It's Alive!!!! 2020

[sastanley]

great looking boat: a few questions:
- your hull paint looks amazing; you had it re-done?
- your cokpit paint looks very clean too. Original?
- have you remove the 2 wood handrails on your roof?

Thank you!
I have a 27 from 79, and the exterior appeal is nowhere close to your boat...

Surcouf,
Thanks! The first several years I owned the boat, I was mostly working on the engine and fixing stuff that was failing. The last couple years I am finally getting to work on some cosmetics. (although I did have some hesitation in the engine this week, probably need to pull the carb and clean it.)
- I painted the hull last year with Alexseal (pearl grey). You can still see brush marks up close..I figure a couple more years of compounding will slowly diminish those!
- The part of cockpit you can see is also painted, Alexseal (snow white). I am working on the deck in stages. Most of the non-skid has not been painted and all the cockpit seats are just primered so far.
- I have removed ALL of the wood from the deck. PVC board has replaced the teak at the hatch face + a SS hand rail, and slides/rails for the hatch boards (I actually want to redo these with a SS flat bar of some sort, like newer Catalinas). Once the deck is painted, I am going to install SS handrails along the cabin to replace the teak. I am in the middle of figuring out what to replace the hatch slider rails with (up on the cabin) which keep the hatch from falling out if we flip (one more ongoing project). It sure does look clean though, doesn't it!
edit - Attached is a before pic from April 2019 & another pre-launch pic from last week.
(sorry to hijack your thread, Joe!)

[tenders]

V V V The list of "it's alive!!!" threads at the bottom of the page under "similar threads" is amusing. V V V

[joe_db]

We generally have one per year

[Mo]

We were locked down due to COVID...I did fire the old girl up once a month though. Launch last Sunday morning, fully rigged, water and rum full. Up until now I've sailed 100 nauticle miles...22 nm today in 20 knts...friggin fun. Engine and boat working perfect and tuned in. I've done a little work on anothe guys carb for him and a friend bought a C&C 27 with an atomic 4...I've worked on that one before as well.

....and the beat goes on.

[Indy]

This weekend- fingers crossed!

We too have been locked down due to COVID-19, which has also made me feel just a little less interested in many activities other than working from home, but I'm feeling it's time to get the boat in the water!

This is our second year with the A4 and so I'm not sure exactly what to expect after winter layup. We winterized with anti-freeze and now I need to figure out a way to get that stuff out of this RWC engine. The PO said he used two buckets- one with anti-freeze for inlet and outlet, the other with water; when the thermostat opened he switched the inlet over from the anti-freeze bucket to the water bucket until the outlet ran clear. Seems reasonable to me.

I had also fogged the engine, topped off the fuel tank and am hoping it will turn over just like it did when the season ended. I remember my first sailboat with an outboard. I was convinced it couldn't possibly start after sitting for six months, but it fired right up. Hoping this old A4 behaves the same, since I'm new to troubleshooting these motors.

[sastanley]

We too have been locked down due to COVID-19, which has also made me feel just a little less interested in many activities other than working from home, but I'm feeling it's time to get the boat in the water!

This is our second year with the A4 and so I'm not sure exactly what to expect after winter layup. We winterized with anti-freeze and now I need to figure out a way to get that stuff out of this RWC engine. The PO said he used two buckets- one with anti-freeze for inlet and outlet, the other with water; when the thermostat opened he switched the inlet over from the anti-freeze bucket to the water bucket until the outlet ran clear. Seems reasonable to me.

I had also fogged the engine, topped off the fuel tank and am hoping it will turn over just like it did when the season ended. I remember my first sailboat with an outboard. I was convinced it couldn't possibly start after sitting for six months, but it fired right up. Hoping this old A4 behaves the same, since I'm new to troubleshooting these motors.

Indy, WELCOME! If you have any trouble firing up the engine (crank for more than 5-10 seconds), make sure to close the raw water intake, and then re-open it when the engine is running. The crank no start, still pumps water into the muffler, and can back up the "hot stack" into the cylinders..the engine needs to run to 'batch' the water out the exhaust.

[Indy]

Indy, WELCOME! If you have any trouble firing up the engine (crank for more than 5-10 seconds), make sure to close the raw water intake, and then re-open it when the engine is running. The crank no start, still pumps water into the muffler, and can back up the "hot stack" into the cylinders..the engine needs to run to 'batch' the water out the exhaust.

Thank you very much for the advice. Last year we had trouble when launching due to a near dead battery which wouldn't crank hard enough. So, we did close the seacock....then of course I totally brain cramped and left it closed after switching to the other battery, running the temp up to 200. Don assured me I probably hadn't killed the head gasket or done serious damage and the engine ran fine all year. I probably should have replaced the impeller right after the mishap, but honestly I was just happy to have a running motor. Aside from having to twist myself into a pretzel to get to it, the swap was way easier than expected, quicker than an outboard for sure. Anyway, after a new impeller (I was amazed at how pliant the old one was after three years, according to the PO) and replacing a dried/cracked uptake tube and gasket on the flame arrestor, the old A4 fired up per usual and hummed that sweet music. It's definitely ALIVE.

[joe_db]

We too have been locked down due to COVID-19, which has also made me feel just a little less interested in many activities other than working from home, but I'm feeling it's time to get the boat in the water!

This is our second year with the A4 and so I'm not sure exactly what to expect after winter layup. We winterized with anti-freeze and now I need to figure out a way to get that stuff out of this RWC engine. The PO said he used two buckets- one with anti-freeze for inlet and outlet, the other with water; when the thermostat opened he switched the inlet over from the anti-freeze bucket to the water bucket until the outlet ran clear. Seems reasonable to me.

I had also fogged the engine, topped off the fuel tank and am hoping it will turn over just like it did when the season ended. I remember my first sailboat with an outboard. I was convinced it couldn't possibly start after sitting for six months, but it fired right up. Hoping this old A4 behaves the same, since I'm new to troubleshooting these motors.

You may be overthinking this. I just turn on the seacock, plug the coil wire in*, and start the engine. The antifreeze clears itself right out of the exhaust, the first few seconds are pink.
* I always pull the spark plug wire off the coil whenever the seacock is closed or there is some other reason I don't want the engine to run.

[Indy]

You may be overthinking this. I just turn on the seacock, plug the coil wire in*, and start the engine. The antifreeze clears itself right out of the exhaust, the first few seconds are pink.
* I always pull the spark plug wire off the coil whenever the seacock is closed or there is some other reason I don't want the engine to run.

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the response. I was under the impression that the antifreeze is locked in the block and won't come out until the thermostat allows water to direct through there. We didn't remove the thermostat or clamp the bypass hose. Also, we are required to capture anti-freeze, hence the bucket. But next time I am fitting a hose to the exhaust (we do this on land).

[joe_db]

How are you feeding cooling water to the engine?

[Indy]

How are you feeding cooling water to the engine?

Do you mean into the block? We start with antifreeze in a bucket. Inlet and outlet are both in the same bucket. Engine gets up to warm quickly because we are recirculating the antifreeze. When the temp gauge starts to go up and down at about 160 we switch the inlet to a bucket of water. When the outlet runs clear we shut it down.

[joe_db]

That will work - but wow that is complex. I just hit start

[Peter]

Fired the A4 up today. Boat still on the hard so no real opportunity to give it a good run.

Felt great - launch this week.

Have a great season all!

Peter

[Ando]

June 11 was the first Sea trial after an engine swap.
Yesterday was our first sail
Today will be our second sail
Happy Fathers Day