Thanks everyone for all your information on the "Catalina Smile" My Catalina 27 is my first fiberglass boat and it is sort of a fixer upper to begin with. I was not aware of such challenges as the "Catalina Smile", but I'm still smiling. I'll have to check on that after my next haul out.
Thanks again. Brad ---- "Sneddon wrote: > Lots of boats get these smiles. My Brother's pristine and babied C&C 29 > MKII has one. You can get it a bunch of different ways, and some boats > get abused and never get it. The real problem is that you have a highly > loaded joint that is difficult (if not impossible) to make structurally > efficient without eating up half the cabin and bisecting your bilge. > That joint goes between two materials that behave very differently under > load and temperature, and the two pieces probably didn't fit together > very well in the first place. The joint and the material differences > lead to differential flexing, and flexing leads to cracks. Everything > you put on the outside bottom of the boat (gelcoat, filler, bottom > paint, etc.) does not handle tension well. > > > > Keith Sneddon > > #4760, "Are We There Yet"? > > ________________________________ > > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Shugarts > Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 5:52 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: catalina27-talk: Dry Sailing a Catalina 27 > > > > > > > When I had the C-25 I thought that way, too. I had this partner, and he > would take the boat out and hit things. > > One time he hit a whistle buoy dead-on, and blamed it on his (soon to be > ex-) wife not getting the spinnaker down quick enough. > > Anyway, he dragged our keel across about five rocks and I figured > whatever happened to the keel was his doing. But then I looked around > the boat yards and found perfectly well kept Catalina keels, but with > the smile. > > Then I realized that our boat yard for the C-25 had a bunch of > Neanderthals (I don't want to name names, but Captain's Cove in > Bridgeport, CT) and they never did anything special to block the keel. > When I got to the C-27 and a club situation, our club has a very > experienced, careful person who leads the land crew at haulout and he > already knew to block the forward end. > > Font? > > --Dave S. > > On 4/9/08 3:38 PM, "tim ford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I was always under the impression that the "smile" was more a function > of > > stresses encountered when under sail, e.g., falling off a wave in a > big > > chop or piling on a bunch of canvas and racing in 25 kn, that > kind-o-thing. > > > > Certainly seems that a lotta weight on keel sumps (that went thru a > range of > > building conditions and materials) is likely to cause significant > > flexxing in breezier conditions and it seems like this would be the > > source of keel joint separation, rather than the way the boat is > blocked up > > for the off-season. > > > > hey, what's with this font? > > > > tf > > > > > > > > David Shugarts wrote: > >> With my C-27 and people being more careful when they set the boat on > land > >> each fall, we put an extra 3/4 inch, or even 1-1/2 inch underneath > the > >> forward end of the keel, relative to the aft end. I have had the boat > eight > >> years and no "smile" has developed. > >> > >> --Dave S. > >> > >> > > >
