What year is my SC17 ? And hull repair issue

[mboyer68]

Hello all, new user here. I've been sailing since around 1975 and was heavy into windsurfing in the 90's. Just sold my H18 and am finally getting my SC17 seaworthy. Needs a hull repair and some general tlc.
Boats with no motor do not get registrations in NYS so it didn't come with any ID. And the trailer is registered as a home built so no help there.
The hull #'s are as follows:
Left ::FMSBO188 M81L-17P185
Right:FMSBO188 M81L17S184
I fell in love with the Supercat shape and look when a friend's father bought one in the early 80's on Keuka Lake, finger lakes region NY. He had a 19 I think, it had daggerboards..was named "Moonraker" after the James Bond movie. We'd water ski behind it!
Back to my SC17, the main sail has 188 on it. The 188 on the hull numbers is hand etched. It has Boston Whaler stickers on the hulls. Sails are made by Gulfstream Sail Makers. Any idea what year it is?
The hull repair is complicated, to me it is! If you're trapped out and straddling the left mast stay the soft spot is right where your right foot would be. Right where the forces all come together if I understand Bill's force vector description from a post on this forum. Where the hulls are joined, patch will go from where there's no red foam core up to where the white glue strip is, about 6" wide, 4" tall. I think I'm going to lay some glass underneath and build up a couple more layers where there's no core..trying to get that patch to make the hole smaller, then glass from the outside to close it up, then gel coat, then apply non skid. Please reply if there's a better way to do this. This is my first fiberglass repair. I have some experience with other body work and painting.
Thank you in advance for any advice
Mike
Western NY
Sailing at:
Lake Ontario
Keuka Lake

[Matt Haberman]

Mike,

Regarding the serial number and the year of your boat.

- FMSB indicates it was a built by Boston Whaler.
- 188 indicates it was the 188 "boat" shipped, hence the sail number also being 188.
- M81L is the model year, so the boat is a 1981.
- 17P & 17S identify the port and startboard hull of a 17' boat.
- 184 & 185 indicates they hulls were the 184th and 185th hull molded that year (1981) of ALL boat sizes, not just SC17.

If you can get some photos of the area your talking about repairing we can probably give you some pointers.

[mboyer68]

I searched this forum and couldn't find help for posting pics. Copied pics to Google drive where they now have a url. I can't copy the url from Google drive and Google drive isn't an option for adding files from the forum side. Yikes! Photo bucket here I come!

[mboyer68]

20160915_181316.jpg

[mboyer68]

20160918_141537.jpg

[J Drew]

Soft and crunchy doesn't sound good. Is there an access port close enough to get in behind and put some backing on the patch?

BTW
I'm looking for a SC17 if it or another becomes available

[Matt Haberman]

First off a suggestion for any future fiberglass repairs: Composites don't like sharp corners, in the future a round hole or a square/rectangular hole with generous round corners would be much stronger and easier to repair. Regardless at this point I am not sure I would change anything other then try and radius the sharp corners a bit.

You can repair this from the outside without cutting any additional holes in the hull. You are going to want get a backer in the hole so you have something to build your laminate onto. This can be done by pre-fabing a flat panel and cutting it slightly larger then your hole, You should be able to roll it up and insert it into the hole, then "pull" it into place using some wire or string. Put a thickened epoxy paste between the plate and the inside of the hull and then secure your wire/string until it can cure. With that bonded to the inside of the hull you can now now build up your repair on the outside.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• Use woven fiberglass cloth, not mat
• Use a high quality resin, epoxy is ideal
• Do some more grinding before installing the backer. You want to taper your patch out onto the hull several inches.
• You may want to put some core material in there instead of building up the entire area with fiberglass and filler.
• Taper your patch sizes, starting with the smallest and getting progressively larger.
• Since this is all in the non-skid it should be easy to hide.

[mboyer68]

Thanks Matt - again!

I will definitely grind the opening so there are no corners. The tool I used wasn't the best for that.

