Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

It's transom time again. Picking up some marine plywood this week to make a couple spares and can't decide on a sealer. I've used resin, oil based paint, wood sealer, and just bare wood. They all seem to last about the same. What to try this time?

Just a thought....what if I soak my pieces of wood before I laminate them in some sealer for a couple of days?

Is wood your only option? What about metal? Maybe a 1" solid aluminum plate?

https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/alu ... 1/pid/6983

Marine plywood, sealed with epoxy (including filling holes and drilling through the plug) should last indefinitely.

There are other options like using PT Fir plywood, like for pontoon decks. It is super rot resistant.

You’ll need some sort of resin to laminate the sheet to full thickness anyways. Polyester resin could work too, still need to treat the holes.

Even a thin layer of glass adds stiffness and water intrusion protection, and against checking.

I priced the aluminum and worried about the weight. Mentioned it to the wife, pretty sure she's still laughing.

Since the wood is normally not under the water, I went with spar urethane on the first transom. One sheet of plywood got me enough pieces of wood to make three transoms so I might try something different on each of the others.

I've tried epoxy, paint, and polyurethane on others with about the same result. Seems at about five years they start to look a little ratty so I change them out for a little piece of mine. Easy to make and I always an extra on a shelf.

You would think by now someone would have started making a high density plastic one that can be dropped in.

Now the hard part........have to dig out the engine hoist I buried in the back of the shed.

Check out Coosa Board. http://www.coosacomposites.com/

I haven’t seen a wooden ‘toon transom down here in years. Most I see are aluminum.