Bill, What thickness plywood was use for the floor of your SM? The floor panel in my Maramu feels like it must be fairly thick given how solid it feels, so just curious. A plywood panel glassed on bot

Craig, Thanks for the interesting discussion. 3/8” of solid glass will easily span 16” with adequate stiffness and in fact is probably overkill. On the other hand I would look at this from the standpo

Bill, I think that you understand metals and corrosion pretty well. In my experience, a really good bronze can survive the Marine environment for the life of the boat unprotected but those types of br

Bill, On my wooden Loki Yawl the bronze prop has been completely unprotected since the boat was launched in 2000. On a wooden boat the addition of zincs causes an alkali to build up inside of the boat

Craig, Solid fiberglass weighs in around 96 lbs. per square foot versus for instance fir plywood at 36 lbs. per square foot so it is likely that you will add some weight by going with all fibreglass p

Craig, Good information. Just note that plywood panels can definitely rot out if glassed on the top and bottom. Just think of all of the rotten plywood core decks, transoms in power boats etc. If you

Joel, Joel, The hole on the top of my rudder is on the top horizontal face perhaps a couple inches aft of where the rudder post exits. The hole appears to be about the same size as the one on the bott

Graham, Joel and Bill have answered your question and I concur that my Maramu has a drain hole at the bottom of the rudder as well. I would only add that on my Maramu that after hauling the boat, I fi

Ian, In the case of really small areas, I have had some luck with filling the area with gelcoat, then penciling in the lines to be cut. I then create some simple custom tools to carve and shape the ge

Ian, If you are dealing with a small area, it is possible to lift a copy of the deck pattern using a mold which can be used to create a patch of gel coat that can be fitted into the deck. It is fairly

Bill, Good point about the low hours accumulated on a gearbox. Does the replacement of the shaft seals require opening the gearbox? Best, James Alton SV Sueno, Maramu #220

Miles, Perhaps a better question to be asking is whether the valves used by Amel provide good service. A lot of things these days stamped “Marine” are of very poor quality so I am not sure that there

Alan Grayson, Thanks for the recommendation, it is good to know that this company has recent experience with the 4-154. I will give Diesel Parts a call this week to find out the scoop on replacing the

Alan, Thanks for this information. Was there any external evidence of fuel leakage on your injection pump, or did all of the fuel that leaked find it’s way into the crankcase? I am thinking of going a

Christian, Thanks for keeping me updated. If it turns out that there are any parts needed that would come from the US or Canada and you are having problems with logistics let me know and I will try to

Christian Alby, Thank you for the details of what happened to your engine, perhaps it will help me avoid the same fate with my engine in the future. I hope that you can find the rest of the parts that

Christina Alby, Sorry to hear about the damage to your Perkins 154. There are currently oil pumps listed on Ebay that are supposed to fit the 4-154 but they do not look like the same pump as in the ma

Joel, Thanks for clarifying my statement about the barrier coating on my boat so that there is no confusion with others. Oliver kindly responded to me on the board several months ago and told me that

Miles, When I bought my 1987 Maramu, the water had been sitting in the tank about 1/3 full for 4 years. I did not drink it as it smelled a bit “swampy”. Upon opening the tanks, I found snails and a co

Duane, On my boat, the two drain holes for the companionway well were drilled through the bulkhead right at the bottom of the well. In other words the holes are not drilled through the bottom of the w