Grounding Damage...Totaled or recoverable?

[sproption]

Hello all.

My 1971 E-29 suffered from damage after grinding along a steel sea wall for about 10 hours on the evening of 8/20.

After renovation and refit that lasted for one year, this is heartbreaking. New portlights, new batteries, new wiring, new nav lights, new anchor winch, new wood fired heater, new electrical control panels, new handrails, new paint job, new deck hatch, etc. were added to the boat.

Please note...the boat was NOT holed below the hull/deck joint. The damage included but not limited to:

Starboard destruction: genoa track, midships cleat, jib cleat, two stanchions, one chain plate probably two, all starboard shrouds were shocked loaded. The molded toe rail was shattered. Jib sheet island was holed. Plastic hull deck cap/rub rail was destroyed. 50 watt solar panel was split in two.

Bow: The anchor roller was damaged. Bow damage to gelcoat on the stem.

The question for all is: Can I repair the hull to deck joint damage in these photos?

My concerns are...this is along a critical seam of the boats structure. Access from the inside of the boat will require cutting away a lot of interior liner. After I cut away the interior liner, the angles and corners in this area make this fix problematic. I may have a bulkhead in the way also. The fiberglass job is not simple. Lots of right angles that make for difficult fiberglass work. What about the toe rail? The toe rail is a molded fiberglass box. Can i make this as structurally sound as it was before this accident?

I am also concerned about what I don't see in the bulkhead tabbing on the starboard side. Would this shock to the boat affect bulkheads elsewhere? Tabbing and fillets elsewhere? The mast?

Any observations or opinions would be appreciated.

 

[Loren Beach]

Since the original (factory) hull to deck join was glassed over on the inside with roving, you will need to create access to all the inside surfaces that need new glass work. This is sometimes tedious. And when all of the exterior parts are restored, you will need to restore the inside trim.

OTOH, once you are at the scene of the repair on the inside, the repair should be very straightforward.

Grinding back to good material on the outside will be next, and then it's just laying in layers of cloth ("bi-ax" in these modern times). The finish work to fair in and apply new paint or gel coat is the one part for which I would hire some help. Getting a great color match is important, and I am not good at it. Others might be a lot more confident.

I hope that you have a good insurance policy with an agreed-value amount that ensures that your ins. company will come thru for you.

Keep us posted.

All the best,
Loren

 

[Christian Williams]

How's the inside roving hull-deck connection look?

If that is undamaged, the rest is just a mess to clean up -- if you can do it yourself, as it sounds like you can. And the cost will be time and head-scratching.

As Loren says, if an insurance company is involved, it will just be downtime and inconvenience for you. And very expensive for the insurance company.

Totalled? No way, unless there is big structural damage.

 

[sproption]

How's the inside roving hull-deck connection look?

If that is undamaged, the rest is just a mess to clean up -- if you can do it yourself, as it sounds like you can. And the cost will be time and head-scratching.

As Loren says, if an insurance company is involved, it will just be downtime and inconvenience for you. And very expensive for the insurance company.

Totalled? No way, unless there is big structural damage.

Good morning and thank you for your reply. The inside hull-deck roving is holed. I am sure there is damage/delamination I cannot see.

 

[Christian Williams]

My concerns are...this is along a critical seam of the boats structure. Access from the inside of the boat will require cutting away a lot of interior liner. After I cut away the interior liner, the angles and corners in this area make this fix problematic. I may have a bulkhead in the way also. The fiberglass job is not simple. Lots of right angles that make for difficult fiberglass work. What about the toe rail? The toe rail is a molded fiberglass box. Can i make this as structurally sound as it was before this accident?

I am also concerned about what I don't see in the bulkhead tabbing on the starboard side. Would this shock to the boat affect bulkheads elsewhere? Tabbing and? fillets elsewhere? The mast

Assuming there is no insurance, and bearing in mind that this is a forum and I am not a surveyor or boat builder:

--Well, you can't sell the boat in this condition, so you have to fix it or just shrug off the loss and get a new boat.

--The damaged inside roving can be reinforced with cloth. It doesn't have to be perfect.

--The genoa track can probably be repaired as a section, since some looks OK.

--I doubt the toe rail is structural, nor is the coaming. Getting it all to look original again is the hard part, but no element is impossible for DIY, just a challenge. Members here have re-cored their side decks. Matching the toe rail means a mold taken form adjoining or the other side of the baot. The hole in the coaming is just a "hole repair."

--The affected chainplates and shrouds do need to be 100 percent, but on your model they seem straightforward enough.

Yes, DIY repairs will always be noticeable on close inspection (gel coat at very least) and have to be disclosed to the next buyer.

But since you're not sailing Cape Horn, safety or integrity should not be an issue.

Not being pollyanna, just encouraging. We all face setbacks with our boats, and no doubt about it, this is one of them.

 

[bigd14]

So sorry to hear about the damage. Very frustrating after you have put so much work into it already. But don't give up on it. It looks bad now, but I think once you clean up the area with a grinder and expose the innards it won't be quite as daunting and should be pretty straightforward to repair. It looks like the chainplates have already been relocated to the outside of the boat, which in this case is a huge bonus and easily replaced (the original internal ones are hard to replace in place). As others mentioned the hardest part will be matching finishes, but decide what you can live with in the way of mismatched gelcoat or paint.

Get some good sanding tools including a longboard (for auto finishing).

Lots of work but I think its totally salvageable.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[frick]

I'm a 1971 E 29 Owner

So sorry to see your damage.
If you can effect your own repaired your golden.
If you have tomato for these repairs it will equal the net worth of you boat.
Ouch.

 

[sproption]

So sorry to hear about the damage. Very frustrating after you have put so much work into it already. But don't give up on it. It looks bad now, but I think once you clean up the area with a grinder and expose the innards it won't be quite as daunting and should be pretty straightforward to repair. It looks like the chainplates have already been relocated to the outside of the boat, which in this case is a huge bonus and easily replaced (the original internal ones are hard to replace in place). As others mentioned the hardest part will be matching finishes, but decide what you can live with in the way of mismatched gelcoat or paint.

Get some good sanding tools including a longboard (for auto finishing).

Lots of work but I think its totally salvageable.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Yes, thanks for that. I am beginning to lean toward repair. Insurance assessor today said it might be totaled by them. I am getting more encouragement to address this myself.
Thanks for your feedback. I will look into that longboard.

 

[Christian Williams]

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoex...970-Purchasing-a-1987-38-200-The-Refit-Begins!

See post #23 in this thread, it looks like the author dealt with some similar damage on his Capri 25. You might confer with him about it.