Interested in a hole-ey hull update?

[cmorganobrien]

Thought some of you might be interested to know that we have decided to REPAIR our beautiful steal hull and we're looking forward to the season next year. A big job, yes, and it's been hard to wade through all the conflicting opinions....but we're delighted with how it's all worked out. Watch this space for photos of us being happy soon!!! Thanks to you all for advice. Bajan Sailor take note, please, and thanks in particular to you for all your help!

 

[Whitelighter]

That is excellent news. Please keep us updated with pictures and things. Best of luck

 

[Neddie_Seagoon]

Great stuff. It seemed inconceivable that the situation should be irretrievable when you originally posted about it. Hope it all works out well.

 

[Major Catastrophe]

I pleased you have made the decision as it would be a shame to discard the hull without at least trying. As people said at the time, a good welder and mate will soon sort the job.

 

[Bajansailor]

Excellent news!
Looking forward to seeing some photos of the repair work being carried out.
Good luck!

 

[oldgit]

Any chance of quick resume of how the repair is going to be done.....

 

[cmorganobrien]

We'll shotblast the hull on the bottom and sides to the waterline. Doubler plates with elongated slots will be fitted to the wasted areas. Primed, anti-fouled, paineted up etc....It all sounds simple enough after all the worry. We'll anti-rust the inside of the engine space ourselves. Would you like to suggest a good product to do this?

 

[oldgit]

Glad that something has been sorted at last and always hoped that it was just a case of finding somebody who would not even blink twice at the work your boat needed.

 

[Bajansailor]

I note that your plan is to fit doubler plates over the wasted areas of plating - while this is probably the easiest solution, I don't think it sould be much more difficult to cut out the wasted areas (eg in a neat rectangular shape) and fit new sections of plate in these cut outs such that they are flush with the hull. This would be a much better long term solution.
If you continuous weld the doubler plate from the outside only, then rust will form between the plates, as air (and water) can get in between from the inside.
If you can do continuous welding on the inside of the doubler plate (as well as continuous around the patch on the outside), then this would be much better - but then if you have access to do this on the inside, you might as well 'do it properly' and weld in inserts (as mentioned above).......

Cleaning the steel plating on the interior is probably going to be a much more difficult job, especially under the engines! All that you can do (without taking the engines out) is clean and de-grease this area as best you can, apply rust treatment (I have found that 'Ospho' (a type of phosphoric acid) works well) and then slap on paint lavishly.
Perhaps paint everywhere white, as an encouragement to keep it clean, as any areas of rust will then show up very quickly.......

 

[cmorganobrien]

We do plan to cut out the spots in pieces and weld over. The white paint is a great tip. Thanks a million. We've a great surveyor on our side now so we're very confident that we'll be back on the water next season. Irish weather is not very conducive to a pleasant day out at the moment....so we don't feel too hard done by. ("too hard done by" doesn't read as well as it sounds when said with an Irish accent......excuse, please!)

 

[cmorganobrien]

Thank you. You're very kind. I enjoyed your article, by the way, and empathised greatly! Glad to see things worked out for you too. We do REALLY love our boat, holes or no holes....heart ruling head, but there you go!!!

 

[Bajansailor]

More excellent news - hopefully you will be back in the water long before next season. Perhaps even this season, cos it really isn't a very big job......

Re 'too hard done by', I can just imagine how it sounds in a soft Irish accent..... I have sailed with a few Irish skippers who could use their accents to devastating effect, in almost any circumstance...... including slagging the crew off mercilessly (as one Captain with the TSYT is famous for) - but because the slagging is spoken with such an accent, the slaggees usually just end up killing themselves laughing, similarly the rest of the crew........ /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif