Crack in Armstrong Bracket

[bbogue]

I have an Armstrong single engine bracket on my 03 2350 Bluewater. The bracket also has a welded-on kicker bracket on the port side of the main engine. I have had a 9.9hp 4-stroke kicker attached to the kicker bracket ever since the boat was new. The paint over one of the horizontal welds between the kicker bracket and the main engine bracket has had a crack in it almost since the boat was new. Myself and others who looked at it all felt it was just a paint crack, just superficial. Now, I have found a for-sure crack in the trailing flange of the main bracket underneath the kicker bracket and in the same vertical plane as the "superficial" paint crack I mentioned. I have begun a correspondence with Armstrong and have sent them pictures but they one guy who deals with this sort of thing is out of town so I'm waiting for him to return before proceeding. My question is this...has anyone else had this sort of thing happen before? How was it repaired?

Thanks for any information anyone may have on this subject.

Bill

[jethro1]

Anyone who deals with aluminum long enough has cracks. As good as it is for specific purposes, that is what aluminum does, it cracks. Particularly if it was anodized before it was welded. Aluminum has some great properties but fatigue strength is not necessarily one of them.

Strip the paint from the suspected area and do, or have someone do it for you, a dye penetrant check. This will verify there is indeed a crack and determine the extent of it.

Although the crack can be welded over, if it were mine I would have some reinforcing gussets welded in to support the welded over area and to minimize the likelyhood of future cracks. None of this should be difficult for an experienced welder.

[bbogue]

Jethro1,

Thanks for the advice. I'll follow it.

Bill

[Slamdancer]

You are not the only Bluewater owner experiencing bracket issues. Check out the post by Wet Dreamer on Kingfishconnection.com. He has posted pictures of the cracked bracket on his 23 and the saga of dealing with Bluewater trying to get it fixed.

[ranger0131]

if i'm not mistaken the wet dreamer boat was ran hard aground.he claimed no but bluewater, armstrong and a survey said yes.