posted 02-26-2003 01:37 AM ET (US)        

I have a 2000 13'sport that has been chainsawed in half, for the Newport (Ca) boat show. It payed for itself, getting full media coverage that night, footage of my boss putting around, drumming up interest in the show.

Since Schock wanted $4500 to rejoin the halves, and I'm both poor and cheap (plus I could get a demo for not much more than that), I have this project and no clue.

How would y'all go about it? Buncha' dowels and glass? I remember an article that mentioned using a torch. Was that a joke? How about just enough glass to hold the shape and then spraying the whole thing with rhinoliner. Structural bedliner has been done, but to this degree? If I just layer and layer glass, and wind up with enough strengh, but with a butt-ugly band-aid that protrudes 1/4" off the hull, would it destroy the ride?

posted 02-26-2003 03:14 AM ET (US)            

Schock is in Newport Beach, Ca., we got the boat from them. They quoted the repair price, maybe the quote was for their shop or the factory, I'm not sure.

My boss is the owner of Sea and Go Boating magazines, and we put on the Newport shows twice a year. He got a deal on the whaler, and Schock took back the outboard and trailer. Dammit.

The boat payed for itself because of promotional value, many folks saw footage on four L.A. channels that evening, both of the cutting and driving, and that gets folks out to the show. A number of folks mentioned it to me during the show, I believe it created a bigger buzz than any other of our stunts.

We always do some media stunt, rescue-dog, helicoptor rescue, water skiing dog, orangutan driving a boat (quite well!), the round boat (15' beam AND length), last show was a 33ft replica of the Arizona.

I'm definitely looking for repair ideas, I am almost ready to start on a cradle to get the pieces all lined up, but I'm long on effort and light on theory.

posted 02-26-2003 10:58 AM ET (US)            

Buy a used motor and mount it on the rear. Put together a nice brochure showing what you have. Build a decent shipping crate. Send the flyer to dealers all over the country and offer to rent it to them for their own boat shows for say $250/day plus shipping. Save up cash and buy yourself a new boat.

posted 02-26-2003 01:04 PM ET (US)            

With dowels sticking out from the foam ?
Tongue and groove, mortise and tenon, biscuit joinery ? Even Norm Abram himself could not get this egg back together again.

Try to sell to a dealer as a promotional item and help prevent a future tragic boating accident.

posted 02-26-2003 02:14 PM ET (US)            

Here is a link to Schock, and they are a vry large outfit:
[url]http://www.yachtracersonline.com/wdschock/[url/]

posted 02-26-2003 02:25 PM ET (US)            

You don't need dowels, tongue/groove, or the like, since the strength comes mainly from the fiberglass skin. You would have to significantly cut into the fiberglass over a wide overlap - I'd speculate a foot or so on each side of the cut, but that's only a guess.

I've repaired whitewater canoes and kayaks that you would have thought should go into the garbage - really severe impact damage, not simply a smooth cut . If done well, the only really negative result after the repair is extra weight.

You would need to do a real structural repair, not simply using glass mat like the original layup. I would approach it using multiple layers of glass cloth and potentially a layer or two of aramid cloth.

Just thinking offhand, my inclination would be to first rejoin the bottom edge, gunwale to gunwale. At that point, I might be tempted to cut a piece out of the top deck along the joint, remove the foam, and do a similar patch (without fairing since its on the inside) on the inside of the seam. Then use some type of pour in place foam to fill that space and trim it off flush. Last, I'd either make a new piece to patch the inside or just re-glass the new stuff.

posted 02-26-2003 02:56 PM ET (US)            

The structural theory on a Whaler is the two skins acting like the upper and lower flanges of a beam with the foam acting as the web, so as long as there was something filling the void between the two hulls and well adhered to each, (like the laminated plywood epoxied in place), the project would then be reduced to simple structural repairs to the fiberglass inside and out, following Whaler, West System or other guidelines for cutting back and beveling the existing glass and then laying back overlapping layers of fabric and epoxy (or that stuff that Tom Clark uses :-). Then gelcoat and you're done.

As I said, conceptually it is easy; operationally it would be quite a project. Doable though.

posted 02-26-2003 08:01 PM ET (US)            

Check it out...

http://www.whaler.com/REC/WhalerTour/whaler_tour.asp?content=capt_logs

Good luck...

posted 02-26-2003 09:12 PM ET (US)            

Resale is not an issue, this is for my own putting around, and if it doesn't work out I think it would all fit in one dumpster. As for concern about a future owner, it will be real obvious what it is, especially after I paint a bunch of band aids across the seam and call it "Rejoined" or some other silly name. Caveat emptor.

Lots of good ideas for a promo boat, but I don't want to do the legwork, and I spend more than enough time with boat salesman already.

As far as safety goes, what's the worst that could happen? I guess if it came apart at high speed that could get ugly, but if the bow simply breaks off and floats away, I will simply drive it back. Maybe towing the bow. It's how I got it on a trailer. It had a four-stroke 50hp on it, and I weigh 230, and it still was almost a dry ride. Good thing for power trim.

