Opinions on "SeaCast" Transom and Stringer Casting

[mattsidedish]

I'm going to have to do some work to my transom this winter. It's gotten soft and needs to be replaced. I'm up to the work, but I came across this product called SeaCast which is a bonding formula that you fill your transom with instead of wood. You cut a strip off the top of the fiberglass and remove all the wood, chiseling, drilling, etc. and fill the void with this stuff and it bonds with all the contact spots and any leftover wood for a waterproof structure. Supposedly it won't rot or crack. Any thoughts?

It runs about 200 bucks per 5 gallons and I think I'd need about two of those portions. It's a 2 3/4" void about 3' high and about 7 1/2' across. It's probably about the same cost as getting all the materials for an entire new transom (wood, glass and all the fixin's), but it's much easier and less invasive. It would allow me to keep the original boxes and splash pan in front of the motor.

Just curious if anyone else had worked with the stuff before. Their website can be found at www.transomrepair.net

 

[gw204]

The only way I would ever consider a pourable transom is if I were going to cut the inner or outer skins and remove all of the wet/rotten wood anyway. Only then could you properly prepare the skins (and refasten the one you cut) so the pourable stuff could bond sufficiently. There's nothing wrong with the stuff, but it's not a miracle product that alleviates good prep work.

 

[suzukidave]

if you are looking to avoid intrusive damage, have you consider epoxy treatment of the existing transom? it depends how soft the transom it is, but if it is a few deadspots rather than a major failure it is a whole lot less work.

 

[mattsidedish]

I have considered the penetrating epoxy treatment but I would have trouble stomaching the idea that there could be more rot than the treatment could reach. I suppose I could use a slim cut to remove an 18"x18" square of glass underneath the motor mount and see if the rot is limited to that area, but if it's larger than that area and I end up having to cut again to check, I've now got a bunch of puzzle pieces to put back together. I wish there were an easy and relatively cheap simple solution but I think I'm going to end up taking the whole transom off, cutting out the boxes and splash box and replacing it with either wood and glass or carboncore fiber board and glass. Either way I see a somewhat complicated and expensive project. Need to first find out how much rot is in there.

 

[DennisG01]

It's an interesting product and I think it would do the job just fine. But I wouldn't call this an "easier" alternative to simply skinning the outside of the transom (or inner, if you have good access). Long drill bits aren't cheap - neither is a chain saw with a long enough blade to reach the bottom of the transom. And I'd say the chances are pretty high that you're going to rip through the transom at least a couple times with the chainsaw, which then adds to your repair list. I wouldn't be afraid to use the stuff - I just wouldn't go into it thinking it's going to be cheap, easy or quick.

 

[suzukidave]

also, I wouldn't excavate anything out of a transom to do an epoxy based repair except for coring the thruhulls. if it is too wet epoxy is not the solution. what i am talking about is just systematic deep core holes drilled from the transom notch and from the inside to map/survey the rot without ever piercing the outer shell. if it is savable you drill more holes in and above the rotted area, tent it with a heater to air it out then fill the holes with repeated doses of something like rot doctor with almost no catalyst and then finally with catalysed epoxy. for the deep vertical holes, between each application you jam in a short section of dowel soaked in catalysed epoxy to ensure the next dose of diluted epoxy pools and spreads a little higher in the transom.

it all depends on how extensive and wet it is in there. if it can be mostly dried then the epoxy will restore it.