Hit and run

Hi, someone recently hit my Grampian 26' at the transom. I don't have insurance, so I would like to attempt to fix this myself. There are bad cracks going along either side of the back stay. Does anyone have any advice, or know the average cost of fixing this myself/having it professionaly done. Anything helps thanks.

 

What you have here is a major repair job.

The pretty way of doing this is going to be expensive and/or time consuming.

First, the boat is going to have to be hauled out and put on a good cradle. Hopefully you have one. Otherwise, you are going to have to build one.

Next, a system of clamps and braces is going to have to hold the damaged portions in their proper places, to the point of making the crack all but disappear. Epoxy, or some other adhesive, which will not eat away the foam should be dumped into the crack, to hopefully glue the foam back together. This system of clamps and braces has to allow wide access to the crack. My suggestion would be to make a heavy plywood frame to go around the outside of the transom, on both sides and attach to the hull somehow.

Due to the extensive network of Cracks, you may not be able to repair them all at once. Some may have to wait until others are finished before they can be started. The frame may make access to them impossible, so the hope is that the first ones repaired will make the transom strong enough to hold it shape once the frame is removed.

The laminates, on both sides of the crack, then are going to have to be ground back, so they present a feather edge to the crack. I suggest that the slope of this grind be eight times the local laminate thicknesses, back from the crack. This grind is to be done with course grit disks, that tear out the old laminate in small chunks, leaving lose fibers. It will be ragged and ugly. Don't despair.

The new laminates will be applied in ever greater widths, to fill in this valley. I'd use, epoxy for the resin, and laminates, which are similar to what was ground away, at each level.

Once this is done, you should end up with a rather ugly edge around the outside of this valley. This will have to be ground smooth very carefully, once it is FULLY CURED.

After the repair is completed transom and stern area, at least, and maybe the whole boat, will have to be prepped and painted.

If you are not experienced with fiberglass work, I suggest you hire someone, who is, to apply the laminates, after all the grinding and other prep work is done. He will charge you a lot for his time, but, if you have everything ready, he won't be there for very many hours.

I'd even suggest hire him to come look at the damage and advise you on the needed prep work. He may relish the challenge and even give you a discount.

This looks like almost a season of of work.

 

Welcome to the forum, which I wish was under better circumstances.

It's very difficult to tell what's going on, but I think the repair will be much more extensive than it seems. I agree that this is a difficult repair and will need an experienced laminator, preferably someone fairly small, so they can crawl under the cockpit and get at the back side of the affected areas. I'm not a big guy and have often had to perform this task, simply because I'm the one that could "get in there". It's not a pleasant experience, to say the least, being in a confined space, maybe a little claustrophobic, with a grinder and lots of bits of broken 'glass around. Or worse, applying the fabric and goo in this space.

With some instruction, you can get a lot of bulk labor out of the way. Get her on the hard and release the back stay, of course using a temporary set of stays to keep it upright (if desired). Unbolt or remove all the hardware and gear that might be in the way so they don't get dinged by grinders or covered in goo.

Can you post some better images, some with a wider perspective, to get an idea of how distorted the area is?

 

I was actually able to look at a plan view drawing of your boat. I now see it has a cut out transom for mounting an outboard.

From looking at your pictures again, I can see that your boat was hit on the transom on the starboard side. which appears to be the same side the back stay is attached to. It has to attach to one side or the other of the cutout, unless they went with a split back stay.

Is there any damage on the port side?

Although the damage is severe, it appears to be very localized.

Apparently this transom got much of its strength from its cap, where most of the damage appears to be.

Is the aft side of the transom cracked too?

It is tempting to suggest an outside in repair, rather than the inside out one Par hinted at.

Once everything is as close to being back in position as possible, perhaps a new cap can be laminated on top of the old one. It certainly wouldn't be pretty, but it should be more than strong enough.

I just don't see how anyone could get a grinder in between forward and aft sides of the transom, a space that appears to be less than seven centimeters.