Out of water on Saturday! What to do?

[jetzi]

We're having our boat dry docked for the first time coming this Saturday. We've arranged a surveyor to do a comprehensive survey after she's been pressure washed and I've also stripped out the back room so he'll be able to get a good look at the inside of the hull, too.

She'll then have her sides and base plate blacked. I also have a welder at the ready to do any necessary emergency work. I also have another week booked in-water to do a few extras, such as replacing the exhaust, servicing the engine and a few non-essential welds.

As this is our first time to have her out of the water, I just wanted to ask to forum if there was anything I should take this opportunity to do?

[mrsmelly]

ts a good time to replace dodgy stern gear, check prop etc.

[dccruiser]

Good time to give your fenders a good scrub and change any dodgy or rusty chains and or shackles, also repaint your stern bands and do any other touching up to your paintwork below the gunnels ...

Rick

[dor]

Check anodes, and if less than half (of a 2.5kg) remaining, add a second set.

Check rudder is tight on the rudder post.

[Stilllearning]

Take the opportunity to have a good look all round, under the waterline. The more you know about your boat the better you will understand how it handles.

Check the bottom rudder bearing for wear.

What dor and dccruiser have said is spot on too.

Oh, and if you live onboard, and are going to be staying onboard, get used to the boat not moving when you get on or off, and do remember that there is a big drop rather than nice soft water if you miss your footing.

Edited June 26, 2019 by Stilllearning

[Mike Tee]

Try and make sure you are there when the surveyor does his stuff - he / she should be happy to talk you through anything of interest - get loads of photos of the hull from all angles.

[BEngo]

Have a really good look, clean up and black at the  bits many forget: inside the bottom foot of the rudder tube and inside the weed hatch.

Drop the rudder out if you can so that it is easier for the surveyor to check the tube and to black inside it.  Remove the weed hatch lid and baffle once out, for the same reasons.

Do inside any bow thruster tube and/or any permanently wet gas locker bases too.

N

[Troyboy]

Wire brush any rusty areas after the pressure washing and then coat with Vactan prior to blacking.

[Rob-M]

How long are you out of the water for?

How long are you out of the water for?

 

If you are staying on board have you checked the dock are happy as some don't allow living on a boat on a dry dock.

[Opener]

Measure the distance between the baseplate and an easily accessed point above the waterline - that tells you how much you draw and answers a different question posed here recently.

[bizzard]

When in the dry dock the boat will be more level than the stern down attitude when afloat. If you have a drain tap at the bottom of your fuel tank this is a good opportunity to drain some off to check for any water which should flow forwards towards the tap instead of lying at the back of the tank when afloat.

[jetzi]

Lots of great advice here!

 

5 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

ts a good time to replace dodgy stern gear, check prop etc.

 

4 hours ago, dor said:

Check anodes, and if less than half (of a 2.5kg) remaining, add a second set. Check rudder is tight on the rudder post.

 

4 hours ago, Stilllearning said:

Take the opportunity to have a good look all round, under the waterline. The more you know about your boat the better you will understand how it handles. Check the bottom rudder bearing for wear.

 

4 hours ago, Mike Tee said:

Try and make sure you are there when the surveyor does his stuff - he / she should be happy to talk you through anything of interest - get loads of photos of the hull from all angles.

I believe this will be covered in the survey and I'll replace whatever I need to. Our prop is very new and hopefully will be good for many years to come. But agreed I will definitely be present for the survey and

 

 

4 hours ago, dccruiser said:

Good time to give your fenders a good scrub and change any dodgy or rusty chains and or shackles, also repaint your stern bands and do any other touching up to your paintwork below the gunnels ...

We're actually in need of a complete paint job and fresh fenders (the tired old rope fenders and tyre or two are are not looking great) but this is unfortunately lower priority at the moment. We're one of the scruffy boats at the moment. But we will change, honest!

