Post-Irma : Turks Islands Beneteau repair scenario

[LowSodiumSalt]

Hi CF
We did our best to protect, as much as we could, our Beneteau 43 when we ran out of sailing time in hurricane season.
We had her hauled and strapped down from cleats to a concrete chained grid to hold her up on the hard. Got the whole family off of the Caribbean chain and waited and watched to see where Irma would go. Stripped everything we could remove before we left.

Irma just brought too much wind. Two of the 33000lb straps snapped and she rocked off of her jackstands.
Turned significantly too - in one of the attached pictures, the two red circles highlight the original chain anchor points. Counter clockwise rotate with the fall.
The mast and rigging got tangled into the boat next door, and it took a month before we could get her stood back up onto jackstands.

Now we are trying to get the ball rolling with insurance to correct.

I am finding it tricky however due to location. Florida might have made it easier - I feel like my car has broken down in the Arctic

Does anyone have any advice for getting situations like this corrected in remote locations?
Fly surveyors in? Fly a Rigger in for detailed assessment?
Return to Florida only for authorized repair shop fixes? Or band aid repair to limp back to boat markets like Ft Lauderdale
Try and tow from TCI to the US?
What if it needs a mast? I can't quite wrap my head around the shipping of something like that

It's our home, but i feel really overwhelmed and clueless as to how to "get home" and there's only so much time we can crash at relatives homes.

Adding 3 kids and a couple pets to the equation makes it all the more challenging when I'm trying to go through this for the first time
Trying to avoid "learning the hard way" wherever I can

Would appreciate any advice or tips from people who know a thing or few

[wolfgal]

Oh my... I'm moved. I've got no clue as to how you can fix your problem... If anything, I could put your family up for the month of November in Normandy, France while you figure things out. I will be there during the first week of November with my two kids, so I could explain stuff to your family before heading back to Paris. Your pets are welcome, walled garden (you'll need to get a shots update and passports for them - fly them Air france and you can keep the pets in the cabin with you, if they are small). In dieppe, everything is by foot and bicycle and train (no car required). The channel is a seven minute walk (everything is a seven minute walk). I've got bicycles of all sizes. Internet, bring a laptop. Washer, dryer. Four bedrooms, 6 to 8 people. Sailboats at the marina. Fantastic market on Saturdays. a short-term solution for your crew that could allow you to focus on fixing that car in the artic. Send me a pm if you are interested.
E

[Sailmonkey]

IMHO, load up with diesel and motorboat this thing back to miami or fort lauderdale through the bahamas.

[travellerw]

I feel bad for you... You are one of many people with this problem. I just had a conversation with a friend in BVI and its bad there too. Anyone with skills is now booked for months.

If it was me.. I would inspect the rigging myself. Then once I was confident it wouldn't fall down during a motor run, I would run to Florida.

Good luck..

[donradcliffe]

What I see of the mast and rigging don't look so bad--if you can get the boat lifted off without further damage. The rudder is an issue, but you can cut off the broken part and glass the remnants back together. The unknowns are the hull damage where it hit the ground, and if the interior is full of water. If you can get the boat put back up on jackstands, you can deal with the rudder and the hull.

If it were my boat, I'd try to source 2-3 gallons of epoxy and some glass, a grinder and a portable generator for power. Do a quick patch on the rudder and hull, then load on 200 gallons of diesel and motor to Florida.

[LowSodiumSalt]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

IMHO, load up with diesel and motorboat this thing back to miami or fort lauderdale through the bahamas.

With the wind in our face for 3 months - there was quite a bit of motoring to get to TCI
Trip would be like a rewind to get back, with waves assisting this time hopefully. Motor back has been mentioned more than once here, and is looking more like a viable option

[LowSodiumSalt]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

What I see of the mast and rigging don't look so bad--if you can get the boat lifted off without further damage. The rudder is an issue, but you can cut off the broken part and glass the remnants back together. The unknowns are the hull damage where it hit the ground, and if the interior is full of water. If you can get the boat put back up on jackstands, you can deal with the rudder and the hull.

If it were my boat, I'd try to source 2-3 gallons of epoxy and some glass, a grinder and a portable generator for power. Do a quick patch on the rudder and hull, then load on 200 gallons of diesel and motor to Florida.

We've had good news from the boat yard, that they managed to stand her back up, and the mast and rigging seem to be intact and upright*
*Based on a couple of low-fi photos, post lifting.
Also managed to avoid any jackstands spearing through the hull - still unsure on any cracking of hull, or shifting of internal structural bulkheads, or the Beneteau Grid
Glad that the water that got in should now drain down to the bilge pump

People mentioned filling up on diesel and motoring back to Florida for fixes and assessment.

I was wondering if anyone has motored a sailboat with it's mast removed?
Do they handle OK with the adjustment in weight? I would keep the rigging cables on the boat and store them below. (Especially if they are salvageable for reuse (brand new March2017))
The mast had a kink above the top most spreader when i took some photos before she was lifted (attached). I was thinking that if the mast is damaged, it might be better to remove it and replace with a newer one once back in the states?

Another important aspect of motoring back is patching the current snapped rudder blade.
Would the boat steer sufficiently, without the heeling over due to no sails, with half of its rudder blade missing and capped off?
Concerned about the engineering of all the complimenting parts.

