Powder coating

[ultrarunner]

I'm going to do some upgrades and refurb work on my SC17 over the winter. Among some hardware updates, I was thinking of having the rudder gudgeons powder-coated. Any issues with having this done?

thanks,

Ultra--

[Matt Haberman]

No problems that I can think of. We will sometimes paint the rudder heads and gudgeon's and I am not aware of any problems with this.
The one problem that we have seen was when aluminum beams & mast had been painted. Apparently in a saltwater environment, the saltwater brine gets trapped between the aluminum and the paint and severely corrodes the aluminum. The big surprise with this was the fact that the beam appeared to be in good condition until I literally pushed my finger though a large hole. Upon closer inspection we found numerous holes ranging from pea to 1/2 dollar size trough out the beam.

[ultrarunner]

Thanks for the information Matt. I'll prly get them sent off next week, then spiff up the rudders. Should look nice.

I'd agree with the boom and mast issues. It's a much more difficult process to adequately prep the surface for paint. While it would be practical to powder coat the beams, you'd never find an oven big enough for the masts. Best to leave them unfinished.

MS

[Eric2101]

What are the costs involved with powder coating beams? I love the idea.