DIY 20: Building a flash mold is easy. We had a hatch liner on our Coastal Packet that leaked. The liner was made from Starboard. Starboard is a material that's easy to work with, looks good and is almost impossible to seal. Starboard is very slick and that's what keeps it from sealing with caulking to other glue type materials. We removed the Starboard liner, cleaned it up and the liner became a plug for a new liner mold. The Starboard works well because the material is slick and the mold glass and resin can be separated without major problems. Normally anything that has four vertical sides has separation problems. We waxed the Starboard anyway and the mold did separate well. Since the Starboard had the size and shape that we wanted, we had a flash mold for our new liner. It was fast and easy to build. We waxed the mold and laid enough glass and resin for a 1/4-inch laminate. The laminate came out of the mold, but not as easy as the mold separation from the Starboard. We finished the laminate with some sandpaper, filler and then gel-coated the whole thing with lots of gel-coat. It works well and dosen't leak.

The picture shows the hatch liner plug (right), mold (middle) and the laminate on the left. The trawler top in the background belongs to a Com-Pac 16 trawler. The AWL-Grip paint makes for a very shiny surface.

DIY 19: Getting the mast up is a problem on most sailboats. If you have a short mast, life is better. If you have a tall mast, life can be hell. Most of the new Com-Pac boats have systems to make raising the mast better and we can after-market most of those systems. One big problem in the past was that Com-Pac didn't have a good mast raising solution for the CP-23. I think we (The Sailboat Company) have resolved this problem. In fact, we have designed several systems to raise the 23 mast. You can do it on the trailer using the trailer winch or you can do it on the boat using a new tabernacle made by Com-Pac. We are going to talk about the new system in this project.

The Horizon Cat mast and the CP-23 mast is the same mast. The Horizon Cat is shorter and that's the only difference. We can use a Horizon Cat hinge on a 23 mast and it work just fine. The Horizon Cat has a stub mast (short length of mast) that's held in place in the boat. We can't do that with a 23 because the area under the mast in the boat is a passageway. The stub has to be rigid to allow us to push and pull when we raise and lower the mast. The new tabernacle does this with everything above the deck.

You need to cut your mast at the right point. Part of your mast will be the stub and the other part will be mated to the stub with the hinge. It helps to have a mast gallows to rest the mast on when the mast is folded. The stub has to have room for the boom slide and sail slides in the folded position. You can carry your sail and boom under a sail cover when the mast is down. The hinge comes with a stainless knob that takes a jack pole for raising the mast. You can raise the mast with a halyard winch in this configuration.

There are a few secrets to installing a hinge on a mast. Check with me before installation. The installation is easy and it works.

DIY 18: People that make things have to make them fast if they want to stay in business. Henry Ford came up with that idea and it is still used today. Com-Pac started building boats in the early 70s and they decided that caulking the screws that hold the hatch slides to the top of the boat wasn't necessary. They thought that the wood pulled into the screws would seal the slides. That didn't happen and all of our old boats leaked. When you see water on or under the cushions, it's the screws holding the hatch slides that's leaking. The 16s built before 1980 had a wood core. The leaking screws water soaked the core and made a big problem. You can this problem when the fiberglass separates around your hatch entrance. Boats after 1979 didn't use a wood core, but they could still leak from the hatch slide screws. The fix for this problem is to remove all the screws one at time and caulk the screws and replace. Replacing the screws with caulking solves the leaking problem. This problem is still common on most old 16s, 19s and 23s. Newer boats like the Sun Cat and Horizon Cat are currently being caulked by the Factory.

Another leaking problem is common with the Mark II 23s. They have teak battens attached to a white bathroom panel inside the cabin. The panel is attached to the boat with screws that are screwed into the hull to deck joint. The bathroom panel can be changed by buying a new panel from Lowes or Home Depot. The battens are removed and installed in the new panels. Seal the screw holes from the old installation, but don't replace the screws. The panel will work without the problem screws. Both ends of the panel are also held in place by bulkheads.

