I hauled my P-18 to my in-laws this last weekend to planning to essentially bob and bake in the hot Louisiana sun with winds predicted to be between 1 and 3 mph. These expectations were met on Friday and between the light wind and the constant wakes of the passing boats I went nowhere fast.

Early Saturday morning I awoke to find a decent morning breeze (7-10 mph). I grabbed the only crew I could find who incidentally had never set foot on a sailboat before and set sail. Shortly there after I achieved a first for my mew boat. I got her to fly a hull. I was immediately addicted! After a short time sailing with what appeared to be ever decreasing wind we decided to return home. When we arrived the breeze freshened and instead of beaching the boat I simply exchanged crews for one equally as green and departed again just to sail in the cove in front of the house. All went fine until when as I went to come about my crew decided to join me accidental in the aft corner just as the tack was completed and the sails filled. Just an FYI with almost 550 pounds on the downwind aft corner of the tramp your catamaran will overturn. I managed to get the sails uncleated and was able to roll the boat by myself. Unfortunately my main sheet was fouled with my hiking stick and as soon as the boat righted it capsized again with the opposite hull down much to the amusement of the audience on the beach. We managed to get the lines unfouled and got the boat righted. made a few more tacks and took her in. Out of habit I pulled the plugs when we beached and had what appeared to be a couple of gallons of water drain from the port hull which had been submerged during the capsize and had a seal that wasn't seated properly in the inspection port. Replaced the seal and the plugs and returned to the water with the third different green crew.
This new crew informed me that they just wanted to ride so I attempted to oblige them and discovered that I was able to solo my new rig under all her sail in relatively light conditions. We broke out of the home cove and onto the main lake and and the wind shifted on us immediately. It went from 3-5 mph to a reported 12-15 but it seemed a lot faster than that at the time. We made several beam reach runs across the lake and back and were able to fly each of the hulls several times. On one starbord beam reach we managed to dig the port hull into a set of large wakes and nearly pitchpoled the boat but were able to recover by climbing up and back. We made two more trips across the lake and back (small lake ) and then just after coming about onto a port tacking beam reach we heard a very loud bang from the aft section of the port hull. I immediately depowered and checked on the rudder (still locked down) and felt along the hulls to see if we had hit something submerged loud enough to bang but not hard enough to feel. we completed this reach across the lake and deciding to go in for food began a starboard tacked close reach. Nearing the shore line we prepared to come about to get a better angle into the cove and when we went to shift to the port side of the tramp it sank like a lead balloon. We immediately attempted to tack back to starboard in order to reach the nearest shore but to no avail. We had taken on to much water and were going nowhere fast. We flagged down a passing party barge and sent them to the house to alert the rest of our party to bring the ski boat and tow us back in. When we reached the beach we were able to heave the boat up onto the sea wall and pull the plugs. The Port hull was draining so much water so fast we had to put the plug back in in order to reduce the suction so we could remove the inspection port cover. After she had drained the source of the problem was found. The bang we heard earlier was apparently the starboard aft portion of the port hull deck cracking from the hull. Damage is visible for at least 4 feet starting at the aft face moving forward. I will post pictures of the damage later if possible.

I am still trying to figure out what caused this damage to the upwind hull in relatively light conditions. Any thoughts or ideas?

So after just getting a taste of what this is all about I have been put out of commission for the rest of the year. I just hope the Christmas bonus is enough to pay for the repairs or hull replacement.

If anyone out there has a set of solid P 18 hulls they are willing to part with cheap I will gladly take them off your hands. Otherwise I am looking for a good fiberglass shop in Arkansas or nearby adjacent states so please let me know if anyone has any recommendations.

Glad you got to fly a hull. Sorry the hull couldn't take it.

There are a couple of easy ways to prevent the boat from flipping over you while righting it...easiest is probably just to hold onto the dolphin striker as the boat lands on the water.

It sounds like the seam between the hull and deck lid just broke under the weight of you and crew when you shifted your weight over it.

You might wanna throw some pics on picasa or something similar and put up a link.

--
Rob
OKC
Pile of Nacra parts..
--

yurdle

There are a couple of easy ways to prevent the boat from flipping over you while righting it...easiest is probably just to hold onto the dolphin striker as the boat lands on the water.

I tried and missed completely the first time. Actually I was surprised by how quick it righted and wasn't properly prepared

yurdle

It sounds like the seam between the hull and deck lid just broke under the weight of you and crew when you shifted your weight over it.

At that time of the pop which had to have been the failure my crew (guessing 120 lbs) was sitting on touching the front cross bar and I (250 lbs) was on the inspection port. Well forward of the area that broke. Far more weight has been applied to the other hull while sitting on the beach for a photo op. I have a hard time seeing this as damage caused by load alone.

I hope to put up pics tonight.






edited by: Rider_55, Jul 06, 2009 - 04:05 PM

up on the left side of this webpage, under catamarans for sale, there is a Prindle 18 for sale by sdbaymer out of Port Alto Texas, you might want to check with him to see if he has sold his P18 yet.

