Removing Reg stickers

[VA Rifleman]

 Guys. Anyone know a good way to remove old boat registration stickers without messing up the gel coat?

Hair dryer/ heat gun?

[Dee]

Hair dryer, heat gun if you got one.

[VA Rifleman]

Thanks Dee. The old one has been on there for a while.

[Dee]

Also, 3m makes an aerosol sticker remover. Orileys sells it.

[Graybeard]

Try WD-40, that is one of it's million uses.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup penetrating oil over night then wipe it off and use a heat gun but only as hot as nessisary. Ive fooled with the glue removers and they never worked great for me. Another thing to try is my wife has a steam gun for taking wrinkles out of her work clothes. She got it off ebay prettty cheap. When i bought my challenger it had emmision stations stickers on the windshield and a few minutes with the steam gun and they came right off then i used glue remover to take the glue off but again be careful with the heat on your gell coat.

Try WD-40, that is one of it's million uses.

[VA Rifleman]

WD-40, 3m and steam. More good ideas.. thanks guys. May be easier in warmer weather.

Thought I had to change the registration numbers but they stay the same. That was a relief.

The little sailboat boat has anti fouling paint on the bottom. Rather have waxed gel coat. Best I can tell, removing anti fouling is hazardous.

[Lloyd Smale]

even on my white whaler it left a ghost number that i had to polish out.

[VA Rifleman]

Boat originally came out of Minnesota. Remnants of the larger Minn sticker still there after 40 some years.

Researched some. Have ablative type bottom paint in good shape. Both types are a pain to remove. Think I’ll declare the bottom paint a “feature” vs a “problem” and move on.

[VA Rifleman]

TM7. Thanks for the response. You’ve a good take on bottom paint and poise a good question.

“If you're sailing in marine waters why would you remove antifouling paint, especially ablative paints?”

Sailing fresh water. Smith Mtn Lake. Plan A is to dry sail by storing the boat on its trailer mast up and rigged. Lots cheaper then wet slips. Only 17’ so it’s relatively easy to launch.

The Ablative paint has some rough spots. Some videos show this paint tends to rapidly clog sanding disks though I’ve yet to try it. Not keen on sanding beneath the boat with the toxic dust. Pondering how best to rotate boat upside down if working bottom, figuring it’d be a better and safer job.

Irregardless, this spring, I’ll sling the boat from rafters to raise it off the trailer so I can can lower the foil (centerboard) for polishing.

Power washing may take off some. When washing by hand, you can see some bottom paint come off. Figuring a waxed / polished gel coat hull would be marginally faster.

There’s a small centerboard fleet holding races (Portsmouth) that’s always looking for new boats. My sailing instructor helps run some of the races and campaigns a J24 to good effect.

Found a good pic of another Boston Whaler Harpoon 5.2. Lady skipper from Texas that knows what she’s doing!

[VA Rifleman]

You’ve good taste in boats. I like the Capri 22. C&C also designed the Harpoon 5.2. Don’t have a crew nor big marina funds so small is good.

There’s a neat Precision 18 on the lake for sale. Nice to have the boat in the barn during the off season.

Here’s the 42 year old boat I’m trying to get going. Modest and cheap. Hopefully fun.

[VA Rifleman]

You bet, the Capri 22 has a lot going for it. The wing keel version would be trailerable.

Sweetest set up I’ve seen was the Instructors lake house with the J24 on a lift. Surprised at how the boat could turn in its own length. Got fussed at for too much rudder as it acted like a brake.

So many nice designs now days. For big fast dinghys, the Beneteau First 18 SE is wicked cool but man, it’s about 10 times the cost of the used whaler.

The Melges 24 and J70 are neat.

Looked for Apollo 14 info, found a Apollo 16?

[Lloyd Smale]

back years ago the local harbor had sail boat racing. Most of it was ensigns, sunfish and hobbies. Had a few buddys into sail boats but it always had to have some hp and a fish rod holder or 10 for me to be interested. I have to admit though a few rides on a hobbie were exciting

[VA Rifleman]

Lloyd. Few years back, I started rekindling thoughts of sailing with a Hobbie 14 or 16. Fun, fast and wet. The Navy run Marina at Cherry Point used sunfishes as training boats. Rugged, simple and tons of fun. Had one on a plane during a downwind run. Hull lifted straight up and took off like a bat out of heck. Water was shooting up from the dagger board trunk like a geyser. I was thinking something like. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

TM7. Straight dope. Came to the same conclusions on pocket cruisers.

