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I am having some difficulty with the step of attaching the deck to the transom on my Weekender. Having worked with bending wood somewhat before, I understand that this can be difficult, but I am concerned that it might be too difficult, because of an unknown error I may have made.

As I tried to bend the transom to match the deck , the stringer (which was attached to the transom, and kerfed in several spots) exploded into a gazillion smaller (however unusable) stringers. This was fixed by chiseling and sanding off the remaining stubborn, uncooperative bits of the stringer, and replacing it with a string of 3/4" X 3/4" X 3" blocks, spaced about 3/8" apart 1 7/8" in. down from the top edge of the transom. Easy enough.

Now, I pulled the deck toward the transom stringer, attaching 1 screw at a time, equally on both sides of the keel. It is here that the problem starts to rear its ugly head. The screws begin to tear out from the 3/8" ply of the deck as I get about half-way thru the radius.

I have the deck attached now, using some patience, wit, and various mystical incantations I learned in the military. The SIDES of the transom, however, are the great concern. They are very bowed. I am not sure if a stringer will straighten them out enough. Do I have too much pressure on the transom, meaning the deck may be too short (or the stern agle too shallow - the hull bottom fit in like a glove)? Is this normal, and will straighten out with a stringer and the hull sides attached? Am I worrying about this too much? Did anyone of you have this problem?

hey - Phil has some great photos of his deck and transom going together as does Roland. Phils site is of course http://www.pragdata.com/philboat/mainpage.html

I don't have Roland's right off hand but search a bit....

my deck and transom are different from every weekender I have ever seen so I will refrain from giving advice but someone is bound to pipe in with some thoughts on why you think it is wrong. I do remember it was a heck of a bend - really ----like all kinds of clamping and i built a jig.

send pictures - maybe that would help

a.

I wonder if perhaps you have the wrong grain orientation on the transom. That could cause it to resist bending.

To deal with the sides of the transom not following the bend, I would suggest that you take a larger piece of wood and cut the approprate curve in it and then attach it to the transom just below where the tiller will come through. That should make your transom bend fair. Use lots of clamps and take your time.

You might try putting some temp washers under your screw to keep them from sinking too deep while you try to bend the wood around. Once you have it down and glued you can remove the washers. I did this on mine and it saved a lot of grief

Keith

It doues sound like something's up with your transom. I know both Peter and I have done the bend by ourselves without too much trouble. It's one of the swearing-points, usually, but it all can come together by hand and we've never used levers or straps to get ours to fit. I think there's either a grain problem or you have really good plywood! Actually, is it 5-ply? That might make it harder to bend, certainly.

Mike

Yes, it is 5-ply. I have it shaped now, and putting the stringers on starightened the bow in the sides. I will put a fiberglass fillet on all the stern joints, just in case, but it seems to be holding now.

that is what i did - i didn't trust the transom joints at all and fiberglassed them and on the inside used a heavy weave....my poor boat is so overbuilt....

a.

Quote:I don't have Roland's right off hand but search a bit....

Hey. I just reregistered.

I too had problems with the bottom attaching to the transom, and came up with a way to pull the sides of the bottom up thusly, with clamps & cargo straps:



You can see that I also had a curved form screwed into the transom that held the proper (or nearly proper) curve for it to meet the deck bottom. After the bottom was firmly attached to the transom, I unscrewed and removed the stringer and filled the screwholes with floured epoxy. Also note the clamp holding the transom to the clamp clamped to the deck. (what a crappy sentence :roll



As to why the transom sides were bowing...?

Barry Pyeatt's elegant solution:


Peace,
Roland

Thanks Roland!
It was such an easy job this way that I did the lazerette/bottom and lazerette/deck the same way. Almost way too easy a job when I let the clamps do the work and it allowed me get things aligned much better and concentrate on making a good solid joint. I didn't need to kerf any of the stringers except for the lazerette bottom stringer. I just picked the straightest quartersawn stringer stock I had to use on the transom and lazerette. Made for a good solid thru grain screw connection.

But I have to credit my son for the help to prebend and place the transom. Then he sat back and had a Coke while I attached the bottom and deck to it.