Hull or Keel Damage due to improper storage
Date: April 23, 2003 The yard stored my E40 with a block in the center of the keel. This spring I found a 3 foot crack, lead to lead in the keel. The yard says it must have frozen, even though when you fill the bilge, nothing leaks. I feel its from the block being in the hollow section of the keel. Anyone else run into this? Date: April 24, 2003 Karl/Bonnie, As to your specific case, our surveyor told us that the full weight of the Endeavour is designed to sit on it's keel, and that the pads are there ONLY to provide lateral support to keep the boat from falling over. Also the entire keel should be supported. We have a board between our keel and the cradle, with the blocks under that to distribute the weight. The boat yard is not going to say it's their fault. Get a surveyor out there right away. Oh, by the way. Our surveyor indicated that our boat was stored incorrectly--that the damage was a result of excessive pressure by the cradle pad. The yard repaired it at their expense. You should know the yard has the right to repair it themselves or hire someone to do it for them, but in either case, I'd pay close attention to the work they do. Given their response, it's probably unlikely that they'd allow you to bring in someone from the outside. In the case of our boat I felt that if they couldn't properly store the boat, were they capable of doing a proper fiberglass repair. Talk to people outside the yard and find out what other peoples impressions are about your yards strengths and weaknesses. Yards can be great at fiberglass but weak at mechanical, etc. I was happy with our repair. Don't sweat. It's a boat after all and can be repaired. Get the surveyor out and monitor the repair. Let us know what happens.
From: Karl & Bonnie Zimmermann kzimmer909@hotmail.com
From: Paul C. Uhl endvr32@endeavourowners.com
Have your insurance company send out a surveyor right away--before the boat is moved or touched. The surveyor is the one who will give you the straight answer. A few years ago our yard didn't place and support our cradle properly (it was placed on an angle without proper blocking under the keel) and then placed the boat in the cradle on an angle. This caused a crack to develop in the side of the hull at the cradle pad from the excessive weight caused by the boat leaning. Added to that the lack of proper keel blocking caused the keel to push down on the center of the cradle, and pull in the cradle supports and pads.
