Dirk Willims
Active Member
belong to a little yacht club here in town, we beer can race in the summer on WED, nights. It's a ton of fun. Recently traded my Santana 20 " Tuna" for the bigger Santana525, their older boats with a huge race following.
The 525 is literally a exact copy of the 20.
Last wed, I hit a rock pile which was buoyed improperly. The rock buoys were 100yards off the rock pile. Did major damage to my keel, and didn't discover that damage until we crossed the finish line. " had 6/8 inchs of water inside the cabin.
Pulled the boat, it's on the trailer, the boat is relatively lite, at 2200 pounds. But the club boat hoist was barely able to lift the boat, due to,water weight.
Pulled the keel two days ago, and was shocked to see just how much damage I did to the keel bottom area. I hit the rocks square doing oooo, 8 maybe 9 knots, I hit hard enough that the pressure forced the keel backwards, crushing about two inchs into the boats bottom.
I've got the bottom cleaned up, sanding and grinding all the dead fiberglass, and about half way done inside the cabin, on the floor.
Decided to lay in about 1/2 inch of fiberglass inside the floor pan, for integral strength. I'm not a finerglass guy, but I'm learning.
Moral of the story, keep you boat off the rocks.
Dirk
The 525 is literally a exact copy of the 20.
Last wed, I hit a rock pile which was buoyed improperly. The rock buoys were 100yards off the rock pile. Did major damage to my keel, and didn't discover that damage until we crossed the finish line. " had 6/8 inchs of water inside the cabin.
Pulled the boat, it's on the trailer, the boat is relatively lite, at 2200 pounds. But the club boat hoist was barely able to lift the boat, due to,water weight.
Pulled the keel two days ago, and was shocked to see just how much damage I did to the keel bottom area. I hit the rocks square doing oooo, 8 maybe 9 knots, I hit hard enough that the pressure forced the keel backwards, crushing about two inchs into the boats bottom.
I've got the bottom cleaned up, sanding and grinding all the dead fiberglass, and about half way done inside the cabin, on the floor.
Decided to lay in about 1/2 inch of fiberglass inside the floor pan, for integral strength. I'm not a finerglass guy, but I'm learning.
Moral of the story, keep you boat off the rocks.
Dirk