[C38] things to look for on a boat of this age?

phil phil317 at sunflower.com
Thu Apr 2 00:27:23 EDT 2009


Smooth moves,

I recently bought an '82 and had it surveyed (not neccessariy in that order). Some hidden things were rotten mast step, very tired masthead sheave box, mast conduit disintergrating, tabbing below aft lower stays loose.  The load on the aft lower stays takes a long, complicated path to the hull.  When I finally got her back in the water and all tuned up, the tabbing gave up. Diesel cooling routed per factory- which is BAD- rerout the water heater to the pump bypass loop. Some of the hoses on the diesel got painted at the factory, and I mistook them for hard pipe.  These gave up on me hours after launch. ( I thought I had replaced EVERY hose).  The tiny spingwire-type hose clamps on the injector return hoses should be replaced with real clamps. They can be hard to find this small. You can't crank even the smallest overlapping hoseclamps down this small. you need to use the old-fashioned C-shaped kind.  The deck coring forward of the anchor locker hatch- right at the bow- was shot (no backing plates for cleats or anchor roller!) Lube all your seacocks, even if they are Marlon.  There's (supposed to be) a small pencil zinc in the diesel's heat exchanger.  Check out your shaft strut as soon as it comes out of the water.  Mine was a bit wobbly, but miraculously tightened itself up after a while.  Now that it is back in the water, it is all loosey-goosey again. One other anoyance- my new standing rigging, sized the same as the old stuff, didn't fit between the jaws in the top of the backstay adjuster!  The eye was fatter.  Check your bowplate for cracking very closely.  Mine was severly dammaged, probably from docking maneuvers. Have your backstay adjuster checked out too.
  Now- let us know what you find!

-- 
Phil Sweet

Cat38 158 Our Tern
Key Largo, Fl.





More information about the Listserve mailing list