Transom difficulty, 1-10 banana rating?

[Kris Schaumburg]

Guys I spend a lot of time on boats, but haven't ever worked with fiberglass. I'd consider myself fairly handy (oil changes, tie rod ends, hang cabinets, carve decoys, etc). What kind of difficulty (1-10) am I looking at to replace a transom in a glass over wood skiff. Appears to be two layers of 3/4 ply covered in glass. its cracked all the way through so no leaving the inner or outer skin. I assume reciprocating saw old one out cut pattern put back.

maybe difficulty wasn't correct term, what kind of PITA?

 

[Kevin T]

Pics would help your response rate, but if you can carve a deke or hang cabinets you can repair a transom. Is the rest of the boat worth saving? I'd give the job a Chiquita PITA rating of six without more info. By the time you're done you'll know what you're doing!

 

[Pat M]

Kris,

I replaced my transom last summer. My situation was a little different, my outer fiberglass was still in great shape. I used an angle grinder to cut out the inside. My transom was pretty rotten so it didn't come out very nice. This made it a little difficult to get the new transom to fit back in nicely. I measured my lengths and angles a bunch of times and it still took me a couple tries get the right fit. Cutting the whole thing out so you have a nice pattern to follow might be easier that what I did. Good luck.