1) Stainless Steel Lobster Pot Guard from Keel to Skeg 
    I have used this configuration for 11 years and well over 20,000 NM.  I have never nagged anything - and have cruised Maine for 4 or 5 summers during this period. This angle iron should work well on nets as well as crab and lobster pot lines.  I once spent an entire day in the Florida Keys running over every lobster trap I could find (hundreds) and didn't snag any.  I figured that I better test this system and what better place to do it than in calm seas and warm water.  Once, I ran over a small log and it just bounced underneath... 
   The front of the SS angle-iron is attached with large SS bolts about 6 inches up from the bottom of the keel and below the keel zincs.  The keel is solid fiberglass there.  The bolts go all the way through the keel.  The rear is attached to the underside of the bronze shoe on the skeg with much smaller hex head bolts.  The idea is that if it comes loose, I want the back end to go first.  The front attach point 5 to 6 inches above the bottom of the keel to keep stress off the bar if I were to go aground, while giving me the ability to rotate the boat around the keel in mud, etc.  The angle-iron configuration is very strong and the "L" shape of the angle iron keeps the bolt heads from snagging on anything.  It has no apparent affect on the speed of the boat.  Ths system has so far required no maintenace except for paint.

2) AutoProp - The prop works well on a V-42 but the zincs only last 3 months or so.  The bearings are only good for about 4000 NM and the bearing replacement kit costs $200 to $250.  See the AutoProp folder on this FTP site for underway performance details.

3) Rudder shoe - The bronze rudder "shoe" is held on by three bronze pins.  They are peened over on the ends and are not as big as they appear.  The fiberglass on the skeg protrudes down inside the "shoe" and has holes for the pins.  The "shoe" is just a casing that fits around the bottom of the skeg.  I drilled them out in order to remove the rudder.  To drop the rudder, ensure the rudder quadrant and all attachments inside the boat are removed.  Dig a hole about 1 1/2 feet deep, hammer out the bronze pins (they can be banged out from either side) and ease the rudder down.  Don't scratch the rudder stock or future corrosion may result.  I had a metal shop fabricate new pins for the reinstallation.

4) Blister job - In 1993, Deaton's Boatyard in Oriental, NC, did a blister job on RESTLESS.  I had lots of small blisters in just the gelcoat.  The bottom was peeled, dried for 2 months, the bottom faired, and then coated with the proper thickness of Interlux 3000 epoxy.  The boat re-blistered within a year!  Even the repairs done a year later blistered again!  I didn't haul for 9 years after that...  Deaton didn't offer further assistance and left me hanging.  I had a diver clean the bottom every 3 to 4 months.  But the Interlux Super Fiberglass BottomCote continued to work fairly well over the nine years (I keep the boat in brackish water).  Even the metal parts held up well (Deaton does know how to paint metal parts well!).  Once hauled, some of the large blisters were blasted off by the pressure washer.  The hull underneath is perfect.  The only thing that blistered was the blister job.  If it ain't broke - don't fix it...!  My "new" boatyard refuses to do a blister job with Interlux products.  My next one will be with West or Awlgrip epoxies.

Wayne Strausbaugh  wstraus@cconnect.net  (252) 637-9327