Transom Troubles (Cracks) (4 pictures)

[Bruce Hooke]

My cousin and I are working on repairing a 50-year old rowboat that was built by Mace Eaton in Castine, Maine and that has been in our family and in Castine for all of its life. As you can see from the first picture below, the boat sustained serious damage in a winter storm a few years back. The stem was apparently rotting from the inside out and when the storm pounded the stem into the dock over and over again, everything up front just came apart! It is a wonder the boat survived at all.

http://www.bghooke.com/brucehooke/Images/BigRowboat-Damage.jpg

However, we are making good progress on repairing the stem, which is where most of the damage occurred. We've also replaced a number of ribs and floors.

http://www.bghooke.com/brucehooke/Images/BigRowboat.jpg

So, to get to the point, one area that still needs attention is the transom. The transom was actually cracked before the stem damage occurred, and sitting in a heated workshop for a few years has not helped matters. Here is a picture of the transom from the outside:

http://www.bghooke.com/brucehooke/Images/BigRowboatTransom.jpg

And from the inside:

http://www.bghooke.com/brucehooke/Images/BigRowboatTransomInside.jpg

As you can see there are a couple of long cracks just above the cleats that supports the sternsheets. You can see right through the cracks to the inside of the boat. There do not appear to be any drift pins, but there is a big sternpost that comes up the inside of the transom. The transom appears to be white oak. So, we are debating what, if anything, we should do about these cracks. They will obviously close up once the boat is wet again so maybe all we need to do is nothing at all or maybe just put something soft in there, but since the cracks go almost all the way across the transom I've been debating whether we need to do more.

This boat is in my Aunt and Uncle's basement and we only get a day or two a year (!) to work on it so we are trying to avoid getting into stuff that doesn't really need doing at this point, on the other hand it would be a shame to get everything done and back together and then realize that one part really needed more attention.

The extreme option would, of course, be to replace the whole transom. A less drastic option would be to spline the cracks, but before we did that we would, of course, need to get everything nice and wet to swell stuff back up, at which point it would be hard to get a reliable marine glue to stick well...

So, any recommendations? What would you do?

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

Well you asked. :D
I'd replace it.
Especially if I was gonna mount an outboard or trolling motor.
Nice boat, glad to see you're fixing her up. smile.gif

[Bruce Hooke]

A good point...the cracks may have been caused or increased by using an outboard, but we do not intend to use one going forward...

[Ken Hutchins]

I would think that those cracks have been there for many years because they appear to be above the waterline, possibly developed very soon after the boat was built. So what to do? Well if you are going to finish it bright (oh that would look nice) smile.gif then replace it or at least cut out the cracks to maybe an inch or 2 wide and edge laminate in new wood. If you are going to paint it, glue in some splines.

[Bob Smalser]

Looks like it cracked along the seat riser fastener line....if so, it should be replaced.

Lesser cracks from seasonal movement....especially when flatsawn wood was used....can often be plugged with something soft and lasting like 3M 5200 if the transom boards were drifted together like they should be.

If the transom is drifted, it may crack, but it won't come apart.

If it was built without drifts....that's an easy fix even now. Soak those holes in red lead paste and there'll always be some "lube" in there to allow seasonal wood movement.

[ 07-16-2005, 08:15 PM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[Bruce Hooke]

The biggest crack (the one on the starboard side) is not along the fastener line, but I should check to see if the one on the port side is.

Bright finishing is not really an option without a LOT of work. There are just too many stains of various sorts on the wood for bright finishing to look good. The boat does, however, like very sharp with a nice paint job.

I'm fairly certain no drifts were used in the transom, but with the big sternpost the transom is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Once the woodworking part of the repair job is done we are planning to move the boat into a detached garage for the remaining paint stripping and then try to get things wet and swollen back up some before we have someone do the caulking. At that point we could also employ the 5200 solution to the cracks (if they are still open), which sounds like an interesting idea.

Adding drifts is another interesting idea that had crossed my mind. I'll have to do a bit more checking when I am next up there to try to more definitively acertain whether there are already any drifts. It does seem like some cracking is inevitable when a board this wide dries out and can't shrink.

[Chadd Hamilton]

Bruce, what did you do to repair the split stem?

