Venezia 42: Rebuilding my Venezia Hulls

[Nautic Voyager]

Hi guys,
I've had to rip out the interior on the Port side to rebuild my hulls, bulkheads, and keel after a hurricane knocked the boat off its jack stands.
It's taken me three weeks, two rolls of fiberglass, and 30L of West System 205 to date and that's just the Portside interior.
The good thing is that I'm now redesigning the Port hull and installing the cabin sole. Should be ready to tackle the Starboard hull next week before tackling the exterior.

I'd like to retain the starboard head/shower pod but need to access the keel under the pod. I'm contemplating installing a deck access panel on the floor of the shower cubicle but not sure if this could work or do I just replace the section I cut out and Gelcoat back n place? If so how can glass the section back in????

Any comments are welcome.
Marc
NauticVoyager.com

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Nautic Voyager

Hi guys,
I've had to rip out the interior on the Port side to rebuild my hulls, bulkheads, and keel after a hurricane knocked the boat off its jack stands.
It's taken me three weeks, two rolls of fiberglass, and 30L of West System 205 to date and that's just the Portside interior.
The good thing is that I'm now redesigning the Port hull and installing the cabin sole. Should be ready to tackle the Starboard hull next week before tackling the exterior.

I'd like to retain the starboard head/shower pod but need to access the keel under the pod. I'm contemplating installing a deck access panel on the floor of the shower cubicle but not sure if this could work or do I just replace the section I cut out and Gelcoat back n place? If so how can glass the section back in????

Any comments are welcome.
Marc
NauticVoyager.com

Hi Marc,
I highly recommend to reinforce all bulkheads and put corner laminate on all bulkheads to stiffen up the cat. Also laminate the form floor parts with fiberglass to the hull. FP just uses the devils Perspex glue which is hard like porcelain but cannot flex with like laminate…so they break.
Got hit by a 8m rogue wave and all bulkheads are gone/ ripped on my Lavezzi because of that construction problem…the FP idiots even glue the bulkheads directly onto the topcoat and this on all models…
Rebuilding mine, just 100l epoxy so far inside for both hulls repairing the whole structure and reinforce. Be generous, reinforce where you can. Also get the FP Bulkhead drawings from FP, they really forgot the 2 bulkheads that supporting the keel on STB on mine, was speechless…also hulls are not a mirror on mine (owner version) so my repairer, a fantastic boat builder laminated extra bulkheads in that didn’t exist in the BB but in the STB and vice versa. Both hulls constructed as a mirror but to save money they just left away the one that are not absolutely necessary. BB has 5 bulkheads in the section between the 2 main bulkheads, STB only 2….
Head just cut out floor, to relaminate it back in you build small stripes out of laminate and glue them with epoxy to the back of the hole. To fixate you can use screws that you take out when cured. Then you put epoxy on the frame and back of the cut out piece, around the edges/frame. Then fill with epoxy and fair in, gelcoat it and done.

If you have it out anyhow and have to repair outside of hull too I would just put one or 2 layer of binlester resin+ 450 mat+50mat as osmosis protection outside on the hulls. Epoxy primer and then fair it. Then coopercoat on top, it’s epoxy too and your underwater ship is sealed for a long time.
I am doing that too, repairer fixes everything inside, me outside. Binelester is 95% of epoxy but much easier to handle and tolerant plus cheaper. Outside on the hull best to use.

[CaptainRivet]

Keels are not really sacrificial. They are not part of the hull that’s true but the amount sikaflex that they are glued in you will rip the floor and the keel support out before the keel comes out, doesn’t matter if downward or upward force. It’s just a cheap way of building. That’s what the surveyor and repairer said, both excellent boat builders.
If they get damaged you cut the damaged part away and rebuild it. Mine didn’t get damage, just the bulkheads that supporting the keel support from inside.
So we actually laminated the keel with 5 layers overlapping each other in the upper 15-20cm of the keel joint to hulls, again to reinforce the boat and the keel holding itself can take now much more force till it breaks. Then another 4 layers where the first mat goes from waterline till 10cm at the keel, next mat starts 5cm lower and goes 15cm on the keel. The last mat goes in one piece from waterline to the bottom of the keel. This reinforce the whole keel area and bonds the keel to the hull properly.
So my Lavezzi will be 300% stronger then a new one from factory the surveyor calculated. We will test that in a structural survey in 3 weeks to officially document the structure of the cat is fully restored. Maybe 5000Euro extra work to the 50000Euro damage, worth every penny.

[CaptainRivet]

Didn’t feel safe to me when I walked through the whole cat with both boat builders and they explained me how it was originally done. Wanna do a world circum and its confirmed a good sturdy design for a light (mine 6,5t for a 40ft) Offshore cat but badly build and saved money on the wrong spots. All FP build the same way from 1998-2009, Lavezzi is the lightest in relation to length.
Now that damage gave me the chance to change that and all structural parts are fixed in the most sturdiest way possible and structure improved where it’s possible to get the max out of the given design.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

Keels are not really sacrificial. They are not part of the hull that’s true but the amount sikaflex that they are glued in you will rip the floor and the keel support out before the keel comes out, doesn’t matter if downward or upward force. It’s just a cheap way of building. That’s what the surveyor and repairer said, both excellent boat builders.
If they get damaged you cut the damaged part away and rebuild it. Mine didn’t get damage, just the bulkheads that supporting the keel support from inside.
So we actually laminated the keel with 5 layers overlapping each other in the upper 15-20cm of the keel joint to hulls, again to reinforce the boat and the keel holding itself can take now much more force till it breaks. Then another 4 layers where the first mat goes from waterline till 10cm at the keel, next mat starts 5cm lower and goes 15cm on the keel. The last mat goes in one piece from waterline to the bottom of the keel. This reinforce the whole keel area and bonds the keel to the hull properly.
So my Lavezzi will be 300% stronger then a new one from factory the surveyor calculated. We will test that in a structural survey in 3 weeks to officially document the structure of the cat is fully restored. Maybe 5000Euro extra work to the 50000Euro damage, worth every penny.

If I understand you correctly you are relying on mate for strength?

[Nautic Voyager]

Thanks, guys for the information,
If you want to see how the build is going please click on the following link to the latest video.
let me know what you think and subscribe to follow the progress.
regards,
Marc

[Nautic Voyager]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

Hi Marc,
I highly recommend to reinforce all bulkheads and put corner laminate on all bulkheads to stiffen up the cat. Also laminate the form floor parts with fiberglass to the hull. FP just uses the devils Perspex glue which is hard like porcelain but cannot flex with like laminate…so they break.
Got hit by a 8m rogue wave and all bulkheads are gone/ ripped on my Lavezzi because of that construction problem…the FP idiots even glue the bulkheads directly onto the topcoat and this on all models…
Rebuilding mine, just 100l epoxy so far inside for both hulls repairing the whole structure and reinforce. Be generous, reinforce where you can. Also get the FP Bulkhead drawings from FP, they really forgot the 2 bulkheads that supporting the keel on STB on mine, was speechless…also hulls are not a mirror on mine (owner version) so my repairer, a fantastic boat builder laminated extra bulkheads in that didn’t exist in the BB but in the STB and vice versa. Both hulls constructed as a mirror but to save money they just left away the one that are not absolutely necessary. BB has 5 bulkheads in the section between the 2 main bulkheads, STB only 2….
Head just cut out floor, to relaminate it back in you build small stripes out of laminate and glue them with epoxy to the back of the hole. To fixate you can use screws that you take out when cured. Then you put epoxy on the frame and back of the cut out piece, around the edges/frame. Then fill with epoxy and fair in, gelcoat it and done.

If you have it out anyhow and have to repair outside of hull too I would just put one or 2 layer of binlester resin+ 450 mat+50mat as osmosis protection outside on the hulls. Epoxy primer and then fair it. Then coopercoat on top, it’s epoxy too and your underwater ship is sealed for a long time.
I am doing that too, repairer fixes everything inside, me outside. Binelester is 95% of epoxy but much easier to handle and tolerant plus cheaper. Outside on the hull best to use.

This is great advise, thank you.

[Nautic Voyager]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

Keels are not really sacrificial. They are not part of the hull that’s true but the amount sikaflex that they are glued in you will rip the floor and the keel support out before the keel comes out, doesn’t matter if downward or upward force. It’s just a cheap way of building. That’s what the surveyor and repairer said, both excellent boat builders.
If they get damaged you cut the damaged part away and rebuild it. Mine didn’t get damage, just the bulkheads that supporting the keel support from inside.
So we actually laminated the keel with 5 layers overlapping each other in the upper 15-20cm of the keel joint to hulls, again to reinforce the boat and the keel holding itself can take now much more force till it breaks. Then another 4 layers where the first mat goes from waterline till 10cm at the keel, next mat starts 5cm lower and goes 15cm on the keel. The last mat goes in one piece from waterline to the bottom of the keel. This reinforce the whole keel area and bonds the keel to the hull properly.
So my Lavezzi will be 300% stronger then a new one from factory the surveyor calculated. We will test that in a structural survey in 3 weeks to officially document the structure of the cat is fully restored. Maybe 5000Euro extra work to the 50000Euro damage, worth every penny.

Appreciate the help. I've copied your advice.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Cadence

If I understand you correctly you are relying on mate for strength?

I rely on combination of mate, binelester resin, proper preparation of the hull by sanding with angle grinder with 40grid and cleaning it with high pressure claener+aceton so everything bonds properly.
My repairer made a test piece of 3 layers of 450 with binelester resin. Tried to smash it in pieces with a 5kg hammer and failed even smashing the dryed roller of just resin wasn't possible. But the wooden block i used as smash support is now smashed to pieces...