V bunks bs long bunks??

[White90GT]

My daughter joined up with Sea Scouts of America in Baytown, Red Skies Ship 208 is the group (see facebook Red Skies Ship 208). Since I like all things boated, I decided to volunteer and help with sailing and all the mechanical stuff. We have a few small boats like a 14 foot Capri, 15' Dolphin, a catamaran and some sunfish, then we have a large 26 foot Westerly we keep at the marina in Baytown.

A few weeks ago we were donated a 1999 25x MacGregor with a 50 hp Tohatsu on it. The trailer of course had a completely rusted out tongue on it and most of the V shaped bunks were toast. We did a quick repair, enough to tow the boat home and now we're almost finished rebuilding the trailer. We were donated a bit of steel and a replacement tongue that we were able to make work. We want to be able to haul this boat to various lakes around Texas, namely Canyon Lake coming up in a few weeks. I just couldn't see those V-style bunks really being able to properly support the boat since less than 1 foot of wood was touching the boat on the middle bunks where all the weight is.

In replacing the tongue, we moved the winch mount and bump stop forward about 4"-6" to get more tongue weight. A rough measurement of tongue weight with the boat forward on the trailer is now at 255 lbs, so right around 10% tongue weight.

Next we added another support brace a foot or so back behind the crossbar that the tongue bar is welded to between the side rails and then built some longer bunk boards about 2' long to support the front of the boat better than the small v-bunk that was there.

For the rear we decided there was so much slope towards the back of the boat we would leave the V-bunk at the rear and bolt the long board (10 feet long) on top of it so it is raised a bit at the rear and the front of the 10' board is just mounted to the original V-bunk support in the middle.

I'm hoping these changes will provide better support for the hull than it had and also hoping that it will center easily when loading. Time will tell.

Now for the boat, it has some pretty major hull damage on the port side due to getting caught up in a water spout and dropped on some rocks. About 6' right along the lower port side where it rounds towards the bottom has multiple gashes/holes/cracks in it. Our skipper is good with fiberglass and intends to do all those repairs. The stringers inside don't have any signs of cracking, so we hope they are solid and the damage is just along that port side and to a couple of the cabinets inside. Even with all that damage the boat was towed home in the water a mile or two from where it received the damage. It floated all the way home even with the water in it.

Thoughts and comments are welcome.

On with the pictures:

[kmclemore]

What a great boat for your Sea Scouts to work and learn on! I'm also a Scout leader and I use my boat to train and prepare our scouts for our trips to Sea Base in Florida, along with teaching Small Boat Sailing merit badge. Good luck to you - looks like you have a great start.

[RobertB]

I think the main challenge now is to come up with an appropriate name considering the extreme history of this boat - not many around that can say they survived a waterspout!

[Hamin' X]

What you have is a 26X, not a 25X. I have changed your profile to so reflect.

Good luck on the repairs. As far as the bunk boards on the trailer, the original design was meant to get the boat off and on the trailer without dunking the tow vehicle. I don't think that there have been reported problems with supporting the boat with the original design.

~Rich

[mrron_tx]

Baytown Why does that sound familiar Oh yeah.... Now I remember... I was born and raised in Baytown.... Met John Wayne and Red Adair right out there (well close) where Your slip is I guess , when They filmed hull Fighters....Ahhhh The Childhood memories BTW.... Did Anyone mention the new Guys buy the pizza Ron. Dauntless.

[mrron_tx]

Hmmm I guess when You type hull...it turns to hull

[mrron_tx]

I guess it does....LOL ok....Hades Fighters

[DaveC426913]

You take donated boats?

I could donate "The Boat That Poseidon Rejected", or, as my wife calls it "The Flying Boat". A huge storm plucked my Matilda 20 from the water and tossed high and dry on the pier. It was still moored to its 5 ton mooring block, which it dragged bodily from out in the harbor.

I've been trying to sell it, trailer and all, for a grand, but no one will take it for more than $400, and they only want to break it up for parts. I would donate it to a good home.

Great opportunity to practice glassing skills.

I am in Toronto Canada.

Pix:
http://www.davesbrain.ca/adventures/sai ... rm_damage/

[Chinook]

We've encountered waterspouts on three occasions while cruising in our 26X. The first time was while crossing the Gulf Stream on our way to the Bahamas. The second time was, surprisingly, near Sitka Alaska, where waterspouts are extremely rare. The third time was again in the Bahamas, just off the entrance to Old Bahama Bay Marina on Grand Bahama Island. Fortunately, in each case the spouts never got closer than a mile from us. We were glad to have that 50 hp outboard for power, in case we needed to get out of the way quickly. We talked once with a sailor whose boat tangled with a waterspout. It messed the rigging up somewhat, but didn't seriously damage the boat. From my understanding of waterspouts, if you have things tied down well, with sails furled, they're not likely to cause major damage. I can't imagine a waterspout being strong enough to pick a Mac up and drop it onto rocks. I'm thinking that something more like a tornado was the culprit.

[RobertB]

Maybe I am showing my ignorance, but I thought a waterspout is a tornado over water (versus a tornado over land).

[White90GT]

Maybe I am showing my ignorance, but I thought a waterspout is a tornado over water (versus a tornado over land).

Yeah, that's more/less what I thought, maybe they are just normally smaller than tornados. Either way, the guy was asleep on the boat at 5am when it happened and said the boat spun around a couple times and landed on the rocks (rock pile like a jeddi). He called coast guard and got picked up after he secured the boat. The rigging all looked good except one of the spreaders was slightly bent.

[White90GT]

More work on the trailer...

[White90GT]

Trailer repair mostly complete. We added a brace/step to the front side of the winch mount/ladder/bump stop. We could see that in the past someone has winched pretty heavily and managed to bend the frame back a little, so we figured an extra brace wouldn't hurt and we may be able to mount a spare tire to it or something as well as use it as a bigger step to get up over the front of the boat while on the trailer. Still gotta weld the side guide pole back on, rewire it, and put some longer lag bolts in the bunk boards as they are just kind of held together for the pics.

[Catigale]

Waterspouts aren't too bad, but the sharks in them are nasty.