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Most crane and travellift operators like to pick a boat up at or near a bulkhead, subject to that location not being near the cradle pads (particularly if the pads are not readily movable). For most 27's, the stern sling position is right at the forward end of the cockpit. Although best spot for the bow sling is at the forward end of the keel, this is where the bow pads normally are located, so it's normal to shoot for the aft end of the forward hatch.
Crane and travellift operators may be looking down on your boat when hauling or up from the ground when launching, so consider marking across the top of the toe-rail so the sling positions can be seen clearly from above or below. This is the best insurance against being picked up by the prop shaft.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
We don’t have information on removal of a rudder because removing a tiller-steered rudder is so straightforward (tiller off, pull two bolts and - thud - it’s out). Perhaps someone else can talk you through removal of Edson gear, then you can photograph and describe the process of removing a wheel-steered rudder for us. One pointer - once out of the water, the boat must be positioned where you can dig at least a 1 1/2-foot-deep hole under the rudder or the job must be done in the slings.
Until you are hauled, any opinions on the state of your rudder are necessarily conjectures. Once you're out of the water, you can start assessing damage. The glass may be wrecked at the point of impact or not, but even if it looks okay, the foil (glass and foam) will in all likelihood have to be removed from the post if it's to be straightened.
Is it safe to straighten a post that might come under high loads? Someone with more knowledge of metal will have to answer that. A new one might be the safer option.
There may be other opinions, but I suspect this is an insurance job. A 27 at our club bent its rudder post last fall. Unfortunately I can't tell you how bad the bend was, but as with your boat, the boat was not steerable; a completely new rudder was required.
Fortunately, you are near a first-class supplier. Phil's Foils in Ottawa (see Contacts above) made the fellow mentioned above a beautiful and very light rudder with new post for C$2,500.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The current Wooden Boat magazine has a good article with details on cutting a new boot-top in a manner that emphasizes the boat's sheer line (an area where the 27 is well endowed) while disguising any flaws in trim fore-and-aft.
C&C may have raised the waterline on later boats, but the Towser's (hull 950) old waterline was immersed, despite keeping the boat as light as possible. I raised the waterline to the top of the marked boot-top and painted a new boot-top up a commensurate distance. The move helps keep the waterline crud off the painted boot-top surface and visually reduces the height of the topsides, but I really should have gone up farther and made the boot-top half an inch wider, as you can see from our Fleet photo (two people right in the stern) and <a href="http://www.cc27association.com/photos/towser_prestart.jpg">here</a>.
I used Interlux boot-top enamel, which is hard and durable. The one thing I didn't do, which made the job less than satisfactory is rolling and tipping the paint. It's very hard to brush on a smooth coat in the cool of the fall. Fortunately, no one looks too closely.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
> The trick lies in finding a secure way to fasten it down.
Towser's muffler isn't fastened down and the mechanic who installed it says that there is no need to do so, as it is adequately located by the hoses (which are secured). You can see the installation here: <http://www.cc27association.com/fixes/engine/source/exhaust_towser.html >. The only issue is to protect the muffler from chafe on the bare fibreglass and the adjacent mounting bolts for the p-bracket. Accordingly, there is now a piece of blue styrofoam insulation under the muffler.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Following the query about Canadian rebuilders, I spoke to RCYC Marine Services and was told that while there are lots of options for solid-prop repair, they now much prefer to return folding props to the manufacturer for rebuilding.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I think most on-line chandleries offer tillers. I'm going to get a spare from pyacht.net this winter, as I had good luck buying from them last year.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Iris offers good advice on maintenance for your prop, but bear in mind that folding props do wear with use; the holes in the blades expand and the pivots wear down. This makes the blades more prone to the type of binding and failure to open that you describe. Ultimately the prop will need rebuilding – this includes inserts to return the blade holes to their original size and new pivot shafts. Martec and Michigan will rebuild their props and you can often find local prop shops that will do the work.
If the blades of your prop seem significantly more sloppy than other boats', or they don't respond to Iris' suggested maintenance, consider a rebuild (or a replacement if you want the comparative luxury of a geared prop).
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The gap between the structural deck and the liner would never have been filled with balsa. In some locations, you'll find a mash of polyester putty to bond the two together, but the liner is primarily cosmetic, not structural, so in many areas the gap between deck and liner is -- and should be -- filled with air.
Drill-fill-drill is not intended to fill this gap; instead, it's intended to replace the balsa between the inner and outer skin of the structural deck. The gap provides space within which to conceal nuts and washers; cover the access hole with white plexiglass or wood, or drill access holes that match snap-in plugs.
The drill-fill-drill diagram has been modified to clarify this relationship.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Read this: http://www.cc27association.com/fixes/buying.html
A lot of deck issues? Depends on what you mean by "a lot". It's definitely an area of concern and determining if it is going to be a problem with a specific boat is one of the most compelling reasons for using a surveyor.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I haven't had the tank out but I have removed the teak lip that surrounds the lazarette openings (it's screwed on from the underside). Once you've taken that off, you could easily shave 1/8" of fibreglass off either side. After you replace the teak surround, the surgery would be unnoticable.
The tank in a 27 is right beside the engine with no fire-resistant barrier or materials between engine and tank. Before you install a plastic tank, better get approval from your insurance company, or your boat may not meet DOT or USCG regs and therefore may not be insurable. If you have an A4, metal may be your only option (and I'd choose metal even if plastic is permitted for gas in this type of installation - plastic tanks are only expected to last 90 seconds when exposed to direct flame).
