Another swabb on deck, reporting for duty!

[Salty19]

Milt, nice restoration!     Hey, is that a Balinese cat I see in your photo album?  We have one; it's the best cat I've ever had.

[adifferentdrummer]

Right, 'don't fix it if it ain't broke', and I do agree with the wisdom of those words, but we got to have something to occupy our time on these non-sail-able winter days. In the last rain storm we had a few days a go, I laid inside the cabin with a drop light and was able to identify about a half dozen tiny drips coming from deck hardware fasteners. Those drips add up over time, and because where I keep the boat parked gives it a little list to starboard, the drips have been accumulating under the starboard berth. I think I need to just start at the bow and work my way back, re-bedding each piece of hardware and every fastener without skipping over anything. That should keep me busy for a while.

Salty, my cats are of a breed called Ragdoll. They are sweet kitties; not sure if they might be related to Balinese, but I think they did come originally from mixing Persian and Burmese. There are more pictures and info in my Katz album, or you can google 'ragdoll' and find a 'boatload' of information on this exceptional breed. I've got a bunch, and one has even set up camp under the winter cover on my boat. I think she wants to be a sailor, too.

Milt

[Bob23]

Milt:
   We also have a ragdoll...black. He wandered into our yard some years ago and adopted us. He's just about the friendliest cat we've ever had...unless you're a bird. He, and our Siberian Husky have a love/hate relationship. He doesn't know he's supposed to be afraid of dogs and "Scarlet" doesn't know she's supposed to kill cats. Interesting. Our dog used to love sailing on the old SeaPearl 21 but I haven't had her out on the CP23 yet. The cat? forget it...hate's water, as to be expected.
Bob23

[nies]

Milt, When re caulking , be sure and check each item that the bolts have large enough backing washers or plates where necessary, that should keep you busy for a while and out of trouble..........I use GE Silicone II, great sealent.......remember "Idle hands are the devils work shop" as ma used to say......As you might have guessed we were a family raised on QUOTES of varying usefullness............Phil

[adifferentdrummer]

Bob23,

They are remarkably loving and friendly cats, to a fault. Because they expect every other creature they meet to be of the same temperament, they usually don't last long living outdoors. It seems the darker colored ones are hardier, whereas the white ones and seal-point ones are very fragile. I've been raising them for almost 20 years and they have been a constant source of entertainment and joy. I do have one that I'm grooming to be my first mate, but we'll have to wait till next season to see how that works out. As long as it doesn't involve getting wet, I think he'll do alright.

Milt

Milt:
   We also have a ragdoll...black. He wandered into our yard some years ago and adopted us. He's just about the friendliest cat we've ever had...unless you're a bird. He, and our Siberian Husky have a love/hate relationship. He doesn't know he's supposed to be afraid of dogs and "Scarlet" doesn't know she's supposed to kill cats. Interesting. Our dog used to love sailing on the old SeaPearl 21 but I haven't had her out on the CP23 yet. The cat? forget it...hate's water, as to be expected.
Bob23

[adifferentdrummer]

Milt, When re caulking , be sure and check each item that the bolts have large enough backing washers or plates where necessary, that should keep you busy for a while and out of trouble..........I use GE Silicone II, great sealent.......remember "Idle hands are the devils work shop" as ma used to say......As you might have guessed we were a family raised on QUOTES of varying usefullness............Phil

Phil,

I have noticed that the backing washers Hutchins used on my boat seem very undersized. I guess they knew what they were doing, seeing that the boat has held together for more than thirty years. Perhaps they intended for the washers to pull through the deck rather than result in major damage if such high loads were encountered. Nevertheless, I've been replacing them with larger SS washers, and backing plates where higher loads might be a concern. I'm using 3M4200 for my sealant, and if I want it to stick like glue, 3M5200.

Quotes to live by are handy words of wisdom, and a good help in keeping on the right track. My elders, also, had one for every occasion and every circumstance in life. I seemed to do well to keep them in mind and practice their simple wisdom. It was when I thought I knew better that I created problems for myself. Some lessons I've had to learn multiple times. Now it's my turn to try and pass it on to my grandchildren. I'm a lucky man.

Milt

[nies]

Milt, when I replaced the washers, I also noted they seemed rather small and some had sunk into the glass over time ,by replacing with larger size this problem has been solved. I don't believe Hutchins ever dreamed their boats would still be sailing with a little TLC after nearly 40 years.....the standard wisdom is 3/8's bolt..3/8's washer......bigger is better except when it comes to CP16. I went from 12 foot boat to 16 foot to 22 footer and back to a CP16 pocket yacht...........Phil

[OkieBob]

I acquired some lead.

