Maintaining and Modifying Your Sailboat

Modifying and maintenance sailboat is an essential part of ensuring its longevity and enhancing its performance. Regular upkeep not only keeps the vessel in seaworthy condition but also maximizes the enjoyment of sailing. It begins with routine inspections, where you should thoroughly check the hull, rigging, and equipment for any signs of wear or damage. The hull should be cleaned and polished regularly to prevent barnacles and other marine growth, which can hinder performance and increase drag.

Pay close attention to the rigging, as it is crucial for the safety and functionality of the sailboat. Look for frayed lines, rusted hardware, or any signs of fatigue in the mast and boom. Replacing worn-out components before they fail is far less costly than dealing with the consequences of a breakdown while out at sea.

When it comes to modifications, there are countless possibilities to enhance your sailboat’s comfort and performance. Upgrading sails with modern materials can improve speed and responsiveness. You might also consider installing a more efficient winch system or adding electronic navigation aids, like GPS and autopilot systems, to make longer journeys safer and more enjoyable.

Cosmetic modifications are just as important, providing personal touches that can make your sailing experience uniquely yours. This could be as simple as repainting the deck, reupholstering the cabin, or adding custom hardware. Such changes not only enhance aesthetics but can also improve functionality, ensuring that everything is tailored to your sailing needs.

Ultimately, maintaining and modifying your sailboat is about creating an efficient, safe, and enjoyable vessel that reflects your personal style and enhances your sailing experience. Regular attention to detail, along with thoughtful upgrades, can transform your boat into a reliable companion on the water for years to come.

Maintaining Your Sailboat

Today’s Manufacturing of Fiberglass Boats and Design Featuresfiberglass sailboats are remarkably low maintenance. They often require nothing more than a semiannual scrubdown and a once-a-year coat of varnish on the woodwork to look good for perhaps five to seven years. After that, the gelcoat will start to fade and turn chalky, but the boat will still be functional. (A wooden boat under similar treatment would almost fall apart after a few years. The very best wooden boats are built in a way that minimizes maintenance, but rot can still sneak in, and it needs to be addressed immediately or the consequences can be dire.)

If you’re fortunate enough to own a new or nearly new boat, your maintenance and repair chores will be minimal. But as the boat ages, things naturally start to wear and require attention. Remember that a little maintenance done when a boat is new pays big dividends later: if you keep your boat:

• clean,
• dry,
• lubricated,
• and protected from the sun,

you should have few problems and it will last a very long time. Check everything carefully for signs of fatigue or stress, and replace problem parts as soon as you notice them. A sailboat is a series of interconnected systems, and one weak link can affect the entire vessel. If you can keep up with all these little links, it can make owning a boat a much smoother experience. Neglect them, and boat ownership becomes a chore.

What follows isn’t a complete treatise on sailboat maintenance, just the high points. (A complete treatise would take an entire book, several of which are listed in the Bibliography.)

Frequent Washdowns

If your boat is used in salt water, frequent freshwater washdowns of the hull and deck will be required to keep it looking good. Use a mild, nonphosphate detergent, a soft, longhandled scrub brush, and plenty of water to rinse. When I sailed in salt water, my boat got a wash after every trip. Pay particular attention to the trailer, especially the brakes, as salt water left to dry on the mild steel parts is particularly damaging. If you notice stains in the boat’s gelcoat that resist the usual scrubdown, try simple solutions first. Sometimes plain lemon juice or vinegar works. Nonabrasive spray cleaners like:

• Fantastik,
• Simple Green,
• or 409,

sometimes work well. Rust stains and organic stains like blood can respond well to a mild solution of oxalic acid.

When a gelcoated sailboat deck gets more than a few years’ exposure to sunlight, it becomes porous. Under a strong magnifying glass, you can see thousands of tiny holes. These holes become perfect little petri dishes for mildew, and down here in the warm, humid South, we get thousands of black mildew specks. They’re actually a mixture of mildew and dirt, brought in by rainwater and accelerated by the humidity and the organic material in the dirt. If you park your boat under a tree, it’ll get dirty much faster. When a boat is neglected for an entire season, the stains can get really bad. Scrubbing doesn’t do a thing for these stains because they’re firmly embedded in the pores of the gelcoat.

For really impossible mildew stains on old, porous gelcoat, I’ve used spray cleaners made for fiberglass tubs and showers – though not while the boat is in the water, and only as a last resort. Check the product label – if it includes sodium hypochlorite or just hypochlorite, it has chlorine in it. This is pretty harsh stuff – bad for you and the environment and corrosive to metals. Keep it away from your stainless and aluminum. If you choose to use it, don’t rinse it off with a hose – that puts the chlorine in the salt or fresh water. Instead, spray lightly, let it work for a few minutes, and remove the residue with a damp rag and a bucket of water.

The more I read about chlorine and bleachbased cleaners, the less I want to use them. There are alternatives to chlorine, such as borax or hydrogen peroxide. Or, if you can stand your boat smelling like a pickle for a while, try household vinegar for killing mold. Spray it on straight and let it sit until the mold is gone. You can also purchase stronger forms of vinegar, such as pickling vinegar (7 percent acidity) or even photographic stop-bath concentrate. Lemon juice and citric acid work much the same way as vinegar, but they don’t smell nearly as bad. Several commercial companies offer «green» bathroom cleaners and mold-removal products. They are rather expensive but might be worth a try.

Preventing Water and Mildew Belowdeck

One of the most effective ways to maintain Technical Recommendations for Inspecting Your Boatyour boat’s interior is to prevent problems before they occur. One of the most common and preventable problems is damage caused by leaks. Mention «leak» aboard a sailboat and most people imagine sinking from a leak below the waterline. While such leaks do occur, they’re fairly rare; most leaks form in the deck, where hundreds of little screw holes have been drilled to mount deck hardware. Although each of these holes should be sealed well with good-quality bedding compound, all compounds fail eventually.

Allowing lots of rainwater to collect in the boat (and, even worse, stagnate) is a surefire way to ruin much of the value of your boat. You might as well light up a few thousanddollar bills right now. If you see even the slightest leak, find it and repair it right away. (See section «Repairing Deck Rot» below.) Some leaks can be particularly difficult to track down because the water runs along a horizontal surface for some distance before appearing in the cabin. If you have a mystery leak and can’t find the source, try this rather extreme solution:

1. Borrow a leaf blower.
2. Cut a piece of plywood or stiff cardboard the same size as one of the companionway dropboards. Two or three layers of cardboard glued together should do it, but it needs to be painted so that water doesn’t dissolve it. Cut a hole so you can insert the hose of the leaf blower in it.
3. Seal up the cracks in the companionway and hatches with duct tape. Close all opening ports and seal all ventilators. Hose down the deck with soapy water.
4. Turn on the blower so you are blowing a strong jet of air down below; then walk around the deck and look for bubbles. Any fittings that have bubbles coming from underneath have potential leaks that should be rebedded.

Preventing mildew inside the boat can be just as tricky as finding mystery leaks. Fortunately, since the gelcoat on the interior of your boat is protected from exposure to UV rays, it will be in much better condition than the exterior. It won’t have the thousands of tiny holes that are common on the decks of older sailboats. (Still, it’s not a bad idea to wax the interior gelcoat once every few years or so.) It’s easy enough to clean mildew from hard, smooth surfaces. A wipe with a damp rag with a little orange Pine-Sol is one of my favorite methods, and it leaves the interior of the boat smelling good. Wood surfaces may require a bit more elbow grease, especially if the wood has been left bare. The best approach is to prevent, or at least minimize, the mildew growth in the first place.

Mildew spores are everywhere, but to grow they need two things – still air and humidity. Still air can be avoided by adding ventilation (see section «Equipment of a Sailboat: What You Need to Have on Board While SailingOptional Equipment»).

There are chemical compounds that reduce humidity and don’t consume power, making them safer to use. Some silica gel dehumidifiers can be warmed to drive off moisture and reused, while others are designed to be discarded after use. You can even make your own low-tech chemical dehumidifier (see section «Make Your Own Dehumidifier» below). The chemical eventually washes away with the condensate, but it’s pretty cheap to refill. In general, though, improving ventilation is a better strategy.

Repairing Deck Rot. Repairing small areas of deck rot can be done fairly easily, but it will take some time. Deck rot is caused by water entering the core of the deck, where (since the deck is sealed top and bottom with fiberglass) it’s nearly impossible for it to dry out. First off, identify all sources of water intrusion. If the deck is spongy around one of the fittings, chances are the bedding is failing around other fittings as well. Remove the deck hardware and remove a sample of the core with a pocketknife or an ice pick. If the core sample is dry, good; if it’s wet, you’ll need to drill into the core and dry out the spongy portion of the deck as much as possible.

First, plug the bottom of the hole(s) where you removed the deck hardware. I’ve used a small rubber stopper and good-sized square of duct tape with pretty good results. Add acetone to the hole. Some acetone might leak through to the cabin, so be sure to remove any cushions below and have a rag ready underneath the hole. Acetone bonds with water and evaporates readily, so if you can get the wet parts of the core flooded with acetone, you’ve got a better chance of removing the rot. Acetone is very flammable, though, so be extremely careful. Fill the bolt hole with acetone and let it soak in. Do this several times a day over several days. If the weather is bright, sunny, and dry, the heat from the sunshine will help evaporate the acetone and the water. In damp weather, make sure this area of the deck stays perfectly dry.

The longer you can keep this area warm and dry, the better. Try to wait at least two weeks in summer, longer in winter. I don’t advise using heat guns, blow-dryers, or heat lamps to accelerate the drying process because of the danger of fire, but it has been done. The fiberglass should never get too warm to touch, though.

Once you’ve waited a while, pick out a sample of the core, which should by now be at least somewhat drier. A bent nail chucked into a drill works well to pulverize the core. Vacuum out the chips and mix up some thinned epoxy. A commercial product called Git Rot is just the ticket. Following the manufacturer’s directions, mix up a little and pour it into the hole. Hopefully it’ll soak into the core. Keep pouring as long as it continues to soak in – the more epoxy you can get into the deck, the better. The idea is to fill up the hole with epoxy, and then redrill the bolt holes. Now you’ve got a nice little epoxy compression pad under the deck, and you’ve sealed the hole as well. It’s best to give any hole that penetrates the deck core this treatment, whether the area around it is rotted or not.

Large areas of deck rot are another story. One letter I read told of estimates of $2 500 to $8 000 to repair the rotten deck of a Ranger 28, reflecting the seriousness of the job. It’s doubtful that the above method will work for areas of rot that are greater than, say, a square foot or so. The deck needs to be cut up, and then the rotten areas removed and replaced with sound core, and then resealed. It’s a huge job.

Make Your Own Dehumidifier. You can make your own small chemical drip-type dehumidifier using a pair of small plastic tubs with lids (I’ve used inexpensive food-storage containers). Use tubs that are reasonably flat on the bottom, since you’ll stack one on top of the other. Using a larger tub on the bottom makes the whole assembly less likely to tip over. Use a 1- or 2-cup container for the top and a 5-cup (or thereabouts) container for the bottom.

Make large holes in the lid of the top container to allow air to contact the chemical; make a few small holes in the top tub and the lid of the bottom container to allow water to drain (but not so large that the chemical will fall through). You can drill the holes or melt them with a hot nail held by vise grips.

Fill the perforated container with calcium chloride ice-melt pellets. These will absorb moisture from the air, which will drip into the lower container.

