On Board with Mark Corke

Top Tape Tip

For masking tape to work properly it has to have a smooth straight edge, none more so than when there is transition from one color to another of when varnishing a hand rail which is attached to a painted cabin top. A ragged edge looks careless and messy and can spoil the look of an otherwise perfect paint or vanish job.

Some of the adhesive on rolls of masking tape bleeds over the edge so if you lay an open roll on a dirty surface such as a work bench the tape picks up all sorts of rubbish that will transfer to the surface being painted as you mask off the area that you are working on. Keeping your open rolls of tape in a ziplock bag will keep the tape as good as new and prevent that annoying fuzz from sticking to the edges.

Ocracoke 20

This past weekend I have been down at the Wooden Boat show in Mystic Seaport of which more later when I have had a chance to edit down the hundreds of pictures I took. 

One of the very Interesting people that I did spend some time chatting with was Graham Byrnes of B and B yacht design who was showing Marissa, the boat that won the wooden boat magazine design competition. As regular readers of On Board will know I have been spending a fair bit of time going back and forth trying to decide which boat will become my next build project. I can now reveal that it is to be the Ocracoke 20 another of Graham's designs. Slightly larger than the Marissa she has a definite Carolina sport fish look to her, is able to take a larger motor and offer more internal volume and frankly I am very much  looking forward to getting started on her.

A new build will give me plenty of opportunities to share tips, techniques and gear installations with readers of On Board and of course I plan to present a journal in words and pictures of the whole building process from start to finish. There is some additional information on Graham's website along with a couple of extra pictures. What is impressive is that the boat touched 40 knots with five people aboard and with only a 90hp Honda strapped on the back.

Survey wisdom

I recently got an e mail from a lady interested in a Mako center console boat. Apparently she and her boyfriend who was buying the boat with her had been to look at the boat several times and had placed a deposit on the boat. The purpose of the lady's e mail was to inquire about a survey. We e mailed back and forth several times and it was clear that she initially thought that a survey would be a good idea (a wise decision). She quite rightly wanted to know what was involved in a survey and especially what would I look at on the Mako. I patiently explained that Mako's like many boat have a wood cored transom and can rot if water is allowed to get in. I also explained that the decks can crack and water can get into the laminate as well and also explained that I would check such things as the boats electrical and fuel system. It seems that the boat was listed at $11,000 and she thought that $450 for the survey was too much money and that she would go ahead without a survey. She also wanted to know if I did an inspection without a sea trail would it be cheaper. It became clear at this point that she was shopping and was looking to save $100 off the survey fee. I patiently wrote back to her and explained that the cost of replacing the engine should it be shot would be more than the purchase price of the boat and despite my best effort to explain to her the wisdom of a survey includding a sea trial she went ahead without one anyhow. I should add at this point that she had mentioned in an earlier e mail that the owner of the boat had told her that the motor was fine and that she did not need a sea trail as the boat ran great and anyway putting the boat into the water was too much of a hassle.

I have been worrying about this lady since and hoping that everything works out for her. She was prepared to spend a not inconsiderate amount of cash for a boat about which she knew very little with and engine that she had not seen run on a boat that may have had structural issues. Now I don't always look for the worst in a boat but problems can and do exist in the used boat market, but it seems to me that he could have been buying into a whole host of problems by trying to save a few bucks on a survey. The survey may have turned up a perfectly good boat on the other hand it may have been a piece of junk, I shall never know but this could be a case of being pound wise and penny foolish. She may have saved the cost of the survey fee initially but before she can get insurance she is almost certainly going to need an insurance survey and if whoever does the inspection at this point finds a ton of issues it will be too late.

Stern packing part 2

I had every intention of slipping down to the boatyard today and grabbing some pictures of me removing and repacking the stern gland on a boat. But that did not happen mostly because I got wrapped up writing a couple of survey reports that the owners were anxiously waiting for so instead I found a very clear and well illustrated piece on the web which does a great job of showing how it's done. I do have a few things to add however and will endeavor to get these posted later this week just as soon as I get a moment to myself

You can see the complete treatment in words and pictures by clicking here

Worn stern gland packing

This short video shows a packing that should have been replaced some time ago. In tomorrows post I'll go through all the stages and show you how to change the flax packing in a traditional stuffing box but in the meantime take a look at this. I was in the engine room when the boat was running at 15 knots and the video shows the packing dripping excessively. If you look closely you can also see that this has been going on for some time by the staining on the inside of the hull which has caused a 'tide mark'.

