A newly learned technique for repairing plastic fantastic.

 I have expressed this earlier, I am not impressed with the quality of "maritime" equipment sold to pleasure-boat owners. When we first upgraded to hot water in the transom shower, an Osculati unit was bought. These units proved to have rickety lids, that also easily bind and crack the weak hinge part. When this happened we lived with it for a while, untill at last we wanted a new unit.

Well, many of us are a bit lazy, and it was tempting to buy a new Osculati that would fit the old hole. Otherwise there could be a lot of work to change the hole shape, most probably including fiberglass and gelcoat filling. So, another Osculati was bought and fairly easily installed. You know what happened afer some years. A hinge broke due to binding. And truly, we know that the lids are delicate, and try to be very careful .

I tried to glue the parts of the hinge pin and repair the cracks with superglue, but it just ended up with the main part getting glued to the hinge slot. A mess. Lived with that for a while, but this autumn I took the unit home to see what could be done. 

It did not look easy. But then I remembered some videos I have seen on Youtube. About using baking soda and superglue to build plastic shapes. But some kind of mould would be needed. And I believe it is not easy to get superglue out of a mould. But superglue does not adhere well to some soft plastics. I had some plastic tubing called PEX in a size that was close to what I needed. So a part of such a tube was cut to a kind of mould in the shape of a small tray and the area around masked with tape.

 

Then my first experiment with baking soda and superglue was performed. 

It came out like this, quite promising I thought.

Next the hinge pin could be shaped.

The pin nearly finished, some paint and cleaning remaining. 

The remains of the original pin was drilled out from the hinge, and some additional space also ground out for the pins to make them rotate more easily. They must not have too much play, because then there is a risk that the lid will not fasten to the lower notch when closed.

I did also make a try to repair the cracks in the hinges with baking soda and superglue.

Time will show if the repair is any good.

I hope the unit will serve many years to come.

Lewmar hatch internal frames repair

Plastic is basically durable and long lasting. But some types are still vulnerable to age and sunlight. Our boat from year 2000 has Lewmar low profile hatches, with thin plastic frames/fairings on the inside. The frames are taken out occasionally when I need to lower the saloon roof sheets. I have some solar panel cables and oher stuff in that area, and thus the frames are unscrewed and lowered when I need to check on it. This handling of the frames is destructive as they become old and brittle.  

The picture above shows the result of several unmountings/mountings of the frame. The area around the screw hole has broken up and disappeared. 

The orange area is old fiberglass reinforcement of the frame rim. The green area is where repair of the rest of the frame has started.

With som pieces of wood and some clamps, the sides are straightened and reinforced with fiberglass. The corners are done afterwards. I sanded the plastic to ensure that the resin will stick.

2 sides done on one frame.

Some pieces had broken off from the frame.

Above picture shows the start of the repair of the screw area. On the underside a piece of very thin glass fiber mat (30 g/m2, buildup is unwanted because of flushness to the roof) was saturated with resin. It was so thin that I should have used two mats to avoid small holes. The blue-ish stuff is resin thickened with microballoons and filled in from the other side.

I was lucky to have some small scrap 2mm fiberglass sheets from another project. These pieces were made to reinforce the destroyed screw hole areas. Small glass fiber sheets can also fairly easily be made with a couple of glass plates or something similar.

  

A mixture of resin/microballons was again used to fill and glue the pieces in place.

The frames were treated with plastic primer and painted with an oil based silk finish paint. I think they came out OK. Only disadvantage I can see is that a bug screen might drop 2mm lower from the frame and thus theoretically could create a crack for small bugs entry. It remains to be checked. Countermeasures would be taken :).

After a while I decided to try to fix a frame that was in reality even worse off. It had been repaired with polyurethane glue, but that glue is rather flexible and does not stiffen the frame much. In addition mould has a tendency of forming on it, and it does not work well as a filler of cracks. The polyurethane had to be removed. A glue remover (Tec-7 Remove All) was used. It is quite strong, and did in some spots dissolve the plastic slightly. So the answer to this is to have a bit of patience and not use too much glue remover at a time.

Removing old polyurethane glue. Not really a fun job. But most boatowners would not have put this on in the first place.

There was an old reinforcement of the rim in this frame too.

Glue removed. The frame is in bad shape.

This time I chose to make a rough mould out of epoxy tooling doug. One single screw attachment point on the frame was in good shape, so I could pack the epoxy tooling doug in some plastic cling film and press it down from the underside to make this mould. 