[Bruce Hooke]

Originally posted by Chadd Hamilton:
Bruce, what did you do to repair the split stem?That was the really "fun" part of this project. Much of the original stem was so far gone as to be useless as a pattern. So, we picked up what we could from the remains of the old stem (we were able to pick up fairly well the cross-section of the stem from the old stem but the overall curve of the stem was completely lost) and then we pulled the planks back to where they were supposed to be using various levels, wires and even a screen door turnbuckle, and inserted a piece of plywood where the stem was supposed to be and recorded the position of the planks, and from that derived the shape for the stem. Then we laminated a new stem from white oak glued with Resorcinol, shaped it, and fitted it in place. The fit with the planks is not perfect but it should be good enough.

[Stephen Hutchins]

It's interesting to note that none of the cracks extend beyond the centerline of the boat.I wonder if the stern post is glued to the transom?

[Gary E]

That buncha boards looks worse than the canoe I drug home as a kid, Dad asked me where I got the firewood.

We fixed the several holes made by falling tree limbs and covered it with Fiberglass, made it real heavy for a 20 ft canoe, but it was fun.

So if I could fix that old pile a firewood, you can too.

[Bruce Hooke]

Originally posted by Stephen Hutchins:
It's interesting to note that none of the cracks extend beyond the centerline of the boat.I wonder if the stern post is glued to the transom?That is an interesting question. I have to say that given what I have seen of the glue used elsewhere in the boat (basically just to laminate the stem), if glue was used I have little confidence that it has an adhesion left! It may be that simply screwing the transom securely to the sternpost was enough to stop the cracks...but it could also have been glued...

[Stephen Hutchins]

Bruce,
I also am wondering cracks originated from screwing the planks to end grain. Are screws lined up at the end of those cracks? I think also it may have been the stern post (primarily) that stopped those cracks from extending.

[Bruce Hooke]

Stephen,

That's an interesting question. I suspect you could be right -- it would be a logical place for a crack to start. If that is the case it seems like it would be a good idea to add an additional fastener near the "problem" fastener since a screw going into a crack is not going to be very strong. I'll have to investigate that situation when I am next up in Castine.

Thanks.

[Stephen Hutchins]

One good fix could be to clamp the transom cracks shut with bar clamps and add a couple of sawn frames to the transom/planking intersection. I suspect if she had been built that way to begin with she'd be better off today.

[Mrleft8]

Just an idea, but probably a workable one... Rout 2/3 of the way through the outside of the transom a couple of inches on either side of the cracks, so you have a wide, shallow channel with parallel sides. Cut a piece of Oak to fit the channel, and glue/screw it into place. Use some seam putty on the inside face cracks.

[Alan D. Hyde]

Something I'd try, if it were me, more out of lassitude than inspiration :D ---

I'd inject plenty of resorcinol into the dried-out cracks, then I'd clamp that transom TIGHT vertically using furniture clamps.

I'd inject the resorcinol only WITHIN, not between, planks. The wood has to be able to move with moisture changes, so later on between planks should be caulked.

Alan

[ 07-21-2005, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: Alan D. Hyde ]

[Alan D. Hyde]

I'd also lose the current cleat that supports the stern seat, and replace it with a cypress 1 x 6 or 1 x 8 ...

Alan

[Bruce Hooke]

Originally posted by Alan D. Hyde:
I'd also lose the current cleat that supports the stern seat, and replace it with a cypress 1 x 6 or 1 x 8 ...

AlanWhy?

[Bruce Hooke]

Originally posted by Mrleft8:
Just an idea, but probably a workable one... Rout 2/3 of the way through the outside of the transom a couple of inches on either side of the cracks, so you have a wide, shallow channel with parallel sides. Cut a piece of Oak to fit the channel, and glue/screw it into place. Use some seam putty on the inside face cracks.That's an interesting idea. I'd been considering a similar approach, which is routing a tapered slot along the line of the crack and then epoxying in a piece of wood. Since the transom appears to be made of a single plank it has crossed my mind that it may just need a way to shrink and expand, so some sort of crack may be inevitable...

