Tcave

I am no expert on fiberglass, prefering wood. But - needs must and now taht I have a grp BR20 I have attempted to repair scatches in the gel coat. To get the right colour I suggest you contact Swallow and ask as this is critical. Thereafter I guess it depends on the type of damage - chips / scratches or stress cracks. If you buy a decent repair kit it will come with everything you need and clear instructions. Esentiallly it is a matter of roughing out the damaged area and then filling in with reson first is its deep, follwed by gel coat as a second operation. My kit came with bits of clear polythene? to cover repairs on vertical surfaces to deter running / sagging. After it has cured then rubbing down with progressivelyt finer grades of wet and dry to final polishing.

Good luck!

Gareth Rowlands
GRP BR20 Halen Y Mor

My BRe has some gel coat chips on the internal cockpit. Does anyone have any advice about how I might go about repairing this. Including how i get the correct colour of gel coat.  Thanks in advance

You imply that water is getting into the locker when you are not using the boat and it is under cover, which is puzzling.  Slightly related, I had thought that my problem with water getting into my starboard forward buoyancy tank was due to a possible hull-deck joint issue but it turned out not to be the case.  The GRP chap that investigated it decided that it wasn't at all likely for that to happen and that the problem arose from leaking fittings - in my case a large foredeck bullhorn cleat used for mooring and to a lesser extent the starboard chainplate.  Both now fixed.

There's a useful thread on water getting into the lockers when the boat is in use and what to do about it https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,414.0.html.  Simon Knight's enthralling lockercam video on Youtube is still live!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utx5lk57TU8

Velcro strap is a main clew hold down. It's  intended to allow the main clew to slide lengthways along the boom, as Sail is flattened by outhaul or reefs. While keeping clew snug to the boom.
Common nowadays on many boats from Lasers upwards.
My BC 26 has one.
It needs to be snug, but not too tight...rig around boom, thru clew ring.

You will need a kicker, and a cunningham  too.
My kicker now at 12.1, so as to allow one handed operation, no winching.
Not sure about outhaul purchases, but mine needs a winch in heavy winds

Dig about on here for photos of other boats setups?

BTW...welcome!
Which BC 26 are we talking about?  New? Used?

I normally leave my boat without ballast in so that it sits higher in the water and keeps the white line cleaner, so I possibly use the pump more that others. When I came to empty the tanks after my first sail of the season a couple of weeks ago, I switched the pump on and was surprised by the complete absence of any noise. Tried switching everything off and on again as you do, but still nothing. Assumed that it must be the pump electrical connectors corroding over winter, but no, they were fine. Took the whole pump off and removed the impeller and found that I couldn’t turn the motor shaft, even using pliers to grip it.
Took the whole thing home and stripped it down to be met with quite a mess inside. Top bearing rusty brown and completely seized, bottom bearing just about moving but not good, thermal cutout switch open-circuit and the interference suppression capacitor wandering around loose because both terminal legs had corroded through completely!
On consulting the manual I noticed that it advises that the unit should be mounted with the pump head below the motor, whereas in my 26 it has been installed the other way up. This means that when the shaft seals loose their effectiveness then salt water will start leaking from the bottom of the pump, down the shaft and into the motor, hence the damage. In hindsight this appears rather obvious, so when I put it back I’ll be mounting it the other way up, which will probably require a mod to the plumbing, and possibly a reversal of the pump direction (it pumps both ways).
This post is therefore an advisory to everyone with a ballast pump to check which way up it’s been installed, and to turn it round if the pump head is currently above the motor.