4: Winter 2016-17: The centre-plate

Apart from the work on the “stump” and bottle-screw, Serina also needed a fair bit of work on her centre-plate.

As far as I am aware, this winter is the first time that Serina’s centre-plate has been removed in 10 years and this is what it looked like.

Simon ground off the rust and treated it with a rust-preventer before priming:

epoxying – 4 times.

Followed by a rub-down and undercoating

and painting again.

Isn’t that beautiful?

10 responses to “4: Winter 2016-17: The centre-plate”

1: Serina – Romilly – Serina

March 5, 2017 at 5:42 pm

[…] 4: Winter 2016-17: The centre-plate […]

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Ben Fuller

October 16, 2017 at 1:50 am

Something really basic as the new owner of RAMONA now in Maine. Can you get the board out from the top?

Thanks

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1. romillyserina
  
  October 20, 2017 at 2:29 pm
  
  Ben, thanks for taking a look at the site. No, I don’t think the board could come out from above – although we didn’t try. If you take a look at the pictures I took of reassembling Serina’s center plate – it shows that the hinge point of the board is too wide to come up through the cockpit floor – even with the housing removed. Hope this helps, Hugh
  
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  1. Ben Fuller
    
    April 16, 2018 at 1:14 am
    
    Thanks for getting back to me. Now that the snow seems finally to be leaving, am getting to think about work for RAMONA. It looks like then you had to lift the boat to get the CB plate out. Did you need a marine lift or work out a clever way of jacking it up; if so how far up did she come? When you had the plate out, did you re antifoul the inside of the trunk? Ben
    
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  2. romillyserina
    
    April 17, 2018 at 4:38 pm
    
    Ben,
    
    Glad to hear that the snow is receding with you. To answer your questions, we lifted Serina with a marine forklift – because we had one available. The lift is able to raise Serina 15 feet or so. I think the minimum needed for removing the plate would be about 2-3 feet – so that once you’ve undone the hinge bolt, there is enough room to lower the plate out.
    
    The most important thing to remember is how heavy the plate is. My estimate is about 90kg / 200 pounds. Make sure you have some supports (or people to help you) as you undo it.
    
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  3. romillyserina
    
    April 17, 2018 at 4:40 pm
    
    And to answer about antifouling inside the trunk, no, we didn’t do that. It wasn’t too dirty. It had some build-up of calcification from marine worms, but not much – after 10 years. We just scraped it off. Hugh
    
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Ben Fuller

April 13, 2019 at 2:08 pm

I bit the bullet and sailed with a dirty barnacled board last summer. This winter put the boat up on stands high enough to get the board out as soon as the snow leaves it. I’ll use a floor jack to hold the board. I’m not sure if I have to remove the hoisting mechanism ( the original kind ) first or not, I think it will be unhooking the board once I get it lowered enough to reach the cable. Do you know what kind of undercoat was used as the first layer after the board was stripped?

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1. Hugh Proudman
  
  April 14, 2019 at 11:17 am
  
  Ben, I don’t recall what undercoat Simon used, but I’ll drop him a mail and ask. He’s done three Romilly boards now so I’ll find out whether his approach has evolved at all since he did the work on Serina. I’ll get back to you in a few days. Hugh
  
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2. Hugh Proudman
  
  April 15, 2019 at 9:49 am
  
  Ben, here is Simon’s response:
  
  “The procedure is – after sand blasting:
  2 coats of Fertan a rust inhibiter.
  followed by 4 coats of Epoxy primer undercoat
  
  Then I fill and fair the keel
  Followed by 4 more coats of EPU
  then underwater primer
  and finally 2 coats of your preferred Antifouling
  
  It hasn’t really changed over the three keels, although I have ended putting more epoxy on in the early stages so I don’t break through when fairing the keel at point of filling and fairing.”
  
  Hope this helps. If you need more info, I suggest you contact Simon directly (simon.bevan@btconnect.com).
  
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  1. Ben Fuller
    
    April 15, 2019 at 1:22 pm
    
    Thanks, I will be checking with the local steel fabricator about sandblasting. I hope mine is in better shape than yours; the tip is anyway. I have to wait until the frost is out of the ground with things firmed up to be able to get the jack to the boat then the board to the truck. Need to weave my way through some boat stands. If I can get it blasted and primed I will likely do the epoxy and finish work myself once I sort handling the weight. Meanwhile I need to hunt a leak in the boomkin. I did get the dinghy (wood) into the garage for its paint job. I find it a good idea to get the dinghy painted before the boat!
    
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