--
TurboHobo
H14T
H16
P18
G-Cat 5.0
P16
--

I just checked, he had it listed on e-bay, it's sold, bummers.

--
TurboHobo
H14T
H16
P18
G-Cat 5.0
P16
--

Easy fix. Take mast & rudders off and flip boat upside down in your drive/yard after all water drained out. Let sit for 2-3 days to dry out. Obtain quart west epoxy, 1/2 pt hardener plus pumps from Murrays. Obtain plastic syringes & 2" cloth from West Marine. Use screw driver to open hull deck seal & inject epoxy into seal, clamping every 3". Wipe off excess. Next day paint epoxy over hull/deck seal & lay on 1-2 layers 2" cloth. Might help to clamp in waxed dowel in lip groove. Next day remove dowel & sand edge of lip fair.

Pictures of the damage from Photobucket








edited by: Rider_55, Jul 06, 2009 - 10:46 PM

Oh ya you can fix that. i use resin but i use the fiberglass matting instead of cloth, thats just how ive always done it. give it a shot if it doesnt work well your out 10 bucks. but if it does work then you saved a bunch of $$$

That is such a bizarre failure! Is that not a hull replacement issue? I can't imagine that any repair is going to hold given the stresses. Am I wrong? How will you pull the hull back to the deck flange? or.. do you just fill the gap and glass over?

lawrencer2003

That is such a bizarre failure! Is that not a hull replacement issue? I can't imagine that any repair is going to hold given the stresses. Am I wrong? How will you pull the hull back to the deck flange? or.. do you just fill the gap and glass over?

I really hope it is not a replacement issue. I can't imagine finding a spare set of 27 year old hulls laying around. The pictures are somewhat deceiving the seperation is almost purely vertical not horizontal. The large area in the third picture is actually a layer of glass mat that has pulled out but the crack is not nearly that wide. I think a couple of ratchet straps around the hull will pull everything tight

Pull it with ratchet straps like you said and prep it real good sand it and ruff it up i use a wire brush then lay your fiberglass. if done right it could be stronger than before.

I had the same issue with my H18M about 2 years ago. I presumed it separated because of the added stress from the wings, but fix could be the same.

I cut a 4" port hole opening in the deck behind the rear cross bar, at a length that allowed my arm to reach the area to repair. I put 4-6 layers of glass down over the crack, mine crack was 10-12" long and I glassed a couple inches past that. I also went down the side and up onto the inside of the deck a few inches. I also put 2 layers on the outside down in the lip under the deck. I had to be careful to leave space for the cross bar mounting hardware. I worked on it over about a weeks time. But it would spend an hour sanding, cleaning, adding glass cloth, then wait 6 hours until dry, then repeat. Really not that bad a repair, used West System Epoxy which is great to work with.

If you try this method the tricky part is you are working on the inside with no visibility, just working by feel alone. I found obstetric gloves at a farm supply store are very helpful. They are disposible full arm length gloves, they would keep the epoxy off your arms while working inside the hull. I would then put a nitrile glove over it on my hand to have a tighter fitting glove so you could feel what you are doing better.

I found the 4" contoured ports at Murray's worked well for my hulls deck shape.

--
Scott,
‘92 H18 w/SX wings
‘95 Hobie Funseeker 12 (Holder 12)
‘96/‘01/‘14 Hobie Waves
--

Rider_55

Pictures of the damage from Photobucket




edited by: Rider_55, Jul 06, 2009 - 10:46 PM

After seeing these photos, I really think it's no big deal. I wouldn't pay someone to do the repair, it's something you can easily do on your own.

I wouldn't bother buying a replacement hull. At least you know what's wrong with this one already.

I suspect that the deck to hull joint on your cat is probably kept together like mine, with just generous amounts of permanent adhesive (like 3M 5200). I couldn't find any mechanical fasteners or glass bonding of any sort on my cat...purely adhesive.

If it were me I would clean up that area well and degrease, then apply a good amount of 5200 to the joint. Use straps to tighten the deck back down onto the hull well (make sure you see some squeeze out). You may need a lot of force to get things to go back into place correctly for a proper fit, so it may take several ratcheting type straps to get the job done?

For good measure you can fit a port behind the rear beam from which you can then glass the deck and hull together. That would make the bond extremely strong. The port is a nice add-on since it allows for future inspection.

You should be back out on the water in no time!

Dan

I would recommend more then just the 3M 5200 adhesive. According to the 3M website it stays flexible and waterproof. I don't think you want this repair to stay flexible. I think this should really be a structural repair for the boat. There must be fairly strong forces working at that point in the hull in order for it to crack there like it did. The adhesive might be a good addition to the outside once you have used epoxy and cloth on the inside of the hulls. The fiberglass cloth adds the structural strength when used with the epoxy.

The West system epoxy is really easy to work with when you have the self metering pumps. A simple 1 to 1 ratio of pumps and then mix. The stuff cures as hard as a rock but is workable for the first 15-20 minutes if you get the fast cure hardener, and cured in a few hours.

--
Scott,
‘92 H18 w/SX wings
‘95 Hobie Funseeker 12 (Holder 12)
‘96/‘01/‘14 Hobie Waves
--