fleck05 wrote:QR_BBPOST
"Before it starts leaking, remove it, remove the wood backer plate, and have a fiberglass tech patch the hole properly"
This was a curiosity... when the wood rots through can it leak?
"It looks like there is a tightening nut on a threaded shaft there which shoot-thru-the-hull types don't have."
So maybe it won't leak if the wood rots?
If it was installed properly, then it's sealed from the outside. If the wood rots so much that there's no support on the inside, then eventually the transducer will loosen from the hull and you will have a leak. Given where that's mounted, I don't think it would normally see water from the bilge unless the water was pretty high, so I'm wondering if it's been leaking all along and that's what rotted the wood.
I'd look for another reason to use the hole for a transducer or a thru-hull water source before I'd patch it.
I second, third and fourth the transducer thought. My attitude is that if it aint broke; don't fix it. Not leaking.. perhaps you can encapsulate the threads with 3M5200 and as they say in brooklyn: fuggedaboudit!
I think KM nailed it. Upon closer inspection, it looks like one third of the top of the backer plate is actually broken in the first pic. Unless the pic is deceiving, you can see a gap from right to left in the picture. If you look close, at the right of that gap, there seems to be a track of where there was a steady stream of water leading away from that gap, so I too suspect it was leaking at one time. Since there doesn't seem to be any signs of caulking in the pic, I suspect the previous owner gooped the assembly under the hull to prevent it from leaking.
This isn't a matter of "if" it leaks, it's "when." It's only a matter of time and under the right conditions can sink your boat.
I have an 03, and there is no coring in the bottom that I've run across and I've put several holes (intentionally) in the hull.
If you don't have a better thing to put in there, you could just reinstall the same transducer. You could cut the cable and just make a new backing plate and install it with some good sealant.
Sponsors