Trailer Sailor Forums

S2 6.7/6.9/22 Forum

welcome to the club

Posted By: John Cunningham 6.7 #84 Boston
Date: 6/29/03 7:38p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Replacing transom (GregS 6.9 #24)

Greg - Agree with Dave's comments. Also search the board for the appropriate terms ("Transom", "balsa", "rot", "core", etc.) - you'll find a number of compatriots like myself, with lots of info on our various misfortunes and different approaches. Am just finishing having the job done now. I ended up going the 'cut through the cockpit and take it out from the inside' route. Additional recent observations about water in the balsa core: you will be able to clearly tell the difference between rotten balsa and "just-wet" balsa visually and by feel (and smell for that matter). the real rotten stuff will be stringy and mushy, while the other will be wet but still solid. we have found that if you cut the internal fiberglass hull layer out, expose the wet core, then let it dry (and this will take a while), the rotten stuff turns practically to dust and flakes away with your fingers. non-rotten balsa will dry up and get hard and be actually very difficult to remove from the fiberglass even when you want it to - like to clear out a big square area to put in a replacement chunk. I've been told that wet-non-rotten balsa still has some structural value, and my unfortunately intimate experience confirms this, certainly especially once it has dried out. the replacement sheets (as dave mentions) will come cut on scrim. if you really load up all the gaps between each block with resin and/or filler, then it becomes almost impossible for one leaky fitting to ruin a large area in the future. essentially each block becomes a sealed cell kind of like a honeycomb. alternate material suggested to me was Core Tech (sp?) closed cell foam. didn't go that route because of cost and convenience, but it is supposed to be the best... good luck, use the board here there are lots of good answers and a few who have been through this already... John C

Messages In This Thread

Replacing transom -- GregS 6.9 #24 -- 6/27/03 9:35a.m.

Re: Replacing transom -- Dave Seely -- 6/29/03 8:44a.m.

Re: Replacing transom -- Greg S 6.9 #24 -- 6/29/03 8:12p.m.

Re: Replacing transom -- Bob Pr., S2 6.7, #81, "The TARDIS," Topeka, KS -- 7/1/03 5:35p.m.

better tool than a rot zip -- JeffR -- 7/3/03 12:38p.m.

 welcome to the club  -- John Cunningham 6.7 #84 Boston -- 6/29/03 7:38p.m.

longish reply -- marc s2 6.7 #78, Lake Tahoe -- 7/1/03 8:51p.m.

 

Post Response
Your Name:
Your E-Mail Address:
Subject:
Message Is your topic political? If so, be sure you're posting in The Political Corner
Click here for help on smiley faces and formatting codes If you'd like to include a link to another page with your message, please provide both the URL address and the title of the page:
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
If you'd like to include an image (picture) with your message, please provide the URL address of the image file: You may upload a file to our server by clicking here.
Optional Image URL:
Please type these four characters into the field below. Do not enter spaces, just numbers and letters.