The mould is here attached with clamps, plastic cling film is used to prevent resin to adhere to the mould. 

Once again resin with micro balloons was used, carefully distributed with a sharp vooden stick and good glasses....

 

Resin was also put into the large cracks. For the small cracks, some softer car repair putty can do. It is best to avoid sanding of the frame, as it has a special surface structure that would be affected. Most of the putty was wiped off with alcohol and a rag before it dried. The screwpoint areas did not have to be especially smooth and nice, as a reinforcement would be resin glued on top.

Reinforcement pieces in place as with the previous frames. In addition small sheets of glass fiber mats were put on the underside also here, as well as under cracked areas. Finally the sides were straightened and beefed up a bit, also as with the other frames. 

I think the result is acceptable, and hope the repair will last. 

Hidden storage resources in the Privilege 37

The P37 is the smallest boat in the Privilege range. And even though it is a spacious yacht, the need for more storage is always there. I believe in being restrictive regarding bringing all kinds of stuff on board, but being organized is always a good thing. More storage places give better order.

So I have been looking for creating extra space and found a few solutions. Some may be well known to many P37 owners, some might be a useable tip.

This area above the oven I have seen in use on other P37's. We use it for dry food, and it holds quite a lot. A concern when making the shelf was the oven below and heat from it. Aluminum foil was used under the shelf. It was also a challenge to make a shelf that would fit tightly so nothing would spill down. The access hole was too small for a big shelf. So it was made in two parts that could be screwed together in the middle. Some innerliner was used to cover a couple of less than beautiful areas inside.

Under the nav station there is considerable room. The starboard part of the water tank is inside, but there is also a lot of air. We used to have a small printer in there on our Caribbean trip. A floor will have to be made also here. The door was simply cut out and some flanges fitted inside on the rim of the bulkhead. Absolutely worth the effort I believe. 

Our version has this bench/workstation with an upper shelf. Under the shelf there is also space available. Tools and small plastic boxes will fit in here, and I find the solution very handy. You do not have to make a floor here, the bench continues all the way in. But some rubber mats are nice to stabilize the things inside.

This is about work space. We like to make good food when cruising, and for that several pots and pans are in use. Even a large galley-down kitchen can feel cramped then. This hinged shelf supported by strings is a nice place to temporarily put a frying pan or casserole when some other food needs the burner. Very often in use.

 At last something about reducing space taken. I am puzzled about the original mounting of the cupboard doors in the galley. They were protruding out horizontally, also making it difficult to look inside. I had to really bend down. New hinges were installed, and it gave some relief. I wish the doors could be lifted even higher, but at least it helps.

I have in mind even more places that could give more storage, but that means much work for less room. Maybe others have found some good solutions too.

 

Volvo Penta MD2030 cylinder head top cover gasket improvement....?

 The top cover gasket on the engine is made of rubber. Nice for re-use, but my experience is that it is hard to get it leak-proof when re-installing. The rubber string is tubular and needs some pressure to flatten out. In addition there are two gaps between the sections making up the gasket, where it seems oil could leak.

When adjusting the valves, I decided to try to make a more leak-proof solution. So I just used a piece of white paper to make an impression of the gasket in one piece by pressing the cover down on it. Black oil gave a template that I could cut out with scissors. After bying a 2mm gasket sheet it was fairly easy to cut out the gasket using nail scissors around the sharpest bends.

The gaskets were installed leaving the original rubber gaskets in place. It has worked fine.

Replacing transom rubrails.

 The transoms took a beating in the 2020 autumn storm winds, while being moored in a harbour without our presence. The boat ripped off mooring lines and scrubbed towards concrete. The port transom got the worst damage.

Both transom rubrails were damaged. The port transom also sustained hull scratching and damage, puncturing the crash compartment. 

Original rubrails could not be found, and most of the alternatives were not even close to the  appearance and quality that was wanted. At last a model from Taco Marine in USA was found, it is a bit slimmer and made of vinyl instead of rubber. But otherwise it looks very similar. Inserts of different colours can be selected. I believe rubber would be better because it probably takes small hits better without leaving marks than vinyl. But one has to use what is available. The major repair was made on the dry.

The crash compartment was cracked open.

The stbd rubrail could be replaced while on the water. Using a heat gun the rubrail could be reasonably bent to fit the transom. End caps were made from glass fiber using the (too large in my view) stainless ones in the kit as moulds. I can recommend this solution for transoms. ( I have no shares 😉). 

Installing a holding tank pumpout system.

It sems likely that the future will bring more sailing areas that require yachts to have pumpout capabilities. Thus I found it is sensible to start considering solutions. I am actually not that happy to do it yet, as there will just be more parts, work, costs, weight and systems prone to failures and trouble. Available space for tubing is also required. Such space is not that easy to find on our boat, most of it is already used. As for parts, many manufacturers offer such, but still it is important to find the best ones for own use. I ended up pressing on with the project because after about 6 months of thinking solutions and looking for parts, I could as well finish while it was all fresh in mind. 

Pumpout system solutions will be different for each yacht, so there is not so much reason to describe ours. But there is one part I did buy that I think most should avoid. 

I want the pumpout deck fitting lid to be as low into the deck as possible, so the possibility of stumbling is eliminated and the appearance is nice.

This Rutgerson deck fitting was bought through a webstore. It looked OK in the picture, and the price was good.

At first I thought that the plastic rim was supposed to be below deck, so that one could screw the lid down to flush onto the deck. But no,that was not possible, and not the intended way. The plastic rim is to be above deck, and the stainless steel lid on top of that. Thus I was disappointed with this product, and searched for another. I did find one, and of course it was more expensive...

The Osculati model does allow the lid to come all the way down to the deck, enclosing the plastic fitting. To lower another millimeter or two, I made this sanding tool so I could remove the anti-slip surface under the deck fitting:

 

Using it with a drill made a nice recess for the deck fitting:

The Osculati fitting is a fairly low-profile solution:

A look at the emergency steering system.

 

I guess most sailboats of some size have an emergency steering tiller that can be coupled to the rudder if the other steering systems should break or fail. There is usually some kind of hatch that can be opened to get access to the top of the rudder post. On the Privilege catamarans of our model and others of the same age, the access is through a "screw-in" hatch in the transoms.

I have had to use this one time in calm and nice conditions when a rudder got stuck and thus was disconnected, leaving the other rudder available only to the autopilot or the emergency tiller. Going into a harbour, the autopilot was no option. Since that I have been thinking that if I ever have to use the system offshore in more than moderate waves, seawater is certain to enter through the hole. Underneath is the shore power charger and some other stuff, so seawater is not welcome in that area. But I did not do anything about it. Likewise, the tiller itself has been stored under some sails in a locker, and not easily accessable. Quite complacent. So I have now made a more accessible storage position for the tiller. And also made an arrangement to plug the hole when the tiller is in use. It is not completely water proof, but will prevent open flow into the hull. The charger will still have to get some kind of top hood to protect it fully.

In addition, a tiller extension was made out of a carbon tube. The forces on the rudders are great, and I fear it will be hard to steer the boat in open sea.

Simple materials, the plug from some styrofoam-like sheet (a bit softer) and the cover from canvas. Joined together with polyurethane glue.

I hope we will never have to use these things.

Aging marine engines.

Our boat is already 20 years old. It has Volvo MD2030 engines, and in the last years I have been reading more and more posts about older Volvo engines and problems that seem to originate from corrosion. Coolant disappearing, rusty coolant, leaks. 

The MD2030 and many other marine engines has a freshwater and a saltwater cooling system. They are supposed to be separated. But with wear and corrosion there are possibilities that the saltwater can enter the freshwater system. The freshwater coolant can also find disastrous ways as a result of corrosion. The latter happened to us this summer.

We found ourselves in a small island harbour with hydraulic lock in the port engine. Could not be turned. Water in the cylinders was the first thought, and it was correct. All 3 were full of coolant. But where did it come from? The heat exchanger housing had been off a couple of years ago, looked OK, so a cracked engine top was suspected. After dismounting it nothing wrong was found. Luckily, via some social network groups I was steered to inspect the heat exchanger housing thoroughly. A tiny hole was found in the exhaust area. Probing it, the edges fell apart, and the hole was suddenly big. Corrosion had eaten the area. 

We had to buy a new heat exchanger housing. They are quite expensive. Trying to find a welder could have been an alternative, but success was uncertain, and so was the time spent in the process. 

After returning home at the end of our sailing season, I cleaned up the exhaust area. The hole got even bigger. 

But still I had a hope of making a repair. The starboard engine has gotten rust in the coolant during summer, and I fear something the same can happen to it. I believe I need to replace that heat exchanger housing too. So I brought the old port one to a nearby welder. He was a bit sceptical because he thought the housing is cast aluminum and difficult to weld. Anyhow he managed to weld it. It was like welding in bisquit material he said, and there is of course no knowing how long it will last. The area was painted with epoxy primer, I do not know if it will have any anti-corrosion effect. 

