Desperate leaking

[Scott T-Bird]

Gentlemen, crack within half an inch is dead center. I spoke with Chief Rigger @ KKMI in Richmond CA. Back in ‘07 they had boat in to have the six chai plates removed and inspected for rot and re-beaded. He stated that shrouds were removed and replaced without any change being made to tension (?). I’m not an engineer but logic says you have to relieve the tension before you can remove the turnbuckle and shroud.
It is what it is, now to figure how to fix it, take off tension first?

Do you think you are going to fix it? This is not an amateur level job. Of course take off the tension. You may as well remove the mast ... but that crack was never caused by rig tension. No way, not a chance. That boat was dropped and hit something very hard or hit something in the water seriously, like a submerged rock or a concrete pier at max speed. That crack is leaking into the bilge, it goes all the way thru. The fiberglass needs to be grinded away to taper probably on both inside and outside and then layed up again with new fiberglass. I don't know the first thing about how to do this, and it sure doesn't look like anything I would attempt. This is major work and not a simple repair. The expense of doing it by professional is by far more expensive than the boat is worth. You probably could learn to do it ... do you have the time? It's hard to believe this was not known before you acquired the boat. Too many questions ... you say P.O. acknowledged that the boat hit a pier? How did it hit a pier only 12" above the waterline without crushing the bow first? What is 6" diameter? Is that another hole somewhere? What kind of pier? Something hard like concrete or soft like wood? How fast? ... a little tap or full ramming speed? This whole thing doesn't add up except for the fact that you have a major damage that needs an expert repair service and the boat probably isn't worth the effort. A patch over the surface of the crack may provide some temporary fix that you could never trust.

 

[jviss]

The way the info about what happened and when is dribbling in I'm going to unwatch this thread, it's just too frustrating.

 

[Crusty Ol Salt]

I have this feeling that somewhere in the past there is a picture of halverns boat that looks a lot like this.



Maybe not that bad

Here is a screen shot of the marina across from mone. Notice the 2 submerged pilings that I have circled. all the locals know about them. That said, hitting one would leave your boat "Desperate leaking"

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Just curious. How many of you have ever before heard of a hull being cracked by over tightened standing rigging with a keel stepped mast?
Is it common?
This boat has an encapsulated keel right?

This is the best comment of all. I've never heard of such a thing and I also wonder if anybody else has. I've heard of different problems with over-tensioned shrouds but not a split hull.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

I have only heard of one failure of that type and the boat went down in less than a minute and a half. It did not crack the bottom of the hull but crushed the deck in compression.

Until I watched your video, I was confused by your comment that a crushed deck could sink a boat . That was a race boat, notoriously designed to stretch the lowest limits of structural capacity under extreme loads. The boat absolutely buckled in half. I can't believe that you could actually tension the shrouds enough to split an S2 hull lengthwise. Even if it were remotely possible, who would ever tension wires to that extreme? It's not like it could ever be done by accident.

 

[Halvern]

Update: With the help of two local FRP technicians we ground down the crack back 4 inches on both sides and after bowtying the crack another four inches on the ends, and grinding down as much as we could reach inside the floorboard I learned how to lay glass cloth with resin and hardener. Before we started the techs showed me where there were two coats of slighly different color blue layers of bottom paint both inside the crack as well as covering the zincs on the skeg. Inside the crack it was pointed out that the glas had "delaminated". So it took me the better part of the day to layer the glas in ever increasing widths and lengths anf got it built back up to just over original shape. I let ie set for three days and then palm sanded back closer shape. Not perfect but I think i did pretty good for a beginner. Never want to try that again. Never knew that resin sets up real fast and melts the bottom out of a solo cup.
Splashed her on the 9th, then ran with the tide out of Bethel Island back up in the Delta to my marina by Antioch.
I panicked when we tied up because there was about an inch of water sloshing in the bilge because she was dry after an hour in the water before we left. Sailing friend said to check the gland nut, the leak. Tightened that up and leak stopped. Dropped in a pump and she has been bone dry since. I do need to replace original pump and float switch, and now look for a wiring schematic for an S2 - 11A.
I did want to say THANKS to all that pined in with possible solutions. Your knowledge and experience has been a godsend. Hal

 

[Davidasailor26]

Glad you got it back together and can enjoy the boat!

Never knew that resin sets up real fast and melts the bottom out of a solo cup.

I’ve made that mistake too. Resin (including the resin used for Interlux Interprotect barrier coat) and Solo cups do not play nice. I’m a fan of paper cereal bowls. They allow easy mixing and don’t hold the heat in as badly.

 

[jssailem]

Solo cup burn out.
It is counter intuitive, but spreading the epoxy resin out on a flat plate actually gives you a little more time to spread the mix. When it starts to gel you just have to toss it and plan on the next mix to be a little smaller or you need to work faster.

A second trick is to chill the resin before use. It takes cool 50º resin longer to react than warm 75º plus resin.

 

[Hayden Watson]

... Tightened that up and leak stopped. Dropped in a pump and she has been bone dry since. ...

Make sure that you do not tighten the gland nut too much. Ideally, it should not leak when the shaft is not spinning but must leak a few drops per minute when the shaft is turning or you will overheat the shaft and ruin it. It needs the bit of water to lubricate the packing and cool the shaft.

 

[Crusty Ol Salt]

Solo cup burn out.

I am thinking if what you are drinking melts a red solo cup you are one hell of a sailor.