TOPIC: Hello!

I wanted to do an introduction post as a segue into me asking a lot of stupid questions of you fine folks!

This is the boat I just recently picked up (2 weeks ago). Hauled it home from about 5 hours away after finding it on eBay. It wasn't an opportunity to light the world on fire with a great bargain, but I only paid $1450 for a running, floating boat. So I was thrilled!

This is my first boat, so obviously my first fiberglassic. She has a 1989 80 HP Mercury.

Very excited to be part of this community! Hope to have the boat for many years to come!

Nice boat

Looks like you got a bargain. What year/make is she? Love the truck. Here's mine:

Welcome! You have yourself a fine quality Shell Lake Rocket. Probably '59/60. Leaning more towards 1960. I've had two of these boats and restored them both. They are well built. There is something you might want to check though. In the stern bilge area there is like a shelf 31/2" higher than the bottom, there is foam floatation in there and is usually gets soaked/waterlogged. Cut a small hole and check it out. If it's wet it needs to be removed. (I can tell you how ) With a running motor and trailer you did get a deal. The last one I sold to a couple in Lousianna for $5g's and they had to haul it from middle WI.

Nautilus wrote: Looks like you got a bargain. What year/make is she? Love the truck. Here's mine:

1959! Oldie but a goodie in my book. Love the style of these...

The truck is not mine. I have a turd old 83 F100 These were some of the photos that the guy I bought it from took. He told me he took that purple truck to Barrett Jackson. The ones out on the water are my photos, though.

63 Sabre wrote:

Welcome! You have yourself a fine quality Shell Lake Rocket. Probably '59/60. Leaning more towards 1960. I've had two of these boats and restored them both. They are well built. There is something you might want to check though. In the stern bilge area there is like a shelf 31/2" higher than the bottom, there is foam floatation in there and is usually gets soaked/waterlogged. Cut a small hole and check it out. If it's wet it needs to be removed. (I can tell you how ) With a running motor and trailer you did get a deal. The last one I sold to a couple in Lousianna for $5g's and they had to haul it from middle WI.

Thank you much for that advice! It's a 1959. I will check it out...on my boat, that shelf has a hole on either side, port and starboard, that just passes right through the transom. If I go to the very back of the boat, it dips into the water and takes on some water through those holes. Are those supposed to be there? Is there something supposed to be in there?? When you move back toward the bow, they empty right out

I also have some transom cracks...the rest of the transom passes the knock test. It feels solid. I will likely get some marine wood and run a piece to each of the stern eye bolts and replace the current wood. That ought to make those eyes secure enough to pull a small one-person tube, since they will be connected to the engine via the wood bracing.

I know this is a patch to get me through this year. Later on, perhaps this winter, I can start learning how to properly replace a transom...if it doesn't feel "right"

Please don't get the motor well confused with the bilge area. The motor well where your motor is mounted is supposed to have those two holes for drainage if you for some reason get water in while launching or backing up etc.
You might not have the floatation chamber in the back that I was writing about. That is not a good crack on the transom. If you want to get through the boating season go to a local hardware store and get some type of iron bar at least 1/8" thick that would run the entire length of the transom and through bolt it across either the inside or outside. You might have to loosen up the motor mounting bolts to slide it across. That is not safe from what I see.
Both the rockets I rebuilt had very strong transoms, I surprised to see that crack
In this picture the two holes I circled are the drains that are supposed there. The big "X" is where the floatation chamber is. This pic was taken while I was putzing with the motor.

Gotcha! Told ya I was new to this I thought the holes were intentional, but never hurts to know for sure. I'm a hefty guy, so no surprise they dip into the water when I move to the stern.

Thanks for the advice and for speaking slow Pics always help.

Here is my plan for making a transom reinforcement:


This should be plenty strong as far as spreading the load across the strong parts. It also ties it into the stern eyes, so I don't have to drill new holes to bolt the reinforcement in. I may have to weld an extension on the transom eyes to be long enough to go through the reinforcement. Let me know your thoughts here. It feels like overkill, but I think it's a simple afternoon project with enough peace of mind (cue Boston). Unless the whole transom rips off, it ain't going nowhere, in my unprofessional opinion.

I will have to look further into that foam under there. Hadn't spent much time looking in that particular area, to be quite honest.

Thanks! We're gonna be best buds by the time I am through....

By the way, that wood is gonna be one solid piece, 10" (or whatever the width bolt hole to bolt hole is) plus a little extra. I am gonna cut the sides down to save weight and not cover those drain holes.

That should work until you have time to install a new transom. There are guys here who have installed many transoms so they can give you all the shortcuts and things they learned by making mistakes so you don't have to.
Nothing wrong with overkill when it comes to safety. I have a nephew who ripped out his transom a few years back while the family was in the boat, not pretty. One of our posters here (All Dunn II) bought his motor and lots of other stuff for a song.

Sorry late to this, welcome aboard and nice find!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob

Not sure if this YouTube link will work, but it shows someone who lost their outbound when the transom broke off. Only you will be able to pretest the strength before heading to the water. Safe boating to you!

And that 115 goes real sweet on my Thompson!! I was very surprised when I saw his Sea Ray with the transom falling off sitting in the yard. The motor never went in the water and they were lucky to get to shore safely. He told me his wife wasn't too crazy about boating before that happened, and she hasn't been on a boat since it happened. Like Cal said, always error on the side of safety.
Bill

Gotcha. Well I will likely try to go until winter. I am really not confident in my ability to do it, to be quite frank. But I guess any questions will get redirected here

My buddy and I are gonna pull the engine off (basically just unbolt and lift high enough to work with an engine hoist), have the wood ready to go, remove stern eyes, clamp wood in place, drill holes and reinstall with longer bolts and whatnot. Will let you guys know how it goes!