[C38] Hit a ledge, hard

[Phil Gay]

I am not speaking from personal experience, but I understand, on many boats
that have experienced hard grounding, that the bottom of the boat at the aft
end of the keel takes the brunt of the damage.  On many boats this area
where the keel attaches is mostly flat and is more easily pushed up in a
grounding.  Our boats have an unusual amount of dead rise even at the keel
attachment area.  That means that the bottom is more V shaped and can
withstand those in line (non-transverse) compression loads at the back end
of the keel.  I would guess that the smile might have opened up a bit
though.

 

Phil Gay

C38 049 Que Linda

Everett, WA

 

From: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org
[mailto:listserve-bounces at catalina38.org] On Behalf Of Steven Ribble
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 5:22 PM
To: Catalina 38 Listserve
Subject: [C38] Hit a ledge, hard

 

Hi Folks, need some insight.  I tried hard to move a ledge this weekend:
from over 5 kts to dead stop & stuck...3 min, 20 sec to the start....worked
it off the ledge and started exactly on time!  Anyway, after the race I
jumped in and took a look...a bit about 1" deep and 8-12" long on the
leading edge of the fin, about a foot up from the bottom.  There also has to
be some scraping on the bottom of the keel due to working the boat off the
hard.

 

In my 32 year at the helm I have never hit anything...and was certainly
freaked out by the bang (still playing in my head 36 hours later) and that
it threw me on my butt up against the companionway boards. I was in front of
the wheel, fortunately the boards were in to keep the light rain out or I
would have been all the way down on the salon floor.  Anyway I inspected for
leaks and that the keel bolts were tight (all was good) and now have the
boat back "home" to a yard to be hauled and inspected on Tuesday.  

 

I assume that when designing a boat with a deep fin like ours there is some
thought/anticipation given to hits and groundings and that there is some
structural integrity built into the boat to compensate for same. So the
question is, Does anyone have experience with something like this and are
there things specific to our boats I should be looking at (stringers, motor
mounts, Catalina smile, etc. ...anything in the rigging?) given the type of
hit?

-- 
Steve Ribble

Tittravate
207/852-0971

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://catalina38.org/pipermail/listserve_catalina38.org/attachments/20110626/0a08ee04/attachment-0001.htm>