I have a Venom A class bought 2 years ago from a Gosport member, called "Ausmosis". According to the certificate, the boat was built by J White in 2007. 

Can anyone advise where I might go to get a new fin and bulb?

The bulb has worked loose on the fin and has clearly been repair previously. I can attempt another repair, but, if possible I'd prefer to replace the keel completely.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

David Cole

David Munro at Poole is probably your best chance.

Thank you Derek, I'll try and find him.

Hi David

Ian Davies has drawn my attention to a problem you have with your Venom. 

The Venom that you have was built from a Hull that I supplied to him and is the only one that was not built by me.  Although I cannot be sure of the details I am fairly certain that John White used the same fin/lead as I did although it looks as though it was put together slightly differently. 

For all of the Venoms that I built, the carbon fin came from David Creed in the Wirral and the lead was from Peter Wiles of P J Sails in Poole.  The lead was modified from the one that he used on the "SWEET" radio A but it needs lightening considerably.

I'm not sure how John attached the fin to the Hull but it looks different to the way I used to do it and, without seeing the Hull and fin it is difficult to come up with any suggestion regarding any repair. However, would think that it would be better to use the fin and lead that you already have rather than trying a replacement which could be somewhat expensive. 

Hope that this helps

David Munro 

 

 

David,

Thank you following up on this, and with very useful background information. 

It turn out that the problem seems to be that the thread on the stainless steel rod used to attach the bulb to the fin (and then to the hull) was "threaded" and so the whole assemblage was able to work loose. Is suspect that a previous owner had tried to repair this by screwing a couple of brass srews into the forward part of the lead bulb and then packing the joint between the bulb and the fin (especially into the fin's foam filler) with Isopon or similar two part filler to "stick" the two parts together.

To repair it myself I bought a 3.5 mm die and nut to re-thread the rod which had a 4.5mm thread and nut.  This seems to have gripped and pulled the fin and bulb back together and have replaced the filler with CT1 (a waterproof mastic/glue).  The proof will be how well this now stands up to racing.......

Thanks for bothering to try and help; much appreciated.

Regards,

David

David 

Sounds as if your repair is going to work OK - have fun sailing the Venom

Cheers