boat name transom plaque

[jim shula]

I was asked to quote a name board for a boat's transom. The boat has about a 10' beam, but the name board will only be about 8' long. The board will be in an arced shape and the lettering is small enough so that I can cut the arc from a 1x12 piece of meranti. The question I have is how the board will react when it is attached to the transom. The transom has about a 3" outward crown to it. I can see a straight piece of lumber possibly being coaxed into position to follow the crown, but since the name board will be an arced shape, I'm a little leary of how that will behave when I try to through bolt that to the transom.

[SomeSailor]

As a boat owner myself, I'd worry about it having problems over time. How many attachment points do you plan across the length?

[jim shula]

All I am doing is making the sign. Installation is up to the owner, but I told him it should be thru-bolted to hold it on securely. I assume it would take a set of bolts every 24" or so, so 5 sets of bolts total.

If it were me I would not want a sign board surface mounted on the transom. It will only catch grime and stuff, though it's not a work boat, it's about a 40' downeast style wooden picnic boat.

[SomeSailor]

The reason I ask is you might be able to cut those for him and then counter ste them to be plugged afterward. That would allow you pre-load the board a bit there in your shop and be sure it'll pull down flat against his transom.

[jim shula]

Mike, I'm most worried about the board wanting to "pucker" in the middle at the top of the arc as I try to force the outer ends to the transom. I guess I'll have to cut the shape first and see if it will conform before spending any time to carve it.

[SomeSailor]

Yep. That would be my concern too.

[HawaiiAlohaCompany]

might be a bit late, but you do not want to through bolt a name plak to a transom. Screw and bung. Rotting out a transom for a name plak would be a shame.

[ajf]

I've been asked in the past to do this as well. Though these name plaques look really nice they can be a real pain to attach and can create future structural issues as well. I spent some time looking at other boats that had these plaques. They all seemed to have problems both for the boat as well as the plaque, largely from moisture getting behind the plague.. Also the inside area of many transoms are not easily accessible making the task of bolting a plaque on not really feasible and screws in most cases are not adequate. Before I would accept this project I would spend some time with the owner and find out exactly how he plans on attaching the plaque.

[jim shula]

I've gone over the issues with the owner already. In fact I told him if it were my boat I would not want a plaque sitting on the surface of the transom catching dirt and saltwater slime all the time. So he's aware of the that. Also told him no matter how he installs it (I'm not touching thais installation), to pre-drill oversized holes first, fill them with epoxy, then drill the smaller correct holes for the bolts. This is how I prepare the transoms on the boats I've built for motor mount bolts.