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I'm on my fourth Whaler now, two 13' Sports, 1984 and 1988, A 1985 17' Montauk, and now a 1997 20' Outrage. The first three boats, I can't complain, I had never educated myself on water entering the hulls of Whalers. Both 13' Sports had sat on a mooring their whole life, thru hulls never inspected or changed, both boats sat low in the water with a 25hp Johnson and 30 hp Yamaha 2-stroke. The Montauk had been moored and had 65 screw holes in the deck for various clamps and attachments. None of the holes had been sealed. This is when I joined Whaler Central, and learned a bit about water logged hulls, attempts to dry them etc. The Montauk was sold due to the water issue. I felt that I was well armed to look for my next Whaler, finding a 1997 20' Outrage. This boat had been trailered it's whole life, no bottom paint, no damage to the exterior hull, perfect gelcoat, dealer maintained with 400 hours total use. No screw holes in the interior, no transducer mounted on the transom. Just four sealed small screw holes in the bilge, for the bilge pump and washdown pump. Screws appeared to have 4600 on them. After washing the boat, I continually found water in the bilge, I would sponge it out, it would re-appear. I found the water was leaking into the boat from the bilge thru-hull. Pulled it, transom is soaked ! Removed the two splash well thru-hulls...soaked. I now have a quarter inch hole drilled approximately 1.5" below the bilge thru-hull, with a cotton wick stuck in there, watching water drip out of the hull... Was this bad luck ? or are the majority of Whalers wet ? I know I should have had the boat surveyed, or weighed, but everything looked so good !

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Check out my personal page.
I have an 11' originally purchased by my grandfather in 1979. After being handed down through other family members ended up in my parents back yard for almost ten years rotting away, I decide to restore it. Bone dry and a solid transom. I buy a 1996 15' Standard with beautiful gelcoat and find out the transom is rotten. Go figure.

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I love my whalers, but they do get wet.

Thats from personal experience with an outrage as well as looking to buy an seeing the water/soft spots/ blisters from wet foam.

I may convince myself to get a wood free boat that is not known for being "wet".

I dont know if such a boat exists but id put a dollar on keywest or pioneer.

My 2 cents.

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That's my problem also !.... I'm hooked on Whalers, have been since I was a kid.. jw0287 that is a sweet looking 17' Outrage that you had, did you have water intrusion issues with that boat ? Any ideas where it entered ?
So my transom appears to be soaked top to bottom, the plywood is just slightly punky at the two splash well, thru hulls. I was able to scrape a gunky, wet, wood colored substance from the surface of the plywood. I blew the plywood clean with compressed air, it is apparent that some mass has been lost as the hole is not perfectly flat as it should be when it was originally drilled, minor divots +/- an eight of an inch, otherwise feels real solid, but real wet. My plan is to let it dry for another week or so. install new thru hulls, use the boat for the season, and then try to dry the transom through the off season in a heated garage for the entire off season, hopefully get it as dry as possible. CPES the wood, re-install thru hulls, and hopefully everything is good. Am I over thinking this, and should I be this stressed about a wet transom ? The boat has been, and will continue to be a saltwater boat.

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huckleberry145... nice job on both boats, really hope I can stop the damage before my plywood converts to potting soil, but my Outrage is of the same vintage...

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Chick -

The water intrusion issues for your boat are due to lack of maintenance and care by prior owner(s). Thru hulls are the weak link for EVERY boat.

I would also pull the fuel tank cover and inspect the cavity. While it is is gel coated, if the prior owner did not take care of maintenance, it could have water on the top of the tank.

Some models of post-classic whalers have a drain from the fuel tank cavity aft. If there is a drain in the aft wall of your boat, it could be blocked.

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That's right, go fishing this summer and fix the transom during the winter doldrums.

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This sounds very familiar to what I'm going through with my 1979 22' Revenge. The FO allowed the transom drain (splashwell drain) to erode and did not do anything about it. After reading the horror stories about the drains last summer/fall on this site I decided to closely inspect my thru-hulls. I found the transom drain was in pieces. Afterwards the visions of the several inches of murky water in the splashwell that was present the day I picked her up kept coming to mind. Needless to say the wood around the transom drain was soaking wet and it has been drying out ever since. I really do not want to seal it up until I know I have done everything possible (within my limited means) to rectify the issue.

Being stored outside has not helped speed up the drying process but at least it is under cover and no new water is getting into the splashwell. When able I have been sticking a paper towel in the drain hole. Now when I remove the towel after 12+ hours, it is only slightly damp where before you could ring it out.

My question is, should I drill a 1/4 hole below the transom drain and see if water wicks out or should I just go fishing and enjoy the boat for as long as it lasts? (I see no evidence of blistering around the transom drain and the transom is solid as a rock when you tilt the engine up and down)

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Don't drill anymore holes - you have likely dried it as much as it can be dried. Probe the plywood in the transom and if it is solid you are all set. Put a new drain tube in and you will be fine.

