Broken shit on a Melges 24

[Will O'Haver]

So I broke down last year and bought a Melges 24. It was the cheapest one on the market, Hull #22. Built in 1993. Aside from being in rough shape cosmetically, the pervious owner assured me it was a solid boat. Over the winter I had it inspected by a surveyor and no surprise they found some issues. The worst of them is the T shaped support structure that holds the boat together, was cracked and ultimately destroyed some years ago. Someone made a shitty bandaid fix, but she seems to sail fine, I haven’t noticed any difference from sailing on hull #800 other than it being cleaner. So my question is for anyone familiar with Melges’s. Is the boat safe to sail like this? Is it an easy repair? Should I repair it, or write the boat off? What else am I potentially missing?Thanks.

- Will 

 

[ryley]

the T shaped support structure that holds the boat together, was cracked and ultimately destroyed some years ago. Someone made a shitty bandaid fix,

seems like you've answered your own question. I sure wouldn't want to sail a performance boat with a known structural problem.

 

[Irish River]

Fix it.  There are many boats that have had a failed T beam. Ours did in 2015, hull# 591, which is a 2005.  We fixed it and continue to sail it at a high enough level for weekend warriors. Our fix was done by a pro, as the damage included the coach house. It wasn't that bad for the fix, he said, but grinding is shitty in confined space. 

 

[Will O'Haver]

Fix it.  There are many boats that have had a failed T beam. Ours did in 2015, hull# 591, which is a 2005.  We fixed it and continue to sail it at a high enough level for weekend warriors. Our fix was done by a pro, as the damage included the coach house. It wasn't that bad for the fix, he said, but grinding is shitty in confined space. 

Interesting. It sounds like a more common failure then I realized. Thank you for the information! 

 

[arr4ws]

Can we get picture of the problems?

you sailed on 800? im now the owner

 

[Irish River]

Here is a photo of our damage. The compression post punched through the T beam

 

[Bull City]

So I broke down last year and bought a Melges 24. It was the cheapest one on the market, Hull #22. Built in 1993. Aside from being in rough shape cosmetically, the pervious owner assured me it was a solid boat. Over the winter I had it inspected by a surveyor and no surprise they found some issues.

Will, it sounds like you had it surveyed after you bought it. Is that correct?

 

[USA 007]

Pretty common failure. Fill it with mat, and put a new t section of g10 to spread the load

 

[Essex]

Used to own this one, sold it to a guy in Wisconsin maybe 5 years back. Don't recall that being an issue, but then again we never had a survey done.

Let me know if any questions. 

As i recall, i replaced much of deck hardware including traveler track and car. Also re-bedded stanchions, pulpit, rudder pintles/gudgeons.