Stupid Builder Tricks

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Maine Sail

Maine Sail

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Feb 6, 1998
11,760
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
Doh':doh:....... It is absolutely horrifying that this boat left the factory like this.... Enough said....:eek:

The entire tank now needs to come out and be fixed properly or the owner will continue to leak diesel... !!!:cussing:

This is how the fuel gauge sender was installed from the factory. Oh and they cut an edge off the sender to make it fit better...? You not going to seal a tank sender on a lumpy weld with no surface area....

Can we all sing along to builder blunders.... M...I...C...K...E...Y M....O...U...S...E...



 
A

alexco38

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Sep 25, 2008
1,096
CS 30 Toronto
Amazing. What kind of workmanship.

I had a water tank vent behind a cabinet for years. Couldn't figure out why I have water in the bilge under sunny sky for weeks. Only to notice every time I fill up the water tank, the bilge is full. That was a design problem.

Stupid builder.
 
thinwater

thinwater

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Mar 26, 2011
3,970
Corsair F-24 MK I Deale, MD
It strikes me that there are several code violations, so that even if it is out-of-warranty, there should be recourse. There are minimum spacing requirements from fittings and holes to welds.

You can't even plate it without welding. Bugger.
 
Maine Sail

Maine Sail

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Feb 6, 1998
11,760
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
thinwater said:
It strikes me that there are several code violations, so that even if it is out-of-warranty, there should be recourse. There are minimum spacing requirements from fittings and holes to welds.

You can't even plate it without welding. Bugger.
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Builder is long out of business but was considered one of the "better" production builders.... Not important who, but this is the sort of thing a survey won't catch....
 
Tim R.

Tim R.

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May 27, 2004
3,626
Caliber 40 Long Range Cruiser Portland, Maine
I see another fairly obvious problem that the top of the tank is higher than these fitting. Is the vent line also at the lower level?
 
kloudie1

kloudie1

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Nov 6, 2006
10,219
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Cute trick ! Would have been fine if the hole had been cut about a half inch to the left.. Looks like a pre-fab top plate that was not trimmed quite correctly..
 
FastOlson

FastOlson

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Apr 8, 2010
2,238
Ericson Yachts Olson 34 28400 Portland OR
my SWAG

MrBill_FLL said:
endeavor? come on! spill it! ;)
Click to expand
My guess is that it was not Endevor... the thing is, most of the production builders buy their tanks from outside vendors. My guess is that the tank had to fit as tightly as possible under a berth or settee, and the only way to maximise the volumn was to put the gauge at a lower level than the actual tank top. Seen this before, on more than one make of boat, power and sail.

As long as the gasket holds up, no problem... as the decades go by, not a good way to design it.

I figure that fuel capacity was the overall goal because the labor to put in the recess in the top was quite a bit more than just using the flat top of the tank, which would have required more free headroom above that tank top.

L
 
robertsapp

robertsapp

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May 28, 2009
764
Hunter 376 Pensacola, FL
We should start another thread for Stupid Previous Owner Tricks. I just put new motor mounts on my 3GM30F after giving up on ever getting it aligned with the current ones. I found one torn, which of course was a problem, but I also found that the previous owner had used two 75's under the starboard side of the engine, and two 100's under the port side (the 75's belong in the rear, and the 100's in front). He did mention rather proudly at the prepurchase survey that he had pulled the engine a few years earlier and installed new hoses and belts.
 
Maine Sail

Maine Sail

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Feb 6, 1998
11,760
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
Tim R. said:
I see another fairly obvious problem that the top of the tank is higher than these fitting. Is the vent line also at the lower level?
Click to expand
The vent line is not quite at that level but with everything working as it should, it would be fine.. When heeled the vent location becomes a non-issue anyway so everything else needs to be perfect.....

We should also keep in mind that some builders had complete tanks shipped to them ready to install so they may not have even done the "drilling" but they still failed to properly inspect the tank before shipping the boat..
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
Poor design, poor engineering, poor quality control. Makes me wonder what other faults are built into this vessel.
 
