With a new supply of abrasives and cutting tools on hand once more, I finished up the major prep work in the old engine compartment, starting by chiseling away the bulk of the chalky putty/sort-of-adhesive on the inside of the transom that had been used in the original construction to secure the cockpit liner.  This material was friable and relatively easy to remove.

Afterwards, I sanded the inside of the transom to remove the final residue and otherwise clean up and prepare the surface, and finished up the sanding in the remainder of the engine room, removing the remainder of the factory gelcoat from the bilge areas and the lower portion of the structures on each side (below future deck level), as well as bonding areas for future tabbing along the aft edges of the cutout.

When I laid out the transom cutout earlier, I’d measured its height at 24″ above the centerline at the lowest point of the hull, matching the finished height of the sistership I measured for comparison.  But this didn’t take into account the thickness of the fiberglass I wanted to wrap over the opening to finish it off (and also tie it in with new structures to come), and the cutout wasn’t quite level from side to side.  Now, once more setting the boat up level, I made a new mark below the existing cutout, starting 1/4″ below  to accommodate the fiberglass and making sure it was level, which I confirmed with spirit levels and also by measuring from various other points on the hull as needed.  I laid out the corner radii again.

After sawing to the new line, I cleaned up and fine-tuned the cutout once more with various sanding tools as needed till I was happy with the opening, now level with the rest of the boat.  Then, I prepared the adjacent hull for the eventual tabbing by removing the gelcoat and sanding a gradually-tapered area from the inside of the opening to a point about 4″ out all around.  Mainly because of the correction in the level from side to side, which increased towards the high side, the new cutout actually ended up closer to 1/2″ lower than the original (I was going for 1/4″, but I’d rather add more fiberglass to build it up properly than have it end up too high in the final analysis.

Along the two sides of the jet drive opening in the hull was some fairing putty from the original construction around the raised box for the drive.  I’d sanded this smooth and flush, but now I wasn’t happy with its existence:  it was chalky like old terra cotta, so I decided to chip it out and sand anew to ensure the most solid bonding surface for the patch ahead.  I also sanded the inside of the jet opening on the vertical transom, and cleaned up anywhere else that needed it, before vacuuming and solvent-washing the area to clean it enough for my next steps.  I took a moment to remove the small bronze through hull leftover from the old engine’s visual water pump stream, and prepared the piece of prefab fiberglass I planned to use inside the transom by sanding off the factory surface.

To prepare for the next step, I hot-glued my plywood transom-shape template to the aft side of the boat once more.  Working with narrow strips of cheap plywood and glue, I made a template of the inside of the transom, then transferred it to my fiberglass sheeting and cut it to fit the opening, allowing the bottom section to run down through the opening for final trimming.  The purpose of this panel was to add thickness, strength, and compression resistance to the overall transom structure, and it would be heavily bonded and fiberglassed into place to integrate it from all possible directions.

I scribed the shape for the bottom of the new panel by using a strip of plywood wide enough to span between the existing hull and the aft edge of my transom template and bending it manually into shape, making a pencil mark in the inside of the transom cutout opening on each side.  This shape didn’t have to be perfect at the moment, but it made sense to extend the panel down to the ultimate bottom of the boat; I was still working out the logistics of how exactly to mold the final repair, but the plan was coming more into focus with each passing moment spent on the boat.  I cut the panel to the scribed shape, which looked pretty good visually when sighted along the bottom along with the aft template and to a point just forward of the molded flat at the head of the jet box opening (difficult to photograph with the same point of view as through a squinted eye).  With the new panel in place, the transom thickness approached 2-1/2″, which would increase accordingly once I installed the tabbing over the inside of the opening later in the process.

For now, this brought me to the end of the day.

To begin, before it got lost in the shuffle I made various measurements to record the existing position of the waterline (i.e. top of the bottom paint) and boottop at the transom corners, midships transom, and at the bow.  These measurements would be useful much later in the project during the painting phase.

Before getting back to work in the engine room, I wanted to clear the way of old wiring and a few bolts securing some plumbing on the port side.  As needed, I labeled existing wires and cut as needed to remove and pull through the wiring temporarily into the starboard aft locker, out of the way for now.  On the port side, I found it easier simply to remove the battery switch and its cabling entirely.

