...and even more epoxy.. transom time..

Transom time...  and here's the scene of the crime... 

 

"Fledgling Too" (for that is her name) has a most unusual (but solid) construction..  a hardwood full length encapsulated keel (as we found when I repaired the bottom) and the gunwales are made from lengths of pre-bent, and then welded, steel pipe, encapsulated again in GRP. Strong and robust but you need to keep on top of your maintenance as one crack in the GRP and the water gets in, and the soft steel pipe becomes toast within years, especially in a salt water environment.. and so it was in this case. The rest is good, but the transom gunwale is a massacre scene..  

First job was to find out how much of it was still sound, and then start cutting out the rubbish..  it basically turned out into two repairs, the bigger one on the starboard was the first to get attention.. my plan was to fill to get shape and then epoxy cloth over the shape to strengthen and seal..  

First step find something that mimicked the steel pipe shape - in this case an old broom handle - cut to size, clamped, and then fixed in place with the trusty two part filler..

Clamps off, first sand, ready for some more filler..

Ports side was better - the pipe is sound either side of the rot..

Cut it out to clean (with an angle grinder)..

Piece of broom handle cut to size and fitted, next step was to fill round the edges, sand to shape, and then get both repairs ready for epoxy and cloth.. 

More on this anon..

..and separately, the outboard has had it's 20 hour service - it was a stupid price, but job done, warranty maintained, and it's ready for the new season..