Yesterday morning I picked up the trailer from sailtrailers.com. Todd is a top notch guy, he came over on his day off so I can take it home with me. It looks really nice. It was a long ride. I left Fort Jackson SC at 7am, and I got home in Northern Virginia at around 2am.
Hopefully this weekend I'll get the boat out of the water on the boat lift, wash the bottom, and setup the trailer bunks. No pictures yet.
Gus
Hopefully it won't be long before you are settled into the helmsman's seat with a cold brew in hand.
Amen to that! I like the trailer, and Todd told me how to adjust the bunks, it seems pretty straight forward. I hope I won't find any nasty surprises once the boat is off the water.
Well, I can't use the travel lift this weekend... again, so I reserved it for next weekend. I'm gonna use this weekend to get some stuff done.
I live in NOVA (Winchester/Stephens City area), any recommendations for DIY boatyard? Currently the boat is 4 hours away, and the drive there and back it's a killer.
Hi Gus!
Where do you aim to sail? I live in Herndon, and purchased a 19 this year.
I'm aiming to sail the Chesapeake, with the occasional trip to Cape Lookout in NC.
Boat's out of the marina and sitting parked still hooked to the truck. We made it back a couple of hours ago. The trailer did ok, I still need to adjust a few bolts, but the drive was normal.
Getting the mast off was a challenge. It kinda came crashing down, and I pulled a screw off the mast step (I kinda new I had to fix that anyways).
Tomorrow with more light I'll take some photos, but my girlfriend got video of the yard lowering the boat onto the trailer.
LONG DAY!
Bottom looks pretty good. I think I'm blister free. I did have to pressure wash the bottom again to get rid of some barnacles. Man those things sure don't want to let go.
I saw three coats of bottom pain, and the white gelcoat. Some of the grime did not want to come loose, so I wet sanded part of the bottom.
Good news is that the original motor mount still works with a bit of persuasion (I needed a hammer), so I guess I'm good till I install the new one.
Other than the chainplates, mast step, the electrical, and reseal the hull/deck joint, I should be good to go. During the winter I'll take care of the bottom, but for now, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.
Good news on the hull Gus. Now since you and I both used to sail the same extinct brand of boat, this is going to come as a shock so steel yourself..you can call ComPac and order parts for your boat..yes, even the chain plates! It's crazy, LOL.
Quote from: AislinGirlII on September 04, 2018, 05:52:23 PM
Good news on the hull Gus. Now since you and I both used to sail the same extinct brand of boat, this is going to come as a shock so steel yourself..you can call ComPac and order parts for your boat..yes, even the chain plates! It's crazy, LOL.
That's awesome! I'll give them a call tomorrow :)
I ordered the parts I need, so hopefully they'll get here before the trip to Lookout in late September (I'm kinda worried about the hurricane though).
Other than that, I installed a tachometer for the outboard, and I'm getting ready to paint the aluminum rudder (I finally got the stuck bolt out).
Weather isn't helping much, it's been raining like crazy over here and I'm getting sick. Me and my luck.
Gus,
Just don't use bottom paint directly on the aluminum. I just gave the exposed aluminum part of my rudder stock a coat of West System GFlex epoxy. It worked very good for that purpose then I finished it with bottom paint as part of it stays in the water.
Good luck with the re-furbish, and happy sailing.
BEWARE
NEVER ever never ever never EVER use copper based anti-fouling on aluminum. If you do, well, you just constructed a battery. And in this electrochemical cell, the aluminum is the anode. Know what the anode does on your prop shaft (if you're around such boats) or outdrive (ditto)? IT WASTES AWAY.
There is copper free antifouling made for aluminum ...
The aluminum part of my rudder stock was being attacked by electrolysis for reasons not known, maybe stray current in the marina. Corrosion was attacking portions that were lifted out of the water when docked in the marina, so what was causing this issue while underway? Another oddity of this situation is that my propeller shaft zinc showed little deterioration. So anyway, I decided to give it a coat of epoxy hopefully to delay what appears to be the inevitable.
I'm just gonna use black spray paint, nothing fancy.
Potcake, in this case, a picture would be worth a 1,000 words.
The rudder stock is unlikely to be bonded in any fashion; AND unless you're in the water AND bonded AND connected to shore power (grounded to the electrical system, providing a faster path to ground than going around you), stray current would not be the issue. IF you have any dissimilar metals, in an electrolyte (salt or brackish water), that alone makes an electrochemical cell. Stainless Steel and Aluminum commonly interfere with each other, and in that case the aluminum loses. Like a stainless bolt through an aluminum rudder? Aluminum loses. Overdrill it, if not done already, and put a nylon or delrin bushing. Always bed stainless hardware going into aluminum, if not with a nylon spacer, at least with blue Loctite, which creates a barrier.
Are you inboard, for the propeller shaft zinc? Or is that on an outboard? If an inboard, that ANODE protects the bronze prop from the stainless shaft; lose it, and all the zinc leaves the bronze prop, rendering it a bright red copper prop, which is infinitely more maleable (soft, brittle) than the hardened bronze (which is why they added the zinc to the copper in the first place)...
On a side note, I ordered some parts from Hutchins last Thursday, and I've got the box in the mail yesterday. The new mast step is a bit different, I'll post a picture when I can.
Moonlight,
I use Lanacoat to isolate dis-similar metals. I would be happy to see Com-Pac eliminate aluminum all together in their rudder stock. I really like the Ruddercraft setup, because it is all stainless, and it raises 180 degrees. Some of the worst corrosion was in the gudgeons especially the bottom. I was going to replace the bronze bushings with nylon, but they were pressed in and the corrosion made them fast. When I re-installed them, I packed them with Lanacoat. Hopefully they will last a while. I do believe the only proper solution is the eliminate the aluminum and go with stainless. My pilothouse has wheel steering from within the cabin so there is a stainless piece connected about midway on the rudder stock casting that transfers the torque to turn the rudder. I would probably need to do some custom work to fit that to the Ruddercraft rudder stock. For now I did my best to provide a reasonable repair and hopefully get a few more years before I have to again confront this problem.
The zinc on the propeller shaft is fine. I understand why there is corrosion around the rudder stock, it's galvanic, I sail the boat in saltwater and the rudder stock is partially submerged. There is no bonding system, the through hulls are plastic, and I almost never use the shore power. I have a solar panel that keeps the batteries topped up when at the dock. I have been raising the rudder when docked, but the pitting was over areas that were not submerged when the rudder is up. Considering the prop shaft zinc hasn't shown accelerated deterioration, I can't suspect stray current in the marina.
Thank you for your observations, I'm happy when fellow sailors share their knowledge with the community.
Back to the trailer topic:
My trailer is a 2013 Magic Tilt, and has a keel bunk with a plastic slide pad covering it. The bunk is wooden, probably a 2"X 8" and is supported only by the three crossbar supports. Problem is that the front and back supports are spaced too far apart and aren't under the keel. As a consequence the wooden bunk is bending severely especially the front because there is no support under it at that point. In fact, the bunk board is not splintering. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
Regarding copper anti fouling paint on aluminum. 5 years ago, I used Interlux 2000 barrier coat on my whole boat and the aluminum rudder blade. I have painted the rudder blade every year with VC17 bottom paint. I keep the boat in the water on Lake Michigan for 5 months a year. I don't show any electrolysis to the rudder. Is this because of fresh water?
I would think the barrier coat is to credit as it prevents contact between the aluminum rudder and the copper in the paint. I have the foil rudder, but epoxy coated the aluminum stock and bottom painted. Haven't had it back in the water yet, so we'll see. Hope I have the same result as you.