Hi. Looking for guidance on the best marine calk / sealant.

Looking to calk a steel bolt that goes through concrete, that is intermittently submerged in salt water. It looks as though some silicone sealant was previously used that seems to be working but I can’t be sure.

I am seeing conflicting things online between a polymer product, silicon, or adiseal. It needs to be permanent, resistant to salt water, and long-lasting.

Any help would be appreciated. Specific product recommendations welcome.

ETA: If helpful, the area this is on will not be moving so the material doesn’t need regular flexibility. It’s being used mostly to prevent rust and prevent water from getting inside, but does not need to hold two items together. Being used to keep water out as a sealant, but not to seal two objects together. Just trying to prevent water from entering around a bolted piece of steel into concrete.

Also for those curious, this is on a concrete barge. I do own a sailboat though and thought this forum would be most helpful :-)

ETA2: When I mention it needs to be permanent, I should have been more specific. It needs to hold up to intermittent salt water exposure (fully submerged) for a long time. It doesn’t need to be permanent in the sense that no one can remove it.

ETA3: The steel was recently treated with Gempler’s rust converter so most of the steel is now black and has a protective layer. I’d be adding the sealant on top of this.

Thank you all so much for your help!!

Hey, all, my dear friend and captain of over 15 years has said that his J/99 will likely be the last boat he buys, and I would like to reward him for his great skill and openness, bringing new people into the sport of racing and lifting up others like myself with a small token of appreciation. Any recommendations to source a half hull plaque of a J/99 would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

This was in Thailand if i remember correctly.. Big storm rolled in, luckily we had got away with some cool winds, medium swell and a little rain.. I remember days before this, we were anchored in similar clouds, and lighting had hit the water just around 500ft from us!!

I recently started to self learn elementary level celestial navigation and was searching whether smaller or bigger units of measurements or numerical prefixes exist in the sexagesimal system like they do in metric (kilometres, metres, centimetres, etc.). I know that 1 nautical mile is 1/60th of a degree. However, are there numerical prefixes for 1/60th of a nautical mile or 60 nautical miles other than 1 arc second or 1 arc degree respectively? Would it even make sense to have other prefixes? Also what's the purpose (and perhaps advantage) of decimalisation of minutes and seconds, when keeping the sexagesimal consistency seems (to me) more intuitive?

My old man is a dinghy sailer and has built a few of his own boats (most recently a First Mate 15.) He would like something with a cabin. Looking around, I really like the form of the O-day Daysailer. Is there some reason only old ones are for sale? Are they just too expensive new? Probably wouldn't consider new anyway because the company doesn't ship, but I'm curious.

Are there any similar boats out there that can be sourced in Australia? Thanks.

Hey all, I am looking for some advice to remedy this situation. I’ve co-owned our 39’ o’day sailboat for 7 years with my father who until the last couple years was a very capable partner. Unfortunately, the last couple of years has not been great for him mentally. He gets confused easily and co-owning the boat has really turned into me doing everything while also fixing many issues he creates. I love him and it’s all still worth it, but it gets very frustrating at times.

At the end of this season he put 5 gallons of diesel fuel into our fresh water tank. Now that we are on the dry, I tried siphoning it out but it just didn’t work. To remove the water/fuel mixture we instead just ran the galley kitchen tap until the tanks were empty and collected all of the run off into a 55gallon drum which I’ll bring to our local waste removal company for proper disposal.

How would you go about cleaning the tank and removing all of the diesel fuel remnants that are now lining the tank and water lines to the kitchen? We were thinking about putting a bottle of dawn dish soap into the tank and just flushing it many times until clean. Is there a better method?

I am new to the world of sailing, even though I grew up on the great Chesapeake. In Annapolis, Maryland.

You would think I know all the resources but I don’t .

Am I required to be ASA certified to sail coastal? Are there equivalent certifications?

What is it like to go through the process of getting certified?

Can I just learn to sail without being certified in anything and be legal?

I used to be in the Navy (AN E3) I don’t know how to sail. I’m a veteran now and these harsh economic times I don’t have enough privilege to pay thousands of dollars.

I simply want to learn the basics of sailing to be able to sail around the Chesapeake without killing myself and go from there.

What resources are available? How does one break into the sailing world and enter this community? Do I have to be rich? Will I be accepted for being blue-collar?

My goal one day is to buy and restore my own vessel and live on it full-time.

Any advice or a point in the direction of good resources for civilians and veterans would be most appreciated.

I’m a sailer that doesn’t know how to sell and I would like to change that.

I was just curious on how long it took to get the experience needed to feel comfortable enough for a major passage or long distance sailing. I grew up in the Midwest having never sailed, but recently moved to Virginia where I see a lot of sailboats. This sparked my interest and I took to YouTube to be engulfed by channels like: Sam Holmes Sailing, Madison Boatworks, Sailing Triteia, etc. I watch them and it seems like they have an expanded knowledge on sailing, and how to overcome what seems like multiple mechanical and maintenance issues. Is that something you just learn after multiple years of sailing, or are these folks anomalies? I know the answer to this probably varies depending on the sailor, but I’m very intrigued by this lifestyle and would love to take lessons and maybe get a boat someday, with hopes to eventually have some long distance voyages like those channels. Any advice on how folks got into sailing without growing up sailing would be greatly appreciated as well!

Can anyone offer advice on the bewildering number of options out there for installing Starlink hardware and organizing payment plans on our 12m ketch? We'll be sailing for about 6 months from NZ to and around Indonesia. We're definitely at the lower budget end of things, already have an Inreach and used an IridiumGO between the UK and NZ, buying local (real and e) sims for all the countries we visited along the way. I'm hoping that Starlink can allow us to have better, reliable connections in anchorages wherever we may be. I'd just be using it for weather and emails while underway. What are the restrictions of payment plans? Do people switch when they go offshore? Is there now a 12V unit so I can use less power and bypass our inverter?

