Recent content by Scyph

The inner workings of a ruddy rudder When the previous owner ran my boat aground last year, the rudder shaft got bent and the rudder used to rub on the underside of the hull. I couldn't un-bend it without a hefty monetary expense. Instead, I shaved about 1/8" off of the rubbing part. I had to...

:headb: I didn't know what they were called (sundry plugs), so I couldn't find them online. Won't be repeating that $38-dollar mistake. But the McMaster-Carr is an awesome resource! I wish I'd known about it earlier. It's like a dream come true, every single thingie I'd been wanting and not...

I might go the "inside handrails" route as well. The only problem (and this may be an indication of a much bigger problem) is that there's space in some places between my liner and the cabin top. On this subject, is the cabin top cored? I saw core in places, but not everywhere... which may mean...

A couple resolutions The Radio I went up the mast. Nothing was wrong with the antenna connection. In a fit of desperation, I noticed a little power switch on the radio: high and low power. I tried a radio check on high power. It responded back with a bit of static. Then I remembered reading...

Yeah... I'm having difficulties in the pulling glued-in bolts out of teak department. One reason I haven't considered Catalina handrails is because they are straight, and mine are curved. Do they bend? Is it a good idea to bend them? I imagine they might put some stress on the cabin top if I...

With a heavy dose of rage (caused by one of the previous owner and directed at the rails), I managed to rip them out. Because the genius had glued the bolts in, there's no way of removing them from the rails. I only managed to remove one bolt. There was no caulk between the rails and the...

I got the bungs out with a rotary tool. All caps are accessible. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but the stuff under the bungs is not varnish, it's polyurethane :0. The bolts themselves are actually flat-headed machine screws, pretty much bolt (a) in this image. The slits in their caps are plugged...

A big bad thunderstorm rolled through the lower Chesapeake yesterday. We're an hour away from the peak high tide right, but the water is up to the dock already. My boat didn't stay dry through this. Portlights poured. Even the one I'd rebedded as an experiment last week poured like my efforts...

Mine is white :confused:

Another bilge pump problem I have a Rule Mate 500 bilge pump, the old one with a magnetic float against which they compare the new one in this video. It woked well for a few days. The other day, I put drinking water in the tank, and found out two things: 1. the sink pump leaks, and 2. the water...

Thanks for the suggestion, CamD. I'll check out a glass shop when my roll of butyl runs out. I think it's worth it just for the sheer fun of telling people that I rebedded everything on my boat with chewing gum! I finally got my outboard fixed. I had a lot of help from new friends in town...

Awesome! Thanks, guys. That Sea Tow is a pretty useful tool. I just did some tests, and figured out that: my (brand new) handheld radio both transmits and receives well the stationary radio can't hear the handheld at 5W, but it does hear the Sea Tow transmission, which I expect is far more...

The black thingie turned out to be an outlet for the auto tiller. Since that last post, I connected all four 12V deep cycle batteries that I had into a single bank (I'll change things around later) to charge them all up. There's only one "good" battery in that bank. It had a charger on it the...

The mystery of a black thingie By my lack of posting, you might guess that NOTHING went according to plan thus far. Thus, my plan in OP is meaningless now. But I'm finally back on my boat, $1500 richer, having graduated, finished up my work, research, school.... My plan this time around is a...

I agree with what y'all are saying about the projects taking more time than expected. Woodwork on Easter took 4x the time I thought it would take, just because of the amount of shopping I had to do to get started. I'm not even into the first project on my list, and I already suffered a...