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I can't dig my finger into the wood but it it just does not feel as sturdy as what a dry piece of wood would feel like. What sort of probe test would you do to determine the lower transom's "intestinal fortitude" is up to par?

I read where some will use a little "Git-Rot" in similar circumstances but am not sure this would warrant it. I wish we had an expert fiberglass/hull guy in the area that I could have give me an honest opinion. There are several good mechanics in the area but when it comes to the actual hull care, those folks seem to be few and far between the further you go inland. Maybe that would be a good small business opportunity. I just need to find some hull techs from the coast.

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Many people don't know that salt water kills rot spores. It's the fresh water getting into your boat that will cause rot. Caulk every hull penetration.

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Unfortunately in my case that splashwell was filled with rainwater, pine needles, unidentified new species of life, and probably some hydraulic fluid when I found it. Knowing what I know now I probably still would have bought it. :) I would have just looked at it a little closer and talk him down a few more dollars.

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I'm pretty sure my 1992 13' Sport is dry. I got it new. Its never spent more than a week in the water without drying out on the trailer. It spends the summers under a full sunbrella cover and winters in the garage.

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Just finished pulling all of the thru hulls from the transom, 7 total.... bilge, 2-motor well, 2 rear seat box compartments, and 2 large (1 1/2") drains for leaning post bait tank. Conditions are about the same in all holes. Wet, punky on the immediate surface, (this may be a mixture of degraded wood with caulk, dirt and water) consistant with peanut butter, and then realatively solid. Kind of disappointed in the materials used in the construction of this boat. I'm guessing that a new 1997 Outrage 20' ran around $20-30K back in the day. The quality of the thru hulls in my opinion are questionable at best. Plastic friction fit, with a sealing surface of approximately an 1/8". With the history of problems, and the likely hood of the "average" owner really paying attention to their thru hulls, maybe a threaded Perko brass thru hull with a larger contact surface and the ability to tighten it with a nut would have been a better choice, but nothing lasts forever. On other "sites" it seems that the verdict is, once a transom is wet, it's junk. Time for a complete rebuild or Seacast etc etc. I know that the Whalers of all vintages are unique what are the collective thoughts to....trying to get it as dry as possible, button it up, try to keep it as dry as possible, and use it like you're trading it in !! Is the consensus, that most Whalers have some level of water intrusion ?

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VA Whaler... for your info, I drilled a 1/4" hole approximately 1 1/2" centered below the bilge drain. This only produce about a half cup of water over approximately 4 days, it is still dripping, and I felt that the more water out the better, just not sure if it was really worth it now.

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To answer your question, yes, the deck that sealed the fuel tank in, and center console was screwed to, was rotting up forward, just around the cc. It had soft spots. I saw a guide on here of someone re-coring that and keeping the orginal non skid. Very in depth guide with photos, but beyond my free time (I have 2 children, one is diagnosed autistic, the other too young for a diagnosis, but may also be on the spectrum) So I sold it and told the buyer. He was ok with it.

I think the 2001 130 sport I use now (brothers) has cracks in port side floor gel coat just aft of the gas tank. Its soft. The transom has been sealed with 5200 and has brown ooze coming out those holes.

But its got over 2500 hours easy. Probably more as we usef it 5 times a week for 20 mile offshore trips dolphin fishing in the summer for years while on school break.

Could another boat take the abuse, probably not, and for a 13 ive been in some nasty storms in the gulf stream that no other 13 would have got us home.

So ill take my wet boat. An like it.

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Nida bond and Seacast are great products but before you choose either as the solution to your problem be sure to consider the added weight of the products first. Plywood weighs if I remember correctly 4.7 lbs a gallon. Seacast and Nida bond weigh 7.1 lbs a gallon. I added 20 lbs to my transom using Nida bond and I felt that my boat can take the added weight so long as I stay with a classic two stroke motor. Yours being a much larger boat, you might have to take into consideration the weight of a modern four stroke. I can tell you this much though, my transom is as solid as a rock and i don't have to worry about sealing the bolt holes or splashwell drains.

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Guess I am one of those people. I see LOTS of rotten wood that has never been out of saltwater except when the boat is pulled out of the water for maintenance.
Oh, what is a "rot spore"? never heard of that either...

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Yes. I have found and purchased 2 of them in he last 5 years.

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I think the biggest water ingress source is rainwater sitting in drains. When the o ring and or sealant goes the water will go around the drain tube either into the foam or the foam and wooden transom. I have witnessed this on more than a few whalers.

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Here's a good article on rot, rot spores (Silentpardner) and treatment.
http://www.acbs-bslol.com/gadgets/d97woodrot.htm

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Things may be looking up on the wet transom, all but the bilge thru hull opening appear to be quite dry now, after airing out for only 5 days. Hoping that the water concentrated around the failed sealing compound of the various thru hulls, and is isolated to these areas rather than the entire transom. I'm guessing that I wouldn't be able to confirm this without drilling more holes, which I don't plan on doing. The lowest bilge opening is still quite wet though..

