Z-Spar boom ball bearings

[ADASTRACAT]

Hello from ADASTRACAT, 1993 SSSport "Executive" whatever that means, from Lake Washington Seattle.  My boat was brought from FL to Lake CdA ID after illness forced sale by orig English owner.

Great boat.  Best at about 25k wind  Plus then the lake is empty.
 A few questions:
Mine has the bow boobs and winglets.  Anyone REALLY convinced they do anything other than catch on docks and break off?  Esthetically they are hardly not worth it.

It also has that epoxy copper hull coating.  Anyone think it's great?  Prev owner said it wasn't enough in the Bahamas.  The ablative stuff is rough on the indigenous shellfish here.

The ?torlon ball bearings in the clew boom car are disappearing.  Anyone know where to get them and how many for full replacement?

So hello to all.  Write me if you're coming to Seattle.  Reed Lockwood

 
 

[Jadzia]

Welcome to the forum Adastracat. We agree that the Sunrise is a great boat. We do not have the boobs/winglets as Jadzia is not a Sport, so cannot comment on them. We do however have Coppercoat antifouling which was applied in 2001. When when we bought Jadzia in 2006 she had been for sale for some months, on a mud berth. The copper had been sealed by the action of constantly being immersed in mud, and as soon as we moved her to our berth in Poole Harbour she fouled up quite quickly. I contacted the suppliers of the Coppercoat who suggested the cause was the mud immersion and recommended a lift out, wash off and abrading the copper with Scotchbright or similar to reactivate it. They also suggested applying eroding antifoul paint after washing off the hulls if we wanted a 'quick-fix'. We opted for this remedy in the end, as we did not want to have to lift her again for a couple of years. It has worked well, and now that the antifoul paint has almost completely eroded the Coppercoat seems to be working again.
As for the Torlon ball races, we had a similar problem some years ago on a roller furling system. In this instance we contacted the manufacturer and bought a service kit from them. It consisted of new ball bearings (Teflon) an Allen key to release the old bearing, and a set of instructions. It was a straightforward job to change the ball bearings, and the recommended way to retain them in place during fitting was to stick them in with Marmite! Apparently any oily or greasy substance will cause them to deteriorate quickly. Also when fitting them we had to fill the race with the balls, and then remove one to allow the bearing to turn freely.
If I was doing the job now I would search the internet for all suppliers, I bet it would be cheaper than buying from the manufacturer.

Good luck with your planned jobs, hope you have a good Christmas.

Jadzia.

[Roger]

Nice to see another new member on the forums.

Catkin isn't a sport, but she has the bulbs and winglets. I believe these are supposed to reduce the hobbyhorsing, but not having sailed a boat without them I can't comment on whether they really work or not. One had been damaged before I bought the bought her though, obviously through striking something and needed repairing.

When Catkin was stripped and epoxied, I enquired about finishing with Copperbot, but the opinion of the chaps doing the work were that it wasn't worthwhile (and they were an approved yard who advertised doing it!). That was obviously just their opinion but they seemed to think it required nearly as much effort to maintain and over the lifetime it would cost more than antifouling - right now I have a fouled boat that needs scrubbed and anti-fouled!

[ADASTRACAT]

Hauled out ADASTRACAT.  Hi pressure clean, polish and wax.  This removed the previous silicone repair on the window rubber seals.  I think I will try the new Big Stretch clear caulk,

Of interest were the bow bulbs/winglets.  From what I read, there is no way a boat this small would benefit from them.  So they were bulbectomized down to the coppercoat layer, epoxy faired, then coated with Interprotect epoxy primer, then a little more ablative antifouling.  We sailed a couple hundred miles and could not tell any difference in speed or handling.  Looks sooooo much better.
Changed the saildrive lube.  Probably was original. Black and stinky. Piece of cake tho with the Mercruiser pump kit and a breaker bar to get the SD nut upstairs off. The zincs had only sl chalking from 15 years of fresh water. Do this out of the water.
Lubed the flex o fold props, which seem to work better than the stock props. 
The delrin bearings on the z spar outhaul traveler I got from rigrite.  Made a starter track out of wood.  worked perfectly.
The nylon polyurethane flexible water tank had begun to leak.  Removed the biggest fitting and that was the problem The inner bag had slipped away from the fitting.  Glued it both sides with food grade silicone retightened the fitting and it has been leak free.  Crossing my fingers tho.

The major problem was the SD fairings.  Both completely loose.  I had replaced them a year before using 5200 sealant.  Not a trace of the glue on the fairings, all on the boat.  Scraped it all off, the re glued with 3M rubber and gasket contact cement perimeter and polysulfide inner edges.  I think the former will fail and the latter hold, but it takes several days to cure.  Held further in place with Gorilla tape.

One problem with at least my Solaris is the backflow of diesel fumes.  There is toluene in  diesel  and it is worrisome that the wife of the previous owner developed a blood dyscrasia while aboard and they had to sell.  Could it have been the toluene.....

So my question now is, has anyone relocated their exhaust to the outboard sides?  I now use B99 biodiesel and this really helps the smell and the worry.

Vinyl cleaner  helped spruce up the big B fenders.  Except for pilings tar, which nothing seems to remove. For waterline staining,  cleaners with oxalic acid and isopropanol work like magic. Ciao from Seattle

[Roger]

Our saildrive zincs need replaced annually in salt water in a marina environment.

The exhausts are outboard and no problems with fumes. The attached photo isn't great but you should be able to see one just above the waterline above the rudder. There is a small stainless steel fairing round the exhaust pipe to deflect any waves.

...and if you look closely you will be able to see the saildrive boot hanging off - you are not alone with that problem!

[ADASTRACAT]

Update on our boat.  The Bio99 diesel is too high.  Caused a leak in the large fuel filter, which fuel then accumulated in one engine bilge and softened the raw water intake and pumped water hoses, would have been serious trouble if not found.  But Yanmar's concession at 5% is a joke.  I'm running about 25% bio now, not sure if it's any more healthy, just smells better.
Made a sailcover for the Zspar boom/fully battened main.  The key is the channel on the top front of the boom.  One sews the same length of line into the Sunbrella marine fabric and that holds the cover in place.  I stacked the sail then measured the circumference with an extra 12 inches or more, then sewed slanting 2.5in tubes of fabric to hold a 10 foot 1 inch PVC pipe on each side.  These were then supported with 4 pairs of webbing straps to attach ezjack lines Between the pipe battens are strips of fabric for the top of the cover, with a 10 foot YKK marine zipper.  At the front, a 40 in zipper on each side attach to a square of fabric that goes around the boom, keeping birds and wind out, but loose enough for easy access to halyards stored there.  Cinch up the ezjacks when you douse the sail and it just falls into the bag, then zip up.  cf Doyle Stackpak and the like.
The Sailrite machine is super, but spendy.  I bought a Chinese clone of the japanese Sailrite zigzag, but the clone didn't sew well until getting a Sailrite Monster flywheel and really oiling it well.   The cheap pastic case  for the clone is especially pathetic.  "Family Sew".  The japanese version might be worth an additional Ben Franklin, if only for the better case.  Get the Monster wheel tho, big help.
Now I need to make a hardtop dodger, wonder if anyone has experience.
A while back there was a brown liquid coming out of the sidestay roof fittings, on the outside.  My late uncle told me that the color was from water getting into the plywood inside and leaking back out.  Did a better job of sealing those and no recurrence,