All Com-Pac Yachts should be dry boats. Your boat will be worth more if it's a dry boat.

DIY 17: A cool project for any sailboat with a stern (stainless steel) pulpit is our new rumble seat modification. It's going to make sailing more comfortable and enjoyable. Our catbird variation is called a rumble seat and it works about the same as it did in the old Ford Model A. I have always liked the catbird seats installed on some Com-Pac sailboats, but installing them after the fact was very expensive. The rumble seat is cheaper and it\rquote s going to be more comfortable.

You don't have to remove the pulpit from the boat and you don't have to bend any stainless steel to make this project work. You do have to understand that a 7/8-inch pipe will fit inside a 1 inch and you will use that technique building this project. You will also need to cut your stern pulpit into 5 pieces with a hacksaw. We cut the uprights pieces 6 inches above the deck and the horizontal splice piece in the middle of the straight span.

Not all stern pulpits are perfect. Sometimes they may lean to the side. A leaning pulpit will work, but it's not going to get better with the rumble seat installed. If both sides of the pulpit lean the same amount in opposite directions, it's going to look good. West Marine sells stainless steel pipe. You will need 2 short pieces of 1-inch pipe for the upper rail splices. The seat parts are made from 7/8-inch stainless pipe. 2 pieces to span the distance between the uprights and 2 short pieces (12 inches) for the fore and aft seat supports. The fittings are all 7/8 inch stainless and they can be identified in the picture below. All the fittings are available from West Marine.

When our seat is finished and working, we plan on taking it apart again and connecting the parts together with the new West System epoxy in a tube. We could drill holes in the splices and use pop rivets, but the epoxy will be faster and I don't like the set-screw arrangement for the fittings. When we put it back together again, it's going to be a permanent installation.

We used Starboard for the seat board in the picture. Teak would be nice, but that would be a little expensive. We may have to cut a hole in the seat for the backstay and the rudder lock down handle will need to be a little longer to make that function work from the seat position. We plan on making the handle 14 inches longer. We don't see a problem using an outboard motor with the rumble seat. We will tell you how the seat works when we put the boat in the water.

DIY 16: Old Com-Pac 16s had vinyl cushions in the early days and most of those cushions have died from old age. Owners didn't buy new cushions because they were expensive. Com-Pac came up with a new feature in their new Legacy that is very popular. The cushions are an option on the Legacy that no one buys (cost), but the boat has a standard indoor-outdoor rug installed over the bunk area that works well and looks good. If that idea will work on the Legacy, it should work on all of our old 16s without cushions. We just did this project on a 1976 model and it looks good. You can buy a rug from Lowes that\rquote s 6 feet wide and 5 feet long. That size will cover the bunks will a little extra left over. We used a heavy rug with a pleat. You roll the edges under the bunk boards and staple. We also used contact cement to hold the rug in place while we trimmed the outer edges with a box cuter. We cemented a nice black rug between the bunks. It's a big improvement over the missing cushion problem.

DIY 15: A project that most people dread is replacing the trim tape on a boat. Installing the new tape isn't that bad, but removing the old is really hard. The hair dryer trick doesn't work that well and a razor blade can damage the gel-coat and maybe a finger or two. The automobile people have a tool that really works well and it basically erases the old tape. You can buy the tool at a car parts store and they are not expensive. Using the tool in a drill works well, but you need to keep the drill speed slow. You can burn a spot in the gel-coat or paint if you run too fast or for too long in one spot. After buffing and waxing, your old hull may look better than it did when it was new. Most marine tapes come with plastic cover on the outside. This allows you to pull and bend the tape without stretching the tape. This outside cover should be removed after the tape is in place on the boat. The plastic will turn white with time and fall off.