Secure the top container to the lower one with a few rubber bands. The total cost for the containers and 9 pounds of calcium chloride should be around $15.

Gelcoat Maintenance

A new fiberglass sailboat has a very shiny finish. New gelcoat gloss can be practically blinding when it’s fresh from the mold, and, if cared for, this finish can last a long time. Far too many owners ignore this aspect of boat care until they start to see a problem, and by then the issue is restoring rather than simply maintaining the boat’s former gloss. Restoring is always a lot more work than maintaining.

Aging gelcoat loses gloss and becomes porous and chalky for several reasons, but the biggest culprit is the sun. Ultraviolet rays are a powerful aging force. If you could keep your boat in the shade, the gelcoat would last much longer. This is tough to do with the mast sticking out of the middle of the boat, but you can work around that. I have never bought a How to Buy a New Boat: Tips for Buyersbrand-new boat, but when I do, the very first thing I will buy (or make) for it is a full fitted sun cover, made of a tough fabric like Odyssey or Top Gun.

Keeping your gelcoat waxed also pays off in the long run. It’s a big job to properly wax an entire boat, but doing so once or even twice a year will help seal the gelcoat as well as add some degree of UV protection. Waxing is a lot easier when the gelcoat is in good condition.

The decks and cockpit, being more or less horizontal, get the greatest sun exposure and thus benefit from waxing, but the hull should get a coat as well, at least once a year. The best waxes contain UV inhibitors. Be sure to completely remove the excess wax – sun-baked wax buildup is almost impossible to remove once it’s been left on the hull for a while. If your boat is new or nearly new, make sure your wax doesn’t contain abrasive compounds, which can wear down your gelcoat if applied too often or buffed too vigorously. However, if your gelcoat is heavily oxidized, you may need to take more drastic measures to restore the shine. Rub your finger on the deck. If it leaves a powdery residue on your finger, the fiberglass will need to be «compounded» or buffed with a buffing compound before waxing. Use a compound made specifically for fiberglass. Automotive compounds are too aggressive and could damage the gelcoat.

Start with a squeaky clean hull and apply the wax immediately after cleaning. Let it dry, then buff. The wax helps to seal the gelcoat from the elements and will prevent further oxidation for a while. Depending on the starting condition of the gelcoat and the size of your boat, plan on spending anywhere from a few hours to the better part of an afternoon.

Whether or not to use a power buffer is largely a matter of personal choice and power availability. As always, be careful when using anything attached to an extension cord if your boat is at the dock, and never let any part of the cord sag into the water. A safer alternative is a cordless buffer. I use a Motor Scrubber, a heavy-duty industrial-grade tool that can be bought only from professional cleaning suppliers. It’s rechargeable, runs for 4 hours on an overnight charge, and comes with a handle that extends to 80 inches. The power head is completely sealed, and it works underwater. You can get all kinds of additional brushes and pads, like wax applicators and terry-cloth bonnets. The only downside is that it retails for about $350 – but it works really well.

Deciding what kind of wax to use on your boat can be difficult because there are literally hundreds of choices. It isn’t always necessary to get a specialized boat wax either. Practical Sailor thoroughly tested several different kinds of wax in two articles, one published in 2004 and the other in 1988. In 2004, their two longest-lasting top waxes were Collinite №885 paste wax and Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze paste. Collinite is marketed for marine use and is available in boat chandleries, but you can find Meguiar’s paste wax at an auto parts store. Waxes that are easy to apply and remove are, of course, preferred over those that are more difficult, and many automotive waxes contain buffing compound. These have a slightly gritty feel and shouldn’t be used on fiberglass, since the gelcoat is much softer than automotive paint finishes. The 1988 article tested waxes based on ease of application and removal and the presence of abrasive compounds. Simonize II liquid was one of the favorites based on those criteria. I’ve used it on my boat, but I don’t like the greenish color of the wax, which gets in the gelcoat pores and leaves slightly darker swipe marks here and there. The wax does go on and off easily, though, and where the gelcoat is smooth, it works fine.

Bedding Compounds. There are several compounds that can be used to seal bolts and keep water out of your boat, and some work better than others in certain situations. All can be broken down into one of three types:

• silicones,
• polyurethanes,
• or polysulfides.

Silicones. Let’s start with something I’ve often seen incorrectly applied to used sailboats, and that’s good old silicone. Whenever a leak on a boat occurs, folks head down to the hardware store and grab a tube of this stuff, and smear it all over the offending leak. This only creates a bigger mess to clean up before you can do the job properly, and it rarely stops the leak. This is because silicone caulk has very low adhesive strength when cured. It stays flexible for a long time, though.

Silicone is best thought of as a gasket-making material. Spread a good, thick coat under a fitting and insert the mounting bolts, but don’t tighten them. Wait for the silicone to cure first, then compress the «gasket» after the silicone has solidified. Otherwise, most of the silicone squeezes out of the joint, and you get a gasket that’s too thin. (Actually, this is true for any type of bedding compound.) Silicone should not be used below the waterline – it’s best used under plastic fittings. It also makes a good insulator when you’re joining dissimilar metals.

Polyurethanes. Polyurethane-based sealants were once hard to find; now you can get them from building suppliers and hardware stores. (I’ve used PL Premium Polyurethane Window and Flashing sealant. Available in white or black, it’s probably not as good as genuine 3M 5200 Polyurethane, but it’s close. It costs $3 a tube versus $15 for the genuine article. I wouldn’t use it below the waterline, though.) The thing to remember about polyurethane is that it’s very strong. Once you’ve bedded a fitting in poly, you’ve pretty much glued it in place. It’ll be tough to remove without special solvents or a heat gun. Polyurethane doesn’t stick well to plastics, but it sticks really well to human skin and from there it has a tendency to get all over the boat, so have several rags handy when you use it. While it’s wet, you can thin it with regular paint thinner, so that helps cleanup.

Polysulfides. This compound is my favorite. Polysulfide has been around for a long time – the granddaddy of them all. When I once ripped apart a section of old teak decking salvaged from a long-gone Chris Craft, I found that it had been sealed with polysulfide. There’s no way to know how old it was, but I was probably in diapers when the polysufide was applied. It was still as tough and flexible as new, and it took forever to remove.

Polysulfide is most commonly seen as LifeCalk, from Boatlife. It comes in white, black, and brown. Polysulfide can be used for just about any bedding application aboard except for plastics.

Read also: Equipment of a Sailboat: What You Need to Have on Board While Sailing

One last thing about bedding compounds, and that’s what to do with the extra that squeezes out from under the fitting. The correct way is to wait until it cures, then trim it with a razor blade. This is probably how you should do it, though I’ll admit to wiping it up with a rag or a dampened finger while it’s wet. You certainly have a greater chance of making a mess with the second method, but it works.

Rebedding Deck Fittings. It’s a fact of life that fittings on boats, especially older boats, need to be rebedded every now and again. Sealants have a finite life span, and once you notice the slightest trace of a leak, it’s time to remove and rebed the fitting. Please note that smearing additional goo on top of the fitting will not stop the leak – it’ll just make more of a mess for you to clean up later, when you properly rebed the fitting.

First, remove the old fitting and every trace of the old compound. If the fitting was bedded with polyurethane, you might need to use a heat gun to gently warm the fitting to get it off. You should never let the fiberglass get too hot to touch. (A new product, Anti-Bond 2015, will supposedly debond polyurethanes, but I haven’t tried it yet.) Clean the area and the fitting until they are spotless. For the deck, I scrape, then sand, then wipe with acetone. For the bolts and the fitting, I like to use a wire wheel mounted in a bench grinder (don’t forget the safety glasses!) followed by a wipe with acetone on the underside. While I’m there, I usually polish the rest of the fitting with a buffing wheel and compound – this leaves stainless parts looking like new.

Before I get out the compound, I like to set the fitting back into position and mask off the area with high-quality masking tape. This is usually easier and cleaner than trying to wipe up the excess later with solvent.

Next, if the fitting is in an area where the deck is cored, I seal the core. Tape off the bottom area and pick out the core as much as you can with a bent nail chucked into a drill. Vacuum up the chips and fill the hole with thinned epoxy like Git Rot. Keep filling the hole until no more soaks in.

Once the epoxy has cured, redrill the hole, compound the fitting, and set the fitting into place. Don’t forget to compound the bolts, too – I like to run a little ring of compound under the heads. Position the bolts in place and tighten, but not all the way. Snug them up enough so that sealant begins to squeeze out from under the fittings, and then wait for it to cure – 24 hours for polysulfides or polyurethanes. (I don’t like to use silicone; it’s good only for bedding plastic.) Then fully tighten the bolts. After the compound has fully cured – in about a week – trim off the extra compound with a sharp razor blade.

Yes, this is involved and kind of a pain, but not nearly as big a pain as getting dripped on in the middle of the night, or replacing a rotten deck. This is one of those «do it right, or do it over» choices.

Teak Maintenance

Traditionally, topsides wood is teak, because teak contains natural oils and resins that keep it from absorbing water and rotting. There are three alternatives for teak maintenance:

• oil,
• varnish,
• or no treatment.

Brightwork generally refers to wood items on the deck of a boat that are finished with clear varnish so that the wood grain shows. Topsides woodwork that isn’t varnished is usually called trim.

Untreated Teak. If left unfinished, the sun quickly bleaches out the rich brown color of the teak from the surface, and the wood turns a silvery gray, which some boatowners prefer. In fact, teak decks have to be left bare, because coating them would destroy the wood’s natural nonskid properties. Handrails that are untreated are slightly safer, too, because the bare wood provides a better grip. Untreated teak weathers more rapidly than treated teak, though, and a few years of scrubbing leave the wood deeply grooved as the softer summer growth rings wear away.

Oiling Your Teak. You can use several different types of oil on teak, including:

• boiled linseed oil;
• tung oil;
• or specially formulated teak oils.

The advantage of this option is that an oiled teak surface is very easy to renew; you just brush a coat of oil right on top of the old oil, as long as the surface is free of mildew or dirt. The downside is that oiled surfaces have to be renewed regularly in order to keep the trim looking good. In summer, if your teak is unprotected by a cover, you can expect to oil it every two to three months. You have to be very careful about drips and runs, too. Teak oil will stain gelcoat, especially if the gelcoat is a few years old and porous. Teak oil will run if applied in direct sunlight, as I once discovered. I had carefully applied a coat of oil and masked the deck with tape. When I finished, I removed the tape, since masking tape left in the sun often leaves a sticky residue on the deck. When I returned to the boat a few hours later, I discovered that the sun had warmed the teak oil, causing a few ugly runs on portions of the deck that I had carefully protected with tape. That was seventeen years ago – the stains are probably still there.

Varnishing Your Trim. Varnishing your brightwork is a third alternative. Varnish is a hard coating that seals the teak from water, while oil is a soft finish that feeds the wood as the natural oils wear away from the surface. The oil resists water, but water and humidity eventually take their toll. Varnish coatings eventually break down because of exposure to UV radiation, though they last much longer than oil treatments. Depending on the varnish, the coating can last anywhere from six months to two years. When the coating begins to break down, the effect is immediately noticeable – the varnish loses its flexibility and bond to the wood, and the natural expansion and contraction of the wood causes small cracks or pinholes. Water enters the cracks, and the result is ugly dark water stains underneath the varnish. When this happens, the only cure is to sand off the old varnish, treat the stains with a teak cleaner, and reapply several new coats of varnish – usually at least three coats, with light sanding between coats.

