Thanks to all of you who chimed in with an opinion. I wish I had thought of rounding off the patch prior.......
Gives me confidence though to hear that you guys think I'm back in business. One thing I forgot to mention was that the welder welded a square (all he had - no round aluminum ) aluminum compression tube to the patch (and rounded the ends to match the curvature of the beam) before setting the whole thing in place so I don't have to fish the compression tube in through the end of the beam and try to align the holes. I think not having a compression tube in the first place when I bought the boat led to this disaster. I think everyone who buys a used boat should check early in the show if they, in fact, have a compression tube. If you don't go out of your way to check, you'd never know till it's too late. Thanks to the person who sent the link to the tuning guide. I wish someone would write one for the 5.5 SL. Aside from Patrick Ragen I don't know of anyone else who regularly sails one of these to compare notes with.
Thanks again guys,
Greg
Wicked Wet