Hello to the forum .As I'm new please bear with me if I make mistakes.
My daughter and I have a Shakespeare 17 1/2",I think,which we are going to restore,two year plan. So far we have just cleaned her,cut out the broken floor and removed the bumper. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of where I could get info on this boat,where I could look for a windscreen or is it possible to mold perspex to fit. If someone could advise me on paint etc. it would be very much appreciated.
This boat had a 1969 Merc800 on it and it appears to have been the original engine,maybe not.The plate says Shakespeare Marine Tewkesbury. Copyright 910138.
Any info and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello & welcome to the forum.

There is a wealth of advice to be had here with several members having done what you are about to start, I am sure they will pop up with advice soon.

As always photographs are a big help here, upload some & we will be able to identify the model etc.

Thanks for the quick reply.Here are some photos.
As the transom ply is totally rotted would it be better to cut the inside glass layer or the outside layer to replace the ply
I have been reading trough the forum and a lot of my questions are already there so this forum is a great help.And I hope someone will be able to give me an idea how old this boat is.Thanks.
Oh these photos were taken just after we took it off the trailer,so we still had a load of vegetation on board

also see......


http://www.dsv.su.se/~klas/Boats/home.html

Looking at the site T15 put us onto it is possibly a Shakey Super V sportsman?? Not 100% convinced though.

Hi & welcome - replace the transom from the inside; it's so much easier to hide any mistakes and have a rougher finish, than compromise the exterior. A common approach in the US is to use Seacast once you've Hoovered the mush out. It may only be available stateside. Other option is to resin laminate a jigsaw of ply shapes that will allow you to slide them into the space around the splashwell before glassing them in - this helps when you have limited access with a transom such as yours

If you baulk at doing this and want complete integrity in the transom and are happy to pay for the job, speak to Colin at Jago Developments in Chichester. I went down this route on my 3rd restoration - they're very skilled at this type of work and their finish was spot on.

Thanks everyone. I think I'll chance cutting the inside layer and see if I can slip a ply jigsaw in,I'll try a complete bit first.If nothing else I'll chance anything once .Thanks again everyone have a good weekend

This is shakey boat chase

but I think I'll not try that kind of speed up narrow canals

I recently did the transom job on my waverider Mustang (a later Shakespeare Clubman) definately work on the inside as the sage Rapier says you can hide mistakes. It looks like you have already made a start by cutting open the top edge. I used a dremmel with 1 inch diamond wheel to cut out the casing on the inside, it is less dangerous and messy than an angle grinder. I then used a variety of tools and butchery to remove the ply core. My transom consisted of two pieces of 3/8 in ply with 3mm chopped strand mat between encased in 3mm chopped strand mat. When the casing was removed I cut as much of the timber out as I could then working though the slot cut in the transom cap I used a long series drill to remove what I couldnt access from below. After a while I was supprised when the remaining timber fell out. To get all of the casing and ply out you will need to cut the rear end of the floor and the stringers out. I needed to replace the floor so this was not such a big deal although this opened another can of worms, I dicovered all of the glass over the stringers needed replacing too. the lower photo shows one side of the rear floor removed and part of the transom casing and core timber removed. The other photo shows new material going in. I used 4 pieces of 3/8 marine ply, a rear pair with a horizontal join then the glass plies, then a forward pair again joined horizontaly but with the join 3 inches below the first pair. I used SP Ampreg 21 epoxy with slow hardener it has a low viscosity so keys well into the ply and has a long pot life which takes the pressure off when getting things in place.

I hope this helps, you will find yourself wearing an awful lot of boat and needing a thorough shower after every task. A small price for peace of mind.
Good luck!