How did the beam pins tear out.

Comment by Ann and Neville Clement on August 25, 2010 at 3:32am

Please write what happened in this photo which is a nightmare to look at.

Comment by boatsmith on August 25, 2010 at 5:40am

This is the boat that Creed O'Hanlom commissioend from Raul Bianchetti in Thailand. Creed refused delivery and walked away, claiming substandard, not to contract work. Then the boat mysteriously went ashore in mild weather and fell apart. Maybe the lashings were cut. Who knows? Warren Mathews was also having Raul build him a Tiki 38 but pulled the hulls and shipped them to New Zealand for completion. He has since claimed numerous areas of shoddy work,one of theses areas being the beam troughs. Warrens boat is very close to being finished, it is beautiful.

Comment by Budget Boater on August 25, 2010 at 6:06am

The beam pins are more of a rotating point and hold the beam in an athwardship position, not so much a vertical position. The lashings are what actually hold the boat together and provide the strength. If the lashings fail, get weak, or are not kept under the proper tension, the structure holding the beam pins cannot be counted on to hold the boat together.

If I had to venture an educated guess (and that is all that I can offer), I would say that the lashings were not properly installed and/or not properly tensioned. Once the beam can move up and down (as evidenced in the photo) due to loose or missing lashings, I would not expect the structure to be able to hold the beam pin under heavy vertical pressures.

Now, after closely examining the photo. It does appear that the aft beam trough was improperly constructed. I cannot see any of the hardwood blocks that are specified in the plans and it appears that some type of light core material was used.

Just another tragic end to a heavily modified Wharram.

Comment by Ann and Neville Clement on August 25, 2010 at 10:57am

Inevitably boats at sea find storms if they sail enough. Nothing is more comforting than KNOWING the boat is built to standard and the standard has been well tested over time and many, many oceans. This is the main reason we built to plan, did our very best work, and when we needed to make alterations, we had Wharram approval for each and every change. We had several survival storms in my last boat (a monohull) so we knew about those storms and Peace IV has now experienced storm conditions at sea with no damage at all.

Comment by Chris Bretter on August 25, 2010 at 12:54pm

I think you are right It doesent even look like ply or hardwood,must be foam sandwich if it is i dont think it could take any loading in any direction. sad story.

Comment by WaveDancer & Bella on August 26, 2010 at 7:53am

I know only 1 builder in Thailand who presently builds Wharrams which meet the standarts to sail offshore, this is Gunther Nutt. Roger Diggelmann who built my boat under the supervision of Gunther, has switched to composit constructions, like the Andaman Cabriolet. Both are in Phuket.
It is always sad to see nice boats falling in pieces due to flimsy work and materials.

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