Boats For Sale:
Stress Cracks |
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DenDen 
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Joined: July-20-2023 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 204 |
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 Topic: Stress CracksPosted: August-30-2023 at 6:07am |
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Just got a 75 Southwind 18.
Before proceeding any further on restoration. I want to know if hull is going to be salvageable. I’m planning on complete stringer floor replacement. Has many cracks above water line only about 6” up. The rest in fine. Also cracked below water line. I know pictures are going to have to be posted. I’m hoping someone will step outside the forum and take a look. I am new to forums so not very capable on this one. HELP! |
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andrewmarani
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Joined: May-31-2005 Location: Baltimore, MD Status: Offline Points: 249 |
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Posted: September-19-2023 at 6:30pm |
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the picture upload works again.
Do not use the quick reply. Have the pictures you want to upload on your desktop, Click on Post Reply, write your description, hit return to get the curser below the words you just wrote by a space or two. Click choose file, click on the picture you want, then click Upload on the box that shows up. that box will go away, now click Upload on the Image Properties box that was there before. the picture will show up to the right in the Preview. Click ok. Then if your post is good, click post reply. Sounds like a lot but once you do it twice it's quick and fairly simple. If you make a mistake, slightly change the picture name before trying again. you can't use the same name twice. Might be some way to delete the old names in the File Name box but I never found it. Cracks in the gel coat are a giant pain. I've fixed small ones by grinding out with a Dremel and filling with gel coat, some came back, some didn't. I would not want to do a lot that way, would take forever and might not work. Someone on here will have a better idea, probably involving an expensive paint or a regelcoat.
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KENO
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Joined: June-06-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 11125 |
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Posted: September-19-2023 at 6:58pm |
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He figured out how to post pictures in a different thread
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andrewmarani
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Posted: September-19-2023 at 7:09pm |
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I sold the Whaler Rage 15 with the stress cracks this spring but the Silver has a couple of small ones I would love to fix. Did anyone give him a solution?
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KENO
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Posted: September-19-2023 at 7:12pm |
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No, but a search here on CCF for "stress cracks" will turn up some solutions.........none of em' easy fixes.
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DenDen
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 5:28am |
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I searched that and learned a lot. Thanks, Ken.
However, some of it was conflicting. I will continue to search for more info on the subject. But it’s looking like my stress cracks are not structural. |
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DenDen
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 5:29am |
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I will post pictures soon
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DenDen
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 6:23am |
    
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andrewmarani
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 8:35am |
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Odd how they are all at or below the water line.
The ones around the exhaust were started by the screws. You need to oversize the part of the screw hole that goes through the gelcoat or you get stress cracks. Learned that the hard way. Surprised that they grew that long however.
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DenDen
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 9:01am |
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Now that you pointed out, looks fairly obvious. Thanks. What do you think will happen in the future if I do nothing but possibly wet, sand and polish?
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andrewmarani
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 9:17am |
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Don't really know. Could be ongoing and they grow or it could be something the past owner did that caused them. Some of your stress cracks look like they are delaminating around the crack, seems like the type of thing that would get worse...
I had a Whaler Rage 15 with a few minor stress cracks. I ground them out with a dremel tool, filled them with a matching gelcoat and wet sanded smooth. Most stayed gone but a few came back. The Rage 15 had large decals on the sides that were faded and damaged, figured the boat would look better with them gone. Had them removed and under the decals were stress cracks similar, though tighter and not so many, to what you see on the side of your boat. figured the decals caused them somehow, I just waxed over them and moved on.
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DenDen
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 9:43am |
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For now I’m just going to proceed to the inside repair. Got a new tach so I will install that and go for a ride in the next couple of days.
Also, checked the timing. Found it to be way advanced. Going to post a couple pictures of exploration under the floor. Only found moisture about a half inch up from the hull. As I wondered, if possibly the cracks are from moisture on the inside and freezing and thawing the boat. Not much moisture though. As I expected the foam to be completely soaked.      The holes are under the front seat. The last picture is the foam at the bottom. Certainly not damp enough to ring out as I saw on another post. So maybe the old girl is not as wet as I had anticipated |
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andrewmarani
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 10:06am |
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Fixing stringers and replacing wet foam is a huge job, one I'm in the middle of now. 11 months and counting. . Wet foam is gross and adds some weight but I don't think it hurts anything except the stringers, which often become rotten. Total weight of wet foam I removed was 155 lbs. guessing the water was maybe 100 of those lbs.
You can usually get into the side of the main stringers in the engine compartment and in the removable panel over the shaft and exhaust hoses. Drill a couple of holes with a 1" or 1 1/2" hole saw through the fiberglass in the side of the stringer and see what the stringers look like in a couple of places. Patching those holes is pretty easy with some glass and epoxy afterwards.
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KENO
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Posted: September-20-2023 at 8:18pm |
I guess you could say that CC's gelcoat wasn't the best. Some people say it was too thick, others will tell you that it absorbs a small amount of water and if left in the water for long periods of time you get the stress cracks below the waterline because of this. Some CC boats are more susceptible than others for whatever reason. Gelcoat improved over the years but in the 70's and before, stress cracks were pretty common. Just tell yourself that they're like the wrinkles on your face as you get older, otherwise you spend a lot of time and money grinding all the gelcoat off and redoing it.
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JoeinNY
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Posted: September-22-2023 at 9:53am |
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100 Percent agree with Ken - if you get the wet foam out and have stringers- either old or new that are decent then the stress cracking in the gel isn’t going to be a structural issue. If the boat is polished and waxed they are barely noticeable and unlikely to get worse. I have been running this boat around like a millionaire for the last 8 years and it has some of the worst gel cracking you could imagine- the boat has a lot of friends and no one comments on her character lines.
  
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DenDen wrote: