Spring Projects: Painted Spreaders, New Dorades Being Made, New Foredeck Light, Dropped The Rudder, Re Sealing Chainplates

Sabre 38, Winter 2024-2025 Projects

Spring projects are well underway! I got the spreaders painted over the winter but it’s been cold enough that I really didn’t get a start on anything else before the last couple of weeks. But now, we’re leaping ahead!

The spreaders had some spots of corrosion that I wanted to grind out.
One of the screws was so badly seized in place that the screw head popped off while I was trying to remove it. It had to be drilled out and tapped for a replacement.
After a thorough sanding, the spreaders got a coat of primer before the finish coats of paint.
Nice and shiny!
These dorade boxes are off-the-shelf items that did not originally come with the boat. I pulled them off to attempt a refinish in the shop, but they were too far gone. Instead of buying another off-the-shelf set, I am having new ones fabricated that aren’t quite so tall. These never looked right on this boat to my eye.
The installers had added these little stand pipes and had fastened them down with 5200. It took a bit of time with a heat gun to get it all off.
We have been noticing a recurrence of water getting into the rudder, so we decided to drop it down so Diversified can grind out the area around the rudder post for a re seal. That meant I had to get the steering quadrant and auto pilot arm off before lowering the rudder onto a block.
The old combined steaming / foredeck light still worked but the foredeck light was so faint I wanted a new one.
I installed a nice new new LED model. Although the wires are sealed where they enter the unit, I added a bead of sealant along the top edge since 1) no one would ever see it and 2) there was no need to have rainwater passing between the housing and the mast.
Today I got a start re bedding the first two of six shroud chainplates. It’s much easier to do this job and get it right with the mast out. Note that Hinckley service hadn’t bothered to fully remove the old sealant the last time this was re sealed. I am not sure what sealant they used, but after several seasons it hadn’t fully cured! Very strange.

5 thoughts on “Spring Projects: Painted Spreaders, New Dorades Being Made, New Foredeck Light, Dropped The Rudder, Re Sealing Chainplates”

  1. Looking great, Rich! Curious what paint you used for the spreaders? We’ve stripped everything off our mast this winter (only one busted screw, thankfully!) and had the entire rig repainted with Awlgrip. I took a few of the smaller parts to a local powder coater.

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    1. For the spreaders I just went with RustOleum Self Etching automotive primer, then Gloss Protective Enamel for the finish coats. I used the same on the Sabre 42 I sold years ago.

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      1. I wonder if the paint failure was due to galvanic corrosion or abrasion from the pins? Our stainless hardware was mostly bedded with a layer of silicone, but I’m planning to use UHMW tape when I reassemble the rig. Can’t figure out how to isolate the pins / bolts though! Thankfully fresh water is a lot easier on metals here, but eventually Daystar might find her way back to the sea.

        Jeff

  3. Repeating the paint on the spreaders question! But, more importantly, I am impressed with the Dorade box repair! And – not too shocked about the previous attempt to seal them! OMG…. The old “spit and glue” fix! The chainplate/deck repair is the most impressive to me! Skal da!

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