305 Express Transom Repair

[frankm]

Towards the end of last season, started noticing water in the bilge after some fishing trips, where following seas came over and into the transom well.
Did some tests back at the dock and found that water was entering the bilge from under the lip of the transom piece where caulking was deteriorating.
Instead of re-caulking, which I thought would only be a temporary fix, I decided to have the engines removed and have the transom re-done. (Also saw that the metal strip piece was not in great shape)
Up at Port Harbor Marine, they took everything apart and saw the beginnings of water intrusions that is talked about extensively on this site.
They sent me photos of the work and I think the repairs look great. Thank you Port Harbor!
Some photos:

 

[Viking88rd]

Nicely done! Did Verol do the work?

 

[Meanwhile]

Looks good now. Enjoy.

 

[frankm]

Nicely done! Did Verol do the work?

Yes, Verol did the work. He has done some amazing repairs on my boat in the past couple of years and I was happy that he did this job!

 

[Viking88rd]

Same here. He is a great asset of Port Harbor!

 

[georgemjr]

Looks great. The way Grady should have done it from the beginning.

 

[moklodge]

The aluminum they removed was structural. Not talking about the transom cap. It appears that they cut out the top of the angled transom brace in order to glass the top. Watch for cracking as time goes by.

 

[moklodge]

Unless they glassed over the transom brace using putty or something. Hard to tell from the pics.

 

[frankm]

Unless they glassed over the transom brace using putty or something. Hard to tell from the pics.

Thanks for your post, Moklodge. Appreciated. You had me very concerned, so I called and face timed with Veral up at Port Harbor. The transom brace was NOT removed in any way. He showed my photos where they just cleaned up the top of the brace. Everything is intact and in place. I think I errored in labeling the photo above "metal strip removed" with the green arrows pointing to the pieces. Apparently this is not an aluminum piece, but just a piece of fiberglass from the inside of the transom (that was the lip of fiberglass where the water was going in behind). See new photo attached. Verol took a close up photo of the fiberglass piece for me. Anyway, I do appreciate your input because I am far from having any kind of knowledge of the workings of a transom!!
Thanks,
Frank

 

[moklodge]

That's good to hear. Being a G/W dealer, I'm sure they were aware of what they were doing. Sorry for any false alarms or undue stress.

 

[Fishtales]

Looks super. I did this last year. Big job and the pain of payment will fade!

I'd order up some screw in deckplates from Beckson Marine. Those pop-ins should not be used in the eurotransom area IMHO. God forbid if one popped open and went unnoticed, especially in rough seas. DP64N is the right one. 6" diamond. Seal with 4200 and screw down.

 

[frankm]

Looks super. I did this last year. Big job and the pain of payment will fade!

I'd order up some screw in deckplates from Beckson Marine. Those pop-ins should not be used in the eurotransom area IMHO. God forbid if one popped open and went unnoticed, especially in rough seas. DP64N is the right one. 6" diamond. Seal with 4200 and screw down.

Thanks Fishtales.
Ahead of you on the deck plates. I put the screw in type deck plates on the work order. A while back, read about a boat that got in trouble with one of these plates popping out while he was running. Got a call from Verol at Port Harbor a couple of days ago saying that the screw in plates came in and would be installed next week!
Yes, the pain of payment will fade. (I say that every spring, it always seems to be something $$)

 

[drbatts]

I'm trying to understand where the path the water was taking to get into the bilge. Was it the sides/corners or actually in the middle by the engines? Unfortunately my boat is in the yard under a cover so I cannot take a closer look at the how the structures look and i'm going by memory. Was there a gap between the actual cap and the transom that the "bang plate" was covering which the water was getting through? I was under the impression the cap was sealed to the transom and the bang plate was just a way of covering the exposed fiberglass on the transom, but it looks like I may be mistaken. I do see the gap in the picture, but i'm also trying to figure out why did it just start leaking now or last season when I have to believe that gap just didn't happen overnight and was probably always there. What year is the boat?

I assume since the work was done at the dealer, The problem was presented to Grady. Was wondering what their take on this was.