Next I removed a vented loop for the bilge pump and the old livewell pump beneath, both of which were secured through the longitudinal bulkhead with bolts that would be in the way of engine room work.  The owner didn’t want the livewell pump anyway, which was just as well since it was thoroughly rusted on the bottom side (which didn’t necessarily mean it didn’t work, but it would no longer be needed anyway).  I’d not originally planned to remove the two plastic through hull outlets for these pumps, but in removing the hose from the bilge pump outlet the fitting immediately broke (and, in fact, broke off from the mushroom head as well), so I decided to remove both fittings, which were just old UV-damaged plastic junk anyway.

In the end, this cleared the engine room of annoying wiring in the way.

 

Now I wanted to get the lead out–literally.  I was not looking forward to this, but the lead trim ballast had to go, whether or not it would be needed again in the future.  To begin, I used a grinder cutoff wheel to score through the laminate encapsulating the lead, allowing me to remove the top and front pieces.  I’d hoped this might allow me to pry out the lead, but they seemed still too firmly affixed and I couldn’t move it just yet.  I feared the lead might be adhered to the hull with epoxy, which would make removal extra unfun.

The remnants of the jet drive tunnel were certainly not helping, and this structure had to be removed as well, so now, working both from outside the boat and in, I cut the heavy fiberglass as much as I could, a rather more difficult prospect than I’d expected even with past experience cutting this very structure during the engine removal.  But at some length, and after several cutting discs and saw blades and prybars and a dash of blue language to apply the necessary afterburners to get the job done, I eventually managed to pry out the miserable pieces.   This boat definitely did not want to be disassembled–a good thing, of course, unless one’s goal is to actually disassemble it in part.

I also cut out the liner in front of the transom, which was actually straightforward, though there was a thick pile of mash that I’d have to remove later.  Before starting on this venture, not knowing if the lead was going to just drop out (haha), I’d protected the floor with a piece of plywood beneath the opening.

Fortunately, now I discovered the lead was actually in three pieces per side, which made removal much easier from all perspectives.  I also found now that the lead was stuck in place with an elastomeric sealant, and from here was generally fairly easy to remove despite the heavy applications of the sealant beneath, between, and behind the lead blocks, as well as the thick gobs of resin-based adhesive and filler in the gaps between the lead and the transom and side bulkheads.  I found water under the lead on both sides.

I weighed all the lead:  each piece weighed about 30 pounds, though one of the last two pieces (which I weighed together since they were still conjoined by rubbery sealant) must have been lighter since those two pieces weighed only about 52 lb.  But that was 172 lb. total trim weight, more than I’d anticipated or guessed (I’d guessed 100 lb.)  I set the lead aside.

With that all out of the way, I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the engine room, laboriously cutting out the last bits of resin adhesive and tabbing, then grinding the cut areas smooth and flush and otherwise generally preparing the surface.  There’d be more sanding and cleanup ahead, but this was a start, and by the end I was working with the last of a series of dull and used-up grinding discs, having unexpectedly used all of a brand-new supply of cutting wheels and discs that I’d ordered just for this process.  More on the way.

The last photo in this series does a pretty good job showing the smallish flat area in the hull forward of the jet cutout that would also need to be reshaped in accordance with the fixed deadrise shape of the designed bottom of the hull.

The rough cut for the transom cutout was fairly accurate where it counted, on the transom surface, but inevitably the blade had wandered through the thickness of the transom, leaving several areas higher than desired on the inward face.

Now, with a saw, grinder, and various sanding tools, I cleaned up these areas, and brought the cutout right to the layout line on the wooden transom as needed, leaving a mostly flat and clean-enough-for-now shape all around.  There’d be ample opportunity to further refine the opening coming up, but for the moment my goal was to clean it up sufficiently to the layout lines so I could move on to removing the wood veneer from the transom.

The teak planks on the transom were about 3/8″ thick, with an overlapping solid teak rubrail at the top corners, integrated with (specifically glued to) the teak coaming cap.  The planks and trim were glued to the transom with a resinous adhesive, presumably epoxy, and several screws beneath bunged holes.  To begin, I used a chisel to expose the screw heads on the trim, and removed the screws.  When attempting to chisel out the trim piece, I quickly found that it risked damaging the coverboard above (which we planned to keep if possible), so I used an oscillating multi tool to cut along the glue line between the trim and the coverboard, after which I could chisel out most of the trim.