 

4 hours ago, BEngo said:

Have a really good look, clean up and black at the  bits many forget: inside the bottom foot of the rudder tube and inside the weed hatch.

Drop the rudder out if you can so that it is easier for the surveyor to check the tube and to black inside it.  Remove the weed hatch lid and baffle once out, for the same reasons. Do inside any bow thruster tube and/or any permanently wet gas locker bases too.

 

3 hours ago, Troyboy said:

Wire brush any rusty areas after the pressure washing and then coat with Vactan prior to blacking.

I'm paying the boat yard to do the blacking. Didn't trust myself to do it right the first time, but I will observe what they do and keep in mind for next time. I'm not sure what they plan to do with any rusty bits, but I have ordered 4 litres of Vactan from Paco and if they just plan to black over it I will Vactan it beforehand. Hope it arrives before they get started.

@BEngo Good advice to remove the weed hatch lid and baffle prior to blacking, I'll do that as soon as I'm out of the water to let it dry thoroughly. Definitely needs blacking and Vactan in there. We don't have bow thrusters but the gas locker certainly needs attention on the inside. I have a plan to replace the bow locker with an extra water tank, I want to see what the surveyor and boatyard say about this plan before I get too involved.

 

3 hours ago, Rob-M said:

How long are you out of the water for? If you are staying on board have you checked the dock are happy as some don't allow living on a boat on a dry dock.

Just one week, not long. Yes they are happy for us to stay on board.

 

 

1 hour ago, Opener said:

Measure the distance between the baseplate and an easily accessed point above the waterline - that tells you how much you draw and answers a different question posed here recently.

GREAT IDEA! Exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

Thanks for this, did not think of that. I'll simply be able to measure from the blocks to the waterline, since the boat will be resting on them.
 

57 minutes ago, bizzard said:

When in the dry dock the boat will be more level than the stern down attitude when afloat. If you have a drain tap at the bottom of your fuel tank this is a good opportunity to drain some off to check for any water which should flow forwards towards the tap instead of lying at the back of the tank when afloat.

Also a GREAT IDEA! Our fuel must be quite low, we've done about 100 hours since we last filled it (220 litres total). My fuel measuring stick shows diesel up to about 13% the height of the tank but without knowing the shape it doesn't mean too much.  I decided to only fill it after the work was done. I don't know how it drains but I've heard that there is usually a lot of much at the bottom of a fuel tank and I'd love to find a way to drain/clean it if possible. Where would the tap be located usually? Since I'm going to service the engine I figured a lot of muck could end up caught in the old fuel filter. The surveyor does need to run the engine for an hour under load apparently, so hopefully we still have enough fuel in there for that.

Any more ideas for what to do with the boat out of water?

[dmr]

Blacking is designed to stick to bare and even slightly rusty steel and its been done this way for years. Using Vactan first might compromise the blacking (and I say might because I have never done this but I know red oxide primer can be counter-productive). The yard might not like doing non standard things like this because if it does go wrong they might unfairly get some of the blame.

 

..........Dave

[dccruiser]

9 minutes ago, ivan&alice said:

Lots of great advice here

 

 

We're actually in need of a complete paint job and fresh fenders (the tired old rope fenders and tyre or two are are not looking great) but this is unfortunately lower priority at the moment. We're one of the scruffy boats at the moment. But we will change, honest!

 

Unless your fenders are damaged its well worth giving them a clean as for tyres qick scrub and a can of tyre black from the local pound store  ... no such thing as a scruffy boat ... some are just more used than others!

Rick

BTW... if you are considering painting the boat yourself under a motorway bridge or whatever when you get round to it , i would still consider painting up to the gunnel height as its all but impossible to do bankside without catching it while its still wet.

 

[Grassman]

I'm not sure what the technical word is for this part of the hull, so please don't mock me you experts  , but the baseplate usually protrudes slightly forming a lip sticking out about a centimetre from below the side of the hull. Check the weld all round the boat and particularly near the stern where the straight part of the boat begins to turn inwards. This small section is prone to extreme wear because it's the part of the hull which catches the bottom of the canal first in shallow water particularly when moving out from the edge of the canal.

