New Imp disc brake parts arrive

They are here and even having paid the local postmaster 10% duty, then 14% vat plus a R15.00 charge on top of those charges for writing the  invoice document  out, they are still good value!

The picture shows what was in the package from the supplier in the UK, thats the gear in front of the spring.
Also in the frame is a copper 998cc Imp cylinder head gasket, a British Seagull Forty Plus fuel bowl, the spring is a yachts mooring line shock absorber.

Even the socket bolts are included , the right length and thread, all you need supply is the hex headed tool to tighten them up with.

The plates are the new type which have had the spacers welded on and also chrome plating of the assembly. You may think you can get the flexi pipes local but these have a metric thread on one end and imperial on the other!

Nice or what!

Roy

Boat anodes, do we need them?

Check the picture and make your own decision. Its easy to see that the top anode that came off a boat, protecting  two marine diesels, has done sterling work.

After six years service the old anode as lost around 1 kgs of its cast weight, or to put it another way, fifty percent of its metal.

Do yourself a service, spend money on real ZINC anodes (not alloy) and save yourself lots

on engine maintainance!

How easy can this get?

Roy

The king of bronze skin sea cocks?

I have no idea where this gem was made, it came to me via a second hand shop dealing with yacht gear, Yot-Grot we miss you, please will someone re open a similar store!

Bronze in this quality is to Rolls Royce standards.

I told you so!

Just check the detail and quality.

These parts fit like a good pair of gloves.

Made to a supurb standard of high quality.

Check the stainless grub screw, it locks the hex cap.

The bronze sea cock is totally flat to the hulls outer surface when closed, a design I have never seen before. In this case it will be used to supply raw sea water to an engine and has a bronze cover plate with holes to keep trash and plastic bags out.

Who made that sea cock?

Roy

Wood epoxy boat construction, does it work?

The job is to install a B&G Network speed log transducer in a Dix Design 43 ft sail boat.
The  boat will have been in the water some thirteen years next January, what would the plug taken
out of the hull look like, dry, damp or wet?

B&G state we must never use the plastic type skin fitting on a wood construction boat, they worry about expansion? there should be none with wood/epoxy as this picture shows. The plug came out dry, very dry indeed!

Note, the new hole edges must be sealed with thin and wet epoxy to maintain the dryness at all times.
When cured you can fit the new skin fitting with a pliable sealant .

A message to the boats designer is below.

Hello Dudley,

I am fitting a new  B&G Network speed transducer , this will upgrade the Hornet 4 system which still works fine, the boat will have both now.

The hole when cut out came out dust dry, it was weighed it right away, 16 grams only and sized 40mm x 22mm with a 7mm center hole, Taal ockume marine ply, one layer 12mm and one of 9mm.

So the epoxy system has worked 100% on this build. You may remember we back filled the keel studs Took ages to do but we have a nice dry keel joint when hauled.

Regards

Roy

A reply from Dudley.

Hi Roy,

Nice. That ties in with my experience with "Black Cat". We had her surveyed in 1999 by Kieron Cox. He took moisture measurements and came up with 12% everywhere, except where his meter was reading the water in the integral tanks.

A boats steel keel that was UHP blasted clean result

This was all of two and a half years back, I spoke to the CEO of a specialist ship cleaning company about the problem on a yachts steel keel box. He was not over worried and told me his guys would sort it out.

Ultra High Pressure (UHP) runs at a 2000 Bar pressure, pure water removes all paints,scale and rust until there is nothing but clean steel. The over coating was done by the men who did the blasting using Sigmacover epoxy primer.

With Internationals Interspeed antifoul on the required Sigma tie coat, you can see that even after two and a half years the job worked.

This was after using a domestic type Karcher pressure wash machine, the paints lasted well and the steel keel is sound with virtually no wear on its anode.

This anode looks good enough to leave in place, a new one will be fitted though!

CKD Boats cc are the agents in Hout Bay for UHP work.

Roy

Genoa furler service

We need to do this once a year, its not at all techincal and should cost you nothing but a little time?
The Harken series three owners manual is one of the best, it gives you a step by step installation guide, it also tells you to service the unit.

How simple is this, you lower the furling head sail, wash the top and lower Harken furler swivels out with clean water, in this case a coating of Fluid Film was also applied to help keep the elements at bay. Inspect the gear for chafe or damage, its so easy to fix things like furlers when tied to your dock!

Re hoitsing the sail via its lower feeder, will clean out the alloy luff track groove and ensure it will lower in a hurry if ever you require it, when did you last service your roller furling unit?

How easy is that!

Roy
 

Hout Bay harbours marine life

The harbour and the bay outside are alive with marine growth and life, the fishing is excellent, so is the diving, this picture was taken by me this afternoon when looking
into the water on the HBYC marina!

We have around six meters of water in the harbour at an average high tide, the tide tommorrow will peak to about 1.8 meters, more than 1.9 meters is rare. This water is cold, about 13 degrees celcius!

Roy

A yacht designers rights

Keeping your Boat Honest (and Legal)


A nice boat is one of the real pleasures of life, particularly when we have built it ourselves, with our own hands and using skills that we have developed over a range of projects. We put so much of ourselves into building a boat, in the form of time, effort, sweat, pain and occasionally some blood, that we should be proud of what we are doing. We do it out of love for what we are doing and what we are creating. We sometimes do it on a shoestring budget because we want to get as much boat as we can for the $$ that we can afford.
There are many places that we can cut costs and most of them involve us doing the work ourselves rather

Dudley Dix

Read Dudleys complete blog on the subject here. http://dudleydix.blogspot.com/

CKD Boats supports this and will at all times.

Roy