Dynaplate

[Angela]

Has anyone ever replaced their dynaplate? I am wondering if we've been struck by lightening at some point in the past. I have three - two small ones and a big one measuring about 18" x 7". Today I removed the big one to replace it since the original just didn't look right to me. A very few minutes later as I sat there on my toadstool under the hull, I began to hear a series of popping and cracking. It was coming from the footprint of where I had removed the dynaplate.

The thing keep popping and cracking until it opened up and parts of the hull started to erupt. Delamination. It was contained to the footprint of the Dynaplate. I've heard that lightening can blow a hole, sort of, in the boat and I'm wondering if lightening blew out through the plate and caused the delamination since it was contained only I to the footprint of the dynaplate plate.

Anyone have this kind of experience with the dynaplate? Until I took it off, we had NO symptoms at all. It happened so quickly. I sat there in disbelief and yelled to Ed, "Hey, you gotta come see this....this is really bad!" It was truly a HOLY CRAP moment. Now, we have a big repair on the agenda for tomorrow. I really I hate standing in the engine room looking down and yelling, "I see you!"

On the bright side, Ed is doing a fantastic job at the repair. He's really good at that kind of fiberglass work. It looks 100% professional. He is anal about fairing it out properly and doing a proper layup to fill the void.

[Avenger]

When I got my 36 on the first trip to the yard we replaced all the thru-hulls and we pulled the plates too. One of them had some damage under it like you describe, but nowheres near as bad as yours. It was more like blistering and we just filled the small pockets with epoxy and moved on.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about the history of the boat to pin down the cause. I think there were severe electrolysis issues because all the bronze hardware was heavily zinc plated to the point where the smaller hull scoops were almost closed up. That plate was only connected to the bonding strap and most of the bonding system was AWOL. The other plate was not connected to anything and had little if any hull issues underneath it. Unfortunately I also have no idea if there was a SSB or other equipment wired to it in the boat's history.

Don't know if that helps you, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[johnjen50]

If you guys get a chance shoot a pic. I'm interested in seeing what that looks like as I have several as well. Thanks! And good luck !

[Angela]

Here is a photo of what the hull looked like right after I removed the dynaplate, and the other one was taken after Ed started grinding out the repair.