Bought west system epoxy and fiberglass mat for the repair.

Thank you for the tips. I'll keep you posted as the job progresses.

One more question - the top of my mast doesn't have a hook that normally catches the ring attached to top of sail..how do I secure the halyard on this one? Is there a hook I can buy and rivet to the mast? I can't imaine all that force constantly on the halyard.

[Matt Haberman]

Originally the 17 came with a wire halyard that was secured in a clip at the bottom of the mast, inside the sail track. The hook at the top didn't come into play until around 1985. There is a conversion kit available to upgrade to the hook, give Tom a call at 651-462-SAIL and he can get you what you need.

[gahamby]

Welcome aboard, glad you found the right website.

[Kevin Keller]

You can search for a post called "Refurbishing SC20" to see what I did. There is a picture of basically what Matt described when I did some repairs on my hulls.
Kevin

[SJBrit]

A couple of things to add in terms of Matt's excellent repair instructions:

1) Make sure you get rid of all the gelcoat around the hole - as Matt said you want to build up cloth in successive layers which are larger and larger, and you'll want to end up with some pretty good overlap around the hole bonding directly to the underlying structure, not the cosmetic gel finish.

2) When working with epoxy, don't leave it in your mixing container where it will cure quickly, but pour it onto a tray so it is spread out. This keeps it from self-heating and curing fast. It's a great way for a beginner to get more working time. Sit the tray on ice to really prolong the working time.

3) For thickening the epoxy to bond the internal backer use something like West's #406 colloidal silica. It's a bit annoying to work with since it's so light and fluffy, but keep working it in there and get your epoxy to the consistency of peanut butter. You could drill holes to screw the backer in place if you like - it makes a nice firm joint and after it's cured you just pull out the screws and lay your cloth over the holes. Don't worry about the epoxy bonding the screws in - epoxy doesn't bond well to unprepared metal.

4) Let this thick epoxy ooze out around the backer as you pull it into place and then run your finger around the edge to create a nice taper between the hull and the backer. This will help the cloth follow that smooth transition rather than having to go over a step. Latex gloves re recommended!

5) Cut all your pieces of cloth first so they are on hand and ready to lay up. Cut more than you think you need - partly because you'll probably need them anyway, but mostly because cutting more cloth towards the end of the job when the epoxy is starting to cure and you have sticky splats everywhere is really no fun!

6) Finally, as you layer up the cloth don't make it too wet with epoxy. Brush a decent amount onto the backer and surrounding area before laying the first cloth layer down, and then work that in with a brush or roller. You can get proper rollers for this, or just dab the cloth down with then end of a cheapo brush from the DIY store. I usually buy a hand full of those cheap, wooden handle ones. Just dab the end vertically rather than trying to draw it across the cloth. Your goal is to get the cloth completely wetted and completely adhered to the surface. Then throw the next layer of cloth on top dry and start dabbing it in. Don't be tempted to pre-wet the cloth - waste of time and epoxy! Just let it sink into the epoxy you already have on there and add more epoxy if you need to. Your goal is to get all the cloth 100% wetted with minimum resin. You'll find that you can lay up several layers before you have to add more. This makes a nice light, strong repair.

Hope that's helpful!

[SJBrit]

And one last thing - if you are shopping for epoxy fillers, then think about getting some West 407 too. This is a fairing compound that makes epoxy sandable for cosmetic finishes. Once your repair is done you can paste over with resin mixed with 407 to sand to a nice finish. 410 is easier to sand but not as strong.

Have a look at this: http://www.westsystem.com/ss/filler-selection-guide/

[gahamby]

A couple of things to keep in mind:

"Use woven fiberglass cloth, not mat"
I copied this from Matt's post.

[SJBrit]

A couple of things to keep in mind:

"Use woven fiberglass cloth, not mat"
I copied this from Matt's post.

Doh! Yes, cloth not mat for sure. I'll edit my post since I incorrectly wrote mat.