Lead/concrete in bow

[Pete Meisinger]

If you want a tunnel bow thruster, you already know all the ballast has to be removed. You may have hopes somebody will come up with a miracle cure but, that aint gonna happen.

I would just like to remind you to save all the scrap you pull out. You will want to weigh it so you replace with a similar weight, not volume.

pete

 

[moparharn]

A few thoughts.
1. Tight space- my back hurts just looking at the pictures.

2. You might consult a stone mason. Mark out your desired cut and drill holes along these lines. The holes should create stress risers that fracture the mix along the lines.

3. As you do not know what is in the mix I would be sure use a respirator and keep the area wet while working as the water will keep the particulate out of the air.

4. Wondering if removing the bulkhead tabbing and pulling the board might give you better access to remove the fill in sheets with a chisel and small sledge. Any cutting will require carbide or diamond tips.

5. The Trader 50 has a sh*t ton of freeboard, I'm surprised it has existed since 84 without a bow thruster. Lovely boat. I suspect this will go much better than you might think at the moment. Good Luck!

 

[South of Heaven]

C'mon guys, it was a harmless joke by Marco. That was evident after he mentioned the beers.

Smile a little gents! Life is good. We're on a boating forum.

 

[Ski in NC]

I doubt they poured molten lead in there, heat damage would be NUTZ. Probably dumped chunks of lead in and then poured concrete over the top.

Might be able to chip out the concrete, then manually pull out the loose lead.

Be careful with airborne lead dust!!! There will be lead particles in the glass, so grinding for tube install can still kick up Pb dust even with the Pb chunks removed.

Also, if you are removing ballast, you may find that boat really needs it. That could likely be handled some other way.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

I am glad you can tell everything about someone elses ability to dock, or maybe their ability to climb around the boat easily. There are a lot of reasons to have thrusters and maybe it isn’t the best idea to drink beer and then cast aspersions on someone elses abilities or issues.

You know I have one leg, right?

 

[Symphony]

Push the EASY button! don't change the trim of your vessel. Install a STERN Thruster! my big stern thruster moves the bow better than my bow thruster does. Stern Thruster can hang off the transom. at least investigate a stern thruster before demolishing your bilge, hull, trim, water tight envelope.

good luck and best wishes for your project.
good bow and stern thrusters make docking absolutely wonderful all the time.

Richard
2005 Vicem 58 (for sale)
Branford, CT

 

[Caballero II]

QUOTE=South of Heaven;972307]C'mon guys, it was a harmless joke by Marco. That was evident after he mentioned the beers.

Smile a little gents! Life is good. We're on a boating forum.[/QUOTE]

 

[ronobrien]

Id be careful with a jackhammer. The impacts could telegraph through to the hull and damage the fiberglass.

 

[Nomad Willy]

We gutted the stern (lazerette) w jack hammers. Two sizes .. small/large.
But the W30 hull is quite strong. Boats been in the water for 15yrs since and no hull issue.

Re that fwd ballast that several say is in my W30 ..I’ll poke around.

 

[High Wire]

yea, stern thruster

 

[macsail]

Success!

Success! Let me share status… we are just about to install the tube (that's the easy part). And thanks for all the Input!

Here's what we did… we used a rotary hammer in chisel mode to remove the steel/concrete. We outlined the cut with a 4 in grinder with diamond masonry wheel. I cut a wide side-to-side channel and preserved some of the ballast. I got my contractor with two men to do the work. They didn't blink at the job. I was there to work with them, of course.

Finally some luck, the cement was about six inches thick set on top of a plywood sheet. Below that was an open area which also exposed the forward water tank, AND the location of the desired tube installation. We weighed the material we removed, 390 lbs. I estimate that there is about 150 lbs of ballast that I did not remove. That operation took only 3 hours!

When the installation is complete, I'll take the time to paint the exposed fiberglass and install nice covers, etc. You'll note some translucent hull areas in the pictures which are blister repairs (another story, another day). Just FYI, the tube top will be placed about 15 in below waterline, 1 1/2 times my 10 in diameter tube.

 

[timb]

that's great the pics aren't showing up though . lucky The plywood was there how much does the thruster and batteries if any weigh . I don't 200 pounds is going to make a huge difference in that big of a boat.

 

[O C Diver]

The other considerations (besides the weight of the batteries and motor) is the weight of the water. You are installing a tube through a space that use to have air. The tube filled with water will have weight. Water weighs 64 pounds per cubic foot.

My guess is that between the batteries, thruster motor, and water filled tube, you won't need to add back much ballast.

Ted

 

[MYTraveler]

that's great the pics aren't showing up though . lucky The plywood was there how much does the thruster and batteries if any weigh . I don't 200 pounds is going to make a huge difference in that big of a boat.

In considering the thruster's weight, I am confident that it is necessary to adjust for the weight of the water in the tunnel, but I can see the argument against .

 

[macsail]

I calculate that that the weight I'm adding is : two AGM 31s (130 lb), displaced water (40 lbs), Lewmar 250 TT motor plus gearbox plus tube (110 lb). Total is about 280 lbs, versus 390 lbs removed. Here's the kicker, that empty forward water tank holds 125 gal as does the empty one just behind it. If I add say 200 gals of water, that's 1600 lbs! I'll be putting water in those tanks and observing trim before I add any forward weight. I also want to keep in mind that I normally list a couple of degrees to stbd. For sure the batteries will go on the port side (even though it probably won't budge the needle).

I hope the builder had that in mind before they put in the ballast.