Boat Maintenance

In addition to the usual steps you take before a seasonal haul out at home (decommissioning the engine, storing sails, pickling systems, etc.), hauling out and leaving your boat in a new yard, especially a foreign port, involves some extra measures.

A high percentage of cruisers we meet each year plan on leaving their boats in a safe place and flying home, often once a year. If youre leaving your boat for less than four weeks, it may be most convenient to leave it in the water, providing you can find a secure marina slip or mooring. For longer periods of time, it may be cost effective and attractive to combine dry storage in a secure boat yard with your annual haul out. Weve left Mahina Tiare 1, II & III on the hard or in the water in Portugal, the Azores, Sweden, Panama, Chile, Hawaii, Canada and New Zealand and over the past 35 years and have learned quite a bit about the process, from choosing a place to keep the boat.

If you buy your paint in summer or fall, you can often save some money, but this means youll need to mix it well prior to painting. In fact most of the paint in the store has settled long enough to have separated, leaving a thin solvent-rich layer on the top and 2/3 of the paint as a sludge on the bottom. Intended for less stubborn house paint, ordinary mixers clog up with the goo, taking 15 minutes or more to properly rejuvenate a can. After a dozen layers of paint build up, they scarcely mix at all.

In the quest for speed, sailors endlessly debate sail trim, the best cloth, the hottest cut, and which folding prop will do everything. In reality, nothing slows you down more than a dirty bottom, the primary motivation behind Practical Sailors trademark bottom paint trials.

Were guessing 90 percent of sailors have their boat hauled by a yard. A travel lift or crane plucks the boat from the water, and yard guys block the boat for the winter. Your sole involvement is reading a warning in the lease agreement that you will not touch the stands and that you will not attach anything to them, including tarps. Those are good rules, and nothing we are about to say is meant to contradict them.

We expect a lot from sealants. They must withstand UV, salt and cleaning chemicals, bond to everything, flex to absorb mechanical and thermal strains, be strong but removable when equipment needs serviced, and stay white. Wow. In PS Marine Sealant Adhesion Tests (December 2016) we tested the shear strength of many caulks on many materials and delivered a few tentative recommendations. Three years later, it is time to follow-up with field observations.

While interviewing boat maintenance professionals for background information preferences, several quipped that in reality, they replace far more caulk because its mildewed than because it has failed or stiffened. They seemed to favor either 3M 4000 UV or Sika 291 for exposed uses, because they leave a smooth finish and resist mildew. When we asked about strength and bonding on-deck, they referred us back to the mildew problem. Thats what causes most of their call-backs. (Below the waterline, where looks don't matter, they favored 3M 5200 or Sika 291.)

This months report on bottom preparation is another reminder that the most effective paint as determined by our past testing might not always be the best for your circumstances or location.

Few pleasures can compare to the warm comfort of curling up with a good book while another winter front blows through. Whether youre holing up in the Bahamas waiting for the wind to clock, or tucked beside the woodburning cabin stove in Puget Sound, here are some recent publications to help you dream and scheme your way to your next adventure.

Regarding your recent Waypoints article about making your own dustless sander (see Dustless Sander, PS April 2016 online) I added a Dust Deputy (~$50 Ace Hardware) upstream of my shop vac around 3 or 4 years ago.