DIY Projects

For the last decade or so, the majority of all production boats built in the U.S. have been trimmed above and belowdecks with teak. Teak makes abundant sense on deck. With resistance to weathering as its primary virtue, however, teak makes less sense for use as trim below.

Alot of water has gone over the dam since the days when boats were caulked with cotton, and storm windows were snugged up with putty.

Deck joints don’t leak as much as they used to. Most builders have switched to less leak-prone types of joints, and most are more conscientious about fastening and sealing them.

The problem with any type of headliner is that it can disguise the origin of leaks. Water may travel many feet behind the headliner before it finds an exit point. If removing the headliner is impractical, you’ll have to begin your detective work from the outside. Any place the deck is pierced by a mounting bolt, hatch, window, mast opening, electrical outlet, or the like, is a potential source of leaks. Assume that if the deck leaks with the boat at rest, the source of the leak will be uphill from the place water appears on the inside of the boat.

When the 28’ Pearson Triton appeared on the market in 1959, a revolution began in the boatbuilding industry. Fiberglass made economical mass production of boats a reality , and helped make sailing - and boat-owning - an activity for everyman. And Everywoman.For sailors who have never known boats built of anything but fiberglass, the changes in boatbuilding that can be attributed to the prosaic laminate of glass fibers and polyester resin are hard to imagine.

Probably nothing can make or break the appearance of a fiberglass boat more quickly than the appearance of the exterior teak trim. Contrary to popular belief, teak is not a maintenance-free wood that can be safely ignored and neglected for years at a time. Though teak may not rot, it can check, warp, and look depressingly drab if not properly cared for.

The best way to treat an iron keel that’s rusting is to sandblast the whole thing and apply a complete, new, epoxy-based coating system. But that’s not always feasible or desirable. Because of the mess involved, many boat yards do not allow sandblasting. Even when this is permissable, a complete recoating job also means a complete re-fairing job, and that in turn means lots and lots and lots of slow, boring, dirty work if anything approaching a proper, smooth foil is to be achieved.

A snug-fitting teak grating adds safety and a touch of class to the cockpit of any boat. Spray or rain runs under the grating to the cockpit drains, leaving a reasonably dry footing for hopping about the cockpit as you haul in sheets to tack or trim sails. Unfortunately, you can't buy a grating off the shelf to fit your boat, and having a grating custom-built can be a costly and nerve-wracking experience. The solution to both of these problems: build your own grating. Its a fun job that can keep you busy for a few winter evenings, and you can build it for less than one-third the cost of a custom-built job.

Among the more neglected pieces of gear aboard most boats are the primary storage batteries, which faithfully crank the engine and light the lights. In the case of the typical lead-acid battery, even benign neglect is tantamount to abuse. It’s small wonder that many battery manufacturers refuse to recognize the warranty on batteries used aboard boats. The normal marine battery cycling - relatively high discharge rates with no charging, followed by rapid charging at a high rate by high-output alternators - is murder on conventional automotive batteries, and not exactly a piece of cake even for deep cycle batteries, constructed to absorb this type of abuse.

The battery is the heart of a boat’s 12-volt electrical system. In it, a chemical reaction maintains a potential difference or voltage, which “pumps” or pushes electrons around whichever circuits are switched on or are “closed.” No charges should flow through an “open” or incomplete circuit; if they do, you’ve got a problem, which we’ll get to later. The storage battery’s chemical reaction is reversible, which means that it can be recharged, and will be continuously, as long as the engine is running and the alternator or generator is functioning properly.