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About 40% of the weight of your boat should be on the base of the cradle (in other words, the keel should be firmly grounded on the baseplate). So there's one possible explanation for your problem - the keel isn't moving in relation to the hull, but the hull is flexing because the boat isn't properly supported. If on the other hand, there really, the keel is moving in relation to the hull and the connection between them is so loose that can be initiated by hand, you have another problem. Both are serious.
Either way, I suggest that you stop thinking about your problem and call in someone with a greater depth of knowledge, who can inspect the boat and advise you how to proceed. I suggest you look for someone with a good reputation for a) fixing boats and b) (if it comes to this) telling people honestly when a problem is beyond fixing.
It may sound brutal to suggest that your boat is a write-off, but if you really do have a sow's ear, you don't want to be throwing money and time at it, trying to make it something else. Boats are unbelievably cheap right now as the overextended unload their toys in order to salvage what they can (like, their homes). If your boat is as badly damaged as you suggest, you may be better to cut your losses on a damaged boat and move on so you can enjoy sailing instead of spending summers with a roll of glass and a pot of resin.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
PS Don't be too despairing if the boat turns out to be unrepairable. Parts like the keel (for its lead), the winches, engine, blocks and spars retain significant value.
Separation of the glass and resin occurs within the laminate and would not normally be reversible. Think of a single strand of glass that has been separated from the bonding resin - then multiply that strand by the hundreds of thousands or millions - fixing that simply isn't in the cards. The alternative is to build a laminate strong enough that very few of the glass fibres ever approach working load - minimal movement = minimal separation. And that's why overbuilt boats like ours just keep on going, while the built-to-safe-minimums boats like Mumm/Farr 30's and Farr 40's start getting soft after 5 to 10 years.
I don't know what evidence you have for thinking that the keel is moving, but before you start mucking about with the structure and the sole - which after all is part of the internal liner, which has a structural role of its own - that you speak with a naval architect who knows how C&C built boats. I suspect you risk opening Pandora's box.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
All 27 hulls are solid glass throughout. The bands you see in the bilge are most likely tows of Lyasil, which is a bundle of un-woven (hence straight) strands of glass. These would give the rigidity necessary to keep the keel from swinging from side to side. Normal glass cloth is woven, hence crimped. Under load, the fibres straighten along the load direction, which means the whole structure stretches in that direction. With time, the bond between the glass and the resin breaks down, weakening the layup. By using Lyasil, the designers minimize the movement of the keel and the stretching of the layup, ensuring longer life for the hull.
BTW, I'm guessing that they used Lyasil, but it seems a reasonable guess, because the stuff has been around since the beginning of time and all the C&C alumni whose work I'm familiar with used it in later work.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Thin end of the wedge! Pretty soon, you'll be asking if it's legal to delete the permanent backstay and fit running backs so you can fly a fat-head main...
Then why not a canting keel?
And maybe a canting mast to match?
If one rudder's good, two must be better, right?...
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Thank you for all your contributions and good wishes over the years. I hope your new commitments will ease up over time and we'll see you back again.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I can't offer Mk V-specific advice, but here are two thoughts:
A lot of dampness issues stem from leaks (before you say, 'well, duh!' bear with me). Dampness in the boat often is less about the humidity from the air around the boat than the water in the boat. Water gets into the boat through hull-deck, deck or hull/stuffing box leaks, then starts evaporating and condensing inside the hull. So job no. 1 is to find and fix those leaks. They're not always visible, so you have to hunt them actively (didn't notice it during the season, but after removing the cushions for the winter, I now know Towser has a leak near the port chainplates). Get the water inside to a reasonable level and the dampness problem will diminish.
A lesser corollary is to minimize the wet stuff you bring down below after you've been sailing in rain (always a problem when racing). Try to dry or at least reduce the water on your sails before you stow them. If the sole below is running with water, mop it and hang the cloth outside before you go home.
Once you've dealt with the above, Nicro solar powered vents are a nice option. If you have a suitable location, you can leave them on all the time. If the location is potentially in the way, you can pull the vent out for the race and snap in a deck plate. They're not cheap (shop around), but they do keep the air moving inside the boat.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I've touched on this before, but one way to get rid of water in the bilges (and thus eliminate it from lockers) is to fit a PSS Shaft Seal. There's so little water in Towser's bilge that I have had to develop the habit of dumping a bucketful in now and again to give the spiders a swim.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
That's a rotten spot to drill, as you'd have to find exactly the right spot and drill at precisely the right angle to avoid a really ugly result (as in, either making a visible hole into the interior, or a hole through the hull laminate - maybe all the way through the hull laminate).
