Bill Vosteen
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Regarding the Lake Ontario 300, Dave Poulin sailed this on Contender in the double-handed fleet at least once. Could be more. This was when they held it about a month earlier than they do now when the lake is considerably colder.
The polars for the inboard and the outboard should be the same within reason. The calibration variations of your instruments and sea conditions will cause more error than the weight and drag difference between the inboard and outboard versions of the O30.
My opinion is the polars are a good reference and should mainly be thought of as educational tools. Trying to sail an Olson 30 to your instruments will send you to the back of the pack as quickly as anything.
Here’s a link to the polars for the Express 27 with some commentary by Carl Schumacher. These are very similar to the Olson 30, just a bit slower target speeds. http://express27.org/articles/polar
I had a boat that was wet sailed its whole life and successfully beat the blister problem for at least the 10 years I owned my boat after applying the barrier coats.
I used sandblasting to open up all the blisters. I found that most all the blisters in an Olson 30 are in the gelcoat and not in the structural glass fabric. If you get your sandblasting technique down, it only opens up the weakened areas and leaves everything else intact. If I remember correctly, it took me 4 to 6 hours of sandblasting to do the whole bottom. Be sure to remove any bottom paint before sandblasting as the sand can drive the paint into the area you want to bond to. Wash to blasted area as there is contamination that caused the blisters in the first plasce that you want to remove. Allow the boat to dry thoroughly, the longer the better. Use heat lamps to speed up things if needed. I sandblasted my boat in the Fall and allowed it to dry all Winter. I then faired the open blistered areas and then rolled 5 or 6 barrier coats of Interlux 2000(?). (I think that’s the right number.) You need a gallon per coat for the Olson 30. If you’re going to sand & fair the barrier directly, you might want to add a couple of extra coats. You don’t want to sand through any of your barrier which you’ve worked so hard to add.
West Epoxy had a booklet 20 years ago, now I think the have all the information online.
If you can chase down the current owner of Thumper in Maine, you could see if the barrier coat is still intact that was done almost 20 years ago.
Its a tremendous amount of work but it is well worth it for the boat. I was shocked at how much the boatyards charge for a barrier job until I figure out how many hours I put into my job. Using their fees it came out just about what they were charging.
Good luck, let me know if you have any questions.
Bill vosteen