DIY 14: We have all wanted to do touch-up work on our boats at times. Most jobs require a shop that has an air-compressor and other painting equpment. We now have something new that's going to help boat owners make their boat look better without going to a shop. It's a portable sprayer that can be used with most liquids and it can be reused several times. The sprayer and the bottle can be cleaned after each use. We are currently doing most of our small gel-coat work on our yard with this equipment. The sprayer does a faster job and you can see the repair better when you work outside in the sun. You need to be careful with wind direction because you could spray someone else\rquote s boat. The little spray bottle cost $7 plus shipping. Is this a cool tool or what?

DIY 13: Sun Cats are great boats with very little working room in the bow. Installing a bow roller, a deck pipe or anything else in the bow area is difficult. The big problem is that pretty teak bulkhead with the little door. Getting the battery in and out is a tight proposition and working on hardware up there is almost impossible unless you have 6-foot arms. The easy way to install equipment in the bow is to remove the teak bulkhead. 4 screws hold the bulkhead in place and they are located behind the small trim pieces on the sides of the bulkhead. The trim pieces are nailed in place and they can be removed with a thin tool between the trim and the bulkhead. Don't mar the finish as you ease the trim pieces off. Mark up and down and right and left because you are going to use the same nail hole to re-install the trim. Move the bulkhead to a position like the one in the picture and the bow hardware will be in arms reach. Not easy arms reach, but a lot better.

DIY 12: DIY Projects 12 and 11 go together. Read both projects for a better understanding of how to repair gel-coat. New boat gel-coat is easy to repair. Just follow the instructions in Project 14 below. An older boat repair is more difficult to do and it takes more time to make your problem go away. The difference between the two is the natural chalk that an old boat generates over time. You can look at the gel-coat under a hatch edge on an older boat and see what the original gel-coat looked like when it was new. Gel-coat that's been exposed to the sun appears to be much lighter. Some boats appear to be almost white, even thought the original color was an off white or cream color when new. Dark colored hulls and decks are more of a problem.

Matching a color is more difficult with older boats. I like to think that we have a new boat color hiding under the chalk and that's true. Removing the chalk from an older boat is an expensive and time-consuming proposition and not very practical. We could match the current color that's been modified by the chalk (lighter), but when we work the repair, the original gel-coat will show through as a halo around the repair. A better solution is to repair a whole panel. We can fool our eyes with this automobile repair solution. Most people have a hard time picking out small color differences if a whole panel has been gel-coated or changed. We normally spray our repaired panel with a gun to get the right type of coverage.

The best place to buy your gel-coat is from the boat builder if you have a new boat. A builder will not have gel-coat for their older boats. There are several sources for colored gel-coat on the Internet. You can also mix your own with a base and pigment obtained from West Marine. Both solutions will work, but they both take lots of trial and error and time.

Some gel-coats come with no wax in the can or bottle. Some boat builders might send out a container of gel-coat without adding any wax to the container. Your gel-coat will never get hard if it doesn't have wax added to the gel-coat. If you do get some gel-coat without wax added, you could try covering your gel-coat with tape. Gel-coat without wax is used in the laminating process and the absence of air should make it kick. That's how a boat builder builds boats. It will take a little longer to get hard. Most gel-coats used for repairs will have wax mixed with the gel-coat. The shelf life of gel-coat is not very long and the absence of air in the container will make a small quantity of gel-coat kick in the container. Keeping the container cold could make it last a little longer.

Paint is better than gel-coat as a marine finish. Paint is much harder than gel-coat and will keep its shine for a longer period of time. The reason boat builders use gel-coat is gel-coat is the cheapest way to build a boat. If we are going to restore or refinish a boat at some point in time, the best solution is paint.

Most first time gel-coat repair people think they can repair a crack by just using some new gel-coat. Cracks can't be repaired until they are opened up with a tool. The crack must be at least 1/8 inch wide and maybe a little more. If you don't like the idea of making holes in your boat, you need to practice on something else first. Use a Dremel to cut the gel-coat next to the crack and then fill that space with filler and gel-coat as required.

