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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Older Maramu steering system pics

James Alton
 

Miles,

   Good to hear from you as well.  I am sorry to hear that the family has been sick with the stomach bug,  I hope that you do not catch the bug and that everyone feels better soon.

   Thanks for the information on adjusting the cables.  It sounds like the washer with the tabs is some type of a locking device for the nuts.  I have seen some that you can slide the locking device off of the nut and some that you have to actually bend the tabs away.  I have not taken a close look at the adjustment nuts on Sueño but will soon!  My surveyor felt that there was a little too much play in the steering system so I will try to remove the play.

   I would not worry too much about the lack of gel coat on the bottom since it is not a very good moisture barrier.  The epoxy coatings are the best.  The thicker the coating the more protection you have but some epoxies apply thicker than others so you cannot really go by coats.  I would suggest finding out which product the yard plans to use and to do some research.  The Interlux Interprotect seems to work pretty well if the product is fresh and properly applied.  On the other hand I have also seen this product soften and blisters form under the epoxy coating on one boat.  Not sure of what happened there.  The only other barrier coating system that I am familiar with is the West System Epoxy with the 422 additive.  The West Epoxy is a thin coating so you need quite a few coats but seems to work quite well.

   Yes, we are going to definitely need some time off!  We would like to spend all of our time off on the boat sailing!  I am trying to figure out how to arrange a long (10 months) trip cruising the Med. while following the 3 month Schengen Visa limitations.  I think that we can spend 3 months in Croatia which so far has not joined Schengen but I think that this might change sometime in 2019.  North Africa and Turkey are two other possibilities but I have some concerns about safety that I am researching.  If you have any suggestions let me know.

Best,

James

On Jun 25, 2018, at 6:34 AM, 'smilesbernard@...' smilesbernard@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

Hi James

Good to hear from you
I know that busy feeling !
We leave the uk on the 17th and have thew house to clear for rental plus everyone but me has a vomiting bug! 

I'm very glad the pics are helpful :)
yes very very little wear on the racks
yes the cables are adjusted at the quadrant 
you can see the adjustment points on the attached pic

I actually dont know how these work. I had to slacken off one side to allow for the reassembly so i need to look at is again and readjust things but its a strange set up. The locking/adjustment nuts either side of the tube clamp are held captive by a large washer with tabs on it (just about visible on the pic). So i cant quite figure out how you are supposed to adjust things as the nuts wont turn as they are held in place

I'll have another look once we are afloat again

Thanks so much for the thoughts on the anode attachments. I will check .... i did not remove the anode of connecting bolt so i'm not sure if it had to be screwed out of if its just pushed through a whole in the rudder metal.
I'll see it the yard can thread it if not, put a bigger threaded bar in place and oversize the anode holes

She's had all her antifoul and primer stripped
which revealed the hull in good shape - nice and dry but no gelcoat - in places you can see the fiber. I think it must have been stripped before. The yard is suggesting 4 or 5 coats of epoxy before the coppercoat. Do you think that sounds about right?


Hope you manage to find some space between the work to rest soon



All the very best

Miles
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