The Cape Dory Board

soak the motor mount bolts in oil-cut the prop shaft with a sawzall-disconnect the wiring harness and the fuel line and the water in and exhaust hose-get a come-along and use a 4x4 or 2 2x4's across the companionway and with one person on the comealong and another in the rear of the engine compartme...

Being one of the most frugal "cheapest" boat owners out there-I have a couple of ideas-1st what do we mean by "your motor is dead and needs to repaced"? did a connecting rod go through the block? did it seize? is the block cracked? I would pull the engine which is not difficult-w...

lemon oil furniture polish works great on interior teak-its death to mildew also!

The cape dory chain plate issue is fascinating-I have reinforced both my stern and bow backing plates with aluminum plates-I was able to get the nuts off easily and made a plate and reinstalled it over the old backing plates which were rusted but really not in too bad shape-considering the boat is a...

I own one of the oldest (if not the oldest) cd 28's out there-hull # 13 from 1974- #1-if you went out on a windy, blowy day with just the working jib and a reefed mainsail you would be very impressed-so get a genoa and cruising spinnaker for light air- #2-I would never even consider selling my boat ...

You also can bring a piece of the gasket to a local auto glass/glass company-they may have something that fits-I found a little bit of water proof grease on the gasket helps as well-eventaully the gasket gets compressed-especialy where the clamps are and it starts to leak-and I hate leaks! if you ca...

there is rebreather hose that goes from the oil filler cap to the air cleaner-is yours disconnected? missing? blocked?

diesels are tough-we cannot recommend you run them without water pumping through them but if you didn't seize it or crack the head your ok-if you ever forget to open the water intake valve and the engine overheats shut it down and let it cool before you open the seacock! cold water into a hot engine...

keep in mind several things-if you intend to pull the motor and gear box and your gearbox is 15-20 years old-you might as well replace the clutch plates and shifting fork as well-however-I found it very difficult to locate someone who can work on these gear boxes-I sent mine to a company that advert...

If any members ever want to go sailing on a cd 28 out of South Dartmouth Ma please contact me by e-mail-my wife and kids have had enough but I haven't and it seems "the guys" are all tied up with things like jobs and families? I've got the self-tacking jib-a hank on genoa and a cruising sp...

Cape Dory's are not cored below the water line-for screw holes I would try white marine-tex

I just ran from Quisett Harbor in Falmouth back to South Dartmouth yesterday afternoon-alone and running dead down wind with just the mainsail up and I agree-sailing dead downwind sucks-one problem is the stays are so far aft the sail rides against the spreaders before you can let it out very far. T...

shift and throttle cables do not last forever-keep in mind in a pinch you can reach in and shift the lever on the gearbox by hand-your best bet is to pull the exisitng cable and go to a supply store-Morse makes most of them and they are sold by length and the size and number of threads on the ends-m...

I'm actually having trouble with a new compass I just installed-it has so many dampening magnets that you need to jostle it to get it to move and "settle down"-on a rough day I've always had trouble with the compass-either it would bounce around so much it was useless or in this case its &...

ok-here is my 2 cents-whatever you would use to clean a toilet or a shower stall will work on fiberglass-this includes soft scrub-bon ami-bar keepers friend-a scrunchy pad-toilet bowl cleaner etc-obviously you only want to use as little force as necessary to remove the offending stain/dirt-also anyt...