DaySailer.org Forum

Hi There,

In hopes of teaching my two boys how to sail I picked up an old O'day DaySailer( I or II..not sure...hull number 25881 4685) which has sustained substantial demage when water in the hull froze and expanded. A large crack runs along the bottom from the transom up about the center of the keel about 16 inches long and another split about 4 inches along the transom where it connects to bottom. It has also split the sole liner in the cockpit in the area that it drops to form the bilge well at the transom. Any ideas on how to successfully repair these cracks would be greatly appreciated.

Also...there is a cast iron? plug in a thru hull bilge drain(on bottom of boat) that I cannot seem to be able to remove. It turns but is it supposed to screw or just pull out?

Thanks.

Tim
ps...the sails are both so shot that they are not useable so if anyone has a set in virtually any usuable condition for a very reasonable price I would welcome them.

That does not sound like cosmetic damage. That aft crack up the centre sounds structural to me. I'd be leary of fixing a hull with this much damage. The damage likely extends into the cb trunk area which is sandwiched together from a number of components, but you cannot see them unless you get between the cockpit floor and the hull. This is a fairly integral part of the structure. You may want to pass this one on to a professional. (I have numerous pictures of this area, and a book on restoring the DS if you are interested). By your description, you likely have a DS II. Your hull number tells me that it was built in the spring of 1985.

When this hull was built, it was molded from large major components. From the bottom up, is the pan shaped hull, excluding the bottom portion of the cb trunk well which is attached later during construction. The second part is the cockpit layer which comprises the cockpit floor, seats, centerboard trunk top, aft bulkhead, cuddy cabin and deck. Internally there is a third layer that compliments and seals the cb trunk top and drops down to form the inner portion of the cb trunk.

In order to get at the inside of the centerline crack that you describe, you have to get underneath the cockpit floor to reinforce the crack in the hull from the inside. There is not a lot of room between the cockpit floor and the hull in this area, so it would be difficult to effect a repair through an inspection port that you install in the cockpit floor.

The through hull that you speak of is actually cast aluminum. It is held in by a rubber O ring. Pull hard on it, straight up and it will come out for cleaning. There is a ball down there that acts (poorly) at preventing water from coming in from outside.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Roger, Thanks for taking the time to respond . You mentioned that the damage may be structural and extend to the CB trunk....I don't believe it extends anywhere near the CB trunk if you mean the Center board housing further up in the cockpit. Anyway, I have taken a few pictures and placed them on this web site to give you a better idea of the damage. Have a peek and I would like your opinion on possible options to fix. I was thinking about cutting out a section in the sole floor to affect glassing the bottom crack from inside and then somehow glassing it back in(though the space from sole to bottom might make that part a challenge. Grinding and re-glassing the bottom will also be necessary are the crack is kind of offset(see pics).

Here are some pics: http://www.sailaway.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/DSII

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Tim Meraw
offside@rochester.rr.com
ps. I would be glad to call you on my dime to discuss if you like...any time.

You can repair those cracks as far as I can see. Grind out the cracked material (a dremel with a pointed stone burr will work great) wash area to be repaired with acetone or MEK to remove any old wax or impurities. rough up the area beyond the area of the tape, and saturate with WEST SYSTEM epoxy. when set sand smooth and gel coat or paint with matching color.
good luck.. One more thing. the seals for the centerboard pivot should be replaced if they were the cause of the leek in the sub floor. If not the seals, find where water came from and solve that problem also.
Mike

Thanks for the suggestions Michael. That's kinds of my approach but I need to get the inside of that space dried out some how before I could ever attempt to Expoxy it. Not sure how water got into that space and will check the CB joint and washer etc. Certainly was a case of the owner not draining it out before winter though.

I finally fixed the cracks in my DSII caused by the ice expansion in between hull and cockpit liner.

What I did was started to work on the cracks in the cockpit transom well.

Using a dremel I ground a v-channel along all major thru-floor cracks and some minor gel-coat crazing while I was at it. After cleaning area well with Acetone, I began by mixing up a very thick batch of epoxy using some West Systems silica filler to get to stiff peanut butter consistency. This was to fill the major gaps I had ground out without simply running thru into the hull gap. After it hardened for a few hours I mixed my next batch of epoxy...much thinner this time and then I laid down a couple of strips of fiberglass cloth(1.5" then 2.5") on the cracks. Smoothed down with a paint brush and all air bubbles etc removed it was left to cure over night. Next day I sanded smoothly and cleaned with Acetone. Actually besides being not really glass-smooth, the hardened fiberglass was not really pretty as it sets up a yellow-brownish color. Therefore it was easy to decide to put one more of epoxy down with a white coloring agent added. It did the trick and looks pretty good until I repaint the boat.


For the larger crack in the bottom of the boat, I pretty much followed the same procedure. Here is what it looked like before I started:

First step again was to grind out a deep V into the entire length of the crack and rough sand a couple inches along the crack to receive epoxy.

I did had to use a 2x4(covered with waxed paper) to push one side of the crack back up level as it had dropped slightly. I did this with my first batch of thick Epoxy 'peanut butter'. As I was working upside down under the boat(and the ground out crack was almost wide enough in one spot to push my baby finger through it, I had a challenge with gravity. Using a strip of waxed paper with duct tape upside down overlapping the paper on each side of the length of it, I laid down a line of thickened epoxy onto the waxed paper. Then I lined it up,smoothed it out, and the tape held it in place to cure. Finished up again with alternating sanding, several layers of fiberglass matting, etc as I did in transom well.

Overall it turned out very well and should be good to go and ready for paint. My next chore. I have a couple of questions and will start a new thread on that one. Thanks to those that offered suggestions on this project both in the forum and privately.

Here is the one showing the completed fix.