A varnished finish is initially very labor intensive. Many boatowners dislike varnishing so much that they refuse to have teak trim on their boat, instead replacing all topsides teak with a white plastic product called StarBoard, which never needs varnishing. But when properly done, the effect of a little golden teak with a few coats of varnish is breathtaking.

Preparing Teak for Varnish. First, you need to remove all the old varnish and get the teak back to smooth, bare wood. I’ve always used a scraper, sandpaper, and plain old elbow grease for this task. Some people loosen old varnish with the careful use of a heat gun and a putty knife or chemical paint removers. However, either can ruin nearby gelcoat. If the teak has been badly water stained, you may need to bleach it. You can use teak lightener, available in marine chandleries, or bleach thinned with about 85 percent water. Add a little more water or bleach if necessary. Another good, inexpensive product can be made with oxalic acid crystals, sometimes available from boatyards or janitorial suppliers. Dissolve as much as you can in some warm water and then paint the solution onto the teak. Let it dry, then remove the resulting crystals with a stiff brush, taking care not to leave the powder on your deck – it might bleach something you don’t want bleached. After you bleach teak with oxalic acid, you need to neutralize the wood surface with borax. Bleaching teak weakens the top surface of the wood, so use this method only when absolutely necessary.

Choosing a Product. Teak coatings, like wax, present another purchasing conundrum. How do you choose the best when there are so many types, all claiming to be superior? Ask an owner of a sailboat with nice varnish what he or she uses, as local conditions can be a big factor in varnish performance. The same varnish might last longer in Massachusetts than in Florida or Arizona.

Word of mouth was how I first learned about Sikkens Cetol. The previous owner of my Montgomery 17 gave me half a can when I bought my boat. This isn’t classified as a traditional varnish but rather a pigmented synthetic stain. I think that description is a little misleading – it looks and performs more like a pigmented varnish than a stain, developing a tough film that cures in the presence of air. The pigment does two things: it gives Cetol greater UV resistance than an unpigmented coating, and it gives the wood a distinctive hue that some find objectionable. It’s not bad, but it does look a little orange. Once you’ve tried this product, you’ll be able to spot Cetoltreated teak easily.

Practical Sailor publishes a test of teak products every few years or so, especially as new products are developed and old ones change their formulas or cease production. Their top performer in terms of traditional varnish is Epifanes. New synthetic formulas are constantly being developed, and some are quite expensive. I haven’t had any experience with these synthetics. I prefer a traditional varnish because it is usually compatible with tung and linseed oils. Most traditional varnishes include some oil in them.

Applying the Varnish. There are many methods of varnishing that are favored by brightwork professionals. When I varnish using a traditional formula, I like to start with a thin primer coat of mostly tung oil with a small amount of varnish and thinner (mineral spirits or turpentine) added in. I want the first coat to penetrate as deeply into the wood as possible. Each successive coat has less oil and thinner, until the top coats are straight varnish with a little thinner added. Not all varnishes are compatible with tung oil, so test your brand on a piece of scrap before applying it to your expensive teak.

Some varnishers build up a base coat consisting of several layers of clear epoxy followed by several layers of clear varnish. Epoxy is very sensitive to UV rays, so the varnish top coat must be well-done and deep. A finish like this will be very difficult to remove, but the epoxy provides a very good, stable base for the varnish to adhere to.

Other varnishers apply a single coat of varnish that’s thinned about 50 percent and leave it at that. This gives a matte finish that looks good, protects the teak well, and is easy to apply. It needs to be recoated every two to four months if exposed to the weather.

It’s essential to use a high-quality soft brush for varnish work. Badger bristle brushes were once considered the highest quality but are now rarely available. Most natural bristle brushes are called China bristle, since that’s where the hairs come from, and some professional finishers who use them (or a natural/synthetic blend) get results equal to those from badger brushes. Good synthetic bristle brushes can now be bought that are equal to natural bristle in terms of quality, and synthetics can last longer than natural bristle, making them more cost-effective. Any brush used for paint cannot then be used for varnish, because the solvents will soften tiny paint bits left in the brush that will then pollute any clear finish. Foam brushes can work in a pinch, and can give surprisingly smooth results.

Dealing with Corrosion

Metal corrosion happens in many different ways and for various reasons, but losing electrons is an easy way to think about it. When this happens, the metal deteriorates, changing from one form to another. Preventing corrosion involves keeping electrons in the metal where they belong. Metal corrosion is a vast subject – simple rusting can actually be a very complex process. The Resources section of this book provides further references. What follows is the Cliff Notes version.

Some of the most useful metals aboard boats – like stainless steel, bronze, and aluminum – develop a uniform surface corrosion when exposed to the air, but this layer of corrosion (called an oxide layer) can be stable and strongly attached to the base metal. The oxide layer seals the metal from the atmosphere, protecting it from further deterioration. This is called passivation, and certain metals can be treated in specific ways to enhance this process.

Maintaining the metals aboard your boat usually means treating corrosion wherever you find it, and preventing it from occurring if you don’t find it. Basically, you’ll see three types of corrosion on your boat:

• Atmospheric corrosion;
• Galvanic corrosion;
• Electrolysis.

Crevice corrosion is another form that often occurs with stainless steel – more about that later.

Atmospheric Corrosion. The most common form of atmospheric corrosion is rust on steel or cast iron. It’s caused by humidity, but pollution, temperature changes, salt, and other factors accelerate it. Preventing atmospheric corrosion in steel usually involves some kind of barrier to seal the steel from the atmosphere. Most often this means paint, though varnish, oil, waxes, or a thin layer of another metal like zinc can also be used.

Once steel starts to rust, it never stops without your intervention until all of the metal has been changed into iron oxide. If you have a rusty part on your boat, get rid of the rust – it will only get worse with time, and if you ignore it too long the only option will be replacement. Two good things about steel, though, are that it’s strong and cheap. Steel parts are often built to withstand a certain amount of rusting and still perform well. If you can clean the rust off completely, the steel can be recoated with paint and put back into service. If the surface is regular and smooth, you might be able to do the job with a rotary wire brush. However, it’s impossible to do a complete cleaning with the part bolted in place – it must be removed from the boat, and the screws or bolts also treated, though replacing them is a better option.

The best way to remove rust completely is by sandblasting. Small parts can be cleaned in a blast cabinet, but large pieces – like a cast-iron keel – have to be cleaned by a professional. It takes a huge high-volume air compressor to do the job properly. Forget those little suction sandblasters that you see in the Harbor Freight catalog; they aren’t powerful enough to clean anything larger than a cleat. Sandblasting is preferred because it roughs up the surface slightly, leaving a good uniform surface for the paint to grip. But sandblasting has to be done on a dry day, and the part should be coated with a good-quality primer immediately afterward.

Although sandblasting is the best method for getting rid of rust, other options are less dependent on industrial equipment. One is to use a phosphoric acid solution, which chemically converts rust from iron oxide to iron phosphate. Naval Jelly is a classic product. I’ve never used it, but I have used Ospho, which is mostly phosphoric acid plus some wetting agents. It works well for rusty spots on the trailer, where sandblasting the whole thing would be expensive. You can also remove rust using an electrolytic process, which is a little more complicated but well within the abilities of most people with a garage workshop. (The process is outlined in Fix It and Sail.)

Galvanic Corrosion. Whereas atmospheric corrosion occurs in a single metal exposed to air, galvanic corrosion occurs when two (or more) metals are touching each other or placed close together in a conductive environment, such as damp wood or seawater. Electrons travel from one metal to the other simply because one metal has a stronger electron bond. In galvanic corrosion, no external electric currents are involved – just the molecular bond in the metals. (Galvanic corrosion is often incorrectly termed electrolysis; I discuss the difference next.)

Some metals corrode faster when placed together than they would if they were isolated. These are called anodes or anodic metals. Others corrode slower than if they were alone. These are called cathodes or cathodic metals. Over the years, engineers and scientists studying corrosion have developed the Galvanic Series of Metals (see table «Galvanic Series in Seawater» below).

 
A metal’s position in the galvanic series tells us its corrosional relationship to other metals. How fast one metal corrodes depends on the voltage difference between the two metals and their relative size. The anode corrodes more rapidly as the voltage difference increases and as the cathode gets larger compared to the anode.

Remember that the two metals don’t have to be underwater for corrosion to occur. Damp wood or an occasional dose of salt water, or even rainwater, is enough to cause quite a bit of damage. Notice the special position of aluminum, way up at the top of the scale. In a galvanic battle, aluminum always loses except with zinc. But you’ll notice that all aluminum spars have stainless fittings on them, right? They’re usually attached with stainless screws. How come they don’t suffer from galvanic corrosion?

The short answer is they do. It’s rare to remove a stainless steel screw from an aluminum mast without a fight – they are usually corroded in tightly. On better masts, you’ll find small plastic washers under stainless steel mast tangs. On cheaply built masts, you’ll often find some pitting and corrosion underneath.

It’s a good idea to put Never-Seez or a similar compound on stainless threads that are screwed into aluminum. But don’t use grease. I had a masthead come off my boat once because the stainless steel screws were lubricated before they were installed. Three sheet-metal screws backed themselves completely out of their holes because the boat was moored where ski boats went by all summer, setting up a wicked quick, steep chop. I use Never-Seez on all mast fastenings now, and I wire all my turnbuckles to prevent them from unscrewing themselves.

Underwater, we have a different story. Let the same mast hang over the side for a week or two, and you’ll likely pull up a corroded mess when you next visit your boat. Aluminum is very high on the galvanic series; only zinc and magnesium are higher. This is why it’s unusual to see aluminum used below the waterline. The only common cases I can think of are aluminum-hulled vessels and outboard motor castings. These are protected with a heavy coating of paint and plenty of sacrificial zinc anodes (see below). If aluminum is the only metal used – as in an aluminum rowboat – you don’t have as much of a problem with galvanic corrosion. But if that same rowboat is fastened with copper rivets, she’ll dissolve in no time.

When metals are mixed below the waterline, they need to be as closely matched on the galvanic series as possible. If you have all bronze props and shafts, avoid replacing them with stainless steel. Bronze isn’t as strong as stainless, but it tends to last much longer.

All metals should be protected underwater with zinc anodes, and the condition of the zincs should be checked regularly. If they seem to be wearing away quickly, that indicates a problem somewhere that you need to address. When you replace a zinc, make sure there’s good contact with the metal it’s attached to. Zincs are most effective when electrically connected to the metal they are to protect or, if not actually attached to the part itself, as close by as practical. Never paint a zinc.

Electrolysis. Electrolysis is a type of corrosion that is similar to galvanic corrosion, but with a subtle difference. Electrolysis is caused by external electrical currents acting on dissimilar metals in seawater. In the real world, stray electrical currents can come from incorrect installation of individual parts on your boat, an improperly wired boat nearby, a shore power line dangling in the water, or an improperly wired dock.

Electrolysis can cause damage in a surprisingly short time. While normally a zinc anode will last for months, if there are stray electrical currents in your boat or nearby, a zinc can get eaten away within weeks. Many boatowners will just add additional zinc anodes, not realizing the actual cause of the problem. But to be fair, electrolysis problems can be maddening to track down and correct. (See the Bibliography for books on marine electrical systems.)

Specific Corrosion Problems on Trailer Sailers. While there are lots of different possibilities for corrosion aboard any boat, what you’ll probably see most often are three types:

• rust (which we’ve already discussed);
• crevice corrosion on stainless steel;
• and aluminum corrosion.

