Question:
A customer brought in a 14 foot Alumacraft boat for weld repair
yesterday. I am not a boat repair shop but do weld as part of the
servides I offer. 11 of the 12 ribs that run across the bottom of the
boat are broken. I figure that this is because the owner sits in the
back and controls the outboard from there. I told him he needs to sit
forward to avoid pounding. Maybe needs to adjust the angle of his
outboard too. As far as welding the ribs I will weld each crack first.
Then, hammer form some channel over wood forms. Finally, each new
piece of channel will be laid over the rib spanning the cracked part
and extending 6 inches to either side and welded in place. Does this
seem like a good fix? BTW, I will be contacting Alumacraft today to
find out what alloy they are using for the ribs (bet it's 5052) and
see if they think the suggested repair will work. So, any reasons that
this won't work well?
Answer:
-I saw a similar failure on a friends boat, don't remember the brand of
boat though. The first time, they welded the cracks up. That lasted a
couple of weeks. The next time they welded the cracks, and ran a piece of
U channel fore and aft over the 5-6 cracked ribs and a foot or two
beoynd. They did this to the other side with no cracks also. That fixed
is for good. 5 years later, no problems.
-You might also call the AlumaCraft company in St Peter, Minnesota. See what they
have to say.
-I called them this morning. They approved of my repair ideas. I hammer
formed a piece of close fitting channel from 5052 sheet and it looks
like it will be perfecr. The customer needs to approve before I form
the rest though.
