Jack Stand Damage?

[Bob Rutland]

I just had my H31 hauled for a bottom job. When I went to the yard to check the progress, I noticed one of the jack stands was denting the hull. When I pointed this out to one of the guys on the yard, he said the jack stand was to tight and loosed it. When he did this it made a very ugly fibreglass cracking sound as the dent popped out. Do you think this did any damage? PS: The jack stand was on the starboard-aft of the hull, almost even with the prop.

 

[Ken Palmer]

May be OK

I had a similar experience on my H33 about 11 years ago, by another owner. The jackstand produced an "oil-canning" cracking of the gelcoat up to 24 inches in diameter in the same area as your problem. The surveyer inspected it, finding no internal damage, and no problem with the fiberglass. I filled the cracks with epoxy, sanded, applied new VC Tar, then VC-17 bottom paint. There has been no problem with leakage or structure.I would suggest that you hire a surveyer to inspect the area, and make those that caused the possible damage responsible. Otherwise you will always wonder......Good luck.

 

[Jim McCue]

Check it out

Its worth the peace of mind to have it independently checked out. Who knows. it could be worth your boat someday. I agree with previous post.J. McCue

 

[Rod Leonard]

Jack Stands

Same thing happened to mine 12 years. made them fix the cracks no problems no fall out

 

[Tim]

You're won't store with that marina again, right?

Just to get it said, your marina is badly incompetent. There should be almost no weight on a jackstand, the entire weight is balanced on the keel. It also sounds like the stand was way too far back. From the description, they lowered the boat onto a jackstand that was already under the boat. Thats something you do if you're indifferent to damage that won't be visible in a casual inspection.The cracking sound is the resin breaking away from the glass fibers i.e. reducing or eliminating the structure that gives the FRP composite its strength. At the very least, its quite probable the engine alignment is screwed up; were there any bulkheads behind where it was pushed in? The bonding on these would be broken also. Is your 31 one of those with the bonded grid-pan? I imagine the bonding to this is potentially broken further weakening the boat.Photograph everything and get a good surveyer.

 

[John]

what about years from now?

I just had my H31 hull fixed for oil-panning cracks that happened some time ago, they got worse over time. If the cracks go beyond the gelcoat and into the strands of fiberglass, they can get worse over time. If you make the yard fix it, use the opportunity to barrier coat that area.