Winglet done got bent!

[Patrick Higgins]

While on a 5 knot beat the other day I made contact with earth when my familiarity with the area bred enough contempt to not watch the depth. The meter read 5.5 feet but there was a gentle reminder from the mud that the posted draft of the 310 may not be accurate. No one was thrown to the deck and all in all it was a very mild rebuke. The boat was short hauled a week later to inspect for another reason. The starboard winglet was all muddy and had been been bent a good 5 degrees out of line with the opposite winglet.Question: Are the winglets lead? How hard is it and what is best method to correct? If its lead, will a sledge hammer wielded delicately resolve the problem?The misalignment is all vertical, none rotational. If nothing is done will the foil be screwed up enough to cause significant turbulence?

 

[Dakota Jim Russell]

Question

The keel is lead and should be able to be bent back. I question using a slidge as you will be providing quite a shock to the fiberglass as well.You might contact Hunter for their recommendations: Greg Emerson at huntermarine@worldnet.att.netI have grounded out several times with my 340 (similar lead keel) in mud, on a rock, and a submerged tree. In fact we had to kedge off one time and get pulled off the tree. These events did creat some problems for the keel, however it has never bent the wings. I find it hard that a grounding on soft mud would have created the problem that you describe. Wonder if it wasn't bent at another time, like when launching or while it was on the hard.Any chance of that?

 

[Andy Falls]

Been bent B$

Winglets can be bent, & they can be straightened! I've seen it the results both ways but never saw how the repair was done. I think they "warm them up" to make it easy to hammer back. A rubber body-hammer might work better. Let us know what you find out.