Posted by JiimM on July 09, 19103 at 12:30:40:
In Reply to: Re: Wet transom wood posted by Steve on July 09, 19103 at 05:51:30:
I don't think so, I think you really need the heat. The guy I emailed said around 140 deg. I'm not sure how long it would take. Is the plywood visible inside, and is the inside accessible? On my 15' 1975 Checkmate, it's fairly accessible if you remove the aluminum fuel tank. Then you could put a heater there, under the motor well and let the heat build up. The moisture ought to come out because the plywood is exposed. If it's glassed over inside and you can get in there, I'd consider grinding the glass off to give it a better shot at drying. Easy enough to re-coat it afterward, since it doesn't have to be pretty. Again, don't let it get too hot or you might damage the skin. This is a job I may have to do someday. The boat's a real keeper and worth fixing up. I may also have to replace stringers and floor.
It is possible to replace the transom plywood altogether, but it's a big job. What you do (if you can't get inside) is carefully cut the skin off the transom with narrow-kerf cuts near the edges, replace the wood and bond the skin back in. Sometimes you have to remove the entire deck (not that hard on many boats) to get the motor well out of the way. Either cover the new seams with moulding or a contrasting color stripe, or refinish the whole transom. All depends on how factory-fresh you want it to look. An advantage of this replacement is that you can saturate the plywood with CPES or thinned epoxy before you install it, so it will never rot.