The Cape Dory Board

Any good auto electric shop could check the functioning and rebuild your alternator for you, if necessary.

Rather than putting a bunch of holes in the mast to add cheek blocks, I installed one of these. I actually made one, years ago. You can then attach small blocks and lead them back to wherever you want to cleat off the lines. One more point is that you should not take sheets, directly to the combing ...

I find that having a battery monitor gives me a lot of information and peace of mind. If you had one in your system, you would have been able to see that the panels were not charging the battery. It will tell you how many amps are going in or out of the battery at any given time and how many or what...

I have had issues with the spinnaker halyard/furler. I now take, both ends, of my spinnaker halyard to my pin rails on the shrouds. You could take them down to a stanchion base as well. I would not feel comfortable with the possibility of chafing where the halyard wraps around a cap shroud. It is am...

Glad to hear everyone is okay. Being becalmed and just flopping around in larger seas is a miserable situation. I often think about people who race, when I fire up the engine and try to make some headway towards a stronger breeze. You are not doing this for some giant corporate sponsor or big prize ...

Any news on what went wrong? The boys turned around to anchor in Onset. Hope everyone on board is okay and the boat is not damaged. Sailing to Bermuda is not a cake walk. There is a lot that can go wrong.

I always keep a little sink plunger on board. Give it a few plunges and all will be well in your world. If that doesn't work at the end of the season, you may need to take a dive with a butter knife and assault the creatures who may have taken up residence in your through hull fitting.

The CD-10 does row very well with a proper set of oars. Even with 7' oars I found that I had to add risers to the oar locks to keep from rubbing the gunnels. I always row from the center seat when solo. Row from the forward station with a passenger in the stern. The CD-10 tows extremely well when in...

If you do decide to remove the deck fill hose, make sure to cap it off at the deck fill as well as the tank. Murphy's law dictates that someone is going to put a hose in that fill and wonder why the tanks don't seem to be getting full. I added a short, plugged hose to my deck fill when I first elimi...

I got rid of the fill hoses for my water tanks and now fill them through the inspection ports in the top of each tank. Much easier to be sure how much is in each tank, one less place for crud to live and less opportunity for leaks. Notice the rectangular cut outs in the liner, at the sides of the V ...

Thanks for the bedding material advice. I thought, finding the Lexan would be pretty easy. I did some searching and couldn't seem to find a bronze or smoked Leaxn for the lenses. I also don't want to buy a huge sheet but could easily cut the stuff to size. Does anybody have any current sources for t...

I Painted my hatches with Rustolium rattle cans a few years ago and they seem to be holding up well. I also replaced the gasket. I now realize that the bedding around the lens is leaking. The lens looks good enough to reuse or if not, it will be easy enough to replace. My question is what to use for...

Epoxy; the cheap solution for sloppy craftsmen. How does all of this information play out for composite boats? The Volvo IMOCAs immediately come to mind. There could not be a more severe test of materials than racing around the world in a foiling boat. I would imagine there is still a good deal of R...

I question whether epoxy formulas have changed in the 25 to 40 years since these reports were made. The fact of the matter is that epoxy is more than strong enough for most applications and is certainly easier to use correctly. For something like your winch stands, that will only see compression loa...

I do agree that there are many ways to do things. There are also a few reasons why Resorcinol is not used, much, anymore. What I do question is; "But epoxy, as an adhesive, is not waterproof. It also loses its strength substantially as it get warmed up, say from tropical sun". If any of th...