So last October I spied a Tool A-class on a salvage auction site. Bought it online and went to go pick it up. Once we got there, it was apparent that it had been hit pretty hard. On the way home we spent much time pondering options to unload the boat minimizing losses.
After some good thought, I decided to pull the trigger on a bunch of carbon and epoxy and have at it. The first order of business was re-attaching the starboard hull. Which began by grinding back all of the damaged material.
After spending lots and lots of time lining up the hull (not many points to measure from) I place a temporary layer of carbon around it. This was simply to hold everything in place while I repaired from the inside. I had to cut out a section of deck to work in here.
Once it was held together well, I spread a solid layer of cabosil/epoxy to replace the missing core.
After that a 6" tape of 5oz carbon was put in.
Did not take any pictures here, but I built a shelf to re-attach the removed deck. Plenty of cabosil used to install it back.
At that point the original layer of carbon on the outside was ground off. Some touch up was required to the core, and I did some tapering. The new layer of carbon went in under vacuum and was faired.
At this point I turned my attention to the other hull, which had a sizable hole.
I had to cut another hole though the deck to access the backside of both areas. Because the damage was so extensive, I bought some core cell foam for the core.
I again started from the inside. I used some sheet metal to help give something to hold the shaping.
Carbon was then installed under vacuum again on the outside. It took quite a lot to fair this in (obviously not completed in this picture)
The entire boat was gone over with additional small repairs, at some point I had to draw the line and loaded it up to take to a friends house.
This was my wife's Christmas present (she had been out of town this entire time) so we decided to give it a wrap in purple. It had quite a bit of metal flake in it.
The wrap took the two of us a solid day to complete, but the results were worth it. I then started on the decking foam. I made a paperboard template and the foam was cut using that as a guide. Installing the foam itself was a little tricky as the glue is quite aggressive.
The repairs completed, it was looking good. Saved a boat from the dump!
I've since painted the rear beam as well as install the tramp and order new rigging for it. It should be on the water in may.
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Greenville SC
Offering sails and other go fast parts for A-class catamarans
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