Pondering aspects of single handed dingy safety. Thinking of fitting a Hobbie Baby Bob masthead float on the Harpoon. It’d give 30 lbs of displacement at the masthead though at the cost of a extra 3lbs up high and more windage.

Need to work this area some. Storing portable VHF in a boat that can capsize, clip in or not and to what. And, can I get back into the boat if I fall out. Stuff like that. Always wearing a PFD would be a must.

Boat has a CDI roller jib so that helps SH. I’ll seek wisdom from the instructor when we resume this spring. Minor disconnect as training in a keel boat.

He normally won’t sail on student’s boats but after the 1st sail, said he’d go out on the Harpoon.

[VA Rifleman]

Concerning the masthead float. Main concern is the accidental gybe. Boat too slow to pitch pole. 7.5’ beam so if on its side, with hull exposed to windward, the wind will drive the masthead under water with the boat going full turtle (upside down).

If anyone following along, the normal capsize drill is to have one crew member support the mast tip so it doesn’t sink while the other intrepid crew member uses the interior of the boat as a ladder to reach the centerboard on the other side. Standing on the board with a pull rope to the center of the boat will usually allow a recovery. Reaching the centerboard by water is hard as it’ll be at least 3.5’ out of the water.

Good plan but hard to execute if sailing alone. That’s why a masthead float is a good safety item for some boats. Another failure mode is to capsize with the centerboard retracted so no opportunity to self rescue.

Looked at boarding ladders for Flying Scott’s but my transom is shorter and shaped different. So not a good fit. May use a simple rope with a stirrup setup for emergencies. Transom only 15” high.

Best I can tell, it’s way better to keep the pointy side up and never fall out but...

[VA Rifleman]

I want to practice those chicken gybes. You’d want plenty of momentum I’m guessing. The lake seldom has a steady wind direction. Long, sometimes narrow and a bunch of islands.

We’ve been sailing to trim vs course. Required a lot of directional changes to keep whatever trim we were doing.

The 1st minute of this video shows a wind change causing a accidental gybe. Pretty fast. Helm looked like he was occupied helping the crew set the gennaker but the wind tape on the shroud didn’t really shift till the boom shot over.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p6YlapFfK4M

Crazy Germans or Austrians with a $40k dingy sailing in a 4’ deep sea. Presumably with little centerboard. You can see them standing on the bottom as they recover the boat.

IDK. Reefed main is good but I’d have given up on the fore sail after the 3rd capsize.

[VA Rifleman]

Hadn’t thought of moving the vang on a run. That could be a good tool. Thanks.

There’s another video of crew standing by the shrouds on a bigger boat. The boom flys across and launches him 10 feet over the side. Didn’t know if the Skipper placed him there on purpose so he could absorb any impacts and protect the boat.


TM7.
“Does your instructor talk about sailing by the telltales and masthead windicator?”

All the time!!! Except, I get fussed at for using the masthead windicator. He’s trying to teach me to read the water.

So far, we’ve been using the genoa sail on the J24. To see the genoa telltales, I have to helm from the leeward side which is way different then I was imagining.

The first time we got good wind, I’m looking at water at the rail and he’s going Hold it! Hold it!

I like this instructor. Just the right amount of sarcasm and wit. In low wind, we were talking, I’m saying something like, I need to get better as the genoa luffs.

He replies, you mean being able to sail and carry on a conversation?

[VA Rifleman]

TM. I’m good with the basics like controlled gybes, man overboard drills and stuff like that but that was years back. I’m rusty.

Like to fall in with other sailers. Conventional wisdom says join the local Yacht Club. Instructor cautioned that 90% of the skippers / boats never leave dock.

He invited me to the big October regatta but my boat wasn’t ready. I’d like to crew on someone else’s boat to get a feel for racing. Probably learn more in 1 season of racing then 5 seasons of putting around the lake by myself.

Thinking of a new main with a loose foot. Lots of choices with sail cloth nowadays. Next project is pulling the trailer bearings.

Looking forward to spring.

[VA Rifleman]

Boats under two covers right now so hard to play with. Have all the trinkets for removing the old stickers. Best one may be a sharp plastic putty knife type thing used for body filler. The chemical remover wants temps over 60 deg.

Sanded a section of the rough bottom with 800 grit as a test. Wicked easy and left a very smooth painted surface that will work just fine for now.

Can lift the boat from the trailer and set it on the ground pretty easy. Plan to rotate it upside down onto tires, taking care not to crush the cuddy. Much easier to work the bottom and expose the centerboard for polishing.