Plastic Classic Forum

Seapower and elbow grease works pretty well.

Just to add my probably useless anecdotal evidence... I have a Pearson Renegade which some previous owner put a dodger and a smaller main on. So the main I think is almost a foot above where it should be. It looks a little less cool than it should, but it sails fine. It still balances out really wel...

I was recently talking to a friend about this very thing and he told me to be aware that one cannot expect to get a whole lot of life out of an Etchells racing sail. Most of those boats go through sails every season and my understanding is that the sails are generally designed to be replaced at that...

I have just one battery on my boat (house). Its a 4D lifeline AGM. I am a big fan of AGMs, no adding water, no venting issues, charge and discharge more efficiently and best of all no spilling (I've lost more than one pair of pants to wet cells). They are pricey, but I think worth it over wet cells....

Well Dave, you certainly gave me the answer I wanted!

I thought that might be the case, but wasn't sure.

Thanks

I'm trying to redo the galley counter top in my renegade. A couple days ago I prematurely tore out the old formica and now need to put in a new laminate. (I have since discovered that I probably would have been better off putting a new layer on top, but whats done is done.) So its all out, but the o...

I made a head sail. Its super easy to do, takes no significant skill, just time.

If you want to assure a happy wife, replace your head hoses, if they are anything like the rest of the boat they are probably contributing quite a bit to your funk.

forrest

For anyone who is interested... This year I used Pettit Alumaspray aerosol antifouling on my outboard and the difference from Interlux Trilux was huge. Alumaspray had no hard growth after 7 months in the water and held off soft stuff for at least a couple months (better than Trilux which was green a...

I think this is the same type of swager that Ric at one time used. It seems completely idiot proof.

Does anyone know anything about these old swagers and whether they can be trusted? Whether it needed to be adjusted at some point? If it creates a weaker swage for some reason?

Forrest

Hi all, A guy I share my shop with has an old mechanical roller swager (that he inherited from his father-in-law who apparently used it on airplanes at NASA). My 40 year old boat is probably due for new standing rigging and I am sorely tempted to use this thing to do it my self. I have used it to ma...

With 10-15 and a mild chop you sail! ;)

I have an 8hp Honda on my Renegade, it cruises around 5 knots.

My guess is that you would need a prohibitively large outboard to go hull speed into 10-15.

It's interesting to me that Yanmar might be trying to get out of the small engine biz. It seems like all the big sailboat builders use Yanmar almost exclusively. They must have a huge share of the market. Why would the abandon that?

I have an outboard. I'm not passionate about the argument one way or the other. But recently the OB was giving me trouble, in fifteen minutes and a truck ride and it was sitting on a stand in my shop... that's really handy. On the other hand I feel like having the prop aft of the rudder makes steeri...

Not to be a wet blanket, but this http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=88.02.030 says of exempt vessels: (7) Vessels under sixteen feet in overall length which have no propulsion machinery of any type or which are not used on waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United States or on the ...

I'm getting ready to put my outboard back in the well for the season and I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck with antifouling paint on their outboards. Last year I tried Trilux and it seemed to be completely lacking in antifouling properties. I think I had slime on it withing two weeks. Anyone ...

My experience with those strainers could certainly be due to the fact that it was charter guests cranking on those suckers.
Grossly generalizing, charterers tend to ruin anything they possibly can, no matter how stoutly built it is.

Just a note on those Vetus strainers... I hate them, if the seal is not lubricated well they will seize shut in a nasty way and since they are all plastic you can't really use a tool on them. I've had to replace a few of them on various boats.

In my experience, the most important aspect of dropping or raising a mast is having a sufficient number of warm bodies. A Cal 25 doesn't have a whole lot of mast, so as long as you think it out and plan well there is no reason it can't be an easy stress-free experience. As to the sag in your beam, i...

Wow, how about that angle iron holding the works together. That's pretty interesting, I would not have imagined that lurked inside my hull...

The boats all well and good, but I want that shop! What a beauty, and right by the water!

Seeing those nice bronze winches reminded me of my own. I have the same winches except chrome bronze, which at this point loosing much of its chrome...

Is there a good way to remove the rest of the chrome and just have them be bronze?

I can't say that I have a ton of experience with them, but I have a little. They just seems unnecessary to me. Cables work well, there area very few things that can go wrong, and you can easily see the important bits and immediately know if they are having problems. I take care of a big power boat w...

I used silicone for the acrylic to the frame and Dolphinite for the frame to house. A lot of people dislike silicone, but it seemed like a good use for it.
I put them in a year ago and they are not leaking...yet.

I put that blade fuse panel in my boat to cut out a bunch of little fuses. My only problem is that they don't make the bladed fuses in all the various sizes that some of my electrical stuff wants... like 1.5 amp or 7 amp.
I would have gone with the glass fuse version instead.

That is one pristine renegade. September was a good choice! We went out the last week of August and had a small craft advisory every day and rain every other day. August is usually such a sure thing around here... We still had a good time though, we had the old renegade going 9 knots reaching across...

Looks good!

I had to move the chock for the BRM2 as well (and managed to drop it overboard)

The only other Renegade in my marina also has the BRM2. If it is possible I would love to see a picture of how your new roller looks when you get it set up.

Charge per inch...must be Shilsole?

Cheers

The BRM3 and 4 are freaking huge! I just put a BRM-2 on the my Renegade to hold my 22# Bruce. It doesn't snug in there the way that it would if you put that massive BRM-4 on it, but it works well enough for me (plus it is waay cheaper).

As an aside, I just found out that any moron can erase and re-write a Wikipedia definition. I was wondering about some info there and got to looking around and asking questions. Very little Wikipedia info is actually backed up by real facts. The articles are mostly just stories and faulty ones at t...

Thats funny, I saw that stuff at my local store today and was wondering the same thing.