Bathing Ladder – Reinforcements Required!
Master & Apprentice
31. January 2015
Changing the main sail to sliders
2. February 2015
Beginning of June, we attached the new bathing ladder to our Seascape 27. It took only a few climbs up until the gel coat at the pushpit started to crack 🙁
Cracks around the pushpit
“Fortunately” the cracks appeared around the pushpit and not around the area I drilled into or attached the ladder onto. Unfortunately the cracks started to spread and worsen. The structure below the pushpit does not the support the force put onto it when climbing back into the boat.
Biehlmarin confirmed my worst fears – the damage was structural.
Checking and potentially fixing it was on the todo list for my stay in Flensburg. We removed the pushpit and the ladder. The gel coat at the attachment points of the ladder was also deformed. The laminate compressed under the force.
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- Starting the disassembly
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- Pushpit gone …
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- Pushpit gone …
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- Milling to remove cracks and structural damage
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- Filling up with gel coat
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- Gel coat drying
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- Inspecting the ladder
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- Bridging the laminate to prevent compression
Gregor got some aluminum plates, whilst Peter took the gel coat and damaged laminate apart. He also extended the holes I drilled. Peter filled them with some stuff I don’t know what it is, to build some sort of bridge preventing the laminate from compressing.
The aluminum plates went inside the boat under the pushpit and ladder attachment points to distribute the weight over a bigger area. Now it should last – fun at bathing without worries for gel coat damage!
DO NOT ATTACH ANY LADDER TO A SEASCAPE WITHOUT REINFORCEMENTS!
