Practical_Boat_Owner_-_November_2015_

Practical projects

Readers’ Tips

AN UPLIFTING RESULT

O

n my 9.7m (32ft) yacht, the halyards run across the coachroof,

leaving horrible dirty marks. To solve this problem I bought some

1in-diameter PVC tubing from B&Q and cut it into roughly 25cm

lengths. I then pushed the resultant pipes in between the deck and

halyards: by lifting the halyards they stop dirt and water getting

underneath them. In total I made four ‘halyard lifters’ with 1m of

tubing (costing about £2 per metre).

Nathan Lomas

SALT GIVES WAY TO STEAM

3D PRINTERS: WORTH A PLUG

I

recently carried out a repair

to my boat using a 3D

printed part in the process.

There was a leak around my

depth transducer housing,

and I could either pay £300 to

have my boat hauled out, lie

alongside and let the tide fall,

or effect a repair while the boat

was in the water. I opted for the

latter, but needed to halt the

ingress of water between the

housing and the surrounding GRP. I designed a plug and printed it on

my 3D printer which, when inserted, stopped the ingress completely

and allowed the housing to be re-glassed into the hull. With the plug

installed the repair took no more than a couple of hours, and saved a

lot of time and money.

Bob Haresceugh

Toerail editorial

sets you straight

Robin Garside devises a cheap, simple

and effective method of straightening

out his boat’s damaged toerail

The plug

as a CAD

model

D

uring the storms earlier
this year, I ended up with
another boat hitting the
toerail twice while I was on my
mooring. I initially thought I
would claim on the insurance,
but having spoken to a couple
of repairers I realised that it
would be a long and expensive
job, entailing the removal of
the whole toerail together with
the stanchions.
The boat would be out of
commission for a couple of weeks,
and sourcing the right toerail
profi le for my 16-year-old boat
proved to be diffi cult. As I’m lucky
enough to own a dry boat, I was
also concerned that there would
be potential leaks from the
innumerable fi xings being
removed and replaced.
The solution was to use an old
hardwood door frame and some
leftover bolt lengths and nuts and
washers I had in the garage. The
door frame has lots of profi les, and
I simply positioned them against
the bent toerail then tightened the
bolts. This took a
couple of goes, and I
had to drill a couple
of extra holes in the
clamp to ensure
alignment with the
existing holes. This
home-made tool
only cost a few
pence as I used bits

and bobs from my garage: I guess

if I had to buy the bits it would still

cost under £20.

The fi nished toerail, while not

perfect, can be worked on again

during the winter. Meanwhile, I am

still able to sail in a dry boat.

Not perfect, but a vast improvement: and it can be worked on again

Ouch: a conspicuously bent toerail

Hardwood tightened against the rail with bolts

I

own a 4hp Suzuki outboard,

of some 15 or so summers.

When used as the back-up

engine on my RIB it was run

every trip, and religiously

washed through afterwards.

However, when it was used

as the motor for the tender to

my cruiser, it could only be

washed through with fresh

at the end of the season.

Recently, on running it in a

test tank I soon noticed a lack

of expelled cooling water. My

fi rst assumption was that the

water pump impeller was

defective, so I renewed it. After

several short runs in the test

tank, with a hose connected to

the fl ushing port, there appeared

to be no effective difference –

except my vocal cords suffering

from fair wear and tear

with expletives.

My conclusion was that

the waterways were blocked

with salt. As a last resort, prior

to an engine strip-down I tried

connecting a wallpaper stripper

steam hose to the fl ushing

connection for about fi ve

minutes (just long enough

for it to start burning my

hands through leather gloves!)

On the next pull she was away,

and lo! Cooling water issued

forth. Similar expletives rent

the air, but in a different tone

of voice.

I don’t forsee having to do this

on a regular basis, but it is a little

trick I will keep in reserve.

John Stevenson

COST

UNDER

£20

John Stevenson removed salt

build-up in his Suzuki outboard

with a wallpaper stripper