New trailer

[Gus]

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

[Potcake boy]

Hopefully it won't be long before you are settled into the helmsman's seat with a cold brew in hand.

[Gus]

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.

[Gus]

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.

[5monkeys]

Hi Gus!
    Where do you aim to sail? I live in Herndon, and purchased a 19 this year.

[Gus]

I'm aiming to sail the Chesapeake, with the occasional trip to Cape Lookout in NC.

[Gus]

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!

[Gus]

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.

[AislinGirlII]

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.

[Gus]

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

[Gus]

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.

[Potcake boy]

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.

[moonlight]

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 ...

[Potcake boy]

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.

[Gus]

I'm just gonna use black spray paint, nothing fancy.