[Rhodes22-list] Keel/CB painting

Thu May 5 14:53:46 EDT 2005

Slim,

A lot of the stuff I do is just out of curiosity, not because I ever 
intend to do it.  Then something happens, and I do it only because I 
know I can.  That is sometimes useful.

I generally favor Steve's bottom painting technique--It's impossible to 
hit the bunks in the exact same location 2 years in a row, so if you 
miss that spot this year, you'll get it next year.  I started jacking up 
the boat out of curiosity, and got so good at it, that I no longer think 
about it.  It's like using Stan's mast raising gear.  It's so simple and 
safe to use that you don't think about it any more.

I jacked up the boat very high just to see if I could.  (With the right 
equipment--3 hydraulic jacks; 3 jack stands--you can lift the boat off 
the bunks in perfect safety in less than 5 minutes.)

Then I started having problems with my centerboard.  We get such 
aggressive growth here on LIS that the barnacles can wedge the 
centerboard so it will not move.  The water doesn't effectively ablate 
the bottom paint inside the centerboard slot because it is not 
constantly moving the way it does elsewhere due to the constant tidal 
changes and accompanying currents.

So it became important to me to bottom paint the centerboard and slot.  
I now make more of an effort to do so.

I work in an open boat yard, so there is no problem moving my trailer.  
I have a single axle, which also makes things easier.  When my son and I 
started moving the trailer under the boat to paint under the bunks and 
inside the centerboard slot, we moved the supports around, and all of a 
sudden the rear axle of the trailer was in front of the wooden safety 
blocks supporting the keel.  We didn't plan it.  It's like the old 
plastic puzzle with the numbers you slide around--sometimes you have to 
temporarily put 8 in front of 7 to later make 9 fall behind 8.

I never balance the boat on the blocks.  They are just a safety net.  
The boat always rests on the jack stands, or on the trailer bunks.  The 
aft section of the boat is so flat, it is easy to support the boat in 
terms of left-right balance using 2 jack stands in the rear.  I use a 
bow jack stand with a V shaped bracket that can be positioned anywhere 
forward of the centerboard slot for forward-backward stability.  I put 
blocks under the keel so the boat can never drop straight down.  Every 
time I lift the boat it comes off the blocks.  I can move the trailer 
axle past the blocks at this time.  The trailer is still under the boat, 
so the boat still can't drop all the way down.

You can lift the boat using poppets by turning the collars, but this 
closely resembles work, so I tend to avoid it.  If you get hydraulic 
jacks, along with poppets that are open on the bottom, you can place the 
jacks under the moving piece of the poppet and use hydraulics to lift 
the boat.  Then turn the collars to lock the moving part in place.  This 
requires remarkably little effort.  If you are as lazy as I am, you will 
get 3 jacks, so you don't have to move a single one from poppet to poppet.

Once raising and lowering the boat becomes easy, you start to see 
advantages to being able to do it.  For the most part, there is no 
advantage to sliding out the trailer, but every now and again it is 
useful to be able to do it.  (BTW--in terms of moving the boat on the 
trailer to achieve trailering balance, this technique allows you to put 
the boat anywhere on the trailer you think it should be--and if you take 
along the right equipment you can do it while you're literally on the road.)

Bill Effros

Steve Alm wrote:

>
> Bill,
>
> It's not going to happen--at least not this year.  I'd have to pull 
> the  trailer out and turn a sharp angel because the garage is close.  
> (see  picture and note garage and telephone pole inches from the port 
> rail)   I think getting it out and then back under would be a royal 
> PITA.   Remember, with duel axles, the trailer, even empty,  doesn't 
> turn very  easily.  But maybe I'm missing something.  Is it worth the 
> trouble?    What's your procedure?  If I could get the trailer ahead 
> enough to  block up the aft end of the keel, would the boat still 
> balance?   Wouldn't it still be bow-heavy?  How do you support the bow 
> whilst  pulling the trailer out?  Do tell!
>
> But today was finally in the 60's and I finished my bottom job, such 
> as  it is.  The last thing I did was to put some bottom paint on the 
> rudder  and top side paint on the rudder housing.  We also got a new 
> tiller so  the whole thing looks pretty nice.  But I have a question:  
> What are  the rudder housing and the rudder itself made of?  Jeez, 
> they're heavy!
>
> Slim, ready to launch--maybe Sat.
>
> On 5/4/05 5:37 PM, "Bill Effros" <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>
> > Yes you can.  The blocks go under the aft portion of the keel, behind
> > the slot.  I have jacked the boat high enough so that almost the whole
> > centerboard can be lowered.
> >
> > Bill Effros
> >
> > Steve Alm wrote:
> >
> >> Here you can see I've dropped my CB as much as I can to get some  
> paint
> >> on it.  I know it's not the entire CB but it's something anyway.  I
> >> couldn't do this if I had blocks under the keel.
> >>
> >> Slim
> >>
> >>
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