Gluing the transom

Hello.

My first post here. About two years ago, a friend of mine gave me his inflatable. The engine was stolen and he didn?t have the time. The boat has been sitting in the backyard at a friends house since then. But now I am fixing it up. Just bought a 1987 20hp Evinrude, so now I have the drive.

The boat has survived the "storage". Nothing seem broken and it holds air (since it is cold here now, it is a little hard to tell just how good it holds the air)

The transom was broken, so I am making a new one. The old one was fairly thick, so I laminated two plywoodpieces with epoxy glue and made a replica of the old transom. I am now applying epoxy to the whole thing and will have a two component polyurethane paint to finish it off.

The question is this: It seems the pvc was not glued to the transom originally. There are bolts going through the sides of the transom (see pictures), and the pvc coming up from the bottom of the boat was only screwed in place. However, I was told that I should glue the pvc in place if I want it to be solid. What glue should I use? (PVC glues to the transom).

The boat is an Eurovinil Dynamic 37. It is about 15-20 years old and was originally constructed as a offshore/divers workboat. It is 12 feet and can use up to 30hp engine.
This is the information printed on the boat:
Length: 375 cm
Width: 186 cm
Tube diameter: 49 cm
Nr. persons: 6
Max load: 880 kg
Max. horsepower: 20 hp

It also says max air load is 0.20 bar. Isn`t that very little?


The boat when it was on the water.


In storage at the friends backyard









The old transom (inside the boat and of course upside down)

Re: Gluing the transom

Welcome to iboats! I am going to move this to the restoration section and I would NOT glue that. I would use the bolts and new wide washers. I doubt you will gain anything from the glue unless you are looking for a seal.

Is you feel obligated I would use 3m4200 which is a NON premanent sealant and run a thin bead along both curves. If you use permanent 3m5200 .... you will never get that apart again.

Re: Gluing the transom

Thanks for a quick reply. I am not planning on gluing the curves. They are fastened with bolts as you can see. The gluing is to fasten the "floor" to the transom. When I got it, it had screws going through the fabric and straight into the transom (you can see three holes from the screws in the close up pictures (#3 and 4).

I got a hold of the person that used to be the service man for the factory (they stopped making boats, now they only make life rafts and inflatable tents). He could verify that the PVC was only held in place with screws. But the local Zodiac service senter told me if I didn?t glue, the whole floor could come loose from the transom. Gluing seems logical, but it is a lot of work and if it was not glued from the factory, I guess it will hold.