"I'm Sorry, But I Have Bad News......"

[capngeo]

A buddy of mine asked me to look at his boat because his shrouds were loose in site of being at the mechanical limit of the turnbuckles..

"I'm sorry Tom, but I have bad news..... Your bulkhead is so rotten, the bolts pulled out. The only thing that kept you from losing the rig was the bolts not going through the deck."

Today was the first day of his vacation.... :-(

[Coops]

You are a mean person, you should have lied to him and said it will be ok. He might have got a couple of good days in.

Is the boat worth doing the repairs? Gotta feel sorry for him.

Coops.

[bewitched]

ouch!

A sailmaker friend of mine tells a similar story. He got a call from an owner who he had just supplied with a new genoa. The owner wanted him to reposition the clew because he couldn't sheet in hard enough without the clew going into the car.

To cut a long story short, there was nothing wrong with the sail, but the hull/ deck joint on the boat had failed and the tension in the genoa sheet was pulling the bow back towards the mast.

[Ocean Girl]

Bummer

[gjordan]

I went out fishing on a co-workers small power boat one time under the Golden Gate bridge. He was bragging about how tight his hull was becouse he kept it wet all winter by letting a little rain water sit in it. When we got back to the dock I asked to lift the floorboards and sure enough, there was not just rot, but the ribs were actually gone for the bottom 12 inches or so. The only thing holding the boat together was the caulking. He teased me for years that there was no rot on his boat until I got onboard. He ended up chain sawing it up and taking it to the dump. A bag of rocksalt would have prevented this waste of a nice boat.____Grant.

[markpierce]

Too bad it wasn't a classic where it would be worthwhile to rebuild almost from scratch.

[capngeo]

Well.... Today we cut out the entire port bulkhead.... Pix tomorrow

[dandrews]

Makes me appreciate that my chainplates are attached to very well glassed knees that are very easy to inspect. Noting attached to any bulkheads except chart table.

Don