New Owner Joining with Question about Hull Stability

E

Eugene

New member
Hi Folks,

I have recently joined the forum and would like to thank you all for being such an incredible resource. I have been visiting as a guest for many months, and in October of 2006 convinced myself to purchase a new 22' cruiser. Having previously been the owner of a 32' flybridge boat, I was attracted to the simplicity, modifiability, durability, economy, and pilothouse concept of the C-Dory. My decision was significantly influenced and supported by my ability to educate myself on this site.

I have been very much enjoying the boat. Have even tinkered some with it and performed a stereo installation without drilling any holes. Also, attached some rod and other holders with suction cups, just to avoid drilling. I guess that I will eventually overcome this over-protectiveness, but I am still at this stage.

Along the lines of this "paranoia," I have a question to the group. Unfortunately, early in the course when I was still unfamiliar and inexperienced with the handling of this boat, I hit a very large wake. The boat "slammed" down with such force that all passengers were "air lifted" and the cabinet doors flew open. There was no obvious damage to the hull. There were some stress lines in the area of a corner of the starboard cockpit step. I am not sure that these were related to the event. The dealer repaired them and seemed not to be concerned. This is the new molded design.

These boats have a legendary reputation for ruggedness and hull integrity; the hull is guaranteed for 5 years. And yet, in light of the force of the impact I have concern that some concealed damage to the hull might have occurred, such as a hidden crack in the fiberglass, balsa core, or the like, that would "declare" itself later. Is this possible? Have any of you seen something like this happen before?

Thank you in advance for answering this question, and please rest assured, it will not be my only one.

Greetings,

Eugene
 
Eugene,
In my opinion you are not an experienced C-Dory owner until you have hit one of those sneaky, nasty, I didn't think it was that big wakes. I have slammed into a wake or a wave with considerable force more times than I probably should have. To date, in the three C-Dory's I've owned, I've felt it much more than the boats seem to. Check out the pictures in the Hunky Dory albumn and...... darn I hate it when I can't remember.... the ablumn of the 22 that was rolled in the surf and rebuilt from the hull up. Help me out here someone!
I think your C-Dory will take much more than you and passengers will before it gets damaged.
Ron
 
Eugene - I doubt that you hurt the hull in any way. If you want to see a cross section of the hull cut in half, check my album out here. The boats are well designed and tough.

PS: Welcome to the site and glad to have you aboard.
________
Dave dlt.gif
 
Ron on Meander":1sevrmw7 said:
Check out the pictures in the Hunky Dory albumn and...... darn I hate it when I can't remember.... the ablumn of the 22 that was rolled in the surf and rebuilt from the hull up. Help me out here someone!
Ron
Click to expand...

Ron- The boat is now known as Scout, and the ower who did ssuch a magnificent job of rebuilding it is Chris Bulovsky. PHOTOS

Joe.
 
Thank you all for your responses and references to the pictures. Ron, you helped me understand that the usual course of the events is that generally we die before these boats do. Dave, I have been following C-Voyager's hull extension with amazement and admiration. Sea Wolf, in response to your autosignature, your humor does not bother me at all.

Thanks again.

Eugene
 
EUGENE: Glad to have you on board! Some of us are kinda-sorta looking at putting together a cruise down in your neck of the woods with a little mini-loop on the river. Also, hook up with Don Z. He is a C-Brat, but I think his C-Dory is over in CA on the west coast at his sons. He may like a day or two on the waters with ya.

I will agree with the others....the boat can take much more than we can...

Byrdman
 
Hi Eugene, welcome aboard.

You didn't say in your post how many hours this soul lifting pounding continued. :wink:

I am sure your boat is fine.

Mark
 
WELCOME ABOARD CAPT. EUGENE,
IF YOUR CONCERN REGARDING A HULL FRACTURE CONTINUES, YOU MIGHT CHECK WITH EITHER A SURVEYOR OR MARINE REPAIR FACILITY THAT HAS AN ULTRASOUND SYSTEM. NOT MANY EMPLOY THIS TYPE OF SYSTEM, BUT IF YOU FIND ONE, THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO ADDRESS YOUR QUESTIONS.
KEEP THE WIND AT YOUR BACK AND COLD BEER IN THE FRIG!
BEST REGARDS
PAT
 
I have felt that heart dropping pound coming off the back of a 4 by 4, thats 4 ft up the front no top and 4 ft off the back, for up to a hour. Over and over again. I have 670 hours in under three years and have pounded the hell out of this boat. I have no worries about the hull. I have gotten a stress crack where the cabin joins the rail. but c-dory fixed that last year. it was common for a while. You cant take the amount of pounding that your boat can so dont worry about it.
 
Thank you all for the warm welcome and for the responses. I am certainly reassured.

Byrdman, I would be quite interested in putting together a mini cruise or some other social event. I miss the boating community. My boat is in dry storage. They place it in the water, and then they put it back up. It is convenient, but there is no social interaction.

Incidentally, I noted that you are from Clarksville, TN. I used to live in Nashville until about 2 years ago. Kept my old boat at Rock Harbor Marine. Passed by Clarksville a couple of times when going to the Land between the Lakes, Green Turtle Bay. I bet we have some mutual acquaintances.

Keep on writing.

Eugene
 
I would not worry about hitting the wave and becomming airborne causing delamination. It happens to all of our boats, including the Tom Cats.

A comment on Ultrasonic boat hull testing. Unfortunately the state of this is not well developed and is of little value in cored boats with standard ultrasonic guages, even if the person is skilled. The reason is that an air gap is the end of the ultrasonic signal. I have been working with one of the top NDT engineers on boat hull ultrasonic testing--and we have a few guages which will both analyze the solid boat laminate (There is a problem with boat laminates because they are so inferior to aerospace laminates where these guages are utalized all of the time) and by a "pitch and catch" bond testing, look at both sides of a cored hull--including the glass on both sides and the core. I cut up 20 boats a year ago for the destructive testing phase of this product developement. Our major problem is the cost. We wanted to get these guages on the market for about $2000, a cost which surveyors could afford. Aero space commercial and military applications of this same guage sell for in the $16,000 range (The actual cost of manufacture of the guage would justify its selling in the lower range). If we get any of these cheaper guages to market, I will be happy to do analysis on any of the C Dory boats where there is a suspician of delamination.

Once we have this in production, it will revolutionize the analysis of boat hulls on survey--looking at blister formation, delamination, wet cores etc.
 
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