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Nicro Fico, who made the cowls, used to make and may still make a self-contained Dorade box that mates with their cowls.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The ply in my cowl vents has dried out and delaminated, but not rotted to any significant degree. One of these days when I'm working with epoxy (if I remember, which is a marginal possibility), I will coat the exposed edges with a thickened mix. In the meantime, I think it's an area that is already adequately strong. The ply is unlikely to be structural; it's probably only there to create enough thickness at that point to run in screws to hold the vent-hose connectors without having the screw-ends protrude through the glass.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Genco in Toronto for sure, probably most large chandleries (particularly in areas with populations of C&C's).
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The plugs are now old, and like most old plastic, brittle. You may be able to ease some of them out with an ordinary table knife, but you'll probably end up replacing half of them, as I did.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
>Maybe I'm just being overly picky...
If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong. What you need to do now is find out how wrong and why. Try to get another experienced sailor on board to double-check your findings (particularly to ensure that your sail settings are identical from tack) and find out:
<ul><li>What is the difference between pointing ability from tack to tack? Go head to wind to establish wind direction, then sail upwind on either tack in an area where wind will not be distorted by land, carefully noting compass direction. Calculate the wind angles on either tack. They should be roughly the same. Five degrees signifies a tuning error. Ten degrees is a major tuning error or something else.
<li>At the same time, note the boatspeed. As was pointed out earlier, your knotmeter won't be perfectly accurate (but there's no way it should be inaccurate to 1/2 kt. from tack to tack). Lay your hands on a GPS and measure speed with that (you can also use it to validate your compass at the same time).
<li>If there are differences, run through the tuning guide once again. Tick off every item as you double-check it (I can't tell you how many times I've torn my hair out, only to discover that I've missed some glaring deficiency). Measure the position of the masthead and check the shroud tensions.
</ul>
When you've done all that, then and only then should you consider something as improbable as your keel being visibly off centre. Read <a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070717.html">this</a> and follow the Adelson link to the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/illusions_demos.html">illusions</a>-- you'll never trust eyeball measures again.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The port list could be the weight of batteries on that side. Put more junk on the starboard side.
If you've followed the Black Arts instructions, and the mast is both evenly tensioned and centred at the dock, the spreaders might be the issue. If the spreader ends are free to move fore and aft, and particularly if one has more play than the other, you can experience a distinct difference from one tack to the other. See the possible remedies <a href="http://www.cc27association.com/fixes/various/various.html">here</a>.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
5200's grip can be broken with a small amount of acetone.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
5200's grip can be broken with a small amount of acetone.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I'll second that description of the fastening process. I use 3M 5200 (though many people prefer the sister product - can't remember the number - that is not an adhesive). Sika also makes an excellent bedding compound that is much less expensive than 3M's line.
If you're worried about water in the balsa, consider a variant of the drill, fill, drill process described here. As you already have a hole in the lower skin, you need to fill it with something. Tape doesn't work (at least, not for me). Plugs whittled from any flexible or resilient foam do the trick.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Roger Savain had hull number three, but we've not seen him here for a while.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
There is a table of line diameters and sizes in the manual. You'd need to add additional lengths for the run aft to the winches. If you don't have the manual, a searchable pdf is available from the Association and is free to Association members.
My main halyard is wire with a rope tail; it's almost totally non-stretch and I cannot see that the miniscule additional weight, expressed as a percentage of total rig weight, is going to make any difference. My genoa halyard and spinnaker halyards are rope. Genoa sheets are tied, chute sheet/guy have shackles.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Nice page - good ideas neatly presented.
Enjoyed your British car humour pages, too. My parents had a succession of the evil little buggers, so one of my jobs when young was to drive, or nurse, a car to the shop about twice a month. Particularly remember a car that wouldn't start because its air cleaner was full of decaying sound insulation, a material suspiciously like horsehair.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The instrument panel is not so complex a shape that making your own template from the remains of the old panel would be an insuperable chore. As to the caulking, it's probably the original butyl tape, so like stick-on lettering, it can be made more pliable with a little bit of heat from a hair-dryer.
I now have a Starboard instrument panel of approx. 3/16" thickness. -- it's nice material to work with as long as you remember you have to do all your work with an edged tool like a saw or a plane -- you can't adjust a dimension with sandpaper or a file or the area gets feathery.
As to buying a suitable amount, people have already testified here to the convenience of Plastic World (http://www.plasticworld.ca/) in Toronto -- I imagine that any large city or regional centre would have something comparable (I know that Hamilton, at a fraction of the size, was reported in the Forum as having something the like). Plastic World will cut almost anything for you. Failing that, a piece of aluminum sprayed black would do.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I'd be reluctant to use a heat gun at any setting - mine apparently runs at 300 degrees, which is a one-slip-and-you've-got-a-new-portlight temperature. A hair dryer on a calm day will do the job with less stress.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
You are right that a Flexofold is centrifugally opened, but I've never had to blip mine the way you had to with Martec and Michigan non-geared units. Even at low speeds, it opens freely. In fact, it seems to be biased toward being open, so you have to lock the shaft after the engine is shut down or the prop will stay open and free-wheel.
For the Props page, what are Yogi's prop's diameter and pitch?
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV