Wood in transom area is wet & i sealed it up. should i open it back up and let it dry out?..?

Question

we put our boat in the shop for repairs & to install a new fish finder system. after getting it back home & driving it around the lake we discovered they left two s***w holes in the back hull where they took the old transducer off. water has been able to get into the transom board area for a couple of weeks now.

i filled the two holes with epoxy putty today but wonder if i did the right thing. should i reopen (drill) the holes and let it dry out before sealing it up again? is it possible to dry it out? will there be damage to the transom boards if they stay wet? if so, what is the best way to dry it out? all opinions are appreciated.

Answer 1

It's sealed now ! leave it, why invite a leak.

Answer 2

During storage drill out the holes larger push paper towel in as a wick let sit till dry then epoxy them>>

Answer 3

A wet transom needs attention. Need to investigate by drilling several small (1/4"-3/16") holes along the transom at varying heights to determine how extensive the  water intrusion is. If the boat is an outboard, there are greater structural concerns.

Many times the mounting bolt holes for either outboards or I/O drive units were not properly sealed with marine grade sealant such as 3M 4200 or 5200. Hopefully it is only limited to the are surrounding the two missing transducer mounting screws. If you determine the transom wood is only wet within a 6" diameter area or even several areas long as they are apart of each other, you need to let the areas drain and dry for several weeks to a few months. Once dry, inject "Git Rot" into the holes you drilled. This is a very porous epoxy that will creep into the wood and harden. Once this has set fill the holes with "MarineTex" and sand smooth. Worst case is the entire transom is saturated. This will require cutting out the transom and replacing the wood, re-glassing and gel coating. BoatUS.com is a wealth of info on these issues.

Answer 4

If you will be storing you boat for the winter, I would open it up and let it dry. If not you could get wood rot and then you would have problems.

Answer 5

Drill slightly larger holes in the transom, as well as scrape the surrounding gelcoat off of the transom as well. One must remember that if it is a fiberglass boat, it is the fiberglass that repels the water, not the gelcoat. Gelcoat is very porous (like the skin on your face, for example) and soaks up water like a sponge. Hence the reason why a boat sitting in the water would be slightly slower than a boat that was freshly launched. However, if it is a wooden transom, you will need to drill out the holes with a slightly larger drill bit than what was used for the screws. Scrape any paint or gelcoat away from this area to within about a 4 inch radius at least. If the wood soaked up water, it obviously spread and affected a larger area than just the s***w holes. Then, get a heat lamp and point it towards the holes, letting the light give off just enough heat to warm up the surface, but not letting it get too hot either (you'll know the difference). Give it a few days with the light, then reseal everything back up to normal. If you let the water sit in there, it'll swell if it turns to ice (if you store it in a cold climate) and cause even more damage to your transom.

If you brought it to a marine repair shop, you should call them and make sure they know of this problem. However, since it has been a few weeks, they might not acknowledge this issue. Either way, let them know what is going on, maybe if you are a little stern they might offer some form of consideration for their mistake, if it was a repair shop that did the work. Regardles of that, Good Luck with your boat fix. It shouldn't be anything too difficult.