Crevice Corrosion. Stainless steel comes in many varieties. Some are very corrosion-resistant; others are less so. Inexpensive grades of stainless will rust quickly in the marine environment, as some buyers of discount hardware store fasteners have discovered. (An easy test is to take along a magnet when buying stainless hardware from an off-the-shelf source. If the magnet sticks, then the item is made from a low-grade stainless that will probably rust.)

Most alloys used on boats are corrosionresistant in the marine environment if prepared and used correctly. But occasionally you’ll find a stainless part with traces of rust trailing from it – usually coming from a hole or a crack. What’s going on here?

What’s happening is crevice corrosion. Stainless works because it forms an oxide layer on the surface of the metal. The oxide layer is very thin, but it’s an effective block against further corrosion. For the steel to maintain its oxide layer, though, it needs oxygen. If the stainless can’t get enough oxygen to maintain the oxide layer, it begins to rust just like conventional steel. Where you’ll most often see this is in a crack where water can be trapped and prevent oxygen flow, or sometimes from the drain hole of a stanchion. In some instances, a scratch can be deep enough to hold water and prevent proper oxygen flow. That’s why stainless is often buffed to a smooth, polished finish.

What do you do if you notice rust weeping from stainless? First, look for any signs of stress in the part. This is particularly important in:

• chainplates,
• turnbuckles,
• or other rigging attachment parts.

Any sign of rust here is a loud call for replacement of the part. Rigging wire that has signs of rust deep within the wire shouldn’t be trusted. Any part that carries an important load, which means pretty much any part of the Tips on Rigging a Boat and Using Knots in Sailingstanding rigging, should be replaced if you see any sort of rust. The only exception might be when replacing a part that involves major structural work to the boat, like chainplates that have been laminated into the fabric of the hull at the factory. If that’s the case, call in the pros for a second opinion. Owners of larger boats will use specialized inspection techniques, such as Magna-fluxing and portable X-ray, to ensure the integrity of inaccessible chainplates, though this might not be practical for smaller boats.

For nonstructural items, such as a stainless hinge, try removing the part and buffing it with a felt bench buffing wheel and fine white buffing compound. Check the part with a magnet before you go to all the trouble, because if it’s low-grade stainless, you’ll probably experience the same problem again later. Reinstall with plenty of clean bedding compound and see what happens, or replace the part with a higher-grade item.

If you have a weeping drain hole in a lifeline stanchion, don’t plug the hole, however tempting that may be. The hole is there to drain water that gets inside the tube. Even if the hole is perfectly sealed, condensation will still build up inside. Sealed up, the inside of the tube will get even less oxygen and suffer more corrosion, which you might not discover until you need it most – say, when a lee lurch tosses you against the lifelines and the stanchion is the only thing preventing you from going over the side – at night – in a storm. Instead, try adding a second hole, or very slightly enlarging the first hole if it’s tiny. Ideally, the drain hole should be in the stanchion base, and the stanchion should be open at the bottom, allowing in plenty of air.

If you have rusty screws or bolts, the best course of action is to replace them. If the bolt is holding a part to the deck, go ahead and take the part off, clean it, and replace with new bedding compound. You probably need to renew the bedding compound anyway. (For a how-to, see section «Rebedding Deck Fittings» above.)

It’s common to see some spotty surface corrosion on stainless parts like stanchions or bow rails. This is more a nuisance than a danger. The best thing to do here is buff them out with stainless polish and a rag. You might see surface rust forming at the sides of a weld bead in stainless steel. Usually a problem with a new part rather than one that’s been installed for a while, this is a different form of corrosion in stainless called weld zone corrosion or weld decay. It’s caused by the alloys precipitating out of the steel because of the heat of the weld. This is the result of improper welding procedures, and the manufacturer should replace the part.

General stainless care involves washing away salt and dirt, inspecting carefully for stress cracks, and polishing with a little stainless polish or wax once a year. Some light machine oil on the shrouds doesn’t hurt. Oil the threads of the turnbuckles while you’re at it. Even though oil does attract dirt, metal-tometal contacts often benefit from an occasional oiling.

Aluminum Corrosion. Aluminum relies on oxide formation for protecting itself from corrosion, much like stainless steel does, but in the right conditions aluminum can corrode more rapidly than stainless. It is higher in the galvanic series, so galvanic corrosion is more serious and rapid. The oxide films that aluminum forms by itself are very thin, measured in atoms. In order to make the protective oxide layer thicker, aluminum masts are commonly anodized. Anodizing aluminum requires passing a current through the aluminum while the mast is submerged in an acid bath. The oxide layer of an anodized aluminum part grows from a few atoms thick to 0,0002 to 0,001 inch. There are several techniques – a room-temperature (type 2) anodized surface is microscopically porous, and anodized parts can often be easily colored. Hard-coat anodizing (type 3) is done at colder temperatures and higher currents. It’s thicker at 0,002 inch but can be dyed only black or dark green. This is usually how a black mast has been treated.

Aluminum is reactive with acid. This characteristic is commonly used when painting aluminum. It’s necessary to use a special etching primer before painting this metal, and then a very hard topcoat, like Imron or two-part polyurethane.

Aluminum is so reactive that naval architect Michael Kasten (who designs aluminum sailboats) recommends isolating aluminum from any metal it contacts, even other aluminum parts! Isolation pads, bedding compounds, and/or paint should be used underneath a fitting that will contact the mast. Crevice corrosion and pitting are particular problems with aluminum in a saltwater environment.

All aluminum spars are either anodized or painted. Anodizing is probably the method of choice – and properly done, an anodized coating can last for years. The only downside is it’s unrepairable in place. A painted mast looks really nice and can theoretically be spotrepaired if necessary, but paint does not protect the metal nearly as well as anodizing. If your anodized mast is severely corroded in several places, your only options are:

1. Replace the entire spar – time-consuming and very expensive.
2. Strip off all the parts and ship the mast to a company that anodizes masts – time-consuming and very expensive.
3. Strip off all the parts and sandblast and paint the mast yourself – time-consuming, not as expensive, but you’ll still spend a bundle.

If you have a painted mast, you’re more likely to see corrosion blisters under the paint. Unless they’re very small, these should be addressed immediately, as the mast can corrode completely through underneath the paint.

You can attempt a spot repair on a corroded mast as long as the pitting isn’t too severe. First, you need to clean out all of the powdery corrosion and get the mast back to sound metal. If you have a painted mast, sand off the paint until you reach bare metal. Then prime it with aluminum etching primer. (An example is Pettit’s two-part Aluma-Protect strontium chromate primer. Sounds expensive, doesn’t it?) Before you add a top coat, it’s a good idea to test the paint on a small area of the mast, like near the base, to make sure the solvents in the new paint don’t soften and lift the old paint. Hopefully you’ll be able to get a good color match.

Don’t sand an anodized mast, since you want to preserve the anodizing as much as possible. Use a stainless wire brush to remove the white aluminum oxide, and be sure to get it all! Don’t use plain steel wool for this, as it will leave tiny bits of iron embedded in your aluminum that will later rust. With an anodized mast, there’s not much else you can do, except maybe try a coat of wax.

Small holes in an aluminum mast are sometimes a problem. These can be the result of corrosion, but more frequently they occur when a piece of hardware has been relocated. Usually old hardware holes are more cosmetic than anything else, except when the holes are along a perpendicular line, which weakens the mast considerably. You can try fixing the holes the easy way or the hard way. On my old MacGregor 222, I wanted to fill several large holes, so I mixed up some J-B Weld epoxy, filled each hole with a little blob, and smoothed the blob by covering the wet epoxy with masking tape. After the epoxy cured, I peeled off the tape. It worked, after a fashion. My «repair» was better than nothing, but it didn’t make the mast any stronger. The J-B Weld has a gray color, which was somewhat similar to the aluminum color. A better choice would have been an aluminum-filled epoxy – Devcon makes one.

Better yet would have been a welded repair. A professional welder with a portable rig can do this, if he has experience welding sailboat masts. Aluminum requires a very expensive heliarc-welding machine, but there are repair rods available now that can be applied with a propane or MAPP gas torch. Durafix is one brand; HTS-2000 from New Technology Products is another. These special repair rods aren’t cheap, but they are far less expensive than a heliarc machine and six months of welding classes. Both repairs require clean and properly prepared surfaces, and it helps if you’ve done a little soldering before. And both repairs have the potential to damage your mast by burning it or ruining the heat treatment, but if it’s corroded through, you don’t have a lot to lose.

Maintaining Your Electrical System

The Self-Survey Criteria for the Engine and Electrical Systemselectrical system on your boat can be anything from a simple battery and a few lights to a complex installation involving:

• multiple batteries;
• 120-volt shore power;
• inverters;
• chargers, and other gear.

If your boat leans toward the complex side, you should invest in a specific manual about marine electrical systems – there are far too many variables to cover here. Be very, very careful around shore power or generators, and don’t fool with them unless you know what you’re doing. Twelve-volt systems have generally lower amperage so there is less danger, but still, be careful if you do electrical work. If you’re uncomfortable with it, call in some professional help. A marine electrician can advise you about maintaining your system.

Since most trailerable sailboats have fairly simple electrical systems, maintainance and repairs are also simple. Here are a few general things you can do to keep the electricity flowing where you want it:

1. Keep your battery charged properly (see the next section). Different batteries have different charging requirements, so know what type of battery you have and charge it with a good marine charger. Your battery must be kept secured with a strong strap, and the terminals should be covered (Coast Guard regulations require a covered, ventilated battery box).
2. Keep the battery connections dry and lubricated. One of the reasons why electrical systems on boats fail is that the connections oxidize in the humid environment and develop shorts. Oxidation can be prevented using silicone dielectric grease, which seals the surfaces from the air and prevents oxidation. Silicone faucet grease makes a good substitute for dielectric grease, but even plain Vaseline is better than nothing. WD-40 or other silicone sprays work as well, though they don’t last quite as long as grease. Lightbulb sockets, terminals, fuse holders, and switches should be either greased or sprayed.
3. Secure loose wiring. All wires should be secured to the boat at least every 18 inches. Your boat should have only multistrand and marine-rated wire aboard, though THWN strand is a less expensive alternative. (THWN stands for Thermoplastic Heat and Water resistant insulated wire, Nylon jacketed.) Never use solid copper wire aboard a boat.
4. Replace any wire that looks old or cracked or has worn insulation, broken or corroded terminals, or splices in wet locations.
5. Remember to double-check those spare fuses. When a fuse blows, investigate the cause; it’s almost never because the original fuse was too small. Replacing with a larger fuse could cause your wiring to overheat.

The Battery. Before we discuss charging, let’s take a look at the battery itself. Recent advances in battery technology have finally made it down to the retail level, and you can choose from traditional wet-cell batteries, sealed gel-cell, or AGM (absorbed glass mat) types. Some batteries can deliver a large amount of power quickly, as in a starting battery; others are optimized for deep-cycle use. Deep-cycle batteries are able to recover fully after long periods of slow discharge better than starting batteries.

Wet-cell (also known as flooded) batteries are cheapest per amp-hour, but they can be damaged by discharging to a completely flat condition. They will self-discharge at a rate of about 5 to 6 percent per month, so they need to be charged in the off-season.

Sealed gel-cell batteries require no maintenance (wet batteries need to be watered occasionally), can be mounted in any position, and, if the connections are carefully sealed, they can even be operated underwater. Their selfdischarge rate is lower, at only about 3 percent per month. But gel-cells are sensitive to overcharging, and charging – which requires expensive chargers with smart voltage regulators – must be closely monitored. Gelcells cost a little more than double the price of a wet-cell battery of a similar size.

Absorbed glass mat batteries have a low self-discharge rate of about 3 percent per month and are sealed and maintenance-free. They charge quicker than flooded-cell batteries and cost a little less than double the price of a traditional wet-cell battery. AGM batteries work well as dual-purpose batteries, since they can deliver a large amount of power quickly (required for starting an engine) and still provide deep-cycle capability. Portable «jumpstart» power supplies are usually small AGM-type batteries.

When buying batteries, it’s usually best to stick with one type. Each has specific charging requirements, and feeding them the wrong voltage will reduce battery performance and life span. You shouldn’t mix an old battery with a new one for the same reason. Keep the terminals clean and coated with dielectric grease to prevent oxidation, and clean the terminals as required with baking soda and water and a wire brush. (Don’t let any baking soda get into the cell of a flooded-cell battery, though, as it will neutralize the acid in the cell.) Use goodquality, appropriately sized cables on your batteries. If you are not using your battery for starting the motor, then you don’t need thick, 170-amp cables.

What’s an Amp-Hour? An amp-hour is a typical measurement of electrical power for a battery. It’s the total amount of energy that a battery can deliver for 20 hours before the voltage drops to 10,5 volts, which is the voltage of a dead battery. A fully charged battery measures 14,4 volts, though this number slowly declines throughout the life of the battery. So a typical Group 27 battery («Group 27» refers to the size of the case; this example measures

$12\frac{1}{2}$

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$6\frac{3}{4}$

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$9\frac{3}{8}$

inches) rated at 90 amp-hours can drive a 4,5-amp load for about 20 hours. If we turn on more lights and increase the load to 9 amps, expect about 10 hours before the battery goes flat.

 
Charging the Battery. Obviously, all batteries need to be charged, and there are several ways to do this. What type of charger (or chargers) to use depends on the battery type, its capacity, and the way you use your boat. If you plan to spend a lot of time on a mooring and away from 120-volt power, then you’ll need an onboard generator or solar or even wind power. First, let’s look at the charging requirements.

To get the best life from a battery, specific charging conditions must be met, and some batteries (like gel-cells) are more finicky than others. A battery charger must deliver a current at a rate that the battery chemistry can accept. If it delivers the current too quickly, it will damage the battery. Furthermore, the charge rate is not linear – it changes over time. And the battery charger needs to know when to stop as well.

When does a battery need charging? The most accurate method to determine your battery’s state-of-charge (for a wet-cell battery) is to measure the specific gravity of the electrolyte using a hydrometer. Check with the manufacturer for specific readings and procedures. Most boatowners use the battery’s voltage, measured with a digital voltmeter, to determine the charge. In order to get a correct reading, wait at least 12 hours after charging, and remove the «surface charge» by placing a brief load on the battery. Switching on all the lights for a few minutes should do it. With the battery switched off, voltage across the terminals should be 12,7 volts. AGM (absorbed glass mat) and gel-cell types might read slightly higher, at 12,8 to 12,9 volts. If the voltage falls to 11,9 volts, the battery is dead and needs to be recharged. A reading of 10,5 volts indicates a bad cell, and the battery must be replaced.

You can get a better understanding of the different types of charging requirements for different batteries by looking at the following typical charging profiles used by Deltran, a maker of battery chargers. The standard wetcell and gel-cell batteries are pretty similar, but it’s easy to see that AGM batteries are a different beast altogether, with double the charging time.

So, that brings us back to the question of which charger is best for your system. For now, let’s consider AC-powered chargers. It’s easy to say what type of charger is not the best, and that’s the small, cheap trickle charger. These are typically unregulated power supplies that are supposed to maintain a fully charged battery, but they can easily overcharge and damage your battery.

A very basic type of charger for wet-cell batteries, called a taper current charger or manual charger, depends on the internal resistance of the battery to control the current. A small manual charger is better than a large one, since it’s less capable of delivering too much current to the battery, but these will overcharge if not turned off when the battery is completely charged. They shouldn’t be used with gel-cell or AGM batteries, but you might get away with using one with a wet-cell if you monitor it closely.

Ferro-resonant chargers are the next step up in quality. These are inexpensive and commonly available at auto parts stores, and they are better than taper chargers because there’s less chance of overcharging or undercharging. Some will even turn themselves back on and recharge the battery when the voltage drops to a predetermined point. Automotive chargers aren’t waterproof and shouldn’t be left on board, but you can bring them to the dock and charge the battery as required, or, if your battery is small, you can take the battery home to charge. I used this method on my MacGregor; my electrical loads were small – just the radio and an occasional interior light. I used a small lawn-tractor battery, which was about half the size and cost of a standard battery. The plan was to add a second similar battery to gain capacity, but I never got around to it. Be very careful when using any sort of portable electric equipment near the dock – never place it in a position where it might get knocked overboard, and never let the supply cable droop into the water.

Smart chargers are best for battery life, and are practically required for gel-cell and AGM batteries (they also work for wet-cell batteries). These are commonly three-stage chargers, whereas a ferro-resonant charger is a two-stage charger. Smart chargers start at about $60 for a portable unit and $100 for an onboard bulkhead-mounted model. (Prices can continue upward to about $850, but big, expensive chargers are intended for large boats and liveaboard battery use.) An onboard charger isn’t required unless your boat is wired for 120-volt shore power; most trailer sailers can use the less expensive portable units.

Some Electrical Definitions. Electricity is often tricky to comprehend. Here are some simple definitions, based on a plumbing analogy:

• amp: Short for ampere, this is the amount of current flowing. Somewhat equivalent to water flowing through a pipe.
• volt: Pressure or «push» of electricity, roughly equal to the amount of pressure in a water pipe.
• watt: Measurement of electrical power; 746 watts equals 1 horsepower.
• resistance: The amount of electrical drag in a circuit. Continuing our plumbing analogy, it would be the size of the pipe – a large pipe can accommodate the flow of lots of water.

A Safer Extension Cord for Dockside Use. If you use portable electric equipment at the dock and your boat isn’t wired for shore power, there’s a safer way to get power to the boat than stringing skinny extension cords together. First, go to the hardware store and buy a single extension cord – a grounded one – that’s long enough to reach your boat. (If you connect two short ones together and happen to dip the connection into the water, it’s snap, crackle, and pop – a very dangerous situation.) Also pick up a waterproof junction box and a ground fault interrupt (GFI) – protected outlet.

Cut off the female end of the cord and wire in the GFI outlet in its place. Follow the instructions that come with the GFI outlet, and be certain to wire the ground properly. Carefully seal the openings of the junction box with silicone (to protect the GFI from corrosion and help it last longer), and give it an occasional spray of WD-40 or similar lubricant. Even so, replace the GFI if you see any signs of corrosion or if it fails to test properly. You might want to add a length of light line to secure the cord at the plug end, and keep the cord coiled securely when not in use.

The advantage of a GFI-protected extension cord is speed – a GFI will trip far faster than a line protected only by a circuit breaker. That’s why GFIs are required near sinks and in bathrooms on shore. A GFI extension cord adds an extra layer of protection to your electrical equipment at the dock – but your drill will still probably fry if you knock it into the water.

Bottom Issues – Blisters, Barnacles, and Painting

If you use your boat in salt water, bottom painting becomes a necessity. In some areas, marine growth (often including barnacles) can start to form on your hull in as little as a week. In fresh water, the problem is grass and slime, and occasionally zebra mussels, but these are usually much less severe than barnacles.

Bottom paint can be either hard or ablative. Ablative paints slowly wear away over time; hard paints don’t. Ablative paints leave a soft surface that is easily damaged by trailer rollers or bunks, so most trailer sailors choose hard paints unless their boat is kept at a marina year-round.

Painting preparation involves hauling the boat out of the water, pressure-washing to knock off as much of the marine growth as possible, and then scraping and sanding what’s left. It is easier, though much more expensive, to do this at a boatyard with a hoist rather than crawling around a trailer. Usually two or three coats of bottom paint are applied by roller. Owners of racing boats must take the extra step of polishing and buffing the bottom, which requires a special paint.

New environmental laws regarding toxins in bottom paints keep the manufacturers busy developing products that are effective against fouling yet still legal to use. California is especially stringent; its VOC (volatile organic compounds) regulations mean that paints common in other parts of the country are illegal there. The most successful development to date is the use of water-based paints that have low VOC plus easy soap-and-water cleanup. (Boatyards have to keep track of all the solvents they use, including thinners for cleaning brushes and sprayers.) Other high-tech coatings, such as Teflon, haven’t yet been proven effective at stopping marine growth, but racers like the super-slick surface. The research continues.

Hull blisters are, fortunately, much less of a problem on Performance Characteristics of Boat Trailerstrailer sailers than on larger boats. Since most trailerables are stored on land, blisters are much less likely to form.

If you have a new or blister-free boat, and you expect to keep your boat at a marina year-round, then you might be interested in blister prevention. Current fiberglass boatbuilding practice is to use vinylester resin as a barrier coat, as this more expensive type of resin has been shown to resist water penetration. You can also add your own barrier coat. All the major paint manufacturers offer epoxy-based barrier coat systems with very specific preparation and application instructions, which must be followed exactly. Some boatowners have suggested using coal-tar epoxy paints as a barrier coat, such as Interlux’s VC Tar 2. Coal-tar paints are extremely tough; they are commonly used in industrial applications and for protecting steel hulls from corrosion. But as with any epoxy, total barrier coat thickness is critical for good performance. The hull must be thoroughly dry before applying any type of barrier coat. With a trailer sailer, this is fairly easy: just pull in the boat in the fall and keep it warm and dry until spring. A heated garage or building is best, but you can completely cover the boat with a good tarp and leave it outdoors.

If you already have blisters on your hull, you have a choice – treat them, or just live with them. Pop one to see how deep it is. (Note – wear goggles. The fluid inside a blister is a mild acid, and it’s often under pressure. It would be bad to have this stuff squirt in your eyes.) If it seems to be on the surface of the hull, just under the gelcoat, then it’s primarily cosmetic. It won’t sink your boat. For practice, rinse the blister, let it dry, sand it smooth, fill it with epoxy, and add a touch of bottom paint. Now decide if you want to repeat that process for each blister on your hull.

If the blistering is severe, you should probably plan on storing the boat ashore to let the blisters and the laminate dry out.

If you sail in salt water and keep your boat at a dock or on a mooring, you’ll have barnacles and other marine growth to deal with. Scraping and painting the bottom is an annual ritual for boatowners, and doing this job on a trailer is a pain in the tuckus. If you have access to a boatyard, I recommend hiring boatyard personnel to lift the boat off the trailer so you can get a clear shot at the hull. If you’ve got a bad case of barnacles, you’ll definitely want to pressure-wash the hull as soon as the boat clears the water, because barnacles are harder to remove if you wait a day. I’ve also heard that spraying barnacles with a vinegar solution makes them easier to remove.

Running Rigging

The running rigging on your boat deserves special maintenance attention. Since this is the part that you handle when you sail the boat, you want to keep it working as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Fortunately, it’s often not too difficult or expensive, and your attention to detail can pay off with smoother, more enjoyable sailing.

