Hello group. The other day I was moving my Vega 3361 VIKING from her slip in the marina to another slip in my marina for a dredging operation. I arrived on Saturday at the assigned time so the marina manager could be present to help and tend to lines in the new slip. Before I started the move with engine running I went down below to fetch a cold bottle of water. On my way back up to the cockpit the upper mahogany step completely broke off along the grain lines. I am a large 57 year old 250 lbs. man and this break of the step caused me to tumble back down into the cabin and badly bruise and cut my left shin. on the lower step. Luckily with one hand for the ship the fall was not so bad. And I was able to carefully climb out using footing on the galley stove pots and pans locker door open and lifting myself out and continued the move with success.
I took the entire step assembly home and over to a furniture maker friend of mine shop. It seems the entire step assembly is stapled onto the plywood Mahogany veneer with aluminum staples. The glue had deteriorated to non existence. We completely rebuilt the steps using 7/8 inch teak that I ordered on ebay. The new steps are beautiful and ready to last another hundred plus years.
Im asking all of my Vega friends to inspect your steps for fatigue if they are original. Maybe go so far as to inspect wood joints and the condition of the wood steps. At least I would advise disassemble the steps and re glue, re staple or in my case I added extra support in the center of each step that extends to the outer edge of the step attached with West System adhesive epoxy.
I took the entire step assembly home and over to a furniture maker friend of mine shop. It seems the entire step assembly is stapled onto the plywood Mahogany veneer with aluminum staples. The glue had deteriorated to non existence. We completely rebuilt the steps using 7/8 inch teak that I ordered on ebay. The new steps are beautiful and ready to last another hundred plus years.
Im asking all of my Vega friends to inspect your steps for fatigue if they are original. Maybe go so far as to inspect wood joints and the condition of the wood steps. At least I would advise disassemble the steps and re glue, re staple or in my case I added extra support in the center of each step that extends to the outer edge of the step attached with West System adhesive epoxy.