Crane Dropped My O'day 39

[zeehag]

in a few months to years time you will notiv=ce cracked bulkheads and bulkhead tabs lifting. you may also find othe r issues. yes even from a foot drop. bam means bad and massive., survey so you know what is broken before it fails when youy need it most.
each action has an equal and opposite re action. donot only look on side that hit ground for damages.

[tsl]

Originally Posted by zeehag

in a few months to years time you will notiv=ce cracked bulkheads and bulkhead tabs lifting. you may also find othe r issues. yes even from a foot drop. bam means bad and massive., survey so you know what is broken before it fails when youy need it most.
each action has an equal and opposite re action. donot only look on side that hit ground for damages.

Threads this long are difficult to follow and read, more so on smartphones and smaller screens. So let me summarize.
The event happened 7 years ago. It was in the backyard of a fiberglass/composite fabricator that not only designs and builds boats but developed and manufactured the front end of the mine-resistant trucks used in Afghanistan. Yes, a good portion of the trucks were fiberglass. (another story) Anyway, I had excellent advice from the engineers. As I mentioned, I could have claimed a complete loss and the crane company would have taken it. At the time, I thought the total claim of $13,000 $2,000 for blasting the hull and $11,000 for toerail damage was fine with me. Since then, I found the exact match for the toe rail /rubrail saving about $9,000 and discovered that the cutlass bearing was badly oblonged indicating that the shaft was bent for some time. Therefore I put the money into completely rebuilding the drivetrain with a new transmission, new drive shaft, PSS dripless seal, new engine mounts and hoses, cutlass bearing, and propeller. I also purchased and installed a new windlass, new force ten three burner stove, new dingy and used 5 hp merc four-stroke and completely refinished the interior including every bulkhead (no cracks or separation anywhere). I was confident enough to sail her across Lake Superior north to south and then east to west. I have sailed the boat over 1,000 miles in the 7 years since the incident. I just thought I owed the community an end to this thread.
Looking back, I can't be sure how far it dropped or if it dropped at all. The air ride trailer had a huge travel in the suspension and pads under each bulkhead the drop may have simply taken the travel of the suspension. The operator was young and made a huge miscalculation. The strapping used to hold the spreader bar could not have lifted the entire weight of the boat and that is of course now proven. On top of that, the spreader bar had a sharp edge that cut the strap. So the question was, did it take time to cut through or did it cut thru as the load was applied. We don't know, All I know is that the boat is fine. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions