Brewer's Wisdom, Morgan's Errors

[terry_thatcher]

After owning my 382 for 26 years, I finally had a look at Ted Brewer's laminate schedule. It shows how he foresaw and then prevented problems most 382 owners face and how Morgan, by ignoring his plans, created the problems.
(1) We all know how the aft end of the keel is weak and how we must be very careful how a yard blocks the boat to protect that area. Brewer's plans would have prevented that problem. He directed that the last foot or more of the keel be glassed in nearly up to the sole, creating a cavity to be filled with resin and 3Ms glass beads. That would have created essentially a glass stern post. With that in place, we could have sat the boats down flat on the keel. Impossible to do now and perhaps hard to do in the manufacturing process, but not impossible and it would have much strengthened the boats.
(2) Some of us, perhaps many 382 owners, have noticed a slight sinking of the mast bucket. And Morgan tried to deal with that in its recall, at least on my boat, by adding glass tabbing from the bucket to the hull. 383/4 owners don't have this problem because their mast sits on the lead directly. Brewer did not design what Morgan did at the mast step. He had the mast bucket sitting on the lead, just as Morgan finally did later. Brewer was a master designer. And while Morgan built pretty good boats, for production boats ( I will not list the faults here), I wish the company (no longer owned by Charley Morgan during the production run) had followed Brewer's directions more closely.

 

[david_buckley]

True that!

After 30 years in the marine industry I know that boats are NEVER built exactly to the plans.

I fixed the keel issue years ago, it was a BRUTAL job. I cut the tank top/bilge floor open. Prepped the Inside of holding tank/keel cavity as best I could. Then I filled it with the highest density pour foam I could find. Then I glassed the top of the tank shut. I glass the &%$# out of it wrapping the lami's up the keel side. This solved the blocking problem and the leaking holding tank problem. I put a holding tank under the v berth. I am about to rip it out though. I am going to install a composting head. Don't get me started ranting about the problems with holding tanks and pump outs!

I may go after the sinking mast step if I keep owning this boat. If I do, I will share the process.

 

[terry_thatcher]

As I crawled around the boat today to run new hoses and wires for my new Beta engine, I began to think I am wrong about the aft end of my keel. But I have not further investigated. But I remain vigilant on how they set the boat down at the yard. My holding tank continues to work and its placement, if not its construction, seems smart. I use a LectraSan sewage treatment system before anything goes in the tank. Since I sail mostly in Canada, I use the tank at anchor, then pump it overboard when in main channels. That is legal there. In Puget Sound, all dischsrge, even of treated sewage is banned. Though much of my career was as an environmental advocate, it seems silly to me to ban discharge of tiny amounts of treated sewage from boats, but allow billions of gallons of the stuff from municipalities. On the other hand, in small bays in British Columbia, too many folks are still dumping untreated waste into the water. I left one of my favorite anchorages last year because oif the stench.

 

[Warren Holybee]

My holding tank also does not leak. I know the belief is that how it is blocked it the issue, but I also wonder of other factors. West coast boats are not stored on the hard 6 months each year, and I think that helps. Anyway, I am always careful to block it properly.

Looking at the laminate schedule, it does look to me that the drawing does indeed show the bucket not directly on the keel and with a putty underneath it. Labeled "Epoxy putty". I think Morgan used something other than epoxy that is softer. Epoxy filled with glass fiber would have been fine I think. From a construction standpoint, the bucket position needs to be at a precise height, as it is part of the sole. Variation in the keel pour would affect how level the sole is. Getting that height would be very difficult without some filler of some sort. The best solution would probably be to not tie the bucket to the sole, and let it be at whatever height it needs to be.

Not sure about the aft edge of the keel. From sounding it on the outside, I don't think it is solid at the aft edge. And my electric pump is in the aft part mounted on a small triangle of GRP board. If built to the plan, I think that would be more square than triangle.

 

[terry_thatcher]

My pump is on exactly the same kind of GRP. Must have been Morgan design. On the 3834 and 384, they put the mast on the lead somehow,