Widgeon - rotted transom - suggestions on how to cut the stern bench (or not) to replace the full wooden transom

[tdol87]

Looking for suggestions - including repair folks local to north/central NJ or Ithaca NY - for replacing the wooden transom in a 1964/1965 era Widgeon. I have seen some old posts from 2011for the exact repair - but we are concerned that if we cut the stern bench out entirely we will not be able to glass it back in place. The wood is completely rotted, we have pulled out most of the pieces, still have more to get at. The gudgeons pulled out of the stern so we are finally forced to deal with something we have been able to sail without repairing. I am attaching a couple of pictures.
Thanks for any advice in advance - you guys convinced us to buy new sails vs used, they work great as you all promised

 

[Sunbird22358]

I was fortunate that the transom was still solid on my old Widgeon, I agree that cutting out the entire aft seat is going to be a chore to glass back in. I replaced the core of the transom of a 14' powerboat that I restored by cutting off the deck about 18" forward of the stern, then glassed that back in place afterwards, messy still..... but might work on a Widgeon if you can separate the hull and deck at the gunwale, I don't recall how the deck is fastened to the hull across the stern but I seem to recall that the rest of the deck/hull joint is an outward turning flange and you might be able to get a very thin saw blade in there to separate the joint. With the deck in that area out of the way you could slide the new transom core in vertically and use a few well=placed screws to temporarily clamp the part below the seat together while the Epoxy resin cures. The area above hte seat could be clamped with regular clamps as well as a few screws (including some through bolt holes for gudgeons. Then glass over the inner side and re-attach the part of the deck that you removed and glass it back to the rest of the deck.

 

[tdol87]

Sunbird, thank you very much for your response, very helpful ideas and approach. Not sure i can go forward of the stern bench/floatation cavity as their is only one surface material (i.e. interior and exterior are the same piece of plastic/fiber) forward, but it does help me think about how to cut into the raised 'rib' that surrounds the stern bench base and sides. I looked at pictures from a 2011 post from a Forum member that you also provided some advice to at the time. He posted some of his pics of in progress repair but he never posted how he glassed the stern bench back in. Thanks for your help.

 

[Sunbird22358]

I'm not sure that I properly explained my idea of cutting a small part of the deck off to gain access, I'll scan some pictures of what I did on my powerboat for reference. That will allow (or should allow) replacing the transom core without disturbing the seat. I am preparing to do this same project on an old 8' dinghy which also has a molded stern seat like the Widgeon, but luckily, no deck above it! Same story at the bow (this is a square-bow pram). I'll try to take pictures as I work.