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Transom Frame in U22

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 8:03 pm
by Lowkey
With winter more than half way over, I decided to pull off the two bottom planks on my 1941 U22. There was signs of decay and I knew it had to be dealt with sooner or later.

The planks came of fairly easy and in one piece. The bottom frame is in good shape as well as the port side upright, the first six inches of the starboard side upright was not is such good shape. An area about 2" x 6" by 1/2" deep is pretty soft, I'm getting into reasonable good wood but still damp.

I should be able to remove the side hull plank fasteners that are behind the SS trim and remove the third transom plank giving good access to take out the bottom half of the upright frame. I was planning on cutting the frame midway between side plank joints. After securing the but joint with blocking, the side plank and transom plank would assist in the integrity of the upright frame.
Star-frame.JPG
Starboard Frame
I was just wondering if there may be any advice if I'm on the right track or if there may be any advice from anyone out there?

I thought of CPES and filler, but that would be a band aid!!

Re: Transom Frame in U22

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:34 am
by offshorespars
i believe that piece is known as the transom cheek. In my opinion you need to replace the entire piece. The reason the cheek is that large a piece is that it incurs quite a large torque load from the engine and propeller. Trying to scarf in half the cheek is not very strong. I have done the replacement on two of my boats, a '47 17' runabout and a '48 U22. It is a big job. The difficult part is to make a new one. In both my boats these cheeks are made from 8 quarter oak. The angle cuts are difficult to match. Also the outside shape changes angle from top to bottom and that shape is critical in order to refasten the planks without distortion. Another issue is to actually get the old cheek removed even though all the fasteners are removed. The plank battens are nailed to the cheek with steel nails and you cannot see the batten ends because the battens are routered into the cheek. I used a Dremel Multi Max placing it along the inside of the battens to cut the nails. Again, a big job requiring a lot of patience.

Re: Transom Frame in U22

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:42 am
by Bilge Rat
The rot tendrils follow the grain of the wood and go WAY deeper than you can see. Replacing the entire piece will be the best solution. Scarfing a patch for this highly loaded structural member is a very temporary fix.

Re: Transom Frame in U22

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 9:47 am
by Lowkey
Thanks for the advice, I will take the extra time and replace the entire cheek. I'm this far into it now!!

A friend of mine always says "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it again?"

Regards

Re: Transom Frame in U22

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:22 pm
by Bilge Rat
A saying at a large world wide manufacturer here in town used to say "we do it nice cause we do it twice". I guess when you have almost bottomless cash reserves you can say that, but for what we do that's another story.