Cracked Transom Recovery

[Meanwhile]

Interesting recovery of a 27 Grady. I would like to see more on that transom. Anyone have the full story?

 

[Legend]

By the looks of that transom, that boat should never have been on the water with cracks of that size.

 

[ROBERTH]

It looked like someone was attempting to patch the cracks? What was that brown stuff?

 

[glacierbaze]

Looks like bees' wax, sold by the small bucket for emergency plugging, or some people just carry the bees' wax toilet rings.

 

[Halfhitch]

It looked like someone was attempting to patch the cracks? What was that brown stuff?

That brown stuff is beeswax like glacierbaze said. It was put on no doubt after they towed it into shallow water so it couldnt sink. You can see the plume of mud in the propwash of the salvage towboat as they grounded the towed vessel. They would then have packed the cracks that caused the sinking with beeswax so they could pump the water out and float it to the launch ramp and get it on a trailer. That same thing can be done by divers while the boat is turned turtle so when it is pulled onto its' keel and stabilized with forward thrust by a towboat, a crew can get aboard and pump the vessel out as they make for land.

 

[Hookup1]

Creative thinking that they would use beeswax to patch it up to salvage it.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Toilet ring wax. You should have it on your boat for emergengies.

 

[family affair]

Interesting technique to right the boat. I've not seen that before. Impressively effective.
That is at least a 97 or older hull. Likely pre green board days and no aluminum bracing.
I scratch my head wondering who at Grady decided the expense of aluminum bracing in the transom was money worth spending, but properly finishing the cap to prevent rot was not. Regardless, based on the backlog of new orders, it hasn't exactly hurt their business.

 

[Fishtales]

The bees wax stuff is a product called Stay Afloat the USCG uses it to plug homes. Great stuff. Google on you tube and you can see them using it in action. Keep a couple of tubs on your boat for sure. I have 3 in my ditch bag.

Good proof point for GW. Hope they see it. Maybe they will investigate how to keep water out of the transom...

I doubt those cracks were there when they left the dock. I'm guessing they happened out in the rough water and the failure cause the boat to go aft end into the waves. Boat took on water and turtled like they all do of that size. That is called basic floatation. You can see that isn't going to help you much at all. I have a few snap clip lines and velcro end lines that you could wrap around a bow rail stantion or something in a condition like that that could potentially tie you to the boat so you have a better chance of being saved in the ditch bags too. Prob just means they get the bodies.

Good video to show that you need to take safety seriously and be ready for anything, especially if going far offshore.