53' Feadship

coelan

I meant add ive had it on my 1938 Chris-craft for the past 8 years but it is mahogany not teak. In any event it has held up brilliantly and where there has been abrasion damage or cuffs, it has has been very easy to repair. FYI Coelan has amazing stretch capabilities .. i wont go as far as to say its a miracle product but it has been brilliant for me whereas traditional oil based vanish coatings have not> It is however VERY expensive and not the easiest to apply on vertical surfaces. Also, you must use the Coelan thinners and primers . Forgot to mention that somewhat weirdly, the gloss version is a very good non-slip finish (eg for my Chris-Craft's varnished deck) whereas the matt version is like ice.

coelan

BTW best to use Coelan as a top coating of trad varnish rather than applying varnish over Coelan .

Coelan - Awlcraft

Awlcraft is an Awlgrip 2 pack, hard coating and not at all like Coelan, which is a one coat flexible coating. I used Awlgrip system from start to finish (fillers, primers, topcoats etc) on the hull and painted areas of the superstructure but I was advised NOT to use Awlcraft clearcoat on the brightwork or paint because, unlike Coaelan, it has little or no stretch, and also unlike Coelan is very difficult to repair .

Tiky portlights and rubbing strakes

hiya
Brigand's and Tiky's portlights sound similar which is hardly surprising as the Feadship yards tended to standardize their fittings and source them from the same supplier. In fact Tiky has 4 x 7.5" diam round portlights in the fwd cabin (which also have steel dead lights) and the oval porlights are 13" x 8" , all fitted to a recessed case welded to the hull. The case has a 3" approx flange on the inside that the porlights are bolted to. We removed and refurbished all the portllights including having them rechromed and fitting new seals . So far we haven't had problems with paint cracks at the joins but we grit blasted the entire hull back to bare metal and then applied the complete Awlgrip system under controlled humidly and temp conditions, so hopefully we have several years ahead without coatings issues . Ive attached pics of our portlights as well as as a pic taken from the exterior which not only shows the inset portlight casing but also the s/s rubbing strakes we corresponded about earlier.

While writing, please can you describe your shaft tubes and bearings - ours were originally water lubricated but at some point the system was changed for a grease filled system, presumably to prevent further corrosion to the mild steel shaft and tubes. I replaced the heavily corroded shafts with S/s but haven't got the time or money to replace the tubes with a modern water lubricated system.

the original stern bearings were cast iron (see pics) but we found one to be cracked on its flange so we replaced both in fabricated mild steel. These new bearings seized up on the shafts within minutes of our first running the engines with the boat in the water (apparently, with knowledge of hindsight, because mild steel doesn't like being in contact with stainless steel (too high a coefficient of friction) and also probably also because the lipseals were fitted the wrong way (so the bearings were not lubricated sufficiently) are are now being remade with phosphor bronze inner bearings. Im curious to know what system you have?
best
David

tiky stern bearings

here is a pic of the old stern bearing with cracked flange

Brigand

Why not put a neoprene or other material seal between the wood and the steel...possibly recessed a millimetre or two to creat a natural break ?

Atalanta

Hi
I know Atalanta as I viewed her on behalf of a friend who considered buying her when she was for sale in the UK 3 or 4 years ago. I'm not sure if the seam you show is in fact one that has opened up or that has been been left like that filled black mastic to allow for movement. Either way Atalanta has a lot of black seams and they look fine.

As for awnings , I am not a great fan of awnings on on fixed s/s frames. They change the visual look of the boat and are susceptible to wind damage and UV degradation . Accordingly, on Tiky we have a system where we fit extension poles that are the same diameter as the stanchions into s/ fittings mounted in the handrail. The bottom of the extensions have 6" solid spigots that drop into the hole and there is a threaded bolt in the top of the stanchion which tightens up against the spigot to hold the extension rigid. We attach a lightweight a mesh awning made of Soltis 86 the poles. The mesh obscures 80% of the light while allowing air and rain to pass through, so doesn't get grubby or hold puddles and sag under the weight of rain water. The awning and the poles take less than 10 mins to fit: remove and when fitted looks a lot better than in the photo I've attached and best of all it's only up when needed.

Atalanta

Nice looking vessel,.... might have made a nice looking motorsailer

Sorry if I offend anyone, but I think that awning looks a bit 'tacky'. I think you could take a look thru a number of designs that have been done on big power yachts and come up with something a lot more appealing for a 'removable awning',...maybe something along the line of the 'umbrella style' awnings, or tent style?

awnings

no offense taken - I did look at and and consider many alternatives. Im not really a fan of umbrella type shades as I think they look rather domestic and inappropriate on a boat, but we we do carry a small one rectangular parasol .
In fact Tiky looks best with no awning and I certainly didn't want a heavy fixed structure. most of the time she wont need an awning as the Pilothouse does in any event creates some shade over the fixed seating aft of the PH . however, there are times, when say at anchor and people are lying out in the aft deck and some extra shading is required, and IMHO the simplest, neatest, least obtrusive solution was to do what we have done ...as mentioned it does look a lot better in the flesh, so to speak. If we get fed up with it we can always have a permanent/semi permanent solid s/s frame made with a curve in it, which will attach to the s/s fittings let into the handrail