Gel-coat, MEK harder (you can buy it at a Car Parts Store), a Dremel and an assortment of wet/dry sandpaper (600, 800, 1000 and 1500) are the main gel-coat repair tools. When your gel-coat repair is as good as it is going to get, it time to buff and wax the repair. Good luck with your repairs.

DIY 11: If you own a sailboat, you are going to have a gel-coat problem at some point in time. You may hit a dock, ding the boat on the trailer or do something else that requires a repair. When that happens, the boo-boo needs to look like it never happen. The repair is easy, but it takes time to do it right.

The first thing we should do is evaluate the damage. We should check the depth of the existing gel-coat because we will have to blend our new gel-coat into the original gel-coat. If the existing gel-coat is very thin, blending will be difficult. The next step is to check the depth of the damage. A filler will be needed in most cases. You can fill the damaged area with gel-coat if you only have a shallow repair. Let say in this case, the gel-coat is damaged into the glass and the color of the glass is light brown. The gel-coat color in this example is white. Since thin gel-coat can be transparent, you might see the light brown glass through the gel-coat unless the gel-coat is very heavy or unless you used a white filler under the gel-coat. Using a white filler is the best solution. Fill the repair with a white filler and make it level with the surrounding area. Use tape to prevent damage to the surrounding area when you work your repair. When the filler is hard, reduce the filler with a tool down to the bottom of the original gel-coat. Fill this new space with gel-coat and work the area between the new and old with 1000 wet sandpaper. If the old gel-coat is thin, you might see through the old stuff at this time. Avoid this problem if possible. The picture below shows a repair that's ready to be sanded. The next project will review buying gel-coat, gel-coat repairs for old and new boats, spraying gel-coat, tools and answers to other related gel-coat problems.

DIY 10: You need to stop your Sun Cat from leaking. Some Sun Cats have had water leaks since they were new and they need to be repaired. I will start with the most common leak and work my way down to the most complicated.

Ports: The ports are plastic ports and they were installed with 3M5200 sealant. The ports can leak at the sealant joint or they can leak where the glass makes contact with the frame. Plastic frames can bend and the glass in the ports can't. A test for a port is to watch rainwater puddle between the frame and the glass. If the water doesn't puddle, the water is going inside the boat. You can see the damage inside a boat from the rainwater. The cabin ceilings with the teak strips will need to be replaced. A fix for the sealant problem is to remove the outside trim pieces and caulk the seam. A frame that doesn't match the flat glass will need the port adjusted. If your port gaskets are damaged, Com-Pac has new gaskets in stock.

Mast Stub: The mast stub should be checked for a good seal at the base of the mast where the mast enters the deck. The sail slug groove in the mast must be sealed and it is hard to do. The stub itself is open at the top and will also leak water inside the boat. That's 3 places in the mast area that can leak. A fix is to caulk the mast base and the mast groove and install a plug at the top of the stub. The area under the mast should be dry.

Seat Hatches: All Sun Cats have gutters that protect their seat hatches from taking on water. The Sun Cat gutters are too shallow. If you park your Sun Cat at an odd angle when it is on the trailer, rainwater can overflow a gutter and go into the bilge. If you have rainwater in the aft bilge, it will become visible in the forward bilge after you trailer or launch your boat. This is common in the early boats with the full centerboard housing. The big question for people with those boats is where did all that water come from? The answer is that it came from the aft bilge and those low gutters. You can't see the water in the aft bilge until it moves forward.

Older Sun Cats with the full centerboard housing can have a centerboard pennant leak. All Sun Cats can and will get some water in the cockpit when they go fast. Water rushing into the centerboard housing will move up the pennant tube and you will see water in the cockpit. Some of the older boats may have a leak between the deck and the pennant tube inside the boat. To check for leaks, you tie a dry cloth to the centerboard pennant tube under the deck. The cloth should still be dry after a good run with the motor. If the cloth is wet, you need to repair the leak with small 2 inch fiberglass tape. Wet the tape with resin and wrap the tape around the tube from the bottom to the top. This will do 2 things. It prevents the rigid tube and the flexible deck from breaking the seal at the cockpit floor when a large sailor moves around in the cockpit and it will also seal the tube. There are several variations in the pennant connection for older boats and this fix will work for all of them.

