Aquarius Sail Owners

kevin,
when you laid the fiber glass inside the hulls, did you clean or sand it before you laid it? i need to do a little on the inside of my sc15 and was wondering how critical it is to have it clean.

Hi,
I usually cleaned it with a little bleach mixture to kill any mildew that was in there then I did sand a little. The surface is pretty rough to begin with so I don't think it is too critical to sand. The Haberman's would have better advice though.

You should clean and sand the fiberglass before applying a repair. You can clean it with Acetone or Laquor Thinner and then sand with a course grit sand paper like 80-120grit. Don't sand through the existing fiberglass, you just want to rough up the surface so the resin has something to bond to.

thanks guys. i have been sanding up to this point, and i've been at a stand still wondering the best way to clean it. thanks for the info!

I should clarify one thing.

Always vacuum as necessary and then wipe clean after sanding.

randy33allen wrote:I recently purchased a 1982 Boston Whaler 17 Supercat. It has spidering in the fiberglass at the transom and the gel coat has flaked a little at the seam. Your renovation and pictures are a great help. How hard is it to do another layer of gel coat?

I have been building up my starboard rudder head with glass and resin the reduce the slop. Getting the gel coat perfect is most difficult. I am using foam rollers and foam brushes. This is not the ideal method. There is lots of sanding and re-application involved. I don't have the means to spray this stuff on.
It is sensitive to the surface you are covering so prep ,as usual, is a big part of the job.
It can be done, but it's a pain.

I see a ton of work going on here and alot of itchy arms. If you love this work, go for it.
If you want a 20ft or so catamaran, take this time and effort and work some overtime
and earn a few extra bucks. Then purchase a set of fiberglass ARC 22 hulls unrigged and
unpainter from the factory. Take all of the hardware off the old SC20 hulls and clean'em up and
buff'em out until they look better than new. All hull hardware between the SC20 and ARC 22 is identical,
even the tramp tracks.
Paint your new factory hulls and install the hardware with new bolts and 52oo Marine Seal. The
SC20 mast, beams and rigging will all fit the 22 kit hulls perfectly.
So, know that there is another option to restoring old SC20 hulls. That was part of the game plan for the SC22 from the beginning.
If you "have to" have 20ft hulls for some special reason, this was also planned from the beginning on the 22.
You can move the transom forward and have 20ft long hulls with the finer entry 22 bows.
Another thing: Don't think that your ARC22 kit boat will be slower that an a factory ARC22. The factory ARC22 comes standard with a 38.5ft tall mast. It will be slightly faster than the kit 22 in light air. At 10 to12 knots wind speed, the boats will be the same speed. At 15 knots and up the kit 22 with the 33ft mast and sails will be faster than the factory ARC22. You can always make your standard ARC 22 faster in stronger winds by putting the 33ft SC20 mast and rig on it.

One other point: I have only seen SCs with transom cracks on boats where the vertical slot in the rudder head for the follower pin to move up and down in was "never lubricated". Remember LUBRICATE, LUBRICATE, LUBRICATE all mechanical parts
on your boat so that they work perfectly. What about the AviBank pins in the shroud levers? Do they work? Can you push the pin in and see the balls receed into the shaft? What if you turned over and had to right your boat by yourself. You attempted to open the levers and extend the shroud but you couldn't get the pin out to open the lever? This could take a simple objective, right the boat, and turn it into nightmare.

Kevin
You are "Outstanding"!
Thanks for sharing your wonderful labor with excellent documentation.
Franklin
ARC2101

ps- We got out Saturday first time since dagger wells repaired and new paint. Ran 16.9 knots in lumpy sea state.