On 4th June 2021, as Belisama was lifted in Sables d'Olonne for the yearly check-up, I had asked Thierry Leprince from Alubat to have a look at the rudder as we had struck a rock two years before, without any noticeable steering consequences (see the post). But in fact the hull had been slightly pushed-up and this required to change the rudder posts on both sides, kind of a hip surgery...
Belisama had been in Alubat shipyard since early June. By mid-July, the insurance experts had reviewed the problem and agreed to cover the damage. Too late though for having it done before the annual summer Alubat break in August. As Belisama is now wintering in Sables d'Olonne, the time pressure for completing the repair became lower and the work just started recently.
For reference, the picture below was taken in June after we realised the bending of the rudder post. Not very obvious unless you focus on the round openings in the plate on the left and see that they are no longer in the same plan, indicating the bending-up of the hull. I should admit I missed it in my initial assessment of the impact.
Bended rudder pode stand
What took much time was to remove all carpentry prior to the cutting of the hull around the two rudder posts. Bellow is the anatomical part, the two rudder posts on their hull plate.
Damaged rudder posts after extraction
This is the newly 8 mm plate to be welded on the hull in replacement of the damaged one. Nice and shiny!
The hip protheses...
On 18 November, this morning, I just got new pictures from Alubat. The protheses have been inserted. The surgery is over!
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| Protheses are in place... |
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| The skin is closed back nicely... |
Nice job, one cannot even see a scare on the hull!
I will be in Sables d'Olonne at the end of January. More more news by then...
Thanks ++ to Thierry Leprince from Alubat SAV for the pictures.
one more time, same issue for a GRP boat: it would have sank, for sure...
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