The plan is to mount the welded heat exchanger housing on the starboard engine. Then I can see if the new coolant will not become rusty. And check on the other housing, maybe have it welded if there is a small hole in it. I paid the equivalent of £1000 for the new part, so a good repair of an old one is tempting.

Stowage compartment dividers.

Two prototype stowage compartment dividers were made many years ago. They came out of the need to stow spinnakers in an easy to reach and easy to stow area. At the same time a possibility for more rapid deployment was desirable. The Privilege 37 has two quite large stowage compartments in the bows. Larger Privilege yachts will have even more space. It is not advisable to store more heavy items than necessary in the bow of boats, but fairly light spinnaker sails should be OK.

I had to change some of the grommets this spring, and since this principle has worked fine for us, I thought I would share it. At the same time I believe a lot of people are already using the same idea.

The fabric used is nylon sailcloth. It is strong and has a smooth and slippery surface, so the sails go in and out without much friction. Some kind of attachment points for the grommets along the edges are needed. And some hooks so the top parts can be taken loose and kind of "open the bag" on top for deployment or stowage.

This way the spinnakers are stowed along the sides of the compartments, leaving space available for entry into the rooms and stowage of other items. The sails are stowed in a dry space, and no sailbags are needed. When stowing, the top of the spinnakers are fastened to the rim of the hatch. Then the spinnaker in the sock is slid into its compartment. The dividers contain two compartments, separated by a string of sailcloth. The one closest to the hatch will of course be easiest to use, but the system works well for both. 

The picture shows the compartments in the "closed" position. The hooks can be opened to open up the top. The hooks are then attached to another point to widen the opening. I prefer to take the whole sail in the sock on deck for deployment, but I have also hoisted it directly out with the halyard in light winds. It can also be seen that there are two compartments. 

The divider taken out for some repair. I used aluminum grommets at the edges. They are too soft, but have held up so far. The grommets at the opening are often pulled hard to press the sail into position, so I used brass ones. At least I thought so, they bagan to rust after some years. So now they are changed to larger ones and real brass.

If the spinnaker is wet when taken down, I do not put it into the stowage room. It is put directly into a small sailbag that is tied to one of the nets. Then it is dried when that possibility comes.

Speaker covers

No big projects this between-season period of winter 19-20. Only a lot of smaller repair and improvement activities. Which is perfectly OK :).

A project slightly off the beaten track is new speaker covers. I think we were on our third set of outdoor speakers now. There has been nothing wrong with the speaker elements themselves. But the outside covers have crazed and cracked and become ugly.

Plastic expands and retracts considerably with temperature. So after the covers have been snugly screwed to the hull, they will start to work back and forth, finally cracking up the area of the screw holes. In addition, the plastic seems to become more brittle with time, so if the covers are removed for some reson and re-fastened, it is easy to overtighten the screws slightly, cracking the plastic. I have tried to use rubber backing gaskets to prevent cracking, but in vain.

Basically, I like this shape. There are other shapes, as thicker discs with a more solid area for the holes. But they have, in my view, some disadvantages. More bulky speaker covers protrude too much, and on a sailboat the ropes will easily get caught by them and possibly pull them off. You could also more easily hit them with body parts when moving around during sailing. So I believe the speaker covers should have a slim and low shape.

I could find no sets of speakers to fit my requirements. Consquently I started to think of making some myself. They would have to be solid, low profile, cheap, easily repaired and have an acceptable appearance. Easier said than done, and it took some time to find a concept.


Some small 2mm glass fiber sheets were found on eBay. They were cut to discs, then to rings, then doubled to leave space for some kind of mesh to be fastened inside.

The outside perimeter was easily sanded to a smooth finish by fastening the disc (before cutting out the inside and making a ring) to a table drilling machine. The inside was a bit more tricky to smoothen out. It was solved by making a simple jig that could be used in the same drilling machine.

With that the hardest part was finished. The rest was to spray paint, glue in some Phifertex as a mesh, and put a layer of thin fabric behind as a water spray barrier.

This is obviously before the spring washing and cleaning this year, but it shows the final product installed. I hope it will last for a while. At least it is repairable.


I chose to keep the speakers and the covers separate. To be able to mount the speakers from the inside, I had to find suitable speakers that were supported by a square mounting plate. Otherwise I could not get them through the hole and still have "ears" to get some fastening bolts through. (The inside area requires a lot of dismantling to get full access).