[quote=dmgbear55]There are several issues going on here. None in my opinion are all that serious, but they do need to be repaired. To a point the bent/collapsed beam ends aren't that big of a deal, but it does mean that the the compression from the beam straps is seriously messed up as evidenced by the damage on the inside of the hull where the strap from the DS as crushed into the hull.
While it is possible that some kind of impact caused this damage, I would suspect that the torque on the beam straps was far from the desired value. Again there are some good historians out there with what these torque values should be, or there will be a thread explaining them (I just don't remember them right now, but they are extremely important to achieve and maintain).
You need to track down a new main beam, with or without the rest of the DS assembly depending on what all you want to save or scrap. I can think of no viable way to restore the beam ends to the required round shape (but a machinist may have some ideas)( but since there a fair number of parts boats out there finding a new beam should not be that tough, or expensive to do). The end caps would have had little effect on this beam collapse, even if they had been in place.
The hull issues are pretty easy to fix with epoxy and glass. You will need to replace the main beam straps, they very likely have been stretched, or more likely the holes for the bolts are very egg shaped, which would make them bottom out before they attained the needed tension. Don't try to reuse these beam straps, they caused, contributed or were damaged when the failure took place.
I suspect that beyond what you can see in these images there are some significant cracks or damage in the bulkhead that sits just underneath this beam, so get your favorite camera out with its flash on and take some images of what you can see from the inspection port. If you see significant damage and cracking you are probably going to want to add another inspection port in front of the main beam, about the same distance away from the beam as the one just behind it. This is easy to do with a jig saw using a new inspection hatch as the pattern for the hole. This new port will give you good access to do the repairs from both sides of the bulkhead.
The fiberglass repair is actually very easy once you have the access you need. If you cut paper and glued it in kindergarten you can fix this part of the problem. The beam itself is beyond repair. You will never be able to properly tension the straps with the beam collapsed like it is now. Tensioning on the collapsed tube will just further collapse the tube.
When you do the glass repair you might as well also reinforce the top of the hull where the bolt passes into the hull. The reason is that since you are going to be fairing this whole area you might as well get in front of the other problem these boats have from time to time where the plate buried in the glass tries to pull through.
I don't have a line on 5.2 used parts, but there are lots of guys on this site that know where these things are. I can only tell you that I have been there and done that and it isn't all that tough to fix. Now making it all pretty again is another story. Also, do not sail the boat until you have fixed this, the damage will only get worse and very quickly.
A year ago I completely 100% rebuilt and refinished my 5.2 and here is the first video in a long series:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=e8i7dEBBFE4[/url]
Somewhere in all of those videos I covered cutting the new inspection port, damage to bulkheads, cracking, rebuilding the cradles for the beams and a ton of other stuff. Again, what you are looking at is significant, but with what you have already stated about your skills this will be a piece of cake to fix.[/quote]
