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Beneteau 50 with cracks and loose bulkheads


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This story has been a recent topic in european sites. I am not sure if you guys have seen it here. This Beneteau First 50, the top of the range boat, got major damage during Around Britain Race. The bulkheads got loose and moved a lot. They were just glued on. They have cracks in the hull and interior. The yard says that the guys were racing, so no warranty and the boat is only 3 years old.

 

http://www.teamstyrbord.com/

 

I have seen this before in another modern hull with glued on bulkheads and interior. Can you fix this or is it cheaper to take the valuable stuff out and buy a new hull? Almost all european (cheap) modern boats have glued on bulkheads and interior. I don't like the fact that Beneteau is not taking any responsibility in the matter. And they sell the boat as a racer/cruiser but you can't race it? It seems that the owner is left alone with a broken hull. Any First 50´s here in NZ?, I have only seen one 45.

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It would depend on so many factors. You would want an expert like FNG to go over the boat and evaluate for you. Then if worth taking further, he would do an excellent job for you. There are just too many variables to be able to comment here. It depends on what is cracked, where it is cracked and how severly, all coupled with how easy is it to get to the cracks and carry out the repairs, which all equates to Time and thus cost.

The beauty of GRP is that providing you can get to a crack easy enough, they can always be fixed and they can be made stronger than they originally were.

 

My point of view, is that a Hull should be strong enough to take on anything the boat is capable of sailing in. Racing or not, it should not matter and this is why I do not like these boats myself. It may have races in this case, but who cares. What if you were simply caught out in a storm. I truely believe that any boat should be capable of sailing in anything that the rig is capable of handling. If the Rig produces stresses and strains that the Hull can not withstand, then the Hull is wrong. And even then, the entire package should never be able to let go at Bulkhead joints. That is just plain bad designing or manufacturing. And for a designer to say their design is intended for Harbour or close costal work only, is poor. Besides, they don;t ever advertise that so they.

It would also be interesting to know if the biulder actually states that racing voids warranty.

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I worked on a carbon rig for a Beneteau 44.7 recently, the owner had some spare cash and wanted to gooch it up a bit. I asked our man on the ground if the boat would take the rig loads I was proposing, he said "maybe just dial it back a bit".

 

I'm waiting to hear how quick the rig pulled the deck off...

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Perhaps the best test is to swing the boat between 2 cranes and let it fly into the water from 35 to 40ft up in the air.

 

Then if hull & decks and rig survive, then do all the fitout, knowing the hull is reasonably strong.

 

Been there jumping a boat 30ft out of waves . . .

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If the Rig produces stresses and strains that the Hull can not withstand, then the Hull is wrong. And even then, the entire package should never be able to let go at Bulkhead joints. That is just plain bad designing or manufacturing.

 

I think this failure was caused by waves and not rig loads. The wind does not break boats, waves do. I was banging into the waves in North Sea a few years back and it felt like I was in a washing machine. I was wondering how long my boat can take the beating. When the boat drops down from a large wave and bangs into the water, the hull is really measured. I wonder how many modern boats would survive a test like PaulR suggested? Not the First 50 anyway. I still like the First 50. It looks nice, it is lightweight and fast, spacious down below. I think on paper it is a good choice for a cruiser/racer. I have considered buying something like that. And I think they are quite cheap. But I saw a video were they made a 40+ feet boat in 3 weeks in Germany. Everything was just glued on; deck, bulkheads, pentry unit, toilet unit, etc. And that is why I have to keep on fixing my old boat.

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The rig provides the power and that power is coupled to the Hull and if the Hull is not strong and rigid enough at all the points the rigging is couple to the Hull, it will cause cracks in those areas, which is often the most common places to find cracks in hulls. Plus if the entire Hull is to weak, then the Hull can be twist and bend and that is where Cracks appear at Bulkheads. Then there is the down force of the Mast trying to turn the Boat into a Banana.

