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It takes longer than a winter for gas to go bad. If the tank is metal you can top it off to avoid potential rust, otherwise it doesn't really matter. If you're really worried just drain the tank in spring, disconnect it from the engine and flush some fresh gas through the lines. But if you're running it for a few minutes every other month you're good already.
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Jan 18, 2021 14:21
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StarTron. Or ethanol-free gas. And it'll absolutely absorb moisture from the air over a single winter and wreck the tank, lines, and carb if you like in a place with decent winter humidity swings. You're doing the right thing running it regularly, though.
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Jan 18, 2021 14:29
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sharkytm posted:StarTron. Or ethanol-free gas. And it'll absolutely absorb moisture from the air over a single winter and wreck the tank, lines, and carb if you like in a place with decent winter humidity swings. Ah! Is this why the bigger gas stations around here have 100 octane ethanol-free? I always connected that with the drag strip, rather than boats.
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Jan 18, 2021 14:56
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DJ ChemE posted:Anyone have any recommendations for fuel additives? Ethanol free gas, if it's available, and marine Sta-Bil has been a good combination for me. Use it in all of my small engines, even though I buy it primarily for the boat. madeintaipei posted:Ah! Is this why the bigger gas stations around here have 100 octane ethanol-free? I always connected that with the drag strip, rather than boats. 100 octane is definitely drag strip fuel, normal boat engines don't require octane that high. It's not going to hurt anything to run it in your boat though.
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Jan 18, 2021 20:27
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Our new dock guy started work on our boathouse last week. We're getting SnapJackets around all of the structural pilings, a new boat lift installed, all the catwalks raised 8 inches, a new roof structure, and everything else shored up and repaired. Winter low tides make a lot of this work easier. 
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Jan 18, 2021 20:33
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Sounds expensive. I need a new sea (lake) wall myself.
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Jan 18, 2021 22:56
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Thanks for the suggestions
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Jan 20, 2021 02:50
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gvibes posted:Sounds expensive. Yeah, it's not cheap. We had the seawall redone last summer at about $125/linear foot, and that was a good deal.
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Jan 20, 2021 04:28
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sharkytm posted:StarTron. Or ethanol-free gas. And it'll absolutely absorb moisture from the air over a single winter and wreck the tank, lines, and carb if you like in a place with decent winter humidity swings. Run a tank of e-free and starbrite etron through it. That and some new plugs was basically my go to recommendation for that kinda thing when I worked at O'reillys. Never had someone call me an rear end in a top hat and say it didn't work afterwards. 
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Jan 20, 2021 05:41
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n0tqu1tesane posted:Yeah, it's not cheap. We had the seawall redone last summer at about $125/linear foot, and that was a good deal. Also, I ordered another boat - a baller-rear end 18' row boat:  My dad has a ~2010 25hp mercury outboard from a boat we are trashing to move over, but I am not sure if it will plane. Then again, this would usually be used for fishing outside of wake hours anyways. Going to just leave it in the water uncovered so did not want anything with actual floors/vinyl seats/etc. Eff getting another lift. gvibes fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Jan 21, 2021 |
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Jan 21, 2021 21:49
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gvibes posted:
My man. Good odds it was made in my hometown.
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Jan 22, 2021 00:09
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boxen posted:My man. Good odds it was made in my hometown.
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Jan 22, 2021 03:10
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gvibes posted:Minnesota somewhere, right? Yeah, one of those tiny towns where a single large business employs a large chunk of the population. A number of years ago they got bought out by a Canadian company (Brunswick? something like that), so I'm not 100% positive every boat is still made there, but a big chunk of them definitely are. It's funny watching a documentary in the factory, or looking at ads and thinking "Hey, I know that guy."
