BoatWorks: Sailboat Maintenance, Repair, and Improvement Advice You Can't Get Anywhere Else (INTERNATIONAL MARINE-RMP)
by: SAIL Magazine (Author)
Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
Publication Date: 16 Dec. 2007
Language: English
Print Length: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 0071497072
ISBN-13: 9780071497077
Book Description
Expert guidance for the hands-on sailor--whether you’re varnishing a handrail or replacing bulkheadsWith contributions from leading how-to experts, this wide-ranging collection of projects from BoatWorks magazine ranges from structural, mechanical, and electrical projects to plumbing and cosmetic repairs and improvements. Much of this full-color guide’s information cannot be found in any other book. Nigel Calder, Don Casey, Mark Corke, Peter Nielsen, Charles Doane, Paul Esterle, Charles Mason, Aussie Bray, and other sailboat experts show you with step-by-step photography how to: Buy and survey an older sailboatReplace bulkheadsFix below-the-waterline holesRepair gelcoat, portlights, or rotten coresPaint, varnish, spray polyurethane, mark a waterline, or rebed deck hardwareChoose a mainsail system, install a headsail furler or an inner forestay, assemble rigging terminals, or build a spinnaker or even a new aluminum mastPamper an Atomic 4 gas engine, replace a Cutless bearing, maintain your diesel, and know when it’s time to repowerInstall a new fuel or water tank, upgrade to wheel steering, replace a propeller or deck hardware, or install seacocksTroubleshoot electrical problems, install cockpit speakers, or rewire your boatReplace lifelines, install a forehatch, secure your cabin sole, and much, much more
About the Author
From the Back Cover Expert guidance for the hands-on sailor--whether you’re varnishing a handrail or replacing bulkheadsWith contributions from leading how-to experts, this wide-ranging collection of projects from BoatWorks magazine ranges from structural, mechanical, and electrical projects to plumbing and cosmetic repairs and improvements. Much of this full-color guide’s information cannot be found in any other book. Nigel Calder, Don Casey, Mark Corke, Peter Nielsen, Charles Doane, Paul Esterle, Charles Mason, Aussie Bray, and other sailboat experts show you with step-by-step photography how to: Buy and survey an older sailboatReplace bulkheadsFix below-the-waterline holesRepair gelcoat, portlights, or rotten coresPaint, varnish, spray polyurethane, mark a waterline, or rebed deck hardwareChoose a mainsail system, install a headsail furler or an inner forestay, assemble rigging terminals, or build a spinnaker or even a new aluminum mastPamper an Atomic 4 gas engine, replace a Cutless bearing, maintain your diesel, and know when it’s time to repowerInstall a new fuel or water tank, upgrade to wheel steering, replace a propeller or deck hardware, or install seacocksTroubleshoot electrical problems, install cockpit speakers, or rewire your boatReplace lifelines, install a forehatch, secure your cabin sole, and much, much moreBrought to you by the editors of SAIL magazine, America's leading sail-only magazine, BoatWorks is a treasure trove.“We’ve cast our net widely to come up with a mix of hard information, step-by-step improvements, uncommon solutions to common problems, and the odd project that’s just wacky enough to keep life interesting.”--from the Introduction by Peter Nielsen, Editor, BoatWorks and SAIL magazines
About the Author McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. BoatWorksSailboat Maintenance, Repair, and Improvement Advice You Can't Get Anywhere ElseThe McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Copyright © 2008 SAILMagazineAll right reserved.ISBN: 978-0-07-149707-7ContentsChapter OneMeet Your Boat Here's a chicken-and-egg question for you: Does a good knowledge of boat design and construction help you plan and carry out work on your boat, or does working on the boat improve your knowledge of boat design and construction? Whichever angle you approach this from, the answer is yes. The more you play with your boat, take things apart, replace odd bits and pieces, and make cosmetic and even structural repairs and improvements, the more you learn about how your boat was designed and built. Similarly, if you study the elements of design and constructionthe way a hull, appendages, systems, rig, and sails work together, and how different construction techniques and philosophies affect strength and longevityyou will soon acquire a growing appreciation of the kind of maintenance and the sorts of problems that lie ahead of you. No one is better at explaining these relationships than Nigel Calder, so it's not surprising that he figures so prominently in this section. He takes an in-depth look at hull design that will be of great value to those of us looking to change our boats or just better understand why they behave as they do. He also provides some great hints and tips about how to avoid trouble with older boats. Things to Watch for When Buying an Older Boat Nigel Calder I recently heard about what should have been a routine delivery up the eastern seabord on a newly purchased secondhand sailboat. Before setting sail, the crew noticed that the rig had no cotter pins, which could easily have brought the mast down. They replaced the pins. Also missing was the hardware for the staysail-sheet leads, so they jury-rigged them. Once out at sea the boat got caught in nasty weather. The crew dropped the staysail while cranking