Does the weed hatch cover get blasted in the grit blasting process?

[Piran]

Can't get hold of the yard as it is good Friday but would like to know if this is a standard practice in grit blasting

[blackrose]

You could take the weed hatch cover off and get it blasted separately, but the inside of the weedhatch is difficult to blast with the cover in place so you could cover it with a piece of ply and put some bricks on top. The guy blasting mine said he couldn't angle his lance on the bottom of my weedhatch (which has a 90 degree return) unless he did it from above and I didn't want him blasting anywhere near my open engine space. Even outside the mess from blasting is unbelievable. I ended up just putting some blacking inside my weedhatch. It's easy enough to keep an eye on and the lid itself is easy enough to take back to metal with an angle grinder/wire wheel and paint in epoxy or whatever you want.

 

The only other below water line bits of my hull that weren't blasted and epoxied were the BT tunnel but that's still got most of the original red paint inside and the rudder stock tube which is a bit of a worry as it goes right through my fuel tank.  

Edited April 2, 2021 by blackrose

[Piran]

Cool, thank you! 

[BEngo]

Like Blackrose says.  Remove the weed hatch cover and get it blasted separately.  I put mine next to the boat.  Put a temporary lid  well sealed with duct  tape on the hatch itself. The important part is to get  the internal water line of the box blasted.

 

Ask the boatyard to blast the reachable parts of the rudder tube.  The bottom of the tube is a real weak spot in most boats because it often is rusting from water sat on the counter inside the boat as well as from the water outside.  Folks also fail to black the inside.  The blaster should be able to get 3 or 4 inches up the tube.  You may need to drop the rudder out for them  to get good access. In any event protect the top bearing if it is a ball bearing type.

 

N

 

[peterboat]

Mine was removed for blasting, board taped over the top of the weed hatch job done 

[ditchcrawler]

I would want the duct blasted and painted but not bothered the cover, its only a flat bit of steel that is easily seen.

[Detling]

When mine was blasted the removed the weed hatch and blasted up the hole they also blasted the bottom plate which sits in the water I don't know if it has a name but it stops the prop wash scouring the weed hatch tunnel.

[Machpoint005]

Has anyone ever found a rusty hole in a weed hatch box?  I think we may be in the realms of over-thinking the gritblasting process. Just keep an eye on it whenever you go down the weed hatch, and nothing bad will happen.

38 minutes ago, Detling said:

I don't know if it has a name but it stops the prop wash scouring the weed hatch tunnel.

 

Mine doesn't go rusty, maybe because of the prop wash cleaning it? 

[BEngo]

21 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

Has anyone ever found a rusty hole in a weed hatch box?  I think we may be in the realms of over-thinking the gritblasting process. Just keep an eye on it whenever you go down the weed hatch, and nothing bad will happen.

 

Mine doesn't go rusty, maybe because of the prop wash cleaning it? 

I have seen numerous weed hatch boxes that needed replacing because of  rust.  Some of them had rusted from the boat side as well as from the cut side.

 

Keeping an eye on it whilst hatch diving is a good idea, but there are a lot of boats where the weed hatch is not opened very often.

 

N

[David Mack]

32 minutes ago, BEngo said:

 

Keeping an eye on it whilst hatch diving is a good idea, but there are a lot of boats where the weed hatch is not opened very often.

I never open mine....

 

 

 

 

 

... because I don't have one!

[TheBiscuits]

7 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I never open mine....

 

 

 

 

 

... because I don't have one!

 

 

Keep a couple of old carrier bags and half a bucket of muddy water in your toolbox so you don't miss out on the fun

 

[Alan de Enfield]

57 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I never open mine....

 

 

 

 

 

... because I don't have one!

 

 

Neither do 'eye', but this is my equivalent :