine speed is around 1-percent or lower of total engine time.

The E-TEC 250-HP should push the boat with the Whaler Drive to more than 45-MPH. I recommend you keep the oil rate on the E-TEC at the standard setting, not at the XD100 only setting. There was a production change in the large V6 engines to improve oil distribution by adding a second distribution pump c.2011.

[jimh]

UPDATE: I removed the original twin engines. The wood in the mounting holes was dry and solid. I decided to push on and removed the center support tube since I will be mounting a single; once again the wood was dry and solid.

Your eventual discovery that the transom of the Whaler Drive was not rotted is very good to know. Often I think some new-to-Boston-Whaler boat owners read too many tales of woe, and expect the worst in their older Boston Whaler boats. If every 30-year-old Boston Whaler boat was a wreck full of rotted wood, water-saturated foam, and leaky aluminum fuel tanks, why would anyone ever buy an old Boston Whaler?

[biggiefl]

"If every 30-year-old Boston Whaler boat was a wreck full of rotted wood, water-saturated foam, and leaky aluminum fuel tanks, why would anyone ever buy an old Boston Whaler?"

Amen! I have been preaching this for years.