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Jan 22, 2021 03:59
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gvibes posted:Yeah. I'm not on the ocean or even great lake, so would like something that looks pretty and not just utilitarian. Current is poured concrete that has sunk mostly below water level. But I don't really know what way to go. Most just seem to hammer in interlocking steel pieces, but I don't want that. Ours is pressure treated pine, pilings and planks. Though I have seen the driven interlocking steel around here as well, dressed up with the same wood top planks and pilings.  (December 2019)  (March 2020)
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Jan 22, 2021 04:15
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We're currently having a wind storm, went down to the marina for the first time in almost two weeks to check on the lines. Wind is blowing about 36 knots out of the south. Southern most line had sawed itself about half way through, though the chafe guard and halfway into the soft polyester guts, when I went to check on it. Not visible damage unless you inspected where the line rubbed against the galvanized cleat. Line was nearly bar tight; grabbed a spare dock line from the rope locker, threw it over the same cleat on the boat, tied that secure to the same dock cleat. Didn't seem worth the risk to replace it and have the boat crash into the dock. Supposed to calm down the rest of the week, I'll change it out tomorrow after work or something. There's a 90% chance that original dock line survives the night, but not worth taking the chances TL;DR go inspect your dock lines
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Jan 27, 2021 04:50
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Scary, isn't it? I've seen the weirdest poo poo happen to dock/mooring lines. I usually replace them every couple of years, which reminds me I need to splice a new pennant for my wife's skiff. The old one is like 3 years old and getting kinda ratty. And check your shackles on your moorings!
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Jan 27, 2021 14:37
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n0tqu1tesane posted:Our new dock guy started work on our boathouse last week. We're getting SnapJackets around all of the structural pilings, a new boat lift installed, all the catwalks raised 8 inches, a new roof structure, and everything else shored up and repaired. Winter low tides make a lot of this work easier. SnapJackets have been installed, and new roof trusses have been put up. Hopefully just a couple more weeks and I can see about putting my boat our new lift.   
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Jan 28, 2021 17:35
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Just out of curiosity what do new piles cost relative to snap jackets
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Jan 29, 2021 00:13
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Heres some boat related poo poo for my (probably) first contribution to the thread. Old locks from the 3rd Welland Canal. Construction was completed in 1887 and it was taken out of service in 1933 or 34 IIRC. A bunch of the old stone locks still remain here's a few pictures from there. If I'm not mistaken, this is Lock 21:  This section of the "old canal" as we locals call it, is still in use sort of. It along with the huge pond around this area stores water used for filling the locks and also for generating some power to operate the pumps etc.. Down stream of these locks is a small generating station. This particular lock is filled up pretty high during the canal's operating season. If my picture isn't too lovely, you can probably see the water line along the stone walls. Further down you might be able to just make out a couple derelict cars in the bottom. Back when this area was more accessible, it was a pretty popular place to dump cars that people jacked. If that was lock 21, then this is lock 20: Normally submerged in summer its probably the best preserved of all the locks on the 3rd canal.  Last pic that I got this weekend: This is whats left of a derelict boat that was scuttled at the end of lock 21. The lock from the first picture. Nobody seems to know much about it except that it was a "tow boat" I guess maybe it was for towing barges up and down the canal or something. Not much left of it but the backbone and some metal parts. Hopefully some fuckin scrap metal scavenges don't gently caress with it. Its been there for almost a hundred years.  I'm sure I have more pics of old canal poo poo somewhere, but I can't seem to find them on my computer. I guess maybe thats and excuse to go for more hikes.
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Jan 29, 2021 01:24
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Hadlock posted:Just out of curiosity what do new piles cost relative to snap jackets New piles are quite a bit more expensive, since you've got to bring in heavy equipment and a barge to set them if you can't reach them from the shore. With this boathouse, a lot more deconstruction would have been needed in order to replace the pilings. You can put SnapJackets in with a pressure washer, and can use bagged concrete with them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kveDAZcRw8 Here's the barge when they were setting pilings for our dock:  In order to replace the pilings in the middle/back of the boathouse, it would likely have required a much bigger excavator than the one pictured there. My brother was down there today, send me a picture of the progress, they've started putting the catwalks back in. 
