Renegade flawed hull deck joint
173 Renegades - designed by Bill Shaw - were built by Pearson between 1967 and 1969 after they replaced Carl Alberg with Shaw.
The boat has quite different underbody than an Alberg A/C or Triton in that the keel is more fin-like and the rudder is detatched from the keel, in a free standing spade.
The Shaw design represents a departure from Alberg/Pearson keel hung wooden rudders to fiberglass.
Leaves the inboard Atomic 4 propeller completely exposed.
Ballast ratio is different also. While the Ariel/Commander ratio of ballast to displacement is about 50/50 - the ratio of the R. is 1/3 ballast to 2/3 disp.
Renegade is 27L - 21 LWL - 8.5B - 4.25D. Ballast 2100lbs. Displacement 6500lbs.
However, Pearson's hull-deck join - evidently after thousands of these boats alone - never was engineered or upgraded correctly during these three different model runs. It's a Pearson thing.
While all of them were sold as bluewater capable boats, it's obvious now when these old glass boats are involved in accidents that test the mettle of Pearson construction methods
that this most important connection, hull to deck, of these boats is seriously FLAWED.
And just as seriously not usually recognized by restorers, renovaters, and owner-voyagers.
Maybe the age of these boats has something to do with the serious destruction of the fiberglass seam in these recorded accidents.
Maybe it's new. Or maybe it's showing up more as we ask more of these boats. Imco age has something to do with it.
Maybe these starved seams - with fiberglass strands turned at crushing angles - are getting tired?
If there is TWISTING of the boat as it's being sailed or
stored improperly braced on the hard....perhaps both passive and active stress can weaken these minimalistic hull-deck seams?
There are some solutions discussed here in this thread that Rex Miller might be made aware of.
But it looks like he has another boat.
Sincerely hope that Theis is well and enjoying life. Very much miss his input here on Pearson Ariel dot org.
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An overall easy solution for these flawed hull-deck seams wants further discussion.
First, it has to be recognized through example and discussion that this is (or is becoming) a dangerous problem.
Rex talks about the Pearson monoque fiberglass design as seriously flawed at the hull-deck seam. Put that way, it shows how weak and meager
the seams are on these three class models.
Better in all cases would have been a simple lap joint, 'shoe box' joint, one over the other. Glued & bolted. No ifs, angles, or butts at all.
The laminate schedule on A338 left a thickness of 1/8" toe-rail BUTTED to a 1/8" hull. Seam covered with casual thicknesses of matt ! ! !
Any fix is going to take time and money.
Have a feeling that a fix for our boats that physically bonds toerail/deck to hull - from the outside -
maybe wraps up and over the toerail....
is the easiest and best way to approach it......
for everybody rehabbing a Pearson Alberg or Shaw cruiser for bluewater sailing.
Be great if there is even more input on the subject here.