Starting the AA Broadbill project

S

ScottCK

Active member
As I said in a previous post, I picked up this Broadbill at a really good price. When I registered it, the state had it as a 1978 and had not been in the water in over 20 years. Overall, I thought it was in good shape but i quickly realized that the transom wood is completely gone. Does have the original canvas top but it is a little dry and needs to be replaced. Some of the small mounting hardware is in need of replacement as well. Not too upset about based on the boat price but I am starting on a bigger project than I had planned on. While playing with it last weekend (taking off the dried-out rub rail), I discovered that pulling the top off was not going to be too difficult as the glue had dried out in most places. Taking the top off gives me good access to the full transom and it only took me about an hour to get the top completely free. The floatation foam on the bottom of the top half appears to be completely dry and in good shape. Plenty of questions coming on the process as I move forward....
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The day I got home with it. Was in bad need of a bath as it must have been sitting under a pine tree for a couple years.
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I’m not an experienced boat builder like some of you but I’m pretty sure that having an actual puddle of water between the inner and outer skins of the transom is not ideal (a little hard to see in the photo ). Tried to see if I could just dig out the old wood (and got a lot of it) but think I need to cut the inner skin out for full access.

How close to the hull should I cut it? Wondering about the rebuild process and what is needed / helpful to rebuild. I don’t think I can get all the way to the bottom when cutting it out because of the floor. I did a good check of the floor and it is solid so I don’t want to mess with it.

The center section of the transom is 1.5” thick and the rest is 1” thick. If I go with 1.5” Coosa Board, can I use a router to trim the ccosa so I can fit in the 1” area from the floor to the hull?

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ScottCK said:
I’m not an experienced boat builder like some of you but I’m pretty sure that having an actual puddle of water between the inner and outer skins of the transom is not ideal (a little hard to see in the photo ). Tried to see if I could just dig out the old wood (and got a lot of it) but think I need to cut the inner skin out for full access.

How close to the hull should I cut it? Wondering about the rebuild process and what is needed / helpful to rebuild. I don’t think I can get all the way to the bottom when cutting it out because of the floor. I did a good check of the floor and it is solid so I don’t want to mess with it.

The center section of the transom is 1.5” thick and the rest is 1” thick. If I go with 1.5” Coosa Board, can I use a router to trim the ccosa so I can fit in the 1” area from the floor to the hull?

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I have no experience but a product called "sea cast" might work well on that transom hard to tell from pictures.
 
My thought is to cut out the inner skin so I can remove all the wood, rotten or not. Don’t think there is much in the “not” category. Then epoxy coosa board to the outer skin. I was told that there is no need to glass it in.

Josh, I have looked at the liquid transom products but I would still have to cut out the inner skin then fiberglass it back in before pouring the product in. Also can’t get a good feel for how good of a solution that is. I see it being used on some big boats with big outboards and this boat is on rated for a 20ph I think. The transom is only 1” thick so that may be an issue. It would be slightly cheaper.
 
Scott,
Again, not an expert but if this a stitch and glue boat, I would be suspicious of your hull where it joins the transom. I've read just a little about Coosa board but I think it's hard to beat plywood for a building material. It is very economical and properly done, your repair should outast the remainder of the boat. I don't know how familiar you are with this method of construction but would highly recommend Sam Devlin's book. Again, I have no idea how far the rot extends. Worst case scenario you decide to build new and your wife gets a new flower bed! Hopefully some of the more experienced members who have done restoration will chime in. Richard
 
Richard, this is a factory boat so there is no concern with rot mitigation to other parts. The hull is all fiberglass and the only other wood is the floor which I have checked out and not found any issues. Did find an old beer can under the floor while checking it out. 😂
 
ScottCK said:
Richard, this is a factory boat so there is no concern with rot mitigation to other parts. The hull is all fiberglass and the only other wood is the floor which I have checked out and not found any issues. Did find an old beer can under the floor while checking it out. 😂
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Just cut out whatever will be easier to fix. It is the typical in larger boats with wet transoms to just cut the outer skin off and then fix from the outside. People usually cut a few inches in to not mess up the transom edges/corners and then drop the new wood in from the top. usually people salvage the outer fiberglass skin and bond it on and then patch the cut area, but there is no reason to do that, you can just lay glass on and finish that new glass. Given what I'm seeing for finish on that boat, I'd cut the outer (easier than inner), replace the wood and lay new fresh glass on it. It sounds destructive, but the argument can be made that the more you take apart the better you will get that new transom material bonded in. When you put the transom wood/coosa in, bed it in an epoxy putty mix (epoxy and wood flour or cabosil) to get good contact and lots of squeeze out.
 
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Unless someone here, REALLY disagrees with this plan, I think cutting along the edge of the inner skin with my multi-tool is going to be easiest. Multi-tool will not remove much material and I can get pretty tight to the hull/floor which will give me good access to the complete area. The area around the drainplug is a bit of a concern as I dont know if I need to cut it out or just cut above it.boat1.jpeg Attacking from the inside means I will not need to deal with a gelcoat.

