The Cape Dory Board

It sounds like your boat went aground HARD at some time in its past, in order to have caused the heaving you describe. Rap every square inch of the keel with a ball-peen hammer. It should sound like you're striking directly on the ballast. If the fiberglass has separated from the ballast, it will so...

Hi Brenno, Please don't take this as preaching, but I share Warren's concern. You really do need to share a bit of your sailing experience with us. I have a CD25, not a CD25D, but I can't imagine there's a lot of difference in storage between them. By the time you've provisioned the boat with suffic...

Antares, One thing Cetol has going for it is it's very forgiving. It's not like varnish. You can touch up bare spots without having to sand the entire piece down to bare wood. Just use the same products you used the first time. If you started with Cetol light, use it again and then top-coat with the...

My other sailboat is a Rhodes 18 (yes, that's 18, not 19) with mahogany brightwork. I refinished the brightwork with Cetol Light. I found I needed to apply it in VERY THIN coats. A thick layer will tend to skin over, leaving a thin film of un-cured Cetol underneath. Also, do not apply in cool temper...

N/M

Neil's summary is about as accurate and succinct as it gets. Seriously, search the archives. There's a lot there and it's worth the time to go through it. Try as much as possible to stear away from chemical strippers. Some of them can damage fiberglass, and aluminum spars. A heat gun, scraper, and s...

I think everyone at one time or another has had a close call at a marina with all that potential property damage around you, and the unavoidable feeling that every eye is staring :oops: at your rather clumsy efforts at times. I was never so thankful as the day my name came up on the waiting list for...

Rich, First, let me flatly state that I'm no expert at this stuff, but I have been through it recently and I've read a lot of the previous threads on varnishing. I see the choice of when to varnish the plugs to be one of convenience and preference. I made the choice to do a full ten coats of varnish...

Bill, Don't hesitate to take the coamings off. Mine came off fine and I can thank the previous owner for not using 5200. Frankly I wish they never invented the stuff! Taking the coamings off makes the refinishing job so much easier, plus it allows you to access the back side of the board that's inac...

Hi Robert, You may already be aware of this, but the FCC does not allow the operation of a marine VHF from shore. You can receive all you want, but you need a ship to shore license to transmit from shore. So, I guess the bathtub is out. If I remember correctly there was a recent thread about this in...

I have the same outboard engine Mathias has. I sail out of Portsmouth Harbor, which is notorious for its current. Because of the current, I replaced the prop with one that delivers more thrust. I don't break any speed records, but I can make forward progress into the worst the Pisacataqua River can ...

Will,

I'm not a metallurgist and I won't attempt to bluff an answer. Ask the pros at Bristol Bronze. They know their stuff. Go to "Where to Look" on this board. Bristol Bronze is one of the first vendors on the list. Good luck.

Carl

What a great little tender. My wife and I decided on the way home that we're going to buy one as a tender. We've had an inflatable tender for a long time. Mice chewed a 4-inch hole in ours this winter, plus it just doesn't track well when towing. The Portland Pudgy, with that stem to stern formed ke...

I'll be there as well. I hope to run into you folks. My cell no. is (603) 470-4950. Clay, we may pass on the highway. I'm coming from Concord.

Dick, just to close the loop on this, Epifanes clear gloss varnish is phthalic modified linseed - 64% Tung oil & alkyd resin, 0.5% U.V. absorbers, 0.4% metallic naphthenates, and 35.1% solvents consisting of aliphatic & aromatic hydrocarbons. I appreciate everyone's input. My guess is that e...