There have been many discussions of blisters and barrier coats. Along with this are comments on soda blasting versus sand blasting. Some say that vinylester gelcoat doesn’t blister. Then again, something that looks like a blister can occur.
When dealing with barrier coats, some say that none is needed if you have a boat with vinylester gelcoat. Others say you still need a barrier coat to make the paint adhere to the gelcoat. Others say that a single coat of barrier coat is the way to go to act as a “tie coat” where the epoxy adheres to the gelcoat and the bottom coat adheres chemically to a still tacky barrier coat.
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Our prior boat was a 1989 C34. We soda blasted to get the old hard bottom paint off because I wanted to switch to VC-17. We were surprised to find hundreds of very small blisters (approximately the
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I have been very happy with my 16000 btu unit by Ocean Breeze in Stuart, FL. It has a radiant heat side that doesn’t need to be winterized, so we can visit the boat in the winter. AC unit runs with a Honda 2000.
Earl Poe
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While Warren went for a cost effective approach, we live in Florida. After our 16k unit dies, we replaced it with a Marine Air 18k unit in the storage locker in front of the galley. With a main duct in the saloon, we have duct work running to both the forward and aft cabins. We have a separate thru hull for the water input and use a condensator for the output which keeps the bilge dry.
By adding a smart start, which eliminate the large start up spike, we can also run our unit
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Haven’t seen this topic on this list yet. Last weekend while on a mooring at Ithmus Cove Catalina Island in a fairly heavy and steady rain; very unusual for So California, water started seeping through the canvas. Spring Fever is a 2004 387 with original canvas installed by a local (Marina Del Rey, CA) canvas provider. The boat has always been kept in-slip, so it is exposed to the elements (both sun and rain) year round. Has anyone found a way to remedy such a situation before? I have to believe there is some compound that I can buy to apply to the dodger that will provide water repellent results.
This winter I want to replace the original dodger on my boat and am just starting the research. As luck would have it the guy in the next slip had is getting a new one on his power boat so I got to talk to his guy and get a price or $1800 for a new dodger about the same as the original one but with heavy gauge (I didn’t catch how thick) Strataglass. They will match the zippers to the connector and side windows (the big ones I added behind the normal side windows).
I haven’t committed yet and am looking for recommendations. What weight Strataglass have you used? We didn’t discuss it but of course we want to use Sunbrella fabric, what weight? The boat is in Winthrop, MA, so are there any people I should consider who do excellent work
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One of my larger ($$$) projects last spring was the installation of a hard dodger on my C387. Though I won’t mention the company that created it (good craftsmanship and poor customer relations), I have learned a lot about what makes the hard dodger a good investment and what issues captains should think about before they spring for this costly upgrade.
First of all, we love the new hard dodger. Our old dodger’s glass was scratched and becoming opaque and difficult to clean. The new dodger has a thicker Strataglass ™ that is sparkling clear and without the wrap-around nature of the old Eisenglass that caused wrinkles and distorted the vision. The downside of this thicker glass is that it doesn’t roll up easily for storage. When you take out a panel, you need to store it flat which can be problematic. We tend to store it on the rear
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I could not access the broken (inside) piece of the forward water vent earlier this year. I ended up with buying a 10” inspection port; carefully measured out the area for the port on the starboard side of the anchor locker; used a multifunction oscillating power tool with narrow cutting blade to cut the hole…leaving room to finish same with the sanding tool. I was able to access and replace the vent (ordered from Defender). Hope this helps!
from Jim, C380 #14
On my boat the old vent basically disintegrated and the outside portion fell off. From the V-berth I was able to reach up alongside the anchor locker and grab the vent hose and pull the remnants out and back where I could work on it. I then removed the old fitting, added an additional length of hose with a barbed coupling
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1) Head to Tank run. I did seal both ends with expanding foam which really helped control the odor. I then used duct take to spiral tape the ends together from the tank end. The pull-thru went okay until I got to the smaller opening just forward of the shower. I was pulling from the access in the shower wet locker and my wife was pushing from the tank end. Because of the increase in the OD of the new hose coupled with the large amount of cables running through the same opening it became very difficult to move the hose through that opening. So we used soapy water in a spray bottle to stray the hose in the pass thru opening forward and aft of the shower access. That helped a lot. I did measure the hose using an electrical fish tape and added about 4
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The Yanmar 3JH4E does not have glow plugs, but Yanmar instead offers an optional intake Air Heater to help with cold weather starting.
The engine on our 387 does not have this optional heater, but I believe the blue “glow plug” wire from the start switch is run all the way through/to the engine wiring harness (the 3-conductor plug on the Yanmar harness), and from there on to the stbd side of the engine block itself. Meaning, I think, that all of the wiring is in place so you could just drop in the optional intake Air Heater and plug it in if you were inclined to.
Jeff Houston, TX
C387 #90
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The fuel gauge is basically a simple ammeter circuit, that is, the meter is measuring the current thru the fuel sender’s variable resistor ( floating resistive arm…).
+12vdc is supplied to one side of the gauge/meter (from the ignition switch), the other side is carried, via a pink wire, to pin 6 of the 12 pin terminal strip within the engine control pod. From there it’s connected directly to the tanks variable resistor/arm via the center or main terminal at the tank ( fwd inboard part of tank). From there, current flows thru that var. resistor and is returned to -12vdc/ground. From the ground point on the tank, there should be a second wire which carries that ground to either the engine pod or main engine (don’t recall which). The engine & engine pod have a solid #10 ground wire between them.
Diagnosis is probably easiest by staring at the
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