Maintenance

The forgotten details

by Nigel Calder, Posted April 15, 2009

I often hear from people who, after years of preparation, have set out on their first ocean crossing with a high degree of confidence in their boats. Then something really disconcerting happens—say, the propeller shaft disappears out of the back of the boat. It’s quite a confidence shaker. I’ve heard enough of these stories to be able to identify several easily prevented but potentially

Staying Put: Dock Line Inspection

by Charles Mason, Posted April 22, 2008

With boats going back in the water in the northern parts of the country and marinas further south beginning to fill up with the summer regulars, it’s time to make sure the dock lines you’ll be using are going to keep your boat in its designated spot. Carefully inspect the condition of all these lines, and if any show signs of chafe or abrasion, replace them. Once the wind has

Old Boat Nightmares #3: Gate Valves

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 15, 2011

Among the multitude of things that needed upgrading on our project boat, the cockpit drain seacocks loomed large. The wheels on the 1973-vintage gate valves were frozen open so the valves could not be closed. This is a typical problem with gate valves. The valve stems and the valve body are usually dissimilar metals, and eventually they’ll corrode so that the valve sticks on the position it was

A Stand for Tired Outboards

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 15, 2011

For a number of years, I used a piece of 2x4 screwed to the side of the garden shed as a mount for my 3.5hp Tohatsu outboard. It would perch happily thereon while I dangled its nether regions in a cooling tub of fresh water, sputtering and burbling away as the salt got rinsed from its innards. This year, I decided something more sophisticated was in order for my faithful motor. I wanted a

Snow, Sleet and Storms

by Charles Mason, Posted December 12, 2011

Make no joke about it: winter is here. Luckily SAIL editor Charles Mason is luckily here to show you how to winterize your boat easily and efficiently.

A Head Start

by Don Casey, Posted September 27, 2011

When your boat spends the winter on the hard, relaunching in the spring will go easier, and perhaps happen sooner, if you tackle a few of your pre-launch tasks during the fall and winter months. Some of these are jobs you might otherwise neglect or skip in the rush to launch. And the nice part is you get to mess about doing boat things during the off-season.

Keep it simple

by Sail Staff, Posted June 17, 2009

The decks on Horizon, our Hans Christian 38, are 20 years old and have seen the full spectrum of weather conditions—cold and rain for weeks on end in Alaska and constant sun and heat in the tropics. No matter where we are, our maintenance strategy is the same: keep it simple and keep it silver. As with anything boat-related, proper maintenance now is always much easier than an extensive

Keel improvements

by Peter Nielsen, Posted June 22, 2009

Jabberwock, the BoatWorks project O’Day 25, was looking very scruffy around the underparts. The boat had been standing for so long that most of the paint had just fallen off the bottom, and the keel was looking particularly seedy. There was no way we could launch the boat with the keel in such bad condition. It was time for a makeover. A proper keel job done by a boatyard will cost

Old-Boat Nightmares #2

by Peter Nielsen, Posted March 23, 2010

I was watching our surveyor friend Norm Leblanc inspecting a 1970s Pearson. He was tapping the topsides with his trusty rubber-tipped hammer, sounding for all the world like a giant woodpecker. Suddenly, the sharp rap-rap-rap of the hammer changed to a hollow thud-thud-thud. “Uh-oh,” said Norm.He had been working along the bow sections, and when we looked closely, we could see a network of

Epoxy in a tube

by Sail Staff, Posted March 23, 2010

Or two tubes, actually. One of the most useful items I used while prepping our project boat for a deck and cockpit makeover was a product called Flexpoxy, made by Pettit Paint. Flexpoxy comes in a double-tube package—one tube for resin, one for hardener. You insert them into the pump, squeeze some out, mix it together, and it’s ready to go.Flexpoxy will bond just about