the engine, and the sheet got loose and wrapped around the propeller. Smoke began to pour out of the engine room. The skipper got thrown across the boat and was injured. The VHF radio, it turned out, did not transmit properly. Luckily, the boat was close enough to the New Jersey coast that the crew was able to call for assistance on a cell phone. It's amazing how, in the wrong conditions, a number of relatively minor problems can cascade into a major crisis. In this case, the crew had to struggle with rigging, mechanical, and electronic issuesall common problems on older boats. Old rigs Sailing rigs, like anything else, get old and wear out. The principal culprits are flexing and a steady increase in the number of "fatigue cycles" the rig is subjected to. If a rig is set up properly, toggles and similar fixtures absorb much of the flexing and the rig lasts a long time. But often the aging process is accelerated by improper installations that result in "hard" spots. Other issues include the wear on moving parts, notably clevis pins and the holes through which they pass, and, above all else, corrosion. Most corrosion results from the nearly universal use of stainless steel in end fittings and the hardware to which they are attached (chainplates, tangs, and the fasteners holding these in place). Wherever this stainless steel is in contact with stagnant water, corrosion is a possibility. The warmer the climate, the more likely it is to occur, and the faster the rate at which it will continue. The two most common trouble spots are the lower terminals on wire rigging (moisture wicks down the wire into the terminal) and the chainplates or fasteners where they pass through decks, especially cored decks (moisture gets trapped in the deck). With terminals, the corrosion is generally self-evident (you'll see rust stains and hairline cracks); with chainplates and through-deck fasteners, it generally is not. Some things on a 10-year-old rig should obviously be checked. All clevis pins should be withdrawn, and both the pins and the holes through which they pass should be checked for wear and deformation. Look for hairline cracks around the holes, for cracking and other signs of damage to the rigging terminals, and for any loose strands where wire exits rigging terminals (this is the most likely place for a wire failure). In particular, look for signs of corrosion. The points where tangs contact the mast are also potential trouble spots. All bolts should be withdrawn and the bolt and mast wall carefully inspected. Also spin the sheaves at the masthead to make sure they are running freely and that the bushings are not worn. If the mast is keel-stepped, check for corrosion of the mast heel. If the mast track is external, inspect every one of its fasteners to ensure they are tight (a single loose fastener can cause the whole sail to hang up). Spend some time on the gooseneck fittinglook especially for excessive play, signs of deformation, cracking, and damaged welds. The hard questions on old boats are whether the through-deck chainplates and fasteners should be pulled and whether the standing rigging should be be replaced regardless of its apparent condition. The safe answer is always yes, but it depends somewhat on where the boat has been kept (corrosion is far less likely in a cold climate than in a hot one) and on how catastrophic suddenly losing the rig over the side might be. For a weekend cruiser on a limited budget who never strays far from support services, it is strictly a judgment call. Old machinery Modern diesel engines are incredibly reliable. An engine that has been properly cared for should be good for anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 hours of running time. So always look first for evidence of consistent maintenancea log of some kind and, in particular, regular oil and fuel-filter changes. Assuming good maintenance, the principal concern is that the engine has aged prematurely as a result of being repeatedly run for short periods of time, so that it never warms up properly. Or it may often have been run for long hours at low loads, such as when charging batteries at anchor. Both practices may foul valves and pistons with carbon, resulting in a loss of compression. If an engine is hard to start when cold, this often indicates compression problems. When inspecting an older boat, try to get to it on a cold day before the owner has cranked the engine and warmed it up. If it is slow to start, remove the exhaust from the water-lift muffler and look for carbon accumulation. There should be no more than a light film. This is the easiest way to get some idea of whether there is carbon fouling elsewhere. You might also pump a sample of diesel from the very bottom of the fuel tank (I carry a small pump just for this purpose when inspecting boats). The fuel system is the single most expensive component of a diesel engine, and if it has been receiving dirty fuel there is some risk of damage. The sample will give a good idea of the state of things. If it is filthy, check both the primary and secondary fuel filters. If the secondary filter is really dirty, you should be concerned. On your own boat, it is a good idea to sample the bottom of the fuel tank at least once a year and remove any water and sediment that you find. Often the engine itself is in good shape, but the peripheral systemsthe cooling system, the exhaust, and the mountsmay be showing their age. The expensive items here are the heat exchanger and, to some