SR4 owners

[MustRib]

I need a little advice on elephants trunks please.
My SR4 doesn't have one...its an old boat and one was never fitted.
I noticed that the Avon elephants trunk and the aftermarket ones seem to
involve a 100mm hole being drilled in the transom.
This seems a large hole for a relatively small transom...I would be worried about the strength of the transom with this size hole in it!
Anyone ever fitted a smaller trunk set up ?
I do have a bilge pump fitted at the moment, but just want to cover myself in the event that it fails.

thanks
Andy

[Nos4r2]

There's a guy on Ebay sells smaller trunks-about 70mm across iirc.

[MustRib]

thanks Nos...
you dont know what his ebay id is do you?

[Nos4r2]

No unfortunately. I bought one from him a couple of years back and I've seen him list them regularly since so you'll find them if you keep an eye on it. Might be worth asking ADS if he's using the one I had-I didn't fit it and it went with the boat.

[ADS]

Hi guys, sorry i ve been doing my dissertation
The trunk that Nos supplied has not been fitted for a number of reasons.
1. Theres a bloody great 50hp on my transom so the transom needs all the strength it can get.
2. The boat is quite old now and whilst its structurally sound I don't want to go putting any holes in a transom that probably seen some action over the years.

The solution? Well there is a bildge pump fitted, however in the event of electrical failure it obviously would work, when I find somewhere to mount it I may well fit a conventional manual jobby.

[MustRib]

thanks Alex
I think our boats sound pretty similar.
There is a Yam 40V on mine....again the boat is old and I am concerned
about cutting a hole in the transom.
Last summer I contrived to get just a bit swamped off Bigbury in Devon,
and I ended up taking shelter in the River Avon at Bantham while I bailed out the boat. Apart from looking stupid - it took quite a while.
It all happened quite fast as well.
So - now I have a Rule 1000 bilge pump, but in the back of my mind
I'm thinking should I stuff the boat again big time, and the pump clog or stop,
then I have no fast way of dumping the water.
Any other SR4 owners fitted a trunk to their transom? Does it affect the
strength of the thing?

[ribraff]

The other solution is to find a piece of pipe which you think will be big enough, drill the hole out with a hole cutter and have a trunk made up to fit it, the pipe can be epoxied into place with some small screws through the inside of the pipe and in to the transom, it all depends on what size hole you think you can get away with.
If you decide to go this route i can supply you with a tailor made trunk to fit.

[9D280]

I was going to fit one to my old ('82ish vintage) SR4, (had a 25) but didn't simply because I sold it to upsize before I got round to it. (And yes, I know that "pass me a bucket" feeling too.......).

I wouln't worry too much about the strength - the hole goes in right at the join of the transom & the deck, any levarage is taken by the transom brace struts and the top / middle of the transom. It's not like you're relying simply on the transom material at the join to take all the force. You also probably have a nice strip of metal along the top to help shift the force to the braces? What I would say is if you do it, make sure the fibreglass round the hole is properly sealed!!!!!!

Also if you're worried about the size of hole, my "new" toy is fitted with a "dinky trunk" - I would guess 50-60mm dia. Whether it was fitted by Humber or Delta or a previous owner I don't know, but might be worth contacting them to see if they still make them?

[Pablo]

The other solution is to fix a piece of hose pipe to the bottom of the transom, feed it over the transom an fix it just above the prop. When the prop turns it creates a vacuum which sucks out all the water in the boat. It's very efficient but obviously the prop has to be turning !

[9D280]

Won't that entrain air into your prop once the boat is bailed?