More questions for the guru's

[sdemore]

I got the boat moved yesterday (34 miles under tow) and hauled out today. I started going through the gobs of "stuff" the previous owner had accumulated for the rebuild. I found a round metal thing with wheels on it (see picture) and can't find anybody that knows what it is. Any ideas?

Second, I found a bin of connectors for the lifelines that I have to replace. They are the crimp on style and I'm wondering if you have to buy a crimper for 10 or 20 fittings, or if there is a common place to rent/borrow one?

Third, the rudder. There is a small hole weeping on the top of the port side and another on the bottom of the starboard side of the rudder. The little circles are present on both sides, but seem to be sealed in two places and weeping in two. The rudder sounds solid, so what do I do with them?

The keel seems to have a slight gap at the rear and what originally looked like a crack on the front, but I think is just the same thing on an odd shaped keel. Is this just a case of tightening the keel bolts, or something more?

Thanks in advance and I'm sure I'll have more questions shortly!

Steve

[romantic comedy]

That thingy goes around the boom for a roller boom.

The main sheet could attach to it for furling. It could be a vang, because with roller furling nothing can be hooked to the boom along its length, only the ends.

[romantic comedy]

Many rudders are foam cored and, over time, water will infiltrate. When the boat is hauled a hole is drilled to let the water out. This can be a problem in freezing temps.

If the rudder seems good, then just fill the holes with epoxy.

[Marty Levenson]

boom vang

On our Tartan 27 we have the same yellow device: attaches to the boom vang.

[msmith10]

That looks like a C&C (30?) rudder and keel.
Lifelines can be hand crimped if: 1. The fittings were made to be hand-crimped (Johnson fittings) and 2. You use a Johnson hand-crimper (about $200, you may be able to rent one somewhere). You can't use a nicopress type crimper to do this.
Otherwise, they'll have to be machine-swaged. A rigging shop should be able to do this.
Regarding the crack in the hull-keel joint. Very common in older C&Cs (called the "C&C smile").
Easy temporary fix is fill it with caulk. Use 4200. DO NOT use 5200. The latter is fine if you've done the fix the right way (below) but for a temporary fix you'll just cause yourself more work later trying to remove the caulk.
The right way to do this fix is to drop the keel, check the keel bolt integrity, and if OK, clean out the hull-keel joint, then retorque the keel bolts (on the C&C 30 I think the torque setting is 300 foot pounds) after caulking (5200 is OK now), pulling the keel back up.
I did this on my C&C years ago and was surprised to find that the keel bolts were quite loose. My boat was fresh water so I wasn't worried about the keel bolt integrity (they're stainless steel which I would be more concerned about in a salt-water boat). Because of this, I didn't drop the keel- just loosed the bolts enough to give me clearance to clean out the joint, caulked, then retorqued the keel bolts.
Incidentally, it's not easy to get 300 foot pounds of torque. I bought a used torque multiplier to do the job, then sold it.

Your smile really isn't bad. I've seen much worse with just the periodic and cosmetic recaulking of the joint. Integrity of the keel bolts is the main concern. I've seen C&Cs sailed for many years with caulking and recaulking of the crack without worrying about retorquing the keel bolts. However, if they're corroded, then you have a serious structural concern. If it's a fresh-water boat, odds are they're OK, but salt water, can't tell without looking at them.

Another thing to check on that boat is your mast step. If it's original and hasn't been repaired, it probably needs to be fixed. The original will be a teak or oak block under the aluminum step. Remove the former and look. A bad mast step (rotten wooden frames under the above mentioned teak block) is pretty obvious.

[sdemore]

Yes, it is a C&C 30. Previous owner started to do a restoration 3 years ago and had a stroke. Boat has just been sitting on a mooring ball for three years, so I picked it up to do the rebuild. He had already purchased a bunch of the parts, though I don't necessarily know what they are. A Ziploc bag full of lifeline connectors for example. He had also don a good bit of the disassembly, so I have to figure out how a lot of it goes back together or new pieces have to be built.

I don't have a torque multiplier, but I have a 1" socket set with a 4' breaker bar and longer pipes to slip over the handle. I think I could get up to 300 lbs, but don't know how I would measure the force, other than when my shoulder pops out.

I've been reading about the mast step problems. When I got this boat,there was about 7" of water inside. The base of the mast itself has a lot of white stuff on it (looks kind of like barnacles, but it was rainwater in the boat). There is a board on top of the step that isn't in great shape, but I think that one is just decorative. I suspect the one under the step is going to need to be replaced too. I'm hoping that I can loosen the rigging and jack up the mast a few inches to gain access, but I'm going to have a rigger take a look and give me some advice on what all needs to be done.