H-20 Trunk Repair

Help! I hit a submerged object with a daggerboard last weekend which resulted in a crack in bottom aft portion of the trunk. After cleaning out the debris, I'm left with a crack that's three inches long and 1/4 inch wide at the bottom tapering down to the top. I'd love your advise on a solution that doesn't involve cutting an access port in the hull. I'm thinking about saturating some fiberglass mat and stuffing the middle of a rectangular piece in the crack. It will bow inward and I'll stuff more in the depression. I plan to lay the excess, probably a couple of inches, along the exterior of the trunk and file down as necessary. I've never worked with fiberglass before so I'm open to suggestions or alternative techniques. One would be to press in a wad of Marine-Tex and sand it down. I'll be happy if I get through the summer with it. If so, I'll send it to a fiberglass shop next off-season if necessary I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

The daggerboard escaped with a minor ding that I can sand down and build up with Marine-Tex.

Thanks,

_________________
Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

MVD,

Post a picture or two. I'm sure Rick or Jeremy will have some excellent suggestions.

I personally like the temporary idea of stuffing it with Marinetex (or Formula 27). If the crack is 1/4" wide is there any deformation/elongation of the trunk opening at the hull? If the board only had a minor ding, I'd guess the crack existed before this latest thump.

IIRC, the doesn't hull roll in to the trunk and extend upwards an inch or so? Then the trunk itself is wrapped, if you will, around the deck and hull "lips". I've only encountered leaks at this joint/seam between the hull lip and the trunk.

I'd assume this crack to be at the very bottom, or actually in the hull lip? If so, I'd dope it up with Marinetex (temporary mind you) and install a new Hobie #40309001 neoprene kit.

_________________
Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

Is this crack through the glass or only into the gelcoat? Its surprising that the board would be relatively unscathed yet a 1/4" wide crack formed in the trunk- what should be a relatively strong part of the hull. A 1/4" wide crack in the daggerboard trunk that is through the glass would leak like a seive and is almost certainly structural as there is a lot of load on the daggerboards. The extreme top and bottom edges of the trunk take all the load. Marine Tex is good for non-structural repairs to gelcoat and some lightly loaded areas of the hull but I don't think I'd want to trust it to an area like this if you have in fact broken glass fibers. In which case the broken glass fibers need to be replaced with new glass.

I'm 99% certain the daggerboard trunks on the 20 are seamless, at least at the bottom of the trunk. The 18 had seamed trunks for a while but then changed to seamless as well.

sm

Thanks for the responses. I'll post pictures of the crack this weekend if I haven't already fixed it. Unfortunately I can't keep the boat here at the house. The crack starts about a half inch to an inch up from the bottom of the port hull. The damaged portion of the trunk had been previousley damaged when I hit something last fall. Then I fixed the thin crack with a quick thin coat of Marine-Tex which sealed it. I reopened the old wound this time and made it bigger. I haven't ruled out Marine-Tex for this one, but if I go that route I'm going to insert a strip of cardboard through the crack to provide a backing and really glop it in there, getting it on all sides of the crack, inside and out.

When this happened my crew, Scuzzlebutt, and I were sailing in our first regatta with Fleet 23 last weekend. Although I expected a steep learning curve, we just couldn't figure out why we were going so slow. Afterwards, when we dragged the boat up on the beach, it was really heavy. When we looked in the inspection port, we saw that the port hull was about 1/3 full of water. Nevertheless, I think this will be easy to fix. We'll be ready to go for the Sand Snakes regatta Memorial Day weekend in Little Rock. Hope to see you there.

_________________
Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

I've done this type of repair already. It's not all that hard to do, but takes some time. If you can send a private email address to me at [email protected] I will try to dig up some photos of the fix. If I can't find the photos of this particular repair I'm sure I have some of similar fixes to get you going in the right direction. When you hit the object with the board did the board's trailing edge end up with what looks like a hatchet gouge in it? Normally what happens in this scenario is the bottom of the hull will start cutting into the board until the cut reaches some unidirectional fiberglass material, then the board gets revenge on the hull and starts to filet it down the keel line. Anyway, don't panic...it's fixable.

Paging Dr. Buchanon:

I gave my hull a temporary fix last summer - a few sheets of glass mat over the exterior of the crack - the side the daggerboard slides through - to get me through the season. Now I'm ready to go for a more permanent fix. My thought is to install another port through the hull (I'll put ports in both hulls while I'm at it) just aft of the trunk so I can get inside and put some more glass mat around the crack from inside the hull. Then fill in the crack from the outside with epoxy and filler and finally put some white gel coat over it. Does this seem like a good approach? Is there any downside to putting additional ports in the hull behind the daggerboard trunk? Will this affect the structural integrity of the deck? I would appreciate any feedback from anyone that may have done this type of repair or have installed additional ports. I'm thinking about investing a bunch of money in a new set of sails and I want to make sure I'm not prematurely killing my 1997 hulls.

Thanks,

_________________
Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

If you could send some photos of the damaged area I'd have a better idea of what you're up against. Send them to [email protected] . Sometimes putting filler in a small crack might work, but with a 1/4" wide one I'd be carefull. Keep in mind that as soon as the board is pulled up into the trunk and someone bumps, or pushes the top of the board from the side it may put enough pressure on the walls of the trunk well to flex which in turn may cause the filler repair to fail.

Rick,

I wasn't planning to put any filler into the crack from the outside until after I had gone inside the hull through a newly installed port and laid new fiberglass mat across the crack from behind it. Then use the filler to fill in the remaining divit. The crack is about 4" long and 1/4 inch wide at it's widest point. It extends upward from the very bottom of the trunk.

What do you think about installing a new port in the deck behind the trunk? Is this likely to weaken the deck? The flat 5" port that Hobie uses on the aft part of the hull is what I plan to use. Have you had experience installing ports behind the trunk on a H20 deck, and if so would you recommend a flat or curved port? Should a 5" port give me enough room to make the repairs to the bottom of the trunk?

Thanks,

MVD

_________________
Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

Send me an email address I can reach you at. I'd prefer to not use the forum to go over step by step repairs....How about a photo or two? email me at [email protected]