Winches. Winches, especially good-quality ones, can be wonderful bits of engineering. On trailer sailers, the winches are most often small, singlespeed affairs, so they are comparatively easy to take apart, lubricate, and put back together. Yet they are often neglected, and some boatowners have never serviced a winch. There’s no reason for this – you can probably do the job in an hour or so, and the second winch always goes faster. All you need is a tube of winch grease, some light machine oil, a rag or two, an old coffee can, maybe an old stiff paintbrush, and some solvent, like paint thinner, diesel fuel, or kerosene. (Don’t use gasoline; it’s pretty dangerous.)

The tools you need to take your winch apart vary with manufacturers. Barlow winches often require hex wrenches, while some Lewmar winches will come apart with a single flat-bladed screwdriver. If you have old, cheap plastic winches and want to upgrade, consider getting good, chrome-plated bronze winches. Check to see how easy they are to take apart and service, as easy-to-lubricate winches are much more likely to receive proper care and thus provide better service.

Follow the instructions that came with your particular winch. If those are long gone, you might be able to find them on the Internet. If you do, print out a copy and keep it in your logbook.

As you disassemble the winch, lay the parts out in a straight line on a rag in the order they were removed. This makes it less likely you’ll find a mystery part when you put the winch back together. Clean the parts in solvent one at a time, and preserve their place in the line. Use an old paintbrush to get off all the old grease and dirt – an old toothbrush works, too, but it tends to flick little drops of dirty solvent in your eyes and all over the gelcoat. Wipe each part dry of solvent.

Grease the parts lightly and reassemble in reverse order. Be sure to grease the pawls and the drums where they contact, as well as the roller bearings and cages – in short, anyplace where two metals come together. A bicycle mechanic once told me that you should grease threads on screws in order to get proper readings on a torque wrench, and I still do. (I don’t lubricate mast fittings or wheel lug nuts. Usually a specialized compound like Never-Seez is a better choice because it isn’t quite so slippery.) Some spots, like the grip of the winch handle, call for a drop of machine oil. Grease the locking mechanism, too, if that’s the kind of handle you have.

Blocks. Servicing your blocks is usually simpler because most don’t come apart. (On a sailboat they’re called blocks, never pulleys. Pulleys are cheap, and you buy them at the hardware store. Blocks cost an arm and a leg in comparison, so you should at least call them by their proper name out of deference to your everdwindling bank account.) Many Harken ballbearing blocks are made with self-lubricating bearings and should not be oiled. Oil attracts dirt and gums up the races over time. Instead, use a dry lubricant, like McLube Sailkote, dry Teflon, or dry silicone sprays. Harken recommends frequent freshwater rinses for their blocks, even an occasional cleaning with detergent. Usually the black plastic parts of modern blocks fade over time. The discoloration is cosmetic and doesn’t affect the strength of the block, but it can be removed with a very fine abrasive. I’ve been giving my blocks a wipe with a silicone protectant that includes a UV inhibitor, much like you’d use on car interiors. I use F21 by Turtle Wax because I have heard rumors that other protectants contain detergents that can actually accelerate fading if not used regularly (though I haven’t been able to confirm these rumors). The blocks look great when treated with protectant, though the silicone soaks right into faded plastic. It doesn’t last too long on deck hardware. Watch out for overspray because it can make your deck very slippery.

Caring for other deck hardware, such as travelers, goosenecks, and roller-furlers, usually requires a similar treatment of just flushing with fresh water and adding the occasional dry lubricant. Check with your manufacturer and follow their recommendations. Sail slugs and tracks can be lubricated with dry lubricants, though an old remedy has been to use a dry bar of soap rubbed into the tracks and slugs.

Ropes and Lines. Maintaining your ropes and lines is fairly straightforward. If you sail in salt water, rinsing them with fresh water every so often cleans away abrasive salt crystals. In time the lines get stiff and dirty, so tossing them into a pillowcase and machine-washing them helps. Regular fabric softener can restore some of their lost flexibility. If they look really worn and frayed, you should replace them for safety’s sake.

The only other maintenance item for most lines is keeping the ends whipped.

While there are many ways to whip a line, here’s a fairly simple method that holds up well:

1. Using strong thread or tarred marline, make a loop and hold it in place against the line with your thumb. Leave a tail of thread hanging out to pull.
2. Tightly wrap the thread around the line, capturing the loop and working toward the end.
3. After you’ve covered the line with about 3/8 inch of thread, pass the end through the loop, keeping tension on the line. Pull the tail, and the loop will bury itself under the windings, but don’t pull too hard or the loop will pop out the other side.
4. You can really do a first-class job with a few extra steps. Tie the loose ends together with an overhand knot; then, with a needle, run the ends through the line to the other side and repeat. This whipping captures the seizings four times, though I usually do it only twice.

Sails. Maintaining modern sails is simple and straightforward. Most often they need nothing more than a simple rinse with fresh water. Let them dry before storing them – wet sails grow mildew, and the stains are very difficult to remove. Rust stains on a sail can sometimes be cleaned with a salt and lime juice paste – squeeze a lime over a teaspoon of salt, rub the mix into the stain, and leave it in the sunlight. It will take multiple treatments to remove the stain, but this works and is about as easy on the cloth as you can get.

An old, tired sail can be sent off to a company called SailCare to be cleaned and recoated, and I hear that they do impressive work. But it can be expensive – a quote for my MacGregor mainsail was around $200, and a new sail was around $430.

Modern Dacron sailcloth has two enemies – UV radiation and chafe. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of both Getting Underway and Sailing on the Sailboat aboard a sailboat. Chafe can be controlled with sacrificial patches sewn to the sail wherever they’re needed. Exposure to UV rays is addressed by keeping sails covered whenever they are not being used. This means always using your mainsail cover, and if you have roller-furling, make sure the dark strip sewn to the leech stays intact and in good shape. The dark strips need to be replaced every so often, since they’re exposed 24/7.

If you notice a small tear, patch it immediately or you’ll soon have a large tear, which is infinitely more work to patch. Adhesive sailcloth patches are good, but a real stitched repair by a sailmaker is better.

Outboard Maintenance

There are several things you can do to get good service from your outboard. The most important is routine maintenance. Your manual will give the recommended sequence of periodic maintenance steps; follow them. If you don’t have a manual, get one – most can be found on the Internet. Here are some of the things that the manual will tell you to do:

• Every Time You Start the Engine:
• Check for oil buildup around the prop or foot, which could indicate a bad lower shaft seal. (It’s best to store the outboard in a lifted position, tilted forward, with the foot clear of the water.)
• Check the fuel lines for gas leaks or cracks.
• Check the transom clamps and motor mounts to make sure everything is tight.
• While the motor is running, make sure cooling water is flowing from the head.
• If you run the motor in salt water, be sure to flush the engine with fresh water after each operation.
• Once a Month:
• Check the condition of the zinc anodes and replace if required.
• Check under the hood for corrosion or loose parts.
• Lubricate the throttle and gear shift linkages.
• Check the fuel filter and strainer for dirt or water, and clean or drain as necessary.
• Once a Season:
• Grease all points as specified in the manual.
• File off any nicks in the propeller.
• Replace the oil in the lower unit. If the old oil comes out milky or contains water, have the lower seal replaced.
• If you operate your boat in muddy water or you run the motor offshore, replace the impeller annually and clean out the thermostat housing (if the motor has one).
• Check the compression. If it’s borderline or low, have the engine serviced over the winter.
• Remove the spark plug and spray the cylinder with fogging oil.
• Apply silicone grease to the inside of the spark plug boot.
• Special Seasonal Checks for Four-Strokes:
• Check and adjust the valve clearances.
• Change the engine oil and filter.
• Check the timing belt.

There are several very good books on outboard maintenance if you decide to do your own. Depending on your motor and its history, your outboard can be a dependable workhorse or cantankerous problem child. In theory, though, outboards are relatively simple machines that can be owner-maintained and, if necessary, repaired. (See section «Buying Trailerable Sailboats: Condition Assessment and RisksOutboard» for a primer on how they work.) The more you learn, the better off you’ll be.

Fuel Additives. There are two schools of thought about fuel additives. One school says you shouldn’t have anything in your fuel except for oil (for a twostroke, of course). The oil companies invest significant amounts of time creating fuels that are as effective as possible, and if improvements would make their products more competitive, they’d make them. They have whole laboratories and teams of chemists at their disposal.

The opposition camp says that fuel performance can be improved with additives, and I have to admit I’m in this group for my own motor. First off, gasoline is formulated for use in cars. Usually, the gas in a car doesn’t have a chance to get old, so long-term stability isn’t as important as reducing pollution. If you look at the sticker on the side of the pump, you’ll see that it reads «oxygenates added». This extra oxygen, often in the form of ethanol, makes the fuel burn cleaner. When burned, the fuel produces less carbon monoxide and more carbon dioxide. But think about it – when something oxidizes, it changes in the presence of oxygen. In iron, this means rust. In fuel, it means more gum and varnish.

In a sailboat, it’s not uncommon to burn just one tankful of fuel in an entire season, which is a long time for gas to be sitting around. The newer blends of fuel have plenty of time to break down. A fuel stabilizer will prevent this from happening. I use Sta-Bil each time I buy gas, and I always buy the highest octane fuel available.

As an extra measure to fight gummy fuel and burned oil residue, I add a little Sea Foam, a fuel conditioner and stabilizer, to my fuel. At the end of each season I run a stronger dose of Sea Foam to clean out the engine. This might be a bit of overkill, but so far I’ve never had to deal with any stuck needle valves, seized float bowls, or badly fouled plugs – knock on wood.

E10 Troubles. The use of ethanol in fuel has been on the increase in recent years, and a relatively new blend, called E10, has been causing many boaters some trouble. This blend – 10 percent ethanol, 90 percent gasoline – was brought about by the replacement of MTBE. MTBE is a fuel additive that is a groundwater polluter and suspected carcinogen, and many states have outlawed its use. E10 is the result, and while it is safer, the different fuel is causing some odd reactions with marine engines.

The large amount of ethanol in E10 acts much like an engine cleaner that works a little too well. It loosens rust and debris inside your fuel system, which clogs fuel filters. The first few tanks of E10 will likely require a few new fuel filters, unless your engine is brand new.

Ethanol absorbs water, which naturally forms inside your tank as condensation caused by temperature changes. This water used to slosh around in the bottom of the fuel tank, below the pickup tube. Now it could become a water-ethanol mix of up to 10 percent of your fuel. Gasoline water absorbers can help, and an additional fuel/water separator filter in your fuel line is a good idea. A fuel line vacuum gauge can tell you at a glance if your filters are clogging.

Moreover, ethanol acts as a solvent for some plastics, including fiberglass, and fiberglass fuel tanks have been common on boats for years, though not so much on trailerable sailboats. If you have a fiberglass tank, watch out. The ethanol can create leaks, and some folks have reported a mysterious goo in their fuel systems. Other plastic parts, rubber O-rings, hoses, and primer bulbs that are not alcohol-resistant need to be replaced.

Outboard Spares and Tools. A few tools are essential, both for onboard use and for working on your motor at home. First, determine whether you have SAE or metric bolts on your motor – they’re probably metric unless it’s an older outboard. A spark plug socket is essential, as are tools to replace the impeller. Phillips-head and standard screwdrivers, pliers, a feeler gauge, an inexpensive volt-ohm meter, a small grease gun, a freshwater flushing adapter, a socket set, and some combination wrenches make up a pretty good tool set for outboard work. You won’t normally need these tools on board – the flushing adapter won’t work while you’re sailing unless you bring a very long hose – but most of these would be handy if you broke down while underway.

