1. posterid:1701142
  2. [Amel Yacht Owners] Anchor locker floor rotten

Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Anchor locker floor rotten

James Alton
 

Bill,

   Good point about the possibility of accumulating weight in the bow lockers from a slow leak.  It is pretty hard to get a perfect seal on a locker with such a large opening but I will do what I can on my boat to make it is good as possible.  Also to boot or seal the forestay tang.

   One of the things that impressed me about the bow lockers on Sueño was the fact that we have scrubbed them out twice so that they are really clean/mildew free and neither of us has jammed any loose fibreglass fibers under our fingernails to date.  Most production boats that I am familiar with have little sharp points of glass sticking out everywhere just waiting for such an opportunity to destroy your hands.  So if I ever have to rebuild my bow lockers I will definitely take the time and pain to sand the repairs smooth and gelcoat the surfaces to the same quality level that Amel did originally.  I also find that raw fibreglass sheds fibreglass fibers forever...  Put a sailbag into a locker with raw fibreglass and then  pull it out and look at it in the sun to see the millions of shiny bits of glass...  (grin)    And finally, unless the last coats of resin used in the repair have a wax additive added, the surface will remain forever tacky.  This is designed into the resin to help any additional layers of fibreglass bond to the surface, the term is air inhibited cure.  You can get non air inhibited cure gel coats that will cure hard as glass with no tackiness even without adding the wax additive and this is what I like to use in lockers.  I am not sure of what kind of gel coat that Amel used in all of the lockers and bilge of my boat but it is all glass hard and not tacky.  I had one customer with a 54’ Gulfstar in which all of the lockers were coated with regular gelcoat that had not cured properly. .  A sail had been stored in the bow locker for several years and ahead of a circumnavigation we had to unload that locker.  The sail had bonded itself to the hull so securely that we had to use a block and tackle through the hatch to pull it free.    It was so bad that we eventually were asked to remove the original gelcoat and recoat every locker..a huge job.   It is so nice to have bright shiny, tack free lockers on our 30 year old boat, thank you Amel for taking the extra time to do this right!   

    I am glad to hear that you are happy with the new wood free locker bottoms.  

James

SV Sueño
Maramu #220

On Jan 7, 2018, at 12:57 AM, greatketch@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:


James,

I went to look for the name of the core material used, and I can't find it.  My recollection is that 5/8 inch thick Dynacell was specified.  Pretty much any of the PVC or Urethane foam core boards would work.  

One thing we did was skip the extra day of labor to gelcoat the bottom of the lockers.  Seemed like a lot of dollars for a very minor cosmetic upgrade to the bottom of a storage locker. 

I think losing a bow locker lid is a vanishingly small probability, but if it happened, I'd be far more concerned about the ton (literally!) of water in the bow locker than with the slow drain to the bilge.  If I thought the bilge was being overwhelmed, and I really wanted to stop water moving aft in such an emergency, I could always close the valve in the drain line in the forward cabin, or in the saloon.  But I am pretty sure I'd be falling off and sailing downwind or heaving-to until I figured out a way to get at least a mostly sealed cover jury-rigged.

A far more likely concern--to me--is a more modest leak from a poorly secured lid or other leak point (the forestay chainplate?) that fills the locker slowly over the course of a passage with no good way to drain it--hence the limber holes.

Bill Kinney
SM160, Harmonie
North Bimini, Bahamas


---In amelyachtowners@..., wrote :

Bill,

   A sealed locker for the stowage of wet chain/rode is a tough place for wood to survive for very long so I think that you are on the right track with removing the organics.  Which foam core material did you decide to use?  

    I guess the possibility  exists of a locker lid being damaged or even lost in conditions where the locker could be flooded,  but I suspect that you have already calculated a safe size for your limber holes to prevent flooding the bilge.  Other than this consideration,  I think that limber holes are a good idea. 

   Enjoy the Bahamas,

James
SV Sueño
Maramu #220 

On Jan 6, 2018, at 10:41 PM, greatketch@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

I had planned to do our locker floors myself, but my better half convinced me I had better things to do (smart girl!) I was even more appreciative of her advice when watching the guy who did the work climb out of the locker covered with dust after grinding in prep for the  lamination work.


Our plywood floors were replaced by foam core, with glass laminate on both sides.  It will last the life of the hull with never another issue.

We also added permanent limber holes in the floor of the lockers.  I tried really, really hard to think of a good reason to hold water in the lockers and not let it drain to the bilge and I could not come up with a reason why water should pool there and not be pumped overboard.

Bill Kinney
SM160, Harmonie
North Bimini, Bahamas
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