Stuff That Works, Maintenance & Refits
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Bock Marine Soothes Boatyard Hell
McMaster-Carr
Bock Marine Soothes Boatyard Hell
I was at the top of the mast because we decided that before transiting under the charted 86-foot clearance high voltage cable with our 74-foot mast, it might be a really good idea to remove the 3-foot lightning conductor.
"Boat Yard Hell” is our term of endearment for Morgan’s Cloud’s annual date with a boat lift. There just isn’t much fun to it: living at the top of a 15’ ladder, peeing in a bucket, the morning dash to the toilet building, and of course day after day of boat chores as we try and get it done.
This summer’s plans necessitated hauling early in the spring when our normal yard, Billings Diesel and Marine, is still “enjoying” sping in Maine, complete with dripping fog and chilly nights, neither conducive to getting five coats of paint on the bottom in the time allotted.
So, based on the recommendation of a friend, we selected Bock Marine in Beaufort, North Carolina, a great yard. No, they are not Billings, who have just about every service possible available under one roof, but if you are looking for a haul and paint efficiently done at a fair price, Kenny Bock and his crew are worth a try.
Best of all for many of us, they actively encourage owners to work on their own boats, almost unheard of these days. The whole place and all the staff are imbued with Kenny’s easy going and flexible can-do attitude. They haul with an old, but meticulously maintained, 75 ton boat lift so quite large boats can be accommodated. Draft is restricted to about 8-feet (check with Kenny) and there is an overhead power cable charted at 86-feet that must be negotiated.
Contact: Kenny Bock, bockmar@clis.com, (252) 728-6855
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McMaster-Carr
During this last refit, we had custom wood bezels with imbedded helicoils built to fit permanently around the cabin ports (we’ll discuss these further in our Refit Series). During cold weather, we screw Plexiglas covers to the bezels and voila…no condensation! However, after installing them we realized that the little chains with small bars at the end that hold the ports open were now too short. (Have you noticed that every time you make a change on the boat, something else doesn’t work and you have to fix that, etc.?) A few years ago we would have despaired, knowing it was going to be a huge task to come up with longer chains, but during this refit we learned about McMaster-Carr and, sure enough, they had exactly what we needed.
That was the start of a love affair with this great company. Need a high quality ¼-20 tap specially coated to cut 316 stainless steel? Go to McMaster-Carr. Go to them again when in a moment of inattention you wring that tap off and need a tap extractor to get the pieces out.
The good
news is that, not only do they have everything imaginable, they also have
an incredibly easy-to-use website and an efficient shipping department
that will even ship outside the USA. So don’t despair, visit www.mcmaster.com!
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