Gone with the Wynns' Leopard catamaran

[Nahbrown]

Originally Posted by SV WELDER

How much will it cost them to replace that safety item?

The life raft? 3-5 thousand depending on quality.

The hatch? I have no experience with that

[HighTemp]

Those hatches are made to open from the tunnel if you ever find yourself capsized.

Personally, I don't care for that life raft storage approach either. Funny thing is that the exact same approach can be found on newer catamarans as well. Case in point, our 2019 FP Saona. Under the bench seat at the cockpit table, the floor of that compartment has just such a panel. Apparently FP changed their minds about using as raft storage as most of the Saona's I have seen have the raft under the steps leading to the helm from the cockpit. So now it is just additional storage, but we have to be careful what we store there as water does make its way into that compartment when sailing.

Based on what I noticed on ours when we last hauled out, it is not unlikely that the one or more of the latched used to hold the panel in place may have rusted away to the point of failure. One of those waves slapping the bridge deck was likely the proverbial straw that broke that camels back. Looking at ours, I was not happy to see the amount of corrosion that had accumulated on the latch handles in only two years with only moderate use. Moving forward, I can only see two options. Keep it as is and do ones best to control corrosion, and change out the latches every haul out, or next haul out just hire someone to glass the entire thing into place and forget about it.

[zstine]

Originally Posted by SV WELDER

How much will it cost them to replace that safety item?

the cost of the raft, plus a custom built fiberglass replacement 'shelf'.. I'm guessing $5-7k.

[tedowens]

I also own a Leopard 43, and I am shocked that this could have happened. The bottom of the life raft locker is molded in, and it is an integral part of the hull. It does not have a hatch that can be accessed from the under side. What Scott (fillintheblank) saw on one of their videos is an emergency escape hatch that is located in the salon floor. The life raft locker is further aft and a little to starboard. The locker floor is not even the shortest part of the bridge deck. It is supported on port and starboard by stringers which are also molded and together the make up the bottom of the bridge deck in that area.

I really need to see what it looks like from the underside to help me understand this. I too noticed how clean the hole is. I would have expected more visible damage, which I expect there will be a lot of it when it is seen. I would have predicted that there would be a massive hull failure for this to happen. I can't imagine how to properly repair this.

I have crossed the Atlantic in mine and have always felt very safe. Of course, my confidence is now shaken. I also expect that the resale value and insurance premium will take a hit after this publicity (not that I am considering selling mine). I expect that the Wynn's will share the damage assessment and repair details. Maybe this repair will turn out to be something that other owners can do proactively. It is too early to draw many conclusions considering the limited data that we have.

[Lurker19]

Looks like there are two hatches. The one described by tedowens in post 19 and another just aft and a bit to starboard.

This is a grab from their episode on the survey when the bought the boat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZPb...EQZbF&index=11

[Tupaia]

Bali 4.3's (don't know about other models) have this arrangement and when it gets smashed at sea you are left with a big hole as you exit the garage door.

[tamicatana]

And yet, the Polynesians colonised the entire Pacific with fairly permeable, open bridgedeck catamarans…

[sailon46]

I was in St Croix Green Cay Marina and a friendly couple came in a Leopard 47 2005 model from Florida. They suffered the same failure and I helped in the repair after receiving the cover from Florida. A stormy night by Porto Rico and the waves battering from underneath tore up the flimsy supports in the four corners. The owner been an engineer fixed it for good.
Ernie on the Loremar

[SV WELDER]

If I owned one I’d these I’d be looking for edges where water can pry underneath and maybe screw on a little mud flap type thing or something that would convince water to slide over the gap instead of getting under it and tearing it off. Probably only needs a little adjustment to make it work as designed. But, I’m just thinking out loud and probably should stop since I have no idea what I’m talking about

[Nahbrown]

Originally Posted by SV WELDER

If I owned one I’d these I’d be looking for edges where water can pry underneath and maybe screw on a little mud flap type thing or something that would convince water to slide over the gap instead of getting under it and tearing it off. Probably only needs a little adjustment to make it work as designed. But, I’m just thinking out loud and probably should stop since I have no idea what I’m talking about

I would fiberglass it shut from the bottom and relocate the liferaft.

[KitGriffin]

Originally Posted by SV WELDER

How much will it cost them to replace that safety item?

According to WestMarine the REVERE SURVIVAL–Ocean ISO 4-Person Life Raft Canister is $3,349.99US. Mind you, there are many choices apart from that one.

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/rever...ster--17266990

Kit Griffin
SV Swan

[tedowens]

Interesting, I see in the video that Lurker19 posted that their are in fact two hatches on the Wynn's boat, which I believe is a 2005 model. Mine is from 2007. I only have one hatch, so it seems that Leopard decided that the hatch under the life raft was a bad idea. This makes a lot more sense to me, and gives me some relief about my own boat. Leopard has even removed the escape hatch all together on new models. I believe that the only reason that it was there was to comply with a French law, which I understand has been revoked. The escape hatches are a real liability. A friend with a Lagoon developed a serious leak in one at the water line and it was nearly lost. He managed to stabilize it and made it to shore okay. Their are other stories like this that show that these hatches are a dangerous (and no incidents of them being used in an emergency). I had trouble with mine leaking and eventually siliconed it shut. If the boat flips I can swim out if necessary.

[CaptainRivet]

Exactly that setup was the big nogo for me to get a Leo 38

[Talbot]

One of the Privilege models, the 43 if I recall correctly, has the same poor system, and I know the same thing happened to a chum with his 43.

I guess a good idea by someone who has never been to sea in rough conditions.

[LifePart2]

We have a Leopard 42, which is almost identical to the 43, apart from a foot longer sugar scoop, and a hard bimini.

There are two hatches in floor. The one inside the salon is a Lewmar acrylic hatch for escaping from the boat when inverted. It does leak a tiny bit when waves hit it. However, since it gets no UV damage we are not concerned about its strength.

The bigger one in the floor of the cockpit is for holding the liferaft. As shown in the video, this has an upper lid that hinges upwards to expose liferaft when the boat is right-side up. The lower hatch hinges downwards to release the liferaft when the boat is upside down. That is held in place with hinges and with two hasps that are held closed with bolts and nuts and then pins. I do like the idea of easy access if upside down.

However, waves do slam against that, which makes the heavy liferaft jump up and down in the hatch. Not ideal.

We have noticed there is rust on the bolts, so when (if ever!) we get back to our boat we will take another look at that and replace the bolts, perhaps with either titanium or galvanised steel.

My guess is that the pounding plus corrosion did snap the bolts. The hatch would then be hanging down by the hinges and would get ripped off by the next wave.

Once again we see the problem of relying on stainless steel for mission-critical applications.