Annapolis Wherry transom damage

My Annapolis Wherry was recently lifted up off its winter storage trestles by a big autumn gust and unceremoniously deposited onto a garden path.  Mostly a soft landing and it was wrapped in a tarp but the transom edge got nailed by a granite step - see photos on http://tinypic.com/a/2b9uls/4

Has anyone experienced similar damage and maybe has a tip for repair.  Right now my idea is to flood the damaged area with epoxy, then firmly clamp the laminate back together, then sand and do the cosmetics.  Sensible?

/Martin

 

 

 


7 replies:

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RE: Annapolis Wherry transom damage

   Think you're spot on Martin. I’d probably put my resin and hardener containers in a warm water bath before mixing. I’ve found 80 degrees f (or so) to be high enough to make it runny. The higher temp will make it kick faster but it’s such a small area that will probably help more than hurt. Flood area with un-thickened epoxy. Fairly quickly, mix in some celofil or wood flour to make a glue then use a thin bladed putty knife to get some thickened but still runny stuff between plys. Just before it kicks clamp it up. I don’t know how to know exactly when it will kick though! With slow hardener you'll get at least 10 minutes of pot time.
I might tape off the unaffected areas to make clean up easier too.
Hope this helps,
ev

RE: Annapolis Wherry transom damage

 I'd approach this damage repair as Silver Salt's suggested. It's a testament how tough epoxy & 'glass really is that the damage evident is as limited as it appears to be. Main concern'd be water getting into wood plys & glass exposed by the break, unlikely anything structural deeper in needs attention.

RE: Annapolis Wherry transom damage

   Thanks folks - great advice. It will be a good holiday project in the workshop.

RE: Annapolis Wherry transom damage

Definitely fixable. The only thing I'd do differently from what's been described is not thicken the epoxy with woodflour, celofil, etc. That might make the repair more visible.

The reason for thickeners is to keep the epoxy from flowing out. If the area is flooded so that the raw wood can soak it up and saturate, there'll be plenty of epoxy in the joint for a non-structural repair. Also, clamping early rather than later will both trap the epoxy and encourage more to soak in because of wicking/capillary effect.

Good luck, Merry Christmas,

Laszlo

 

RE: Annapolis Wherry transom damage

You have some crushed / mangled wood fiber there.  You may find that it will not clamp flush.  I would try clamping it dry first to see where you stand.  If necessary, you may need to excavate some of the damaged wood from behind the displaced flap just so it will sit flat.  

I had similar damage to my runabout but I must confess I never fixed it cosmetically.  I was on vacation at the time and wanted to be able to use the boat the next day, so I went to the local hardware store and picked up some epoxy and just sealed up the damaged area.  I had intended to fix it properly when I got back home, but 7 years later I'm still getting by with my "temporary" patch job.

It is surprising how tough these boats are. Mine was hit in the transom by a drunk driver with enough force to launch it and the trailer 90 degrees.   The car that hit it sustained much more damage than the boat.

RE: Annapolis Wherry transom damage

Thanks to all who contributed to the transom damage post - that is now fixed and looks good, but I just discovered that it wasn't the only consequence of the wherry's unplanned, wind assisted flight across the garden.  There is also a 75 cm long crack in the hull that went unnoticed in the December gloom.  This runs parallel to one of the lapstrake joints and at one point steps across, see:

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=xdxvs7&s=9

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=qohp35&s=9

So just when the ice has finally melted off my local water and relaunch was on the cards, it looks like a longer stay in the dry dock is needed - frustrating!

My plan is this:

1) sand off the hull paint over the entire area that will be glassed in step 3)

2) open up the crack as much as possible and fill with some slightly bead-thickened epoxy, then close (just weighting the gunwale clearly achieves that) and allow to set.

3) apply a strip of glass cloth across the crack both inside and outside.

4) re-finish.

Does this sound reasonable for acheiving a suitably strong repair?  Any advice on how wide a strip of glass cloth should be used? - I am thinking about 4 cm either side of the crack.

/Martin

RE: Annapolis Wherry transom damage

   Martin,

You plan sounds good. 4cm of glass around the crack is more than enough.

Your yacht will be as good as new!

Joel

 

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