Aquasport 170 Transom Repair Issues...

[hogdogs]

Thread was started on The Hull Truth as I awaited my profile being accepted here...

A bit about me... I am a po' folk redneck with very ept capability with most skills including cutting wood and working with glass and resin.

I am trying to find a CHEAP decent hull design to replace my old freebie BayBottomLiner that isn't suited for the seas and rigors of fishing...

I found an old Aquasport 170. I do not want to entertain a full new transom replacement... But there is a crack at the cap and hull joint that may make this a deal breaker for my budget...

Boat has been out of service since '04 when Ivan put her ashore...

Here are a few pics of the crack and area....




TIA,
Brent

[slvrlng]

Welcome aboard!
Edit: I see the pics now. Looks like the cap over the main part of the transom. I would cut it off and either reform it or repair it and reapply. When you get it off you will be able to see how the wood looks in the top of the transom. Drill some small holes farther down and see what you get. Mushy dark wet wood is bad. Getting the glass to stick to the wet wood will be the main problem. Looks like it has been leaking for a while. Expect the worst, but it can be repaired! Do you have access to the sides of the stringers? If you do drill some small holes in them and see if you get water out, this will give you a lot better idea of what you are up against.

[gran398]

Welcome Brent!

You're diagnosis is correct. She has structural issues.

The good news is that she can be repaired. Rebuild work on these old rides ends up being like the Energizer bunny....it keeps going, and going....and going

The boys have been getting great work lately on poured transoms...scroll through the rebuild threads before you buy....or even it she is free to a good home.

Honesty sometimes is brutal. Presume she is waterlogged with rotten decks... then spend several hours here on the rebuild section checking out the blood and guts

Even if its free...you're gonna end up with some serious money in her real quick...something to chew on.

Again, welcome aboard!

[pbustle]

I had a similar crack, but not near as wide as that.  Mine only went a couple inches on either side of the motor p/s.  I drilled and tested adn got good clean wood and when i ground out the crack, found that when they seamed the transom/cap together, they used over a 1/2 of gelcoat putty there.  It was very brittle and the flexing seemed to cause the cracking.  You may get lucky, but you may not.  there is only one way to find out.  Get a really long drill bit so you get a good sample of what is in there.

[Fletch170]

Hotdog, welcome aboard!

I am currently working on my 170, and have been lucky...my transom was not shot, just had a little rot at the top. Mine was cracked where yours is, just not as bad.

Is the transom flexing a good deal? Stand on the motor keel and jump a bit...if she's moving around a good deal, bad news broseph, it's time to cut that transom out.

Otherwise, I would grind out a 3" section where the cracks are, and reglass.

With that being said, the 2nd option is really a temporary fix, and by the looks of the pictures, i'm guessing the transom is full of rot.

Take my opinnion for what it's worth, but I will tell you this: I'm going to spend almost as much time reglassing the transom cap, and fairing than it would likely take toreplace the entire transom. If I was going to do this over agian, I would have just replaced the whole thing.

I guess my point being, if you are going to buy CHEAP, be prepared to spend a lot of sweat equity rebuilding. The glass work isn't that expensive if you can spend the time and do it yourself. I will echo the other posts on this thread: it's not if, it's where and how many repairs she will need to make the boat SAFE. Most of us have gone a little nuckin' futs and COMPLETELY gutted our boats and essentially started from scratch. I bought mine for $1000 with a trailer, and I will have about 10 grand in her before I'm done.

I've learned a lot from this forum, and most of the guys will give you good advice, and it's often the advice you really don't want to hear....but what you NEED to hear. Most everyone on here has replaced a deck, transom, etc, so they really do know from experience what to do.

Take a look at my project here ( you can scroll back on the blog to see what it looked like when I started:

http://fletch170.blogspot.com/

[hogdogs]

My current hull was a free ON THE TRAILER runnable engine...
The transom on that scow is literally only one layer of glass holding the engine on... The plywood Bayliner used is 100% punked... I realize the safety issue of being forced to use power to battle angry stormy seas with such a lack of integrity.

As for the transom issue, I will be getting a first hand look at it in coming days and will try to raise the motor to flex the transom area...

As for the rest... Well if she is solid enough to walk on the deck, I am golden... :afro:  A few hundred bucks to make the hull semi-sound is about all I can invest...

If she sinks, I will have life jackets and a cooler with cold water and other beverages to keep me company until someone finds me or eats me...

Brent

[Fletch170]

Hey man, go for it.

Realistically, if you are bay fishing...the chances of the boat coming apart are pretty slim....

With that being said, I wouldnt be caught dead offshore in that thing:)

[wingtime]

Hogdog welcome aboard!  Where ya from?

[hogdogs]

I live in the Fla panhandle... Destin pass is the one nearest me... I wouldn't go offshore in this hull unless I was feelin' confident she will hold together.
I am trying to get away from being limited to the bay as I am now...

I wouldn't trust ANY 17 footer more than 20 30 miles out with a seatow and/or boat.us card/s in my pocket... And a full power radio with high tall antenna... Typical trips for my desires would be more in the 10 to 20 mile range. If she ain't feelin' fairly firm, stiff and sound, I just wouldn't mess with it for offshore...

Heck I will be putting 26 year old Force/Chrysler on the bugger so there are integrity concerns on that front (rear) too...

Brent

[hogdogs]

BTW... Not that I mind butttt....
The name is hogdogs... Not ho(t)dogs... As in i use dogs to hunt and, catch and haul live feral hogs from land where they do damage to my land where they get fed out, killed and butchered for premium pork...

Brent

[gran398]

Off Topic:

Sounds tasty. I've had feral pork, it has a wonderful flavor. Will you ship it?

[hogdogs]

Naw, I just sell a pig live then "help" the fella kill it and cut it up... Not a butcher house per se...

Probably gonna pass on this hull. Lookin' at an older but cleaner project hull albeit a little larger than ideal for my 85hp motor...

When that ol' motor dies, I reckon I can shop for a bigger one...

Brent

[Capt. Ian]

Wow it was cool to see this post. I am the owner of this boat. I have lost all the pics of when I first bought the boat. A little story with this boat. I bought it from a friend that salvaged the boat after Ivan. It was in a boat lift and with the tidal surge it brought the boat out. Then it got trapped under a dock. When I bought it the motor was locked up and full of sand. I started to try and free up the motor but no luck, so I cleaned the sand out of the boat and cleaned it up. Before I bought the boat I didn't know the cost of repowering it since I was young and this was the first boat I have ever bought on my own. I paid $500 for it. I didn't have a place to store the boat since I didn't have a trailer for it so my friend let me keep it in the back of his lot on blocks. It was one of those that you kinda forget about till he needed me to move it. So I tried to sell and no luck with that. Another friend came to me and wanted a small boat project and if I knew of anything, so I offered the boat to him for free since I needed it gone and no place to keep it. He did a little fixing to her and then offered her back to me for what he had in the repairs. I could not turn that offer down. I have had the boat back now for two years. it was crazy to see the pics of what it use to look like. here is a pick of the boat when I picked it back up.

[RickK]

Big difference
Do you know what your friend has done to it?  There was mention that the boat was caught under a dock. Did he put a new floor in?  Did he remove the foam and replace it? 

[Capt. Ian]

The floor is still original. For the transom he said it was just stress cracks from being hung up under the dock, he ground in to them and patched, he drilled the transom in different places to make sure there was no rot in their. Fixed a lot of gel coat chips sanded and painted.