Boat Maintenance

The Catalina 30 is a remarkable success story. We suspect that more Catalina 30s have been built than any other boat of that size anywhere in the world. While the basic boat has remained unchanged since it was introduced in 1975, there have been dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of minor developments in the boat in the course of a production run that is approaching 4,000 hulls. The advantage of a boat in production for so long is a high degree of product refinement over the years. The challenge for the owner of an early version of the boat is to upgrade his boat to the standards of models currently in production.

Hurricane Gloria was a most impolite lady. She barreled up the Atlantic coast, scaring the heck out of people from Florida to Massachusetts. Despite the fact that the storm didn’t live up to its billing, hundreds of boats in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts were destroyed or severely damaged. In some cases, the boats were lost through no fault of the owner. No amount of preparation will save your boat if another boat drags down on it in the middle of a hurricane. In other cases, however, lack of proper preparation was a major cause of a damaged boat. There’s no excuse for that type of loss.

Letters to Practical Sailor, May 2011. This month's letters cover subjects such as: Practial Heads, Anchor Lockers, Handheld Vacs, and more!

Making a portable set of dinghy wheels is relatively simple and inexpensive. Reader (and PS contributor) David Liscio sent us the following DIY how-to on dinghy-roller making, a timely Reader Workbench as we’ll be reviewing dinghy wheels in an upcoming issue. Email us your DIY project ideas at practicalsailor@belvoirpubs.com.

Letters to Practical Sailor, May 2011. This month's letters cover subjects such as: BoatU.S. Insurance, Marinco, Rigging and More!

Hydro-powered hull scrubber takes slime off but not barnacles. Bottom-scrubbing is definitely one of our least favorite boat chores. And because the warm Florida waters are the perfect nursery for hull-fouling slime and barnacles, we’re always on the lookout for products that will make the never-ending hull cleaning more bearable. That quest recently led us to try the Subscrub, a device that allows users to clean their boat hulls without hauling out or going for a…

Practical Sailor tested a half-dozen 2- to 3-inch, natural-bristle brushes marketed for use with oil-based coatings. The test field covered a range of bristle types, bristle shapes, handle styles, and prices, representing those most often found in marine chandleries and hardware stores. At paint-makers Interlux and Epifanes' suggestions, we compared good-quality badger-hair and China-bristle brushes when we applied two-part linear polyurethane paints to the fiberglass hull of PS's Catalina 22. The test brushes included the Seafit Flagship badger-hair brushes found at West Marine and made by Red Tree Industries; the Wooster Brush Co.'s white-China bristle brush; the Omega Lily ox-bristle brush available through Epifanes; and a few hardware-store-brand brushes from Ace Hardware, Benjamin Moore Paints, and Purdy Professional Painting Tools.

There are as many different techniques for brush care and cleaning as there are different brushes. Here are some tips that weve found to be effective and fairly easy to carry out.

Brush choice depends on what the brush’s job will be (transferring paint, smoothing paint, etc.), the user’s preferences, and the project budget. The best brush isn’t necessarily the best brush for the project. You wouldn’t use a $40 brush that requires meticulous cleaning to paint the bilge or apply bottom paint, just as you wouldn’t use a throw-away chip brush to lay a final coat of varnish on the toerail—at least we wouldn’t.

Letters to Practical Sailor, April 2011. This month's letters cover subjects such as: WI-FI Solutions, Eco Antifouling, Laser News, Streamlight Headlight and more!