Maintenance

T

tom&shan

New member
According to David H. Pascoe, author of Mid Size Power Boats, "it takes about an hour of work for every hour of pleasure ... boat is maintained to a certain standard." This is for routine maintenance such as cleaning, interior maintenance such as housekeeping, and mechanical maintenance.
My question to C-Brats and C-Dory owners, not counting your specific projects such as adding components, cutting boats in half, etc., does that sound about right, i.e. 1 hour work for each hour of use on the water.

Cheers,
Tom
 
Tom-

I think the 1 for 1 is about right, generally, if you really take care of your boat.

If you really enjoy tinkering, it can get really out of line, say 2 for 1 or more.

What's more, as you get older, it's harder to do all the cleaning and maintenance, so they occupy a larger proportion of your time compared to boating time.

Fortunately, some of us enjoy the cleaning and maintenance of our loved boat toys enough that it doesn't matter that much.

On the other hand, you can just not do much of that stuff, but your boat will go to beezelbub briskly and so will its resale value.

Joe. :lol: :thup
 
As Ratty said to Mole,
"There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it."

It's only work, if you think of it as work.
Some chores are simply less fun than others.

Jim
 
I'm with DoD-Dan: use the boat more to lower the proportion. I need to practice what I preach... seems that circumstances have kept us from using the boat as much as we'd like. And now it takes a bit longer to keep her spruced up.

1 to 1? Not for us... what am I missing? 8)
 
I spend about 30 minutes cleaning/outboard flushing for each trip out in my boat. That could be an hour trip or an all day trip. For an overnight or longer trip, I may spend 1 to 2 hours packing and unloading. Every 100 to 200 hours on the engine I spend an afternoon changing the oil and gear oil and a few other things. I am not a boat waxer, I only spend a few hours a year with waxing. The newer gel coats just don't need that much waxing,( if the boat is stored under cover.)
Remember, Pascoe's definition of a "mid sized boat" is a boat 30 to 55 feet. A 55 footer is about 100 times bigger than a 22 C-Dory :wink:

Robbi
 
It depends. My boat gets about 6-8 hours of true care annually. The rest is play. By care I mean the wax, the oil changes, the routine checks, the odds and ends the come up, winterizing, trailer service. But, I will concede, I already have that in it this year and it hasn't even gotten wet yet.
 
For us the time and ratio would be much lower unless the time involved for preparation in all aspects of a long range wilderness type cruise was included then it would be much higher. When we retire and are more continually on the go using the boat for more normal cruising with some of the more remote also then it would drop back in line with Jim's and DOD's assessment.

Jay
 
Some folks like Poly Glo--but it is a polymer, which will yellow and must be re-applied--and will build up with time. I have never used it.

I would say that at this point, I probably spend 1:1, because of the extensive work needed on both of my boats. (including the new one)

Over all, I have spent much less than that on fiberglass boats. When we were full time cruising, we were constantly working on the boat daily--we would take a week to do varnish every 6-8 weeks. But maintaince was several hours a day.

When we owned wooden boats--we figured 10 hours of work for one hour of use....

I agree that the more you use the boat--the less percent maintance time there is. Remember that Pascoe is looking a twin engine inboard boats. These require more maintance than our C Dories.
 
I do the best that I can over years. I don't abuse stuff and seems me that I perform above average upkeep but never had any point of reference until I joined this group of boaters! Yipes!
I was not planning to post the truth. I never had new boat or a show boat so never worried that everything being spic n span and thought being on water was longer than the upkeep. .... but if I had a new C Dory, Ranger, or Tom Cat, I am sure it would multiple coats of wax on it in short order and there are a boatload of upgrades and improvements that I have learned here to hit the 10:1 mark. I just wish Walmart would buy West Marine and have the C brats run it.
 
To elaborate a little on what I said above, I'll offer the following:

I can really see the difference between by C-Dory 22 and my Sea Ray 265 Sedan Bridge. The Sea Ray is roughly 4 times as big in surface area and volume as the C-Dory, and takes proportionately more time.

Maintenance work goes up with the square of the waterline!

Secondly, having both boats at the marina in the water increases my workload for maintenance proportionately.

Thirdly, getting older isn't making things easier. With my bad hip and back, getting down to the marina with the water lowered by as much as 125 feet vertically becomes a big job in itself.

Then too, for example, getting down into the engine compartment to check all the fluid levels, belt tensions, etc., on the twin V-6's takes me about 4 or more times than it would have 5-10 years ago.

Sometimes it seems most all of my time is spent just doing maintenance and tinkering around with projects, but I still enjoy it, so won't be giving it up soon if all goes well with my health recovery endeavors.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
IT-SEA-BIT-C":29afqo8n said:
A 125 ft. tide????????
Click to expand...

No, a 125 foot drop in a lake level in a drought year!

Shasta Lake is a reservoir, not the Seven Seas!

Full, it holds 4.5 million acre feet of water, but now holds about 2 milion.

Hoping for a big rainfall year!

Cheers!

Joe. :teeth :thup

The Three Shastas

MtShasta_Dam.sized.jpg
 
I teach scuba diving. I know many of you are scuba divers. Using the same logic of work to use, think about all the time training, maintaining equipment, packing, driving to the destination (or flying), checking in at the dive shop, checking in on the dive boat, boating to the dive site, putting gear together, getting to the dive site, suiting/gearing up, in you go for a half hour dive, sit time on the boat, next half hour dive, then reverse the procedure. Once you get home, rinse, clean, hang, dry, repack, maintain ....... Is it worth it? You bet. Some things you just can't put a price tag on or logically justify in a work vs. use situation. It's just for the love of it.

John
Swee Pea
 
Joe, wow, i was just kidding ,almost cant bieieve it could drop so much hope you get some rain.(now i guess i better post something about maintenance). as far as cleaning type & basic,just pull her on trailer rinse off flush motor&drive.2 man stand-up bolster,no cabin on my 26.but i do wax bottom often , and climb up front between bulkheads to whack spiderwebs .anyone with un painted bottom ever try using something on bottom to reduce hydrodynamic drag,know it dont help much but will try anything to get 1more mph .thanks ,,,,,,,,,,john
 
John-

We coated the bottoms of racing sailboats with Sailkote. Works good at low speeds, and if so, would work at higher/planing speeds!

Cheers! (and SPEED!)

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
thanks,Joe sounds a whole lot better than laying on by back under trailer waxing(by hand).now how to keep overspray from falling back on my face? just pulling your leg.,gonna get some and try it thanks for the link ! let you know what i think .----------john
 
As this thread demonstrates so perfectly, one hour on the boat generates at least one hour of maintenance. In addition, it is obvious that one hour on the boat also generates many hours of discussion.
 
Coming up on the 50-hour mark for the J.C.Lately I'm finding that 2-hr runs on the Strait typically require about 0:45 washdown/engine flush before backing the tub into The Barn (another 0:20 typically). BUT, still being raw recruits at this activity, I find that one run generates something like 1-2 hours worth of questions, the answers to which are obtained from various sources such as this site, books, phone conversations, e-mails and during the course of dog-walks (are you listening, Hardee?).
I'm hoping that the time proportions will shift a bit with acquired experience.
To date, the Tplay/Tmaintain ratio is still regarded as integral rather than fractional.

Paul Priest
Sequim
 
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