Plastic Classic Forum

keelbolts

I'm motivated to put this up by the last two threads I just read. Most of you probably know this, but, for the newbies who don't, there is nothing better for cleaning up uncured epoxy than plain old white vinegar. I love that. We are regularly swimming in a sea of deadly chemicals and, here, you can...

keelbolts

I didn't think you could use it in polys, but I saw a post from a forumite who did. I went to the Flood site & it says Penetrol is for oil and alkyd based paints. Thanks for the replies gents.

keelbolts

I'm going to help a friend of mine paint his plastic boat within the next week. The boat was previously painted, apparently with a spoon, and, for a variety of reasons we'll be using Interlux Brightside. For several years now I have used Penetrol to thin Z-Spar 99 enamel with excellent results. Read...

keelbolts

Yeah dats wat I'm talkin about. She is sweet.

keelbolts

I guess this thread is history by now, but it made me think of a trip I made to Maine. Long story short: I've been to Bermuda & I've been to Maine and the Maine trip was much more enjoyable. Did you visit Matinicus Island? It seems to be Maine's equivalent of the Chesapeake's Tangier Island.

keelbolts

Holy Cow, is that a beautiful boat! If I had found this site 20 years ago, I might have never owned a wooden boat. I looked around marinas and saw a few old, elegant wooden boats and a bunch of new butt-ugly plastic ones. I thought those were my options. Had I seen a Triton, a Ranger, or a Shields I...

keelbolts

Sunday, we got the Westerly out for a sail. Winds NE at under 10, waves small & lumpy, sunny & warm. She was slow, but I?ve read that, being designed for British conditions, Westerlys need a bit of wind to get them moving. Those of you with Alberg or Rhodes designed boats may not be able to ...

keelbolts

Boy, does that look like fun! Just right for those evenings where you'd like to be on the water, but just don't have the time to take the big boat out. A friend of mine used to have a smallish Gieger designed sloop that we would sail up and down Salt Ponds when, for whatever reason, the big boats we...

keelbolts

Yow, she's a beauty. Favona is documented so she doesn't need to show numbers, but the Westerly will probably have the plastic pieces on the pulpit. How hard is it to document a boat now? When I bought Favona, I had a company that specializes in documenting vessels take care of it for me, but with t...

keelbolts

Well, here she is. She's a lot of boat in 23'...currently named Freedom, but that will change. A friend in the marina has a Triton & I find myself walking down to look at her and she is a beauty, but the 2'10" draft on the Westerly is sooo practical on the Chesapeake Bay... http://img3.free...

keelbolts

Yeah, the more I thought about it the more I decided to snag it myself. Now I have the dubious honor of owning, simultaneously, the prettiest boat in the marina and the homeliest boat in the marina.

keelbolts

I feel like I can really be part of the club now. I picked up a '73 Westerly Pageant today. Next to Favona, I'm afraid she's a pretty ugly duckling, but with her 2'10" bilge keeled draft I can see a whole bunch of the Chesapeake I've never seen before. I'll post a picture when she looks more pr...

keelbolts

Many boats for offshore use have a seacock at the exhaust. It's not unheard of to fill your engine with salt water thru the exhaust system. Imagine several days of following seas in a boat with the exhaust thru the transom. It's easy to see how the problem might arise.

keelbolts

Favona had a vent in her cooling system. It vented thru a small hole in her topsides. At higher RPMs a little stream of water peed out the side. No problems ever.

keelbolts

I read the O'Brian series in one long read until I got to about 2 books from the end. Then I had to wait for the next one to come out... I have a good friend that is a square-rig sailor and he says the descriptions of setting and bracing the rig are spot on. I also have a reliable source that tells ...

keelbolts

I can't recall how many I have, but they are continuous around the mast. There's not more than a 1/16" to an 1/8" between them.

keelbolts

I thought she looked familiar. I sail with a friend who owns a 38 ton gaff ketch built in 1915. For a variety of reasons, I always claim the top bunk in the crew's quarters as it allows me, by wedging my knee under the deck, to spend less time airborne.

keelbolts

They do help shy people do what needs to be done, as I recall. Has your family tried 'em?

keelbolts

Favona has wedges that drop around the mast where it passes thru the deck. Standard on sailboats forever. The wedges have nothing to do with keeping water out of the boat. That's what the mast coat is for. If your mast is removed periodically, I would think the last thing you want to do is pour some...

keelbolts

Tim, I forgot The Boat Who Wouldn't Float . It's been some time since I read it, but I laughed more and harder while reading that book than any other sailing book I've read. I bought Favona from a Newfoundlander so I knew about throwing the top away when opening a bottle of booze. There were many ni...

keelbolts

I knew a yard guy that was dating a women who lived on a boat that looked very similar to yours. Hers was batten seamed - was Hollandaise? One of the many great things about boat ownership and use is the way they help you accumulate memories. I find that reading thru my old logs or looking at old ph...

keelbolts

I was reading another thread when I came across Duncan's reference to a book that he found inspirational. Like a lot of you, I suspect, I am, in addition to being a real sailor, an armchair sailor as well. I'm a bit unusual in that the bulk of my armchair-sailoring occurs in the summer as I am a tea...

keelbolts

I hate to display my ignorance, but I'm not sure of what CPES stands for. I'm assuming it's epoxy. If it is, then your plan works fine. West has a hardener specifically for bright finishes. I believe their literature says you don't have to worry about blush w/ it, but I rinse anyway. The good news i...

keelbolts

You are a patient man.

