`ALCORT Catfish SMEDLEY Hull Repairs and Skipper's Boat Hoist

signal charlie

Well-Known Member
Staff member
We finally are getting to repairs on our Catfish SMEDLEY, he suffered hull damage during a PODS shipping container incident. First trick was to get SMEDLEY off the trailer and flipped, so we have easy access to the repair areas.

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We used ALCORT eyestraps, sheets, blocks and cleats to build Skipper's patented hoist, attached to our beefy pergola.

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A video tour of the work to be done, some Catfish guts and Skipper's hoist.

 
I'm lucky to have your Catfish adventures available as I work on mine. Too bad that damage happened during transport but having the knowledge to tackle repairs is gratifying. After building the 16ft Glen-L Malahini and a couple Chesapeake Lightcraft paddle boards I'm able to look at repair projects with confidence. I've become the go to guy for questions about repairs at our boat club. When the rain stops, I'll get a pic of our transom plug, it looks original, but the screw in stopper is missing.
 
We finally are getting to repairs on our Catfish SMEDLEY, he suffered hull damage during a PODS shipping container incident. First trick was to get SMEDLEY off the trailer and flipped, so we have easy access to the repair areas.

View attachment 54203

We used ALCORT eyestraps, sheets, blocks and cleats to build Skipper's patented hoist, attached to our beefy pergola.

View attachment 54204

View attachment 54205

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A video tour of the work to be done, some Catfish guts and Skipper's hoist.

I spied a previous repair inside the port hull. How would you prepare the inside surface for a "re-repair" in that hull?
 
Your video shows a loose piece of fiberglass cloth hanging from within the big hole. It doesn't appear to be "factory". I'd be curious how the dirty interior gets prepared for resin grip--if at all. It's big enough a hole to reverse a sanding disk arbor and to sand the interior using a drill.
 
Here's a pic of the plug that was on the boat, the black one I put in the hole that was empty. I don't have the plug for the white one, I just put a rubber bung in it, the black one has a screw-in cap. The last time I had it in the water there was water in the hulls when I pulled it out, from the plugs or dagger board trunks leaking not sure which. Or, from a fracture that was in one hull that I cut out and put a backer in and repaired?
 

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LVW, I think that ALCORT was thin on the resin there, or it evaporated over the last few decades.

This boat had a lot of black muck when we got it, I guess it filled up with some dirt and a few leaves over the years, rain water, etc, but most of it drained out through the big holes. Still, we flushed some goop out of it. Most of it seemed to be behind a piece of foam in the aft section of the hulls.


Some found its way to the low point, which you see in the latest video. We'll use paper towels, etc... to clean out the inside area, then sand lightly with some rough grit before putting in a blind patch.

Beekeeper thanks for the photos.
 
LVW, I think that ALCORT was thin on the resin there, or it evaporated over the last few decades.
The loose (and unsaturated) fiberglass cloth is at 5:08 in your video. Below it are loose pieces that resemble white duck (duct) tape. Doesn't that indicate an earlier repair attempt in front of the daggerboard trunk?
 
LVW
That stuff that looks like duct tape is gelcoat on loose fiberglass cloth. The cloth seems too thin, especially compared to the woven roving used in Sunfish, and most of the resin has sailed away to somewhere else.
 

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