1960's skimcraft, cracked the skeg on the maiden voyage?

[Dansteele]

Evening all,

Picked up this 1960's skimcraft a month or so ago


after mostly engine work, I took her out yesterday, unfortunately today, whilst cleaning her I discovered the following on the (what I believe is) skeg


Cracks in the coating on the hull start about 3ft from bow

About 2ft from
Transom there is this, I'm assuming it's a weak point where a screw affixes it to hull


So, I have a few questions
1) any idea of the cause? The condition of the rest of the hull for a boat of the era is nothing short of miraculous
2) am I right in saying this would have been affixes on top of hull, so if i find the old screw holes removal and replacement should be possible (Id say my carpentry skills are much above that of your average diyer)
3) would is be really unadvisable to run the boat like this for the rest of the summer withou at least an attempt at a repair patch (I'm planning some major refinishing works over the winter)


One of my concerns at present is water entering between the ply hull and coating and sitting there causing detioration etc.

Regards

Dan

[floater]

Dan welcome to the forum and sorry to hear you have encountered problems so soon. I would have expected there to be an inner keel along with the outer one that sandwiches the hull skins. I have a Yarecraft built this way although the hull is cold moulded rather than sheet ply. With my boat, water had been seeping in through a crack between the outer keel and the hull causing rot inside, this only came to light after the leak got worse and I set about investigating. The rot was inside the surrounding wood so was not easily spotted from surface inspection. See this thread viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4183 part of your problem may be the way that the hull is supported on the trailer, it's best to give the hull as much support as possible like on bunks.
I would try to effect some sort of repair and hull sealing before using the boat again to prevent further damage and enlarging the problem / repair task

All the best

[Rapier]

Hi, doesn't look good and I'd not use it until you've repaired it . The problem with old plywood boats is they are often over 50 years old, with old style 'boiled hoof' glues and mild steel fastenings. Most were not designed or built to last for ever either. Glues dry out and biodegrade and the screws end up looking like toothpicks, with as much holding power. This is fine if you plan using it for slow river trips, but thrash it around with a 50hp motor and the hull soon shows up these deficiencies. We've a few CMBA people here who've avoided a sinking in the nick of time, and others who've had to beach, or sink their boats in shallow water, to recover later. The good news is once repaired you'll know and trust it on the water (with your family onboard..) for many years.

[sean-nós]

On your last photo a few inches out from the keel there looks to be a faint line caused by fiberglass repair that was not sanded down so it might have been a bad repair in the first place. Try cutting along the keel with a multi tool and I'd say it will just fall off then just copy the shape and replace. It might be worth looking at getting bunks for your trailer or adding extra rollers for the keel to sit on to help spread the weight.

[Dansteele]

Evening all,

Many thanks for your replies. There is a chance the damage happened when recovering her from the water, the swell had picked up and the boat was being pushed sideways on the trailer, there's a possibility the skeg caught on the middle support that's missing the rubbed block. Not disheartened at all, maintenance and repair is all part of the fun of owning things for me!

Or being sat for 4 years without this support weakened the bond to the hull. It's something I am going to address.

In the mean time, I think I'm going to sand back the coating on the hull where it is cracked until I reach a point where it still has a good bond and start here as the point to feather back in from.

I've got use of, but not the biggest fan of those sideways cutting tools, I'm going to try and remove the screws that hold it in place and then carefully cut out the damaged section with a tenon saw so I can let a new piece in.

The boat appears to have been constructed to a high standard, all bronze/copper fastenings so hopefully no corroded steel fastenings here. There is a double thickness/laminated inner keel about 4 inches wide. I'll start another thread about the boat when I've got the opportunity for a few more photos.

I think what looks like a poorly sanded fiberglass repair is just a trick of the camera, everything is completely smooth apart from a few brush strokes from the application of the finish on the hull.

Now a couple of questions,
1) I have good access to white or English oak and sapele, would there be any preference on choice of wood?
2) what would be the best paint type of paint to feather the repair back in with? I'm more used to shellac and french polishing than painting wood (let alone marine grade finishes) I imagine in was originally done in a 2 part paint?


I've ordered flotation bags just in case and for peace of mind in the future, I've seen the RNlI video of a rather similar craft heading for he bottom of the Thames near to London bridge! A 156 litre bow bag and a couple for infront of the transom ought to help a bit.

50hp is definitely fun on the back of her, acceleration is incredible, I may have a couple of merc 350's purchased from puddleduck (Chris) on here, just in case I ever start feeling really brave!

Dan

[haventaclue]

Maybe the lack of suspension on the trailer might have contributed to your problem,did you happen to hit a pothole or bump fairly hard while towing?

[Dansteele]

Trailer has indespension although a little tricky to see in the photo.

[haventaclue]

Ah,can't see that,must get new glasses