renforcement
 

well gents,
after running the V this summer with plenty sucess. it is now time to fix the weak points. obviously weak points will appear when you hang over 700 pounds off a transom that was designed for an outdrive. i will post pics of the cracks saturday if anyone is interested.

Already gritting my teeth, of course want pictures.

700 pounds, what you hanging back there?? 300 four stroke?

200 FICHT is close to 500 pounds, and that twin engine bracket weighs close to 200 pounds. So 700 sounds about right.

yep youre right on ferm, the bracket is 217 on the scale and the published weight of the ficht is 532 = 749. yep if i didnt have trim tabs the V's would have a miserable ride.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...e/DSCN1469.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...e/DSCN1470.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...e/DSCN1471.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...e/DSCN1472.jpg

I like your support arms shown however I would modify it to a solid support in other words allow no flex in either direction. Your current configuration is a one directional support troubles with that kind of flex it will generate cracks.
Now from an engineering perspective one can argue this flex is critical however I will argue the fiberglass flexes enough.
Just my two cents

that is the plan, the turnbuckles were temporary. the wood in the transom is not rotted so what i am going to do is glass a piece of 3/4 ply to the inside of the transom and then run a 2x4 glassed in across the top inside and then i will put two transom knees out of 3/4 ply from the transom to the stringers. that should solve my problems, what do you think?

The factory SEA-DRIVE boats had knee supports made out of 2 pieces of 3/4" PLY. One piece came off the top of the stringer, and the other one went down beside the stringer and was glassed to the hull bottom.

thats a good idea, i bet that would beef it up big time. especially thickening the transom by an 3/4 inch in addition to the knee's.

My 2 cents worth:

It would probably be less work and less weight if you took a piece of 1/8" or 3/16" thick steel plate and mounted it on the transom using the mounting bolts to secure the plate to the transom which would also add more strength than the glassed plywood.

The plate would need to cover as much of the transom as possible to provide the most strength to the entire transom. If you really went all out you could flange the plate to match the sides of the boat and secure to the sides which would provide as much strength as possible, but that might be going a little overboard and I don't know how much interference you have mounted on the inside of the transom.