Transom Rot or Not?

[Lord Farringdon]

Hi,

I have a 2005 hull (launched 2007) and to cut a long story short, this boat has had water in the bilge for most of its short life I think. I have at last managed to fix all the rain water ingress areas but was perplexed when immediately after draining, drying and cleaning the bilge out, I started getting salt water in through what I thought was the transom drain plug. Hauled the boat out and put some teflon tape around the plug threads and re-inserted. (I noted afterwards that others suggest not putting teflon tape around these plugs as it is not designed for the marine environment. Fair point.). Anyway, it didn't work and leaking seawater continued. The leaking wasn't great, more seeping really and I have been keeping my eye on it.

Strangely I visited the boat today and expected to see the bilge semi filled but was surpised to see no more then half a sponge full if that. It seems the flow has stopped altogether.

I have just purchased an inspection camera which has made a detailed view of the area much easier and I was a little horrified at what I saw. This is a view looking aft along the bottom of bilge centreline to the transom drain plug.

This looks like transom rot? If so, I may have a major problem here. I suspect the source of seawater flow was in fact water draining out of the transom after the bilge had been dried out. I equally suspect it has all drained out now and so the flow has stopped.

Here is a picture of the engine bay showing the difficulty at which veiwing the drain hole has been.

A couple of views looking into the aft bilge from both sides of the engine. Nothing jumped out at me when I took these images.

This a view of the transom shield giving detail of the transom cross section. (This a view from the top and shows the the steering shaft bearing and bushes being replaced).

So what you guys think. Transom rot or not? Is it just gunge from dirty bilge water? What is the transom made of? What is rotting? But more importantly, what do I do to fix it? :huh:

Terry

 

[David Paul]

When I had a 260DA I asked the dealer about transom coring and at the time was told there was no wood coring. The 260DA and 270AJ are essentially the same hull. A call to Sea Ray might be in order to confirm that.

 

[Lord Farringdon]

Thanks Guys. E-mailed SR to day. I'll see what they have to say!

 

[Lord Farringdon]

Hi Guys,

Just thought I'd follow up on this one which seems to be a mystery solved!. I contacted Sea Ray. I must say their e-mail reponse from the searay.com site is pretty slick and they didn't tell me to go away and check with the agent who sold the boat in NZ. They said the transom is all fibreglass except for the centre portion which is strengthened with marine timber. Since the centre portion is where my problem was, that wasn't particularly encouraging.

I hauled the boat again!! I had it out in May for antifoul and stern drive check, June to check security of transom drain plug and this month so my boat builder could give me an assessment of this leakage problem. :smt013

Anyway, the first thing my boat builder guy did was remove the transom drain thru-hull and he said it just fell out! He reckons the sealant in there wasn't good below water sealant and he was 99 percent sure that's where the problem lay. They tapped all around the transom and he reassured me that there was no rot in there. He also said the wood centrepiece does not extend down that far and the area around the drain plug is all fibreglass, albeit a little scungy from dirty bilge water.

So with a nice dry bilge, the boat re-entered the water. Winter in Auckland this year has been characterised by continuous wind and rough seas and even the marina had some small white caps on this day. Of course my slip is 90 degrees to the 15 kt gusting 25 knot breeze ripping down the fairway. With not much in the water and a lot of canopy and boat above the water, the wind and I squared off as I turned into the slip. A heavy gust just blew the stern to port and before I knew it was being blown down the fairway into the corner where the first slip and the rock wall are! Fortunately, I had the Dockmaster on standby and his agility at bouncing across four boats to grab me and stop me hitting another boat and the wall was simply outstanding. :smt038

The wind subsided and with a couple of blips on the throttle I had things under control again and the boat was slipped and lines attached. I thanked the Dockmaster and went into the ER to check on the drain plug and make sure all was good. My heart sank when I saw there was half a bucket of water in there! Mine was the last lift of the day and with all the fluffing about trying to get into the slip, my boat builder had gone for the day. So, I sponged out the water and watched as water seemed to seep from above the transom plug area again. This a nightmare!!

I rang my boatbuilder who monitored the bilge over the next few days (during which time it rained) and he reported that there was no leaking. Now its a confusing nightmare. Has this boat got a problem or hasn't it?? where did all that water in the bilge come from in the time it took me to travel from the boat lift to the slip?

We took the boat to sea with a dry bilge and my boat builder got me to do tight turns to port and starboard. We stopped and there it was again, more water in the bilge. :smt021 But it was fresh, not seawater.

We did the same procedure again and this time the source of the water (from both sides of the boat) was determinded to be from the limber drains. What? Never heard of them? But, according to the Sea ray Owners Manual for the boat, " Limber holes are the openings in the stringers that allow water to flow from the outboard areas of the bilge to the bilge sump." Here's the picture with my annotations.

So, mystery solved. I had a saltwater leak from the transom drain plug which was fixed by new sealant but I still have rainwater leaks. The water is collecting behind the stringers and is dumping into the bilge during turns (including stern kicks while trying to manouvre into the slip in heavy wind) from the newly found limber drains. The area around the transom drain hole is getting wet when the limber drains deposit their contents and even after the water is cleaned up, it seeps for a short time as though the transom was leaking. So now I know what limber drains are!!

 

[annie]

How is winter treating you up there? I'm over living in Canterbury, earthquakes, snow etc.
One place my boat leaks is the air vents in the sides, Sea ray didn't drain these on my dingy anyway. The rain water seems to build up and then run down the plastic ducts onto the batteries..... Real handy! Just a thought.
Roll on summer I say!

Regards Mike.

 

[Lord Farringdon]

Hi Mike, yeah you guys have been having it rough down there. Having holes in the ground from earthquakes is bad enough but trying to drive over them in the snow must have been the last straw for some! I just hope things start to get better for you guys down there.

Looks like the weather might be a little nicer to us tomorrow so we are going to stick our nose out of the marina and see what happens. I also had a major problem with water leaking in through the engine air vent covers. . In my case the water ran down the side of the hull, found a ledge and ran down to the back of the boat before dropping down the stern into the bilge. Fortunately the water wasn't actually affecting anything but I had been on the boat during continuous heavy rain and the bilge pump certainly got a workout. Resealed the vents and that seems to have solved the problem.

Take care Mike


Terry