[Public-List] Hello from Vancouver. (Somewhat) proud new owner of Antares 1967 A30.

[Glennb]

4" horizontal measure, 10" vertical, actually probably 12" vertical.  its been a couple of years... You loose 3 to 4 " down off the the ends because of the camber of the cabin top, and I took 3 1/2" off the bottom center to produce an arch that I could walk under without clunking my forehead.  so it came out something like a 4 x 5" sawn beam shaped like an arch...same pattern as the original laminated oak beam, only bigger and more beefy.

you could do a similar thing by laying up a laminated arch with 1/4 x 4" mahogany/oak/fir strips and not have the wastage inherent in sawing the beam to shape.  you would want to steam and lay up the laminates in a shop, on a bench frame of some sort to get the proper radius to get the cabin top. steaming the wood would be best, but some  woods will bend cold to this radius. I doubt you can get an in place laminated beam to glue up properly,, not much room to work in the confined space of the head on one side and wet locker to port.  

Laminated wood always shifts aroundwhen glued and ends up with overlapping edges, so I would make it oversize, maybe 41/2" wide and run the whole thing through a power planner to achieve desired size and  smooth surfaces all round.  Easy to do with a hand held power planer...

Glenn P.
dolce 318   
  

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 26, 2012, at 8:06 PM, Jeremy Brown <j_l_brown at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Thanks all for the good advice so far.  
> The beam looks better than it is I suspect, they drove long screws through from the bottom to hold it together.
> 
> With the repair what I'm not sure about is that dip down in the fiberglass, it should be concave there, not convex, yet my deck looks fine on top.  It is a greater dip down, as you can see in the center of the picture, the arch is reversed in the center.  This convex area is deeper than the difference in the paint line in the v berth, it appears fiberglass was later applied in the area as though a repair was made.  I am concerned about what is in there, and damaging whatever may have been done.
> 
> Re solid beam: it seems the metal plate repair has stood the test of time very well in many boats.  I'm generally inclined to stick to known and tried solutions when possible.
> If it comes time to sell, a known, proven upgrade or fix is best I suspect.
> 
> 
> With a4x10x length of arch piece of purple heart I'd be more inclined to do it that way, since it has such dense tough structure, but that is a very expensive piece of wood... my dad was talking same dimensions as stock and fir or microlam which I won't do.
> An in place lamination makes sense to me, or overkill size of beam.
> Was it 10 horizontal, or vertical with an arch cut in?  It sounds very appealing and strong either way.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Glennb <brooks.glenn at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Hello Jeremy,
> 
> I agree with your father regarding shaping a new mast support out of wood with a bandsaw,  I did that on my boat a few years ago and am very happy every time I look at at it.  the aluminim fix is undoubtedly quick to install and probably distributes the compression loading loading from the mast properly.  but it is not seamanship like, in my mind, to bolt a piece of metal over an old, failing beam and call it good. what happens when the old beam further delaminates and starts to twist around behind the aluminum plate? Which it will do eventually... I replaced my beam with a 4" x 10" length of purple hart, radiused down to fit the camber of the cabin and have no problems since. it looks great with a couple coats of varnish.   if you take the extra care to do it right the first time you will have a permanent fix, and restore value to the boat.
> 
> BTW, there's nothing wrong with day sailing as Is.  your beam looks like it's in much better shape than mine was, and I sailed the boat around Puget Sound for three years before replacing the beam.  also, I would let the improper thru hull Hose thing slow you down.  there are usually only five or six  thru hulls on the boat, including cockpit drain, so you could fairly quickly replace the hoses that are suspect and alleviate any risk.   also shut off the gate valves when you are not on board! no water can come in, if the valves are closed... Cheap insurance!
> 
> have fun with the boat.  They are very seaworthy craft.
> 
> Cheers
> Glenn Brooks
> dolce 318   
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Jul 25, 2012, at 12:42 PM, "Noonan, Jim (WB)" <Jim.Noonan at warnerbros.com> wrote:
> 
>> Jeremy, I'm not an attorney (nor do I play one on TV) but I was struck by the response of your surveyor when you asked about the engine as well as the complete lack of good faith and professionalism in the report you got.  If you signed a contract with the surveyor I would suggest having a lawyer take a quick look at it. If the surveyor didn't live up to the contractual obligation a letter from the attorney might lead to some kind of settlement that would help pay to fix the problems that should have been made clear to you. I am no fan of lawyers and law suits but if it wasn't his job to tell you that the engine wasn't as advertised and point out the other problems what exactly was his job. Sorry you had this experience but I think it is terrific that you've remained so positive. Jim    

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