Caulk Choice

"Complete sealing" is conjectural. Thickening the resin is not going to help.
Not conjectural when mechanisms and processes are well-known and well understood. All paint-on preservative treatments are of little value and present severe health risks. Again not conjectural. But it's your liver, kidneys and brain cells at risk. The "good stuff" was banned for good reason.
 
No, I mean that you really don't know if you have achieved bonding to all the interior surface of the bore and eliminated all tiny cavities which will fill with water and engender rot. You'll only find out if you later take it apart. Me, I'd drill a press fit hole off a precise jig and drown the bore in fungicide. Dry it out with a Q-tip, cook it for 3 days in a dry environment, fill it with 5200 and insert an undersized shaft and rotate, do that 3 more times, add more 5200 to the bore and permanent fastener, and assemble with a hammer. Just thinking about it, I'd probably reconsider the utility of drilling holes below the waterline in the primary structural component of my boat when I already have a trim button. Here's an intellect explaining the dangers of 5200. Frankly, I like him better than the public radio DJs who drone on and on about health and the environment whenever I get to BC.
 
In vertical (legible on display shelf) black bold extra large font and item #2 on label of 5200: "Ideal for through hull fittings...." Use it and you could sue for false advertising if your boat rotted and sank.
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Just wanted to do a post mortem on this project. I carefully taped the brackets to the transom and market the holes as per the instructions. I drilled piolet holes with a 7/32 bit using a drill stop. I set the stop for 3/4 inches. This is the length of the supplied screws. The mounting plates were about 1/4" thick so that would give me a 1/4" in the bottom of the hole for Marine-Tex to fill. I was shocked when my piolet holes came through the inside of the transom. Too late to do much about it at this point. I then chamfered the holes and drilled the bigger holes for the Marine-Tex fill using a 5/8" bit. I mixed up the Marine-Tex and filled a small zip lock bag with the product per Dennis's suggestion. I started filling the holes and all was going ok until the zip lock failed and product leaked out all over my hands. I knew I should have worn rubber gloves! What a mess I was making. I powered through it and filled the holes to the best of my ability.

The next day after the Marine-Tex had dried, I inspected the holes from the inside of the transom. I was only able to see the four holes for the top mounting plate from the inside. The other 12 holes were below the floor and presumably into the foam flotation. No way to see those. The good news is that the four holes that I could see were completely filled with Marine-Tex. I can only hope it was the same for the other 12 holes.

I re-drilled the 7/32" piolet holes. I did feel voids on 3 of them. I filled the holes with 4200. I buttered the back of the plates with more 4200 and started screwing to the boat. All of the screws bit tight. I finished up attaching the tabs and actuators. Job Done!

Sunday I ran the boat. After launching I have a 1/4 mile run at no wake out a channel. Greatly reduced low speed wander. Major improvement. It was windy day and the lake was blown up. That coupled with a large number of boats out the lake it was pretty rough. I couldn't do any high speed tests however I was able to get the boat up to about 35 MPH. With the tabs and the motor tucked in there was almost no bow rise coming up on plane. I was able to stay on plane down to about 2400 rpm. This was a drop from 3000 rpm prior to the tab install. So far I'm very happy with the results. I need to get out during the week when the lake is not as busy to test the top end. Not too worried about this since I rarely run at WOT for very long at all. I also want to test it with the various toys we pull.

Bottom line is so far I like the improvement. I'll always be concerned about the holes I drilled. One more thing to worry about. Still I'm happy with the results. Thanks to everyone who pitched in with suggestions.
 
Was there wood in there? Did you get an impression of the thickness? If wood, did the cuttings show what kind? I had the prints for my little deck project and it was a sandwich of fiberglass cloth on both sides of 3/8" pvc board. While definitely rotproof, no grip for even a coarse wood screw. Toggles were the way to go for me. Glad you are enjoying your project. While we seek perfection, they are just toys and we will move on.
 
Yes there was about a 1/2" of wood sandwiched between the inside and outside layers of fiberglass. I can only assume that it was some form of plywood. The Marine-Tex stuck very well to the piolet holes and the screws bit tight into the Marine-Tex. The 4200 sealed the deal.
 
Glad to hear you're happy with the results, Sting.

FYI, different areas of the transom will have different thicknesses of wood - a few areas will have none - so what you found is normal.
 
Thanks, I guess if I would have found wood, I would have screwed my device to it with well caulked stainless steel wood screws where I could not through bolt. Marine Bondo might be some sailboater's ill conceived notion to cope with my PVC foam board where only a toggle could substitute for through bolting. Can't understand why you would strip out the sound plywood with 5/8" bores.

If you wanted to through bolt your cannon to the fiberglass deck of your sailboat, you might wish to overbore, fill the hole with fiberglass mat (to hold the resin in place till it sets) saturated with catalyzed epoxy resin, clean up the mess, and drill clearance holes for your bolts. You might have formed a continuous fiberglass sleeve through the gel/mat/foam/mat sandwich of a deck. This sleeve might be waterproof to prevent water intrusion into the mat and would be resistant to compression when you tightened the nut holding down your cannon. Bondo, even marine bondo, will crack and crumble under compression. Neither epoxy nor Bondo will provide purchase for screws. Your boat is going to sink because you drilled holes in it.
https://wileyski.com/
 
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