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Jan 29, 2021 22:36
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Went on our first sail of the year this weekend. It was about 70 and sunny and the wife was busy, perfect day. The plan was to go down to the dock, bleed the fuel system, start the engine and do a lap around alcatraz under main only. We have a 30' boat that's about a 30 minute trip give or take, pretty benign plan About the time we get to alcatraz the wind picks up and we decided to go all the way across to Sam's Cafe, as they had just reopened service on their sail up dock. Well it was low tide, managed to sort of dredge a channel to the dock with our keel, and then throw an anchor off the bow as a sort of crude med moore. Six oysters, a burger and two mai tai later we head back as sunset was fast approaching Engine fuel line has a small leak, or something, letting air into the line at full cruise and 15° heel angle, engine dies. Well, we have plenty of wind, we're plenty deep into the beers and mai tais at this point, plus I just sailed it into the slip last time this happened, so we sail home Well this time the wind completely dies about 1000' from shore, we're about 600' east of our marina with a ~2 knot flood tide pushing us further away. "Might as well bleed the fuel line now and go home". Five minutes later the crew is complaining that the ignition key is shocking them, the interior 12v lights are flickering off and on, and the alternator is shredding it's belt like they're going out of style. Turn off 12v system as a safety measure, which includes both vhf and nav lights. At this point we decide to take a break, have a beer, pull out the radio on 16 to let shipping know we're adrift within ~500 ft of a shipping lane and unlit and wait and see if the wind fills in. I figure we have enough beer to last us until then. This worked out well as we saw at least three freighters pass through the gate, looked like port traffic control was directing them to the other side of the way to give us plenty of clearance, nobody came within 2 miles of us Well out of the dark comes some retired old codger in his Pearson sailboat and offers to tow us to Aquatic Park, about a mile up tide of where we need to go. He declines to tow us into our marina, I forget why, probably because it was dark, but we figure we'll just raft up at the Aquatic Park anchorage and hang out, then sail home later or something. Sent out a radio blast to let traffic control know we were at anchor and clear of their traffic channels for the night Several rum and cokes later we decide it's not like we're in any rush to get home, and finally all pass out on our respective boats (rafting up is a pretty decent covid safe(ish?) activity, if everyone stays in their own cockpits, maybe) and then in the morning he tows us into our correct marina after some coffee Still haven't looked at why we had catastrophic battery failure, I replaced major parts of that system with no redesign just three years ago. I'll look at it next weekend. Battery switch and battery charger are set to off so it ought to be electrically isolated Hadlock fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Feb 9, 2021 |
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Feb 9, 2021 07:29
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Got a trailer for our Catalina 25 and we now have the boat in the driveway ready for winter project work. What's everyone's favorite teak treatment? I think I want to avoid future scraping so I don't want to use varnish. I don't mind applying oil every few weeks but there might be times where we don't make it to the boat when it's not at home to re-apply, and the main thing I want to avoid is having to "start over" any time we miss a maintenance window. Cetol seems to be a popular middle-of-the-road recommendation.
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Feb 12, 2021 14:23
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I've only got a few pieces of teak around the companionway so I just varnish. I'm also lazy as hell and since completely stripping and sanding the teak two winters ago it's held up well with light sanding and one-and-a-half new coats of varnish per year. And we have pretty brutal summers. Definitely not bristol, but it still looks good.
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Feb 13, 2021 02:58
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Boys who love boys
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We used Awlwood on one of the charter boats and I’m really impressed with it. Base coat goes on like stain, there are a few tints. Top coat is clear, kicks really fast so you can get multiple coats on in a day. Looks really good, and it’s held up really well to charter boat abuse. It has to go on bare wood, and it doesn’t like oxalic acid prep so don’t use that to brighten the teak before you apply it. It’s also kinda pricey. For my own boats I let UV and time strip my varnish and weather the teak to a proper grey. That’s the whole point of teak, I don’t have to do anything to it and it’s fine.
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Feb 14, 2021 04:39
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New hot poo poo raceboat my buddies and I have jumped on is a J90. Owner bought the mold for 006 as parts and she's basically a custom. Its like a carbon kevlar Tiger 10 and it rips. That is all.
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Feb 14, 2021 15:07
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The snow has melted, but the marina hasn't turned on the water yet, so I can't clean the absolutely filthy decks. Ack. Also found some new leaks, so that's fun. At least the leaks are from above and not below, heh.
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Feb 24, 2021 16:03
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n0tqu1tesane posted:New piles are quite a bit more expensive, since you've got to bring in heavy equipment and a barge to set them if you can't reach them from the shore. With this boathouse, a lot more deconstruction would have been needed in order to replace the pilings. My mom sent me this picture of the boathouse yesterday.  Talked to my uncle last night too, He's renting a trencher to replace the power line to the sewage grinder pump two houses over this weekend, so we're going to put in the power line from the house to the boathouse this weekend. Probably also get the stuff needed to put in power down to the dock as well.
