Repairs advise

[don954]

I recently got a hurricane boat reeeeellly cheap, its pretty nice actually. It’s an Erickson 27. It has several bashed/torn places on the fiberglass:
I plan on repairing these places by 1st filling the inside of the areas with expanding foam, shaping the foam down & grind back the bad glass, then re-laminate the areas with 5 layers of the Biaxial-matt combined glass.
photos of the bad areas attached.

The last area is the most challenging, any suggestions are welcome, the deck cleat got ripped off and took the glass with it. the piece isn’t abv.

[PAR]

The insurance company priced out the cost of repairing this vessel, as did the owner, and marina all comparing it to the market value of the yacht. They all walked away and permitted it to be totaled out. Why?

The yard and/or the owner could have bought the boat very cheaply from the insurance company after it was declared a loss, fixed and sold it to recover their efforts. They didn't. Why?

The insurance company knows what it will take to get this boat back into service, as does the marina and now likely the owner does too. Clearly, in their opinion, the boat required more then the value could justify. Since these folks do it for a living, it's probable that they may be on to something here.

Unless you have a great deal of time, money and energy you have little else to do with, you'll not have much better luck then the pros, who look at this sort of thing all day long. In other words, it was cheap for a reason.

How many hulls have you laid up by hand before? That deck cap looks to have sheered all its flange fasteners in the general area, have you plans to reinstall them? How about the hull to deck cap bedding?

Look, there are hundreds of questions that need be answered. Do yourself a real big favor and hire a well respected surveyor to inspect this vessel, before you get in way deeper then you need to. It's very unlikely the yard, previous owner and insurance company were completely honest with you about the over all condition of this boat. They didn't need to bring in a surveyor, they've seen this before and walked away. Don't get burned any more then you need to, get this craft evaluated by a pro.

[don954]

ive hand built a Glen L Feather 11' before with great results, so im not too green with working with glass. This wasn’t really a walk away boat, there was no insurer involved, the salvage operation has 2 classes of boats, ones they strip out & don’t bother to re-title, and ones they rebuild. They were actually prepping this one for rebuild (placing it on real stands (not blocked), cleaning off the growth) when I came to talk to a friend at the yard. Since I get use of the yard, equipment, and a source of very cheap parts, I feel this can be rebuilt reasonably. I prefer the accomplishment of repairing & building things for my use than buying things off the shelf, and have carefully considered the ramifications & costs. I have made a list of all damaged items, including the mentioned fasteners.

Since there is several complex shapes to rebuild with no mold, I was seeking advise to do so, not a lecture on salvage boats and amateur builders.

Thanks for your concern, and I have found good advise and help at my local library’s boat-repair section & have purchased several books with good how-to info.

[Ssor]

Check Allan Vaitses book "Fiberglass boat repair" it has served me well. Remember contract repairers have to pay for labor. You wiil pay for material and add sweat equity. I devoted nine years to the complete refitting of a 1968 Islander 30 and don't regret a minute of the time. Some of it was the meanest work I have ever done. Laying fiberglass overhead in the vee-berth was very difficult BUT it is do able. Just don't do anything halfway, DO It RIGHT! Be patient. and good luck.
Ross in Bel Air

[don954]

Got it! I bought it over a year ago, last night i revisited it, its a dam good book!