Trouble in Paradise

Although many of you would like to nominate Matt McDonald to a position of sainthood I am here to cast a descending vote. I live in the state of New Mexico where there is one tiny natural lake and maybe ten sail able reservoirs. The water levels are not constant and the shores are not white sandy beaches with grassy knolls a foot above the high tide mark. The reservoir closest to me is known for its swirling winds; shifting, gusting winds are the norm and except for light air conditions main sheets are not cleated. Much of the shore line is rocky.

During one presale conversation I asked Matt McDonald, "maybe your boat isn't tough enough for these lakes?". He said that I'd be okay if I got off the boat and walked it ashore and not ride it up on the beach the way you can get away with on a Hobie 16. Because of the shore conditions and the strong shifty winds I ordered a "strong" boat. I was told that if I wanted a strong boat that I should get the model that had fiberglass laminate on the inside and Kevlar on the outside. So that's what I did. When assembling the boat I discovered a large difference in weight between the two hulls, a 5 or 7 pound difference. When I approached Matt McDonald at Vectorworks Marine about my concerns he listed several things which could be causing the difference and said that both hulls were within specifications. "But what is the difference?", I said. He said, "it is what it is".

I sailed it ten times during the fall of 2006 and the port hull sustained quite a few dings, cracks in the gel coat and laminate. After that the port hull always took on some water and it no longer held pressure. During the winter I decided that I'd stop sailing at Cochiti Lake and go to lakes further away. During the spring of 2007 I went to Storrie Lake 8 times, Heron Lake once for four days and Elephant Butte for two days. In May I went to Storrie Lake and when I was putting the boat back on the trailer I opened the drain plugs and a lot of water came out of the port hull. I found a puncture near the middle of the hull, on the bottom. I was immediately enraged as I hadn't heard or felt an impact. I was convinced that there was a significant difference between the two hulls. The starboard hull has scratches in the gel coat with no cracks but one tiny chip of gel missing for unknown reason. The port hull has at least 8 places where the gel is cracked and probably the laminate is crushed or caved inward. The boat has not been in the water since May, '07.

I took a bunch of pictures which wasn't that easy to do, something about a white hull against a bright sky. Any way I lined up the pictures, port on the left side of the page and starboard on the right, three pages of pictures and my complaint and sent them off to Matt McDonald at Vectorworks Marine. The response, after my prompting, was about what he thought of me and my sailing skills and several presumptions but nothing about my ringing question, 'why is one hull doing so well and the other is doing so poorly'?

I found a SAMS marine surveyor in Breckenridge Colorado and towed the boat up there over an 11,500 foot pass on a narrow 2 lane road. He verified the weight difference, did an air leak test with me blowing into a plastic tube pushed into the drain plug hole and found 5 places where soapy water bubbled on the port hull. There was not one leak on the starboard hull. He wondered why all these minor cracks away from the puncture were leaking even though they were not punctures. He said that the two hull halves were not fully sealed at the seam and showed me how the starboard hull had extra resin poured over the seam. He felt that the hulls were distinctly different. He included this and other information in his report and I sent one copy to Matt McDonald. There was no response but I know they got it because I sent everything certified, return receipt, and I have receipts.

I sent my complaint to the Florida Attorney Generals office and they forwarded it to the Department of Agriculture and Consumers Affairs. Matt McDonald responded to them with a lot about what he thought of me and my skills and a lot about what he thought of himself and his product. Still, the complaint was not addressed, 'why is the port hull so fragile and brittle compared the starboard hull which is tough and resilient like the one I ordered? Consumer affairs closed the case as "Satisfactory" and I complained with many pages including e-mails I'd saved over the course of a year which contradicted much of Matt McDonald's statements. Consumer Affairs changed the findings to "CMC" (mediation unsuccessful with consumer).

I sent a complaint to the Bigger Business Bureau of Central Florida and the Matt McDonald response was virtually the same but not quite as mean. They closed the case saying, "Company made every reasonable effort to resolve". I complained but they told me to get an attorney.

A week or so later I reread, or should I say misread Matt McDonald's letter to the BBB and thought it said there was a patch of fiberglass over the bottom of every hull. I invested in a sanding block (2X4-7 inches) and course sand paper. I began sanding very carefully through the gel coat at an angle perpendicular to the length of the hull. As I got through the outer gel, ( the very hard, brittle, not well bonded outer gel) and into the inner gel small pin holes started appearing, as I got down to the laminate, the fabric looked like a waffle. Many of the open areas between the weave of the fabric were not only thin of resin but completely void of resin. I can literally put a piece of wire through the holes and push on the inner foam, which is springy.

When I found this I felt quite satisfied that I'd found the problem, finally clear evidence that what I'd been sensing now has a reason. Although there is a composite structure where there is tensile strength of the fibers there is not enough resin to provide compression strength. It really depends upon the gel coat for compression strength which is okay but it's on the wrong side of the laminate, it's strong against a push from the inside of the hull but not a push from the outside. It wasn't until the next morning I asked myself, "but where are the yellow stringy fibers that they talk about when sanding Kevlar, why was I sanding into the laminate when kevlar can't be sanded and faired out?" Simple, it's not kevlar. It's fiberglass.

I took four pictures and sent them to 'you know who'. They accepted the mailing on 30 Oct. '07. I got the normal response, nothing.

I'm curious to know what others think of this very porous construction. I haven't found any discussion of this very lean composite. I can't visualize how that much resin could be sucked out of the sandwich with vacuum bagging and not have air to replace it. Not being that familiar with hull construction I'm wondering if a partially impregnated fiber glass with vacuum bagging could yield these results?

On two occasions Matt McDonald told me that if I got off the boat and walked it ashore I'd be okay. The starboard has performed to this standard beautifully, the port hull has failed miserably.


I don't know how to make fiberglass into Kevlar. I'm thinking that I could take the gel off the bottom of the hull and work some vinyl ester or epoxy into the open weave, then put an eight or ten inch patch of fiberglass over the length of the keel?

Will Lints