Then, as a sort of trial run at removing the teak over the transom field (I was expecting a transport truck to move a boat shortly), I began chiseling out the wood starting at the transom cutout.  The wood was well-adhered to the transom all over, and clearly removal would simply be a matter of literally chipping away at it.

With the departure of the boat in the next bay, I took the opportunity to move this boat to my preferred and dedicated work bay for the duration of the project.

Once I got set back up, I worked the remainder of the day to remove the teak from the transom.  It was a necessarily destructive process, possibly sacrilege, but there was nothing for it but to chisel off the boards however they came.  I found that it worked better if I chiseled across the grain–vertically, in this case, and while it seemed slow during the process, it actually didn’t take too long before the remnants of the transom and rubrail trim littered the floor beneath the boat, leaving behind a layer of wood of variable, but minimal as practicable, thickness.  Some damage to the fiberglass was inevitable, but I tried to minimize it in favor of leaving a bit more wood behind to be dealt with next.

To finish, I sanded away the wood and adhesive reside, bringing the transom back to its original gelcoat.  There’d be some minor repairs required, but there was plenty of structural work to come around the cutout as well and overall the transom fared well.  There’d be additional work required at the top edge in terms of finalizing the profile of the coverboard and covering the now-exposed hull-deck seam there, but the way forward there would become clear as the project progressed.

Using the various transom measurements I recorded from the sistership, I worked to lay out the new transom cutout.  The owner had previously laid out, and marked in blue tape, an approximation of the shape, but this was never intended to be the actual cutting template, though I was interested to see how it would compare with the physical measurements I had from the other boat.

These photos of the sistership, including one from a year or so ago when the boat was in the water, serve as visual references for the work below.  Also refer to this page.

I began by marking a vertical centerline, measuring the overall width in various places and making marks as needed.  I measured across the top of the rubrail at the transom corners; just beneath the rubrail; just beneath the wooden part of the transom; and just above the cutout leftover from the jet drive.  Then I connected these with a line, which would become one of the key bases for the remaining layout.  Note that the wooden transom veneer would be going away as part of this project, so I didn’t worry about marking directly on the old wood.

At the top of the transom, I measured 21″ in from each corner, which according to the sistership would provide the overall width of the top of the opening.  So far the measurements were tying in well, but not exactly, with the taped approximation.

Perhaps the most critical measurement for the new cutout was the height of the cutout, which I’d measured on the sistership at 24″ from the centerline of the bottom.  To recreate that point, which at the moment didn’t exist thanks to the jetdrive tunnel, I transferred my paper template of the other other boat’s hull shape to some 1/4″ plywood and cut out and faired the shape.  I hot-glued a scrap of plywood into the gap below the tunnel, then used the new plywood hull shape template to draw on the eventual shape, temporarily securing hte template to the stern with more hot glue; the template was easy to align properly since I just had to line up the sides flush with the existing hull; it only fit one way.   In the end, all this gave me the lower point needed to determine the cutout height, which I then marked on the centerline exactly 24″ up.

The boat was slightly out of level, so I propped up one side with a jack and blocking till she was level across both sidedecks, using a long straightedge.

Now that the boat was level, I could transfer my most recent mark for the bottom of the cutout to each side, using a level from the center point to create a tick mark out near the edge of the existing taped marks.  Then, because the transom was slightly curved, rendering the level inherently (if slightly) inaccurate for this method, I double-checked the height of the tick marks on each side with measurements from fixed points on the boat and, again with the level, confirmed the new marks and slightly fixed the line on the port side as a result  (the black line).

Next I could measure out from centerline the required distance as recorded from the sistership, 16-1/2″ on each side, representing the lower corner of the cutout.  I could connect this point with the measurements I’d made at the top, thus creating the raw shape of the cutout.  To finish the early layout, I marked a 2″ radius curve at each lower corner, which looked and felt appropriate and again approximated what I’d seen on the sistership.

Inside the boat, I prepared for additional layout by first removing the plastic moldings that had supported the now-obsolete engine box.

Throughout the engine removal, I’d wondered to myself about two raised areas, one on each side of the engine location right up against the transom.    I figured I’d want to remove these as I reconfigured the boat to traditional outboard power, but now I decided to drill into one and see what was inside, which would ready me for whatever might be required in its removal.  I was rather surprised to discover that these were trim ballast with lead encapsulated beneath the fiberglass–presumably something related to the engine configuration on this boat, unless the trim weight was something required due to a basic (if small) design error.  I figured I’d still probably remove these, as weight could always be added back if it turned out to be needed for trim later, and they were frankly in the way of the rebuilding work required in the bilge.  At least now I knew what I was up against.

