Any pearls of wisdom on these? I swear I have not hit anything and one has opened up big time.

Sure it is the center case? I owned a Taipan before, and the source of leaking was the gasket of the inspection caps. Which year is your boat?

I'll bet dimes to nickels that your problem is at the bottom of the well. Poke around and see if you can find the hole - mine was in the front center. Drill it out with a very small diameter bit and either squirt some epoxy in there, or just work in some marine tex. You'll never have the problem again.

A little bird told me that the issue derived from the joining of the hulls - there is a "[" shaped channel in one side that a tab inserts into from the other. There were a very few boats in which that joint would leave a tiny channel - once the board wears through the gel coat, it is a leak. The up-side is that it is very easy to find and repair, and the fix is pretty much permanent. The production issue has already been addressed.

Thanks John! Exactly what I wanted to hear.

took on nearly 15 liters in 3 hours sailing yesterday, that's a lot of sponging!!!

Just curious - was it your starboard hull?

YES!

how did you know?

Because I had the same issue - never a drop in the port side, but an increasing amount in the starboard until I really went looking for the reason. Post repair, both sides are dry as a bone after three Nationals, and the boat weight is still spot-on. I think the production problem was a starboard-hull-only thing.

I need to start talking about that boat in the past-tense, however. It is sold and a new one is on the way. There will be four Capricorns in SoCal for 2009, reflecting a continued growth in all the F18 designs in the US.

With the exchange rate the way it is a new capricorn would be looking pretty good?

I have sent a few people out on my boat and taken some out as crew, everyone that sails it is impressed with it.

hopefully we will get some more F18 and F16's here sooner than later.

Yup - exchange rate is inexplicably favorable right now. Something like 0.655 on the US dollar. I don't understand it, but it made my wife smile, so who am I to complain? The 2009 boat ended up costing less than the 2006.

Do you have information till when this is not a subject any more = will my 2007 built boat being affected?

If you haven't seen a problem, you likely don't have a boat that was affected - mine was an early 2006, boat number 70. At the time I noticed the problem, I was lucky enough to have Greg Goodall standing next to the boat. He seemed surprised at the leak and before you could say "boo," he was under the boat to see what was going on. There was the normal mayhem going on as people were arriving and rigging all around us (this was at the 2006 US Nationals at Lake Carlyle), and there was Greg with a drill, a file and a cup of epoxy, on his back in the grass, humming a tune while he fixed it. Cracked me up and impressed me at the same time.

Sometime in the months after that, I guess the issue'd shown up in enough boats that they had run the problem down, or maybe he already had a good idea of what to look for by the time I ran into him. In any case, I overheard him having a conversation last year about it. I didn't think to ask when it was fixed. You could drop a note to him at http://www.ahpc.com.au - I've found him to be quite candid and open to discuss every facet of the business.

Thanks John, for your extensive reply. I haven't sailed my Capricorn yet - I bought it used (built 2007, ser.-no. 119 or so) two months ago and was worrying ...

Well....


turned out to be a hard leak to find! It was a hairline fracture in the rear of the centerboard case about 2 inches from the bottom.

used the old vacuum cleaner on blow with soap... no joy.. filled the hull with water... leak found straight up!

after 4 hours long distance racing the boat took on about 2 cups of water between all four compartments.

very happy about that!!!

Did you take any pics during the repair? That far up in the well is an odd place to have a crack. What did you do to fix it?

I'd also be interested in the pics and how you fixed it.

JW... You aren't USA 70 anymore, right?

I've had similar problems, usually after a slipway grounding. I clean the area before mixing up some 2 pack and pasting it in around the area. I then push in a bit of dinghy slot gasket leaving a good amount showing from the bottom of the slot and leave overnight for it to off. In the morning I pull off the slot gasket and am left with a very smooth and perfectly shaped finish.

Just hypothetically, one advantage of selling your boat to a sailmaker might be that they may not want your sails, in which case you could keep your old number on your new boat. That would be cool.

Not much to see really!

I used a thin file to ruff up the area, then jabbed some epoxy into the hole with a knife.

filed off the excess epoxy the following morning. you can hardly see where I have been.

still cant get the dried epoxy off the knife.. so it should be on there reasonably well

My new Viper gets water in 3 of 4 compartments. I have not had time to find and fix the leaks. I don't think the other 2 new boats had water.

if your getting water in the front compartments it will be the bolts that go into the bows (the ones the bridal attach to) I emailed goodall about them, and he said they need to be put in with gelcoat.