Bilge Cracks Leaking Seawater

[Blackie Swart]

If you read everything, you'll notice "a possiblility of heavy grounding" or being dropped could be the reason for the leaks.
Again, you've missed the point. It's not a bad design, just a different one with a different purpose.
I have traveled 17,000 across the Atlantic and beached and been on the hard a good few times without support and still going strong and no problems with the sacrificial keels.
Enjoy sailing and enjoy your boat.

[gmakhs]

Originally Posted by Blackie Swart

If you read everything, you'll notice "a possiblility of heavy grounding" or being dropped could be the reason for the leaks.
Again, you've missed the point. It's not a bad design, just a different one with a different purpose.
I have traveled 17,000 across the Atlantic and beached and been on the hard a good few times without support and still going strong and no problems with the sacrificial keels.
Enjoy sailing and enjoy your boat.

If grounding is involved , then is normal .

But people say that those boats can't support their weight on the keels .

OP the crack can be from grounding or only on the gellcoat , please make sure the hose above the crack or anything else is not leaking , I have had thicker cracks on a Sweden yacht c34 after several groundings and one sinkage , that weren't leaking .

[pillars]

To update this thread.

Boat has been repaired, by reglassing from the inside. No issues, even after some hard sailing.

The Leopard 40 and other Leopards of similar vintage are designed with sacrificial keels, so that on a hard grounding you don't rip you hull apart. This is a feature targeted at the charter market. However, the design sacrifice that was made for this feature is no rest with full weight on the keels. You probably could sit it on the beach if you had to in an emergency, but I wouldn't. The manual shows the boat keel off the ground when on stands. Also what happened to this particular boat is that it was dropped on one side at the yard when being moved without the owner being there. That being said to say that this very popular design is weak, it a bit of a stretch, no? There is no boat that will meet all the design criteria you an think of. Design sacrifices have to be made somewhere.

"And don't forget one of the reasons you get a cat is that you can beach it easily with the tides like a bilge keel or double keel monohulls"

Not to start this discussion again, but for me the list of reasons to get a cat was long, and this one didn't make that list.

[malbert73]

Good thing there is no core in hull near that crack?

[gmakhs]

Fiberglass repair within only and while it leaks if not the best option ....

[pillars]

The boat is solid glass on the bottom of the hull. The cored section starts up the sides of the hull.

[smj]

I was under the impression all Leopards are balsa cored below the waterline.

[pillars]

Yes there is core below the water line, but the cored section does not wrap around the bottom of the hulls. Bottom is solid glass.