Has anyone heard or seen of a boat being towed from TCI back to Florida?
I can't seem to find much info about tow costings online in amongst the chatter about TowUS and other towing franchises.
My insurance policy has a $5000 towing allowance built in - but i don't know if that would be enough, or what the milestone might look like, partially through the Bahamas before it could become a viable lifeline for the journey to somewhere like Ft Lauderdale

[donradcliffe]

Without the mast, the boat will have a quick roll that will be very uncomfortable in the open sea. The bend in the mast doesn't look bad enough to warrant dropping the rig in the t&c.

From the new pic of the rudder, there is enough left to motor with. First cut it off at the break. Then either grind back 8 inches on either side to bare glass and put 3 layers (mat,roving,mat) to bandaid the broken piece back on. Or just leave the stub as is till you haul in Florida. Getting the stub wet won't matter much, especially if you plan on replacing the entire rudder.

[chris14679]

If you can get her afloat then get her to Southside marina on Providenciales (assuming the marina is operational after the storm).

Bob who owns and runs the marina knows everyone in TCI and is incredibly helpful and cruiser friendly. He's happy to drive cruisers around to all the shops and services on the island. He'll help you find what you need to get her seaworthy to head back. It's downwind and short hops all the way to florida so no big deal.

Bob has a small crane which would be able to take the mast off if necessary.

There's also a serious aluminium salvage boat called "Kiwi" based at southside marina, I forget the owner's name but the guy who runs it is excellent and a knowledgeable salvage expert and engineer. Bob can put you in touch. He would be able to tow you to florida no problem (at a price) but it looks like you should be able to do it under your own power or sail if you are cautious.

good luck!

[N1774]

Before getting the boat back in the water check the keel - or preferably get a surveyor to check the keel. It's been loaded in a direction that it wasn't designed for in those photos so probably has some damage to the support matrix. Post Cheeki-Rafiki incident the recommendation is to haul boats after a "soft grounding" to check for keel matrix damage, I think it's safe to assume that falling off jack stands counts as more then a "soft grounding".

Any delamination and I would drop the keel and fix properly - you may feel otherwise depending on appetite for risk.

[sailorcherry]

No advice. Sorry for your loss. You sound like you have a solid head on your shoulders though. Good luck to you and your family.

Here is maybe a suggestion to consider in the near future. What about restarting on the West coast as your next cruising grounds? Lots of solid, nice cruising boats for sale out here in Cali and Mexico. Latitude 38 has never ending praise for cruising MX. Idk, it just seems like the Caribbean these days is best for people who totally go elsewhere safe for hurry season (like Rio Dulce or Panama) or have an inexpensive boat they can afford to loose and have liability only.

[2big2small]

This is mayor suckage, however you can certainly deal with it.

1 . Check the internal grid. If it even looks slightly detached or damaged you should unfortunately consider your boat totalled and it’s not financially worth putting any more money into it.

2. Check the hull-deck joint everywhere. If loose then you’re boat is probably totalled.

3. Saw off rudder bit and patch with fiberglass and epoxy. Check proper functioning of complete steering system. (Again, if the grid surrounding the rudder stock took too much of a hit your boat is probably totalled.)

4. Put it back in the water (assuming the hull is only slightly scratched which is what I expect) and check for water ingress anywhere but especially at the keel bolts. If there’s water coming in and you can’t get any knowledgeable workers and materials where you are then your boat would probably be considered totalled again by your insurer because of the cost of moving it, and I wouldn’t recommend you’d go to sea yourself with it either.

5. Make sure there’s no water in your fuel system and your engine works reliably.

6. Sail (yes sail) away using reduced headsail only on calm seas and switch to motoring whenever the sea becomes a little too wobbly. Since it’s mostly downwind your shorter rudder shouldn’t matter. Obviously you need to check your chainplates and stays for obvious problems on forehand. If need be as you say you can always take your mast down and motor only, but it seems like you could leave it up.

[piloto]

Sad to say, but I have experience fixing a similar rudder damage as a result of picking the wrong reef to dance with and my rudder was bent at 90 degrees-much like I see yours is. The good news is, it is repairable. Where it is bent is just below the rudder shaft on the webbed stainless plate. As long as the shaft itself is still straight and turns freely in the quadrant (simply rotate to verify, feeling for any binding), you can straighten the tang with a hydraulic press (think auto shop), cut out the offending foam surrounding the area prior to working, fill in with carving high density foam (solid-not sprayed) and reshape and build glass back to original configuration. It took me a week and a half or so, including the two and a half days running around trying to find a responsive machine shop (not-ended up going to my friends auto shop to use his press). Likely not as bad as you might think, as far as the rudder goes (at least not as bad as the Robert Redford movie-"All is lost"). Feel free to pm me and we can talk by phone of you'd like.


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[svRoundAbout]

In regards to towing costs, we looked into this for our 46' catamaran that was damaged in the BVI (our insurance has since designated CTL). The cost with Seven Seas towing was $28k to get from Tortola to Pensacola, Florida. Towing from the TCI should be less than that.

[newrigs]

Water in the fuel system, good one. Probably the most overlooked aspect after a major hurricane.
People would be amazed where wind driven water
can get into. You gave really hood info.��