[Old Gamefisher]

I was recently given a 1995 14' Sears Gamefisher boat. I removed the rotten plywood on the transom. When I replace it, can I just copy the small trapezoidal shape which covers just the motor clamp area, or should I reinforce the transom with wood that covers the whole transom?

[cbavier]

Yes and Yes as long as the Aluminum is ok. If you run a board all the way from side to side you will just beef the transom up is all. I ran a full one inch thick Oak board on the inside about 10 inches wide across the transom on a Sears V bottom Aluminum Boat I had one time because it was rated for a 9.5 hp and I wanted to run a 15 hp on it. The 15 hp made it flex when I rapped the throttle wide open so I put the Oak board on the boat and that stopped the flex. I ran the 15 hp on it for about 20 years before I sold the whole combo. I used short stove bolts to bolt the board to the transom and then I painted the board. If I remember right two bolts top and bottom on each end and then two on either side of where the engine mounts maybe out two or three inches. If you run the board all the way across I would replace the original plywood board with PT plywood and paint it. Then add the full width board and paint it to match. The full width board on the inside doesn't have to be PT.

[fishrdan]

Kind of depends on how well it was built by the manufacturer.

I had transom problems, check out this thread...

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread....&highlight=jon