Are You A Good Crack Or A Bad Crack?

Jun 10

Cracks on a boat are never good. A majority of the time they can be bad. But sometimes they turn out benign.

Matt discovered cracks in the 3rd or most aft bilge and a few ones in our middle/main bilge. He was pretty sure it was something major. -Probably that the boat had run aground. We have a wing keel on this boat & if it runs aground it can be a pretty major issue. -It can structurally weaken the keel to the point of it not being very safe to sail with.

However, when the boat was hauled out in the survey & when Matt dove down to take a look, he couldn’t see any cracks or damage on the hull or keel.

We thought that it was something that could have been half-fixed & there had been an effort to cover up any evidence of an accident.

I panicked. Matt did not.

Anyway, we got back to Santa Cruz & got the expert, Homer, from the boatyard to take a look at it & he examined it & said it wasn’t structural. And that the boat was completely safe to sail.

We’ll keep an eye of those cracks but for now & hopefully for a long while we can sleep & sail soundly.