I decided to seal the deck hatch, got tiny amounts of water had got in the boat, and that was sailing in very light winds!!.
The hatch has a small lip around the top, only a few millimetres wide at most, this lip was coated with “Vaseline”, making very sure that all of the lip was coated.
The opposite lip on the hull was smeared with silicon sealant, keeping the planking and the sides of the hatch opening clean.
The deck hatch was carefully and firmly placed in position and the sealant left to dry.
A rather worrying time!, IF the sealant glued the hatch in place, I had no way to remove it, other than a lot of Force!.
A couple of hours later, I pulled at the hatch - - - and out it came !!.
Trimmed the sealant with a very sharp blade to straighten things up, I now have a nice line of sealant all round the hatch opening in the hull.
The Ointment, “Vaseline”, acts as a release agent with silicon sealant, I have used it before, but not on something so important to me !.
Test this on something before trying it on “important bits” !.
Many thanks for the hatch sealing tip - I don’t know why it hadn’t occured to me before. I remember several years ago fitting a new kitchen for my better half and somewhere along the line she’d aquired a very old belfast sink (apparently it added to the rustic charm!). The bottom of the sink was covered in scratches and chips, far too deep for the supplied rubber gasket with the waste kit, so I did a similar thing to your deck gasket which also resulted in no leaks.
I remember from my ‘big boat’ sailing & maintenence days that polyurethane sealants tended to be reasonably effective adhesives whereas the silicon based ones were not recommended where adhesion was required aswell. As a suggestion for the future, if you ever need to replace the deck hatch gasket, instead of using vaseline as the ‘release agent’ what about wrapping the hatch with a thin piece of polythene (supermarket carrier bag) or perhaps cling film? I think I’d be inclined to experiment first !!
By the way, I’m sure it’s a boat ownership thing, but I find it amusing that anything ‘non-boaty’ that needs repair/modification and any old thing lying around will do. If it’s for the pride & joy, care, attention to detail and huge worry are always the order of the day!
Anyway, many thanks for the info, and fingers crossed that the only thing you’ll need to worry about is cobwebs in the bilges!!
Great set of pics John, she’s looking really good.
I’m looking at this on a fairly small screen so forgive my question if it’s obvious. Anyway, are those sails single panel or have they been broad-seamed?
All the sails are single panelled.
I keep trying to find the Time to make some proper ones, but Real Life gets in the way !!.
The sails are Mylar ones, rather delicate, any creases, they break on the crease.
When the boat tacks through the wind, they rattle !.
But, the boat is a pleasure to sail, is fast, turns well, so I am putting up with them !.
One of these Days - - - - .
Yes she sails very well,
Not too bothered by high winds, or gusts, been doing some mods to the keel to improve the weather helm.
She pulls up into the wind just a little now - - just what I like !.
Not got a lot of photos, mainly videos, that is the next JOB !!!
My lack of photos of the J Class boat is because of the speed of the yacht.
Lots of other skippers are surprised at just how fast the boat is travelling.
A chap with a large Tug commented about it - - as he was apologising for turning across my bow !!.
Not a lot of bow wave to give an indication of the speed of the boat.
Folk see a “Yacht”, not expecting it to be travelling faster than they are.
The matter is made a lot worse when looking through a camera, framing things up - - then, another near miss !.
Will have to get another “driver”, then I can get the tele lens out and get some action shots.
Do the owners of the large 1/16th Scale J Class boats - - mainly in the USA, sail in “mixed sailing”, that is, with lots of other boats on the same water ?.
Or do they sail only in competitions with similar boats ?.
They are much bigger boats than mine, so should be travelling faster through the water - - more of a problem !.
