Per Boat/US files, 20% of the boats that sink offshore are open or cutout transom boats.
I had one, my old Pro-Line. I made up a custom splashboard that was far enough ahead of the motor to allow the OB to trim up. I made up fixed STOPs so once UP it was a vertical 'wall' - it could not be pushed down further into the cockpit. But there was nothing but a bungee holding it in the UP position the other way (towards the motor), so if I took a HUGE wave over the gunnel
and my motor was running, I could give it the gas and the force of the boat moving foward would hit that 'wall' and stretch the bungee, folding the splashboard down (towards the motor) to empty the cockpit FAST.
I never had to try it for 'real', but in some created test by filling the cockpit with water - it worked well
. It was also removable, as the bottom 'hinge', adjacent to the floor on each side, were SS barrel bolts that could be retracted for easy removal. The bolt part just went into a drilled hole through the glass liner on each side. I never even put a reinforcement bushing around the hole, as in reality - there wasn't any load on them.
If/when anchored with any seas and wind, one should put their anchor rode to an anchor ball so the boat could drop off the anchor in SECONDS. And I'd either keep the OB running, if things were getting nasty ... don't wait until they're serious, as I would have been LONG GONE by then.
One needs to be cautious with cutout transom boats, the head Moderator of the Reel-Time website had such a boat, took one wave wrong (through the stern) whilst cod fishing, and the boat went down in seconds ... it had floatation, turned over turtle and rose back to the surface. Everyone survived, they lost some fishing gear, and the boat was totaled.
I myself once plucked 4 guys out of the rough seas one day when a smaller boat had a wave run right over it from the stern and sunk her. They would have died if I wasn't there; the water temps were in the mid 50s, and once they were in the water, they only had time to clutch whatever floated, as only 1 had a preserver on. When I went to pick them up, they were so cold they couldn't use their arms and legs and swim. One guy literally sank :shock: next to my boat and I pulled him up from 4' down underwater and going down ... by using a heavy rod with a jig attached, as I managed to hook it onto his jacket!
Still gives the chills to this day ...