Crack in hull

[till82]

Hi all,


I purchased my first sailboat a couple of weeks ago, and I have a question to you guys:

Yesterday while cleaning, I noticed a crack under the floor panel in the galley (see attached pictures). I'm not sure if that's the hull itself, or a part of the grid or just a cover. Anyway, you can clearly see broken fiberglass in the crack, so I was a bit worried.
I also noticed that the floor panels move slightly when walking on it, and that the refrigerator door is difficult to open and close.

Do you think that's something I have to worry about that, or is to be seen as regular wear & tear or just an optical defect?
I had a surveyor that did not notice any hull damage, but he noticed increased engine vibrations. Could this also be related to the crack?
And last but not least: do you think it is still safe to sail the boat like this?


Thank you in advance for your opinion. ​

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by till82

Hi all,


I purchased my first sailboat a couple of weeks ago, and I have a question to you guys:

Yesterday while cleaning, I noticed a crack under the floor panel in the galley (see attached pictures). I'm not sure if that's the hull itself, or a part of the grid or just a cover. Anyway, you can clearly see broken fiberglass in the crack, so I was a bit worried.
I also noticed that the floor panels move slightly when walking on it, and that the refrigerator door is difficult to open and close.

Do you think that's something I have to worry about that, or is to be seen as regular wear & tear or just an optical defect?
I had a surveyor that did not notice any hull damage, but he noticed increased engine vibrations. Could this also be related to the crack?
And last but not least: do you think it is still safe to sail the boat like this?


Thank you in advance for your opinion. ​

The first thing you need to determine is if that is a liner or gelcoated fiberglass (part of the hull).

If you can remove it - it is a liner and then you can check the hull underneath.

Personally I'd not sail the boat until I found out what the problem is. Abnormal engine vibration is generally not a godd sign and can be cause by any number of things, loose motor mount, cracks in hull at the motor mount and any one of a dozen other issues.

I wonder why your surveyor didn't catch this. He should have lifted all the floorboards to check if for nothing else signs of there having been water under there.

By the way

Welcome aboard. I'm sure there are others here who can give you much more detailed information if you tell us what kind og boat this is.

[till82]

Thanks for your reply Carsten!

The boat is a 2008 Benetau Oceanis 40.
I just got a reply from the surveyor that it is not the hull itself that shows the crack, but that it is part of the grid that mounts the furniture.

Also the agent that sold me the boat answered me and said the same. He added that the boat was transportet via road from France to Holland 6 years ago. And he claims that these kind of cracks in the interior panels are quite common after road transports, and tells me not to worry about it.

Do you think it is safe to sail the boat with this information? Or should I rather get a 2nd expert opinion?

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by till82

Thanks for your reply Carsten!

The boat is a 2008 Benetau Oceanis 40.
I just got a reply from the surveyor that it is not the hull itself that shows the crack, but that it is part of the grid that mounts the furniture.

Also the agent that sold me the boat answered me and said the same. He added that the boat was transportet via road from France to Holland 6 years ago. And he claims that these kind of cracks in the interior panels are quite common after road transports, and tells me not to worry about it.

Do you think it is safe to sail the boat with this information? Or should I rather get a 2nd expert opinion?

I would pull that liner and see what is underneath. I'm not familiar with the Beneteau , but I have a Jeanneau forty footer from 2007 (same builder as Jeanneau and Beneteau are the same company) and those liners can generally be pulled without too much trouble (maybe an afternoons work).

If it is just the liner - then you can live with it (although I would repair/replace it so if you get water down there it doesn't get between the liner and hull).

The abnormal engine vibration is something you should take seriously. Find out what it is and get it fixed - nothing good will come from it.

[till82]

I just got confirmation from the surveyor that he will come take another look next week.. thanks for your opinion so far!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Till.

[gjordan]

TILL82, we have a search feature on this forum that can get you lots of info on engine vibration. It can be anything from a barnacle on the prop, to major engine problems, or anything in between. Did the surveyor run the engine when the boat was hauled, or did he take a run around the harbor? You may want to get a separate engine survey to determine the issue. A search for engine vibration will give you a huge amount of reading to do, but as you eliminate things you will get better and better ideas. Congrats, on your new boat. _____Grant.

[neilpride]

I see somethig similar in a 50, not the Oceanis series, and it happen by a misplaced jackstand in the yard,the hull flex several inches pushing the inner liner until it crack, the repair involve grinding inside and aply FG and gelcoat, to the patch, is a messy job, yours is in the kitchen floor área , so i guess not a jackstand isue, probably grinding to bare glass outside and see if there is any evidence of cracks, Deep cracks running Deep in the laminate denote a serious isue , those boats are really thin in the hulls, if no cracks outside you can start to fixing inside .. for some reason the crack show up due flexing,, now ask yourself how and when?
Cheers.

[sunbear1]

you could borrow a remoteview video camera after drilling a hole for the view head and see whats under it. The crack sould be easy to fix using a small rotary tool to clean it up.

[hellosailor]

till-
Bear in mind that Beneteau (at least here in the US) have an excellent reputation for customer service and support, and they can easily be reached by phone or email. I would suggest taking some more pictures, calling them up and sending them the pictures, and asking for their opinion as to what the extent of the problem and the solution might be.
I had thought the liner grids were supposed to structurally reinforce the hull, but they may tell you all it needs is to have the grid bonded back down. If you actually see broken fiberglass, not just untrimmed edges but breaks, then that's more to be concerned about.

[a64pilot]

If it's what I think it is, it's not something easily removed, but is a structural part of the boat and cracks in structure should be investigated.
It may well be something not to worry about, or it could be something that compromises structural integrity, you won't know until it's investigated unfortunately.

[Don C L]

Hard to see what we're looking at but it seems that the crack is next to a stringer that is there to support the sole, does that seem right? If so it SEEMS that maybe something heavy came from above to crack that liner next to the stringer. If so, not a problem. If it seems the force that cracked it came from below I would think there would be some leaking. If a misplaced stand in a yard caused enough flex in the hull to crack an inner liner, I would definitely get the boat out of the water and look closely at the hull! That said, I have seen a large boat whose hull flexed so much forward of the keel it damaged the inner stringers, yet the hull was fine (but that was a Kevlar honeycomb hull.)

[mike d.]

Why is the first pic of the panel ? upside down, and the last pic of it ? right side up. That looks like a stress crack, from impact or pressure!

[Regatta]

I know the 'bandido'boat are Made in sandwich: the hull and the mould one inside other probably the hull is good you broken the mould inside...


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