Has a Com-pac ever sunk?

[Goodrun]

I have never run across any stories of a Com-pac sinking? Anyone know of any? I can't see it happening too easily since most of them have no thru hull fittings, not built with chopped fiberglass for a strong hull. The cockpits are self bailing and they seem to have a well designed wide hull that holds alot of weight easily and does not tip very easily when walking around on the deck. Has one ever sunk? If so how?

[Salty19]

To my knowledge, every single one without a rubber duckie aboard, for good luck, are now serving as artificial reefs. Very important modification to be sure.

[Billy]

Salty,
your comments as of late have been quite entertaining!

[capt_nemo]

Why not ask Gerry at Hutchins?  They might know. Try Gerry at info@com-pacyachts.com. And do let us know what you find out.

[skip1930]

A sailor in Alaska swears that his CP-19 had the tip of the mast only 10 foot above the water, but she rolled back up right. That was maybe 7 years ago and posted on line in the Small Boat Adviser. But sinking? I don't think so.

Now here is what happens when the sheets are cleated down, and the boat is becalmed, and all of a sudden a wind dances across the still waters of Lake Michigan and strikes a boat with no headway. She kind of leans over for a bit before being shot forward. I think I was maybe 10 years old, so around 1951? Dad's buddy, Warren, got the shot from his own boat.

Now this Star Boat had sunk. Dad called the Harbor Master at Belmont Harbor in Chicago, " Otto? This is O'Lee. Find a diver, find a barge, find a crane, and find that Star boat that sunk off the harbor's mouth last week. When you get it back on the trailer in the parking lot, call me and I'll come down and look at my new boat I just bought yesterday OK? Thanks. Good by."

I don't know why it sunk. But it was sailing when it went down. I do know that dad took that thing to work and we unbolted the keel [890lb?] and replaced a few ribs, then fiberglassed the hull and bolted the keel back on. Sailed it for years. A guy in a Nash Metropolitan hooked up and dragged it away. Dad said, "Good luck stopping, Junior."

Last I ever saw that boat. skip.

[Billy]

there may be one or two out there that has sunk to the depths! But only b/c of neglect, the scuppers getting clogged w/ leaves causing the cockpit to fill and then down into the cabin. But something like this would take a year or two of sitting abandoned, or someone could have ran one into some rocks or a reef. But I know of no cases of this, but it could be possible.

Huricanes may have also claimed one or more.

[Bob23]

   Mine could've sunk this past fall. As you know, the aft section of the keel is hollow aka the bilge. Unbeknownst to me, there was, and still is a submerged hunk of concrete which when combined with a blow-out tide and west wind, contacts "Koinonias" sensitive area while shes on her mooring. When she was hauled last fall, there was obvious abrasion on the starboard side of the hollow keel section...not perforated but some contact with the concrete removed the bottom paint and scratched the fiberglass a bit.
   Needless to say, the concrete is outahere this spring. On the first low tide, I'm renting a trash pump with jet and I'm gonna sink that sucker! This bay ain't big enough for the 2 of us and I ain't a-gonna leave!  I don't want to be the first sunken Compac!
   Bob23

[skip1930]

So when you take out the concrete then what are you going to replace it with?
You want to keep that hollow area hollow. Don't fill that void up with cement and wait for it to turn to concrete. I think you need to keep the balance.
How about a 'keel Boot'? That's a 6 mm sawed piece of marine aluminum, glued on with Marine-Tex while the hull was hung from it's trailer keel bunks and that allows wooden wedges to be drive between the trailer rollers and the bottom of the keel. which I de-painted before gluing.

Or better yet park her in deeper water.

skip.

