So a little more than a month ago, I take the guys from work out for a day sail out of Noank/Mystic, CT. After a bit of sailing I ask for a vote where folks want to anchor for lunch. The vote is for Watch Hill/Napatree on the CT/RI border. So i motor around Stonington Point and up the Little Narragansett Bay channel, which is supposed to be 6 feet. I draw 5'2". I had been through the channel a week earlier with my wife and everything was fine. So around green can #7 I'm going about 4kts and inside the channel (per the nav aids) which I can see has been recently changed as it doesn't match the chart plotter. I'v got 5'9" of water per the sounder which is set to read from the sounder, thus giving me a little extra margin of safety.
BOOM! the boat heaves up, drinks fly. Still have steerage and thrust, no -one is hurt and I go down below to check for water intrusion. No water, but floor boards don't fit right and gel-coat has flaked off the interior of the bilge.
A quick call to the marina fro an emergency haul-out. When the boat is hauled, I can see a small area where I hit the port wing on the keel, but no damage running under the keel. Keel to hull joint is cracked. Doesn't look all that bad, though. Well, think again.
After inspection by the local best in the business (Nick Sahin), it is found that stringers have come delaminated in 8 spots. Apparently the hull flexed severely when the keel was hit. When the guy gets into the job, he finds that several of the stringers were not tabbed on the starboard side of the boat. There was still mold release on the mating surface of the hull and the epoxy never bonded from the factory. $36k job. Sahin did the repair in a much heavier duty fashion with more layers of lamination and said that the fix should be stronger than it was supposed to be from the factoryThank goodness for good insurance, but I'm sure I'll be paying it back in premiums in the next few years.
So maybe this was a good thing as something would have inevitably failed. This really hurt as I questioned my seamanship. I have great local knowledge and have sailed these waters for years. I have local paper charts and none of the scale that I have show a rock there.
I contacted the USCG New London. The Auxie that answered the phone said that there have been a lot of incidents there and he referred me to the nav aids section out of New Haven. A week of leaving messages finally got me a call back from Coast Guardsman who explained that the cans had been moved due to sand shoaling and there was a lot of discussion with the Stonington Harbormaster. He said that there'd been incidents and he was going to ask his supervisor if they can move the cans.
Boat splashed in in Thursday and looks like brand new, save a little bit of dust that was missed during cleanup. We had a very short season as it was due to moving our house and some warranty issues with the boat. We'll sail her later today or tomorrow and make sure everything is up to snuff.
BOOM! the boat heaves up, drinks fly. Still have steerage and thrust, no -one is hurt and I go down below to check for water intrusion. No water, but floor boards don't fit right and gel-coat has flaked off the interior of the bilge.
A quick call to the marina fro an emergency haul-out. When the boat is hauled, I can see a small area where I hit the port wing on the keel, but no damage running under the keel. Keel to hull joint is cracked. Doesn't look all that bad, though. Well, think again.
After inspection by the local best in the business (Nick Sahin), it is found that stringers have come delaminated in 8 spots. Apparently the hull flexed severely when the keel was hit. When the guy gets into the job, he finds that several of the stringers were not tabbed on the starboard side of the boat. There was still mold release on the mating surface of the hull and the epoxy never bonded from the factory. $36k job. Sahin did the repair in a much heavier duty fashion with more layers of lamination and said that the fix should be stronger than it was supposed to be from the factoryThank goodness for good insurance, but I'm sure I'll be paying it back in premiums in the next few years.
So maybe this was a good thing as something would have inevitably failed. This really hurt as I questioned my seamanship. I have great local knowledge and have sailed these waters for years. I have local paper charts and none of the scale that I have show a rock there.
I contacted the USCG New London. The Auxie that answered the phone said that there have been a lot of incidents there and he referred me to the nav aids section out of New Haven. A week of leaving messages finally got me a call back from Coast Guardsman who explained that the cans had been moved due to sand shoaling and there was a lot of discussion with the Stonington Harbormaster. He said that there'd been incidents and he was going to ask his supervisor if they can move the cans.
Boat splashed in in Thursday and looks like brand new, save a little bit of dust that was missed during cleanup. We had a very short season as it was due to moving our house and some warranty issues with the boat. We'll sail her later today or tomorrow and make sure everything is up to snuff.