For spare parts, you definitely want to have extra propeller shear pins, a new spark plug, an extra fuel filter, and a new impeller. Some extra engine oil wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially if you have a four-stroke engine, and I like to keep a small tube of silicone dielectric grease on board. Some spare hose clamps, a little binding wire, and even a bit of extra fuel line might save the day.

Electric Propulsion for Sailboats. If all of the preceding seems like just too much bother, there is an alternative that, despite its limitations, is slowly gaining popularity. Electric outboard motors can be used aboard the trailer sailer, and for smaller sailboats especially, it might be worth a look. Several boatowners have clamped large trolling motors to their transom for short periods of motoring. In general, these owners are quite happy with the arrangement. Larger, more powerful electric outboards are now available.

The limitation of electric power usually means slower speeds. It takes a lot of battery powery to exceed 3 knots. An electric trolling motor can completely flatten a fully charged battery in under an hour at full throttle. Increasing your motoring time is as simple as adding more batteries, but remember, they’re heavy and need to be located low and near the boat’s centerline. Increasing your speed through the water can be done only with a larger motor, which means a correspondingly faster power drain. But even a small trolling motor is easier than rowing. And as long as the battery has a charge, electric motors almost always start with nothing more than a flick of a switch.

Trailer Maintenance

Just like your boat, your trailer needs regular maintenance. Since it’s less attention-getting and glamorous than a sailboat, it often receives less maintenance than it should. But if you ignore your trailer, it can generate a very large amount of negative attention in the form of an accident, and that’s to be avoided at all costs.

Maintaining your trailer becomes more involved as trailer size increases, and different types of trailers may have different maintenance requirements. The following is a general maintenance checklist, but, if possible, check with the trailer manufacturer for specific advice concerning your model.

Before Each Use:

• Check the tires. Be sure that you have adequate pressure and there are no cracks in the rubber or any bulges indicating a possible tire failure. Check the spare as well.
• Check bearings and wheel lugs. Look for any looseness or «play» in the trailer tires, or evidence of failed grease seals, such as oil weeping from the hubs. Correct any problems before driving under a load.
• Check wiring and trailer lights, especially brake lights. Lubricate all electrical connections with grease or spray lube.
• If your trailer is equipped with brakes, make sure they are operating correctly before hauling a load. Flush with fresh water if you launch in salt water.

Once per Year:

• Visually inspect the trailer for signs of rust. Treat and paint any spots you find, no matter how small. The job only gets bigger if you wait, and, like Neil Young says, rust never sleeps.
• Inspect the bearings by jacking up each wheel and spinning it by hand. If you feel or hear any roughness or grinding, replace the bearings. If they are Ok, repack the bearings with fresh grease.
• Grease lightbulb sockets and wiring connections, and check for corrosion.

There’s lots of information about working on trailers and trailer maintenance on the Internet. Champion Trailer Supply also sells a kit that can convert a standard boat trailer into a sailboat trailer, which just might save the day if you want to buy an older sailboat that’s deeply discounted because of a missing trailer. There are other trailer supply companies out there as well.

Modifying Your Sailboat

Buying equipment for your new or notso-new sailboat is only part of the boat ownership story. There are any number of ways to personalize your boat to fit your specific needs and desires. Much more so than a car, a sailboat is somewhat of a blank slate. Even if you’ve found the perfect Buying a Used Boat: What to Look for, Tips for the Buyer used boat, chances are that something on board will need renewing or updating. If you read boating magazines, no doubt many projects will capture your imagination. Those projects are practical and enjoyable ways to learn new skills, such as woodworking, metalwork, and proper tool use – all of which have plenty of useful applications outside of boat ownership.

This chapter will walk you through three projects that are handy improvements on many trailer sailers: building a navigation tool rack, installing a midships cleat, and installing cockpit-led halyards.

Building a Navigation Tool Rack

This rack is a small, simple project that’s useful for woodworking pros and easy enough for novices. There are lots of good books that will guide you through the beginning stages of woodworking. One that bridges the gap between beginning woodworking skills and boat projects is Fred Bingham’s Boat Joinery and Cabinetmaking Simplified. (See the Bibliography for this and other resources.) Just start small and go slowly. Another and possibly better option is to take a continuing or adult education class at a technical college. A class often gives you access to some very nice, large, and expensive stationary tools as well as knowledgeable instructors to show you how to use them. Remember, most of these skills can be mastered by high school adolescents. If they can do it, then mere mortals like you and me should have at least a fighting chance.

Although the rack I built for my boat is for small navigation tools – pencils, pens, dividers, and the like – you could use the same basic method to design racks to hold any number of small items. A nav tool rack is just two small strips of teak – the bottom one is cut with a lip to keep things from sliding out, and the top is cut with perpendicular notches to hold things in place. You can size these notches by using the actual items that are to fit in them. For this job, a table saw or router table is definitely the way to go.

A couple of tips before you start: not just any glue will hold a resinous wood like teak. Resorcinol glue is best, and polyurethane Gorilla Glue also seems to hold well. Wiping the surfaces to be joined with some acetone reduces the oil content a little and helps the glue to bond. Epoxy doesn’t hold well on teak by itself, especially when the glued part is used on deck.

Step 1Lay out and mark the stock for the rack.

Step 2The bottom rail is made of two pieces glued together. One piece has notches just like the upper piece, but the bottom has small slots cut in to drain any water. The bottom rail is ripped in two pieces.

Step 3Mill the notches in the rails. The top rail is taped to half of the bottom rail, and the notches are milled with the table saw.

Step 4Here the bottom rail is set in place; the small drain notches have been marked (left). All three pieces are shown (right).

Step 5Glue the bottom rail.

Step 6Let the glue cure overnight; visible here are the top and bottom rails of the rack. After carefully drilling mounting holes in the ends, soften all sharp edges with a sharp block plane and sandpaper. Finish the rack with Danish oil or some equivalent.

Step 7Cut plugs to cover the mounting screws from a scrap of the same type of wood. Mount the rack on a bulkhead near your navigation area.

Cutting and sanding teak also deserve some mention. While I love the way teak smells, the dust from sanding and sawing is extremely irritating to the lungs. (The dust from ipe, another wood you might use for trim projects, is worse.) Always wear a respirator when working with these woods. You’ll definitely want to use carbide-tipped saw blades, as teak will very quickly dull carbon-steel blades.

Installing a Midships Cleat

One of the minor irritations about docking a sailboat is the location of the cleats, typically one at the bow and one at the stern. This arrangement usually works fine until you try to dock shorthanded in a storm, with a nice 15-knot tailwind. Then, as your boat is heading for the dock, faster than you like and barely under control, you get to make a choice. If you jump from the boat and stop the forward motion with the bow line, the stern will swing wide into the boat next to you. (In this situation, that boat will be brand new, without a scratch on it. The owner will be aboard, watching your every move.) The other option is to try to stop your boat’s forward motion with the stern cleat. If you have a lot of space at the dock, this might work better, though the bow will swing out of control. Trying to wrangle the boat with both lines is usually comical at best, as it’s difficult to get two lines around a dock cleat fast enough to stop the boat.

The solution is midships cleats (one on each side of the boat). If there’s room on deck, a cleat can be installed at the middle of the boat. When a docking line is attached to the midships cleat, neither the bow nor the stern will swing outward as the boat comes up against the dock, and she will be a lot easier to handle at the dock.

You can figure out the correct location of a midships cleat by using your anchor and the tide. What you’re looking for is the boat’s center of lateral resistance. On a calm day, toss out a small anchor that’s tied around the mast. The boat should lie more or less beam to the current, though usually a boat’s center of lateral resistance is a bit aft of the mast. Pull the anchor rode back a bit until the boat lies parallel to the current – that’s the spot where your midships cleat should go.

The downside to a midships cleat is that it can be tricky to locate so it isn’t in the way. If you have really narrow side decks, you may not have room for this cleat, but if you can find a spot near the center of lateral resistance that won’t snag your sheets or stump your toes, then mount one.

It will be interesting: Types of Sailboats and Their Management

But make it strong. Forget about nylon mooring cleats – I selected these for my first boat, and they were a mistake. You could see them flex under load. Their two mounting holes were spaced too closely together to hold the cleat firmly to the deck. Although they didn’t leak when I owned the boat, it is only a matter of time before they do – and it’ll be sooner rather than later because of the movement. A much better solution is a bronze or stainless mooring cleat with four mounting holes. Regrettably, it’s a more expensive solution – a 5-inch nylon cleat is less than $3, whereas a bronze four-hole cleat is about $15. And cast aluminum four-hole cleats can cost near $50. But since you’re adding just two cleats for a single boat, the extra expense is minor.

The cleat needs to be mounted strongly to the deck. Before you drill, take a look under the deck to be sure you can get to the nuts, and make sure there’s clearance for a backing plate. What’s a backing plate? Glad you asked. (And if you didn’t ask, humor me for a moment.) A backing plate is an essential part of your hardware. It’s a sheet of extra material underneath your hardware – in this case a cleat – that’s drilled with the same mounting holes as the hardware. Sort of a one-piece washer on steroids.

Backing plates are important because any hole in the deck is a potential leak, and any leak can potentially rot any organic material nearby. If your deck is solid fiberglass, then there’s no risk of rot, but most decks on fiberglass boats are cored with either plywood, balsa, or Airex foam. Consider this scenario – a small leak develops around a fitting because the compound installed twenty years ago has aged, dried out, and lost its bond to the fitting. (This process is accelerated if the fitting is highly loaded.) After ten years or so, the tiny bit of water that finds its way in through that small leak has rotted the plywood core around the fitting, and weakened the whole area. Along comes a nice springtime squall with 45-knot winds. It’s not unheard of for the bolts to pull straight through the core, damaging the fiberglass, and if there are tiny washers under the bolts, the fitting could conceivably pull clear through the deck.

A backing plate spreads the load over a much larger area, greatly increasing the strength of the fitting it’s attached to. Backing plates can be made of the following materials:

• Stainless steel (best for stainless bolts and fittings).
• Sheet bronze (if you can find it; best if you use bronze fittings or bolts).
• Aluminum (lightweight and easy to work but has to be watched for corrosion).
• HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic (somewhat hard to find, but rot-proof).
• Plywood (easy to find and work but needs to be watched for rot; can be coated in epoxy for longevity).

Of these materials, the last two are best used in combination with a metal backing plate or large fender washers on top. Don’t try to get away with standard washers; they’re too small to be effective. It’s not uncommon for some builders to skimp when mounting cleats since it takes time, and few buyers seem to care about this area until it’s too late. You’ll occasionally see bolts held by little more than a dab of compound and a few washers.

If you want to be really thorough, take this extra step: drill the mounting holes and examine the core. If it’s balsa, you can chip out some of the core with a bent finish nail chucked into a drill bit. This won’t work so well with a plywood core in good shape, but if it’s rotten, it’ll chip out easily. Seal the bottom hole with tape, and pour in some Git Rot (a proprietary blend of very thin penetrating epoxy). Pour some into the upper hole, and keep adding more as it soaks into the core. Once the hole is completely filled, let the epoxy cure for 24 hours. When it’s fully hard, redrill the hole through the epoxy. Now if a leak does develop, the water won’t migrate into the core, and your deck won’t develop soft spots, which are a huge pain to repair.

Complete the installation by adding plenty of polysulfide bedding compound under the fitting, in the hole, and around the bolt heads. Attach the fitting using bolts and nylon lock nuts, if there’s room. These nuts will poke down into a space where your head often goes when you’re sitting down below. Keep this in mind, because bumping into them can really hurt!