All Sun Cats have stainless steel centerboard housings. They also have zincs installed on their centerboards. If you don't maintain your zincs and you leave your boat in the water all the time, your centerboard housing screws can become damaged and your centerboard housing could leak. Electrolysis is what does the damage. Inspect your boat if it has been in the water for a long period of time. The screw head should look like new. If your screw heads look bad and the boat doesn't leak, check your zincs and renew. Tin bottom paint should be used on your centerboard and the housing. Don't use copper. The tin paint that should be used is designed for the inboard/outboard lower unit on powerboats. Copper paint on metal will increase the possibility of electrolysis. (up-date: The housing is now fiberglass)

A few early Sun Cats have a gas storage hatch that was made out of plywood and painted. Most of these hatches work well and don't leak. A fix for a damaged hatch is to lay 6-inch wide fiberglass tape inside the hatch. The tape covers the bottom, sides and back of the hatch. We use heavy tape and lots of resin. The old hatch is being used as a mold for the new hatch. The glass becomes a waterproof pan with a good connection to the drain in the rear and the floor in the front. We drill a hole through the glass to make the drain work through the glass.

I think that covers the all the possible leaks. Most users shouldn't have any leaks and that's great. If you do have a leak, find it and fix it is the best plan. A dry boat will be worth more when it comes time to trade boats and a good boat deserves to be a dry boat.

DIY 9: A Mark I Com-Pac 16 is a great boat. It's a very basic boat compared to the Com-Pac 16 Mark II and the other newer Com-Pac 16 sailboats. It has a short aluminum bow pulpit that limits most improvements at the bow. This project modifies the bow pulpit and makes room for a new Com-Pac Legacy anchor roller. The secret to this improvement is that some 1-inch stainless steel tubing can be used as a splice for our 7/8 inch aluminum tubing. Com-Pac uses 7/8 inch tubing on all of its pulpits including the pulpits on its larger boats. In this example, we bent a new longer piece of aluminum tubing and used 2 short 1-inch pieces of stainless as splices. You could cut the pulpit, use the existing aluminum in front of the splice and make your splices longer on both sides. The results would be the same.

Stainless steel tubing is really flat metal that's welded together by a machine. It has a ridge on the inside where it was welded. Sometimes this ridge must be removed or rimmed to make 7/8 inch tubing fit inside 1-inch tubing. Filing or sanding the ridge inside a short piece of 1 inch is easy and sometimes not required. Tubing made by different companies may not fit. The inside diameter of tubing is a gray area and very little is published about this dimension.

DIY 8: We recently talked to someone (In Answers) about the Sun Cat cabin liner and how well it could hold heavy objects. The answer is better than I remembered. The liner in the picture below is very thick, but I don't think you can count on every liner being this thick. The hole below was cut over another hole that held a depth sounder that didn't work. A depth sounders is one of few marine instruments that has to tested in the water. This boat made a trip to the launching ramp and the new depth sounder was tested after installation. The job is done when the new installation works.

DIY 7: Buffing your gel-coat after it has become chalky is the best way to get your boat back to looking new. Using a white compound is the way to remove the chalk and flaws from gel-coat, but that procedure does require a good machine and some experience by the user. Most of the chalk removal is accomplished while the compound is still wet. As the compounds dries, you reduce the pressure on the machine and that technique produces the shine. You remove or cut the chalk and flaws while the compound is wet and then polish the gel-coat as the compound dries. I said that twice because that's the technique that works and you need to practice that procedure. A good machine is an automotive buffer that sells for more than $100. It has the muscle to make the compound work. Normally, little baby buffers do not work that well.

