AluminumAlloyBoats.com

Found a bent prop shaft on the Yamaha while hauled up so I've been taking the opportunity to do a few - "When I get around too it" projects while waiting for a new prop shaft to arrive: 1) Fixed the leaky scuppers: Added thin aluminum plates bolted on the inside and outside of the lame &qu...

Pettit Alumicoat? Unheard of around here. Anyways I'm up to primer coat three now. So much more fun to roll it on than sand it off! (one coat of vinylwash self etch and two coats of primeacon barrier coat of the three reccomended) Then roll out the Trilux and back in the saltchuck! Looking forward t...

Nice work on that tinnie Chaps. You must have made that fellow pretty happy to get his boat as clean as that! My marina would never let me get away with sandblasting on the hard and I'm a bit scared of using acid to remove barnacles from an aluminum hull. So I've been sanding away at big ol westcoas...

Has anyone tried using chemical strippers to remove Trilux and old barrier coat (primacoat) instead of soda blasting (not too hand to get the hull to a media blasting place)? Also, saw one possible alternative today, local tool shop was selling a "wet sand blasting" attachment for a pressu...

Hi Saw your post about taking hours to remove barnacles and growth with a pressure washer - I've just been doing mine as the Trilux bottom paint is no longer doing any good at repelling freeloaders. A minor discovery: scraping and then pressure washing is faster than pressure washing alone. Although...

Hi Welder On our island almost everyone has a solar system of some kind as we are off grid. A batchelor friend of mine living on this little rock gets by with a 300W system, trace inverter, used golf cart batteries and a little generator for those months when the sun basically disappears during wint...

Hi Aluminator Just as a matter of interest, voltage is actually something that you can measure without a complete circuit - it is really the electric field you are measuring. 12 Volts just means that each coulomb of charge has 12 joules of energy at that particular position where the leads of your v...

Well, I'm finally going to fix my scuppers - I got let down by them a bit yesterday: We had a change of weather and a squall blew through. My 20 foot Ironwood cabin top was getting blown around seriously as I manouvered next to the pillars of our dock, which at the moment has two vertical mooring ch...

A good way to check on the quality of the insulation in your boat (and whether you have some unwanted grounds somewhere) is to disconnect both the positve and negative leads on the battery and switch your multimeter to ohms and measure the resistance between the hull and the negative and positive wi...

Looks like it would ride through seas very nicely and stay dry. Must have been tough to fabricate those chines though! Seems you have a good eye for design, I hope you sell a lot of these hulls. How much does Solidworks cost? I'm doing some designing with Google Sketchup right now, which works but i...

Wampum - looks like nice fast boat and all the advice sounds good. I gather that you have seen all the advice about using some kind of dielectric compound in the joint between the Al and the SS. Just out of interest regarding the old issue of "Aluminum meets Steel": Lots of larger vessels ...

Worst cargo of muck I ever had was after hauling some hay for my sister (Easter time kids candy dig - dump a pile of hay on the beach with a bag of candy under it - let the kids go wild looking for it .....)

Took months to get the hay out of the bottom of the boat. Lots of memories!

Hi I'm upgrading the rubber flap scuppers on my 20' Ironwood with Rabud ball in cone scuppers. These gizmos have a floating (barely) ball that looks like a ping pong ball but a bit bigger in a see through plastic cone that you can remove to clean if necessary. There is a soft silicone like seat for ...

We have these for safety purposes for people working in the bush and they work really well to let those back in the office know that all is well and where folks are. One of the gals took one on the Tierra del Fuego Adventure Trek (50k walk, 50k paddle, 50k walk etc etc) and we enjoyed watching her t...

Another oddball but effective anchor used around here for moorings:

Section of bulldozer track - Six feet of this stuff sticks to the bottom like barnacles on a non-alloy boat.

Might be a bit of an eyesore hanging off the bow though.

Go For it! We have the same boat with a 115 2 stroke Yamaha. We paid C$38,500 a year ago, ours was in mint condition but had a diesel heater as well. Absolutely excellent boat with great attention to detail and design. The only thing you will notice on the test ride is that it will slap heading into...

Hi Steve (and Welcome neighbour, we are also from Vancouver BC) Glad to hear that you get out offshore in search of Tuna and Halibut, I've always wanted to do some Halibut fishing but mostly stay in Howe Sound where we have the odd salmon. We just bought a mint condition used Ironwood 20 foot hardto...

For the final close quarters trimming after you take the tube off the deck you might want to try using carbide burrs in a air die grinder or dremel tool. The conical kind of cutters allow you to cut right close to a planar surface. Less chance of creating a swirl than with a big grinding wheel. Good...

Hi There Neighbour (from a Canuck) I agree, boats are for using not polishing. We have a 14 foot Gregor skiff that has done incredible service for use as a floating pickup truck hauling rebar, concrete and lumber. They have such a tough welded stem on them that we run up against the rocks and hold i...

Hello Chaps Thanks for the good tip on E-Paint. I haven't seen it in the stores here but looked up their description on their useful website at: www.epaint.com Very interesting concept. Who would think that we got enough sunshine in the NW to make hydrogen peroxide appear in the paint film, much les...

Hi Marty Enjoyed seeing all your posts so I thought I'd start to catch up. The Ironwood is a 2001 and in great shape, they are really well built and my wife wanted it as soon as she saw it to my great surprise. The only problem I have is minor and involves trying to reattach some of the rubber bumpe...

Greetings from Canada: Some fuzzy phone camera pictures of our alloy Ironwood Island Commuter boat Delivery Day: http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq292/IronwoodIsland/DSC00200.jpg A practical vessel: http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq292/IronwoodIsland/DSC00195.jpg Mooring chains are a necessit...

Hi All We bought a alloy Ironwood 20' footer last year (an excellent hardtop boat) with a Yamaha 115 2 stroke. The boat now likely needs new bottom paint (doing a good job of growing weeds despite weekly use through the winter). The boat is moored full time in the ocean near Vancouver BC. Apparently...