So, now that you’ve got your new midships cleats mounted with polysulfide and nice, big backing plates – do you know the seamanlike way to stop a boat? Just a hint – it isn’t by jumping on the dock and pulling on the line. That’s how most folks end up in the drink. And you don’t want to be the fender between a dock and a heavy boat. First you find the dock cleat and take a loose turn around it. Let the mooring line slip through the cleat until the helmsman tells you to stop the boat. Then, by pulling upward against the cleat, you have ten times the stopping power.

Installing Cockpit-Led Halyards

Sometime in the mid-1970s, I read a magazine article that said halyards made fast at the mast base weren’t preferred for going offshore. That raised the question, «Are the halyards led to the cockpit?» Armchair sailors seemed to take great interest in the location of the halyards, and hundreds of boats were «improved» with triple turning blocks and rows of line stoppers.

Although the cockpit is undoubtedly a safer position for the crew, especially offshore, it isn’t necessary for every sailboat to have aft-led halyards. When halyards are cleated at the mast, your standing position gives you added leverage when tensioning the sail, and since you’ve got fewer blocks to turn the halyard, there are fewer friction losses as well. My personal preference is having halyards at the mast, but there are some good reasons for cockpit-led halyards on a trailer sailer. Because the deck is usually smaller – and the boat tends to pitch a lot more – than on a larger boat, you’ll often find yourself raising the halyards on your knees. You don’t get much of a leverage advantage that way. You can pretty easily add a stand-up deck block at the mast and a single turning block, and if you don’t like raising the halyards from the cockpit, it’s easy to go back to securing them at the mast.

The hardware required for this modification is fairly straightforward. For most boats, you’ll need a spring-loaded stand-up block at the base of the mast, a cheek block for the corner of the companionway hatch, and a cleat at the cabintop edge where you can secure the halyard – that is, unless you really want to spend money. Then you can get a stopper instead of a cleat. They both do the same thing. Stoppers are probably better for racing because they allow faster headsail changes and are easier to adjust. I use cleats ’cause I’m more of the «up the lazy river» kind of sailor.

Mount the stand-up block a few inches away from the base of the mast. Check underneath first – you’ll probably need to go a few inches forward or aft as well, since there’s usually a reinforced area or beam running underneath the mast. Generally, you don’t want to perforate the mast beam with holes. The stand-up block needs to be through-bolted strongly, just like a docking or mooring cleat, because there are large loads pulling it upward. Seal the mounting holes with epoxy, as discussed for the midships cleat, and bed it well with compound. Use good-quality, roller-bearing blocks.

With nearly all boats, you’ll need a second block to lead the line around the companionway. There are special deck organizer blocks for this, or you can use a standard cheek block. This one needs the same high-strength installation. Forget using sheet-metal screws for this; they won’t be strong enough.

The third element to install is a cleat or stopper on the cabintop. Remember that you’ll still be going on deck all the time, so locate the cleat out of the way. I blasted my knee on my cleat just the other day. As you position these lines, remember that they can’t be allowed to rub on any part of the boat. If they do, not only will the sails be difficult to raise, you’ll quickly damage the fiberglass as well.

Don’t automatically assume that your halyards should be raised and lowered from the cockpit. Think carefully about it before you start drilling holes all over your deck and spending dollars on hardware. The hardware may already be there – it was on two of the three boats I’ve owned – so your choice may already be made, and you can try it both ways. But do take the time to seal the mounting holes and properly bed the hardware.

Epoxy. Epoxy resin is available in quarts or gallons from specialty suppliers. Epoxy resin is not the same as standard polyester resin that your boat is made from – it’s far stronger, especially in adhesive strength. When properly applied to a cured fiberglass boat hull, epoxy forms a permanent bond that can be considered a structural part of the boat itself. Polyester is fine for new boat construction, but when you need to add something to polyester that has already cured, epoxy is the easiest way to get a good bond.

Epoxy resin is more expensive than polyester, though prices have come down a bit as it has become more widely available. Using small specialty suppliers usually results in better prices than buying from a major catalog dealer. Epoxy is more sensitive than polyester to mixing in the correct ratios, so you must be more careful when you mix it. This problem is greatly simplified by buying calibrated pumps when you purchase your resin.

As good as epoxy is, it has a few weaknesses. One is that it deteriorates rapidly under UV rays. Resist the temptation to coat your woodwork with a layer of epoxy, like my friend Larry Lee did on his anchor platform. It looked good at first, but within a few months the sun had taken its toll, and his carefully applied coating was lifting up in great cloudy sheets. Another weakness is its sensitivity to heat. Some epoxies can lose their bond at fairly low temperatures, even becoming noticeably soft on a hot and sunny day. Not all epoxies exhibit this trait, though, so examine the specifications carefully.

Another property of epoxy that isn’t really a weakness, but you should be aware of it, is «blush». As epoxy cures, part of the process is the formation of amine acids. The acids migrate to the surface of the epoxy, and in many resins this can prevent the full bonding of additional layers of epoxy. The amine blush is easily removed with a little soap and water. Recent developments have resulted in low-blush and even no-blush formulations. I’ve never had a problem with blush with the epoxy I’ve used.

Epoxy resin, though strong and useful by itself, is only part of the story. When used in combination with other materials, epoxy becomes far easier to handle, easier to sand, stronger, and more penetrating. Epoxy suppliers usually carry these additives as well, so it’s easiest to order them when you buy your resin. Additives can save you money by stretching your resin further. Here’s what you’ll commonly use:

• Resin. Often mixed 2:1 or 3:1 with hardener, though some epoxies can have a 10:1 mix ratio. Resin cures by generating heat – an exothermic reaction – so you don’t want to mix too much at one time, as some epoxies can overheat and actually boil. Often available as fast or slow cure, you’d use fast in winter, when ambient temperatures are lower, and slow in summer. The pot life, or working time, varies. Sometimes the resin will begin to set in as little as five minutes. Any epoxy should usually be left to cure overnight, with the full cure coming in about a week.
• Microballoons or Microspheres. These are microscopic glass bubbles that are mixed into the resin, lightening it up and making the cured resin easy to sand. Available in white (glass) or red (phenolic); the main difference is that the red is easier to sand. When mixed 100 percent with epoxy, the resulting compound is somewhat runny and will not stay on vertical surfaces well.
• Fumed Silica. Also known as Cab-O-Sil or Aerosil, fumed silica is a very fine, threadlike silica powder. When mixed with epoxy, it forms a strong, nonsagging compound that is very difficult to sand. Some epoxy suppliers sell this as glue powder. When silica is mixed 100 percent with epoxy, the resulting compound looks and handles much like Vaseline.
• Wood Flours. Fine dust from sanding wood, «flours» can be used to create strong, nonsagging glue. They are usually used in combination with silica.
• Milled Fiberglass Fiber. Very short lengths of chopped fiberglass. Creates a very strong compound, but it tends to be a little lumpy and difficult to handle. You can create your own in small quantities with a pair of scissors and some regular fiberglass, but prepare yourself for an itchy experience.
• Graphite Powder. Graphite can be added to epoxy to make a smooth, abrasion-resistant compound. It’s quite messy, of course, until it’s mixed. It’s also used to protect epoxy from UV rays, though large areas will certainly get hot in the sunshine.
• Fiberglass. This is the same fiberglass that was used in making your boat. Combined with epoxy resin, it’s extremely strong. It comes in cloth (1,5-ounce plain weave is common), roving, or mat. When you use epoxy, alternating fiberglass roving and mat with cloth isn’t as critical as it is when using polyester resin, as the greater adhesive strength allows more leeway when layering material. In all the repairs and construction I’ve done with epoxy, nearly all have used fiberglass cloth. And as far as I know, all are still stuck down tight. Fiberglass cloth comes in 56-inch-wide sheets, but a handier form for boatowners is fiberglass tape. This comes in various widths, but I’ve got a roll of 4-inch tape that I use all the time for making small patches, fillets, and structural members.

Mixing a batch of epoxy is easy if you have the pumps. Squirt out one shot each of hardener and resin, and stir thoroughly. Though epoxy vapors are much less noticeable than the styrene vapors from polyester resin, you should still mix epoxy outside. Some people develop a sensitivity to epoxy, and once this happens, it’s nearly impossible to be around the stuff. The dust from the additives is bad for your lungs, especially dust from fumed silica. Silica dust can cause silicosis, so protect yourself accordingly. Add the fillers as required. I do nearly all repair work with a combination of resin, silica, and microballoons – usually a squirt of resin, a spoonful of silica, and 2 or 3 spoonfuls of microballoons. If I need a stronger compound, I’ll use more silica and cut back on the balloons.

Relocating Deck Hardware. On anything other than a brand-new sailboat, you’ll often find that deck hardware added by a previous owner is located in a less-than-optimal position. Before you change anything, confirm that this is indeed the case with a few test sails. Sometimes hardware may seem to be in a bad place, but after a few sails its location makes more sense. But more often, hardware is installed without careful planning, or someone’s great idea turns out to be not so great. Or a part becomes worn out, but new replacements have different bolt patterns. Or better methods leave a particular piece of gear unused. How do you take care of these situations?

Often you’ll want to remove a part and fill in the holes. The first rule of thumb is, don’t do anything that’s temporary. Far too often people remove a part, tape over the holes, and never get around to finishing the job properly. This leads to all sorts of problems, like tape residue baked onto your deck and water intrusion into the deck core. And forget about using any sort of caulk or compound. This is a job for epoxy.

But as always, preparation is the key. Remove the old hardware and scrape away any trace of bedding compound. (A single-edged razor blade scraper has long been the preferred tool for this job, but a new option is ScrapeRite plastic razor blades.) These come in three grades:

• red for general-purpose delicate scraping;
• a blue polycarbonate blade for fiberglass and gelcoat;
• and yellow for use on hard, flat surfaces.

Remove any loose chips of gelcoat from the hole, and then lightly sand the area near the hole.

If the hole goes through the deck core, check the core for rot. If you find any, chip away the rot and fill the hole with thinned epoxy, as previously discussed in «Rebedding Deck Fittings» and elsewhere.

Next, wipe the entire area with acetone to clean off dust and dirt. Mask the gelcoat near the hole, leaving about a half-inch border exposed. If possible, mask the back side of the hole as well.

Fill the hole with a thickened epoxy. The easiest way to do this is with a commercial preparation. My favorite is Marine Tex, which is sandable after it’s cured, but you can mix up your own by adding some fumed silica and microballoons to a dab of epoxy from a hardware-store squeeze tube. Add enough until the mix doesn’t sag on vertical surfaces. Smooth the compound over the hole with a paint scraper. This will minimize the sanding you have to do in the next step.

After the patch cures, sand it smooth. If you’re doing it by hand, start with 120 grit and finish off with 220 or 320 grit to get a smooth surface. Pros will do this with a disk of fine sandpaper in a side grinder, but don’t try this unless you consider yourself an expert with this tool. It does the job in no time at all, but the slightest hiccup will put a deep gouge in your gelcoat, requiring a much bigger repair.

Marine Tex comes in white, which is ideal if your boat happens to have a white gelcoat like mine. If your deck is tinted gelcoat, the epoxy can be colored using fiberglass tints, but exact colors are difficult to match. You can add a dab of paint over the repair, which might be best for darker colors.

Author

Olga Nesvetailova

Freelancer

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