Odalisque - May 1, 2005 Log

Log 2005 - May 1st

Sunday May 1, 2005 – “Sacrificial Zinc”

It was a day of clearing and nice weather after raining all of Saturday night into Sunday morning. The boatyard was messy with mud and puddles and boats piled everywhere. I began my work by trying to get my sacrificial zinc anode collar to fit around the collar of my propeller shaft. If you are paying attention, this is not one of the things that I prioritized to get done. Truth be told, there are many things to do to prepare a boat for sail. Sacrificial zincs are supposed to reduce the pitting and wearing out of the propeller and other electrical system parts and thus are an important part of any overhaul. Having said that, we have not addressed this issue in 2 seasons and have suffered no ill consequence so far.

I used an angle grinder tool with a metal blade to eat away at the sides of the zinc collar and the hole to make it conform to our propeller. Once my grinder and I had done our work the collar fit nicely and I bolted it on with an Allen wrench. This was the culmination of several hours of work, performed on different days but the sacrificial zinc was in place.

The mainsail and jib have been put aboard and I tested out the fiberglass marine polish on the stains on the doghouse. The polish worked well with plenty of elbow grease and a clean cloth but there was a lot of area to cover so I thought: “I can leave some of this for Noah and Matt”.

The varnish on the toe rail still looks good so a few more coats wont be out of the question. We will be ready for the sea. We will have charts stowed, fuel stowed and be ready for action.

— Caleb Davison