keelbolts

By the way, I see I am now a Master Varnisher. I'll take pride in that title. God only knows how many gallons of varnish I've slapped on one boat or another over the years.

keelbolts

Peter, I plan to watch your project closely as the Vega is at or near the top, depending on my mood, of my shortlist for Favona's replacement. Unfortunately, I don't find them at all attractive from the toe rail up, but they receive such rave reviews in all other categories that I have to consider t...

keelbolts

Two things: First - Plywood is as strong and stable in all dimensions as most woods. The problem comes whenever you run a fastener into end grain wood. You ought to look at the West Epoxy site. They did a series of tests to determine if little things like keelbolts could be glued into wood. You'll w...

keelbolts

...boy am I bummed. You guys are taking all the fun out of owning a plastic boat...

keelbolts

Groovy, One word: Dolfinite. Dasein668 makes good sense when he states why he doesn't bed his coamings in anything, but, should you feel the need to bed your coamings, Dolfinite is a widely available, traditional bedding compound. ALL of that other geewiz stuff has adhesive qualities. Dolfinite does...

keelbolts

First of all, I was only thinking a sitting shower. At over 6', as most of you know, standing up isn't an option anwhere below on a lot of boats. When I cruise, even if it's on the bay, I like to stay on a hook. Ashore, I never go to bed without a shower. I hate to feel grungy and a day in the sun a...

keelbolts

I reread Rachel's post. She is talking about glueing the backing plate in - not to seacock. Duhhhhhhh. My bad.

keelbolts

I never do anything on my boat without bearing in mind that, eventually, I'm going to have to do it again. The idea of glueing a seacock into a boat makes me uncomfortable.

keelbolts

When you read about a Cape Dory 25D, much is made of it's having a "roomy" head and a shower. Alberg, I think rightly, belived that the v-berth in a 25 foot boat probably wasn't being slept in often, so, on the CD 25D, all that's in the forepeak is a WC and a sink with a shower attachment....

keelbolts

When I bought Favona, her wiring looked like technicolor spaghetti. As I got into it I was thankful she hadn't burned to the waterline. Having been an aircraft electrician for about 12 years I had an idea of how decent wiring should look. I built my own electrical panel. The back and sides are varni...

keelbolts

OK Peter,
Tell me about your Albin Vega.

Jeff

keelbolts

I have thought about installing a sliding hatch in one. As I've said, I had a FB, but that was 15 years ago and I can't feel how small it felt now. I've done a bit of offshore and coastal sailing & I like the idea of being able to do that if I want. In addition, I read in this forum about folks ...

keelbolts

Most of us have little uglies hiding here and there on our old boats. Heck, even new boats have 'em. On my boat, I like to think of a quirky little part of traditional Japanese residential architecture. Over near the family shrine, in the midst of all that 3 dimensional order and geometric beauty, i...

keelbolts

Anybody here have any experience with a Contessa 26? My first boat was a Danish Folkboat so I'm not completely in the dark about how a Contessa sails, but, overall, how are they? They look like they might be difficult to get down below in as they have no sliding hatch. Let me say how much I apprecia...

keelbolts

So what's the headroom on a Triton?

keelbolts

How much headroom is there in a later doghouse model Frisco Flyer? Falcon, are you out there? Thanks.
Jeff

keelbolts

Remember, any sailboat design is a compromise. I'm not a yacht designer, but my felling is that, for a given length, there is a trade-off between below deck accomodations and sailing ability. I have yet to sail on a boat that didn't clearly trade comfort underway for comfort at the pier. It's a legi...

keelbolts

If I ever find myself on a mooring with a storm coming I'm going to drop my hook just in case. If the entity/organization that rents out the mooring isn't responsible for it why the heck would anybody use it? Man, I'm glad they haven't managed to cover the Bay with those damned things!

keelbolts

I'm not aware of an epoxy that cures at temps that low. However, I have used a 100 watt bulb to warm both the epoxy & the area to be glued with success. The good thing about glueing at low temps is that, according to the the folks at West System, the joint is not weakened by the cold it just tak...

keelbolts

Does Bill Bell report satisfaction with his mod?

keelbolts

How does CPES differ from Git-Rot? I've thinned epoxy w/ acetone with fine results. As for varnish failing over epoxy: Figment, did you wash the amine blush off before varnishing?

keelbolts

If the cause was chafe, that sounds like the boat owner's fault.

keelbolts

You guys are working way too hard at this sailing thing. If you're dying to bend your mast just take a long screwdriver w/ you to turn the backstay turnbukle. When you get in, back off the turnbuckle. There's much to be said for backing off on the rig tension of an old wood boat when not in use. I i...

keelbolts

That's sad. I would be very uncomfortable with my boat on a mooring in a storm. We don't use a lot of moorings on the south end of the Chesapeake Bay so my experience with them is from trips north. If it was my mooring & could dive on it & keep it up, I think it would be great as I could sai...

keelbolts

Sounds good. I read good things about the process, but it was on their site... Glad to hear you had good results as well. My sails are in good shape right now, but who knows what my next boat will have. Good, also, to hear that 3-5 years later people are still happy. Maybe Bacon does know how to rat...

keelbolts

I, also, envy you guys who can take your boats home to work on them. Here on the southern Chesapeake Bay, as far as I know, there is nobody moving boats on those nifty flatbed rigs I see in your photos. I haul out about a half hour from my home and it is a pain in the butt and the wallet. My last ha...

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Epoxy Cleanup

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1st Sail on Westerly

Mt Plastic Boat

Woo Hoo I got a plastic boat!

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Shower on a Triton?

Contessa 26

Headroom in Frisco Flyer?