Plastic Classic Forum

Quetzalsailor

Well! That's certainly original and just the thing if you normally moor Bahamian style or in a narrow river. Surely he could have arranged that fancy carrier to invert the anchor and maybe even have it more flush. When my dad used to single hand his Morgan 27; he'd to leave the anchor sitting on the...

Quetzalsailor

Seconding the request for more information... Presumably a similar condition occurs at the other side and maybe at the other chain plates, too. The aim would be to do a perfect job structurally and an apparently perfect job visually for the least amount of cost (time, money, new tools, etc). I imagi...

Quetzalsailor

Plenty of boats were born with plate centerboards. The Finn dinghy has a 1/4" thick aluminum centerboard so there's not much opportunity to form a foil cross section. The rounded leading edge extends aft only about 3/8"; the tapered trailing edge extends forward only about an inch. The Fly...

Quetzalsailor

Well! I Googled 'Lacquer thinner', read several MSDS, and found that there's a world of difference between 'em. Xylene or Toluene base, several alcohols, some have acetone. While I knew some lacquer thinners were tuned to specific products and had driers and so on, I thought generic hardware store l...

Quetzalsailor

I dissagree with the assessment of safety of one electric heater over another. It's not the element and the heat; it's the little arc you get when you operate the switch, or when you plug something in that's already on. The oil-filled DeLonghi's have a switch, while the element is immersed in oil. T...

Quetzalsailor

I went on Torrenson's website which said that the carb was a Bendix (after 1969, Zenith before). Interestingly, the diagram for both the Bendix and the Zenith shows that the throat is a separate casting which comes out of one or the other castings. Now, I'm a big guy, perfectly accustomed to breakin...

Quetzalsailor

Carburetor rebuilding and cleaning: Buy the kit, take it apart, clean everything and cookbook it back together: simple, no? Have a quantity of lacquer thinner and a toothbrush on hand, a can of carburetor cleaner, the removable type of gasket cement or sealer, and a piece of thick gasket material. T...

Quetzalsailor

We had an A4 in our Morgan 27. The boat reeked of gas and oil. It ran most of the time, but we had to sail home, back into the slip or onto the mooring quite often (good practice!). It finally suffered sufficiently, from sticky or non-sealing valves, to require attention to the upper end; it would s...

Quetzalsailor

I've used, on the previous boat, the Minwax Polyurethane on 'deep interior' and spar varnish at the companionway where sun is often present. Our current boat is a North East 38 with huge cabin ports and windows. It's delightfully bright below and the sun has bleached large areas of the woodwork from...

Quetzalsailor

Amazing! Just shows that we're still young, when we hear something new. Surely some other Seafarer has that setup... Anyway, bronze is more like it for a stern tube; brass is absolutely the wrong stuff below the waterline. Some boats have fiberglass stern tubes; I recall no chatter about problems wi...

Quetzalsailor

There's a dandy Forum for your Yanmar. Here's the address: http://www.freeboards.net/index.php?mfo ... _post&st=0

The Yanmar guru is excellent.

Quetzalsailor

Well, after my first previous post, you (and I!) would nor think I'd do this but I managed to mix uses of the white and the yellow pumps again! And there is no information I found in the pump instructions that would let me know whether the result was over or under catalyzed. First batch was fine (ma...

Quetzalsailor

I failed to add comments about the West pumps. They tend to unscrew at the lid and the bottom portion falls into the goo; make a habit of always turning things to the right. The extensions tend to split; periodically check them (you will suck air when the goo level drops below the crack). Beyond tha...

Quetzalsailor

The West instructions are pretty clear about temperature and cure times. You might have had too low temperatures overnight as well as whatever silly errors enumerated above. My recent error was in mixing use of the white handled pumps with the yellow handled pumps; actually not really my error-who'd...

Quetzalsailor

Presuming your Challenger is an Alden with lots of nice obstructive woodwork, like our NE 38... Our holding tank vent is forward of amidships, piped into to the vented loop concealed in the head casework. Easy to plumb, easy-ish to access. Don't do it! And don't lead it forward or into a dorade. Sin...

Quetzalsailor

Re: Seacocks. I've taken to replacing the old plug types with new ball type bronze seacocks. Before I knew better, I simply switched 'em out, using the old through-hull fitting and no bolts. Bad idea, particularly on the Morgan 27 which had only enough through-hull to give about two turns of engagem...

