"Stu Fields" wrote in message
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"cavelamb" wrote in message
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Ed Huntress wrote:
I miss sailing, too, even though my Typhoon had a hull speed of 4.7
knots. g
Get your sagging asymmetrical ass up off that chair and go sail!
There is a real simple solution to that major problem, Ed.
http://www.sailingtexas.com/scapedory18108.html
Pay for a U-Haul and I'd even offer to bring her to you!
Very interesting! That's the same year I bought mine. And the current
reduced price is almost exactly what I paid for it, although my price
included a Seagull Silver Century outboard, but no trailer. I kept her
in the water.
I had a Seagull 5 horse once upon a time.
Seriously interesting little motors.
Damned thing had a five blade prop and would push a freighter, given
time to accelerate. Not very fast, but a good solid shove.
This one has been on Sailing Texas for over a year - maybe two.
I don't know if that means he's asking too much and won't be
reasonable?
Or ? But she sure looks sweet to me...
I don't know what the current prices are. Cape Dories are expensive
boats. But you know the story with old fiberglass boats: their lifetime
is related to hull thickness raised to some positive exponent: twice as
thick, lasts 10 times as long, or something like that. My dad's Boston
Whaler Nausset, for example, which he bought in 1962 and used heavily,
was just as solid when he sold it in 1984. And Cape Dories are heavily
built -- like the Boston Whalers of sailboats.
Prices, on old boats like this mainly depend on condition and desire.
The nicer it is, and the more you want it, the more it is likely to cost.
Basically whatever the buyer and seller can agree on.
(break)
Part of that is progress.
Back when they first started building hulls with glass, nobody knew much
about how it would work out. They heavily over built to over compensate.
Some of those 60s and 70s boats probably qualify as ice breakers. 
As the designers gained experience, they reduced the laminate schedule to
reduce cost and weight. Some, like McGregor, took the idea to extreme
and
wound up at the bottom of the quality list.
Fiberglass tends to get strong enough to carry the loads long before it
get
stiff enough to retain its shape. And, as you pointed out, flexure leads
to fatigue, and to eventual failure.
Don't understand the fatigue of fiberglass. That is a topic of a short
discussion that I had with a Senior composite analyst that works for
Rutan's Scaled Composites. He wasn't too sure about the fatigue
properties.
It's been described by composites experts as an effect that results from
combining polyester resin and glass. The adhesive properties of polyester
are very poor -- much worse than most adhesives, and not in the same league
with epoxy, or even vinylester (which falls roughly between the two). If a
polyester/glass panel is thin or very flat and subject to flexing, as it is
in cheap boats, the adhesion progressively gives way and the panel loses its
stiffness. They try to compensate for this with the chrome finish on good
fiberlass cloth, but that's not a complete solution. And in mass-produced
boats, where they tend to go for a lot of "value engineering," they
typically push the envelope in terms of how much styrene they put in the
polyester. That makes the life of a hull even shorter.
Add to that the fact that polyester is not very water-resistant (especially
when its stretched with a lot of styrene), and the fact that water can wick
along individual glass fibers when the bonds start to break down between the
fibers and the polyester. A thin-hulled boat will get "soft" as a result of
all these factors. It isn't very noticeable in some boats, particularly
those that have strong compound curves, but a modern sailboat with hard
bilges and large flat areas will show the effect eventually. You notice a
progressive tendency for the hull to "oilcan" as you go over waves in a head
sea. That's usually the first sign.
On another cast, there were two 36' McGregor Catamarans in the Marshall
Islands when we arrived in 86. These boats were not new. To my knowledge
both still float. They were basically unsinkable and had instructions for
self righting....which was demonstrated in calm water in which I couldn't
figure out why you would turn the boat over in the first place... The old
argument that their most stable state was inverted while true, beat the
mono hulls who's most stable state was on the bottom.
However, the rigging was definitely not first class as we found out when
we were dismasted. Both the mast and shrouds needed and got an up grade.
Boat could sleep up to 8 people below decks if they were in groups of 4
sets of Siamese twins.
Stu more than 1,000 miles of out of sight of land sailing on the Cat.
Cheap cruising sailboats tend to show their weaknesses under extreme
conditions. Hardware usually goes first: chainplates pop out; shrouds tear
out at the eye fittings; gudgeons and pintles break; cleats snap off. A
yacht appraiser with blue-water experience could go through a boat and in
twenty minutes produce a list of what's going to fail under harsh
conditions.
But to be fair, very few sailboats are ever sailed in blue water, and even
fewer are subject to harsh conditions. If you want a daysailer or weekender
to putter around in nice weather, a lightly-built boat may be your best buy.
Just don't sail it to Tahiti. g
--
Ed Huntress