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Anodes or not?


aristorias

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1 minute ago, aristorias said:

I have seen some boats usually ex hire for sale without anodes. I am looking at the older end of the market.Would members consider such a vessl worth the cost of a survey or would they generally look elsewhere? Thanks any advice appreciated.

If you don't have it out of the water how do you know it hasn't got any.  If it hasn't got any and the hull is in good condition whats the problem. Lots of people will tell you they only protect a radius of about 6 foot, is two at each end, which is the norm may not help much

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Hi

 

The reason I raised the topic was that the seller has revealed in the advert there are no anodes so no need to take out of water to find this out! However Ditchcrawlers post that they only protect 6 foot of hull is interesting as I have seen many boats with only 4 fitted , which probably explains the extensive pitting I have also seen!

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Some say that the steel on older boats was better.

Some say that anodes only offer protection over a very limited area of the hull.

Some say that they are essential.

Some say they are Snake Oil.

 

If the hull is sound now, fitting anodes will do no harm.

If its bad now it will not get better with anodes.

 

I know of boats that have no anodes and have not been out of the water for over 25 years and they are still afloat.

If the hull is well protected by a two pack epoxy resin  then there is very little bare steel exposed and it is hard to understand how an anode would work in that case.

 

I would say that a two packed hull that gets a bad scratch seems to rust more in the scratch than a poorly protected hull does, its perverse.

 

  • Greenie 1
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1 hour ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Some say that the steel on older boats was better.

If the steel on the old boat was rubbish it would have sunk long ago. Time skews the distribution. People think old furniture was better quality than modern furniture, but that is only because almost all the low end to medium stuff that my ancestors could afford was firewood long ago. Most pieces that still survive are the expensive ones that only the rich could afford.

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The guy who blacks my boat, who lives on his, says anodes are worthless, has never had any and has been on the boat at least 20 years.. The ones put on mine twenty five years ago were in perfect condition when the boat got resteeled two years ago, while the hull at the stern was virtually see-through. I suspect, like most things boaty, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

That probably doesn't help much, but there it is. Possibly best to have them and not need them rather than not bother and find you did. Bit like anchors and life rings.

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16 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

The guy who blacks my boat, who lives on his, says anodes are worthless, has never had any and has been on the boat at least 20 years.. The ones put on mine twenty five years ago were in perfect condition when the boat got resteeled two years ago, while the hull at the stern was virtually see-through. I suspect, like most things boaty, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

That probably doesn't help much, but there it is. Possibly best to have them and not need them rather than not bother and find you did. Bit like anchors and life rings.

Are they zinc instead of magnesium Arthur? After 25 years they should be going. Or are they still on the back deck!

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58 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Are they zinc instead of magnesium Arthur? After 25 years they should be going. Or are they still on the back deck!

I dunno what they were.  I would have thought they would have been the right ones fitted right, Chas Hardern did it back in the dark ages. They are long gone now though, as they were fitted before the first replating, and the boat now has had another side glued on since then. It'll be interesting to see how the new ones are doing when it comes out of the water next year.

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I had an anode out on the magnet once in a lock chamber. 

 

Close inspection of the steel tags indicated that it was never actually welded to the boat in the first place. It had been secured using some sort of adhesive. 

 

Things are not always as they seem..

 

 

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56 minutes ago, Midnight said:

Macduff technical depth once told me anodes do nothing until the blacking breaks down. Midnight is two packed the anodes are 18 years old and still plenty left

 

That is sort of stating the obvious, though a lot of people see it differently. There might however be a case for anodes at the back to protect the sterngear as there are dissimilar metals there.

But, when you come out of the water do you notice strange markings on the two pack near to the anodes? What is that about?

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6 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

That is sort of stating the obvious, though a lot of people see it differently. There might however be a case for anodes at the back to protect the sterngear as there are dissimilar metals there.

But, when you come out of the water do you notice strange markings on the two pack near to the anodes? What is that about?

No but about 10 years ago I had those silver spots on the water line. I re-black every couple of years so far they haven't reappeared. In dry dock next March after 3 years so may be some markings.

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