I began my rough interior layout by extending a straightedge up from the two molded seat arrangements on each side, but quickly determined that this wasn’t sufficiently accurate as a means of confirming the exterior layout.

So from outside, I drilled 1/4″ holes through the transom at key points, including the centerline at the base; the beginning and end of each of the lower corner radii; and the top of the cutout just below the wooden rubrail.  These points gave me a series of references on the inside that I could use to draw out the approximate cutout, to ensure it seemed in the right place from the inside as well.  At first, my marks seemed to show an asymmetry on the starboard side, as the mark there was well inboard of the one to port, but I soon discovered that I’d missed one of the drilled holes and had connected one of the wrong points; the hole had come through, but a little flap of fiberglass had stayed affixed, hiding it.  When I corrected the layout to the proper position, it made a lot more sense.

As a final confirmation of the position and layout on the transom, I made a final pair of measurements from each side, at the height of the bottom of the cutout, to the corners on each side; these proved to be symmetrical, clearing the way for me to cut out the piece in the center.

With a long blade in my jigsaw, I cut through the transom to remove the piece.  I cut just inside (waste side) of the red lines, as accurately as possible but there’d be ample opportunity for correcting minor inaccuracies later.  The transom was thick enough that I needed to use the longest blades in my current arsenal, which unfortunately weren’t the carbide ones I might have preferred for the job, but although I needed three of them for the job, they preformed admirably, and soon the heavy piece of the transom was out, revealing for the first time the inner construction.

The construction featured nearly 3/8″ thick outer laminate, two layers of 3/4″ balsa separated by an additional 1/8″ laminate, and an inner laminate of about 3/16″ (plus the inner liner, separated by about 1/4″ gap and which would soon be removed as part of this process).  The exterior wooden veneer was also going to be removed later and would not be part of the final configuration.  The structural condition of the exposed transom appeared excellent, which was good news as this had been one of the known-unknowns of the project.

I’d measured the transom thickness on the sistership at 2-3/4″ overall (which probably included an interior liner), so I thought in this case I’d probably add a glassed-in prefab fiberglass panel to the inside to increase thickness, provide the requisite compression resistance, and add strength, all of which would be coupled with and tied to the existing structures with and around the new work to close off the old jet drive tunnel and recreate the proper hull shape.  The hull on this boat featured a slight flattened area beginning just forward of the tunnel opening, versus the rounded deadrise shape of the basic hull, so recreating this shape from its natural starting point a foot or so forward of the tunnel to the transom would be part of the work to come.  All this and more, including final shaping and finishing of the new cutout opening, would form the bulk of the work on this project in the time to come.

To finish up the shipping crate for the engine and jet drive assembly, I built a simple framework from scrap lumber (mainly the leftover wood from the shrinkwrap frame), enclosing the top part of the pallet with a small curb to contain the various small pieces and parts that went along with the engine, then extending the frame upwards to just above the maximum height of the engine (not including the lifting ring).  I added light cross members to complete the structure and to eventually support cardboard sheathing.  Inside, I placed all the related engine and drive components, securing them as needed.

To finish, I installed cardboard around the four sides, and cut  final piece for the top, though I wouldn’t install that yet as I still needed to lift the engine and crate one more time to load it in a truck.

 

The owner and I discussed the problem of the engine and decided that the main thing for the moment was that the engine had to come out of the boat and wasn’t worth endless hours of so-far futile attempts at separating the engine from the jet drive.  The backup option I’d been holding close was the idea of cutting the fiberglass drive housing to free the engine and drive in one piece, for whatever disposition the combined units might have; they’d be intact, at least, and out of the boat.

So with this in mind after a day away from the project, I got to work to remove the entire assembly.  To begin, I removed the final screw holding the ride plate to the bottom:  I had to drill out the head since I couldn’t get the screw to back out normally, and the jet drive wouldn’t come out of the boat from the top without removing the plate.  I found all kinds of peanut shells and other rodent-related detritus hiding beneath the plate when I pulled it out.

Removing the plate gave me good insight around the edges of the drive, confirming what I had hoped:  That there was air space around it, and that cutting the fiberglass housing above was possible without also damaging the drive.

