Winglets revisited

[alallen1]

Sorry about my last post. (more of a rant).
I do have a problem with the winglets attached to the underbody of our 1979 37 Hunter. One of the 10 screws holding them on came out and I had a steady stream of water coming in the boat. Repair was to pick the boat up, rebed the screws and carry on. EXPENSIVE.

Our boat is now hauled for a bottom and I am trying to decide if I should leave the winglets off and glass over the screw holes. The hull is about one inch thick at the attachment point and the screws that were in were one inch and they broke completely thru. I may try to fill the screw holes with MarineTex and redrill using shorter screws and much 5200.

I would appreciate any advice based on your experience with these things.
Thanks, al allen

 

[Paul F]

With one inch thickness you might consider drilling through the hull and installing ss bolts and backing plate with 5200 to seal the hull. I am not familiar with how many screws a winglet has. Agree with you, having to haul the boat is expensive to repair this problem.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Many years ago I fashioned a piece of 2 x 6 to fit that space and glassed it in. So the screws then went into the wood, not open space. Very hard to work down there but doable. In a later year I finally removed them and glassed the holes closed.

And yes, the shoal keel had a slot for a centerboard but none were ever finished that way that any of us can confirm.

 

[alallen1]

Thank yall for the help. I decided to glass over the 10 screw holes. With good fortune, we will be back in the water and on our way to West Florida and the Tortugas within the next two weeks. Two months on the water will cure all. al allen

 

[Blaise]

There has been much discussion about the fairing plates. They make a huge difference if you are racing. Probably not important if you are not. With the difficulty of engineering them into the hull molds, JC must have thought them important. The sound the boat makes while turning is much louder without them. Years ago I replaced the hard plastic ones with ones made out of a couple layers of heavy mylar covered in dacron sail cloth. They last about ten years and are cheap to replace.

As far as hauling the boat to stop a leak from a screw or other small hole, Just fill it underwater with marine tex. It sets up fine underwater and saves you the big bucks of the haul out.