Troutner
09.05.2021 4:45:52
Step 2 Work it into the craters, aiming to smooth it as flat as possible with the scraper. This will help to minimise the amount of sanding required later.
See full version: Practical Boat Owner
Step 2 Work it into the craters, aiming to smooth it as flat as possible with the scraper. This will help to minimise the amount of sanding required later.
However, a DIY temporary repair is actually possible, if you have somewhere to dry the boat out, and you don’t mind a bit of hard work.’
Once the hull appears to have dried off from its wash, the use of a moisture meter will determine how ‘wet’ it still is. If you want to apply an epoxy barrier, such as Gelshield 200, then you’re looking for a reading of less than 10, and preferably around five before you can start the repairs. Anything above this will require some vigorous drying, and it’s very difficult to properly dry out a substrate through the gel coat.
The gel coat needs to be stripped away with a special stripping tool – which resembles an electric plane – and then the exposed substrate is lightly grit blasted. Professionals can be hired in to do each part of the operation for you, with prices starting at around £15-£20 per foot LOA.
The exposed laminate then has to be washed and thoroughly dried, and may need some lamination work before the hull can be faired smooth again. This requires patience, elbow grease, and a good eye for fairing to preserve the yacht’s underwater shape. It’s not really for the faint-hearted or workshy (we’ll be looking at the full process in next month’s PBO).
A skirt around the waterline will keep rainwater away
Fairly new to the marine industry, dry-ice blasting uses pellets of frozen carbon dioxide rather than grit to remove the antifouling. The pellets ‘frack’ on impact (turn straight from solid to gas) which blasts the antifouling away and drops it as a frozen mush.
Although the gel coat isn’t abraded, the moisture in the blisters is frozen and explodes outwards. The operator may need to play the jet on the affected area for some time to pop all of the blisters, especially the tiny ones. The process is noisy, but ‘clean’ – although not so good for climate change. here
“The assumption that a brand new boat is safe, though, is a dangerous one. We later found that the electric bilge pumps didn’t work because they were clogged up with shavings and dirt from the build process. A high pumping capacity, that’s been thoroughly tested, is absolutely essential. The boat being a unique design certainly contributed to the ‘unknowns’ about it. All of us learned from the experience, including the manufacturer. It could have been much worse.”
What equipment to have on board a yacht to stop it sinking is something that’s best decided after considering what a sinking might actually entail. Sailing rally safety checklists usually include soft wooden plugs for all seacocks, as well as manual and electric bilge pumps – all sensible things to have on board. more
Once floorboards and stores are floating – as here on the yacht Magritte shortly before she sank in 2016 – finding and tackling a leak becomes near impossible more
The gooseneck bolt/pin came out aboard the Leopard 48 Jolly Dacha and the Nautitech 542 Hugo. The vang pin worked loose and the vang detached on the Beneteau Sense 50 Jayana and the vang mast fitting ripped off when it was over -tensioned aboard Reliant 49, Rogue Trader – once again Dyneema came to the rescue.
We collected all the data and questioned the skippers that had relevant issues to understand how they fixed them and the lessons they learnt. more
There were also a couple of sobering incidents with rudders. The crew of Endorphine II, a Bavaria 47 AC, found a leak in the rudder shaft, which they put down to wear and tear. They applied epoxy to the leak and were able to steer using the windvane rudder.
L.I.A. of Sweden, one of four new More 55s on the crossing, damaged their mast track and pole during an accidental gybe, which also damaged the vang. A rope vang was made up as a repair. Fredrik Olsson reports that they were using a preventer at the time. Heeling to windward one night, the spinnaker pole dipped in the water to windward, breaking its attachment point at the mast. “This also disabled the cable which runs on the outside of the vang.” here
"They'll come in and say, 'It ran fine the last time I used it'," said Joe Pearce, who has 27 years as a marine motor technician at Stone and Son. "Then you find out, the last time they used the boat was months ago. The worst thing you can do is just let a boat sit."
Checking filters is straightforward; You can look at them. Checking the condition of fuel lines is a little more involved. Stone recommends disconnecting the fuel line, cutting a short piece (an inch or two) from an end, then splitting that piece to reveal the hose's interior. That interior should not show signs of deterioration, If it does, replace it. Now. more
Jack Stone Jr. looked up while still tightening bolts on the cylinder head on an outboard motor, his nimbly flying hands and easy but focused demeanor clear evidence of the 54-year-old's lifetime experience with such things.
For boaters who run in shallow waters where the water pump intake is sucking water containing lots of sand or mud, Stone recommends changing the water pump each year. That sand and mud quickly wear the impeller blades and, just as important, the plates against which those blades turn. here
Vibrations may be good when listening to rock and roll, but unless you have the stereo pumping, anything causing vibrations is often indicative of an issue with a component on the boat.
Specialist equipment is required to properly check for runout or defective coupling.
Remedy: Have the propeller serviced by a reputable propeller shop. more