Capt'n Pauley's Virtual Boat Yard -- Projects Galore!!!

Backing Up a Chain Plate

The aft chain plates on my Columbia 10.7 had a problem; the tabbing on the hanging locker had broken, allowing the shroud to poll up the chain plate and crack the deck. That allowed water to leak into the deck core, weakening it.

Making Holes

Several months ago, I talked about filling in holes in Daydream. I patched two thru-hull openings, one for the overboard head discharge and one for a redundant transducer thru-hull.

Now that the entire boat, inside and out, has been sanded and the first coats of paint are being applied, it’s time for me to actually start making some holes in the boat, or at least remaking some.

A Columbia 26 has two deck drains and two cockpit drains, one of each on each side. Both drains on one side of the boat meet at a tee at the top of a seacock which in turn is fastened to a thru-hull. The old drains were pitted and dull. We decided to remove them temporarily to make painting the deck and cockpit easier.

Boarding and Swim Ladder Basics

While many of us have ladders installed on our boats, how many have actually tried to use them to get back aboard? I’ll bet a goodly number haven’t actually tried their ladder out to determine how well it really works.