Despite your "expert" I stand by what I said. It is prudent to put a full bar on the inside of the hull rather than fender washers. Especially on the C Dory. We see lots of "Manufactures" consistently make mistakes in the boat building process. Often those who build or modify boats don't have the experience of those who look at the failures. or run boats for many years.
For example best practice would be to put some structural component inside of the transom where the bolts go thru, such as an epoxy plug to seal the core. How many boat builders do this? Hopefully the fellow who made the "pods" for you used best practices. (I have seen some pretty innovative melding of fiberglass boats with aluminum aft sections, as the transom book down in the AK freeze thaw cycles).
Hopefully your "expert" used best practices when he attached a pod to a transom--and that would include a backing plate, and sealing any wood or foam in the transom, especially in boats used in AK.
How about thru hulls in the bottom of the boat? A responsible builder will but a solid glass plate int he way of cleats, thru hulls under the water etc. Why do almost all of the 25's have core issues around the cockpit hatches and steps? It costs more to put a solid structure or seal the core. Same with fasteners into the bottom of the hull. I have been asked to see a number of issues in hulls from migration of water from these, where there was breakdown of the core/laminate.
Actually C Dory does it pretty well. You would not believe how many manufactures handle the hull to deck joint. It is solidly glassed over. Many just put some bedding compound and a U/U channel. Others just pop rivets with bedding compound. Picture the surprise of an offshore sailer, when the entire deck molding starts to come apart hundreds of miles from land!
Ask a couple of these folks who had to recore almost the entire bottom of the boat because where only a few screws had allowed water intrusion?
In fact the fiberglass interior is stronger and better because there are no zinc plated "L" brackets with multiple core penetrations. (They could have been put in with tabs of glass, instead of the cheaper and more easily done way it is done.)
How leaks between the area under the cockpit, which were not adequate tabbed in and the aft bulkhead not sealed, where core material eventually developed rot?.
Yes I worked as an MD. That has little to do with my boating experience. I first worked with fiberglass boats in 1952. Since then I have been interested in the negative structural issues with fiberglass boats. However I have been interested in osmotic issues since college and that lead to my being one of the first nephrologists. The kidney is an osmotic machine...Thus the interest in laminates and osmotic issues.
I saw delimitation in some of the 1960's boats, and then followed osmotic blistering as the problem with laminates appeared. I looked at over 100 boats in Europe which had bad blistering. I had inside information on issues with both Cal Yachts, and Columbia/Coronado Yachts, as to problems. More recently in the mid 2005 era had access to over 20 boats to cut up and analyze cores in both hulls and decks as I helped a friend modify NDT instruments to give a good tool for boat builders and surveyors to actually give a true picture of water intrusion and delimitation. Guess what? The marine surveyors didn't want to pay $2,000 and take a few days to learn how to use the instruments. Only a few high end builders were interested. So we all remain in the dark ages--the NDT for boat laminates never came to fruition. It is pure economics and perhaps some laziness.
My only dog in the fight, is that we as owners and builders should follow best practices rather than save a buck or two.
