knows him they can pass on this thread as i would expect a reply from him.
I have posted these pictures now so everybody can understand why i want to speak with him.
I have hundreds of pictures showing voids all over the
boat, but i have shown the worst in the hope that this may draw some attention. As you can see, the worst void is actually on the back of the port
keel and it ended up being a 1 inch diameter hole. The fact with the voids is there is no hiding it, its simply poor lay up, the amount of dry glass matt i came over was actually surprising! But however bad it looks, it was repairable, and i have repaired it.
Now, believe it or not, the voids are not the issue!!!! I wish to know more about my keels.
To try and keep the story short, i had the boat surveyed and knew about most of the voids. But the interesting thing was the port
keel, it was bowed. I have since put 5 square meters off cloth and
epoxy on, as well as
epoxy filler to take the bow out. I still have not completely got rid of it but its loads better than what it was.
As you can see from one of the pics, the keels look like they have an add on at the bottom, this add on actually covers all leading edges on the keel (back, bottom, front) which vastly increases surface area of the keel.
Now i have had so many theories to why this has happened. Grounding? Drug smuggling (the
water tanks are glassed into the keels but there is space below each tank to do such a thing!)? Experimentation? Who knows.
Both keels are identical with this strange add on. I have not dismissed grounding, but in all fairness if that was the case, i would expect lots more damage than just both the keels bottoms coming off. There is no evidence that the
hull has been damaged from the outside or inside. Not even any sign of damage where the keel is moulded to the
hull.
Experimentation sounds good to me, or poor performance, only 3 were built (as far as i can tell) so its hard to compare to others!
Anyway, this is by no means a dig at Peter Dean, this is just a plea for some answers to a few questions i have.
I bought this Dean 380 as its huge inside, it weighs 9 tons and is a big old lady. I will be setting off around the world with my
family in the next few years and i bought the boat for that very reason.
Peter, if your reading this, please get in touch!
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