Recovering From TC Oswald.

[44'cruisingcat]

Our friends' boat was blown off it's mooring by TC Oswald, and driven into a mangrove forest by 70kt winds and 20 foot seas.

The insurance co declared it a write off. Like me, he built his boat himself, around the same time I did. I couldn't stand to just let the boat be scrapped, and since the owner's health isn't as good as it was when he built the boat, I offered to help with the rebuild.

So, with the insurance payout, he's bought the boat back, and hired me and another friend to rebuild the boat.

Some pics of the damage:







Amazingly, the rig tension was still pretty much normal! Amazing stuff Duflex.

The boat was towed to a local marina hardstand, and with a few hundred hours work we've got it structurally complete again. It was relaunched, and motored downriver, and trailered out to a shed where we can complete the work. Getting the boat in a shed will help a lot, the weather has slowed progress a fair bit.



There's still probably about 3 - 4 months work to be done, interior rebuilding and refinishing, also an engine install similar to my own, and a complete respray of the boat, but the owners are going "land cruising" for a while, and don't need the boat until around this time next year.
So we still get to do our winter cruise north, then we'll come back and finish the boat next year

[GordMay]

Good on ya!

[multihullsailor6]

Whow! Amazing project and good work done to save a nice cat.
What design is she?
Good luck with the rest of the work, please post pictures after the relaunch!

[downunder]

Good to see she (School's Out) will live again.

Fair wack to the port hull. Says a lot for the construction system of the Oram 44.

Bet the repair will be un-noticed when you are finished.

Cheers.

[44'cruisingcat]

Thanks.

That's the plan - to make the boat as good as new. New daggerboard case is just about complete, should be installed in the next day or so.

Meant to say - to give an idea of the size of these mangrove trees, the hatch visible in the third picture is 500mm x 500mm.

[dennisail]

Hey. I love this boat and yours 44c. My boat is in Scarborough marina, right where this happened. Can you tell us more about the incident? Was it on a mooring? Anchor? What would have prevented the incident? Did it hit rock or only mangrove forest?

Good job on getting the boat back together. Did you use moisture testers on the balsa panels? How far did water soak up into the core?

I see the owner is ditching the electric power. Is this because of cost or because outboards are just better after all? At which marina are you doing the work?

Sorry for so many questions but I am very interested in project. I wish you guys all the best with the rebuild.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by dennisail

Hey. I love this boat and yours 44c. My boat is in Scarborough marina, right where this happened. Can you tell us more about the incident? Was it on a mooring? Anchor? What would have prevented the incident? Did it hit rock or only mangrove forest?

Good job on getting the boat back together. Did you use moisture testers on the balsa panels? How far did water soak up into the core?

I see the owner is ditching the electric power. Is this because of cost or because outboards are just better after all? At which marina are you doing the work?

Sorry for so many questions but I am very interested in project. I wish you guys all the best with the rebuild.

School's Out was on it's mooring, just outside Scarborough harbour. Bryan, the owner was overseas at the time. The mooring lines, two of them, simply broke - I believe 20mm nylon. Wind was apparently around 70kts, waves around 20 feet.

What might have prevented it was more accurate weather forecasting. The afternoon before, somone had checked the boat with a view to moving it into the marina if it was in danger, but the wind was <30kts from the east, the boat was fine, and the wind was forecast to go south east, which would have made the boat's position more protected.

Instead overnight the wind went north east, and intensified.

I don't know if there are rocks there, but with trees around 18 inches thick, it probably wouldn't make much difference.

Where the material wasn't pulverised, water really hasn't soaked in much at all. Maybe 10mm. We're not using moisture meters, we just cut the wet stuff away. It's easy to see where it's dry and hard.

The owner already ditched electric power years ago. He had a single 60hp outboard fitted. This motor was removed (with a chainsaw) during the salvage process. It had been at least semi-submerged for a fair while anyway, and was going to be replaced. So he's taking the opportunity to fit twin outboards now.


The boat is back in Bryan's shed, where it was built.

BTW, while we're working on School's Out, we're staying at Redcliffe marina, if you wanted to drop by.

[dennisail]

Will do

[44'cruisingcat]

Back working on School's Out.

Engine install near complete:



As you can see, the powerhead is above the bridgedeck:



From the front, pretty much completely tucked in:



Making the repairs "disappear":

[delmarrey]

The reddish/brown color. Is that a filler? Or a resin, if so what kind/brand?

[44'cruisingcat]

Microballoons and epoxy resin. Phenocet (I think) and West system.

[Southern Star]

Thanks for the update, 44C, and congrats on the incredible progress in such a short period of time!

Brad

[Boatguy30]

Wow! I guess a good argument for insurance. Would be super dispiriting to have this happen not to long after launch.

[Boatguy30]

Are those 20" or 25" shaft Tohatsus. The 20 is only available in 15" and 20" in the US market.

[dennisail]

I think we can safely say this will literally be better than ever when launched. Sounds like even Bob Oram was very impressed with 44cs recessed outboard pod design used on his, now this boat. Thats one less drawback for outboards now, no slamming plus more maneuvering authority having them further apart. looks like outboards are more of a good choice than ever.