I do need to know what fiberglass material I would need to put the skin back in once I have the rotted wood out and the area cleaned. I have never done fiberglass so if someone can provide a 1st grade explanation of what materials I would need and where is the best place to get them, I would greatly appreciate it. Not looking at a lot of area as the boat is only 48" wide and 18" at the tallest point (8" at the sides)

Thanks!
 
ScottCK said:
Unless someone here, REALLY disagrees with this plan, I think cutting along the edge of the inner skin with my multi-tool is going to be easiest. Multi-tool will not remove much material and I can get pretty tight to the hull/floor which will give me good access to the complete area. The area around the drainplug is a bit of a concern as I dont know if I need to cut it out or just cut above it.View attachment 63851 Attacking from the inside means I will not need to deal with a gelcoat.

I do need to know what fiberglass material I would need to put the skin back in once I have the rotted wood out and the area cleaned. I have never done fiberglass so if someone can provide a 1st grade explanation of what materials I would need and where is the best place to get them, I would greatly appreciate it. Not looking at a lot of area as the boat is only 48" wide and 18" at the tallest point (8" at the sides)

Thanks!
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There is a hard way and a really hard way, inside is much harder. The gelcoat does not look very good in the photos, FYI, that it why I said go from the outside.

Like is said, stay several inches away from the edges/corners, that will increase the difficulty 10 fold and you are already increasing the difficulty several fold working from the inside.

You seem to want to do things the harder than hard way, so have at it (that is how I usually do things). When I decide to do things that way, I figure that I'm capable of figuring it out myself and just go with it.
 
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Tod, not trying to offend and really don't want to make things more difficult. I just don't really understand how cutting out the outside would be easier based on the access I have to the complete area. That said, this is my first time doing this so that is why I am asking for inputs from the pros here.

In my mind, which is questionable, I would think that if I cut the inner skin out at the corners of the hull and floor, I can just fiberglass it back in using the hull and floor as bonding points. the only place that would have a flat seam would be the area around the drain hole. If I cut the outer skin off (a couple inches in from the edges), I would have basically the same access and would have flat joints all the way around to deal with and will need to gelcoat it. (the boat is going to be painted at some point)

Please explain where my thinking is wrong (honest request and not a SA question)?
 
ScottCK said:
Tod, not trying to offend and really don't want to make things more difficult. I just don't really understand how cutting out the outside would be easier based on the access I have to the complete area. That said, this is my first time doing this so that is why I am asking for inputs from the pros here.

In my mind, which is questionable, I would think that if I cut the inner skin out at the corners of the hull and floor, I can just fiberglass it back in using the hull and floor as bonding points. the only place that would have a flat seam would be the area around the drain hole. If I cut the outer skin off (a couple inches in from the edges), I would have basically the same access and would have flat joints all the way around to deal with and will need to gelcoat it. (the boat is going to be painted at some point)

Please explain where my thinking is wrong (honest request and not a SA question)?
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If you cut there, you need to run your glass across all those inside corners and bumps, that is much harder to do then working on the flat. You will be using a heavy glass that may not even want to take those bends, especially the junction of inside corner with inside corner. That is your first 10 times harder.

If you work in the corners you have to sand the inside corners. Do you own a sander that will fit in the inside corners, especially where inside corners meet inside corners? You are going to have to cut and pleat the crap out of what you do on the inside and that will have to be sanded. Maybe you won't sand... Glassing novices often benefit from a sanding touch up at the end and, either way, you need to thoroughly sand to prepare the glass before starting. That is your second 10 times harder.

You have made a plea to be spoon fed, but you keep spitting the food out.
 
tod osier said:
If you cut there, you need to run your glass across all those inside corners and bumps, that is much harder to do then working on the flat. You will be using a heavy glass that may not even want to take those bends, especially the junction of inside corner with inside corner. That is your first 10 times harder.

If you work in the corners you have to sand the inside corners. Do you own a sander that will fit in the inside corners, especially where inside corners meet inside corners? You are going to have to cut and pleat the crap out of what you do on the inside and that will have to be sanded. Maybe you won't sand... Glassing novices often benefit from a sanding touch up at the end and, either way, you need to thoroughly sand to prepare the glass before starting. That is your second 10 times harder.

You have made a plea to be spoon fed, but you keep spitting the food out.
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Additionally, that floor looks just tabbed in after the fact. If you cut next to it where is your repair going to anchor to? You need several inches of sanded back glass to get the structure you need to build back on to.
 
ScottCK said:
I can see your point about the corners being an issue.
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Do you see how you need a few inches of cleaned up glass to tie the old to new? People typically sand a few inch long taper around the perimeter and then extend each layer further and further on to that taper. Watch some transom replacement videos on youtube.
 
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