Quetzalsailor

RE: fuel tank. You might consider two, up and outboard. You would not change the trim much. RE: access to stuffing box. Consider going to to the PWI shaft seal and kiss the problem good bye. In our NE 38, the problem is all the other stuff that's in the way: exhaust riser, hoses, muffler. Inspector ...

Quetzalsailor

Decent plywood is close enough to isotropic for this purpose, I think. Most bulkhead grain is vertical, a convention, but also a taste. I'd suggest that the scarphing is overkill and way too difficult to clamp once the pieces were installed and way to precious, delicate to move in and out during con...

Quetzalsailor

I would not have thought rod saws would be useful on 'glass. Surely they'd fill with resin(?). I thought folks had bought carbide toothed blades for their sawzall, which I read with great interest. I destroyed two bandsaw blades and a new carbide radial saw blade on my layups of 3/8" fiberglass...

Quetzalsailor

I recall that rust is harder than the cast iron. If you can use a 12" hacksaw blade, you can use a carbide-coated rod blade as made for ceramic tile. Sooner or later, you'll cut to a point where the last of the rust collapses and the blade is caught between the board and the 'glass. Be sure to ...

Quetzalsailor

There's a free Triton listed in the current Spin Sheet. 1960, supposedly good 'glass, no rig.

Quetzalsailor

Seems to me that the worst of the problem with the bronze track on an aluminum stick fastenened with stainless steel screws is the inevitable electrolysis! I don't think there is any adequate fix but the problem is slowed with water-excluding sealants. We've got the same thing on our 1970 NE 38. I'd...

Quetzalsailor

Presuming your boat is not so huge... I note that there are very few boats laid out with galleys along one side of the saloon. Reasons might be: convention; sense of space in the saloon; ability to steal counter and cabinet space under the bridge deck; compactness of an ell- or u-shaped galley; the ...

Quetzalsailor

You'd be astonished at how fast fiberglass dulls blades! Granted that I was sawing a really dense layup of roving about 3/8" thick, but I dulled a carbide 10" circular saw blade in perhaps 4' of cut, and two bandsaw blades in maybe 1' of cut.

Quetzalsailor

Re: pressure treated lumber. I replaced the engine beds in our old Morgan 27 with PT 2 x stock. Dimensionally the same as the mush that I removed. Tabbed with epoxy-glass. I do wonder about chemical compatibility but the local watermen do it with polyester and my epoxy showed no distress in the four...

Quetzalsailor

I'm looking at many of the same problems in our foam cored deck, but we don't have the fine network of cracking you picture, and overall it's not nearly as daunting looking as yours. Some of that may well be failure in the gelcoat itself. I'd second Tim in saying that you need to explore the core an...

Quetzalsailor

Go buy yourself some books on welding. My most recent purchase was "High Performance Welding" (at Borders), a paperback, well illustrated, covered all the several methods for aluminum, steel and stainless. His premise was that if the method was good enough for aircraft and race cars it was...

Quetzalsailor

Ahhh, we meet again! You can post to the Yanmarhelp site and read all about the 1 and 2GM engines. Basically the same engine as the 3GM except that they're 1 or two cylinders instead of three. Predictably shorter. http://www.freeboards.net/index.php?mforum=yanmarhelp&showforum=2&prune_day=10...

Quetzalsailor

If there is some chance of breaking the thing loose after destroying the head, you might try using an "easy out". These are hardened reverse threaded tools that you tap into the correct size hole in the fastener and twist the offender out. You can, of course, break the easy out off which w...

Quetzalsailor

I had reason to remove the Tank Minder switch from the holding tank and found that the float was stuck in a gooey deposit. I washed the thing off and it's now fine and reassembled. So, the question is, obvious comments aside, is a gooey coating of the interior of the tank and presumably in the vario...

Quetzalsailor

Go to the Battery University and ask the expert there: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/index.htm

Very helpful; now that we own a 'big' boat, I don't wish to carry the monsters home.

Quetzalsailor

Time. Penetrating oil. Attempt with impact driver. Mine is a hand-held, hammer-driven number from Sears. Time. Penetrating oil. Attempt with impact driver. Repeat weekly for a month. Then drill the insolent little _____ out and with luck all you'll have to do is clean up the threads. I've never foun...

Quetzalsailor

I think you'll find that Beneteaux are manufactured in South Carolina. I'd be surprized that many are imported from France. They now own Jenneau but I do not know whether that line is built here. Check out: http://www.beneteauusa.com/about/1990.php I think you can count on boats of foreign manufactu...

Quetzalsailor

I've always thought that pointy windows were suspect. Surely there is a price to pay in stress concentration and flexure as well as how much tougher it would be to maintain the watertightness. Certainly the long skinny windows in our '72 Morgan 27 were impossible to keep tight for long. It would mak...

Quetzalsailor

I would add that it seemed helpful to remove the finish surrounding the bungs so that you're less likely to 'pick up' the surrounding wood as the bung comes up. My most recent bung removal was less successful because there was not much depth of bung remaining and the installer had used sealant rathe...

Quetzalsailor

You put the stuff in at a rate they proscribe and drink the result. I recall it's 1oz per 20 gals. I don't know what becomes of the stuff or what it removes. I noticed that there are teeny brown soft granular deposits on the inside of the tank, which wern't there when I cleaned the tank. I suppose i...

Quetzalsailor

I have cleaned the tank, added an access/cleanout port, replumbed. I was rewarded with good water for most of the season. The following year was pretty bad, even when starting from all fresh. This year, I started from fresh and added "Aquabon Water Purifier, 8 OZ", available from West Mari...

Quetzalsailor

I asked my question elsewhere and got the following useful reply: Standard orthopthalic polyester laminating resin (often referred to as GP for general purpose) is "air-inhibited." Polyethylene is inert to the resin and has no chemical nor physical affect on cure. Of course polythene can b...

Quetzalsailor

The pictured boat looks like a M41 OI, with a modified transom, as stated above. The odd arrangement of ports, forward in the raised deck sides and aft in the bump, are the giveaway, as is the hull shape forward. Charlie designed 'em in the early '70s but sold his Morgan Yacht Company to Beatrice Fo...

Quetzalsailor

I usually use epoxy in my boat repair efforts but for economy and 'plenty good enough' I use polyester. I have made through-hull backup blocks and similar small layups. I normally use Ikea shopping bags for mould release and cast against glass for flatness, bag on top, plywood and ballast. Gives me ...

Quetzalsailor

You should note the little detail: she sank at her mooring because a hose came off.

I live in fear of such a disaster. Our insurance will not pay for a failure due to corrosion or lack of maintenance.

D

Quetzalsailor

I should have added that several of the NE 38s are yawls; most are sloops. Fewer strings to pull or trip over, and faster.

D

Quetzalsailor

Check out the LeComte Northeast 38. There are several listed on Yachtworld. Also find more information on the Lecomte Owners Site: http://www.lecomteowners.com/ Our 1970 Mk III sails well, gets covetous looks and compliments, has gorgeous woodwork. And, best of all, she's old enough to have projects...

Quetzalsailor

Ours were cracked, too. I raked out the cracks with a hacksaw blade as deeply and as far as I could stand to. I used a metal-cutting blade (thinner) and one of those damnable little handles. Filled with stiffened West epoxy. Varnished. So far, so good; one year. You'd be impolite to notice, but the ...

Quetzalsailor

About the Medalist for sale: It was current last week Time capsule for sale A special Medalist 33 Mk 1 sloop has come to our attention. A 1962 fiberglass model with a full keel, this Bill Tripp design is owned by Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB), a non-profit organization in Annapolis. Ex...

Quetzalsailor

I agree with a previous responder that it's unlikely that Tripp got the balance wrong. Besides alterations to the rig, or wrong choices of sails, it's pretty easy to change the balance with sail set or shape.

Another small Tripp design is the LeComte Medalist 33. One is available in Annap.

Quetzalsailor

Gentlemen,

Check out this eBay listing for an Alden Challenger:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 4637550365

We looked at this boat when it was in City Island NY, it's now in California.

A worthy but huge project.

Doug

Quetzalsailor

John,

Sounds great! I hear that Feather has been sold as well.

Doug

Quetzalsailor

We bought our 1970 Le Comte North East 38, 'Quetzal', last July. I think you will find her listing on Dodson's brokerage, Stonington CT, website and you should also find the LeComte Owners' Site. Both sites have pics of Q; additionally, the Owners' Site has pics of several NE 38s and the other Le Co...

Plastic Classic Forum

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Free Triton

Holding tank care

Inhibited polyester

Old Morgans

Inhibited polyester

Cracked coamings

LeComte Medalist

odd appendage

Alden Challenger sale

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North East 38