The Cape Dory Board

Cathy, If your blisters are weeping at all, hit the boat with fresh water every once in a while. While this may seem counter intuitive, the stuff that oozes out, actually attracts water out of the air and stays moist. A good rinse once in a while actually speeds things up. I used West system on my b...

My boat came with a nice looking, but small dodger that was attached to the coamings. It was ok, but did not provide much protection because it did not extend far enough back. It also was a little floppy since the frame was aluminum. 3 or 4 years back I found a perfect condition, stainless frame tha...

Leslie, A few replys back there is a link that I included. Follow that link. David Van den Burgh had three pictures there. The gold colored object in the middle picture is the Solonoid. The one in the bottom picture was painted blue. It is held in by a couple of small screws. Have you cleaned all of...

Leslie, I think that we had a chat a few years ago when I had my '36 in Tenents harbor overnight. Small world. Try doing a search. I'll throw a link in to a thread that may be of some use. Getting the starter out for me was a major pain. I have heard other owners say that their mechanic did it in a ...

Boats tend to be in a very humid environment. Use the pump and pull some cool water into the head and moisture can condense on it. And let's not forget that it is in the head area. When one cleans the head it gets wet with whatever chemicals are used to disinfect things. When cleaning a rough, corro...

So it is not easily polished. It is a complex part that is hard to polish. The alloy quickly corrodes to a not-so pleasant green surface that sheds green corrosion residue that makes a mess. I strongly recommend sand blasting followed by a coating with a top of the line primer.

So it is not easily polished. It is a complex part that is hard to polish. The alloy quickly corrodes to a not-so pleasant green surface that sheds green corrosion residue that makes a mess. I strongly recommend sand blasting followed by a coating with a top of the line primer.

The first I sand blasted, primed with interlux primewash primer and coated with interthane. It looks new after roughly 7 years, but it was a great deal of work. The second I had sandblasted and powder coated. I bought it for parts when I was desperate for a unique part. I got it for a song and decid...

After my trip to Nova Scotia and weathering Hurricane Irene, my Xantrex Truecharge 2 battery charger died. The service center said that they are not really repairable and that they would happily sell me a new one at a reduced price, but that I could probably still buy it cheaper at a discount marine...

My Perkins diesel uses the same arrangement. There is no adjustment for the number of windings/poles on the tach so switching to a new alternator required a check of the calibration.

Frank, Here is my version of an engine control panel rebuild. http://www.cawthorne.org/ECP.html Two recommendations. If you are making a new box as I did, I would take a mold of the side of the cockpit to form the basis for the mold for the part. The reason being that the side of the cockpit is not ...

The original cracked on my 36. When I cast a new one out of 5086 aluminum (or was it 5083?) I doubled the thickness of the part that cracked. I cut the corresponding amount off of the mast because it was corroded. The aluminum shrinks when it cools so I taped the original part for the purposes of ma...

I have owned my boat for 18 years and been lucky enough to never have caught a line in my prop. On my way to Cape Breton, NS this summer the wind went light so we started the motor and an hour or so later there was a great vibration and slowing of the engine. I put the engine in neutral and then rev...

I did not go through all of the other posts on the board to know if this has been discussed, but raw water cooled engines occasionally need to be cleaned out. My brother had this done to his Volvo engine and it fixed the overheating problems. I don't know if this is a salt water only issue. I believ...

If you are thinking of getting a tachometer (or a photo tach) do it now and gather some data. It will help in deciding what pitch is correct. ie, motor at 3 knots, measure engine rpm, then 3.5 and get rpm...etc until you get black smoke.