hi all,
i'm a pretty new sailor who, after 2 years sailing a 1985 13ft yamaha rental sailing dingy on a central japan lake has just bought a 1982, (TRRC2158M82B) nacra 5.2 that was put up for sale by a local boat rental co. after it spat a family off last year. it seems to be in pretty good condition and the price was right but it's quite a step from my tubby little dingy
1st up thanks to you all for the info that i've turned up on this forum. esp. airborne for his great series of photos that i'm still comparing to my boat, sad to read of it's demise
i have a few questions that i hope you might have some answers for

1. my boat doesn't have any beam end caps, is it worth ordering some?

2. anyone know what a new tramp costs? as part of the deal mine is going off to a commercial sew shop to be re-stiched but it will probably need replacing soon, as freight is likely to be a killer can a good 1 be made up by a sew shop if i bring in the right mesh?

3. anyone know that font that was used for the oem nacra stickers? if i can find it i might make my own stencils and spray it back on the hull twice as large
4. advice for polishing oxidized white gel coat, i've been told to rub it down with 1000 wet and dry, 1500, 2000 and then a car polish with cutting compound

eric e

and here's a pic, the sail number is J65, 1 of about 200? that made it to japan. mine was used on tokyo's famous shonan beach for the 1st half of it's life before making it's way up here in the mountains eric e

Pretty clean boat

On the tramp I am sure that a shop could make on if you took the right mesh to them.

I don't have beam caps and don't plan to order them ever but it does clean up the look a little.

Congrats, the 5.2 is a fun boat to sail solo or with a friend, you have alot of fun in your future.

I am parting mine out and I can make you a great deal on the parts you want. Almost all the parts on my 5.2 are less then 6 months old and only used twice.

If you have any more questions there are a lot of great people on this forum. I have learned almost everything I know from all these good people.

airborne <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Ask airborne why he is parting his out...and make sure it can't happen to yours!

after searching the forums i know what happened to airborne's 5.2 but i will go back to the thread to see if you any better idea of why the hull failed

airborne if you could pm me with a price for the 4 end caps that would be great

also interested in the tramp if the restitch goes bad

my 5.2 still has the old mast base, which i know would be good to change, but as the boat won't be trailered anywhere and the mast will only go up and down once a year i'm not sure if it's worth doing immediately. pic of old base attached

eric e

dang! still working out how to post pics

I have the old mast base and will keep using it until the ball wears out then I will upgrade, but it is about $100 dollars for all the new stuff and since I am already spending $650 for the spinnaker rig I just can't do that right now.

Looks like someone removed the center bar that runs from beam to beam. Make sure your front beam isn't rotating and that it is attached in some fashion to prevent rotation. (some put rivets in the stainless straps that hold down the beams - later boats had a bolt on the inside outer end of the ends of the beams to prevent rotation).

yes we left the center bar out when putting the boat together as the tramp stitching for that has almost come completely off, plus i won't be trying to get it up on 1 hull this season as i'm still learning how to sail a cat

once i find a local commercial sew shop i'll take the tramp off and get it resewn. then i'll have to work out if i want to the use the center bar or not

thanks for the advice on riveting the strap. i did noticed that the 1991 nacra manual mentioned bolting the main beam to the hull there was no such system on my 1982 boat. plus the spreaders are quite different

will be taking out my torque wrench tomorrow to make sure i have those bolts up to spec and will also mark some sort of alignment lines from beam to strap so i can keep an eye on it until i work out what i'm going to do

eric e

If you are going to sail it you need to either have the center bar in or rivet the straps, I would not suggest sailing before you do.

I would say sail with the center bar, I love mine and you will grow to love yours also if you just sail with it some. It does open up some tramp space if you take it off.

You are P.M.

airborne

My 5.2 doesn't have a center bar and doesn't have any bolt or rivet either to prevent rotation. The bar and its front attachment was removed by a previous owner and not replaced by anything I could find. The only rotation preventer seems to be some black gunk (some kind of adhesive?) between the hull and the beams, but as I never took the boat apart I'm not even sure what it is...

I never had any problem with anything rotating, so far (touch wood). Should I worry about it?

I would not take the chance

airborne

I still have the bar on mine. So far I find it quite a useful spot to plant my feet.

It seems like an awful big risk NOT to have some sort of confirmed mast rotation preventer in place. That's the kind of thing that you say "hey it's been ok so far"... until it's not, and your boat has de-masted. Not a pretty thought.

started the gel coat polishing today

found that 1000grit wet and dry on my cheapie chinese sander worked well to remove the oxidation. started by wetting the glass with water mixed with laundry detergent from a spray bottle. lots of rinsing with lake water to keep it all wet and see what was being removed

then used an orbital car buffer, with a new pad, to apply a reasonably gritty car polish compound

then changed pads and used a car wax with a very fine compound

this brought up the dull gloss shine i expect to see in old but cared for fiberglass.

this picture thing is still tripping me up.

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

ok here is the pic

eric e

If you really want to get a good shine use a big angle grinder. I use a Milwaukee 15amp, 9" grinder. Works amazing.

Need a smaller picture next time. Sorry!

cosmetic cleanup of my 25 year old nacra 5.2 continues

various wear marks and stain marks on the mast and boom have rubbed out well with 1000grit paper

both hulls have been gone over with a cheapo vibrating sander with 1000wet'n'dry, then a car polisher with compound and finally wax with a very fine compound. the hulls now look almost new

but the 25 year old nacra 5.2 stickers were proving it was an old boat, so off they came. was going to recreate them much larger as stencils and spray it back on the hulls but decided to be a little more adventurous than just makers name and model

have named her "Cool Cat" and used the "chiller" font in word to print that out A4 sized on my printer, then used 10cent supermarket copier to boost that up several times to to foot high letters on A3 that i will cut out and use as stencils

wife suggests angling the letters and adding a splash of color so will do something like the coke swoosh across the bottom in brilliant blue

also working on a large white tiger face with sunglasses for the bows, (can you guess where that came from, should i ask permission?)

have attached a photo mock-up of close to current plan, what do you think?

eric e

aim is to get a better looking and going boat than the new hobie 16 in the background for 1/10 the price;o)

7 year old daughter at the stern, we were doing 25kph the other day and she was clutching onto the main beam with her eyes tight closed, don't think she will want to go out with me again for a while:o(