[nies]

OakieBob, I hope your not going to make sinkers out of that lead......lead sinkers biggest killer of loons in Wi, If not for sinkers, what are going to do with that lead?........Phil

[OkieBob]

Phil,

I consider myself to be environmentally friendly, so no I don't intend to let the 'lead out' (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun.).

I'm planning a major overhaul from the bottom up; which includes removing 3 cubic feet of concrete and replacing it with less than a cubic foot of lead (actually about 3/5ths of a cubic foot).

[nies]

Bob, just wondering if lowering the center of gravity that much will change the performance of the boat in any way? I am a old worry wart, might not hurt talking to Hutchins first.........I know as I have gotten older my center of gravity has lowered and no good has come from it.......Phil

[wordnut]

Seems to me the lower the center of gravity, the better. You might even be able to shave off some weight and still have the same stability as before!

[adifferentdrummer]

Phil, I seem to be experiencing that same 'low center of gravity' problem myself. It can be a problem for a sailor, but I would think a lower center of gravity on a sailboat would be a good thing. Even if the weight of the ballast remains the same, having it lower in the boat seems it would make the boat stiffer and quicker to right itself.

Bob, the ballast question is interesting to me. I believe concrete was used instead of lead mainly for the reason of economy. Concrete is cheaper than lead. As you noted, a much smaller volume of lead would be required to achive the same ballast weight as concrete. In examining my 16 while working on her over the past couple of weeks, the idea came to me that if all the concrete was removed and replaced with an equal weight of lead lower down in the keel, there would be a large open area in the upper portion of the keel which could serve as a bilge sump. That might be an advantage. A portion of this area might be partitioned off for a battery storage compartment. Another partition might contain a fresh water tank, or be utilized for some other purpose.

Even if the concrete was removed from the upper part of the keel and the lead was glassed in on top of the concrete remaining in the lower part, it would still open up a considerable space inside the keel for other purposes. There are possibilities. I'd like to hear more of your thinking on this.

milt

[nies]

Bob, Milt, all this sounds great, but a call to Hutchins will get all of us the right answer. If you don't want to call I would be happy to.....Phil

[Craig Weis]

Nies writes, "Bob, just wondering if lowering the center of gravity that much will change the performance of the boat in any way? "  

skip says she ain't going float any lower in the water. Waterline won't change unless the lead is too far fwd or backward. Bow heavy or stern heavy.

Phil replies,

"I consider myself to be environmentally friendly, so no I don't intend to let the 'lead out' (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun.).

I'm planning a major overhaul from the bottom up; which includes removing 3 cubic feet of concrete and replacing it with less than a cubic foot of lead (actually about 3/5ths of a cubic foot)."

What? Why would the center of gravity change? Let's say on a CP-19 you take out 2 foot vertical of cement and pig iron. That's what is in the keels of our Com Pac boats. And the keel is about two foot deep.

And then you pour in the equal weight of lead into the same size and height keel. So?? Now you got 800 lbs of lead at 3/5ths of two foot vertical. What ever that is in height, it still weighs 800 lbs. Same as before into the keel which is the same length, width and height as before. Or are you planning on shorting the keel's depth before the pour? That will roll your boat over. Cut the bottom of the fiberglass keel off and re glassing on the bottom to a shorter depth?

And what are you going to do with that extra void of 'now air above the lead' in the keel's top? Don't you believe that this new void filled with air will stress the keel, as I assume that the poured lead bottom will break off the 800 lb keel somewhere within this air filled void.

The full length of cement carries the stress the full length of the whole keel. And it's firmly attached to the hull's shape. Which by the way on a Com Pac-19 was designed by NASA and tank tested. These boats don't slow down when gliding up to the dock and sail fastst when standing straight up.

Here, take a hammer and smack it into the keel where the cement is. Now do the same where the air filled void is. Want to bet I can put a hole in the air? But not the cement?

Look; say I have a 9" straw that is filled with cement.
Now say I have a second 9" straw just filled with 5.4 inches of lead [3/5 of 9"] the rest of this straw is hollow.
And now you hold both straws horizontal.
Hold the fully filled one and the heavy tipped one by the hollow and solid end and snap both up and down a few times.
Which straw is going to fail, bend and kink?

If I'm building something out of rectangular tube, say a weed puller and I tire of bending that thin walled rectangle tubing, I'd fill that tube with 'GREAT STUFF' limited expanding foam, that gives about 1700% more resistance to bending then with a hollow tube.  

You have not addressed the hard part yet. If one reads Wood Boat magazine a lot of stories continually pop up about the danger of pouring molten lead into a damp mold.
Usually the mold is fired up with a fire inside the void to drive out the moisture so the molten lead won't explode and kill the fellow pouring. So plan on making a fire in the fiberglassed hollow keel. I don't think that will work too well. Why do you suppose cement and pigiron was used in out keels in the first place?

skip