Friend of a friend asked me to look at his boat (1987 22' tri hull O/B) as he said it is not tracking properly in the water. He told me it has not been right since installing a new 250 HP Merc O/B this last spring.
I assumed (dangerous I know) that the engine had not been installed properly and was causing the problem. However, a tape measure and some cross measurements says it is mounted straight and as it should be.
While taking the measurements I stood at the rear of the boat and "eye balled" the O/B with the lines of the boat and at first I couldn't believe it but it looked like the boat itself was "warped" but it was hard to tell on the trailer so we pulled it off and sat it on a concrete pad.
Next I took careful measurements of the transom to find its exact center and drew a vertical line from top to bottom. I then laid a level on that line and we jacked the boat up/down sideways until it was sitting level based on the transom.
Then I started taking measurements from all for corners to the ground. What I found was almost 4" of difference from the four corners to the ground. The boat hull is actually twisted! Wondering how in the world this could be I placed a jack under one corner at the transom and began lifting the boat to see if I could bring it back to "straight". As I began lifting you could actualy hear the fiberglass "scrunching" as the one corner came up.
The hull was twisting right before my eyes! I looked the entire hull over and it has hair line cracks thoughout the entire gel coat on the bottom and I suspect those are stress cracks in the fiberglass.
Now before I tell him his boat is beyond repair I wanted to know if anyone has ever seen of anything like this? Is there a "reasonable" repair possible?
FYI: The boat does not have a max HP rating plate but I suspect the new 250 HP O/B was well over the boats rating.
I assumed (dangerous I know) that the engine had not been installed properly and was causing the problem. However, a tape measure and some cross measurements says it is mounted straight and as it should be.
While taking the measurements I stood at the rear of the boat and "eye balled" the O/B with the lines of the boat and at first I couldn't believe it but it looked like the boat itself was "warped" but it was hard to tell on the trailer so we pulled it off and sat it on a concrete pad.
Next I took careful measurements of the transom to find its exact center and drew a vertical line from top to bottom. I then laid a level on that line and we jacked the boat up/down sideways until it was sitting level based on the transom.
Then I started taking measurements from all for corners to the ground. What I found was almost 4" of difference from the four corners to the ground. The boat hull is actually twisted! Wondering how in the world this could be I placed a jack under one corner at the transom and began lifting the boat to see if I could bring it back to "straight". As I began lifting you could actualy hear the fiberglass "scrunching" as the one corner came up.
The hull was twisting right before my eyes! I looked the entire hull over and it has hair line cracks thoughout the entire gel coat on the bottom and I suspect those are stress cracks in the fiberglass.
Now before I tell him his boat is beyond repair I wanted to know if anyone has ever seen of anything like this? Is there a "reasonable" repair possible?
FYI: The boat does not have a max HP rating plate but I suspect the new 250 HP O/B was well over the boats rating.
