Sishoe
Well-Known Member
Though i'd share my rather frightening experience that occurred on the Sunday of the recent bank holiday.
We'd had a great day in Osbourne Bay enjoying the fabulous weather, and were just getting ready to depart for home and also waiting for the ice-cream boat to finally come over. I had opened the garage door to retrieve the tender that we'd been messing about on (responsibly of course and not near other boats
), I was situated inside the garage, extending the winch and sliding out the retrieval guide.
I suddenly heard what I first thought was dripping water, which quickly got louder and I determined sounded more like splintering grp!! I looked up to see the grp failing around where the door is bolted to the lifting frame, I instinctively dropped everything (inc the line connected to the tender) and tried to jump out the garage and on to left side section of bathing platform. Unfortunately I didn't make it in time and the door came crashing down landing on base my back and right upper arm. Its a bit of a blur from then but I think I managed to free my back and arm (whist calling for help from swmbo) this allowing the door to then crash down onto the back on my legs. I think i got swmbo to take the weight of the door off my legs and at the same time I managed to jam a ball fender in between the side of the door and one of the side steps, allowing me to release my legs.
Once free, and thankfully still in one piece, I then noticed the tender drifting into the distance, but also thankfully the Ice cream boat finally arriving.
5, 99's please, and would you mind retrieving our tender? Probably the most expensive 5 ice creams I've ever bought, but well worth it to get the tender retrieved.
Thankfully i only received cuts to my knees and severe bruising to arm legs and back, as it could of been hell of a lot worse (broken back seems a possibility).
So we had to tow the tender home and rope the garage door on (losing that would have made the event a real financial disaster), but all got back safely if not a little later than planned.
There are a couple of photos on the link below which show the bonded plates, which are normally glassed in to the door and that the lifting fame is bolted too, which have completely torn out. This was caused by the weight of the door alone, there was nothing on the sun pad above adding to the weight.
Too me it appears a poor under engineered design, and one I can't see how Fairlines' designers at the time could of ever deemed suitable. The plates are only the same size as the the flanges on the end of the lifting brackets, I'm no engineer in this respect, but I imagine the forces exerted on the glassed in plates when the door is fully open would be pretty high, and in effect trying to tear them out the door (which is what happened).
I've been on holiday for a week, so repairs are only at an initial ideas stage, but my thinking is that replacement plates need to extend to at least the rear end of the sun pad and maybe through bolted to further SS plates on the outside deck of the sun pad for extra strength?
Also attached are pictures of the door open so you get an idea what I'm taking about, and one showing the door after it had failed (and let saving ball fender).
I realise all boats are to a certain extent prototype "work in progress" items, and my Targa 64 had a particularly short run of 2008/2009 (i'm assuming due to the impending financial meltdown at the time) so accept issues like this probably didn't occur during the production run or warranty period, but its frightening to think in-house designed components could be so under engineered from what we all assume to be a better than most manufacturer.
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AoMBqVrTEKbpqD6qr2oljR-Br2qV
We'd had a great day in Osbourne Bay enjoying the fabulous weather, and were just getting ready to depart for home and also waiting for the ice-cream boat to finally come over. I had opened the garage door to retrieve the tender that we'd been messing about on (responsibly of course and not near other boats
), I was situated inside the garage, extending the winch and sliding out the retrieval guide. I suddenly heard what I first thought was dripping water, which quickly got louder and I determined sounded more like splintering grp!! I looked up to see the grp failing around where the door is bolted to the lifting frame, I instinctively dropped everything (inc the line connected to the tender) and tried to jump out the garage and on to left side section of bathing platform. Unfortunately I didn't make it in time and the door came crashing down landing on base my back and right upper arm. Its a bit of a blur from then but I think I managed to free my back and arm (whist calling for help from swmbo) this allowing the door to then crash down onto the back on my legs. I think i got swmbo to take the weight of the door off my legs and at the same time I managed to jam a ball fender in between the side of the door and one of the side steps, allowing me to release my legs.
Once free, and thankfully still in one piece, I then noticed the tender drifting into the distance, but also thankfully the Ice cream boat finally arriving.
5, 99's please, and would you mind retrieving our tender? Probably the most expensive 5 ice creams I've ever bought, but well worth it to get the tender retrieved.
Thankfully i only received cuts to my knees and severe bruising to arm legs and back, as it could of been hell of a lot worse (broken back seems a possibility).
So we had to tow the tender home and rope the garage door on (losing that would have made the event a real financial disaster), but all got back safely if not a little later than planned.
There are a couple of photos on the link below which show the bonded plates, which are normally glassed in to the door and that the lifting fame is bolted too, which have completely torn out. This was caused by the weight of the door alone, there was nothing on the sun pad above adding to the weight.
Too me it appears a poor under engineered design, and one I can't see how Fairlines' designers at the time could of ever deemed suitable. The plates are only the same size as the the flanges on the end of the lifting brackets, I'm no engineer in this respect, but I imagine the forces exerted on the glassed in plates when the door is fully open would be pretty high, and in effect trying to tear them out the door (which is what happened).
I've been on holiday for a week, so repairs are only at an initial ideas stage, but my thinking is that replacement plates need to extend to at least the rear end of the sun pad and maybe through bolted to further SS plates on the outside deck of the sun pad for extra strength?
Also attached are pictures of the door open so you get an idea what I'm taking about, and one showing the door after it had failed (and let saving ball fender).
I realise all boats are to a certain extent prototype "work in progress" items, and my Targa 64 had a particularly short run of 2008/2009 (i'm assuming due to the impending financial meltdown at the time) so accept issues like this probably didn't occur during the production run or warranty period, but its frightening to think in-house designed components could be so under engineered from what we all assume to be a better than most manufacturer.
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AoMBqVrTEKbpqD6qr2oljR-Br2qV