You could buff through the gel-coat if you buffed in the same spot for a long time. I have never buffed through the gel-coat on a Com-Pac Yacht and I don't think that's a problem. Make sure you wash the boat after buffing and then apply a good wax to finish the job. The little 16 in the picture has a painted hull. The original deck gel-coat including the non-skid was buffed and waxed with good results.

The red 16's hull was spray painted using AWLCRAFT paint. AWLCRAFT is used by professionals and can only be applied with a spray gun. AWLGRIP paint is a sister paint that can be applied with a paintbrush or a roller and can be used by anyone. Once the paint is hard, you use the same buffer technique to make the AWLGRIP paint look like it was spray painted. I could repeat that same sentence for the third time, but I think you get the idea. Paint looks better over a longer period of time than gel-coat and if you sail a boat built in the 80s, your boat is going to need some cosmetic paint before long. We don't like painting decks for several reasons and that will be the subject of another project.

DIY 6: Some Com-Pac owners worry about stuffing box leakage. That's the device that stops shaft leakage if you have a diesel motor. Most sailors want to know how much leakage is acceptable. The answer is none if your boat is in the water and hasn't been used for 24 hours. The correct leakage rate for a boat that's being used is in drops per minute. The drops are hard to measure and you may not see any drops while the shaft is turning. You will be able to see a bathtub ring in the area where the drive shaft enters the box. Counting drops after using your boat doesn't count. You have to wait 24 hours for a good measurement. Stuffing boxes are suppose to leak while the drive shaft is turning and they will retain water when the shaft stops. Leaking water provides the lubrication and cooling needed for the shaft and the stuffing box. If you have a dry stuffing box after 24 hours and it puts out a nice spray while the shaft is turning, your stuffing box is working correctly and it doesn't need to be adjusted.

Most stuffing boxes on shoal draft sailboats work pretty well. The stuffing box is really located at water level or maybe a little below water level if the boat is loaded. You can see where the stuffing box shouldn't leak if the stuffing box seal is at or above the water line when the motor isn't being used. Sailboats with engines installed in their keels or where the stuffing box is located at some depth below the surface have more difficulty with leakage. Shaft rotation moves water to the stuffing box seal for lubrication and cooling on shoal draft boats.

Proper stuffing box adjustment is where you tighten the stuffing box cap until you can't turn the driveshaft by hand. You loosen the cap to a point where you can turn the driveshaft by hand. The shaft will be hot or warm to your touch until the adjustment friction has been reduced with use. This is normal. An important point to remember is that you hold the stuffing box body with a wrench when you break the locknut and hold the stuffing box cap when to tighten the locknut. If the body doesn't have flats like the one in the picture, use a pipe wrench to hold the housing. Screwing the cap in and out should be accomplished by hand. If the stuffing box is old or corroded, you will need a wrench. Remember to always use 2 wrenches when you work on a stuffing box. You will be twisting the connection between the rubber hose and the stuffing box if you use 1 wrench. Most Com-Pac Yachts may never need new sealing flax if the correct adjustment procedure is followed when needed.

The picture below shows the cap on the right, the lock nut in the middle and the body on the left. The hose on the far left is the connection between the stuffing box and the stand-pipe that holds the cutless bearing at the stern.

DIY 5: How many sailors like colored hulls? I think the answer is that most people like colored hulls and that's what they are buying. They are one of the popular options on sailboats being built today and they do look good when they are new. Keeping them looking like new can be a problem because dark colors show flaws more readily than our white hulled boats.

Most new owners want to wax their hulls and keep the color protected as long as possible. They use a quality marine wax with mixed results. The boat shines, but now they can see all of those little white spots that they hadn't noticed before. You don't see the same type of flaws in a white hull after waxing. The difference is the color and what our eyes see.