Slamming off and into waves create the most damage to the underside of the Hull. And if you ever want to see how much movement you can get in a Glass Hull, go rign to the bottom just back from the bow and place your hand on the hull and see how much she moves.

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Then there is the down force of the Mast trying to turn the Boat into a Banana.

 

What he says....from what i have seen , the bendyboats built from early 2000's onwards are slapped together to quickly , pulled from moulds while green..mass produced...early bene's pre 2000 were well built,

 

Couldn't believe it when i first saw the bending/kink up of hull/deck at shroud chain plates (port and starboard) on a relatively new 443.

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I don't like janola bottles or bendy boats. Glue is intolerant to flex. When the boat hits a wave there are so many forces in all different directions the boat flexes and this causes the glue to crack then the next wave you hit does more damage because the boat has lots it's integrity.

Nz boats are older sure but they where built by hand which means the bulkheads etc have glass tabs in them to make everything stronger. This does require a man to do it which = $$ jaonal boats and bendy boats are pretty much built by robots like cars. This doesn't mean to say kiwi boats are builet proof Ive had my share or borken boats but in Nz most desingers realise that as kiwi if there is more than two boats on the water it's a race and the first rule of racing is to finish first, you first must finish.

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That is disturbing to hear such a big manufacturer such as Benetau wiping their hands on that one ...and that the boat suffered the damage after only 3 yrs - assume the Firsts are built more lightly than say the Oceanis's?...

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There has to be more to this story. Otherwise Beneteau is going to self-destruct it's own brand reputation with these First boats. To claim a racing exclusion is ridiculous because First's are marketed by Beneteau as being designed for racing - in the UK, First's are the most popular race-charter boat for goodness sake.

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http://teamstyrbord.blogspot.com/2010/11/beneteau-damage-report.html

 

The owners comment last year:

 

"Beneteau do not take any responsibility for the damage to the boat that occured during Around Britain Race. This is the answer I got from Beneteau

 

They say " The facts are that this hull liner craking occured on a boat 3 1/2 yers old."

 

But, somehowe they want to help me. " In order to help you, we can send you the XPU glue (for the bulkheads) and some other glue (all free of charge) in order to carry on the repair. "

 

Thank´s Beneteau, and merry Christmas"

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At the risk of upsetting a number of forum-ites I'll bring up the CE rating.

 

That is the incredibly beuarcratic, expensive, illogical bollocks everything produced in Europe must be certificed with. I'd take a guess a 50 ft race boat is produced to CE Class A or what ever the specific rating is, i.e rated for ocean passages (as opposed to sheltered lakes class D etc)

 

If the boat is breaking up after 3 years of intended use, cleary their Classification system is not working and someone has stuffed up, sorry, no individual accoutability, must be a systemic failure :evil: :evil:

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Looked into some aspects of this a couple of years ago.

The CE was really only the construction of Hull & decks. It had very little to do with fitting out, suitability of equipment, installation etc.

 

I was comparing Lloyds UK, German LLoyds & CE building regulations.

Whilst I did not go into this tangle very deeply, my only comment was that there appeared to be an awful amout of CE waffle that said a lot which meant very little, and often quickly passed the onus onto another standard / regulation.

 

Most boat builders never read much anyway; let alone books 500+ pages long. So it really is up to the designers to wade through all of this. They ought to introduce the concept that the writer treats each word as spending $10 of his own money.

A single A4 page could result.

 

This thread shows up a lot. The CE in practical terms may mean the boat is able to float from marina to marina for a sail on a nice day, as long as one is moored every night. Nothing about actual strength, sea worthiness and suitability but then again, I do admit I skimmed through a lot of it.

 

IMHO, Quite different to NZ where it is 1,000 miles of rough to very rough ocean to the nearest port, generally a windward one as well!! So in general our boats are stronger but more these days more open and airy. The european boats remain more closed in for warmth.

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