The Cape Dory Board

Stopped by to check out progress on Cape Dory 10 restoration today - hull nicely sanded, variety of hardware holes filled and patched,the funky rub and interior gunnel rails removed, new replacement stock on hand ready for installation. However, it has become clear, the full gelcoat must come off, c...

Thank you everyone for the helpful replies. I have connected with a pro who will be completing the repairs/restoration. I'll let you know how that goes, just for sake of experience. I hope to have her prettily bobbing behind the CD31 soon, sailing amongst the yachts in the anchorage as the sun sets....

2nd question today, hey its almost spring, I'm thinking about boats even though a fire is burning on the hearth and its in the thirties outside. Can I back off and re-pack the rudderpost stuff box on my CD31 while in the water? I can't decide if the top of the rudder tube is above the water line, I ...

Its time to bring the family dingy back to yacht standard, she's towed behind 4 family yachts since my brother and it sold our McCulloch engined gokart in 1968......Anyway, it's totally chalked-out, has some serious patches of crazing and two drilled perforations on the side. It is otherwise not bas...

Its time to take an appropriate fraction of a turn on the engine stuffing box packing nut, it is leaking too much when under power, underway. Here's the question(s); The lock nut is the furthest aft, behind the packing nut - right? To loosen the lock nut I turn it clockwise - right? Then turn the pa...

You can scratch and patch (scrape, sand) patches of standard varnish and get a fairly good match if the wood has not darkened. Even then, some careful use of Te-ka A/B can lighten the wood. Also after repair, try running a seam of clear caulk where you know water has lifted the varnish. I have kept ...

I don't post that much these days on this board but I started a complete exterior teak re-finish on my CD 31 this week and had the opportunity to use the coolest tool I have ever used for this type of work. Its a Fein MultiMaster FMM 250Q oscillating sander, scraper, grinder, saw etc. The slightly b...

I have reviewed the posts from 2007 on music equipment aboard - helpful, suggesting an iPod is a must, XM radio nice to have, buying a high priced cd/am/fm radio "marine" deck is not cost effective. I have the ipod and a separate portable XM radio, so the choice come down to the best sound...

Lots of good observations in this long thread. I'd add or confirm a few - yes, tough economic times have reduced all boating; and sailing, except for those communities where deeply rooted through tradition and proximity, is not cool among young people. Crew is in but sailing somehow just does not se...

The previous owner of my Cape Dory (1984) installed a Wuersch brass chiming ship's clock. Its nothing fancy, battery op quartz movement, its losing time even after a battery change. I very much like taking off my wrist watch and keeping time aboard by the chimes, I often don't hear the chiming on th...

I did a detailed post on using JSI for new interior cushion fabrication a year or two ago. Search the board using wsonntag new interior cushions to find it. It may be helpful has fabric sources etc.

Bill Sonntag

Zeida: Thanks for the initial post and links - and thanks for the reasoned defense of this unique event, technology marches on regardless. We can choose what moves us from the past and still enjoy the present and future. Car analogy - I drive 1960's 1970's design era Alfa Romeos, love the simple des...

Flying into SeaTac at 11:30 am (GMT -8) 01-24 must hit hotel, glad to crew Sunday pm, can't pack foulies.

Bill Sonntag
reply at sonntag.william@epa.gov

What a great pleasure to read all these learned posts - I just hit the local library website to check a few out! Here is some delightful trashy reading full of abandoned center cockpit fishing boats - with bullet holes and blood stains, missing persons, mysterious damsels. The prose, not all that it...

I suppose you could lose some of the "colour" or perhaps - even the "flavour".