[TimothyB]

If you do end up putting in wedges after routing the cracks, make sure it is a soft, compressible wood. Personally, I would use white cedar for that sort of job, as they do for wedge-seaming bigger boats.

Of course, if the base wood moves any, it will crack again, so the a good solution would be, if you are going to paint it, to strip plank a new transom using the old one as a mold. It would have greater strength and with such a small project you could easily build it up using bronze nails and cedar strips on a plywood form, and use resorcinol to glue them together.

You'd have to epoxy coat the whole thing to limit movement, but once you painted it, it would be great.

You could do the whole thing up carvel, but I don't think your boat was designed for the transom to be done that way.

[Jack Heinlen]

Unless rotted, I'd leave it be. A little putty and paint and you'll hardly see them, especially when you're rowing. smile.gif

Reminds me, strongly, of the North Haven Dinghy. Any signs it might have had a rig at some time?

Nah, a second look at the photos.

[ 07-25-2005, 06:38 PM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]

[Scott Rosen]

I agree with Jack. Filling the cracks with anything other than a very soft putty could create even bigger problems when the boat gets wet.

[ 07-27-2005, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: Scott Rosen ]

[Bruce Hooke]

Jack & Scott -- I'm leaning in your direction. My tentative plan (assuming there are not screws that run into the cracks) is to get the boat good and wet to get everything to swell back up. THEN, if the cracks are still visible pump some 5200 in them to help seal them up. Then sand and paint.

One thing I'm certain of is that if we do anything that involves putting something into the cracks (or routing out the area and inserting new wood) I want to be real sure that the transom has been kept wet long enough for it to swell up fully.

Thanks everyone for your ideas.

[donald branscom]

Where the frames meet the keel looks totally inadequate.
I bet it will all come apart again.
It needs floors that are wider and taller with boars on top to walk on.

The whole bottom of the inside of the boat looks very weak. I sure would not take that thing out into SF Bay.

Sorry, but don't take it personally.

[Mrleft8]

The boars might not like that...

[Paul Girouard]

So Bruce as Donald bumped this 2005 thread , did you get "er "wet and pump her full of 5200:eek:

Or is it still a on going project:confused:

[Jay Greer]

I think you guys already have discussed most of the the ways to approach the problem. I always like to do repairs first with the least amount of invasion to the boat's structure and see how things work before attempting major surgery.
So I go along with applying flexible putty and finishing the transom with a paint. However, in this case, I would knife in Dolfinite and allow it to skin over before applying the finish. This will allow the transom to take up and not force the cracks to travel any further along the split lines. Rather, the Dolfinite will squeeze out and can be faired off again at a later time.
Jay

[brad9798]

Bruce?

Status update por favor.

[Bruce Hooke]

I just noticed that this had been brought back up to the surface. Here's where things stand:

My cousin and I made a good bit of progress working one or two days a year on the boat. It was in his parents' basement so the only time we typically got to work on it was over the holidays. Then my cousin and his wife had a daughter and that pretty much brought work to a halt!

A few months ago the boat was moved down to another cousin's house in East Boothbay. That cousin works in the cabinet shop at Hodgdon Yachts, so he certainly knows how to work with wood! I am not sure if he has made any progress on it, but he is certainly likely to make faster progress than we were making before the move! I'll have to give him a call and see if he has gotten anywhere. He also has more motivation that we did, because he has access to a nice dock at which he can keep the boat, just a few minutes walk from his house.

As to Donald's comments...I think maybe the best answer is simply to say that this boat is something over 50 years old, and until the stem problem it spent much of its life banging around at a dinghy dock, getting run up onto beaches, towed behind sailboats, rowed around Penobscot Bay, and so on. It once even got away and was found washed up on a beach a few miles away. So, whether or not the floors look adequate, it certainly seems like they have been adequate. If I remember correctly, the floors are both nailed to the frames and attached to the planks with screws. I suppose you could argue that if the floors had been stronger they might have held things together better after the stem failed, but trying to plan for such a catastrophic failure of the stem strikes me as pushing the limits of what makes sense. Trying to put in taller floors topped with level floor boards is not a realistic solution in a small rowboat. In a boat this size you need all the inside depth you can get. Remember, this is a 12' rowboat, not an 18' sailboat.