 

When my boat was last out of the water it was worn right down to the weld seam. There are various ways it can easily be sorted and with mine they welded on a short piece of steel onto each side.

[jetzi]

12 hours ago, dccruiser said:

Unless your fenders are damaged its well worth giving them a clean as for tyres qick scrub and a can of tyre black from the local pound store  ... no such thing as a scruffy boat ... some are just more used than others!

Rick

BTW... if you are considering painting the boat yourself under a motorway bridge or whatever when you get round to it , i would still consider painting up to the gunnel height as its all but impossible to do bankside without catching it while its still wet.

Improving the condition of the fenders would probably just make the rest of the boat look worse xD But I'll take your advice and do what I can to clean them.

 

Good call on the painting up to gunwale height. Our plan is to have it blacked up quite high above the waterline (to a bit more than where the skin fittings are) so I'm not sure that it would be necessary? Painting is a really big fish to fry and I'm not sure I want to get stuck in with that just yet...

 

40 minutes ago, Grassman said:

I'm not sure what the technical word is for this part of the hull, so please don't mock me you experts  , but the baseplate usually protrudes slightly forming a lip sticking out about a centimetre from below the side of the hull. Check the weld all round the boat and particularly near the stern where the straight part of the boat begins to turn inwards. This small section is prone to extreme wear because it's the part of the hull which catches the bottom of the canal first in shallow water particularly when moving out from the edge of the canal.

 

When my boat was last out of the water it was worn right down to the weld seam. There are various ways it can easily be sorted and with mine they welded on a short piece of steel onto each side.

The experts can confirm but I think these are sacrificial chines? And I think the part after "where the straight part of the boat begins to turn inwards" are called the swims? I will ensure that these are checked in the survey and welding done if necessary. Thanks!

[Stilllearning]

50 minutes ago, ivan&alice said:

Improving the condition of the fenders would probably just make the rest of the boat look worse xD But I'll take your advice and do what I can to clean them.

 

Good call on the painting up to gunwale height. Our plan is to have it blacked up quite high above the waterline (to a bit more than where the skin fittings are) so I'm not sure that it would be necessary? Painting is a really big fish to fry and I'm not sure I want to get stuck in with that just yet...

 

The experts can confirm but I think these are sacrificial chines? And I think the part after "where the straight part of the boat begins to turn inwards" are called the swims? I will ensure that these are checked in the survey and welding done if necessary. Thanks!

The wear on the base plate at the swims is very obvious, once you get used to looking for it, and as was stated, is an easy job to fix. I’ve welded strips onto customers boats in the past and it’s not complicated.

[bizzard]

If you have an integral fuel tank right at the stern, which you very likely have then a drain tap or plug, if you have one will be somewhere behind and to the side of the weed box lid, and as low as possible to the uxter plate-swim tops.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, ivan&alice said:

Improving the condition of the fenders would probably just make the rest of the boat look worse xD But I'll take your advice and do what I can to clean them.

 

Good call on the painting up to gunwale height. Our plan is to have it blacked up quite high above the waterline (to a bit more than where the skin fittings are) so I'm not sure that it would be necessary? Painting is a really big fish to fry and I'm not sure I want to get stuck in with that just yet...

 

Why not just black up to the gunwales and save the buggering about 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Experience the weird sensation walking around inside and your body expects the boat to move and it doesn't. Tricks your sea legs! 

Jen

[doratheexplorer]

4 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Experience the weird sensation walking around inside and your body expects the boat to move and it doesn't. Tricks your sea legs! 

Jen

I know!  It's horrid.  Freaks me out.

[zenataomm]

Go and see this   The boat's not going anywhere.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Out of water on Saturday! What to do?

 

 

Er, find a water point and fill up the tank?

I've just read the topic title, so I assume that's what it is about.

Jen ?