Bloomsberry

It does state 'Using the random orbit principle and a 125mm sanding plate, it ensures a beautiful finish every time, even when polishing' so think this comes in the random orbital sander catagory. The rust areas may well have pitted the metal surface so I would recommend getting rid of the rust , treating with an inhibiter and then filling in the area before sanding it level.

I don't live on my boat so it gets left unattended regularly at the marina it is moored at. A couple of years ago, the battery ran out on the smoke alarm and the constant beep beep noises it gave out was a nuisance to the liveaboard moorers near my boat. So from then on I take the battery out of the alarm when I leave the boat unattended which is a pain but gives others some peace. However, recently there was a fire on an unattended boat near my moorings and people were alerted to it early due to the smoke alarm going off. So I have come to the conclusion that the smoke alarm on a boat is not just for the inhabitants of the boat but also the people who moor around it too which makes sense. So from this I'm guessing the best course of action is to leave the battery in the smoke alarm when leaving the boat unattended but replace the battery with a known good one on regular intervals. Is this about right ?

It's a good idea to take on a small area for your first time boat painting, gives you a bit of confidence without too much effort The gunwale needs to be non slip so It would be a good idea to use some sand on one of the top coats to provide some grip. Checkout John Bernard's series of boat painting videos on youtube, I found them very useful when I painted my boat for the first time last year https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuENkqDZH6SZsleFxEpXhIg As for priming I would prime the whole area you are painting

I'm also a member of the SBC ! Except mine is the 'Scruffy boat club'

Above the waterline is a good idea , ha ha. Seriously there is a minimum height above the waterline the skin fittings have to be or as an alternative the pipework has be routed above the same height inside the boat. Think it's twelve inches but no doubt someone who knows these thing a lot better than I will be along to put me right.

I would say that sander was for more intricate areas not a wide area like a boat roof, I think it would take quite a long time using that tool. Like others have said orbital sander is the way to go there in my experiance unless you're taking the roof back to bare metal. Don't forget to treat the rust areas and fill in any pitted areas.

I don't know much about welding but I would have thought the weld would be the weakest and thinest part of the structure as it can only be done from one side and would be inconsistent ? To weld the foot of the new hatch would mean the metal to be welded to would be the counter and have canal water on the other side of it which would reduce how hot the metal surface could get and may compromise the weld ? But like I say I know little about welding so may be talking rubbish. And I've had a drink tonight. Hick !

Trouble is , once the original hatch has rotted through and you're relying on the new hatch, the original hatch will prevent you from treating the new hatch surface (if that makes sense). I assume the boat will be coming out of the water at some stage in the future, couldn't you plan to replace the hatch metal then ?

My experiance with bitumen based blacking is that any diesel on the water surface will dissolve the blacking at the waterline and at that location the boat will be back to bare steel and rust within 12 months. It mentions nothing about resistance to diesel in the advertising blerb.

http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/RSPCA-issues-warning-exotic-pets-huge-python-dead/story-29311594-detail/story.html

Likely reasons 1) A large file - What is the file size of the photos ? 2) A slow upload speed - Check upload speed from taskmanager -> performance -> wifi

An end mooring came available recently and as I was at the top of the waiting list managed to get it. However , the mooring is opposite some reeds where the marina cats like to hang out and the smell of cat pee is quite frequent. Keeping the windows shut on that side of the boat cures it but it's not a great situation.

Thanks for the reply , Tony. I've got some old video footage taken 4 years ago and the idle speed then with the engine warmed up was 285 phuts/min which will equates to 570 rpm which sounds ok. Nothing has been altered to the engine since so don't think anything would have changed to effect this. I assume the engine idles slowly when cold so maybe I need to let the engine run a bit longer and warm up a bit before setting off.

I did mine simply by creating a wooden frame around it and using sikaflex to fix it to the hull. Passed the BSS inspection ok.

A couple of questions 1) What is the correct idling speed for a BMC 1.5 ? The manual has this as between 500 - 600 rpm but wasn't sure if there is a different range for when it's installed in a narrowboat. 2) How can you tell the RPM of an engine from the exhaust sound. The reason I ask is because my BMC 1.5 cut out when put into neutral yesterday before I set off, first time it has done this in 5 years. It started ok after it ran a while but I have always thought that the idling speed was too low anyway. From the exhaust sound when idling , it does 150 'phuts' a minute, does this equate to 150 rpm ? Would you recommend increasing this ?

I use the deck stuff, the rough bits are to stop you slipping which is important. The deck area gets walked on regularly so is going to get dirty anyway so I wouldn't waste too much time worrying about it's appearance.

Ok, I think I'll scrap that plan then. One alternative I thought of was to do small epoxy mixes which will give me reduced time between prep & application. Probably have to be careful to get an accurate mix though.

If you're going to the bother of going back to bare metal then why not use epoxy, I assume epoxy is going to be more hard wearing than coal tar. I've already got the epoxy for my 'experiment' (see post 8) so to get a bit of confidence with it I'm planning on mixing a small amount and applying this to some exposed metailic area of the boat, possibly in the engine room. I'm planning on preparing 3 areas. 1) Wire brush 2) 40 grit flap disc in grinder 3) Tercoo Blaster I'll be applying the expoxy to all 3 areas then see what the adhesion is like say a week later ? Not sure how accurately this will reflect a real life situation although bare metal is bare metal so I wouldn't have thought it would vary that much. I'll let you know how much success (or failure) each application has been.

Maybe , but you wouldn't offer needle gunning as a prep method for a professional epoxy blacking if it gave failed results, the buisiness wouldn't last long if it did. Blasting might be the most ideal method but there may be other methods that give satisfactory results. Personally I'd like to hear opinions from people who have actually tried alternative methods of preping prior to epoxy blacking and hear what success/failures they have. I find it hard to believe I am the only boater who's prepared to use hand tools to prepare a hull prior to applying epoxy blacking.

That's interesting, there is a boat yard I know of that epoxy's boats but prepares the steel by needle gunning. I would have thought the finish on the metal afterwards would be similar to using the blaster ?

It comes on a spindle so is designed to fit in a drill, I think the rotation speed is important as if it goes too fast it can wear/damage the tips ? I'll let you know how I get on, I'd be interested to hear from other people who have tried other alternative methods to gritblasting and how successful they were.

Ok, but do you know people who have tried and failed and what their method of getting to bare steel was ? I saw a Tercoo Blaster advertised a while ago so bought one and tried it out. Does a great job of getting back to bare steel although is a bit time consuming so to do the complete hull isn't really feasible. I'm only planning on doing the waterline and any corrosion spots below the waterline for now depending on how much time I have. It's got one chance and I'd rather throw my money at attempting a more lasting blacking solution than wasting it on another bitumen job.

My boat is in a marina I've had it blacked with Bitumen 3 times in 5 years, twice by boatyards and once myself after a lot of prep. Each time there was rust at the waterline within 12 months My location in the marina is at the end of a jetty where diesel on the surface appears to get blown to, it's an end mooring so don't want to move from it. The boat's coming out again in July and this time I'm planning on doing a DIY epoxy job & see how long that last for.