Wylie wrote:As for the ladder, I am sure that people have accomplished a lot with filler and sandwiching some pressure treated lumber. I was even thinking about cutting up a plank I already have and practicing my fiberglass skills by making a chunk to bolt on and adhere to the back. I noticed a post from someone else mentioning they had welded on a step at the top of their ladder because it was too short. I ordered a ladder that had more steps and made sure there was a step close to the top already. It mounts to the vertical face of the transom. It will have a lot of rotational force from top to bottom on a small bracket that would be supported by a fiberglass wrapped piece of 2 x 8. But instead of hanging pieces of lumber off the back of my boat, I would like to be able to mount it directly to my boat. However, like you said, not being here, it’s not easy to see where the rot is. Unfortunately, the rot has progressed quite a ways. The tympanic method with a rubber mallet along with just pressing into the skin and feeling and watching it move means there is nothing solid where I want to mount the ladder. The same applies for the trolling motor. And the gas engine. And the stand for the mast. Basically everything that I want to mount is supposed to mount where it is soft. I have a lot of stuff that I want to mount. That means most of the transom is soft. Kind of sad, at the same time, it is not an obstacle for me but an opportunity. Please don’t underestimate my tenacity. Also, please don’t underestimate my stupidity. Thank you again for all of your advice. Please keep it coming. People need to hear it. People are going to read this. They will be helped by your warnings.
My assumption (until I hear differently from you having actually looked inside) is that the back of the DSII is not actually supported by a full-width piece of wood. For one, the fact that it curves is a bit of a give away. Therefore, my working assumption is that the outer shell (hull) has a single strip of wood glassed against it that is used to support the bolts for the rudder. Then they lowered the deck/seat molding from above and called it a day. Banging on the outside, an intentional hollow would not sound firm. Can you tell it from rotted wood without looking?
We should look up that old thread of people mounting swim ladders. I assume you mean a folding one. If you have an inspection port in the transom you could just glue some pieces right where you want the bolts to go through. That way you can through-bolt the ladder supports and you won't squish the two shells together. I think the combined structure is strong enough to hold you (remember, the guy I'm thinking off, who mounted a swim ladder had substance!!). Can't ask him, because he's no longer with us, but he did used to write here extensively. Perhaps we can find details of what he did.
I was able to find at least a rear view of the boat in this post.
Here's another post, showing a similar ladder on a DS1. There is no wood in a DS1 transom where the ladder is mounted, but you can reach the inside space to mount a backing plate. Someone said they found wood drilling into a DSII transom at that location, so perhaps I'm wrong in my conception of how a DSII transom is put together (still, can't really picture them bending plywood for that - doesn't seem to fit with what we know about they way they built these boats...)
Here's another view of a DSII transom with swim ladder, together with placements for inspection ports.
There's not as much discussion of these ladders than I seemed to remember. Either everybody avoided the word "ladder" or we discussed this stuff in person.
However, I found this thread on motor mounts for the DSII, and apparently there's more wood there than I expected - "Roger" is quite the authority on the DSII, and if he says to expect wood core, you'd better.
I'll bail out and let you proceed. It was fun looking up all that old stuff.