Bill Fuller was nice enough to provide the following details and photos of the swim platform installed on his Bertram and said I could share them here.
It is essential to reinforce the transom. 15 years ago when I put on my swim platform, I used SS brackets similar to the WM brackets. They were “off the shelf” with the proper angle. They had two lengths for the part of the bracket that attaches to the transom. I used the longer ones in the center area and the shorter ones for the outer areas. I also felt four was not enough. I used six. This provides for a much better load distribution. Rather than try to glass in some sort of reinforcing on the inside of the transom, I used 2.5 inch wide by 1/4 inch thick SS trap for backing plates. Make them as long as possible. Again this provides quite good load distribution. The first picture shows the under side of the swim platform and the brackets. For those interested, note the Tony Athens rudders and struts, all SS. The second pictures shows the straight on few of the brackets, and the third picture shows the backing plates on the inside transom and below deck.
