Failure to Launch – Ep. 66
The water is so close now we can smell it. After trailering Soulianis out of our landlocked boatyard, she’s now poised and ready for launch — right after we finish painting the centerboard with bottom paint.
The water is so close now we can smell it. After trailering Soulianis out of our landlocked boatyard, she’s now poised and ready for launch — right after we finish painting the centerboard with bottom paint.
Remember the horrible arch saga? Well, we’re officially putting an end to that chapter… and nope, we didn’t hire another contractor — instead we decided to build a bimini ourselves.
First, I'd thank everyone for the concerned questions, comments, sincere emails and vicarious anger regarding our arch project. I'm hopeful this post and video will answer all your questions, and we can finally put the "arch saga" to rest.
Does the boat project list ever end...? It must. It has to. Or else our boat may as well have a mailbox next to its jack stands.
When we smelled diesel in our cabin, we knew we had a problem. We just hoped it would turn out to be an easy fix… but how often does THAT happen?
Our diesel engine, Mr. Beke, is getting some serious upgrades. In Part 1, we installed a new heat exchanger, water pump and crank shaft pulley. Now, with some DIY hardware fabrication and wiring modifications, our Westerbeke 40 will have a new 120A alternator — as long as Kirk doesn’t electrocute himself first.
Glad to be (nearly) done with our bottom job, we move on to our diesel engine, which needs maintenance and upgrades. ‘Course, no boat project is without hurdles. We get a serpentine pulley kit which proves to be more difficult to DIY than advertised
Horror stories abound across the interwebs about Coppercoat. We've read and watched just about all of them! If you look, there are a ton of rave reviews out there, too.
While researching Coppercoat, one of the biggest criticisms we heard was: "It's so expensive!" (Sailing Soulianis Patrons get a discount!) Upon further investigation, this appears to be only partly true--and only for some people.
CopperCoat antifouling bottom coating is a very polarizing topic. While researching what antifouling bottom paint to use on our Tartan 37 we heard everything from "It's Magic!" to "It's Snake oil". Surprisingly we didn't hear a whole lot of opinions in the middle, which only made the decision making process more difficult...