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Hi Maurice
You need to go through the bottom and across the keel. This is major surgery i’m afraid as the piece you need to change requires the removal of quite a lot of other structure. There will already be a piece of ply between the keel and the step, albeit thin and probably rotten. There is a much larger, thicker piece that the step actually sits on beneath the glass skin. That has almost certainly collapsed too, and if it hasn’t it will. This is impossible to get to without an access hole. The trouble is if you try to “make do” by shoring up what you can see is that you will make fixing the step itself much more difficult.
You end up changing the wood that the pulleys are attached to as well as these are part of the mast step bearer.
this is quite a big job.
There is a fairly substantial ply frame under the mast. Ply quality was variable and it tended to delaminate and collapse.
it’ll need a hole cutting in the hull and the rotten/delaminated support ply replacing. Its not uncommon unfortunately. We’ve fixed a few of these. Other repairers are available, we are based in Birmingham.
O7977 six six 687 7eight5
It looks to me as if the mounting block was originally mounted further forward. I think It’s pulled off and been reglued in a different place. This was far from uncommon on the Speed hulls, access is a total pig and to be honest the whole system isn’t very good. The new boats are far better – but this doesnt help you!
I think I’d probably want to check the line before buying larger blocks. Make sure that the lead is clean and mock up from what looks to be the original position. If it looks like the run off the lazy block is wrong the only real solution is to move it – bigger blocks wont help. If anything the run needs to be in front of the moveable track. Best done with the boat upside down. A sharp chisel and firm tap should get the pad off, tufnol doesnt glue very well.
So I think we may have drilled holes in one of the ply layers to try to prevent voids on the bow. I think we did this with the outer layer. It never reared its head again in the 4 years I owned the boat and to my knowledge it’s still fine.
I agree with taking the ply back to a stringer. Yes, the hole is a lot bigger but you have something solid to fix the new ply to and should have removed any rotten wood. We definitely did this with mine, it would have been dat not to as it would have been within centimetres anyway! I think its easier to shape a larger piece too.
When we did the bow repair on my series 2 we did the forefoot in two pieces of 3mm (or maybe 3mm and 2mm – it was a while ago!) laminated together to achieve the thickness and go round the curve. It needed a fair bit of sanding to fair in, but was much easier than trying too force a small piece of 5mm round the curve. This was butt-strapped as the chances of getting a decent scarf on a curve like that are just about zero!
My front end looked very similar to yours and we went a lot further to ensure all the rot was out. I think you need to do the same as if there is any rotten ply left you’ll be doing this again in 2-3 years time – you definitely don’t want that! The hardwood can be dried and recovered even if it looks awful. As long as its not powdery its fine. I removed the first 18-24 inches of keel, dried it all out and replaced the original.
I would reinstall the bulkhead even for cruising. If it was retrofitted it must be one of the last “bag” boats. Epoxy coating will be fine, and being solvent free you wont gas yourself in the process!
I just had a mark on mine.
You can raise the board enormously before you start to suffer significant leeway as it doesn’t really lose area till its almost in the box. What it will do is alter the feel of the boat inducing more and more lee helm. On classes with raking rigs that use large amounts of mast rake it is common to sail upwind with the board 3/4 down if not less. In a GP you don’t need to do this, but like Oliver – while im hardly a top racer – once below 4/5th down I couldn’t tell the difference.
I’d take the hatches off.
Cover – if you get an overboom cover you’ll be fine with a PVC cover. You really, really get what you pay for with covers and Rain and Sun/Creation are – in my opinion – worth paying more for. If going PVC I’d recommend Rain and Sun.
It hard to advise without seeing a photo
Sounds to me like it may built out of core mat rather than foam sandwich. No GP in the uk is built like this but its cheaper, saves labour but basically is neither as strong or as durable. Looks like hexagonal/circular blobs of glass about 3-4mm across surrounded by resin in a honeycomb pattern. This is bad news. I’d live with it, fixing this is major surgery.
If you have a foam sandwich boat I’d suggest the best way is to drill holes, inject resin and try to glue the sandwich back together before painting the decks to hide the fix. Polyester doesn’t stick as well as epoxy, and if they didn’t use enough when they laid up the structure the glass to foam joint is often the first thing to go.
I think the first thing I’d do is try to sail it as is. Even if its for 20 minutes with holes taped up. This will tell you straight away whether you have a leaking case, split hog/keel and all sorts of other things that its much, much better to know before you start than to find after you’ve finished. Leaking case isn’t a drama to to with the boat in a million pieces, and there is an argument for re-bedding it anyway but I think id be tempted to leave it alone if its water tight.
As for tackling the job, the order of business sounds sensible but id take the decks off before starting any on the other jobs. This will improve access enormously and will tell you how badly the glue has weathered. Depending on who built the boat the frames and panels will be glued with Resourcinol which is much, much better. Cascamite was (and frequently still is) used on the decks because its doesn’t leave glue lines.
Hmmmmm
these things I think fall into the catergory of being far easier to while in build than after! I don’t mean to assist you in kicking your own backside for not putting them in but I would certainly be inclined to leave out any that access to cut is excessively difficult. I have found a large holesaw to be a far better tool for cutting these than the old fashioned lots of holes and a jigsaw method and this will help access, as well as make it easier to get them symmetrical. The hatch in the bow tank and two side tanks should be pretty easy to do, the floor may be more of a challenge. That said does it really *need* 4 in the floor? the two at the front allow access to the bow tank bunghole that should be under the false floor to allow drainage (If you didn’t put one in you aren’t the first and wont be the last!). The two at the back serve no real purpose at all besides ventillation. The rear two are probably the hardest to get the holesaw into and on that basis i’d leave them as built. Those need to be under the stern deck, else they’ll get trodden on and broken.
Obeche is used for the stringers and structural framework of many boats because its very light and flexible. These don’t need to be especially strong so it was desirable to go all-out for minimum weight to centralise as much of the weight as possible rather than have heavy extremities, particularly the stem and transom – you see quite a few S1 GPs with obeche transoms with mahogany inserts where the fittings go.
If the boat isn’t going to be raced in its class this level of detail is probably unnecessary and you would undoubtedly get away with using a heavier timber such as ash which maintains the flexibility but is stronger and far less prone to rot. Cedar would also work from the strength/weight point of view but is it flexible enough to go round the curve from the shrouds forward without steaming? (It may be, I don’t know. I know its widely used in rudders and centreboards and also the hog/keel in some classes)
I wouldn’t get too hung up over weight from your perspective and I think if you aim for minimum weight with no correctors you’ll be ok. The difference between a metre 1×1 inch of obeche vs ash or mahogany is very little and whilst it all adds up you have six kilos to play with!
I would recommend something harder such as ash or sycamore for the carlins as these will take a beating and cedar/obece dent easily.
