Can Starboard Reinforce an Aluminum Boat Transom?

Can Starboard Reinforce an Aluminum Boat Transom?

Jared 00:07
Nick asked, Can Starboard be used for a transom material? And he's looking to put it on an aluminum boat with a 15 horsepower four stroke motor. So this is kind of a tricky one. I feel like it'll stumble us up a little bit.

Matt 00:20
This is a good one. This is a good one.

Andrew 00:22
We might need to break it into two things. Can it be used for a transom or whatever.

Matt 00:25
Let’s do that. That's going to be great. So your standard transom application where it's a cored fiberglass transom, you have plywood core typically in there. No, Starboard is not a good option. You can't laminate to it. You can't fiberglass it. Resin doesn't bond to it. Absolutely not. Can’t paint it.

Andrew 00:42
Heavy, it’s not super rigid, right.

Matt 00:44
But the major problems for a transom are that you can't bond to it. But for a small, a small boat, portable engine, I'd say. Starboard could be used to reinforce a transom; I would not use it as a transom.

Jared 01:01
So in this case, I think that you know, based on the fact that it's an aluminum jonboat, he's looking for something to give a little bit more support. You already have the aluminum backing of the transom that's in there. You see a lot of guys put plywood in there, you know, we generally recommend Coosa for a transom, but, you know, in this case, I would say that Starboard is going to work, right?

I mean, I definitely would want to talk about thickness with them and make sure you know, what are they doing with it? If it's a little runabout or a dinghy? You know, I would definitely say the opposite. You know, if we were talking about redoing a center console with you know, to 150s on the back, that's not going to be the case, right? We would recommend something different. So in that case, what would you unpack?

Matt 01:40
I would say I would say you're spot on I mean, I think I think the Starboard would work as a viable replacement or like reinforcement to you know, a small Jon boat aluminum transom style you know, I'm picturing when I had a 12 foot Jon boat that was rated for three, I had a six on it. And that thing that transom flexed like crazy when I got on the throttle.

So I put a reinforcement plate on the outside of the transom. In this case, I actually used aluminum but Starboard would have done the job just fine. I probably would have gone in with one inch Starboard because it's rigid enough and thick enough that it would not interfere with anything, the clamps for that motor could still fit around everything it would it would work really well. And it further reinforced the transom so that the motor wasn't flexing it like crazy or towing the motor.

Andrew 02:30
And so what about Starboard versus plywood? Right? I mean, no, we know that that the advantage of Starboard is that its going to last forever, right? Whereas the plywood won't, but from doing the job for the life of the material, what would you recommend? Because you know, one of the things we always say is that Starboard is more flexible than plywood.

Matt 02:46
Starboard is more flexible, but that's over larger distances. Right? You know, if you take it from a sheet by sheet standpoint, your plywood is going to be more rigid, but if you're talking about smaller pieces, like a small 12 inch by 12 inch piece, Starboard and plywood are going to be very comparable.

Jared 03:03
So kind of in this place. It's like a backing plate or a stiffener you know, for this definitely would work for this application. 15 horsepower four stroke on the back of a Jon boat, but we're not recommending that when we go to a larger boat.

Andrew 03:16
Yeah, generally when you hear transoms you don't think starboard.

Matt 03:19
No, but I've seen people use Starboard for like kicker motor brackets, like on a sailboat or whatnot. Yep. Yeah, those are good options.