Plastic Classic Forum

Quetzalsailor

Nearly 4pm Monday, starting to clear. Still gusty but the B&B is no longer shaking. Two boats ashore in the harbor, one an engineless trawler liveaboard which is also full of water, the other a 30ish foot plastic, but not classic, sloop. Lots of shingles in the streets. Some minor flooding. Ferr...

Quetzalsailor

Hooeee! It's blowin' to beat the band here on Nantucket. We came out from Hyannis by Fast Ferry, an aluminum catamaran. Remarkably comfortable. The state-owned Steamship Line folded their operations for today due to the wind. The Brass Lantern B&B is swaying in the wind. Supposed to be gusting t...

Quetzalsailor

Ditto!

Quetzalsailor

Tsk tsk; you should be playing around the tree with your new tools! (I'm in exile with the grandchildren...) As for perceiving straight and level, and writing as an architect: I think our eye and mind is(are?) very good at lining things up and recognizing shapes. We recognize level reasonably well b...

Quetzalsailor

Winds and resultant chafe by tarps and the tie-down ropes can easily damage paint, varnish and gelcoat. Better answers involve padded frames and keeping tarps and ropes clear of the surfaces - not all that easy or reliable.

Quetzalsailor

Thank you, Dick, I had not been clever enough to come to that conclusion. That's two strikes against the battery forward idea. I have not yet paid attention to the requirements of the windlass, but I'd bet it's less than the 100 amps the Balmar can produce. Well, the boat's covered and it's been in ...

Quetzalsailor

I surely don't remember whether I actually was correct then. It is barely possible. My (only) triumph in using French came after having arrived on a Quebec Air flight from Montreal with a planeful of Quebecois on a record-breaking, for Europe, hot day. 2 July, 1976, was 100 deg F, no big deal for No...

Quetzalsailor

Speaking only to the raising of anchors by the aged... We have bought a Maxwell all stainless, all below deck electric windlass for use on our 38 footer. I always do the foredeck work and Sue drives. I'm now 62 and find that we can stick the 35lb anchor down with immovable securiity (pun in deferenc...

Quetzalsailor

The first time I went to Europe, in 1976, I carried my pocket knife in my pocket, clothes in a back pack, a gym bag full of mechanics tools and the book, 'How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, a Manual for the Compleat Idiot'. I got the tools through customs at Le Bourget, no problem, but had to muster...

Quetzalsailor

There's more than one way, David, to skin this cat. Firstly, there's no guarantee that your boat would have been chocked flat and level. Secondly, there's no guarantee that the manufacturer's efforts are as good as a craftsman's as far as properly relating to a datum, or being square across the boat...

Quetzalsailor

A little cleaning can go a long way! Brushes are often made of blocks of carbon or graphite: black, hard and brittle. Sometimes they are sintered metallics. Sintering is where you crush metal chips together until they bond, often leaving little interstices that hold lubricants. http://books.google.c...

Quetzalsailor

I'm not gonna' second Rachel's and Chris' call for photos. I want a video! I suspect that you're not really scraping but peeling, no? And your secondary push stick gives you more force to keep the blade against the glass? Have you arrived at an opinion about how sharp the chisel edge needs to be? I ...

Quetzalsailor

Use a good, digital Volt Ohm Meter and see whether the power is indeed varying. If it's not, the LED in the breaker is faulty. If it is, continue troubleshooting, starting with the marina's power. The 110v ground on the boat is back through the power cord on the dock. One of the two 110v legs of my ...

Quetzalsailor

Oh yeah???? Try using 'callipygous' on someone you admire, or on another admirer with whom you've been discussing someone you admire. Permatex on one surface holds the gasket for assembly and seals if the surface isn't perfect. The plain, clean gasket will, hopefully, separate at the other, more per...

Quetzalsailor

Be sure your faying surfaces are flat and clean. You can buy over-thickness gasket material at an auto parts store. You can also buy a small tube of permatex and use a smear of it on one surface only.

Quetzalsailor

By the time you mount and connect your small tank properly, it's no longer portable. There's nothing wrong with the idea of a small tank, except perhaps for convenient, spill-free filling. If you were to get your prime tank clean and filled with clean fuel, and you had a decent filter, it would not ...

