DRAGONFLY Trimarans User Forum

Yesterday I was sailing with a friend on a trip to attend a regatta next week at Magnetic Island. 50 miles into our journey in 15 - 20 knots we were beating toward an island where we had decided to take a break before continuing. I happened to be watching the port side front aka and to my horror saw the aka rising and falling about 2 inches. The pivot bolt had come loose inside the aka. We very quickly furled the genoa and turned and ran back toward our home marina.We lashed the aka to the ama passing a line completely under the ama and tensioning it on the winch in the cockpit. This stopped most of the vertical movement and we sailed home with just the odd bit of sideways movement of the ama and some squeaking and grinding noises. Once back at the marina a friend --- who should be a gymnast wriggled into the port ama and reported that the bolt had pulled through the bottom of the box section inside the ama. He said there was corrosion in the stainless steel. Water has probably been running down the bolt and sitting on the box section.
Has anyone had similar problem, and if so how did you go about repairing it? Oscar, if you read this, I know you completely rebuilt your amas, can you offer any advice?

thanks,

Paul

Ha, happen to be checking in here, my ears must have been burning.

Some pictures would be helpful. Either have Bo post them, or e-mail me.... oscar"at"noln.com where "at" is @ to keep the bots at bay.

That said, it sounds like the bolt, which I believe is welded to a plate, came loose. In which case I would remove all bits, have them re-welded and re-assemble.

Good timing Oscar, hope Irene did not cause you too much grief. We have solved the problem, we removed the offending bolt and stainless box section to find the welds on the bolt which passes through the box had both failed. A good stainless engineer welded up a new box section and bolt using a large washer welded to the bottom of the box as extras protection. We then tied the shrouds to our neighbor's trailer so we could flip the float upside down without dropping the rig. I was then able to work on a flat surface inside the hatch of the float, ground the old glass out (lovely job!~) and epoxied in the new box section and bolt. After the epoxy went off we flipped the float over again and put it all back together. I will check the condition of the bolt on the other float next time we are in the water. I think water has run down the bolt hole through the deck and corrosion had done it's job, but the welds looked flimsy to me as well. Theres; a fair bit of movement in the amas wher the pins are so will have to replace the pins with oversize ones soon.

Sounds like you have it under control.....good luck!