Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Questions about boat repairs with our resins and fiberglass: hull patches, transoms and stringers, foam, rot etc.
Barry_CF
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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by Barry_CF »

So, now the pics from inside. The first pic shows the area that is thinner than the area the stern drive mounted to. It is outlined in red. The transom at the cutout is 2 inches thick and appears to be 2 sheets of 3/4 ply and 1/4 thick glass on the outside and inside. In that thin area I would guess they used only one sheet of 3/4 ply. Looking at how the stringers tie in I'm guessing Sea Ray engineered it to save plywood with adequate strength.

The width of the 2 inch thick part is 24 inches and the height of the transom from the very bottom to the top where the plywood appears to end (underlined in yellow) is 32 inches. Above the thin parts on each side is the same thickness as the center, 2 inches.

The 2nd pic shows where I propose to make the initial cut across the bottom to cut back from the transom and get a view of the stringer structure. I chose a position just short of the motor mount pads which is approximately 18-19 inches from the transom. Obviously if the stringers are rotted further than this I'll have to cut more eventually. Does this look light the right plan? Cut here, remove all the transom rot, restore the transom, then move on to the stringers and finally the sole.

If you need more pictures to advise just let me know. I appreciate all the help.

Image

Image

Barry_CF
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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by Barry_CF »

Also, in the picture, just inside what I assume will be the first stringers (from center), is a 3/4 strip of plywood that sticks up. You can see it has significant deterioration. It is just painted and has no structural purpose I can see except one, there were painted 2x4's that were mounted vertically to support the sole surround that has been removed.

Barry_CF
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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by Barry_CF »

Almost forgot, my plan at the moment is to use 4 sheets of 3/4 ply for the transom, which would result in a 3.5 inch total thickness with 1/4 glass inside and out. Alternatives are 3 sheets resulting 2.75 inch total thickness, or 2 sheets of 3/4, and 2 sheets of 1/2, resulting in 3 inch total thickness.

I will laminate the sheets together outside the boat.

I'm not seeing a downside to the thicker transom at 3.5, other than a small added expense, but maybe I've not thought of something. Anyone see a problem with that?

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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by Fuzz »

That rotted plywood was stringers of sorts. Crappy stringers but still stringers. I would go ahead with your plan and get things removed and cleaned up. 3.5 inch transom would be really thick not sure you need that much but there is time to think it over. Also if things are not totally straight 2-3.5 inches of plywood is not going to conform to the transom skin. I like putting in one layer at a time for that reason.

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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by fallguy1000 »

Barry_CF wrote: Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:41 pm Almost forgot, my plan at the moment is to use 4 sheets of 3/4 ply for the transom, which would result in a 3.5 inch total thickness with 1/4 glass inside and out. Alternatives are 3 sheets resulting 2.75 inch total thickness, or 2 sheets of 3/4, and 2 sheets of 1/2, resulting in 3 inch total thickness.

I will laminate the sheets together outside the boat.

I'm not seeing a downside to the thicker transom at 3.5, other than a small added expense, but maybe I've not thought of something. Anyone see a problem with that?
Laminating all the ply outside is pretty hard..it is going to get to be too heavy to manipulate for the bond. It will be full of voids on the edges. Start off by buttering the existing skin with a 1/8" vee trowel, precoating the ply, then buttering it with a 1/16" vee trowel and pressing the thicker butter into the hull with pins and light bolt pressures. Edge squeezeout indicates good pressure; something you'd not see with a 3" lump.
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Barry_CF
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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by Barry_CF »

Understood on the placing one sheet at a time. I considered the weight but hadn't considered how difficult the bonding would be at that weight. And good point on being able to see the squeeze out, makes sense.

When doing a sheet at a time, do you add the putty between the ply edges and the boat every sheet in order to make it easy to get it full without voids?

After posting I thought about that, trying to get putty all under 3+ inches of narrow space, probably impossible to do correctly.

So, I'll get it all cleaned up, cut the bottom back, and go from there. That might be a while as I'll be on the coast for a few weeks in Oct and then working a project in November. Maybe I get some of it done this week.

Thanks again for the help.

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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by fallguy1000 »

Yup. Add putty to the edges for each panel.

You can prefit all the panels. That way you can place say four pins on the corners and then spot the thru bolts for clamp pressures.

Also, make sure to precoat all the surfaces with mixed epoxy. It is ideal to do the precoats about an hour before the vee trowel work. It takes a surprising amount of epoxy to do well..

It might be wise to to the first two panels one day and then follow with a 2nd day for the next 2. ...precoating the sides to get buttered each day. But if you got enough mustard you could try all four. The problem is the first layer will be gelling before you finish, so, the pins would need to come through the back and the clamp pressure would be late.
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Barry_CF
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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by Barry_CF »

FG, understood. I'll get all the panels ready and probably do it over two days, 2 panels at a time. I'm going to have to plan on the clamping bolts. It would be nice if I settled on a bracket and had it first since that will require holes for the through bolts. I plan to make larger holes when done and fill with epoxy, but I could start with bolt sized holes first and use them as clamps. I should probably plan it that way. Thanks!

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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by TomW1 »

Barry the first thing I would do is fill the hole from the stern drive. I would sand down all the edges around it so that when you tape it in the tape, and it was even with the rest of the transom. Tom
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Barry_CF
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Re: Sea Ray 245 Cuddy Fish (1983)

Post by Barry_CF »

TomW1 wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:15 am Barry the first thing I would do is fill the hole from the stern drive. I would sand down all the edges around it so that when you tape it in the tape, and it was even with the rest of the transom. Tom
Tom, I was thinking it would get filled after the new plywood was in place, but I had not really thought about it that much. I don't understand what you mean. Should I place something on the inside (after prep) before the plywood goes in to patch the hole against (something that the epoxy will not stick to), then start the plywood process?

Since the outside glass is about a quarter inch thick, I thought I would cut patches to fit the hole and laminate those in place and then cover the outside with another layer or two, then fair it all in. But I was thinking you did that after the plywood was in place. Since the hole repair is below the bracket it will not look too bad. I guess I'll have to read up on that, it's good that you point it out, thanks.

On further thought, should I cut a 1/4 inch thick piece of ply to fit the hole and epoxy it in place after the plywood is in place, then cover with cloth and fair in?

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