Bottom painting and drying out

[Tim Osborne]

Greetings from the UK I have just bought an H240 and have a couple of questions that I'm sure you'll have the answers to, or at least opinions!:-1)My boat's going to be kept on a 'swinging mooring' next year and I'm obviously going to be 'antifouling' the hull this winter. There's a load of discussion about 'bottom painting' but nothing about the need or otherwise for painting inside the centre board casing. This seems a tricky job to me - I'm resigned to the fact that the easiest way to achieve this is to hire the services of a crane, ( ludicrously expensive in the UK by the way - $160 -$200 /hr) but is it easy to get the centre board out? Is it really necessary though? Any ideas /advice would be very welcome.2)Has anyone allowed their boat to dry out on mud/sand - any problems - does she sit upright etc? I'm kind of worried about damaging the centre board or getting crud inside the casing and jamming it up ( marginally better than having it jammed down I guess !! )Hope you can understand my terminology! You know what they say - Two nations separated by a common language - !kind regardsTim Osborne

 

[Sean]

centerboard

You need to paint the inside of the trunk. The best way I have found is to tape a 1" wide brush to a yard stick. I've never kept a boat where the tide changes were so drastic that the boat sat on the bottom at low tide. I would think that the centerboard could get crudded up with mud, silt, ect. Congradulations on your new boat.

 

[ken.shubert]

Dry Mooring

If you pull the board, rudder and motor up, the boat will float in a foot and a half of water. I would think that it would settle very nicely onto the mud and not get plugged up because the tide isn't out long enough for it to dry. I've seen tide go out at Liverpool and to a lake sailor, it was truly amazing. You are a slave to the tides because there's no practical way to even get to the boat with the tide out. I noticed keel boats at East London, South Africa that were allowed to just lay on their side while the tide was out. It just takes some getting used to, I guess.KenS/V Wouff Hong

 

[Jerome Kearns]

Drying Out Closer to Home

Dear TimAlthough I keep my 240 in the trailer park at Chichester marina and launch when required, I (and the family) spend most summer weekends either dried out at East Head, Bembridge, or various beaches in Brittany. We've found that the 240 dries out perfectly upright and have not encountered any problems with the keel or log.RegardsJerome Kearns