Gulf Oil spill

So the saga of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico drags on. Now I may not know much about the logistics of dealing with a disaster of this magnitude but what I do know is that it is only a matter of time before this oil is going to circulate all around the world. It would appear that BP is drilling a couple of relief wells to help take the pressure off the existing blown well head but all this is going to take time, 3 months at best according to BP. In the mean time oil will continue to blast out into the Gulf at a rate of approximately 10, 000 gallons per hour so if it takes three months then that is another 21 million gallons of oil that will be floating around in the sea.

In a statement released two days ago BP said

"This is a complex operation, involving risks and uncertainties, being carried out 5,000 feet under water. The LMRP (lower marine riser package) containment cap never before has been deployed at these depths and conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured."

To add insult to injury BP chief Tony Hayward  visited Venice, Louisiana, to apologize for the disaster.

The first thing to say is I’m sorry,” he told reporters, when asked what he would like to tell locals whose livelihoods have been affected. “We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back,” he said.

He would like 'his life back' well what about the workers who lost their lives when the rig exploded or those fishermen and others who depend on the gulf coast water for their livelihood.

As a boater myself and someone who lives and works on the water I feel very upset that more is not being done to fix the problem and make sure that it never happens again. It also saddens me that as soon as all that oil hits the gulf stream as it is sure to do all the beaches from Florida to Maine and beyond will have oil on them.

It is also ironic that I had an inspection the other day and the coast guard wanted to make sure that I had a holding tank and could not discharge my 10 gallons of poop into the ocean. I am not saying that we should be able to dump into our harbors and rivers but that really does pale into insignificance when one considers the hundred of thousands of gallons of crude floating about on a whim on the ocean currents.

Epoxy fillers and fairing compounds

I thought it about time that I explained the use of the common filler powers that are used with epoxy. Basically epoxy consists of two parts, a resin and a hardener which when mixed together in the correct ratio can be used as a coating and a resin for such things as laminating fiber glass parts together using a fiber glass fabric. What makes epoxy especially useful to boat builders and repairers is that the resin can be used with fillers and fairing thickeners to modify the mix thus extending the uses of the resin far beyond just gluing and laminating.

There is a vast array of powders out there that can be added to epoxy and it can be little confusing at first to know what to pick and what can be used for which application. For general gluing applications and for the majority of gap filling requirements where more than one component will attach to another colloidal silica is a good bet. Off white in color it mixes in fairly easily and will bridge large gaps with no loss of strength. On the down side it is hard to sand once cured also the off white color will not suit gluing applications where the interior is finished bright such as a varnished trim or glued lapstrake boat made from Okume or mahogany plywood. In this instance filleting blend (pronounced fill-et) can be used which has a pleasing brown color and once varnished blends in beautifully with the wood. Not quite perhaps as strong as silica it does smooth out well and can be sanded if the need arises a little more easily. This is sold by Gougeon brothers as the west system 405 powder. For filling large surface areas and smoothing out a less than perfect profile say, then you need something that is going to feather out and sand easily then something like the microlight 410 is the way to go. Although a great filler for surface imperfections it has a lot less structural strength than any other filler powder so it is not recommended for anywhere where it is going to be subjected to loads.

In the photo above I have also included another couple of fillers that I use regularly, both from Interlux. They only offer two filler products, a glue powder which as far as I am able to tell is a silica but whiter in color and filler powder which is also white and although slightly easier to sand than the glue powder is still pretty hard and not something that I would recommend for filling large surface areas.

Golant Gaffer - Atlantic crossing

A few weeks ago I mentioned that my friend Gus Davidson was setting out as part of the fleet of the 2010 Jester Challenge, a Corinthian race from Plymouth in England across the Atlantic to Newport RI. I am in touch with Gus via e mail and have been keeping a close eye on the progress of the fleet especially Gus. He is doing quite well and is now half way to the Azores. There are several options that it is possible to take, the trade wind route, the north Azores route, the great circle route and the rhumb line route. Most of the fleet it seems are opting for the southern choices which although may be further often gives more favorable winds.

Gus is sailing a modified Golant Gaffer which is the same boat that I have so I am watching the daily log to see how the boat performs. The boat is called Just Right and she was built about 12 years ago, I think, and from the outset Gus had the idea of one day sailing her across the pond. He is raising money for Macmillan, a cancer charity and although I do not have the exact figures in front of me I think that he has so far raised  over $250,000.

He is making about 100 miles per day so if he can keep that up he should be on target to make it to Newport for July 4th.

The video at the top shows Gus setting out from Plymouth in light winds and it was not until the 3rd day that he got some decent breeze and was able to put some miles under the keel.

BEP update

I just got word from my contact at BEP is that the systems monitor that I raved about a while back is indeed available at a price of $499.95. It's available at retail via Del City, www.delcity.net, 1-800-654-4757 although I cannot find it on their site they can help if you call them up.