Sail drive Boots - Replacement Technique?

[pstadt]

I've removed the rubber fairing boots and have started prepping the area to receive the new boots - the old ones were peeled off using a putty knife and elbow grease; the remaining rubber and adhesive came off with an oscillating tool.

I haven't finished feathering in the prep area yet, so the pics show a rough perimeter...

I mentioned to the local yard rep yesterday that I'd be installing the new boots with the quick-cure 5200 and he immediately said I'd have a better result using Hypalon glue (whatever the glue is actually called when attaching the Hypalon sponsons to a fiberglass hull).

Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks,

Pat

[Thumbs Up]

The recommended adhesive is bostik 2402 which is also sold as a hypalon adhesive. 5200 doesn't bond reliably to rubber and you have to hold it in place somehow while it cures. Hypalon glue bonds on contact so no clamping is needed.

[pstadt]

Thumbs up, awesome, thanks!

Pat

[pstadt]

Got the sail drives ready to go and fitted the new boots today. I did purchase two tubes of the hypalon glue, but was able to do both sides with about three quarters of one tube - and yes, I was very generous with coating each surface and spread it with a large tongue depressor.

I let the glue set, then pressed the boot up and into place. I used a carpet seam roller to press the boot to the hull, making sure there were no glue holidays at the edges.

After letting that set for about 90 minutes, I applied Interprotect barrier coat around the edges to fair in the gelcoat to the rest of the surrounding barrier coat. Next up will be the AF coats over all of it.

The hardest part (after finally removing two of the prop blades) was sliding the new boot over the bottom part of the sail drive - it required a little stretching of the boots, but they are pretty resilient.

Anyway, all done now.

Pat

[belizesailor]

Nice work. Let us know how that glue holds up.

[Privilege]

Good job.

I can't see that any rigid boot, whether it be made of starfoam or fiberglass is appropriate. The leg is designed to be quite flexible on its rubber seal so any rigid boot would surely put stress on the contact point and defeat the purpose of having it flexible?

For my boots, I used a mud flap from a truck which I bought at a local car supply shop. It's far cheaper than the propriety parts and slightly thicker. I affixed it with life seal and it hasn't given me any issues.