Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

As some of you may recall, I have an old 73 Seacraft.
I was fishing Friday night, there was a pretty good 2 - 3 chop, it was starting to get dark,and I was running pretty good (35 mph)to get to the bait before dark.
I was in deep water, and I heard a thud under the boat not a particularly huge one, but enough to concern me.I stopped, looked back and saw something floating in the wash but didn't go back to check it out - probably should have.Started back slowly, no vibration, figured I clipped a log.
The next day I pulled the boat, and can't believe what I saw.
The whole skin (gelcoat and top layer of glass)was torn off the boat on the port middle running surface from about 3' aft of the bow all the way to the transom! But the mat/roving under it was intact. Forward of this spot, you could see that outer skin was delaminated from the roving.
My guess is that I had a delamination there that I never noticed and when it cracked the force of the water just peeled it back clean right against the edgeds of the "steps".
I'm wondering what do you think could have caused this?
How best to fix it?
Do I have an insurance claim?
I'll try to get some pics of the damage,but wanted to get some ideas from you guys asap.
This boat is so old, I don't know if this is an area that was previously repaired, if it was delaminated at layup, or if it ocurred over time, or worse case if it has some underlying structural issue like stringers that caused it.
What will best bond to the old surface epoxy or poly?
What's the best cloth to use?
My season's done just when things were heating up, but I'm lucky it still floats.

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

I would go with epoxy and some light grade fiberglass. You can get a little booklet from west marine on the how too’s then a little gel coat and WHAM you are Fishing again.
FellowShip [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

I agree with Fellow Ship. Make a quick repair and get back out there...

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

West Systems Epoxy

Go to the user guide. Pretty simple. You also might want to check for other blisters before you wrap it up for winter.

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

I've never heard of this happening to any boat. Sounds like an old repair gone bad. Someone must have really puddied the bottom.

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Agree with shrimpin.. I just dont see the original factory layup coming apart like that. Get her out of the water and fix it. As far as the insuranse claim goes you have nothing to loose because you could have hit something that started the delamination process [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] You heard a THUD right?

Strick

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Bill

Any progress on the repair or what may have caused it ?? Do you have any pictures ??

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Hmmm...that sounds odd BillyBob. Unless you hit something the only thing I can thing of is that there was a stress crack below the waterline and when the water got in it underway it peeled back the laminate.

If I were you, I would get that baby in a heated garage or barn, turn up the heat and turn on a dehumidifier and let that her dry out for 3 weeks or so. Then I would do a complete inspection of the hull. after that start grinding back (12:1 ratio)the damaged laminate, clean with acetone and then layup with glass. This is a good situation to vaccum bag in my opinion.

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Thanks for the replies.I don't think I'll be getting to it this year, unless I can find a heated space.
I'll try to get some pictures.It does look like a good application for vacuum bagging, but I have no experience with it and a long strip like that would be a tough one.
It looks like there was some delamination there for god knows how long and I just never noticed it because the bottom was intact, and then I hit something, it cracked, and the water pressure did the rest.
I'll keep you posted.
Bill

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Thought I'd bump this up and give you guys an update.I didn't want to touch the boat until the insurance adjuster saw it.
I took it to a very reputable yard for an estimate.These guys work on really big boats and weren't too interested in doing my little 23', but the manager is a friend of a friend.
Their opinion was that there was a delamination and when I hit something, the strip just peeled back.The manager said he has seen similar problems on other boats, and they refer to these as "Friday boats" he even said some builders won't layup boats on Friday's.But you gotta wonder how it lasted 30 years if it was a layup f-up - so I don't know.
So, he gave me an estimate for $3000 and the adjuster came and looked at it last week.I also found a friend with some warehouse space that he said I could use gratis - So I could be getting to it soon.
The yard recommended I use polyester and "fabmat" which sounds like some kind of stitched chopped strand.
Once I get it in the barn and off the trailer, I'll take some pics as I go.
Any opinions on what to order for the cloth? I'll probably order it online, but I'm not too sure of the weights and codes for the product I want to use.
Have a good holiday guys,
Bill

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Heyh Billybob-

According to the original lamination schedule on this site...your Seacraft is made up of the following layers:

3/4 oz mat
1.5oz mat
1.5oz mat
1.5oz mat
22oz roven
1.5oz mat
22 oz roven
1.5 oz mat
22oz roven

With that in mind after the hull is grinded and prepped, I would lay up two layers of 1.5oz mat and then follow with alernating layers of 1808 biaxial & 1.5 oz mat until you reached the height of the original laminate. I think the maximum chemical bond window is about 72 hours with standard resin (layers 2 through whatever. Obviously, layer 1 will be a mechanical bond because the hull is 30 years old hence my reason for suggesting that you start out with two layers of 1.5oz mat which will offer good adhesion for the subsequent layers)

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Billy Bob - sorry to hear about your troubles. If you have a digital camera I'd love to see some pics.

Ed - do you have a perfer method when working with 1.5 oz mat? is there any tricks that you know of to keep the fibers under control when you wet it out?

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Hey Big Shrimpin-

With all fiberglass (especially mat) the key is not to "handle" it too much. Measure what you need (sometimes even making a paper template for complex layouts will help), cut it and then set it aside in a clean, dry place. You definitely do not want to contaminate the fiberglass with dust, water or dirt. Usually, if you wet out the surface area first with some resin and then lay the mat on top of it and run a somewhat damp roller over it...the mat will quickly soak up the resin and won't get too many fuzzies. You really run into trouble with fuzzies when you start tearing the mat, instead of cutting it. Another thing is to make sure you change your gloves often and keep all your tools, rollers, etc in a 5 gallon bucket with acetone so that they are constantly kept clean.

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Billybob I'm assuming you are going to flip the boat upside down to do this repair. Is that correct?

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

http://wingedmammal.com/action_photo.../CRW_2598L.jpg

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Thanks for the info Ed.I will get some digitals when I get it into the warehouse and set up.It's really a mess, at least a couple layers tore off and the rovings exposed and it tore clean off from point of impact all the way to the transom. Even forward of the impact point,there is some delam, so I will have to cut up until I find a good bond and hopefully not get up into the color coat because I don't want to have to paint the whole hull.
The part that bothers me is the cause.The guys at the yard think that it was a layup problem, but it's hard to believe that it took 30 years until something whacked it just right to cause this. But, what else could it be?
As for flipping it, I thought about it but I really don't want to.I plan to put the keel down on some big tires or blocks and then lay it over on it's other chine on some tires and prop it up. It's the middle "step" on the port side.It's gonna be a bitch because it's about an 18' run, so I'll have to work quick with each pot I make.
Now, I'm just waiting for that check and hoping my buddy has the storage avail when I'm ready.
.
How many beers is this gonna take? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

Good Luck.
http://www.classicmako.com/projects/xshark/bw6.htm

Re: Tore the skin right off my bottom!
 

WOW Warthog - very nice work [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]
.
Thanks everyone - I'll keep ya posted.
Bill