zinc priming. Is it needed?

[JungleJames]

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I wonder if it might not be much more expensive to just do basic blacking and buy a newer boat in 40 years' time.

 

This has some merit as boats get old fashioned and less desirable as time passes. How delighted would you be (or not?) if your father or grandfather had bequeathed you a boat beautifully looked after with no expense spared, but designed and built in 1980 to 1980 standards, specs and interior design? Complete with (say) the hip bath and carpeted walls fashionable at the time, and 8mm bottom?

 

Just rhetorical questions for you to consider.

 

 

That isn't what I'd call perfectly looked after then.

Looking after it means keeping things updated 

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I wonder if it might not be much more expensive to just do basic blacking and buy a newer boat in 40 years' time.

 

This has some merit as boats get old fashioned and less desirable as time passes. How delighted would you be (or not?) if your father or grandfather had bequeathed you a boat beautifully looked after with no expense spared, but designed and built in 1980 to 1980 standards, specs and interior design? Complete with (say) the hip bath and carpeted walls fashionable at the time, and 8mm bottom?

 

Just rhetorical questions for you to consider.

 

 

That isn't what I'd call perfectly looked after then.

Looking after it means keeping things updated 

[Ewan123]

As for blacking the baseplate, maybe check out the Facebook page of MarSurv surveys. He regularly shares images from surveys and quite a few times now he's surveyed a boat with no baseplate blacking, only to find Bad News levels of pitting on that baseplate only, not on the blacked sides.

 

I'm sure that the main reason for any yard not doing the baseplate is just that they don't have the facility to do it and don't want to invest in that ability.

[MtB]

43 minutes ago, Ewan123 said:

I'm sure that the main reason for any yard not doing the baseplate is just that they don't have the facility to do it and don't want to invest in that ability.

 

Dead right. 

 

 

But hang on, hardly fair. Weren't we discussing grit-blasting and two-packing the baseplate? A whole load more investment needed than just taller stocks to black the baseplate. And lots of yards do blacking in an old skool dry(ish) dock where lifting the boat higher than water level to get right underneath would require more than trivial investment, plus probably planning permission for structural alterations to the building. 

 

 

[TheBiscuits]

9 hours ago, MtB said:

And lots of yards do blacking in an old skool dry(ish) dock where lifting the boat higher than water level to get right underneath would require more than trivial investment,

 

Most dry docks lower the water level rather than lift the boat

 

[MtB]

1 minute ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Most dry docks lower the water level rather than lift the boat

 

 

Yes, my point exaclty. The water level can only be lowered to the bottom of the dock which in many docks is not low enough for really good access to work on the baseplate. Also the muddy puddles in the bottom of a recently emptied dock are not a good working environment to say the least. 

 

 

[john.k]

What about a  slipway ?.....thats the simplest way of taking a boat out of the water ..........bit of scrap railway stuff,an old winch ,and bobs yer uncle.

[Machpoint005]

16 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I wonder if it might not be much more expensive to just do basic blacking and buy a newer boat in 40 years' time. <<

 

Good point, well made.

 

 

 

[Sea Dog]

3 hours ago, john.k said:

What about a  slipway ?.....thats the simplest way of taking a boat out of the water ..........bit of scrap railway stuff,an old winch ,and bobs yer uncle.

Well, you also need a fair bit of canalside land, considerable groundworks and CRT permission (and fees) to make it accessible from the canal. Once you've got that in place, see how you get on getting "scrap railway stuff" and "an old winch" over the H&S hurdle and the regular load testing. These things ain't as cheap or easy as those with a few miles on the clock remember from the good old days.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

These things ain't as cheap or easy as those with a few miles on the clock remember from the good old days.

 

Ain't that the case!

 

Also, boater expectations are sky high too nowadays. No longer is a bit of bitumen slapped on the sides every couple of years good enough. It has to be two pack, put on the bottom too and with a warranty costing £ks.

 

 

[JungleJames]

4 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Ain't that the case!

 

Also, boater expectations are sky high too nowadays. No longer is a bit of bitumen slapped on the sides every couple of years good enough. It has to be two pack, put on the bottom too and with a warranty costing £ks.

 

 

It's like everything in the world. As our knowledge increases in regards to certain things, we want to improve with it.

 

Our knowledge on paint improves. Eventually canal folk want to take advantage of it.

 

Once upon a time, sextants were good enough. Not any longer.

 

Once upon a time, coal was good enough. Not any longer. Now we want such thing as sodium batteries!!

 

Once upon a time a single telephone plugged into your wall at home was good enough. Now we want the largest mobile screen going, which can control every facet of our lives!

 

[cuthound]

58 minutes ago, JungleJames said:

It's like everything in the world. As our knowledge increases in regards to certain things, we want to improve with it.

 

Our knowledge on paint improves. Eventually canal folk want to take advantage of it.

 

Once upon a time, sextants were good enough. Not any longer.

 

Once upon a time, coal was good enough. Not any longer. Now we want such thing as sodium batteries!!

 

Once upon a time a single telephone plugged into your wall at home was good enough. Now we want the largest mobile screen going, which can control every facet of our lives!

 

 

Indeed, on the canals sextants were soon replaced by Nicholson's...

 

[system 4-50]

Has anyone tried chrome-plating their hull?  Would it encourage swans to attack it?

[Sea Dog]

2 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

Indeed, on the canals sextants were soon replaced by Nicholson's...

 

Which is a shame, as I never had a sextant tell me about a "useful shop" or a pub serving food that closed down a year before publication.

[MtB]

22 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Which is a shame, as I never had a sextant tell me about a "useful shop" or a pub serving food that closed down a year before publication.

 

The bit that always amuses me in Nicholsons is almost every pub is described as selling "real ale", as if there were also other types of ale.

 

I cannot find one single pub in Nicholsons claiming to sell, for example, "imaginary ale" rather than the real thing. 

 

 

[Lady M]

'Imaginary ale' AKA keg bitter