Quetzalsailor

The 'PVC' log is probably FRP or fiberglass. Supposed to work fine. The M 27 had knurled bronze, knurled for bond to the fiberglass. The Northeast 38 has a mating pair of honkin' bronze castings bolted through the 'rudder post'. The outside portion has the cutless and the inside mounts the reinforce...

Quetzalsailor

This is the marine version of today's Starchitecture: http://www.gizmag.com/love-love-part-bo ... ork/16928/

Quetzalsailor

We had a $1,000 weekend in Keemah in 2004. We went to look at an Alden Challenger, instantly decided against that boat and I went with her broker to see a bunch of other 'inexpensive' boats. A good many of 'em of course were older. Most of 'em were sun-damaged to the extent that the fiberglass decks...

Quetzalsailor

It would be of interest to know what that hard paint is, from a compatibility/repairability standpoint primarily. Dad painted the bottom of his Morgan 27 with graphite racing bottom paint. Rock hard, burnishable to a very smooth, supposedly slippery surface. That was the separation point for any sub...

Quetzalsailor

I don't think there's much advantage from the longevity standpoint between endgrain balsa or plywood core, unless the balsa is kerfed and the kerfs are full of epoxy resin. That's touted as isolating the travel of water through the core, but how would you ever know if it was done right? The endgrain...

Quetzalsailor

Perhaps more meaningful for boaters is the issue of chafe. Dad had a wire chafe through in the engine space of the Morgan 27. It caused the entire bundle of wire to burn which of course shut the engine down and gave off a great deal of smoke. As is normal, the failure occurred in tight quarters, so ...

Quetzalsailor

"Only a_________s(5 missing letters) and admirals" stand in the companionway. I had a friend aboard about 20 years ago who said that to me, as I stood in my own companionway. Sheesh! But even I don't stand there anymore.

Quetzalsailor

We'd hoped Kochi's namesake Kochi would have sent good vibes. The 'original' Kochi was Miles and Beryl Smeeton's dog on Tzu Hang, back in the '50s. Kochi's sole interests in the world are varmints and food, in that order. All else is details. Unfortunately, she does not tolerate firearms so her care...

Quetzalsailor

Perhaps you can see the inside up in the chain locker and the lazarettes. Quetzal's is fiberglassed and tabbed, rather than sealed and bolted. The joint is bolted with the toerails and, though I haven't bothered to count, there maybe a few others in between. Pretty reasonable to assume some mechanic...

Quetzalsailor

Definitely classic enough, and good looking.

Quetzalsailor

Despite Sperry Topsider's oft-told myth, dogs really don't stick to decks very well. Topsiders, neither, for that matter. Though truth be told, I've worn nothing else (shoes, silly!) for 15 years, but Topsiders on land or sea. We have a harness and 'life jacket' for our 50lb American Black and Tan C...

Quetzalsailor

Not many rogue waves on Lake Ontario. How likely are you to take that raceboat to sea? That said, I'd put it all back together the way it was. I understand that you're talking about the companionway. Wood tracks, wood boards, adequate clearance. The simple channels would be a pain. You'd have to dri...

Quetzalsailor

If you Google 'propane explosion sailboat' you'll get plenty of hits about the general subject, including several videos of this incident. At 50, she would probably not qualify for the Darwin Awards according to their stated rules. Her genes are already out of the pool. (That's meant to be momentari...

Quetzalsailor

http://www.darwinawards.com/slush/submit_story.html

Quetzalsailor

Careful Rachel, none of the rest of us answer our own posts... :-) (My very first emoticon!)

This thing looks British to me. Those oversized ports did it for me.

Quetzalsailor

As they say, 'What goes around comes around.' Why are any of the current versions of roller reefing in the boom any better than the stuff our old boats had? Surely winding inside a cover and onto a smaller mandrel doesn't make an improvement. Quetzal, 1970 NE 38, was born with roller furling and the...

Quetzalsailor

Bamboo is the darling of the Green set. It grows quickly and replenishes itself readily, as compared to the various lumber species. One negative the Greens never mention is the embodied energy in growing and making bamboo into useful products, as well as the shipping. Surely the glue is not 'green'....

Quetzalsailor

Tim, You've seen me. Imagine how tough it is to find a production sailboat with over 6'3 headroom in the cabin, a forepeak I can actually get in - let alone sleep, decent ventilation below, decent views out, light and airy below, a head large enough for me, really nice fit and finish, great woodwork...

