Fun5,

Thanks for the great tips on the transom. This (so far) is going to be a bit easier than I figured, as I hadn't expected to get it on the water till late July or Aug. Now it looks like it might be ready for Sockeye in early July.

After spending all day in Canada with my daughter I got home about 7, and was taking out the garbage for the wife (the garbage can just happens to be in the garage near the boat.. ). Stood there for a moment dreaming of what the craft is going to look like when done...and also about how to get that inner transom out of there.

Well..I gave it a shove and I'll be damned if it didn't crack and creak at the bottom where it mounts to the floor! (I have already removed all the side nails). A few yanks and a pull or two and out it came, busting off about 1/2" from the bottom, leaving that 1/2" of wood with all the nails sticking out. Cool! Now it will be easy to chip out the rest, push those nails back through the bottom (I hate using nails) and get the rest of the interior sanded out tomorrow.

Dogfish:

Much thanks for those links! I had seen one of those pages before..and had tried desprately to find it in the archives ('cause of all the good info on it) and had no luck. Got them bookmarked now.

Still trying to figure about how much to take off the back. Driftwood has a very vaild point in that the boat is flat transomed now, but I think the rise is sufficient that removing a couple inches won't effect the performance overall. Re-balancing the boat (seat locations) after the mod's might take a little doing.

The info on the dry-rot caused by the UHMW is helpful...I am thinking maybe to add a good layer of glass over the bottom, then UHMW over that. Before that happens (UHMW) I do want to compare costs with the epoxy/graphite solution.

Lots of sanding and work to get done before worrying about the seat locations. I'll post up some updated pics tomorrow, as the wife is working all day and I've got nothing to do but sand, prep for sealer coats and dream of monster Steelies in-waiting..

Mike