Monday, January 25, 2016

An unofficial survey

A friend of mine (Dave) works on sailboats.. not a deck hand, but actually has people fly him down to their location to do constructive work and such on their boats. Today he joined me in taking the dingy out to my boat, so he could give it a look over and tell me what I needed to do to insure it was sound..
It seems to me he was very thorough in examining everywhere and everything. He spent a good thirty minutes at it, above and below deck.
Anyway, his conclusion was that there is two areas he pointed out to me, with some delamination on the port side under the v-berth where the hull meets the inner fiberglass vberth structure which he said should be addressed as although it was ok for now, it could get worse over time (I asked him if it could have been caused by the boat knocking against the back fishing pier about a week or so ago, and he said no, that it was not due to anything recent (and that is not the side that was facing the pier when she was "parked" by it anyway). 


 He also pointed out he bulkheads should be tabbed or glassed to the hull in the hanging locker and in the head, as well as the small bulkhead to the anchor locker is not attached at all and should be.


He also advised it would be good if I were to spend some free time working on a few small areas on the deck and cockpit area where some minor crazing has occurred in spots. He said it was only cosmetic flaws, and I should just pick an area and use the methods described in the book I have (This Old Boat by Don Casey) to repair each area at my leisure, and next time pick another area to correct.. so that when times comes that I'm ready to paint everything will be ready.

 I asked if my rigging looked all to be ok, and he said it was fine.


 Bottom line, he said he was really expecting to have seen a lot more problems than what he did. He was aware I only paid $1000 for it. He said I did really good with the purchase, and got a hell of a buy!
I wish I had brought my camera, - I meant to.


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UPDATE: I went to the boat yesterday with my camera to get some video of the anchor locker, and while my head was stuck in there I got a good look around, and have some concerns about the way light is shining through around where the anchor locker hull meets the deck - You'll see what I mean in the second half of this video
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ADDUM: I posted about my concerns at the Grampian Yahoo Groups forum about where the light shines through (as shown in the video above, and pics below), and was a little surprised by the replies..
 

Member jimq26 said:
"That's normal.  I have yet to see a G-26 where you couldn't see the light through that area you refer to....  [the bulkhead] wasn't fastened along the sides so it allowed a bit of hull flex when pounding through 4 metre waves during a race."
 
And Bob Sparks explained:
Fibre glass is translucent and gelcoat and paint can light through too. So diffused light is not a problem. Spraying it from the outside with a hose will reveal any leaks you  might want to fix. Your boat made it this far with the bulk head as it is so unless you plan to do some sailing a novice should never do like sail into a hurricane or cross the bay of Biscayne it might not need make the top of your list.
 
I then made the same inquiry about the light shining through and the un-tabed bulkheads at the sailboatowners forum  and received several similar replies:

Davidasailor26: I agree with the other response you got that the light through the hull is not nescessarily a cause for concern. It's not uncommon for sections of un-cored fiberglass hull to let light shine through.

TSBB 2: Fiber glass IS ,after all, glass. Unless the hull is painted a dark color, ALL fiberglass will allow light to shine through.. No thoughts on the bulkhead
rgranger: If it were my boat, I'd tab in the bulkhead and paint over the light shining through.

Ken Cross: Every boat I've owned did that in one place or another. It's fine unless it bothers you to see the light. Normally from normal use in the cabin you should not notice it. If so cover it up (paint?, cloth liner? etc.)

kloudie1: Wouldn't worry about either one. Many boats have untabbed bulkheads.. almost all have a place where light will show through the translucent glass/plastic (we call fiberglass). The untabbed bulkhead was designed to be that way .. yes, it may stiffen the boat a bit were you to tab it in.. but not needed in normal use.  
sloopdreams: I have a grampian 26 and I see the light through the hull at the deck joint. It's not a structural concern. It's fairly common for boats of that era.
 With regard to the bulkheads, it is correct that they are not tabbed to the hull. They are 'floating' bulkheads. It's something like a press fit. Unless, the bulkheads are showing signs of rot, like at the chain plates, chances are the bulkheads are fine.
 It's good to get to know your boat by checking all that might be wrong with it and it's easy to spend hours worrying about it (I have), but in the end, it's more fun to just go sailing..


Well... I'm still quite ignorant about sailboats, and these guys are seasoned sailors - So I tend to think they must know what they are talking about.
But to be honest, I'm still not entirely convinced. It just doesn't look right.
 
 

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