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One trick I've heard for getting some of the water out is to saturate the area with acetone. It readily mixes with the water and evaporates fast. I don't really know if it works but it sounds good and won't hurt anything.

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If you have as much access to the boat's interior exposed as possible,(drain tubes removed, any open holes exposed, etc) I suggest placing the boat in some type of tent enclosure or a small garage or other enclosed space and running a dehumidifier for as long as it takes to dry things out. You would be amazed at the amount of moisture that can be removed in this manner.

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Rig a small 4-7 watt night light bulb and fixture into the hole/ area to be dried. It works great .

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Thanks for all of the suggestions, plan on giving all of them a try, boat is tarped on it's trailer right now, with a black poly tarp, which is keeping the temperatures elevated, may put the dehumidifier in it this weekend and see what happens. Built a new garage to handle projects like this... 45 foot deep bays, but didn't account for a Magic Tilt trailer that is 9' wide. Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions and feedback, feeling better about this boat/project now, 180 degrees from where I was when I pulled the thru hulls.

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Tom Clark once mentioned the use of calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is used as a concrete accelerator removing moisture from the mix (pretty aggressive with concrete sometimes). Might be worth getting a bag and use with the dehumidifier.
Garris

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I think it's an absolute truth in nature that water is king- there really is almost nothing that it can't permeate, given enough time. Fiberglass is conveniently light, strong and impervious to it in the short term [25-50 years]
I posted my thoughts and remedy about Montauk bilge drains a while back on the "other" BW site.
The brass tube system seems a little 'cave-man' and, from my pov, could be improved by installing a fiberglass tube, faired into the transom and bilge sump walls. I did this on my 1987 Custom 17 in the bilge and splash well drains too.
The only difficult part was to find an ID of f/glass tube that would accommodate a standard drain plug [7/8 to 1"]. I ended up using 1/8" wall tube that measured about 1" ID, and since it was faired in with Westsystem, the 1" id got reduced to fit a 1" plug perfectly.
The tube source was from a small company in Santa Ana, CA that makes fishing accessories: Pacific Marine Products.
In this case the company makes gaff handles from the 1" tubing.
It required an oversize drill thru of the original drain hole, then f/glass cloth wraps around the tubing ends to set it structurally into the transom and sump walls. The rest is just fairing w/thickened Westsystem, then sand and finish. By making this mod, I'll never have to think about that nifty brass tube design BW implemented way back when.
In my case, I intended to leave this hull in the Pacific and knew it wouldn't take long for the salt water and stray electric currents in the marina to waste those nifty brass tubes- maybe 6 mo's.
When I executed this modification, I had the great surprise of drilling into dry foam at the drains, even though the deck had at least 50 screw holes, both made by PO and BW when they first rigged this 1987 17' SuperSport. Add to this that the deck gelcoat was spider web cracked in several locations from standing water.
This hull must have been kept somewhere hot, inland in So Cal. for the foam to be so dry.
Eventhough I sanded, primed and Epoxy barrier coated the hulls' gelcoat before bottom paint, it wouldn't surprise me if the hull develops gelcoat blisters in less than ten years in the Pacific [if not, then BW laid up a great f/glass laminate schedule].
The good news is that I know how to fill, fair and recoat those issues when they develop in the future, since we all know water will always win- it's just a matter of time.
Joe

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Boston Whaler, the unsinkable legend. These boats are legendary because most everyone thirty plus years in age remembers when Boston Whaler boats stood out from the rest. The chromed brass, polished stainless steel, teak and mahogany, all complimenting the beautiful tan gel coat. They also had as good or better and drier ride than other less attractive boats, and they are unsinkable. But the unsinkable part was an attribute that is also its Achilles heel. The sun and the rain would weather away and erode their ability to keep the elements from doing irreversible damage.
I believe Boston Whaler boats have to be taken care of with more regularity than with other brands because they don't take neglect very well. It's not just the softer gel coat and teak and mahogany, because of the foam filled construction, more care has to be taken to keep it all dry.

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Not sure I agree 100%, but whether theyre higher maintenace depends on use and location too. For example- I'm sure my '87 Custom would have waaay smaller and less frequent maintenance on a trailer, but I'm willing to trade that for convenient of use- and I might pay again on resale. I accept subject to all that.
In retro, there may be better ways to execute bouyancy, lightweight, reasonable cost, but to date, few have put it all together and stayed in the biz.
I'm no marine engineer/architect, but seems like a void should have been designed along the keel to collect and drain incidental water, where no foam is installed; to offset that small amount of bouyancy, maybe the foam could have been relocated vertically along the length of gunnels.
In the case of a Montauk, that may have been near impossible, but having an actual narrow bilge could have also accomodated a 'chase' for either fuel line or mechanicals- but all that would have certainly increased build costs.
I like these early designs b/c theyre so unique for their time. No doubt they can be a PITA to maintain, but even the most new designs have big issues.

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Hullinthewater, I agree. I just think that people, me included didn't know about how imperative it is in keeping the drain tubes maintained back then, not knowing the damage being done and the effect it would have on these wonderful classics.