Captain's Log

January 10, 2003

Hello all,
 
One of the most important, well top 5 anyway, skills needed in order to go to sea and in particular when on your own, is the ability to make repairs. Temporary or permanent, some issues will arise that need attention and a sailors ability to keep up with running repairs can be the difference between a mere inconvenience and something more desperate.
 
It is often said that ' duct tape ' is a sailors best friend !! as so many things can be bound or patched up with this great tape; however, on BTC Velocity there is a new winner in this category, namely Epoxy Putty. This stuff is great. It works when applies to wet or even underwater areas, ( try that with duct tape ) it is pliable like clay for the first 10 mins then hardens like steel. Fantastic stuff, no one should go to sea without it.
 
So how has this putty helped me this trip ?? Three jobs so far......
 
Cockpit edging crack: The least serious, but often when I open my hatch from down below it gets away from me and bangs against the cockpit sides. This has progressively dented then cracked right through the fiberglass to the foam core, slowly the damaged area was getting larger as bits were falling off. Repair, epoxy putty, pushed in the cracks and as its like clay finish, made the repair smooth and flush with the original area.
 
Crack in fuel filter on main engine: This could have been bad. On about day 2 after leaving Cape Town I was smelling diesel fuel. After a 24 hours of spot checking I finally found the source. The main fuel filter housing next to a screw was slowly leaking diesel. After cleaning the area the putty was applied and there has not been a leak since. Apart from the smell of diesel this was an important safety related fix.
 
Hairline crack in Lexan water ballast tank cover: OK, this is the winner. Found this crack this morning after first ignoring the water thinking it was just condensation from the difference in temperature between the water in the ballast tank and the cabin temperature. No there was a small drip coming from one of the screws that holds the lexan / Plexiglas cover to the tank and out from that was a crack that had spread to the next screw. This area is under serious load. Behind the panel is 750 liters of water or 1600 lbs of weight pushing and sloshing against this cover and 2 others. Lots of load here. Also with out water ballast, BTC Velocity would be in a dangerous situation due to the fact that this weight is required to keep the boat upright !! So I have applied the Epoxy putty in a fairly large area to help support the crack as well as the effected screws. The leak has stopped.
 
So they say things happen in 3's , lets hope I have had my 3 fixes between here and Tauranga. Oh, there is my head ( toilet ) that has stopped working and I can't see how my wonder fix of Epoxy Putty is going to help here !!!! nor Duct Tape !! 
 
Alan
BTC Velocity