Our good friends at Saratoga Rowing Association came to us with a challenge: Their Swift 4x had crashed into a dock at speed and ended up doing its best bow-as-accordion imitation. We took it on and repaired 2 feet of the bow to like new condition.
The shattered hull of Saratoga Racing Association’s Swift Quad after it hit a dock at speed.
We set up a rigid station to hold the salvaged bow piece. We bedded it in fast dry compound to precisely locate it with the aid of a laser, a straight edge, accurate measurement and fairing battens.
A view of the bow piece with the laser running right down the center clamped by stiff battens on either side
This photo shows the point where we cut off the damaged section of the bow. Our job is to fabricate a new foredeck and hull section between this point and the small bow section in the previous photo.
Although it appears straight from the angle in this photo the shear line is curved. Long fairing battens are the only way to capture that curvature, which will show up in the finished image below.
Peter builds a temporary external hull form with 1/4″ cedar strips to lay up a new hull.
This is a view of the completed temporary hull form that accurately captures the shape of the missing port side hull section.
This is a closeup of the reconstruction of the Kevlar outer skin and unidirectional carbon fiber at the sheer.
The Kevlar outer skin overlapping the existing hull.
The required missing deck core was made with some red cedar (~1.5oz) to complete the missing bow section. An homage to shells of yesteryear.
Fairing compound has been applied to the new laminate. Skillful batten sanding is done and the bow replacement takes shape.
Finished: the new deck’s curved shear lines (the angle formed by the deck and hull), now covered with black tape are perfectly fair. Clean, fair sight lines are the true test of quality workmanship.
A side view of the Swift Quad’s finished bow showing a clean, gracefully curved hull centerline.