The Cape Dory Board

John, A couple of points of clarification and a few questions for you. First, I have a 13 hp Westerbeke, which if I'm reading the mannual correctly allows the exhaust elbow to screw directly into the exhaust box. It appears that the elbow (the threaded pipe), prior to the water injected exhaust part...

Paul, Thanks, I did find a good deal on the board about the use of galv. steel vs. black iron vs. S.S.. I could not find the post you noted. I'll probably just rebuild in heavy wall black steel pipe and fittings. However, my main question still remains, would an exhaust pressure leak cause the engin...

Yesterday I went to the boat to check on things. As it has been about a month or so since I ran the engine, I cranked it up, only to sense that the engine was spinning rather than firing as it normally does. Typically, 3 seconds on the starter and it fires right up. This time I had to run the starte...

Used Morey's 4 years ago at haulout. Exercised all seacocks periodically, but not obsessively over the years. Boat remains in the water year round. Re-greased at haul-out this summer, plenty of grease remaining. I don't know about silicon grease, but Morey's Red is a water-proof water pump grease th...

Duncan - the gaskets I replaced were orginals (were hard as a rock) from 83 replaced in 2000. As of this date, the new gaskets are soft and as supple as the day I put them in. Provides a great water tight seal. Ron - Sounds like we are using the same or similar stuff. So far I've not tried the silic...

I thought I could find my left over roll of gasket foam that I mentioned in my reply above. This is exactly the same materail that is used for the portlight gaskets, and very easy to do it yourself. You can obtain a 100' roll, the last roll you will ever have to by for about $40.00 from McMaster Car...

Try McMaster-Carr, significantly cheaper! Use cement from auto supply parts store. http://www.mcmaster.com/ catalog page 3329 Carefully and completely remove old rubber. Clean out the grove very well. Measure new stock,where ends overlap (at top of the port, not the bottom) cut on a bevel with razor...

Be careful. On some models the holding tank was installed under the engine. At least it is that way on my 1983 CD27.

Melissa, Thanks for the reply. We actually used the 303 (at 75.00 a gallon) twice a year. I was told that Sunbrella would replace the "fabric only" if we had removed an sent to them. We opted to just let it go for as long as we could. The fabric/stiching is still good, it is just that the ...

It is about time to redo our bimini and dodger. We used "forrest green" for the last ones and got about 5 years before the color began to fade noticably from the Florida sun. I have heard that some colors of sunbrella are much more resistant to fading, than others. Can anyone speak to this...

The packing in my stuffing box is coming up on 5 years of age (about 250 hrs). The gland runs cool and rarely drips if any. My question is "should the packing be replaced on a frequency basis (engine hrs., years, etc.) or when it begins to drip excessively and the adjustment nut is down as far ...