Next, from inside the boat I started by cutting off the remaining heavy control cable that ran through the fitting at the front of the housing, as the excess cable would just be in the way and would make removal of the engine and drive assembly unnecessarily difficult (since it’d been so simple so far…).  Then, I cut the fiberglass housing a couple inches below the engine and adapter plate.  The fiberglass tunnel laminate was extremely thick, about 1″ on the sides and thicker at the forward corners.  I mostly used an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel installed.  I confirmed that I’d cut all the way through the three main sides (other than the tight spot behind the engine) by lifting slightly on the hoist.

There was little room behind the engine, where it faced the solid transom, but I was able to start the cuts from each side with the angle grinder, which then gave me a slot into which to fit a reciprocating saw with a long blade, and then, finally, to finish up the cut in the tightest midships portion with an oscillating multitool.  Now I could begin to lift the engine and hopefully slide it forward to free the drive and then pull the whole thing out.  But it quickly became clear that the front side of the drive housing was in the way–I couldn’t pull the assembly far enough forward and up to clear it without binding the after part of the drive housing on the transom.  So, working carefully with my nearly-exhausted supply of blades and my precious last semi-usable remnants of a grinder cutoff wheel, I cut the front of the housing out with a saw cut on each side (vertically) and then along the bottom edge.  This opened up the front section to allow the drive assembly to move forward without lifting so much.

It should have been pretty easy from there, but the thing fought me every step of the way.  It took a little while and a bit of frustration and effort before I finally figured out why the assembly refused to move forward enough to clear the drive forward of the transom:  A combination of factors, including the fact that tunnel narrowed towards the forward end, and the drive had a tight-tolerance flange with gasket near the aft end that was binding hard on the narrowing tunnel.  I’d seen the gasket, but thought it was just that:  A gasket.  But there were cast flanges on each side to secure it, and these were tight on the fiberglass and couldn’t move forward any further.  With some difficulty, I eventually cut more of the fiberglass on one side, in way of the gasketed flange, to provide enough extra clearance to finally rid the boat of the unwanted resident.

I wasted no time, after a quick pause for victory photos, in getting the thing over the side and down to the floor.  Perhaps this was once a nifty setup, but I never wanted to see its kind again.  I’d soon address the remnants of the tunnel and related structures in the boat, once I resupplied myself with the necessary cutting tools that I’d exhausted during the removal; all of this was always going to be cut out, and the resulting hole reshaped and patched, as part of this project.

I spent the remainder of the day building a storage/shipping crate for the assembly, after quickly reattaching a couple of the accessory pieces I’d removed from the engine during the dismounting.  There was no way to bolt the assembly directly to whatever structure, so instead I devised a system to secure it tightly using a strap over the top and some wooden framework around and over portions of the assembly to prevent movement or tipping.

From here, the next step would be to build a simple framework to enclose the engine and cover it with cardboard or  plastic or something.  The crate also left ample room for all the various pieces of the drive and related components I’d removed earlier, so that whatever future recipient should have everything required on hand.

 

With a few other small, just-added jobs to finish on another project, I stayed mostly away from the engine removal.  However, the owner was ready, should it be needed, to take more dramatic action on the engine removal, and we’d discussed the possibility (likelihood) of simply cutting out the fiberglass box into which the jet drive, and onto which the engine, was installed.  This box had to be removed anyway given the transom changes to come, and as the silliness of the engine removal dragged on, it seemed more and more practical to take this route.

With this in mind, I spent a little time removing some excess components from the jet drive unit to make removal through the hole in the boat easier, starting with removing the reverse baffle and nozzle, a matter of four bolts.

Next, I removed the trim plate from the aft end–four more screws:  Two machine screws at the forward end, and two bolts at the after end.  The after bolts supposedly were not threaded into the aluminum drive housing (secured with nuts and the two washers seen), but regardless they did penetrate into the housing, and these penetrations (whether threaded or not) were completely seized and the heads of the bolts spun off during removal, leaving short studs for someone else to deal with eventually.

Next I removed all but one of the screws securing the ride plate to the bottom–that’s the big plate covering the whole bottom of the opening over the bottom of the drive.  The final screw was seized in place (amazingly it was the only one), and I broke the only T25 torx bit I had on hand at the moment.  I treated the screw with penetrating oil and left it to soak.