Just taken Arawa out of the water for the winter. Not before time as the day previously (while she was in harbour) I had a wind reading of 48 kts!

Many of the other boats moored here were covered in slime and growth, and some had thick pads of mussels on keels, but the coppercoat was completely clean. Very impressed.

However, I am not quite so impressed with the state of the rigging and some of the other stainless fittings. The shrouds are clearly rusting and one of the wire strands has broken on the forestay just above the top of the furling foil. Obviously, I will replace it.

Also, there is quite a lot of rust appearing on the handhold fittings, stemhead fittings, mast base and the like. There were some rust marks last year and I cleaned them off with a gentle metal polish but this year things are much worse. Anyone else experiencing this and if so how are you cleaning the rust off?

David Pocock

Parker 235/52 Arawa

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Hi David!

Wish I had got Exodus out of the water too - I took her out 19th October last year but thought I'd leave it later this year for a few stolen late sails.....however, it has been vicious weather over here the last few days!

I was wishing I had copper-coated mine too - the Interspeed Ultra has worked well but this year I need to treat the keel and there is no obvious way to get it out (and no boat hoist here). I am thinking I'll borrow the builders yard Hiab to lift it out, if it will reach high enough, but in hindsight had I copper coated it all when new this would not need doing.

I too am dubious of the quality of the stainless steel fittings. My boat is the same age as yours and also has quite alot of mild brown colouring on the stainless steel. In fact when I first got the boat I had to ask for another guardrail as the original had one rusty strand in it, which appeared within a few months afloat. I haven't checked such things as snapped forestay strands yet....bit worrying?

I'll have a better look at everyting when this wild weather lets up!

Stephen Godber

235/51 "Exodus"

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On the stainless steel front, we had Tarakihi's guard wires replaced because they had broken strands. We didn't know if this was damage caused by the previous owner or something else but the yard made the suggestion that it could have been a "bad batch of steel - not an all that rare occurance apparently. However, haven't noticed much other "rusting" but will look more carefully at the standing rigging when we get the mast down. I seem to recall that stainless (particularly the grade used above water line) is meant to have access to oxygen to prevent it staining/eroding hence it's not a good idea to have plastic covered wires e.g on guard rails etc. Someone with more technical knowledge may be able to expand on this.

On the question of "copper coat", I spoke to Bill Parker about it a year ago when we were considering buying a new boat. He said that he had had a lot of problems applying it and rectifying subsequent problems to the extent that he wouldn't do it again! However, the idea that you wouldn't need to antifoul every year seems very attractive especially as conventional antifouls don't seem to work that effectively and it's difficult to scrub the boat and keel when it's on the water (we keep Tarakihi on a swinging mooring all season).

Chris Cobb

Tarakihi 235/48

Hello Stephen and Chris

On the coppercoat, in addition to Arawa, there is one other boat on our set of moorings that uses it. Both our boats are completely clean and the others are badly fouled. Bill was not keen to coppercoat Arawa but he made a very good job of it and I am very pleased with the outcome.

On the rust front, apart from the broken wire, my main concern is the deck fittings. The majority of the rust seems to be originating on the areas that are sealed (with Sikaflex?) into the deck so lack of oxygen could be a cause - but I have no idea what I could do to overcome this! Other problem areas seem to be the welded joint sections - again, where I do not see what can be done to prevent a recurrence.

I plan cleaning it off with a rust cleaner and see what develops over the winter.

David Pocock

Parker 235/52 Arawa

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Good news. The rust is just on the surface and came off easily with metal polish. So I have just the forestay to replace.

David Pocock

Parker 235/52 Arawa

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