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Feb 24, 2021 21:40
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Took my boat out for the first time this year. Got a new prop for it back in December, first time running with it on. Works great, better hole shot, and the engine RPMs are where they should be now. Our poodle, Pepper, loves to ride on the bow, snout to the wind. Also, the boathouse structure is complete. Builder still has to install the boat lift for my Scout, but actually got to use it for its intended purpose this weekend.  My center console, and my great-grandfather's Negus 17, which my uncle currently owns.  Also spent the weekend trenching and putting conduit in to run power from the house to the boathouse, but I didn't take any pictures of that because the trencher got stuck several times and didn't do anything more than piss me off for most of the weekend. The conduit is in though, now I need to order the wire, breaker box, etc.
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Mar 1, 2021 05:02
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If anyone is going to be at CRW, let me know. Lucifer's Hammer J24 3214.
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Mar 4, 2021 16:01
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James May knows what's good.  http://wessexmarine.co.uk/2021/03/james-may-marex-310/
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Mar 6, 2021 00:19
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Your Marex is beautiful.
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Mar 6, 2021 01:05
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Oh hey remember that 33' C&C I was thinking of buying? I bought that a few months ago. Haven't done much yet. Have removed all the ancient 70s era cushions and gonna be looking into cutting new foam and repairing those. Survey noted the battery cables weren't marine grade so I tried to remove one of the battery cables grounded to the engine but it's corroded on and despite quite a bit of effort I don't think I have the tools to free it. Makes sense to do an engine service and may have to ask the mechanic if he can sort that. Have dropped a socket down the scupper drain. Have been going to check on it every month since there's no automatic bilge pump. It's not sinking but a bit of water seems to accumulate from somewhere. Last time I went I can to clean off a ton of seagull poop since they'd set up shop above the canopy. All in all things are going well. The bulk of commentary in my survey was about the electrical system. I wonder if a lot of it is from stuff that was installed as standard back and deemed ok in the 70s but which is no longer the case. For example: quote:The AC reset breaker was mounted in a metal case in the starboard-side cockpit locker and the metal case had minor rust staining on the surface. There was no visible grounding wire on the case and it is not ignition protected. The battery in the locker is also right next to the engine and it was noted that that also needs to be separated in some way to keep it away from gasoline vapours. The battery in question is sitting on some wood which is half rotting from decades from water. That may be something I try to remove and replace with another new piece of wood footing if I can. Definitely the engine bay and locker is a damp space. Not sure if that's from leaks or condensation or anything to be worried about at all. Something funny I noticed about the batteries was that this area clearly at one point had both starter and house batteries one next to another, but for some reason the house battery was actually in the cabin under a seat. The previous owners said they didn't move it there and I'm not sure why that would have been moved. Plenty of concern in the survey around wondering if any of the wiring was actually marine grade. Previous owners promised they'd help me set the boat back up again in the spring which is good because I don't know wtf I'm doing. Femtosecond fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Mar 7, 2021 |
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Mar 7, 2021 04:29
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Marine-grade wire these days means stranded copper wire that has been tin plated. Automotive wire is stranded copper (versus the solid copper in household wiring) but without the running. The tin helps it resist corrosion, if you find a corroded terminal and start cutting the wire back you'll be surprised how far the funk will have wicked back into the wire. My observation is that tinned wire wasn't in widespread use from the factory until the 90s. Everything before that came with untinned wire and at this point is looking at a full rewire if it hasn't already had one. I recommend paying special attention to the AC wiring, it's much more likely to burn your boat down if something is hinky. Look for wire nuts (never ok), suspicious bundles of electrical tape (probably hiding wire nuts or worse, wires that were simply twisted and taped). Batteries emit hydrogen when charging, which could build up in an unventilated engine compartment and possibly turn you into the USS Hindenburg, but it's rare. I recommend not clinging to borderline useful batteries (lead acid batteries are generally toast after 7 years) and having a modern charger that won't indiscriminately dump full amperage into a battery that has shorted. Having them well-secured in a battery box is advisable as well, having them resting on rotten wood less so. They are heavy and if they slide around they can break something like a thruhull, or short against something. If you're near SF Bay I'm happy to come down and give you some advice in exchange for burritos.
