What kept VentoDea from sinking?
Happy New Year!
Sounds like Plan, Progress and forensic photos always appreciated!
I think beefing up the inside in way of the hul/deck seam on our early Pearson classic plastics, while not the easiest, finishes up the cleanest looking when all is done.
Most of the ADFSF Breakfast Club have boats and agendas that won't include either an interior or exterior upgrade.
Do think a fix is possible and doable without disturbing the inside.
Took a drawing of the exterior biaxial idea for the West Coast Triton to the meeting and passed it around.
Added two more biaxial tape wraps to the model, making for five layers.
Didn't get much discussion....pretty used to that.
Can understand that to focus on something so basic as a hull/deck seam on Sunday morning
doesn't fire up the imagination. But, believe bringing to attentionm is important.
Short exchanges between oatmeal and eggs about what might have caused it....someone said the huge dent in VentDea's hull showed scrape damage in it ....and thought the boat had been hit by a log or something. Good possibility! There goes my twisted banana hypothesis.
The cause of the terrible damage to the boat seemed transfered to something IN the water rather than the water itself. To me, the grade of cause isn't the problem. A boat could be squeezed inadvertantly when sharing a canal lock with a steel monster.,,,,and crippled.
The integrity of the frp monoque structure of our boats (with reinforced seams and backup structures that support the skin)
will do a lot to protect the boat from unusual events.....whether they're freak waves, hitting logs at speed, or surving groundings and other hard places.
As someone said about our current weather: It'l be the same weather as always, just more extreme:
hotter summers, colder winters, longer droughts, bigger floods, colossal hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis and freak waves.
The only smart thing we do is increase chances of survival.
Back up our compromises.:cool:
Our little one-to-one ballast to displacement cruisers.... if they run into a problem, that problem can instantly become disaster.
Went to the VentoDea blog: 3 Knots / Man, Wife and Dog drifting to warmer climates - 3-knots.com/ (link on Atomvoyages.com/)
NEARLY THE WHOLE LENGTH OF THE BOAT ON THE PORT SIDE HAD BEEN PUSHED IN ABOUT A FOOT.
Jerrad: "The disbelief didn't last more than moment before we began tp assess our situation.
There was a four foot diameter dent in the side of the hull.
The hull itself had been separated from the deck and pushed in about a foot - nearly the whole length of the boat on the port side.
There was delamination at the waterline.
We had no electricity, no GPS, no radio, our paper charts were destroyed.
The window on the lee side had been blown into the boat from the pressure as we rolled.
The permanent shelves and bulkheads had been blown clean off the hull.
The tiller had been broken off, one of the chainplates pulled off. [assume the mast survived - probably because they didn't 360.]
The kayak was split in two, we had maybe 2 hours of sunlight and it was still blowing a gale.
I had a feeling that it was going to be a long night."
They had 3 feet of water in the cabin that Jarrad's partner Josie managed to hand pump out!
They ended up close to shore where they were intercepted by the Columbian Coast Guard and towed in.
The Triton was declared a total loss by Columbian Customs and abandoned in Columbia. (VentoDea RIP)
Their dinghy and been split in two! (No mention of a life raft.)
Just suppose it had been dark.
Suppose your raft cannister had been stripped off by the comber and lost, and your dinghy smashed....
Our boats when they get enough water in them.... just go to the bottom....they don't float.
Wonder how many more gallons - or cups - would have settled VentoDea low enough for waves to come onboard?:eek:
Can't Happen To Me!
Stitching VentoDea's Seam
Joshua Slocum found Spray languishing in a Gloucester field. Shortened it by cutting the middle out. Rigged it and went sailing.
Don't know if he had help, but the boat was 38 feet, wasn't it? I've always thought that guys and gals in the old days had more stamina, more wear-with-all, piss and vinegar and plain guts. Harry Pidgeon was another...built his boat from the keel up.... and also circumnavigated the planet!
Probably too late now. But an enterprising soul of quality might have rescued VentoDea languishing somewhere on a Columbian dock.
The boat spent 50 or more years being a Triton.
The 4' diameter dent can be popped back out to its former curve. The port seam can be jimmied and jacked back out to the deck line. Then, temporaryly bulkheaded and spot welded with epoxy back to it's former sweet Albergian sheer.
Woke up this AM thinking of ways it might be done. First, prop the boat up on its keel and proceed to push (and pull) the portside back out. Then see if the deck and hull can be married back to it's lines. Line up the seam like it was and stitch it tight with wire and rope and clamps.
Important to get the port side hull as fair as possible with props, temporoary glued in blkhds - before filling the toe-rail seam.
Then build two circular cradles out of twoby and plywood so the boat can be ROLLED. Doesn't matter how the cradle is attached to the hull and deck....tab it on if necessary!
Cut holes for twoby straight thru both sides of the hull above the ballast and tie the cradle together there. Cross connect over deck or holes thru cabin. Patch holes later.
With all that weight to roll, it'll take a bit of planning and levering.
If the ballast is external (not encapsulated) then it could be removed.
It probably should have had its bolts replaced anyway...before it began any voyage. Certainly easier to roll the boat without its ballast.
The idea is to get the toerail positioned so that it can be worked without having grinding dust and epoxy in your face.. Less than 90% over on its side would be enough. Internal cross support needs planning when rolling boat onto its wounded side.
For this, it's worth the effort building a strong rolling cradle.
Assuming there is access to a greater part of the seam while keeping (at least temporaryly) most of the existing minor bulkheading and furniture in place. Get biaxial fabric and laminating epoxy together.
Then maybe roll up narrow logs of biax and epoxy, jam them into the cove of the toerail.
Prop pvc pipe wrapped in seran against the fill to make a large fillet curve in the corner.
Then, lay on the strips of fabric that tie the seam deck to hull.
(.....think I hear VentoDea calling.....)
I've had to leave the marina at times when lein sale boats - that hadn't made the cut - were towed in FLOATING, strung together like exhausted horses - where they were doomed to be butchered, and dumpt in a landfill. A338 is lined up along a fence on the hard with a bunch of others. Many in the beginning had flurries of restoration. Now sit neglected.... waiting for their owners to come back again....maybe never.
A small percentage of those boats make it out of the yard to sail far again.
If VentoDea hasn't been trashed, with some effort she could feel the wind dipping her rail again....seamlessly!
Thing is, VentoDea the Triton, crippled as she was, got the 3-Knots band safely back to land - had the good will and stamina to get her people and the dog to safety....
Bulkhead reinforcement/Shelf joint
I recently discovered ponding on the inside shelves on my CP#162 and believe I need to reseal the deck seam. Some of the shelving near the bulkhead is soft and needs replacing. My question is regarding the bulkheads that the chain plates mount to. First, what are they made of? Second, what is the inside rail beneath the shelves made of? and third, Do the bulkheads that the chain plates bolt to (that is glassed to the shelves) need to be glassed to the shelf for further strength or can the shelf be removed under it. (and add length to the bulkhead for added strength?
Thanks,
Rob