How-to

Yesterday I discussed some of my observations as I watched a fellow preparing his outdrive for a fresh coat of paint. …Read More

Well the monsoon season here in Rhode Island is finally over (we think) and only about 25% of the state remains underwater. But, today the sun came out and things are finally beginning to hop here at the marina where my office is located. So, I got my spy camera out today and caught this fellow getting ready to do the deed to his outdrive. I like his style, radio blaring, brought the lawn chair along and looking comfortable while he gets ready to do potential damage to his rather expensive Volvo Penta outdrive. We're going to have to keep an eye on this fellow probably through tomorrow because he got my attention with his moves so far, and they're some of the wrong moves. In the above photo I see things that many people would not give a second thought to, so I have to share so you don't make similar mistakes. First off you can clearly see the blue masking tape around the perimeter of the drive unit. That tells me he's going to be applying some paint to the drive unit soon. He's been sanding away on the drive unit for the last few hours or so and I can see bare aluminum showing in some spots. Issue # 1 is the sanding itself. This drive unit is covered with soluable salts because I know the boat stays right here in salt water. If he is going to apply paint to the drive unit he needs to be certain the soluable salts are removed first if he expects the paint job to last. That means washing the drive thoroughly with a readily available salt neutralizer like Star brite "Salt Off". Sanding without washing first just drives the microscopic salt particulates into the surface of the metal. Eventually they will be the cause of a small osmotic blister that will begin to lift the paint away from the surface. Ultimately the blister will burst and expose the naked metal to the seawater. Corrosion begins right after that. So the process goes this way: Wash with salt neutralizer. Then sand loose paint and scuff surface. Solvent wash to remove all paint dust and traces of oil. Mask off areas where you don't want paint. Prime with a zinc based primer from either Tempo Products, or Moeller. (Zinc Chromate or Zinc Phosphate). Finally, once the primer dries, you can add the color coat, which is readily available for all of the popular outboard and IO drives. Back to the tape. I can see that historically the boat's anti-foulant paint was brushed right up next to the IO drive housing. This is wrong! There should be a 1" separation between the edge of the anti-foulant and the drive housing. Since many anti-foulants contain cuprious oxide (copper based) we don't want that coming in direct contact with the drive metal, as it can induce corrosion at the interface. So when I look at a masking job for an outdrive, I want to see the tape all the way around the lower portion of the drive unit as well as where you see it in the above photo. Stay tuned, I'll check on this fellow later and see if I learn anything more about what sort of paint etc. he's planning to use.    …Read More

Sunreef Yachts said today it has launched the second in the expedition series of 70 Power Catamarans; this one named ONDIN and sold to a Chilean couple who plan to explore Patagonia. The long-range yacht will depart the shipyard in Gdansk soon and make a transatlantic passage, followed by a Panama Canal transit and final [...] …Read More

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A month or so ago I wrote a piece here entitled "Intelligent Networking". Two days ago I dicussed "The Convergence Continues". Just in case you aren't following my mind set here let me share with you some rather intriguing information garnered from last evening's national news with Brian Williams on NBC. Everyone has heard about Toyota's troubles with sudden acceleration by now. The current thinking is that it is somehow an electronically / computer driven problem that may be causing this. But here's the intrigue. The US Department of Transportation has admitted that they don't have the technical expertise to figure out what's going on with this. So, the government is now turning to NASA rocket scientists to solve the problem. Now, I'll grant that new cars are probably 5-10 years ahead of most production boats technologically, but we're catching up fast. When I talk about consideration for "mission critical" circuitry being totally controlled by an electronic system, or tout the simplification that the convergence of electronics with traditional electrical wiring schemes has created, remember, behind all of this is some rocket science. My bottom line on this? Its simple really, the boating sector needs to proceed with caution. I love things electronic, but when it comes to safety, we all need to step back and ask ourselves how many rocket scientists its going to take to fix any problems that may arise in spite of the best engineering intentions. …Read More

Ken Williams, who, with his wife Roberta, owns the Nordhavn 68 Sans Souci, reports that the 2010 cruising season for the boats of the Great Siberian Sushi Run (GSSR) is approaching. In an email today to followers of his blog, Williams reports that the boats, which traveled from Seattle, Washington to Osaka Japan last year, [...] …Read More

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Passing through Miami or Fort Lauderdale and need fuel? How about having it delivered to you at anchor by Peterson Fuel Delivery. They’ve been doing it for almost ten years but I didn’t know about it until Jeff and Karen Siegel took advantage of the service and wrote it up in their cruise blog, TakingPaws. According [...] …Read More

Sometimes I guess you can just have too much of a good thing. The case in point here is Interlux’s new Compass varnish, introduced last fall, which incorporated a new, fast-drying chemistry. Unfortunately, it seems to be just a little bit too fast-drying. An OceanLines reader in North Carolina noticed cans of the varnish being [...] …Read More