I do have some pics of the boat, driving in the harbor and on the trailer, but I need to figure out how and where to post them. A yahoo group, perhaps. I saw a few folks snapping pics on I-15 at 75mph, wish I had copies of those.

I do like ideas for furniture, but it is not deep enough for a hottub or fish pond, and I don't really have the space. See dumpster.

I have a feeling that Norm Abrams wants nothing to do with this project, but I would like to raid his woodpile and borrow just a few of those tools...

Kingfish and russellbailey have some great tips, I hadn't considered removing large amounts of foam to get at the inside seam, but I like it. I just recently saw that mix-n-pour foam product on Monster Garage, the stuff looks easy to work with. What do you guys think about many, many layers of glass inside for strength, but just a couple on the outside to keep it smooth?

Unfortunately, the bow piece is too small to be a dinghy on its own, but I could have the flattest nosed 8 footer, ever. I suspect this might effect the handling performance. Severely. Extremely. Maybe fatally.

I just read a couple days ago about that promo tour with a halved BW, thanks for the link to their trailer. Supposedly, ours was the first to be halved since the factory did that one in the 50s, but I heard that from our media guy, who I believe like a boat salesman.
I have never heard of one being rejoined.

A folding boat, hummmm...

Mount it on a wall, for the boat-through-the-wall-effect?

I am half serious about spraying the rejoined pieces with bedliner, I can get a deal on that part, American Bedliner might do it just for the exposure. The stuff has a burst rating of 250lbs of TNT. Not a typo. After 9/11, the Pentagon rebuild used the stuff extensively, it is close to bombproof.
It comes in a variety of colors and textures, including smooth as glass. Before you scoff, let me tell y'all about a trash collection pontoon boat, owned by the city of Long Beach, Ca. The tooner was put into service without any anodes, and electrolysis (sp?) ate up the toons in a year. The aluminum was paperthin and porous. Drained, dried, and sprayed with bedliner, that thing is still working the harbor after five years. They added two more sprayed toons, I suspect the stuff is not light, and they needed the bouyancy.

Structural bedliner? Sounds kinda' silly out loud...

One last thing, any suggestions for names?

Rejoined, Rejoiner, Repaired, Half Assed...

posted 02-26-2003 10:49 PM ET (US)            

Don: Is this a relatively new magazine? Is it published for the local area only? I am interested because I grew up in southern California and wanted to take a look at the content. Is there a website for the mag under a different name?

posted 02-26-2003 11:31 PM ET (US)            

Kevlar. Excellent tip. Is that stuff really pricey?

To John O:

A hoax? Lighten up. I'll get those pics up in the next few days.

To Whaler Proud:

Sea (largest saltwater boating mag in the US) combined their website with Go Boating (family boating mag). Try:

http://www.goboatingmag.com/sea/

This was just a minor little stunt at the largest in-water show in the west, a few years ago, a 2 minute fluff piece, I doubt any media info is out there.

Except for the pics in my hand.

Oh ya, Landlocked. Yep, a four-stroke 50hp. That was the loaner motor that went away with the loaner trailer.

posted 02-27-2003 05:06 PM ET (US)            

Jim Armsrong has a great idea, this is just the type of creative advice I hoped to find on this forum. Thank you.

Ebay! That could be fun. Anybody with a thousand bucks standing in my driveway just bought themselves a 13' sport that needs a little work.

posted 02-27-2003 06:41 PM ET (US)            

This is what its been through:

Started out with 0 hours, never splashed.

Marked out a line, and cut it straight and neat, for a chainsaw. Huge cloud of glass and foam dust. Very nasty.

Launched it, drove it, let it sit in the water, with exposed foam in the saltwater, for five days, (during the show) and drove it to the ramp.

Then it sat on a driveway, tilted to drain, for a two years. The wet spots formed under the draining edge dried up after a week or so. The rainfall during that time was very little, two years of heavy drought in the L.A. area. If I'd known it was going to become my nightmare, I would have stored it better. 20/20 hindsight.

Since then it has been covered in my carport and hasn't been damp since last fall.

Sunlight damage to the exposed foam is obvious.

posted 02-27-2003 07:59 PM ET (US)            

http://www.usawatercraft.com/ca/schock/

They've been around for a long time -- they were the dealer that sold my Revenge new to the 'Fishin' Judge' back in the late 80s, and they were the only Whaler dealer at the LA boat show.

As to this thread -- I have my doubts, but I see so much weird stuff in my professional life that THIS wouldn't surprise me at all.

posted 02-27-2003 08:58 PM ET (US)            

http://groups.msn.com/BostonWhalerProject/shoebox.msnw

It seems odd to me that some question the validity of my posts. Why would someone make this stuff up? What would be the point? All part of my vast conspiracy to come here and glean repair tips?

Go look at the pics, I will be adding some shots of the boat on the trailer soon.

posted 02-28-2003 05:33 PM ET (US)            

http://groups.msn.com/BostonWhalerProject/_whatsnew.msnw

A bulldozer parked on a BW? As far as abuse goes, that sounds almost as bad as a chainsaw. I'd like to see that pic.