Quetzalsailor

How can you get a perceptable shock off of 12 volts? Something else must have been getting you, like the coil. I really work to avoid shocks! I could never understand how some mechanics would unplug one sparkplug wire after another, looking for the malfunctioning one. Loved that car; 242 means it ha...

Quetzalsailor

I second all of Hirilonde's comments. Make your own if you don't mind the work or the time. You can buy plantation grown Teak, from Costa Rica, from Diamond Hardwoods: http://www.diamondtropicalhardwoods.com/ I bought rough stock from 'em. Talk to Kevin. As it happens, the stock I bought was from yo...

Quetzalsailor

This advice to buy a camera is particularly true if you're looking at a bunch of boats. And a small digital is a good choice. I don't think your cell phone would be good enough resolution.

We looked at about 40 boats before settling on Quetzal.

Quetzalsailor

Wouldn't that depend upon whether you've got a negative or positive ground system? I recall that some cars were positive ground(!); why, I cannot imagine. Either way, you want to switch or fuse the side that will spread amperage through daintier things. I think I've seen fuses recommended for both s...

Quetzalsailor

There's not a square inch of that boat that you will not have your fingers on, if what you want is a restored boat. Good news is that she's not very big. You might consider throwing her together and sailing a season at minimal cost and effort. Be sure that you love her. Then, have at it. I don't lik...

Quetzalsailor

I made a longboard using a piece of hickory and a couple broom handle sections for handles. Good enough for the continuously changing curved surface that I was fairing. Adding just a smidge to the previous posts: Try to arrange that you're fairing the same stuff across the width of the work. Harder ...

Quetzalsailor

Note how neatly Tim's spar trailer is arranged so that the spar can extend over the towing vehicle's roof.

I do the same thing when towing a 20' Flying Dutchman; the 26' mast extends from a bracket mounted on the transom's rudder gudgeons up to an extension bolted to the trailer's bow bracket.

Quetzalsailor

I guess this is what Subject creep is! 26' of Flying Dutchman mast on a Volvo wagon is plenty, given Philadelphia drivers' patience. A 30' section of B-40 mast was even more plenty! Rachel noted beefing up roofracks and cartop carriers. Roof racks are tougher; my old 1975 Volvo wagon had cast zinc b...

Quetzalsailor

Quetzal's original installation's pressure alcohol stove and oven is gimballed, latched with a slide bolt in one position, equipped with a removable grab rail and stainless lined recess. The stove is wonderfully heavy, but even so, I've removed it without removing the grab rail. I think I removed th...

Quetzalsailor

I think a chain locker that drains overboard would be dandy, far better than one that dribbles down through the boat. That said, I doubt that I'd want a drain overboard, no drain to bilge, a hawse, a ventilator, and a large interior hatch. A drain overboard, a deck hatch, hawse and vent would be fin...

Quetzalsailor

That's got to be an extreme example! I try hard to shop around, if I have time. Stainless screws in Bryn Mawr Hardware were almost twice as expensive than at West Marine, talk about a turnabout! (Bryn Mawr is one of the towns on Philly's 'Main Line' and is the lair of many a fat cat.) Buying from pl...

Quetzalsailor

The Galena, MD, that we drive through to Rock Hall is landlocked. Nearest water is the Sassafras at Georgetown, a couple miles north on 213. This poor sad thing looks like she's made of ferrocement, judging by the lack of detail and the unfair-ness of the shape. Concrete is not really good enough fo...

Quetzalsailor

Drill the limber hole. Nice and big. Big enough to not readily plug with stuff, but more particularly, big enough for your finger. Why your finger? You have plywood bulkheads and you'll want to coat out the bore with filled epoxy. Filled epoxy, as opposed to neat, so that you can fill the inevitable...

Quetzalsailor

Ahh, I think there are several different things being written about here. Center of gravity, and the difference that weight and location make, starts out easy: force x distance of every little scrap of the item can be figured and balanced; the balance point is the CG. It's calculable in 3-D. For an ...

Quetzalsailor

It would be interesting to take the time and compare the Flying 15 keelboat with other planing or otherwise-thought-of-fast keelboats of her day. Star, 110, 210, etc. 600+ lbs sounds comparable to a Lightning, sorta' planing but with a steel plate centerboard. Also with a Flying Scott, a heavy sorta...

Quetzalsailor

Truly inspiring!

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