Why Worry About Rot?

[175checkmate]

The funny part about all of this.
If a boat was buil correctly using wood and everything was sealed. The boat would last a heck of a long time.
What kills a boat is the owner. Add a screw here, add one there. Drill a few holes to mount the gizmo and now the water can get in and do its job.

 

[the sMac]

Sadly, most people will want to add a fishfinder, or something that will allow water to seep into the wood. Plus, I doubt that even the best built wood transom is 100 percent sealed and will keep water out.

A small stress crack, a faulty gasket, or any one of the numerous reasons will allow water to "wick" its way into the transom.

And let's think about the PR and Marketing reasons for doing this. Most of us don't buy new boats because the transom is wet or needs to be rebuilt. If so, we usually fix it then sell the boat. We buy new boats for the bigger, better, newer, faster reasons. Now let's imagine a 20-30 year old Checkmate using composites instead of wood. Thinks of how long they would last. Then imagine some young person wanting to buy a boat. Well, would they buy a wet-wood transom boat or a Checkmate with composites. They know the Checkamte won't have problems with it's structure. More young boat buyers will be buying the Mate. More "addicts" will be formed and life-long Checkmate fans.

On another note, how much marketing power and name branding would it be to see a ton of really old Mates cruising around. "Wow, those boats last!" would be the talk around the docks.

I could go on forever, but I won't bore you all with my reseason why this makes sense to the customer and to the company.