Transoms-fiberglass powerboats

[tonyg1178]

This may be a stupid question, but what would be the best thing to replace my transom with? I have a 17 foot ski boat that I am going to replace the transom in. I have heard of this Nidacore and other composites, but have never used them. Are they worth the money??

[marshmat]

Fancy lightweight honeycomb cores and that stuff are for ultra-light-weight. If that's not your main concern then get something easy to work with. Can get aluminum honeycomb that's good for stuff like this but real tricky to use. I'd suggest West System epoxy and conventional biaxial glass. Treated ply works fine in the core or use one of the composite foams. There's a few old threads on this you might be interested in, take a look back through the archives here.

[nic martin]

balsa is prberly the most cost effective but most boatbulders use plywood laminated with grp

[HWL]

i have replaced several transoms with good ole cdx plywood layered with and encased in fiberglass. this will give many years of use with reasonable care (keep covered and dry when not in use).

[yokebutt]

Penske plastics makes a glass-reinforced high density urethane foam if you don't like using plywood.

A typical motorboat transom is a sandwich panel, as such, the most important thing to keep in mind when building one, other than obviously sealing every penetration in it very carefully to keep water out in the case of plywood, is to make sure that you have a void-free bondline between the skins and core.

Yoke.