Crack Epidemic at the Boatyard

[Allan12210]

And why not ? It's a Christmas Miracle.

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Ooooooh sorry, that was taken on the 13th day of Christmas. The Christmas Miracle only covers the 12 days of Christmas.

Is that what happens on Boxing Day?

 

[Muttondressedaslamb]

Hahaha - well we could certainly get into some serious thread drift on this one....

Grey cast iron can be both brazed and welded. It's easier to braze. But I've welded a lot of grey cast iron...

dj

You would have flipped your cork if you saw the exhaust elbow that came with my boat. It was cast iron, but the tube that runs from the raw water outlet into the elbow was stainless steel. It failed at the weld joint. Welding dissimilar metals is usually a no-no

 

[dLj]

You would have flipped your cork if you saw the exhaust elbow that came with my boat. It was cast iron, but the tube that runs from the raw water outlet into the elbow was stainless steel. It failed at the weld joint. Welding dissimilar metals is usually a no-no

Well, not exactly a no-no but it does have to be done right. There's a lot of research being done on some pretty amazing dissimilar metal welding. It is a very complex part of welding.

Think about it - brazing is joining dissimilar metals - by definition....

dj

 

[Muttondressedaslamb]

Empty your bilge, toss some -50F antifreeze in there if you prefer but whatever you do, make sure your bilge pump has no water in it or highly diluted antifreeze. A Rule 2000 will run you about $200

A good rule of thumb to follow

 

[Project_Mayhem]

A good rule of thumb to follow

My friend had done this but when I pulled the hose off of the pump, I found frozen water inside and the impeller was locked in place. It's a good idea to double check this.

I also picked up a refractometer for $15 to test the freeze point after winterizing. On Catalinas and many others, you can take a sampling by emptying a small amount of fluid from the muffler drain

 

[Muttondressedaslamb]

Your bilge will act like an ice cube tray. In 5o years of storing in cold weather I have never heard of a boat damaged that way. I knew one guy who bought an O'Day 35 that had been stored with water over the floorboards and it froze solid in the Wisconsin winter. Even the engine was encased. The boat was fine other than some water damage to the interior wood.

I am not a hydraulic engineer, but perhaps the partitioning of an ice cube tray into square compartments can redirect the outward pressure of expansion as water freezes. As the water in each compartment turns to ice, pressure is exerted outwards in four directions, as well as upwards and downwards, with each square balancing each other out. As for your friend's O'day 35, he got off lucky. Here is a century old reminder of what water can do to a hull

 

[Muttondressedaslamb]

Well, not exactly a no-no but it does have to be done right. There's a lot of research being done on some pretty amazing dissimilar metal welding. It is a very complex part of welding.

Think about it - brazing is joining dissimilar metals - by definition....

dj

Even basic welding is not something to be taken lightly. Too many would be metalworkers think that their high school shop class and a Harbor Freight welder can suffice. 30+ years ago, I had a Cannondale mountain bike frame fail at the head tube weld while descending a trail. This was from a bike manufacturer that was highly rated at one time. I was far from the only one. They earned the moniker "Crack n Fail"

 

[Muttondressedaslamb]

Back in the mid 70's I visited the Peoria (IL) Yacht Club in December. They are on the Illinois River and Ice around their docks was thick enough to walk on. They had several sailboats around 20 footers solidly frozen in. Members said they did that every year.

Perhaps there was water in the bilge as well. The inward pressure of the river and the outward pressure from the bilge balancing each other out. See my comment on the ice cube tray

 

[dLj]

Even basic welding is not something to be taken lightly. Too many would be metalworkers think that their high school shop class and a Harbor Freight welder can suffice. 30+ years ago, I had a Cannondale mountain bike frame fail at the head tube weld while descending a trail. This was from a bike manufacturer that was highly rated at one time. I was far from the only one. They earned the moniker "Crack n Fail"

Welding is about the most complicated metallurgy there is. Think about it - it is creating liquid metal, solidifying, and you have all sorts of thermal temperature gradients happening all in almost an instant....

dj