It is past time to change the stern zincs on either side of the hull. I was not able to get to this when the boat was out of the water a few weeks ago. Not a big deal. They are easy to do – just easier when the boat is out of the water.
I ordered two new zincs from boatzincs.com. I ordered the ZHC-5 rectangular slotted zincs. No particular reason except they were big. These zincs are 8″ x 4″ x 3/4″ and weigh 4.6 pounds. The slots meant I didn’t need to worry about fit. Shipping was reasonable considering it was a bunch of lead.
It is definitely time to replace the zincs. Well past time, really. Essentially, the only things left from the old zincs is the metal plate along with some residual crud and mostly dissolved zinc around the bolts.
I smartly tied the wrench and the zincs to the dock before I started. I only dropped the wrench in the water once, and managed not to drop any of the washers or nuts. I was able to do the starboard side from the dock. For the port side, I had to put the dinghy in the water and tie it along side. The swim step was just too narrow (for me at least) to easily complete the task.
I pulled the nuts and washers off and removed the remnants of the old zincs – not that there was much of that. I cleaned the bolts, nuts, and washers off with a brass brush. I also used the brush on the area metal surfaces around the bolts to get as much gunk off as I could. Then I reversed the process (without undoing the cleaning part :)) to install the new zincs.
An easy to do project. It took me all of twenty minutes. That includes the time to drop the dinghy and stow it again afterward. Check your zincs. I should have replaced these last year. I will add this to the annual checklist. Guess I had better go check all the other zincs in the engines, the generator, the water heater ….
