MONTAUK 17 Transom Repair Due to Rotted Wood

Repair or modification of Boston Whaler boats, their engines, trailers, and gear
routlirh
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:45 pm

MONTAUK 17 Transom Repair Due to Rotted Wood

Postby routlirh » Sun Aug 22, 2021 11:10 am

There has been water ingress into the transom of my 1985 MONTAUK 17 boat. A 2017 E-TEC 90 was installed on the transom (some time earlier) and due to the shallow splash well the installer used lag bolts for the lower mounting bolt. Predictably, this has permitted water ingress and wood rot, and the lag bolts have lost their grip.

Please offer advice on repair options.

jimh
Posts: 11672
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
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Re: MONTAUK 17 Transom Repair Due to Rotted Wood

Postby jimh » Sun Aug 22, 2021 2:12 pm

I cannot offer any first-hand advice about removing rotted wood embedded in the transom of a Boston Whaler boat, because actually I have never performed that repair.

In this case the extent of the rot is not yet determined or explained. If the rot is confined to near the holes used for the lag screws used for the lower engine mounting holes, you may be able to remove just the rotted wood in that area by working through the existing hole in the transom. A product called GIT-ROT is often mentioned; I have no experience with it. More at

https://www.boatlife.com/boatlife-blog/ ... e-git-rot/

If there is extensive rot of all the wood in the transom, a complete tear-off of all the wood may be needed. Search the archive for articles on this topic. For example:

Go to BING.COM
Enter this as the search argument:
site:continuouswave.com repair rotted wood in transom

The 3,900 results will provide a lot of reading

Here is the URL for that search:

LINK

Regarding the methods for properly mounting a BIA transom mounting bracket to a boat with a shallow engine splash well, there already are several articles on precisely that topic. See

Transom Mounting Hole Layout for Shallow Splash Well
https://continuouswave.com/forum/viewto ... f=7&t=5808

See the FAQ at

Q8: How Does the Engine Mount to the Transom?
https://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/FAQ/#Q8

The use of lag screws is really not the cause of the problem. More likely the absence of proper sealant is the cause.

dtmackey
Posts: 760
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2017 9:29 pm

Re: MONTAUK 17 Transom Repair Due to Rotted Wood

Postby dtmackey » Mon Aug 23, 2021 10:06 am

Sounds like the person who mounted the motor mounted it it too low and the bottom mounting holes were lower than the motor well allowed. Stay away from that dealer.

There are several ways to address the transom and I'm a fan of skinning from the outside. Here is a vid series that SpinFish did on his Whaler and it will give you a step by step on how he went about it. I'm not supporting or disagreeing with his choice of materials and I've done transoms slightly different.

Vid #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19I5jfGKCFM

Vid #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yspUgeTXeEo

Vid #3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENKmemLfLa0

I've seen countless Whalers with damaged transom drain tubes that causes wet transom cores. Always inspect those for corrosion, expecially in salt water where the boat stays in the water moored or slipped.


D-