extent, the mounts. If the heat exchanger has a zinc anode (not all do), pull it and take a look at it. If the zinc is more than half goneor worse, all gonethis indicates the heat exchanger may have corrosion problems. Check the mounts to see if they are excessively soft. Unfortunately, it's hard to define "excessive," as it varies quite a bit, but if the mounts are spongy and the engine can be jiggled around, they are likely to need replacement. This is moderately expensive, especially if you have to pay for the labor, as it can be time-consuming. You should also look for excessive play in the throttle and transmission controls, the state of the shaft seal, and whether or not the cutless bearing is in good shape (the boat needs to be out of the water to check thispulling sideways on the propeller, you should find not more than ? of play in the shaft). Also check the steering gear (look for excessive play, worn sheaves and cables, undue flexing of mounting brackets, and damaged or missing rudder stops); various pumps (bilge and freshwater); the seacocks (very often they are frozen open); and all hose clamps (which often have corroded screws and need replacing). If a boat has refrigeration that is more than 10 years old, there is a good chance it is not in good shape. In all likelihood, the icebox also has inade-quate or moisture-saturated insulation. Correcting this may require rebuilding the box, which is labor-intensive. Finally, if a boat has metal tanksfuel or wateryou should check them carefully, especially if the tanks can get splashed with bilgewater. While some tanks last decades, the incidence of failure after 10 years or so is high. Old electrical systems I've left the worst for last. It's a sad fact that many boats come from their builders with marginal wiring harnesses. Considering the substantial electrical loads most people now take for granted, the harness on an older boat is rarely up to the task. A significant amount of rewiring is almost always a good idea; in the worst case this may amount to pretty much ripping out the old harness and starting over again. This, of course, depends on what you intend to do with the boat. If you want to add a large battery bank, a high-output alternator and multi-step voltage regulator, an inverter, a mass of navigation electronics, plus sprinkle halogen lights throughout the interior, you're in for a lot of relatively expensive work. However, if you are one of the dying breed who prefer to keep it simple, what you've got may do just fine. If you're keeping the existing harness, look for corrosion (especially at terminals, fuses, and fuse blocks) and overcurrent protection (fuses and circuit breakers should have the correct amp rating). Many older boats have a mass of added-on circuits that were untidily installed with inadequate (or nonexistent) overcurrent protection. These unprotected circuits can start a serious fire in a matter of seconds if there is a short. What is best on an older boat is to spend a couple of days tracing all the wiring, creating a wiring diagram and noting cable sizes and the location (and amp rating) of all overcurrent-protection devices to make sure they are in the correct place and properly rated (for more on this, see my Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual and similar books). This is the best way to get to know any electrical system. Also see if the wiring in the boat is tinned, as opposed to untinned. The only places to check this are where there are terminals with strands of the wire in the cable showing. Straight copper wire will be tarnished; tinned wire has a silvery look. Tinned wiring is far better than untinned, which sometimes wicks moisture up its strands, creating corrosion and resistance. Most American boatbuilders now use tinned wiring, but some European builders are behind in this respect, in which case the harness even on a relatively new boat may be in poor shape. If you add new wiring, always make sure it is tinned. The best general-purpose marine cabling has written somewhere on its insulation "BC5W2" and/or "Boat Cable." Ideally, it is also labeled "Oil Resistant." Is it worth the trouble? This is a rather depressing catalog of potential failure pointsquite an expensive one as well. The point is not to scare you, but to make you more alert. Some older boats have been immaculately maintained and are ready to head to sea as is, but most have at least one or two significant problems waiting to be discovered. In many respects, regardless of the level of maintenance, the more complicated and sophisticated the systems aboard, the greater the likelihood of problems. This leads me to a couple of general conclusions about buying older boats. The first is that you should look for one that is structurally sound, but be willing to accept systems that are clearly a mess, recognizing that they will be ripped out and a fresh start made. The purchase price should, of course, reflect this. At the end of the day, you'll end up with mostly new systems, but it will likely take months of work and maybe tens of thousands of dollars to get there. The second thought is to look for a sound boat with minimal systems and keep it that way. A fair amount of what is spent these days on retrofits, notably on electrical systems, electronics, and cosmetics, results from a desire to have all the latest gadgets and gizmos and to have the boat look smart. Much of it is simply not necessary. I have inspected 40- year-old boats with all-bronze