is my boat safe for ocean crossing, one design schock

[marto]

I realy like my boat , and how it sail, so I decided taht I want to do some ocean sailing.
It is a 1974 santana 30 I believe waht schock call's one design like the santana 35.
I already have restored the vesel (finishing repowering right now) and planing to reiforce the rigging and sails for some ocean fun.
I would like to know how strong my hull is with a 5'2 draft and a fiverglass encapsulated lead keel with seven bolts.
Ok I'm very confident of my boat , but how it will handle a knock down is somthing I will yet haven't found.
Ok firs of all the attachment of the keel would be strong enough and the attachments are well distributed to the hull to handle the stress.
thanks
Martin

[marto]

some pics of the sailboat , take a look to the keel wing shaped, the boat sail extremely good upwind.
maybe thats also related to the flex mast.

[marto]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40367953@N00/294231057/

[Mikey]

One exposed area that often is left out is the rudder. Looking at the pictures, I'd say that you would have problems there before with the attachment of the keel - Nice boat

Mikey

[rayk]

Go for it marto.
You did good work, have confidence and still plan to replace/maintain old items. And you have a curiosity about what conditions you might face.

Your psychology is fit for sea more than anything else.
I think you are ready to test the boat, and evaluate and learn about it yourself.

What kind of first passage do you have in mind?

sincerely

rayk

[marto]

thanks rayk
I see Mike, are you talking about my rudder not having a skegh.
I will check the diameter of the rudder post and its gauge and post it.
also I have noticed a one inch rust crack blidding one foot down the rudder.
time to take it down and rpair it , any advise of waht to do, waht I know is rip it, check the steel weld and patch.
any sugestions on waht is need for rough weather.
I'm building a wind vane self steering system with plans i found in http://uk.geocities.com/faymarine@bt...e_yacht_pl.htm
fay marine yatch plans very interesting website, and I making one with stailess still a welding (will be fun)
I asume 316 stainless is standard, wath should i, use two inch outside diameter 1/8 gauge would be strong anough.
I going for AUXILIARY RUDDER WITH TRIM TAB and I'm doubing about fiberglass or stailess sheet for the rudder of the vane.
going back to the main rudder I was going around the rudder axel suppot and for some reason I thought it was separated by by a epoxy ed plywood making a self contained compatiment , is taht wall betwen the engine and the rudder colum for watertight the rudder leaks or structural, now i believe it is both but more structural, the colum were the rudder axel travel trough till the tiller is made of fiberglass ,looks very strong to me, but may be it need to be reinforcer even more?
i'll try to post some pics.

[Seafarer24]

Check out the Cape Horn self-steering wind vane. You'd lose the fun of building it yourself, but I really like the style of this one.

[marto]

Oo ya , 3500, it cost more them my boat.
lets put things right, I bought my boat for $1000 and have spent on it around 3500. I have done everithing myself, electrical ,carpetry, fiverglass (few parts of the deck, rotten core), paint , rigging, and running rigging, I have desing it from a racer to single handle, change the engine.
I'm not rich more in the poor side.
so I'm building my self steering , thats wy i need some help with the structurals of it clase of tube gauge, how long the vane rudder , materials etc.
another quest is about the mast and reinforcing the rigging ( I have a flex mast thiner on the top and a rail with poley system atach to a wire that goes to the half of the mast it is to bent the mast and get more pointing ability so it would be complicated to reinforce the rigging without stifen the hole system, I have ork around it and came out with a reinforcement that will be used just in very rough weather.
so I'm working around having safety and still sailing a racer.
wish me luck.
welcome to team you boat designers and one self the builder,
and enjoy and learn in the proccess as I do.
Thanks for the tip, I believe I can take some ideas from it.

[gonzo]

If you want to see what your boat does in a knockdown, including how all the stored crap will behave as it falls around, do an experiment. Get a line to the mast, tie it to a dock or other secure place and winch the boat down. It will also show you if in a knockdown the boat floods through the companionway or any other place.

[CT 249]

There's a lot of load involved in doing that. My boat, a much lighter half tonner, had 500kg or more trying to pull it down. It doesn't seem to be the sort of thing to take on lightly.

[RHough]

Originally Posted by CT 249

There's a lot of load involved in doing that. My boat, a much lighter half tonner, had 500kg or more trying to pull it down. It doesn't seem to be the sort of thing to take on lightly.

Yeah, but they talk about it for months after ... you get to be "that guy that tried to tip his boat over in the marina" ...

and all I was doing was going to 25 deg to check rig tension ...

[Buc]

The boat was built thirty-plus years ago. If the keel is still attached and no sign of corrosion in the visible end of the bolts and no seepage between the hull and keel join, it shouldn't be a problem.

The weakness of spade rudders has been overemphasized. Properly designed and built, they'll go anywhere and last nearly forever. How many Cal 40s have done the Transpac without difficulty? That said, an emergency rudder is never a bad idea. The self steering should do this job as well.

The 30 was a competitive boat in her day and they've held up remarkably well. Have at it!

[Mychael]

Digressing off the thread a bit. As spade rudders have been mentioned, I have a question about them.
My boat has a spade rudder and I was wondering if it were feasible to change it to a skeg design?

Mychael

[benmww]

That's a pretty major reconstruction
it's possible that you'll have to increase the area, then shaft size.
there is quite alot of other stuff but it'd would hurt to talk to the designer or a designer who has some plans of the design of your boat

[Mikey]

The boat would benefit from a skeg yes, I am not necessarily saying that it must have one. That depends on how sturdy your current setup is. Adding a skeg would be quite a job, don't underestimate the time it would take.

Nethertheless, keep in mind that when surveying boats that have run into problems, the rudder is one of the more common areas that fail. If anything happens, then it will happen with the rig or the rudder, most likely.

Mikey