Opinions on Transom damage

[Lexatola]

Hello Everyone - we are entertaining the purchase a 1986 Ericson 32-3. I’ve noticed this damage and/or a previous repair that is failing. I’d love opinions on how serious this may be. I’m not familiar with how the transom is constructed and if this crack might indicate something structural or if it more of a gelcoat failure possible from a past abrasion or dock kiss. Let the comment fly. Thanks all!! Alex

 

[Lexatola]

Another picture

 

[Frank Langer]

I would ask the owner about it. But it doesn't look serious to me. If this is the only issue, I would still buy this boat, with a deduction for this damage, and then repair it myself.
I'm not a professional, but have sailed for over 30 years and owned my Ericson for 17 years.
Frank

 

[Loren Beach]

I believe that an experienced glass repair person would grind back an inch or two on each side, lay in some new layers of cloth, and re-gel coat the area. The color match for the gel coat is actually the most technically difficult part of the process IMO.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

@Lexatola - That edge collects a lot of dings. There appears to be a ~1" border on either side of it which leads me to agree with your assessment that someone attempted a repair. Probably cosmetic. Forced to a guess without physical inspection, I hazard that it's not structural damage. If that stern locker is emptied, a fairly nimble person can get in there with a flashlight and search for signs of damage that goes all the way through.
Good luck,
Jeff

 

[Lexatola]

That looks like exactly what was done at some point in the past. In the more zoomed out picture you can see a couple inch line of slightly different gelcoat color running all along the radius of the transom. So I guess the question is why has it failed? Structural or more like a bad bondo job on a car. It just eventually separates! Any idea what something like this would cost if it’s not structural?

 

[Lexatola]

Jeff - That all sounds reasonable to me. I tried to crank my head down into that stern locker. It was hard to see or tell what was going on. I thought I did see some glass work that appeared to be non factory. But honestly hard to tell. The fact the the repair seems isolated to an inch or two on either side of the edge does lead to a cosmetic conclusion. Bigger damage likely would have lead to a larger repair I guess.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

If they did epoxy underneath and didn't scrub off the amine blush or properly sand it, that could result in poor adhesion. Not waiting for the under repair to cure enough might do it. Improper layering of poly and epoxy. Temperature differential between coats. Resins aren't rocket surgery, but they're more complicated than they seem at first.

 

[Alan Gomes]

rocket surgery

 

[Loren Beach]

My '88 model has the transom molded-out part glassed to the hull with overlapping roving on the inside. It's strong- really strong. Yours probably is, too.
That repair, from perhaps long ago, may or may not have been done with some cloth layer in over the joint.
Moreover, gelcoat on a new boat gets more brittle as it ages.
Unfortunately that's where accidents happen - edges - close to docks and sometimes other boats. I know of a sister ship that had some serious dings/gouges on that ninety-degree edge and had to had repairs done with new glass and epoxy. The joint on that boat was still strong, but looked bad.
The guy that repaired it precisely mixed new gel coat, and then refinished the whole transom.... but there is no way to be 100% sure that in ten years a close observation might not reveal a slight/subtle difference in the two sections of hull surface.

As for the slight color difference about an inch or two on either side of the OEM joint, that's where the original get coat cured to just a slightly different shade of color over many decades. Remember that that layer that covers the joint was applied after the hull parts were put together, after coming out of the mold(s).

Even gel coat pulled out of a different container, when spraying, may fade differently a decade later. And that's from a source with the same product code, back in the 80's. Just a slight change in catalyzing when applied may show up as a small subtle of shade after decades of UV exposure. On our previous boat, I sourced a small can of code-matched gel coat from the builder to fix little dings, here n there.... and after a few years I could see a slight color/shading difference in the patch. Oh... well...
All the best, and I hope this all works out fine.

 

[Christian Williams]

That's one of the strongest points of the boat. Crawl into the helm locker and have a look to satisfy yourself it was not run into by a containership.

Also, first to get nicked by dinghies.

It's possible the transom was painted, so rule out mere issue with paint. Transoms like ours get painted for various reasons, old decal shadows, UV damage because sloped, and so on. It's easy to repaint them, perhaps in readiness for the new name.

 

[bigd14]

I would be inclined to gently tap that area with the butt end of a plastic handled screwdriver or other suitable sounding device to listen for any dead spots that might indicate delamination of the fiberglass. Comparing the sound to the other intact side of the transom would be useful.

 

[Lexatola]

All super useful and helpful insights. Mostly giving me comfort about moving forward with an offer and a survey!!

 

[frick]

Time for some Boat Yoga. Clime in the transom and look for the crack or larger damage. It you find it... a little grinding and some fiberglassing and its a non issue. My guess, as there is not a "crunch" its looks more surface to me.