You might be better off putting a vent or two on the side and front of the locker to clear the condensation; as I discovered, the drain hole made by the PO worked both ways. Every now and again a blustery day would deposit just enough bilge water in the locker to make a mess, so I blocked the hole.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
You can find a thread on insulation <a href="http://www.cc27association.com/f3/toast/toast.asp?sub=show&action=posts&fid=2&tid=1397">here</a> and photos of an installation <a href="http://www.cc27association.com/fixes/various/various_below2.html">here</a>.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
http://www.cc27association.com/evolution.html gives you a draft figure and a side view. Use the side view to derive a percentage relationship between the "wet draft" and "air draft" to the top of the companion spray hood. Multiply the draft by that figure and you've got the height from keel to the top of the companion spray hood. Or measure directly on your boat: from the top of the companion spray hood to the water - then add the draft figure.
Shipping weight? Displacement plus 10% for water absorbed during the season and for the fact that displacement figures always err on the low side. Another 10% if you're shipping her with gear on board.
Support points for shipper's trailer? Same as your cradle, plus somewhere in the vicinity of the forward edge of the galley if midship points are being used.
Lifting points for crane? Same as at haulout. See your manual if in doubt.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The Nova Kool unit is ac/dc, which hits one of your points. There's no getting around the space the compressor takes, but the whole assembly is not very heavy - 26 lb all up. Put a case of beer in the v-berth to compensate. You might even be able to put the compressor under a dinette seat.
http://ca.binnacle.com/BBQ-Stoves-and-Heaters-Portable-Freezers-and-Refrigerators/c7_307/p5158/NOVA-KOOL-ICE-BOX-CONVERSION-KIT-LT201-F-12V/product_info.html
http://www.pridemarine.com/index.cfm?category=10903|11233
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I've been told that C&C simply sealed the teak with shellac of a middle tint. I used a light shellac on my handrails when I took them off, but they came up a bit light. Given that, I'd buy a couple of tints and experiment on scrap material for any future fixes.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Switching to Spectra or similar halyards is a win-win, because you reduce stretch in the lines (the big bonus with contemporary sails as Steve notes), plus you reduce weight aloft, through downsizing and because Spectra seems to be slightly lighter than Dacron, diameter for diameter.
The issue with weight aloft is simply leverage - the farther a weight is from the boat's various centres (flotation, gravity, effort, etc.) the greater will be its effect when the boat rolls or pitches. So you don't let people stand in the stern, you don't fill your anchor locker with chain and you don't put a lot of weight up the mast. Towser's PO had installed a masthead light that weighed about the same as the small anchor; that didn't last long, even for cruising. Addressing the overweight halyards took a little longer.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I'd ditch the wire if it has meathooks on it. Misery. Whether you replace it with Spectra or wire/Dacron is up to you. Wire is low-stretch and I don't think the weight is a big deal for the main because only half of the material is up when you're sailing (a lot of the weight is in that Dacron tail, but it's in a bag in the companion, right?). Spectra is nice, but less necessary in this location. For the genoa and chute halyards, most of the length of which may be aloft when sailing, the weight is worth thinking about.
7/16" halyards? Are you running a crane service on the side that you're not telling us about? Towser's genoa and chute set on 5/16" Spectra so I think you could be a bit more aggressive in down-sizing. The real limitation, I found, is the minimum size that your self-tailing winches will grip. 5/16" is right on the edge for mine, so I need four to five wraps on the drum to get any holding power when the breeze is up.
The thicker the rope, the greater must be the sheave diameter to avoid internal chafe in the line, so going down in size, no, I don't think there's any need to change the sheaves. Ken Pole did and likes the result, but I'm too lazy to drill out those rivets and pull the casting. As mentioned, my halyards seem none the worse for wear for running over the wire/rope sheaves.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Towser's genoa halyards were rope/wire and replaced initially with pre-stretched Dacron, then with Spectra when the price came out of the stratosphere. Replacement with Dacron was made to eliminate the irritation of wire whipping around the foredeck; replacement with Spectra was done to reduce the line size and to give the genoa a more stable set in puffy conditions. I was prepared to see chafe from the old rope/wire sheaves so I wrapped the shackle knot with RubbaWeld (a self-amalgamating rubber tape) and things have been fine for three years.