fittings and minimal systems that are still in excellent shape and providing their owners with more fun than boats with ten times the systems. Even today I still meet people in far-flung anchorages on lovely older boats with minimal systems that cost maybe $10,000 to $20,000. Finally, if you already have an older boat and intend to keep it, you should occasionally give it a detailed inspection, zealously noting its faults and deciding whether or not they need urgent attention. It is easy to get used to working around problems until you no longer see them. In almost all dismasting cases, for example, subsequent inspections reveal telltale rust stains that should have alerted the owner to the potential for failure, but were consistently ignored. This is why the majority of dismastings occur in less than 15 knots of wind. Another example is the delivery crew I mentioned earlier. They were aware of a number of problems on their boat. Once they replaced the missing cotter pins, none of the other problems seemed important enough to postpone the voyage. Individually, they were not. As a somewhat impatient person, I suspect I would also have pressed on were I in their situation. But the sea, unfortunately, has a nasty way of compounding small problems until they became a big problem considerably greater than the sum of its parts. It always pays to err on the side of caution. Conducting a Mini-Survey Peter Nielsen As the old saying goes, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince. Or princess, if you're talking about a boat. It's all too easy to be swept off your feet by a sweet sheerline and a curvaceous transom, but what ugly flaws lie concealed under that shiny skin? Once you've made the final decision to buy a boat, you will, if it is worth anything at all, have it surveyed. Apart from anything else, the insurance company will insist on it, and you'll almost certainly be able to knock the asking price down enough to cover the surveyor's fees. But even before you go as far as phoning a surveyor, a few simple checks can give you a good idea of whether the relationship is worth pursuingor whether the object of your affections will empty your bank account and break your heart. There are many obvious trouble spots on a sailboat, and if you know what to look for, you'll be able to work out for yourself whether to walk away quietly or make another date. We asked surveyor Norm LeBlanc of Beverly, Massachusetts, to walk us around a few boats and point out some signs of neglect and wear and tear that'll take more than some polish to cover up. Hull Shape and Boat Performance Nigel Calder A generation ago, many boats, especially cruising boats, had long keels and attached rudders. The propeller was in an aperture in the rudder. The boat's cross section had a wineglass shape. There were long overhangs fore and aft. Such traditional full-keel designs were popular for many years. During the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, the keel's forefoot was progressively cut away. A separate skeg supported the rudder, and the space between the keel and the skeg grew larger as they each grew smaller. The skeg was first reduced to a partial skeg and then was eliminated altogether to leave a free-standing (spade) rudder. During the process the boat's overhangs were trimmed and became quite short, if not eliminated altogether. The result of these changes is a "contemporary boat." In its most extreme form, the contemporary boat has a deep, narrow, vertical fin keel and a spade rudder, both of which are suspended beneath a hull with an almost flat bottom and with a plumb (vertical) stem. The propeller is supported by a strut or incorporated in a saildrive leg. The contemporary boat is much lighter than its forebears and looks nothing like them, especially below the waterline. For a given displacement, the evolution from a long keel and attached rudder to a fin keel and spade rudder has dramatically reduced the wetted surface area. Given that the wetted surface area creates the primary resistance that must be overcome in light winds (the predominant condition experienced by most sailors), any reduction results in an improvement in performance. The resulting reduction in lateral surface area, which creates resistance to turning, also improves responsiveness and maneuverability. If you add a fine entry for upwind work and a flat bottom aft for off-the-wind speed, much of the time a contemporary boat will outperform a more traditional boat on all points of sail. And yet slower underbodies are still popular with many sailors, especially those who go offshore. Is this simply nostalgia? Theory versus practice A contemporary boat has a less comfortable motion than a traditional boat in many sea states. If its limited load-carrying capability is exceeded, its performance suffers disproportionately. It generally has poorer directional stability than a traditional boat. This makes steering tiring, increases an autopilot's energy consumption, and may make using a windvane difficult or impossible. The contemporary boat will likely not heave-to quietly in nasty weather and will need to be helmed continuously. With a shorthanded crew this can be a safety hazard. In survival conditions, the contemporary boat is inherently more likely to capsize than the traditional boat. (Continues...) Excerpted from BoatWorks Copyright © 2008 by SAILMagazine. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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