Our transom has taken a few hits over the years, and with the effort involved to make it look pretty again (fairing and painting), I’m considering doing a little bit of surgery while I’m at it. I really like the open transom look and ergonomics, but it’s a major undertaking to do properly. I’m thinking of lowering the sheer line of the after deck down to the level of the bench seats, and adding a pseudo swim step into the transom itself. Considerations and thoughts…
1) I don’t want to totally lose the storage space in the lazerette. I figure this would preserve 50% of stock volume.
2) Create enough of a swim step to transfer kids on/off stand up paddle boards in the summer
3) Create more space for crew or heavy items (like a liferaft) aft in big breeze condtions downwind/offshore.
4) Make it less of a pain in the ass to access the outboard. Not just controls, but also taking it on/off boat etc. Might even be able to get a little more shaft in the water.
Mods to make this work would involve…
1) Shortening rudder stock/building new tiller with slight rise
2) Move backstay tangs and re-configure backstay rigging (probably an improvement over current system)
3) Modify outboard bracket to mount on a vertical surface
4) Modify existing inboard pushpit support to fit on narrower deck.
What am I missing? What other mods have people done back there, beside the all out opening of the cockpit?
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