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Solid Mahogany Belaying Pins. Custom made for our 34.  $355  ChriSea  765-430-2095

A few weeks ago, I posted a question about a leak coming through our head ceiling.  Thank you so much for the suggestion of Captain Crawley's Creeping Crack Repair!  Ben used it on the one little crack on the deck next to the dorade (that I didn't think would cause that leak), and no more leaks since!  We have enjoyed being on this Forum for 9 years and have learned so much!
So the crack repair was great news.... now the mixed news:  Last weekend we unexpectedly traded up to a Catalina 42!  The new boat should be named "Weak Moment" - but since we recently spent $50 getting cards made that say "ChriSea", we will probably have to keep that name. Farewell to you all, and we will still be visiting the forum to check out what's going on.   You're the best.

After launching this spring, we started having brown, sticky fluid leaking around screws in the ceiling of the head.  Occasionally when there had been heavy rain, there was also leakage around the hatch frame, and once, even around the port side dorade vent into the salon.  We are only on the boat on weekends, and there have been leaks each time we return to the boat.  The screw heads where most of the leak is are for the teak handrails that are inside the dodger and protected from rain, so I guess the water must be migrating there inside the deck.  I read in tech notes about leaks possibly from the traveler mounting or even cracks in the traveler base.  We have some small cracks there, but I didn't find any info on how to go about fixing them.  I don't think our traveler bolts go clear through the coach top, but will check that next weekend.  Any other suggestions besides patching those little hairline cracks next to the traveler?  We have re-bedded chain plates successfully in the past, thanks to this group! But I don't know where to start to find the source of this higher up leak! 

We are replacing our old Data marine electronics with RayMarine ST60. My Question is about sealant to use around through hulls.  The instructions say to use a sealant and make no suggestions as to which sealant. If anyone has any suggestions on sealant it would be appreciated. Ben Holland /ChriSea #832

After sailing ChriSea for 2 years, we discovered that we cannot find anything on the boat that looks like an emergency tiller.  We are thinking that a 1" pipe about 15" long should fit.  Any suggestions where the emergency tiller could be hiding or what it looks like?  Has anyone purchased one?  We used the Search function and found some information about using it, but no description of the actual part or where it is normally stored.  Thanks!

The forward hatch on our '89 Catalina has no mechanism to hold it open.  It is a Lewmar hatch with a smoked acrylic window.  The hinges look like regular hinges, rather than the rollstop hinges that you can get the replacement kit for. We have looked at different types of gadgets to hold it open and have looked at the rollstop hinge kit, but nothing we see looks like it would fit with our hatch.  It seems odd that the boat would have been made without some brace - the salon port has a telescoping brace that tightens at the desired opening, but it is a different design hatch than the forward one.  What does anyone with our vintage boat have?  For 2 seasons we have propped open the hatch with a "Wet Ones" container.  We may just have to get a new one this year in a different decorator color...
Thanks!
Chris
ChriSea #832

While dodging most of the many storms hitting the Midwest the last couple of weeks, we were watching a storm from our boat in a port and lightning hit the shore just next to us.  It knocked out the fuel pumps on the fuel dock near us, but we thought we were ok.  The next day, we noticed our batteries were not charged well.  Since we were cruising and thought the batteries were ready to be replaced anyway, we replaced them and went on cruising (as usual, mostly motoring!).  Everything seemed fine till we came home and left the boat in port (on shore power) for 3 days (with refrig running).  Then the  new batteries were also low.  We think the TruCharge 20 3-bank charger may have gotten a power surge or something, and the instruction book suggests that there may be an internal fuse that should only be replaced by "an authorized service representative". Anyone have experience with this - is the fuse something we should try ourselves?

Just learned that when our boat (ChriSea #832) is hauled out this fall we will have to de-mast for storage.  We had not expected this and it was a bit of a shock, but then we thought it might be a good opportunity for some special maintenance projects.  We need to re-bed chainplates, and I would think having the mast down would give a chance to allow for drying out and re-bedding.  Are there other things we should be thinking about checking/fixing while the mast is down?  Also should we expect any problems with de- masting and re-masting?
And lastly, I read in tech notes about using alcohol to help displace water that has leaked into the deck core before re-bedding chainplates.  How is this done?
Thanks to all.

While we're on the subject of reefing, our 89 Catalina 34 mainsail has 2 reef points and the jiffy reefing hardware, but no line.  What size and length line do I need?  Is there any way to use the 2 points without having seperate lines for each system?  Do you leave line threaded through the clues all the time?
Thanks!