Whaler Central - Boston Whaler Boat Information and Photos

Posted by eacinc on 05/19/10 - 12:29 AM

I bought a 1998 20 ft outrage the other week and I would like to know if any body has mounted a kicker motor bracket on one of these boats. I called Boston Whaler up and they claim there is a piece of phenol in the transom but I dont know exatly where it is. You can see my problem, !st I dont realy want to drill holes in this boat unless I know exatly were to drill and tap, and 2nd is I dont know what to lock the bolts with. Any help would be geatle apreciated

Posted by whalerman on 05/19/10 - 12:21 PM

Bolts and nuts high grade s.s. The nuts use nylok with flat washers. Look at the left side bar here under Navigation and browse the downloads ect. you might find something there, While you're at it just "cruise" thru it all. Lots of good info.

Posted by eacinc on 05/19/10 - 6:45 PM

On this boat there is no way to get behind the transom to use thru bolts. There is a piece of Phenolic board which is some kind of resin provided in the transom to mount the bracket to which has to be drilled and tapped, anyway the guy at Boston Whaler told me to treat this like you would aluminum. What im trying to find out is what kind of thread locker to use, and if anybody out there has done this with sucsess. Thanks

Posted by Tom W Clark on 05/19/10 - 10:33 PM

You need the "Wood Locating Diagram" for your boat. Whaler should be able to email you a copy of it. I may have one here. I''ll check in the morning.

I would just use an external lockwasher if I were concerned about the bolts loosening up.

Posted by eacinc on 05/19/10 - 11:37 PM

Thanks for the reply however I have the wood locatin map that was given when the boat was new and it does not tell how big the piece is or its exact location all I know its 5/8" thick but I dont know how thick the hull is, the other thing is the swim platform is on the port side which is good and is mounted with a bracket just under the rub rail and then bolts just above the water line, This is such a nice boat I want to know where to drill and tap these holes without making a mess of it. If the whole transom has phenolic then its no problem,like I said Id like to hear from someone who has done this before

Posted by Tom W Clark on 05/20/10 - 7:49 AM

The Wood Locating Diagram says in a note at the bottom:

"CENTER TRANSOM AREA IS 2" PLY. SIDE AREAS ARE 5/8" PHENOLIC FOR AUX. MOTOR & SWIM PLATFORM"

From this it is safe to assume that anywhere you want to bolt the bracket in will have WhaleBoard behind it.

The length of fastener needed can be calculated by adding the 5/8" WhaleBoard thickness and the thickness of your brackets' flange and then add 1/4" for the fiberglass and round up to the next available fastener length.

But you do not even need to do that because once you drill your first hole, you can just probe it and measure the actual thickness.