Sand under Anchor Locker

[rttoland]

In the process of repairing rotted out wood supports below the mast, I found a few inches of sand under the anchor rope locker shelf. Has anyone else found this? Is it intentional ballast? No indication my 2017 Sunday Cat has ever been damaged or beached and the sand appears to be clean and pure.

[Roland of Macatawa]

Hi, rttoland:

I sail a 2012 SunDayCat.
I'm having trouble recognizing what you are describing as a 'shelf' in the anchor rope storage area.
Please describe further. Thanks.

My boat is in storage, but I'll look carefully at that area next time that I am at it.
But my recollection is that the chain and rode simply lie upon the bottom inside of the hull, forward of the battery and the mast stub.

Was there a prior owner?
If so, did they add a compartment to secure some sand ballast?
It is reasonable to add some forward ballast (although I haven't) to trim the boat to counter the aft weight of an outboard.

or, perhaps Com-Pac changed the construction after my SunDayCat was built.

Regards, Roland

[kickingbug1]

you would think that the people at com-pac would have compensated for the weight of an outboard when they designed the boat. an outboard would have been a necessity

[bruce]

I think ballast is a good guess. I added 100 lbs. of sand in the forward locker on our PC to offset the OB and the my extra body weight at the helm compared to my wife and Scottie, our crew forward. I used canvas saddlebags filled with the sand, used by gaffers to stabilize light stands. Durable and easily removed if additional crew joins us.

Loose sand seems dodgy, doesn't sound factory. Maybe the PO bought sand in plastic bags that didn't hold up as well as they'd hoped. If it is the evidence of a grounding you'd know!

[rttoland]

I went ahead and cut out the anchor shelf (see photos). The wood was completely soaked. The horizontal anchor shelf is about two inches higher than the mast shelf on my boat. Maybe earlier boats did not have it and it was added to keep the sand covered. The top of the sand is about two inches lower than the anchor shelf which makes it about even with the mast shelf.

My current plan is to fill the area below the mast with high density structural pour foam (8 lbs/ft3) which has a compressive strength of 95 psi similar to wood. Any thoughts on how well this will work? I'm also trying to decide if I should remove the wet sand and fill that area with foam as well? I'll probably have to if I remove the rotted wood in the forward bulkhead that is holding back the sand.

[Roland of Macatawa]

Hi rttoland, regarding your SunDayCat:

The amount of rot which you describe suggests that a significant amount of water had intruded into the cuddy and/or fore-locker for a significant length of time.

Continuing awareness of water in the cuddy and/or fore-locker is needed.
It is a design flaw by Com-Pac, imho, that there is no drainage path(s) from the cuddy and/or fore-locker to the bilge where the water can be pumped out.

So, water in the cuddy and/or fore-locker must be sponged out, or otherwise pumped out, perhaps with a pump stick or a wet/dry vacuum.

May not be practical, yet if you built a false floor in the cuddy, you could probably incorporate a drain running under it from the fore-locker to the bilge.


Somewhere there was a significant water intrusion.
Have you identified, and repaired if necessary, all the possible water entrance paths into your SunDayCat's cuddy and/or fore-locker?

There are several water intrusion possibilities:
1.   Leakage through the Deck to Hull Joint
2.   Leakage through the Anchor Rode Deck Pipe
a.        Either down the center
i.             Say from a wave breaking over the bow, flooding the cap
b.        Or at its mounting seal
3.   Leakage through the Mast Stub
a.        Either down the center,
i.             Say when the mast is lowered, the mast stub is not covered, and it is raining
b.        Or down the outside at its seal to the deck
i.             Including at the sail slot in the extrusion
4.   Leakage at any of the fittings mounted on the top of the cuddy, including
a.        Anchor mount
b.        Anchor rode cleat
c.        Halyard cleats
d.        Others?
5.   Leakage at Side Shroud Chainplates
6.   Leakage Down the Forestay Halyard through the fitting into the cuddy
a.        This was once discussed on Keith Scott's (RIP) website.
7.   Simply returning a wet anchor rode into its storage locker.
8.   Others?


I have no expertise to comment on your consideration of using structural foam.

Regards, Roland