The recommended wax for your colored hull is a COLORED WAX. Car-part stores sell that type of wax for dark colored cars. The wax can be used on gel-coat and it really works. The residue that left behind after waxing a hull with that type of wax is the right color. If you have already waxed your hull with a white marine wax, it may take some time for the new wax to settle into those small pinholes and make them disappear. When your flaws are filled with a colored wax, your eyes will only see a pretty hull that shines. That's what we call magic. The first picture below shows a blue hull that's been waxed with a marine wax. White pinholes were located on both sides of the Com-Pac logo. After waxing the right side with a colored wax, the white pinholes on that side have almost disappeared. The second picture shows the wax we use on green hulls.

DIY 4: Rudder bearings help make precise sailing possible and they improve the feel of sailing. The definition of sailing is making a boat move in a balanced condition with wind power. The feel you get from the tiller tells you how well your sailboat is balanced (weatherhelm) and is an important part of sailing. After a few years of use, most small Com-Pac sailboats have enough slop in the rudder to make precise sailing difficult. If you plan on installing an autopilot in your Com-Pac sailboat, you need bearings first or the autopilot will discharge your battery while it is trying to maintain a heading.

Com-Pac sells after-market bearings for your rudder. The easy way to install these bearings is to remove the complete rudder including the part that's bolted to the transom. You need to drill the existing holes (pictured below) to 31/64 inch. You can use a drill press or a hand drill for this purpose. 4 holes need to be drilled, 2 in each rudder part. You will install 4 bearings. After drilling the holes, your new bronze bearings can be pressed into the rudder housing with a standard shop vise. This modification is easy to do and you will be happy with the results. The picture below shows the housing drilled and the bearing in position ready to be pressed.

DIY 3: Pettit paint products recommend a 12-mil thickness for its barrier coat system. The reason for having a barrier coat on your boat is explained in Project 2 below. The thickness of a barrier coat determines its blister protection capabilities and we recommend owners measure this thickness when your bottom is painted. The thickness of a business card is about 12-mil and we can use one to measure the thickness of our paint. Holding a business card next to the painted edge is a good way to measure your protection. You can feel the size difference as you rub your finger over the joint between the card and the paint. We see new boats every now and then with thin bottom paint. Maybe the maintenance person didn't know about the 12-mil rule.

DIY 2: All owners that sail their boats on lakes sometimes wonder why they need bottom paint. Bottom paint is designed to resist marine growth and we all know the lakes don't normally have barnacles and other marine growth. A new boat still needs barrier coats and bottom paint if the boat is going to live on a lake because we need to avoid gel-coat blisters. In this country, all sailboats have colored gel-coat on their bottoms. Some English boat builders build their boats with a clear gel-coat because they know about the pigment problem. The color pigment in gel-coat is a material that can dissolve. If the pigment dissolves, it leaves a void in the gel-coat that can cause gel-coat blisters. White boats have pigment in their gel-coat just like the blue boat below. Seeing the differences between the top and the bottom on a white boat is more difficult. The little gel-coat bumps will be there on both boats. If the boat is going to stay in the water, a new boat needs to be properly prepared. An old boat doesn't need fresh bottom paint, but it does need bottom paint. If an old boat has never been painted, you do the barrier and bottom paint.

DIY 1: All Com-Pac Cat Boats need a mast plug. This keeps rainwater from running down the mast stub and into the boat when the mast is folded. You purchase a piece of Starboard (a white plastic material) from West Marine. Any thickness will do, but thicker is better. Put a piece of carbon paper on the mast stub and tap the board that's on top with a hammer to make an outline. Another way to make a pattern is to use some thin cardboard. Lay the cardboard on top of the stub and use a small hammer to tap the inside mast edge through the cardboard. Using a jigsaw or bandsaw, cut to the inside line making the plug just a little large. Sand the edges with sandpaper. Then hammering the plug in place gently will shave a small amount of Starboard off the edges for a tight fit. You can see the shavings in the picture below if you look close. You also need to caulk the mast grove at the deck level for a dry boat. Current new boats come with a mast plug.