[C38] thanks

[S. Orton]

Hi Phil,  I repaired Santa Susanna's smile myself about six years ago, with 
no problems since.  First the history:
When I purchased the boat 10 years ago, there was no smile- I didn't know 
what a Catalina Smile was.  Two years later, on my first haulout, the yard 
set a plank under the full length of the keel and proceeded to lower the 
boat into the cradle.  The aft tip of the keel made contact first and 
deformed this section of the of the keel.  A passing yard personnel yelled 
at the hoist operator to halt showed the operator what he was doing.  As a 
neophyte, I'm just observing this whole operation, after all the yard is the 
expert.  At this point I didn't notice the fine line crack (henceforth the 
Catalina Smile) at the keel stub going a third of the way aft.  A day later 
when I did notice the crack, the yard foreman told me that all Catalina's 
have the smile and since it is a fine line crack the bottom paint will seal 
it.  The yard did check the keelbolt torque at my expense.  After the boat 
was splashed, I begin to learn about the smile and I called Catalina Co. and 
talked to the technical rep.  He said the smile only comes from incorrect 
support of the keel while on the hard.  He said to keep all support in the 
forward 1/4 of the keel bottom flat, using an approximately 6 inch plank 
crosswise.  This advice I have followed with no recurrence since.  There 
have been a few heated discussions, of my insistence to "direct" the 
placement of the keel support- like the last time I stopped the cradling, 
because the hoist operator wanted to place the support at the keel mid point 
and I had to get the yard foreman to intervene and he made me sign an 
agreement of responsibility.
The repair:  The next time I hauled (2 years later) the crack had opened up. 
First we made some fairing templates to ensure refairing is to factory 
specs.  It was quite a job removing all the damaged rotten material that was 
next to the lead keel that was black an really smelled rotten.  If I 
remember correctly some of the removed material was up to a 1/2 inch thick 
and on one side went down from the crack a good 12 inches.  After sanding 
the exposed lead bright, priming the lead,  tapering the repair edges, we 
applied lots and lots of West System Epoxy and fiberglas cloth to bring the 
outer surface back to the original faired surface.  We did not loosen the 
keel bolts as I didn't want to propagate the crack.  The repair only covered 
the cracked area- about 1/2 way aft on both sides.  As I said previously we 
have now gone for 6 years with no sign of stub interface cracking.  From an 
engineers standpoint the stub to keel structural interface relies on both 
the keel bolts and the fiberglas fairing.  A flexible interface will not 
work.  I wouldn't want to leave the smile unrepaired as the salt water will 
eventually work it's way down delaminating the keel enclosure.
One skipper's experience, Steve O (Santa Susanna)
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Gay" <eyriepg at comcast.net>
To: <rw at idea-asylum.com>; "'Catalina 38 Listserve'" 
<listserve at catalina38.org>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 7:13 AM
Subject: Re: [C38] thanks


>I am curious about Cabrillo's approach to fixing the "smile."  I have had
> estimates here in the Northwest that varied.  Some suggested dropping the
> keel and epoxying or 5200ing it back, others wanted to just fiberglass in
> the keel stub to keel joint, while others suggested either sealing it with 
> a
> weaker more flexible polysulfide sealant.  I wonder if any one of these
> works better.
>
> Phil Gay
> C38 049 Que Linda
> Everett, WA
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org
> [mailto:listserve-bounces at catalina38.org] On Behalf Of Rich West
> Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 5:19 AM
> To: Rod and Patti Headlee; Catalina 38 Listserve
> Subject: Re: [C38] thanks
>
> I had Don at cabrillo fix my catalina smile also.  It's been 3 years and 
> it
> still looks good.
>
> Rich, Legacy, #360, Los Angeles
>
> ------Original Message------
> From: Rod and Patti Headlee
> Sender: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org
> To: Catalina 38 Mailing list
> ReplyTo: Rod and Patti Headlee
> ReplyTo: Catalina 38 Listserve
> Sent: Jan 19, 2009 4:42 AM
> Subject: [C38] thanks
>
> Thanks for the tips Charles and Rich.
>
> We are going to level it tomorrow. The stands are on concrete and they are
> going to build a cradle under her and chain her down. We had the smile
> fiberglassed over 3 years ago and torqued the keel bolts, everything looks
> good. We had it done in Long Beach at the Cabrillo Boatshop, they are
> familiar with the C-38 if anyone else needs it done.
>
> Rod
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Listserve mailing list
> Listserve at catalina38.org
> http://catalina38.org/mailman/listinfo/listserve_catalina38.org
>
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry
>
> _______________________________________________
> Listserve mailing list
> Listserve at catalina38.org
> http://catalina38.org/mailman/listinfo/listserve_catalina38.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Listserve mailing list
> Listserve at catalina38.org
> http://catalina38.org/mailman/listinfo/listserve_catalina38.org