Thanks

Edited to add Some have suggested the "roam" plan, but this seems impossible for a circumnavigation if you have to keep returning to your home country every 90 days to keep it active. What other options are there?

Location: Atlantic Canada

Hello, anyone know where I can get large spools of #30 Tarred twine?

Looking to wrap our helm wheel in French whip and can't seem to find large spools anywhere locally; it even seems challenging to find online through Canadian retailers.

Anyone wrap their wheel like this themselves? I was looking at the way these folks wrapped their wheel and wanted to replicate for our boat wheel and my brother-in-law's boat wheel.

I need to repower my 41 Morgan OI next spring. Couple of questions:

I've decided to replace the 4.154 Perkins with a Beta Marine 50.

Has anyone recently seen a cost for the engine? Is there any delay on receiving the motor from the manufacturer?

Where to do it. I'm currently in Key West There is a dealer in Pensacola, FL. Same in Oriental, NC. I figure the labor costs would be less there. Thoughts about which scenario is better?

Any options in Mexico or Central America? I'm also looking for some other projects (carpentry, railings etc)

It was connected to the hull at the point you can see in the background. There was some orange sticky liquid inside and it seems to be connected to electricity. Any help would be very much appreciated!

Please advise me. I did a day skipper course in Greece, a school from Athens with great reviews. Unfortunately, the teacher was yelling at the entire crew all the time. I had sailing experience and managed pretty well, but there were two other participants doing competent crew who had no experience and struggled to help while docking the boat (Mediterranean mooring can be tricky). Every single time the instructor yelled at them and everyone else for several minutes. People around observing us looked shocked.

I complained to the school, and they concluded that we had incompatible communication styles. I am really wondering if this is normal and if I have to prepare myself that sailing means being yelled at. Towards the end I was getting stomach cramps when I heard him yelling.

I really love sailing but this was just super hard to handle and generally an awful experience.

Hey everyone, my fiancé and I are currently sailing down to Bahamas, planning to cross to Bimini from Miami (or key largo). We only have about 1.5 months to spend in the Bahamas before we have to sail back stateside. Who has suggestions on where we should go given we only have 1.5 months there?

Boat is a moody 376

Oh you're gonna have some THOUGHTS on this one.

Not you, you're a sailor.

I mean you. Yes, YOU. Your boat has sat in a slip for two years now. You haven't sailed it. You haven't worked on it. You haven't even cleaned the bird crap off it.

You're spending hundreds of dollars every month for years in a row...just to sell it for less eventually.

Eventually you won't even be able to sell it. It's worth something now. You have offers. Those offers are more money in your pocket for something you're spending money on and you're just going to accept that lower offer in another year or 3.

After you've spent more money, that is.

We are going to Turkiye next spring and we were wanting to rent a boat in Turkiye and sail to Greece for a few days. I've been told we need a license (Rya/icc) but we only have our Canadian one and it's only in the summer you can do the test for the other. So we can't get it. I'm wondering if we rent in Turkey, if it really matters if we have it? Is it something that is regularly checked or only initial rental?

We are experienced sailers, having sailed most of the Carribean and around north America.

Hey all,

Recently got my Tartan 34-2 down from south of Annapolis to Wilmington NC and am currently planning my next trip. Looking for suggestions on required vs recommended gear for this trip.

My plan right now would be to head south in the spring staying on the inside of the Gulf Stream. The boat has a new MFD with charts, wheel autopilot, depth finder, and good ground tackle. Genoa is in decent condition. I’ll also have a new mainsail in the next couple of weeks. Standing rigging appears to be in good shape, but is original. Hull is in good shape, engine is original but runs nicely. Just purchased a dinghy.

Upgrades I’m looking into over the next six months: -composting head (the current head stinks and doesn’t work well)

• AIS receive. I’m considering this a necessity due to crossing a lot of busy ports on the journey south.

-lithium ion power bank -Refrigeration -epirb. I have a PLB that I can bring which is notably not an Epirb.

Would appreciate some advice on required gear vs. recommended gear. I figure I have about 5K to spend over the next couple of months so I need to spend it wisely.

I don't know a ton about sailing. I was wondering, how often do sailboats appreciate in value? I'm not looking to invest in one, but have some work related to this question...

It seems like it would be relatively rare for them to appreciate, and would be rare for them to be a good investment after factoring the costs of maintenance, mooring, etc.

Could anyone shine any light on this? Thanks

Chartering in Croatia next summer. They relayed I need IPC training complete. I have ASA 101, 103, 104 completed over the last 3 years. I found one source that says I can pay 900US and challenge those courses that I've already completed for the cert. I sounds as if IPC is just all the courses I've already taken however. Has anyone else been in my position. Any recommendations of courses around Annapolis, MD?

Hello everyone, I will soon have to make a secret santa gift to a colleague. I know that he has a passion for sailboating, but unfortunately I know nothing about this topic. Do you guys have any nice idea about a small gift that would be appreciated by an enthusiast and used for sailing?

My budget is 20€, thank you in advance!

I was sailing for 2-3 years on ^ that boat, and I’ve been off it for about 4 months now after putting it up for sale, I’m really starting to miss it.

In this photo we are anchored in Karimunjawa Indonesia.

Older Soling with trailer, complete for race or day sailing? Worth about $2,500. Where would you go if you were in the market.