I was sailing my SeaWind 2014 in the West Wet Lands Concrete Pond today and the wind was brisk and i was running down wind, wing on wing when all of a sudden the bow went into a wave and the boat nosed down and down she went very fast with the wind driving it was so steep, that the rudder lost purchase and the sails would not respond.
I was just stunned.:eek: I felt so dumb. The boat was only about 15’ from the side, but it was gone before I could react. The water is 30’ deep. I have a scuba diver coming at 17:00 AZ time to try and recover it for me.
Success, got it back just a few minutes ago. Don’t really know what happened. Got it Vacuumed out and will let it dry further over night and try it in the AM. Fingers crossed. Mouth held just so.
Wow, that’s crazy… Did the hatch come off or something when she went under? I thought they were basically almost unsink able if the hatch was sealed properly…
The hatch didn;t seem loose. When tacking, the wind was so strong, that I almost laid the sails in the water a couple of times. I am not a fan of the sealing gasget under the hatch edge, it is basically a spunge, When we pulled the boat out water was running out around the edges of the hatch. I popped the stering cover and poured the water out and then opened the hatch and the gasget was soaking wet, so it didn’t keep any water out evenen when dogged down. I am going to look for a better sealing gasget material that is not porous.
I am sure that the hatch was leaking when heaLed over.
I think my SeaWind is unsinkable. During assembly, before I fitted the mast support post, I first filled the bow with styrofoam. I got a chunk of styrofoam that came in the packing for an appliance and broke it up into pieces roughly an inch in size. Then I put them loosely into a plastic bag which I pushed up into the bow from the inside. By hand I tamped the styrofoam bits inside the bag all the way up into the bow section until they were firmly packed in there and then closed off the mouth of the plastic bag and taped it to the underside of the deck, the sides and the bottom of the hull. The inside of the boat is now packed tight with styrofoam all the way from the bow to the mast post and is easily capable of keeping the boat afloat even if completely swamped. It might end up floating bows up in the water until a rescue can be arranged, but there’s no way for the boat to sink unless there is a catastrophic separation of the deck from the hull and even then the plastic bag is taped to both and the styrofoam is still captive within it. It would be a bit of a fiddle to disassemble the mast post and battery box assembly, but it would be relatively simple to retro fit this solution to a completed kit or a Readyset version. If anyone requires a pic I will try to get a small camera in there, but the above should be self explanatory.
Getting anything inside the Ready Set Version would be very tricky, The interior control line would have to be kept free and there is no mast post I will look today when I try the boat and see if it is going to work or not. I thought of squirt in Great stuff, non expanding foam if I can keep it from getting on the interior jib line, perhaps in the stern? If the rudder rod is through a hollow tube, that might work back there.
I am going to investigate and see what I come up with.
I have decided to buy a Hatch Upgrade sealing kit from Rob Fresh. Appears to be well thought out. Does not use any of the current hatch components. Clear see through with New gasket seal material.
Radio turned out to br OK, Servos were the waterproof kind. New batteries and she fired right up this afternoon, wind is still strong so will try to sail tomorrow. Got some waterproof tape and will seal the hatch edges down.
Just because the servo’s state that they’re ‘waterproof’ it isn’t necessarily so - I think I’d still be inclined to strip them down to check. The smallest drop of water left inside them will dramatically decrease their life expectancy. Something to keep you busy while waiting for the hatch upgrade kit!
ROW good call. in fact every servo you put in a boat should be taken apart and “lubed up” most gear trains have minimal grease. not that they nee dmuch grease, but a bit of extra helps keep water out from the top…
And i would go one step further and put some sort of electrical protector, like corrosion X or aeroplate on the electronics…
Marc, If I could get my fat arthritic fingers in that teeny little hole, I probably still wouldn’t take them out or apart as I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with them.