Maine Sail

Maine Sail

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Feb 6, 1998
11,760
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
I guess what irks me the most is the fact that someone knew damn well this was a PROBLEM, from the start. Instead of taking the time to make it RIGHT they Mickey Moused it by "customizing" the sending unit AND gasket to try and "make do"....

This was NOT a haphazard "mistake" it was a purposeful and deceitful RIP OFF to the purchaser of this vessel.




This is what I had to deal with before I could even begin working on the boat.....
 
Jackdaw

Jackdaw

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Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
Maine,

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I hear you say the builder is out of business. I'm assuming they ran into financial trouble. And that kind of trouble can sadly make people do things they might not do if the company was flush.

I image that was cut into the tank incorrectly late in the build. Now what? Pulling it out and scrapping the tank costs time and money that was in scarce supply. I'm guessing that some in management made the call to just try and 'fix it'. And that's the crappy result. Its sad but when a company in a cash intensive business starts to go down, typically its a death spiral. Bad times makes things worse, which makes for more bad times. And then things even worse. Hard to pull out of that.
 
Maine Sail

Maine Sail

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Feb 6, 1998
11,760
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
Jackdaw said:
Maine,

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I hear you say the builder is out of business. I'm assuming they ran into financial trouble. And that kind of trouble can sadly make people do things they might not do if the company was flush.

I image that was cut into the tank incorrectly late in the build. Now what? Pulling it out and scrapping the tank costs time and money that was in scarce supply. I'm guessing that some in management made the call to just try and 'fix it'. And that's the crappy result. Its sad but when a company in a cash intensive business starts to go down, typically its a death spiral. Bad times makes things worse, which makes for more bad times. And then things even worse. Hard to pull out of that.
Click to expand
This was when the company was doing quite well and going strong, not towards the tail end....... There was no need to scrap the tank just needed to scarf in a new plate and do it right... I have a locak welder who will fix this by scarfing in a new plate and doing it correctly... Will probably require new weld taps for supply & return (about $10.00 each from McMaster) but other than that it won't be a huge expense. The labor is what kills the customer and this will be about 4+ hours. I need to drain the tank into 5 gal jerry cans and haul it away, remove the tank and then reinstall it when it is fixed. If the tank bottom looks sketchy or pitted then it will require a new tank and will get even more expensive...
 
K

kendall

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Aug 2, 2005
374
pearson ariel grand rapids
Tim R. said:
I see another fairly obvious problem that the top of the tank is higher than these fitting. Is the vent line also at the lower level?
Click to expand
Many tanks are made with a stepped design to allow space for expansion. With that style, the vent is often placed on the lower step to prevent filling the air space.

Those pics do show a very poor layout choice
 
berner73

berner73

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Jul 26, 2009
291
. . .
Thanks Maine,

I understand your reservations in calling out the vendor. However, something to consider is that the information may help bring the defect to the attention of owners with boats from the same mfg. Depending on the tank's location, it isn't necessarily something one would catch. Might be able to prevent another bilge full of diesel. Just a thought. I'll be taking a closer look at ours this Spring regardless.
 
Dan Johnson

Dan Johnson

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Oct 14, 2005
2,191
1983 Hunter H34 North East, MD
MaineSail...

Everyone seems to be blaming the mfgr, but from looking at the quality of the fitting welds, I suspect that the sender was an aftermarket dealer or PO install, not done on the mfgring floor. MHO.
 
kenn

kenn

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Apr 18, 2009
1,271
CL Sandpiper 565 Toronto
That hole position, and the kludge of cutting the sender flange a bit... definitely amateur hour. Did they make any attempt at grinding down the weld under the sender flange?

As a professional and you see this on a customer's boat , you have to call it out and fix it right. No other option would be acceptable.

I will confess though, that if it was my boat and the tank was otherwise perfectly OK, I would give a moment's consideration to some sort of custom enhanced gasket plus the right sort of sealant, to remount the sender, as an alternative to a $600+ charge. In that regard, the one stripped hole would the biggest block to that solution, because that would reduce the possibility of a solid 5-pt attachment.

But it's not my boat, and I can only go by the pictures.
 
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