Tearing apart a transom

After getting the transom well out of the way I had much better access to see how bad the rot was. It actually looks like the transom may not need full replacement, it seems that in the past there has been a sheet of plywood added to each side of the transom, with a hardwood centre. The plywood is rotten, but at this stage the hardwood core of the transom looks like it might be ok.

I cut the fibreglass through at each topside corner of the transom, so I could remove the "top" of the transom and check the core. The rot seems limited to the plywood sheeting, it doesn't extend around the corners to the boat sides, though I will need to pull apart a bit further to confirm this.

Next step will be to cut some of the fibreglass off the back of the transom, and see how much can be saved.