Wife and I are dissatisfied with our rope/plastic hanging swim ladder, since it tends to swing your feet in under the boat and is very clumsy to climb. So I was thinking of getting one of these metal folding ones that bolt to the deck over the transom and have loops to grab on to on your way up. Bet our toddler can even learn to climb it, which would be awesome:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/5lUAAOSw ... -l1600.jpg
But that aft deck has a fair bit of flex in it, and I'd be worried that overtime we're going to punch through it. And there used to be, I assume, laminated wooden members, glassed-in perpendicular to the transom under the aft deck, but now they'all all rotted. If I could, I'd just drill out the rotten wood and laminate new pieces, but last year I foolishly tried to fill the cavities with Thixxo, which just made a mess of Thixxo+rotted wood which will probably be very difficult to clean out well enough to make space for new laminated pieces. See pics:
I'd place the ladder opposite the motor well.
Here you can see the two fiberglass "channels" that are now filled with rotted wood and thixxo.
I basically just want to reinforce the deck in the easiest way possible. I'm fine with cutting off the existing fiberglass channels; it's just a pity because the glass channels themselves are in great condition. I guess I could even just leave them and through bolt a couple laminated pieces in different spots? Like...is the fiberglass wrapping even required if it's through-bolted and glued?