[Alberg30] lifelines, shrouds, and ballast

[J Bergquist]

Dear list,

When I had my boat surveyed before purchase, the surveyor (Fred 
Hecklinger) told me it was a problem that my lifelines are not secured 
to the upper shrouds. He said that the unsupported span of the lifelines 
was too great between the stanchions forward and aft of the shrouds and 
that they should be secured to the uppers. I have no stanchions in way 
of the shrouds, and I assume the rest of you also have none. I (not 
really knowing anything about this particular nuance) simply assumed he 
knew what he was talking about.

So I went to Bacon's to ask if there was any kind of hardware that I 
could buy for securing my lifelines to the uppers, and they looked at me 
like I was from Mars and said my surveyor was full of baloney.

This is fine and good, but my insurance company thinks the surveyor is 
on his rocker and that I should be doing something about this. Can any 
of you verify yes/no whether your lifelines are secured to your uppers, 
how great is your unsupported span between stanchions forward and aft of 
the shrouds, and if this is a problem, or if it was just my surveyor 
being overly anal retentive.

And while I'm at it, he gave me another recommendation that I am not so 
sure about. On top of my encapsulated ballast, there is an area where I 
have some failure in the fiberglass cap (this is internal to the boat - 
under the cabin sole. The crack begins forward, just aft of the forward 
bulkhead between the head and v-berth. It extends aft about 5 or 6 feet 
until  there is a false floor which I haven't yet removed and which my 
batteries are currently sitting on top of. The crack may extend farther 
aft, but since I've never looked under that false floor, I don't know.

The surveyor said that this failure was a big problem and that I would 
have to grind it out, down to bare metal, rebed with polysulfide, and 
then re-seal the top of the ballast with fiberglass. The area is not 
currently very wet (at least it's not SUPPOSED to be), so I figure it 
can wait until the wintertime, because it doesn't look like my ballast 
is about to jump ship, and I don't figure this is something that will 
happen rapidly. There were no signs of corrosion externally when the 
boat was on the hard. However, the insurance company also is asking 
questions about this and I just thought I would ask some of you if you 
had any experience and/or advice about this problem. I realize that 
corrosion of the ballast would cause it to expand and potentially crack 
the encapsulation.

I asked a colleague who used to own an A30 what he thought, and he said 
that he thought they were all like that and I shouldn't waste my time 
worrying about it. However, I need to be able to explain that to the 
insurance company...

Thanks for all the great posts and advice!

J Bergquist
Calliope #287

 //===============================================================//
         Cruising the Chesapeake: A Gunkholer's Guide

  My favorite Chesapeake Bay guidebook. While it mentions marinas,
  it concentrates on anchorages--the kind of places I prefer to spend
  my time. And in addition to listing shore facilities, it rates each
  location for Beauty/Interest and Protection. This is the guide you
  need to really cruise the Chesapeake Bay--a smorgasbord of small
  creeks and coves.

   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071363718/alberg30-20
 //===============================================================//

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