Dave and everyone,
Sorry to hear about the problems and this is admittedly too late but may
help others.
A couple of things that should help in the Spartite process.
First, you must check to make sure that your blades are tapered or dead
straight up near the top. Use calipers to check the "fatness". If they are
fatter down 12" from the top than they are down 6", you have some fairing to
do
before making the spartite gasket. Do not proceed until this is fixed (you'll
never get the blade out of the cassette).
Second, try to make the cassette with 1/8" of clearance all around the
blade for the pour. This increases the thickness of the spartite which allows
it
to give more when inserting and retracting the blades. It also makes for a
better pour/gasket because it eliminates air bubbles.
Third, make the width of the pour approx 1" at both the top and the bottom
of the blades (no more). This require two operations for each blade. I've
made a extra dagger board trunk into which I insert the cassette blocks for
the pour (instead of using the boat). I have holes in the sides (like the
rudder cassette) to make the pour easy.
Fourth, Use a liberal amount of the supplied Vaseline on the blades but be
careful not to contaminate the surface on which you want the spartite to
stick.
The benefit of using this stuff is that you get a gasket that removes all
slop in the blades. This becomes particularly important when you are sailing
the boat flat at high speed downwind. Done correctly, you should get several
years out of a set of gaskets.
I hope everything works out OK Dave.
Best regards,
Bram
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