Start Transom Reglass, Cut open stbd aft

The prep work on the transom is finally complete. There was a mixture of resin and wet plywood at the base of the rudder mount that was a real pain to chip out. Once the grinding of old material was complete, the areas was sanded, vacuumed, and wiped down with acetone... all while hanging upside down through the cockpit lockers. The picture below shows the transom with two layers of 17oz biaxial fabric glassed in.

I'll be using a product called "core-bond" to attached the core to the fiberglass. I didn't have it this weekend so instead installing the new balsa, I started cutting into the stbd side to recore selected areas. Below is the area just forward of the transom. The was rotten for about 18 inches forward. The core in other places was solid but soaked. This was difficult to remove so I decided to cut around the solid areas and will open it up to dry it out.


The photo below shows the upper area of the stbd side all prepped and ready for glass. I left a small border between the transom and the edge so I have a structure to fill with thickened epoxy to isolate the transom from the rest of the boat.

Below show where I cut around solid core. You can also see light areas at the bottom. This is where I ground the blisters on the outside of the hull.