Benefits of a 15” Transom? Make it 20”?

[clarkbre]

I’ve got a Lund WC16 with a 15” transom. When I bought the boat it came with a longshaft Suzuki 15hp. Since then, I have added a riser block to get the motor at the right height; however, the transom still sits about 5” below the gunnels.

My issues with a short transom are twofold:
1. With the transition between 20” to 15” there are finished curves that take up useful transom space. On either side of the boat, I lose probably 6” of usable, horizontal transom space. I run a Minnkota Endura 30 and the clamp doesn’t seat all the way on the transom. In order to fit both my outboard and trolling motor, the trolling motor has to be mounted over a seat that sits about 2” below the top of the transom.
2. The top of the transom sits fairly close to the water and sometimes gets splashed/ swamped from waves.

One other thing is the bilge pump sits on the floor and the drain hose is just loose. In order for it to pump correctly, I was thinking of putting an actual hose outlet instead of having to aim the hose over the transom.

To solve all of this, I was thinking of taking off the corner caps and the top aluminum piece and replacing the cut down plywood with straight ply. Then, I would put a new aluminum skin on it to make it more water resistant and stock looking.

What are your thoughts?
Is there any good reason for keeping the transom 15” tall?
Is my idea of raising it with plywood ok?

 

[rewinder]

That's just what did to an early 80's princecraft. I put on a long shaft 15 merc, and it moves it along nicely. maidened it yesterday.

attached is pfd with four pictures of work in progress, i now have overlapping L shaped aluminum pieces inside and outside the new transom, like you suggested this closes the new transom, and sealed up, keeps water out of the plywood.

 

[huntinfool]

No there is not any problem with doing what your talking about. As long as you have the skill to do it. I would, however, suggest that you weld the new piece of aluminum to the outside to give the transom strength and not allow it to flex at the seam of the new aluminum and the hull.
Otherwise, I think you would not have any other issues. If your going to make it wood, just make sure that you bond both pieces of wood together. If they are not bonded together the transom will be allowed to flex and you will have problems later on down the road.