Smile: Yes or no?

[1st boat]

Just got my boat pulled (81 C30) for the winter. Picked the boat up in June and learning and loving sailing. Read a lot about the "Catalina smile." Is this indication of the smile?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Yes.

 

[Jackdaw]

spring project for you and your yard..

 

[Branson Belle]

You'd have a bigger smile if you owned a Hunter though!!!!



.............................just sayin'!............... ;-)

 

[1st boat]

Spring project, eh? How hard is the "project"? How long would it take? It sorta looks like the smile was there and was repaired. Will have to sand it down to check first. Should I engage my yard and let them know, or is this something I (moderately handy) can take care of?

 

[Chris Patterson]

Hard guessing what your skill set is in such things, but all considering, It's not what I would consider a big job. If you know how to do glass work, it's really not that big of a deal. But it will require dedication though. You've got to grind all that crap out of it, and if you don't like itchy fiberglass, you're going to hate it. And if this your first time dealing with glass, and epoxies, MarineTex and what-not, you may want to consider the yard.

I mean it's not really that hard. But it's definitely not a beginners project.

 

[rbmcintire]

Dual-Action (DA) sander with ShopVac connection? ......Check
4" grinder w/ diamond cutting wheel? ......Check
West Systems Manual, read cover to cover? ......Check
G-Flex mixed with Milled Glass filler? ......Check
6" wide, 45deg, Biaxial cloth? .......Check

Prep hull joint, let it dry out until Spring, practice a little over the winter at home. Think ahead, check the weather, prepare a work table with the materials, plan your steps, and you're ready to go.

Rob

 

[1st boat]

I am feeling overwhelmed. I think I am going to give it a try. Doing a survey this weekend, then going to get started on stripping the paint - looks like 30 layers of paint. I was told my boat will have to go back in towards the end of March so I will have to work quick.

I'll take pics and list my procedure/materials as I go for the next guy to see.

Here goes nothing...

 

[rbmcintire]

Are you just repairing the hull stub/ lead keel joint, or are you removing paint from the whole bottom? You should most definitely have the yard quote on taking the hull down to fresh gel-coat if you're going that route. It could REALLY be money better spent, rather than you having to do that part. Review the blister repair situation after that point. You can do those. Start to price out epoxy hull coatings to apply after the "smile" repair if you have it taken all the way down, because the sanding or soda blasting will compromise the water permiability of the gel-coat. You want it sealed 100% after you do this work.

Rob

 

[Me and Boo]

It is easy repair, you have to have good temperatures to get good cures of the resin for each layer.

What will make it difficult is if you cannot tighten the keel nuts. That indicates rot which has to be dug out and replaced. Catalina has the information on that mess of a project.

 

[rbmcintire]

I concur with Me (you?) and Boo. In our case, our keel movement (visually seen as The Smile) was due to soggy plywood under the keelbolts. We have a 1984 hull, and I have been up that creek.

Rob

 

[1st boat]

So I talked to the yard and he said everything (hull wise) looked good - no apparent blisters, soft spots, etc. I guess boat owners aren't allowed to do work below the water line on their boat here in MD. Yard is going to quote a light sand and scrape of the hull followed by a paint job. The crack he is going to take down, but he said it looked cosmetic and not structural. I also cheked the bilge (tapped it with a screwdriver, it was like concrete) and it doesn't appear soft.

Yard is going to wait until March-ish to start anything. Hopefully all goes well.

 

[sailor5017]

i hate to be the bearer of bad news but there is another factor possibly at work here. Catalina 30 pre 1988 had the keel stub laid up with plywood in the stub area. eventually the ply wood gets wet and rots. it could be a bigger problem that just grinding out refilling and re-glassing the outside. just google catalina 30 plywood in keel stub and you will get a lot of info.... check it out ,water in that joint will eventually cause keel bolt failure. This situation happend to a friend of mine witha cat 30 he had to fix it ( did it himself) lot of grinding out the old ply and delaminated glass the rebuilding the stub from the inside with glass matt without the plywood. Good luck!!

 

[rbmcintire]

That may be the rule and legitimate perogative of your marina, but it's not a Maryland law. You can still find marinas that will allow you to do the work, but you still need to follow professional, best practices for what you're doing. Rightly, they want good quality control to prevent airborne particles of fiberglass and bottom paint flying into our waterways or going into the ground. Anyways, it's no fun either. Definitely worth paying somebody else to do it.

 

[1st boat]

So, I realized I hadn't provided an update....

Had the yard, inspector, and several other experienced sailors look at it. Appears it was just a sloppy fiberglass job. Bolts and bilge were in good shape.

We re-torqued and launched her. Already got half-a-dozen sails in so far.

Thanks for everything.