I guess this is what comes with a 31 year old boat that’s been through several owners and declining care. Fortunately the mechanical issues were handled, oil changes and such, were attended to, and that is what counts the most. But when it came to other random maintenance, I suppose the intentions were good, but the repairs, in some cases, did more damage than good. Boats, by nature, develop leaks as they age and bedding loses its bond. Hatches, ports, fittings, you name it. Water finds its way into places it isn’t meant to be, and left unchecked, does damage. I suppose you can say he tried, but apparently, the previous owner’s solution was to apply liberal amounts of silicone to the areas in question. As I said, it seems well intentioned. But often, silicone is NOT the ideal sealant, as it has a tendency not to stay sealed, yet is near impossible to remove. One such example, the running lights, while minor, is aggravating all the same. These massive, heavy, intricately constructed masterpieces are presently buried beneath a rubbery, opaque film of gop that has sealed them together, yet did not keep the intended water out. Internal electrical in the starboard light was replaced with non-marine grade components, which corroded to a lump of rust. Yesterday, I spent three hours with an assortment of razor blades and picks, removing this silicone snot, yet more silicone long ago oozed into inaccessible areas, and the light is still sealed quite securely together.
Yaaaay!
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May 2, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Seaver
Speaking of well-intentioned but disastrous DIY projects…
When we moved into our house, the basement was lined with slab after slab of styrofoam panels. Which the house inspector pointed out were the old, toxic-fume-emitting kind that were in violation of code. As we began to pry it off the walls, we quickly discovered that the former owner had affixed them to the cinderblock with *roofing tar*! The styrofoam is gone; the squiggles of roofing tar are still there.
That is still not as bad as what our downstairs neighbors/landlords discovered in our Sioux Falls rental. They pulled up the living room carpet with the intention of refinishing the hardwood floor. The first thing they realized was that the carpet had been laid down with a nailgun in rows 1′ apart marching across the entire room. Once they managed to pry out enough nails to remove the carpet, the second thing they found was that someone had leveled the floor (which sloped about 1/2″) with a room-wide layer of plaster.
May 2, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Seaver
I have no idea what I typed to trigger that smiley, but that’s supposed to be a closing parenthesis.