Do I need my transom cap?

T

Tenacious C

New member
While I was epoxying my motor mount bolt holes,I noticed some delamination along top inside edge of my transom.I 'd like cut into the top to assess the damage and attempt the repair.The transom cap seems to be anchored down pretty well. What I'd like to know is if I manage to get it off and make the repair, is it necessary to replace it? I'd prefer to be able to keep an eye on it. I'm not overly confident with my fiberglass repair skills yet.
I'm not too concerned the damage goes much farther, the mounting bolt I removed is an inch or so directly below the damage, had a dry and solid hole.
 
I have had 3 C-Dorys, and 2 of them did not have caps -- they were just glassed. So, I would say if it was glassed,and gel-coated, it should be fine.
 
You sort of have 2 choices. Either fully glass the cap (which is really where the hull and deck join), or put the cap back on. On our 2003 C Dory 25, the plastic cap, seemed to be on with something like black 4200…We used black 4200 to put the cap back in place and it worked fine. We did find that the "cap" was a lot of resin--thick and brittle, but there was no cracking into the wood core of the transom. When we put the area back together, we fully glassed it, and then put the cap on. Belts and suspender approach.
 
I went ahead and removed the cap. It was held on by a hard yellowish glue , so hard that it actually took a few chunks of gelcoat with it .I'll have to grind off what remained in spots.
I'm going to try leaving the cap off.
It looks like the very top of the transom had some sort of filler rather than wood core.Seems like a likely reason the top edge deleminated after 15 ysrs.
 
We also found filler, with poured in resin. In our 25, the splash well was designed to actually take some of the forward thrust of the outboard--plywood core was not extended all of the way to the edges of the transom, so we rebuilt the spash well, (which seemed to be only two layers of mat, and added 2 lays of 1807 laminated with epoxy resin under the current splash well. We ground out the filler and resin, and wrapped 6 oz cloth around the upper transom, and then gel coated it after fairing.
 
In my case the filler runs across , from about the top motor bolt holes up. So it's likely the small separation wasn't going to get to the core. It was creeping me out though, seeing that separation and not know the extent of it under the transom cap
 
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