Although it's a very little bit heavier, we still have a rope/wire halyard on the main. The wire is as stretch-free as Spectra and there's no issue about it whipping around since the main is up all the time when sailing. Moreover, I remain to be convinced of the value of shaving a few ounces off the weight of an aluminum tree-trunk like ours.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
It's a bit more than a clove hitch on the standing part, because the clove hitch is tied back toward the object to which the line is hitched. This has the effect of locking the knot more securely with increasing tension on the standing part. This would have made it a better performer than a clove hitch when the load is intermittent, when a clove hitch should be finshed with a whipping or a couple of overhand knots.
There are also some nice illustrations at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buntline_hitch
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Warpspeed is on sale at South Shore, 35% off. Colours are limited by now, but so what? With Warpspeed, you can go one size down from Dacron, if that's what you're presently using.
http://www.southshoreyachts.com/specials.html
Rather than splicing it, I used a "halyard knot" (which seems to be a new name for a buntline hitch). The short tail is stitched down and covered for chafe protection with a self-adhering tape called RubbaWeld. The buntline hitch uses less line than a splice and doesn't make the line thicker as it passes over the sheave.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Allan,
Did the clew slide pull out of the boom before the block broke? It looks like there was an upward as well as horizontal pull. My slide has pulled out several times, so I have a very heavy velcro strop that winds around the boom to prevent a recurrence. A ski strap strikes me as ingenious, but a bit light. Also I noted that the sheave on the block looks a bit chewed up by the wire. Eventually wire will eat its way through a plastic sheave. Spectra (with or without a cover) might be a better choice for the final lead to the sail.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
1. Don't know for sure, but given the design goals (among which was lowered cost), I doubt it.
2. Mk's I, II, III and IV hulls are not cored (read Guide and Evolution carefully - a IV is a III with minor changes from the late-series III's).
3. The I, II, III and IV (what are sometimes referred to as the "classic" 27's) are totally different boats from the V. These boats are traditional in layout and construction, insofar as a glass boat can be called "traditional"; the V owes more to good, contemporary industrial design.
The V is a nice boat for all types of sailors (but it's not a level-raced Fleet boat at my club, which is a powerful reason for having a III or IV). There is no compromise in C&C's high level of build quality; instead they used contemporary design to remove cost (1-piece mouldings, outboard rudder, simplified interior furniture, etc.). V's are still C&C's.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Search for the term "combiner" for various of my posts on battery combiners. A combiner senses a charging-level voltage and opens the circuit to a second battery; like an isolator, it's one-way only, but doesn't cause the voltage drop associated with isolators. This may be what you want, though you should inquire if a combiner will kick in at the low amperage of a small solar panel.
The posts are old, but the Yandina company is still around and the West article on combiners is still on the site, but you have to read the index to find it.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Visible movement of the keel in relation to the hull is not normal. Nor is it good.
But figuring out a cause and cure here is not simple. If the boat was supported properly with the weight of the keel borne by a strong platform and the weight of the hull resting on pads fore & aft, why was the keel free to move at all? If the keel was hanging free with all the weight on pads, what you may have been seeing is the keel moving in relation to the supports because the hull was distorting.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
As a general observation, it's hard to diagnose a problem like a leak without seeing the installation and it's probably safe to say that none of us have done a job like this enough times to be able to have compiled a list of "gotcha's" that you could look for. If I were you, though, I'd phone South Shore and ask them if they have any advice.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Yes, it's easy because while hand-holding the reaching sheet, you've transferred the load back to the inboard sheet (obviously you don't do any of this - nor in all probability is it necessary - if the wind strength is beyond the ability of the crew to do this exchange smoothly). As the inboard sheet comes in for a beat to weather, the outboard sheet goes slack and is easy to remove then hook somewhere where it's not going to cause problems.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
One of the standard tricks on the Mks I to III for white-sail reaching is to carry a second sheet running under the lifelines and through a block well forward on the toe-rail. On the end of the sheet is a snap-shackle or sometimes just a cunningham hook. As the inboard (close-hauled) sheet is eased, someone reaches over and attaches the new outboard (reaching) sheet. The load is transferred and away you go.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
http://www.klackospars.com/
http://www.stainlessoutfitters.com/marine.htm
http://www.southshoreyachts.com/pulpits.html
All of these places are small businesses and are not particularly e-friendly at first. You are probably better off phoning first and establishing that you're a real person making a genuine inquiry (rather than someone who is spraying requests for quotes all over the continent). All of them are well thought of.
That said, I'll stand by what I said about using local help. I'm not sure anyone could lay hands on a perfect pattern for a 27 pulpit today, and if the new unit doesn't fit, it's easier to take it back to a local supplier than ship it back to Ontario. But... it's your call.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV