New transom supports, swim platform and spiral stairs

[quincyscuba]

Hello everyone, a little over a month a ago I posted that I was wanting to replace my swim platform. After your advice and many searches on the forum I have completed replacing my supports and Swim platform. In addition we built and installed new stairs. Everything came out great. The wood we used is from the old platform. The platform was 28" deep and is now 47" deep.
Thank You for your support and advice. If you have any questions on what I did I will be happy to share what I learned in building and installing these.

Thank You to Corey and Jim for all your help.

Rob
Lorelei IV

Install Platform finallay done.jpgLorelei Stipped down.jpg

[quincyscuba]

Platform with Naomi.jpgBefore pic of swim platform.jpgtransom supports.jpg

[Beachcomber]

Rob,
Looks great!!

[seaway]

Nice. Very user friendly.

[Angela]

I want this! Where did you have the platform fabricated and what was the cost? Ditto for the stairs. Thanks for sharing.

[quincyscuba]

The platform and stairs are powder-coated aluminum. The supports are 3 inch stainless steel angle. With the help of my good friends, Jim and Corey, I fabricated almost everything myself. The total cost of materials was about $4000, including the powder-coat cost. I figure between the 3 of us there was about 120-140 man-hours labor.

[GJH]

Really beautiful work judging from the pictures. Costs sound about right, I was quoted 10-12k by a boat yard 5 years ago for a spiral stair and a glass platform. How did you bind the aluminum and stainless pieces together to prevent corrosion of the AL? TefGel?

[lumina]

Hi All,

Rob, really great job. It blends in so well and looks a billion times easier to get aboard.

A question,,,when you removed the transom supports, was the transom solid or cored?

Thanks.

[Plan B2]

I am in the middle of the same project. I am having the fiberglass platform stretched from 31" to approximately 44". I think I have a local fabricator for the aluminum stairs, but he is concerned about shaping the handrail. Your approach may solve that issue. How did you bend those tight radius?

[quincyscuba]

I used washers from Fastenal. They are stainless on one side and rubber on the other. By the time I was done at Fastenal the bill was over $200. However this is something I will be keeping an eye on.

My transom was solid fiberglass, no glassed in plate many speak of. I was able to place baking plates on the two outside supports but the water tank prevented access to the 3 middle ones. I figures the stairs will help support and tie in the middle. I also used 3m 5200 caulk on each support and sanded the transom down to the glass to increase the bond. I am making backing plates from the old supports which were 3"X 1/4" brass for the bolts holding on the staircase that show in the master stateroom. Just cutting them in a nice shape and polishing.

The radius were much easier then I feared. I used a hydraulic pipe bender from a local guy who build frames for off road trucks. I went to his shop and with a little experimenting I think it only took about an hour and I had bent 10 pipe sections, so I made pockets in the platform, one set on the rear and each side for ladders I will be making with the left over pipes. I will post pictures when finished but I think they will be really nice.