Boat Buzz

A stray boat in my marina ran up on the aft of my cruiser, putting a finger sized dent on the corner where the aft deck and transom join. Im now ready to attempt repairs. Anyone have suggestions on how to repair ?

Ouch! The easy fix would be put some good filler in it and sand to shape, patch in some stain and varnish. The best fix would be to cut that section out and put in a dutchman.

Tough spot to repair. It might be possible to open up the split a little and glue it together. Not sure if you can get a long pipe clamp there to hold it while the glue dries, but after that has set up, see how sound it looks, sand, stain and varnish. With some mahogany filler over the original crushed wood, it might not be that noticeable. For glue, I would try Titebond 3 waterproof glue. Use some wax paper separating the glued repair from your clamping cauls so the things you don't want glued together can be separated.

You could try splining in a piece of mahogany if the crack is too wide to join back up. Won't be easy on a jagged crack like that but you would regain the width of the plank for sanding/shaping.

Even a well placed dutchman or just Famowood filler alone will be noticeable on that nice varnished transom. If the glued repair still looks bad, that may be your only path unless you want to replace the entire transom plank (maybe insurance is covering this?).