Transom Broke

[Walter Siebold]

A crack develop on the transom were the top "gudgeon" of the rudder attaches. I am not sure if it develop during the last race or over a long period of time. The crack travelled all the way to the swim ladder bolt hole.


Please click on the photo to see it enlarged!

Is this common in the DF800s? How do you recommend to repair it. It worries me that the backing plate has the rivet holes about 2mm from the edge. If fiberglass or carbon fiber is applied, there will be no space for holes in the backing plate.

The most upsetting part is that when the transom broke we could not continue the race. At the time we were ahead of a Condor 30 which owed me at the time 6 minutes (who won the race), and on corrected time way ahead of two Corsair 28R and one Corsair 750. They all had high tech sails, we had the original 18 year old dacron main and a small spinnaker. Wind force was BF5 and our maxium speed was 17 knots! We were pushing the boat, but she was in its element. In our normal light winds they always bet me bad (I need new sails).

My helm has been always neutral. In strong puffs the boat would head into the wind and the rudder would not bring it down until we eased the sails some, but I never feel a strong force on the helm. The transom does not look strong, but the forces are not that strong either.

In forehand, thanks for your suggestions.

Walter

[Oscar]

I would have kept going.... As far as the repair, in principle there needs to be reinforcement applied with glass and resin, followed by gelcoat repair. Not rocket science, just need someone who's done it before, or learns very quickly.

[dragonfly88]

Any chance you hit something? That is an odd spot for the damage. It looks like it radiates from the fastener.

I believe raking the mast would add some weather helm, it makes the boat faster.

I have a df 25 and another owner told me about the same phenomenon with rudder stall (I think that is the problem) and describes the same remedy. I haven't attained speeds where it occurs yet.

[dragonfly88]

Concerning your strong wind performance with the original main the other 25 owner I talked to said he wished he had kept his old sail for strong conditions as he thinks the square top main is too much sail.

[Oscar]

he wished he had kept his old sail for strong conditions as he thinks the square top main is too much sail.

How about a reef?

[Walter Siebold]

Got an e-mail from Dragonfly.

They recommend to extend the upper bracket (gudgeon) by welding a plate and bolting it down with three extra 8mm bolts.

Apparently this has happen before, does anyone had had this problem before?

Cheers,

Walter