 

[Alan Gomes]

Time for some Boat Yoga. Clime in the transom and look for the crack or larger damage. It you find it... a little grinding and some fiberglassing and its a non issue. My guess, as there is not a "crunch" its looks more surface to me.

Make the seller (or, better, a professional) do the boat yoga as a condition of the sale.

 

[Slick470]

I was told at some point that these transom edges are hard to lay up in the mold and the fiberglass cloth doesn't always get all the way into the corner, or stay put once it's there. So it's common to only have gelcoat and resin along these edges, also a higher likelihood of voids if the resin didn't get smooshed all the way in there.

Ours have been repaired by a PO or two as well.

 

[Puget sailor]

When I first looked at your picture I thought, oh, that must be repair from a minor collision that was not done very skillfully, but is also not a big deal. When stopping by my boat today, a 1985 32-3, I decided to take a look at my own transom, and guess what. I seem to have a smaller cousin to that same crack in about the same place. That leads me to believe it's a standard issue of sorts with these boats, similar to the crack that many boats seem to have at the hull deck joint just behind the forestay mount. I've noticed that on some newer boats the aluminum rub rail runs all the way forward, perhaps because those cracks developed early and often and Ericson decided out of sight, out of mind. Anyway, looking at mine, it really appears to be a case of too sharp a corner and too much gelcoat in the mold, or some trouble with air bubbles sneaking in behind the layup. I'd for sure go snooping from inside, maybe just put a phone camera in video mode and reach deep inside there with the light on, and then see what it sees. In my case, there is maybe or maybe not evidence of a past contact with something, but it's not in a spot where that would be easy to do.
Anyway, having seen it on my own boat, I'm still not worried about it, and will add it to cosmetic repairs at next haul out. Nice thing about a non-cored hull, we don't need to panic every time we see flaw in the surface, worried that water is getting in there and spreading like a plague!
Also not really visible in my photo, but discussed earlier in this thread, though my hull is original gelcoat, the transom has been painted over at least once, and here are three dimensional ghosts of past boat names visible beneath the paint. Later boat names were done in vinyl letters which can be simply removed, which I appreciate. But there is evidence of paint lap lines near the perimeter, and they could easily be confused with substate repairs when they are not. I also don't believe this is a very high stress part of the boat, so it's not an obvious concern to me.

I liked the suggestion above us tapping with a plastic screwdriver to sound out damage, but if the gelcoat right next to the cack is lifting a bit, that's still not a big concern. several inches away, maybe.

In my case, I will inspect the interior, decide if it needs a little layup reinforcement, or is just a case of open up the gelcoat to a sound perimeter, clean off the glass beneath, and patch it up with white filler or gelcoat or both. Would not discourage me from buying the boat. Maybe knock of a grand for the repair and do it yourself, put the rest toward some upgrades elsewhere

picture of my own transom for context:

 

[Christian Williams]

A neighbor ran into my transom last summer and was deeply embarrassed and had already talked to his insurance about it when he finally cornered me in the slip. Looked just like your picture. He kept apologizing. Sticky throttle control cable was the cause.

I said forget about it. Half a teaspoon of Marinetex fixes that. But he could have just kept quiet, and I doubt I would have noticed 'till spring.

 

[Slick470]

I neighbor ran into my transom last summer and was deeply embarrassed and had already talked to his insurance about it when he finally cornered me in the slip. Looked just like your picture. He kept apologizing. Sticky throttle control cable was the cause.

I said forget about it. Half a teaspoon of Marinetex fixes that. But he could have just kept quiet, and I doubt I would have noticed 'till spring.

I'm pretty sure that half a teaspoon of Marinetex is what PO's of our boat used as well. It's a bit softer than the surrounding gelcoat when I compound it and it is VERY white compared to the off-white gray gelcoat that Ericson used.

 

[Pete the Cat]

i have the same vintage Ericson as yours. Mine has gelcoat cracks in many places and none are structural that I have been able to determine. When I ream the cracks out, most do not go down to the substrate. I have filled some of them and they are not coming back after a couple years of hard sailing--which surprised me. In talking to my boatyard friend who does the gelcoat work, he said the folks who laid the deck up likely used too much catalyst or pushed the layup too fast over the partially cured gelcoat. My cracks are not generally at stress points. I would make sure, as you have, that the structure looks good underneath and fill and forget it. My backstay (which has a fair amount of stress) is anchored in the transom, so I would want to confirm the structural integrity. I assume you do not have a backstay adjuster on your boat---I have seen one boat where overzealous use did delaminate things back there. My rigger says backstay adjusters are really for allowing you to sag the forestay more in light air to get more power, not to make it bar tight in heavy air as I used to imagine. Still learning after 50 years.