Thoughts on my flexing transom

[jvitiel]

So I have had my '89 V for about a year now. When I bought it I tapped around on the transom and it sounded solid but I don't have a practiced ear for just how solid it should sound. In the spring I mounted trim tabs so I drilled into the transom and the wood was what I would call damp. It was darker in color that what you would expect but the moisture that you could detect with your fingers in the drill shavings was barely perceptible. At the time I said to myself "Oh well, its an old boat and I shouldn't be surprised. Hopefully its not too bad". I haven't given it much thought all season and it hasn't given me any reason to give it much thought.

So anyway, today we were trolling as slow as possible. I have a 200HP 1995 Merc EFI and although it rarely stalls at that slowest of slow speeds, it certainly isn't smooth. I was looking at it and assumed that the bouncing was mostly the motor mounts but I figured I would take a closer look and I now see that the transom is flexing slightly. I took a video which is at the following link. The camera shakes some so at some points the flex looks worse than it is. This is the first time I looked at it so I don't know if it has gotten worse in the year that I have owned it. I was thinking that I would measure deflection from neutral to full load by placing a ruler on top of the transom while the other end is butted against the front of the splash well but I may be done for the season as of today so that may have to wait until next spring. What do you guys think based on the video?

Assuming its not getting rapidly worse, I kind of want to keep an eye on it and live with it until I re-power in a few years. I don't run the boat particularly hard and have lived flex in other hulls over the years but would welcome your opinions.

Thanks as always,
John

Video here:
https://youtu.be/wg6yr0TZrc0