 

[frankm]

I'm trying to understand where the path the water was taking to get into the bilge. Was it the sides/corners or actually in the middle by the engines? Unfortunately my boat is in the yard under a cover so I cannot take a closer look at the how the structures look and i'm going by memory. Was there a gap between the actual cap and the transom that the "bang plate" was covering which the water was getting through? I was under the impression the cap was sealed to the transom and the bang plate was just a way of covering the exposed fiberglass on the transom, but it looks like I may be mistaken. I do see the gap in the picture, but i'm also trying to figure out why did it just start leaking now or last season when I have to believe that gap just didn't happen overnight and was probably always there. What year is the boat?

I assume since the work was done at the dealer, The problem was presented to Grady. Was wondering what their take on this was.

Hello Drbatts.
So last September I was haddock fishing with 2 sea anchors off the back, in order to slow the drift. Rolling waves came into the engine well and after a while I noticed my bilge start running periodically. Started to get worried. Back at the dock, I ran some tests. Opened up the deck hatch under the rear seat and had my friend pour water in the engine well, while I looked underneath.
Saw water coming into the bilge from the engine well. Determined that water was coming in under the lip just in front of the engines. (See 3 photos with green arrows pointing to where water was coming in). This lip has caulking (or what I think is caulking) in-between the lip and transom. The caulking must have either started drying up, deteriorating, or breaking up in spots. Could have dug out the caulking and replaced, but the issue would have come back eventually. In the photos, you can see the caulking, especially around the corner end of the lip
.

 

[frankm]

Drbatts,
The boat is a 2007 305 Express.
Not sure if Port Harbor presented the issue to Grady White. I was told they have repaired many of these Grady Transoms.
Thanks
Frank

 

[Fishtales]

Hull has a 5 year warranty after that it's on the owner. GW will review your case and may offer some compensation (nowhere near full) as a nice gesture as they are under no obligation to cover.

 

[drbatts]

Frank,
thanks for clarifying. My boat doesn't have the older style metal bang plate but the newer cream colored one, otherwise I'm sure it is otherwise similar to yours I will have to check that area when I'm down on the boat this weekend. I'm installing a third underwater light in the middle of the transom so I will be up close in that area anyway.

You must be very flexible to be able to crawl into the rear deck hatch and see the transom where it was leaking without removing the batteries. With the generator in the way I hate crawling over it to access the batteries, not to mention anything behind them.

 

[SkunkBoat]

That's a different look than I'm used to seeing. Looks like a gelcoated glass piece over the inside edge of the transom and aluminum trim on the back edge. I've never had a boat with that. I don't understand how that leaked at the motorwell side. I would think the only place water could get is in is the motor bolts. Was there a crack under that piece or a hidden seam?

At any rate, at least its all glassed over now.




Normally transoms get wet from the rear top edge.

 

[frankm]

Frank,
thanks for clarifying. My boat doesn't have the older style metal bang plate but the newer cream colored one, otherwise I'm sure it is otherwise similar to yours I will have to check that area when I'm down on the boat this weekend. I'm installing a third underwater light in the middle of the transom so I will be up close in that area anyway.

You must be very flexible to be able to crawl into the rear deck hatch and see the transom where it was leaking without removing the batteries. With the generator in the way I hate crawling over it to access the batteries, not to mention anything behind them.

Lol!! Yes, real tight in there. I like to keep a clean bilge area and I almost got stuck a couple of times. When my friend poured water in the well, I was able to see it (the water) coming down the inside back wall with a flashlight in a couple of places. A real pain when it's time to change the batteries I'm sure.

 

[frankm]

That's a different look than I'm used to seeing. Looks like a gelcoated glass piece over the inside edge of the transom and aluminum trim on the back edge. I've never had a boat with that. I don't understand how that leaked at the motorwell side. I would think the only place water could get is in is the motor bolts. Was there a crack under that piece or a hidden seam?

At any rate, at least its all glassed over now.




Normally transoms get wet from the rear top edge.
View attachment 25271

I'm not quite sure. As DrBatts alluded to, it was real tough getting inside to see exactly where the exact spots of water entry was. It only happened when we dumped 5 gallon buckets of water into the engine well area. The only points of entry we could see or deduce was from some areas under that lip. Regardless, hopefully the situation is resolved and everything is sealed up tight. I figured the transom would have had to be re-done at some point anyway, based on other Grady White transom stories. Your red arrows show the cracked resin. I will have to find out if this happened when they opened everything up or was it already cracked like that. I was also surprised to see the corrosion on the drain tube (shown in my first post above). Fingers crossed! I don't want to go thru this again lol!!
Thanks,
Frank