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Mar 7, 2021 19:28
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Big Taint posted:Marine-grade wire these days means stranded copper wire that has been tin plated. Automotive wire is stranded copper (versus the solid copper in household wiring) but without the running. The tin helps it resist corrosion, if you find a corroded terminal and start cutting the wire back you'll be surprised how far the funk will have wicked back into the wire. My observation is that tinned wire wasn't in widespread use from the factory until the 90s. Everything before that came with untinned wire and at this point is looking at a full rewire if it hasn't already had one. I wish I was near SF Bay that'd be fun but no I'm in Vancouver BC. Yeah the surveyor suggested that this boat would likely need a full rewiring, which is something I leveraged to get a bit off the price. I certainly noticed a fair bit of sketchy custom wiring (ie. speakers) when I initially looked at the boat but now that I've been able to get into the locker adjoining the engine bay and looked at the wiring up close I have to figure if that stuff is also not marine grade then that really means that the original C&C built 70s era stuff wasn't marine grade, because I can't imagine why anyone would have ever re-did it. It's in such tough to access nooks and crannies it's going to be a pain to re-do some of it. The batteries are in the deep starboard locker and I think hydrogen should be able to exit that space (not like the locker is air tight or anything). The surveyor seemed more particularly concerned with the possibility of sparks from the battery igniting heavier than air gasoline vapours from the gas engine and suggested that I more separate the engine from the battery, even if it was just some plywood wall or something. Everything in this locker area feels kinda ad hoc and custom. It's hard to get a feel for what C&C would have done and what could have been slapped together by some other owners after the fact. It certainly feels like a minor and easy to do thing to replace rotted wood, secure these batteries, wire them properly, and ensure that they can't short against anything. That will go a long way to making this thing safer. Femtosecond fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Mar 7, 2021 |
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Mar 7, 2021 21:42
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That's actually kinda surprising given how thoughtfully the CC99 I do electrical maintenance on is laid up electrically, but also 70s in Canada lol. I'd be interested to compare pictures to his narrative...is the 12v panel REALLY INSIDE the engine compartment!? To be fair the two I work on/have access too are like hull number 5 that the original owner still has and literally visited the factory to show them where to put plates for his blocks and a very late production boat, I wanna say it was like one of the last 5 out of the mold so they'd probably figured it out by then Crunchy Black fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Mar 7, 2021 |
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Mar 7, 2021 22:02
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Femtosecond posted:Everything in this locker area feels kinda ad hoc and custom Welcome to boat ownership!
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Mar 7, 2021 22:13
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Some photos. Looking into the starboard locker before I'd cleared the mess. (You can those jugs next to the battery is clearly where at one point a second battery was put, before it was moved inside under some seat (again no idea why one would do this and I'm considering moving the battery back). That's the half rotted wood I'm talking about.  From this photo we can see that the locker is open to the engine bay, and so effectively the battery is right next to the engine. This is why my surveyor was concerned and suggested putting a bit of plywood between them.  Some wiring directly above the battery, to the battery selector, and above and to the right of the engine.  In the top left of the locker is a switch to turn on the AC connection to the the shore power and an AC outlet into the cabin  Here's some other random broken stuff. I uhh don't know what this dark grey thing is, but clearly something snapped off it at some point.  Need to replace this window rim. 
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Mar 8, 2021 00:48
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I'm no naval architect and I sail a boat with no electrical system so take this with a lot of salt... but I don't like the idea of an anchor riding right next to a bare battery. Maybe a sealed battery box vented somewhere reasonable and an ignition protected battery switch would be a good start.
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Mar 8, 2021 02:01
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monsterzero posted:I'm no naval architect and I sail a boat with no electrical system so take this with a lot of salt... but I don't like the idea of an anchor riding right next to a bare battery. Maybe a sealed battery box vented somewhere reasonable and an ignition protected battery switch would be a good start. Yes!! haha. The surveyor noted this. There was a metal ladder loose in there too lol. I've cleaned that entire locker out. That photo was taken before I did anything.
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Mar 8, 2021 07:19
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We went to look at a boat today listed by a local broker, fairly racey cruiser, mid market pricing, 9 years old ready to do a pac cup or transpac race to Hawaii 1. Suprise it's an ex charter boat which wasn't disclosed before we drove all hour to see it 2. Owner appears to be camping on it whenever wife throws him in the doghouse. Apparently he would recover from chemo on the boat and is quite attached to it 3. Is teaching his daughter to sail on it 4. Owns two other boats, appears to not be in the mood to actually sell it 5. Weird creaky noise coming from the water fill port on deck, also near the chain plates, the under deck access is behind a built in cabinet i.e. No-go 6. Despite professional photos, boat interior cabinets are held together with painter's tape and about 50% of the latches are corroded shut. Ad says "meticulously maintained" Noped right the gently caress out of that transaction
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Mar 8, 2021 07:24
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