Seafari now Non-Cabin door issue

[cSickNick]

Hi all,

Thanks for all that helped and hope this info will help others with the same issue of the cabin door frame cracking in the corners.

1st, the lower parts of the door frame are only screwed and puttied?. After the abuse, most screws were deciding to screw ... out that is So, i though the only way i am going to feel good is to thru-bolt. With a 3" piece of "L" aluminum, it is wide enough to catch some thru-bolts from under the inside hatches and hide under the cusions. And i added a piece of "C" channel under the foot rests to sandwitch it all together.
The putty all dried out and fell out, so i used 4200 to fill in the seam and gap.

Now around the panel guage area has all been removed over the years. Time to glass it back. Wedged a piece of luan in the opening below the surface and then added many layers of mat/epoxy tucked into the corner voids and flush with the surface. Then laid one piece of bi-axle under that wraps around the corner and down the frame on the inside.

Too lazy to bother to fair out the surface, so decided to just re-drill for guages and re-install starboard panel.

It has been put to the test the last few weekends and she is holding up very well.

Hope you get the picture after a few pictures ....

BTW; Does anyone know how to share pics in a folder thru Photobucket instead of attaching a stack of pics. Again just too lazy ...

[mbo_1971]

dont know how to link to a folder, but if you take out the th_ from the file names, it will share a larger photo...

[oldbluesplayer]

Hey Nick - I like what you're doin' !!

Did you ever take a look at your forward bulkhead ? Fr. Frank reported his had let go the same way mine did. Pain in the butt to reglass, reaching in down thru the forward sleep platform hatch, but I think that's a key piece of torsional structure strength - which is directly related to door frame twisting - but I really like your reinforcements to the cabin bulkhead walls !!

Bill

[cSickNick]

Hey Bill,

I thought you would and other Seafari owners. It is a matter of time before the bulkhead wall tries to kick out. Thru-bolting makes me feel alot better when white knuckled to the wheel!!

I meant to get back to you awhile ago as i did check inside the foward hatch. It just amazes me that how different each year can be. On mine i see a finished gel coat liner inside there? The top could be tabbed in, as it seems to be void there with just foam to the top sleeping deck.

But behind this inner gelcoat liner, it may have broken away like yours. I guess i would know know unless i cut away the liner to check? I hate to do that, but i can see that it would be a big help to fix if broken away.

I will have to take some pics to see what you guys think ...

- Nick

[oldbluesplayer]

Hey Nick -

You have an inner liner tub in your forward well ? Yeah, like you say, it's amazing the year to year variations - mine, as you saw, is wide open down to the hull... how do you get to the two thru hulls for the head ? or don't you have them? I pulled the head out - really should pull the thru hulls and glass over the holes... another project for another time !

Bill

[cSickNick]

Hi Bill,

Yeah, looks like a nice clean gelcoated liner with a drain hole in the bottom that i assume is a clear run down the keel to the transom bilge area. I will take some pics tonight to explain the setup in there.

But i really can't see what you see?

- Nick

[cSickNick]

Here is a few pics to see the finished inside front locker. The pic with gelcoat/non-gelcoat was snapped from holding the camera in the locker. The non-gelcoat area is the bottom surface of the v-berth and the gelcoat area is the verticle inside finished wall. hard to see but there was foam(i cut flush with a knife) where the 2 surfaces meet.
I guess i could gring off a 2" strip of gelcoat and place some glass to connect the top to the liner.

Not sure how much it moves inside, will see if i can get a body tonight to shake the Hardtop while i take a peek inside.

Al least you can see why i could not see what you were seeing ....

- Nick

[Ed]

Lookin good, Ouzo. I vote for through bolting and 4200'ing the forward bulkhead for now.

If it gets worse, you can always remove the angle iron and 4200, reglass, and then rethroughbolt. If you start grinding away now...you will not be done until October.

Go fishing and have some fun!

[cSickNick]

Hey Ed,

I thought of that thinking it was one piece, but the inner liner seems thin and there is foam between. So thru bolting is just going to crush the thin inner liner and foam.

I think it is fine in there, so i probably just run a bead of 4200 or 5200 along the top seam and call it good enough.

I will ask the wife is she can grab/shake the hardtop and see what happens .....

[oldbluesplayer]

Nick - very interesting - I can see from your pix, that you don't have thru hull fittings to feed/discharge a marine head - probably the difference between two options - with head, no tub, w/o head, tub installed.

Here's a pic of mine that shows the repaired forward bulkhead, and the proximity of the two thru hull fittings -



Bill