[Allure2sail]

You better believe they will sink........I have got one in my driveway to prove it! Would you like it for free? If you were to hit a rock or a submerged object with one of these boats and break through the keel shell to the cement ballast core the keel will then fill up with water (if not already full of water) and then fill up the bilge and then into the galley. Most of the bilges in these boat are not 100% sealed from the keel. I don't believe the bilge pump could keep up for long with the water intrusion from a punctured keel. The keel usually has water in it no matter how many coats of barrier coat you put on it and how many gallons paint you put on it. I have a drain plug on the starboard side of my keel and every fall I'm amazed at how much water pours out of it each time it is put on stands for the winter. I do believe allot of these keel boxes are compromised because the keels are not drained each winter. When the water is left in the keel to freeze it expands upward and cracks the floorof the bilge, it has no other place to go but upward. I had to rebuild mine when I first bought Allure. The plywood under the fiberglass bilge floor also has a tendency to rot out because of the water trapped in there as well. I'm sure  this will set off a string of opinions. I interpreted Bob's post differently, I took it as there was a hunk of cement that his boat's keel had been rubbing up against and he was going to remove it from where his boat is kept (be it a slip or mooring), come a super low tide this spring.

[Allure2sail]

No....bought the boat off an insurance company for parts. This boat will never float again....at least not by me.

[Allure2sail]

It is so depressing to look at. Would love to get it out of my driveway. Pushed the cement ballast in the keel right up thru the galley floor.
Bruce

[skip1930]

Allure2sail, has it right if you really think about a boat.
A boat is a hole in the water where outside water pressure is trying to push water into the hole in the water.

So it stands to reason that any ingress of water through the keel's fiberglass 'box' and into the concrete
will eventually, if allowed to remain unchecked, will find it's own level.

That level is the waterline which in some cases is always achieving a level a little closer to the ship's gunnel's.

And as we all know it is not possible to make a water tight patch from the inside of the hole.
The patch has to be on the pressure side of the hole. So you guys blocking up the head hole through
the hull...take note. [ 1934 U.S. Navy's Blue Jacket Manual. ]
You don't see hull planks on the inside of the frames, right?

skip.
So hang the boat on the trailer hull bunks and saw cut the very bottom of the keel off.
Air chisel the concrete out and make a new fiberglass bottom and then fill that up with
cement and pig iron from the top.
If there is no leak then it won't matter if the top-O-keel is sealed or not.
Wait a week as the cement turns into concrete, add a 'keel boot,
go sailing and sell her.'

[Tim Gardner]

I once sailed across the Atlantic (to and fro) on a ship with a hole the size of a school bus in the #3 port double bottom tank.  It seemed that our close encounter with LI sound's Stepping Stone Lighthouse was too close of an encounter.  The ship incidentally was built during the run up to WWII - she was the "Henry Gibbons" noted for ferrying the first European Jewish refugees to the US via the St. Lawrence Seaway to Buffalo, NY.  No, I wasn't on that passage, but did sail on her as a NY Maritime College Cadet late in her life.  A few years later, she lost her rudder while underway, serving as Mass Maritime's training vessel.  She was a tough old bird.

That said, if the keel is holed, and the tank top is sound (the tank being the space filled with concrete with a watertight cover), your mighty ship will not sink. 

Lesson learned:  Keep your tank top sealed tight.

TG

[millsy]

Or...  do as I did with my previously sunken C-23 and chop out all 1000 lb of the concrete ballast, repair the keel, increase the hull shell thickness 3 X's (tapering up into the turn of the bilge) and add a transverse floor for additional stiffness, mount 400 lb of lead along the lower end of the keel cavity, glass this in place, form a watertight keel cavity/battery box with the top forming a new cabin sole, mount 600 lb worth of agm batteries in the keel cavity (and two additional batteries below the cockpit sole), connect all in series/parallel for 400 ah/ 24VDC availible power, and add an electric outboard/ e-meter/25 amp bulk charger, and go sailing.

Chris
C-23 Dolce

[Allure2sail]

Good point about plugging a hole from the pressure side Skip. The further below the waterline, the more water pressure there is trying to push it in. A tarp on the outside of the hole wrapped around the hull might be a good way to stop the water intrusion. I don't think I will add a drain to the keel since that would just add a place for water to possibly come in.
Bruce: If you have a drain, I would make sure the top of the keel is well sealed and that the drain seals also. Is the boat in your drive a 27? what have you taken off of it?

Been picking away at this 27/2 for awhile. Still some stuff left. Got the motor to turn over by hand this week. Now in the process of taking out the prop shaft. After that I'm going to cut open the underbelly and lower the motor and trans down and out.