Ranger 26 (Kent, WA) Links, Parts, Gear & Resources

“A hole into which you pour money…”

Spring time is more than just cleaning time. It’s also boat maintenance and spending time. The priceless time you get out on the water in your beautiful sailboat might be a real bargain, but it’s not free – so here is our attempt to make your life a little easier, maybe even cheaper!

Small Craft Advisor Magazine – International magazine focused on small boats and sailing. … Small Craft Advisor. My Cart0. Login. My account. Username … Small-Boat Gear · classifieds

48° North – The Sailing Magazine – Sailing magazine with sailboats for sale, gift shop, classified ads, weather and sailing links.

 

Lifeline Stanchions

Garhauer Marine
1082 West 9th St
Upland, CA 91786
909-985-9993
909-946-3913 FAX
http://garhauermarine.com/

Garhauer Marine custom makes stanchions and will match them to the existing ones. Their model ST-58 is a good fit. As of Jan 05, the price for a stanchion was about $49 to match the bolt pattern. They’ll make them longer or shorter, canted or vertical, for single or double lifelines for no extra cost (unless they’re significantly longer). Their standard size is 24 1/2″ long.  They sell and construct other items such as anchor rollers. They’re extremely nice.

Canvas (R20, R24 and Minto only)

Commercial Fabric MFG
2232 1st Ave S
Seattle, WA
206-682-1082

This company built the original covers for Ranger. They have patterns for the R20 main hatch and mainsail covers, the R24 mainsail cover and the Minto cover. These items can be made by any canvas shop but at least one of the shops that made the original dodgers and covers for Ranger Boats is still around, Commercial Fabric MFG.

Main & Jib Sails

Prairie Sail And Canvas
29772 Clear Lake Rd
Eugene, Oregon 97402
Loft: (541) 338-9877
eMail Kendall
www.prairiesailandcanvas.com

You are going to love Kendall. He can design and craft high performance, quality sails for you Ranger 26. Sure he knows how to design and make racing sails, cruising sails and more. But he can also custom design your sail, then have it made over seas by a loft that he trusts and has direct supervision over their quality. So you can get his design, at a reduced price, without missing the quality your boat deserves. Give Kendall a call and let him know I sent you! Kendall made a slick full batten main for the Innisfree that “turbo boosts” our boat by about 1 knot in moderate winds and still noticeably in light air. If it’s time to replace your old tattered sheets, or if you just want to put a little spring in the old girls step, call Kendall at Prairie Sail and Canvas, where the joy of sailing is enriched by the joy of fine craftsmanship and genuine service.

 Propulsion

Flexofold ApS
Bramdrupvej 50
DK-6040 Egtved
Tel. +45 75 55 43 46
Fax +45 75 55 43 66
www.flexofold.com

I know my Ranger 26 is not the fleetest boat in the sea, but wouldn’t it be nice if it was just a little bit less slow? A new sail will certainly bring some spring to the old girl’s step, maybe even 3/4 knot by some accounts, but it’s such a drag to be pulling that old school prop around all day.

What I really need is to take that thing off when I don’t need it and put it on when I start up the trusty Yanmar 8 engine. Hmmm… What to do, what to do? I know, I’ll give Flexofold a call and have them send me a shiny new folding propeller! This baby will help me get the lead out in light air and maybe even get me to hull speed without a gale force wind! It’s supposed to give me as much as 3/4 of a knot more go! Maybe you would like one too! If you want to read more about mine, click here… or just give them a call and get yours ordered. Don’t forget to tell them we sent you. Why did I choose Flexofold? Doesn’t Gori have a shiny folding prop that is to die for at only $3,000? Yes, they do! But I found that Flexofold, at about $1000, left me with more money for important stuff like food, shelter and clothing! After reading enough propeller comparisons and reviews to make my head spin, I found that Flexofold offered the only sweet spot for performance at a reasonable price with little or no compromise on durability or reverse thrust safety. Yes there are props that make you go just a little bit faster, or stop 10% quicker or are polished just a tad shinier, but they all cost more, often a lot more and even those are not perfect in every way. Check out the full review by Yachting Monthly.

 

Favorite Books

The Craft of Sail – A Primer of Sailing, Jan Adkins

This is probably my all time favorite book on sailing. It’s simple, beautiful and gets the basic concepts of sailing across with ease. It’s my go to book when teaching children of all ages how to sail. It includes simple examples of wind direction, air flow across the sail producing “lift,” force vectors, keel counter force and how it all turns into forward motion at various points of sail – everything that makes a boat go where you want it to rather than the other way around. It’s also full of great illustrations on anchoring and scope and so much more. Are there more exhaustive references available like Royce’s Sailing Illustrated? Absolutely, but this is the one that everyone new to sailing, and even some old salts, should start with or know about. It’s wonderful in every way.

 

mcmaster.com – If you Need a Shaft, Bronze Pipe, Odd Thingy-Ma-Bob?  These guys probably have it!

 

Yahoo! Groups has a long running group of users that have shared countless, tips, stories, and help with fellow Ranger 26 owners. It’s resource is great, it’s user interface and easy of actually finding anything is horrible. I’ll try to bring over some of the more commonly needed information to live here, but some will probably always stay at Yahoo! You’ll need to create an account to access it. Click here to get started.

Center Board Replacement

If the Ranger 26 has an Achilles heel, it would be the center board design, that allows boards without the later added “Keeper’s” to inconveniently drop their center boards out of their trunk slot if struck or backing up in shallow waters while the board is dragging on the bottom. See our Technical Drawings for how to make a new one if you have misplaced yours.

Stanchion Sheave

Another weakness of the R26, discovered decades after production ended is the Stanchion Sheave. What is it? It’s a small casting of aluminum or bronze that sits at the bottom of the mast compression post, and allows the center board cable to come down through the mast, turn a corner around a pulley inside the casting, and go through a bronze pipe into the center board trunk for rising and lowering the center board. The problem is that, since it’s always in contact with water (fresh water or sea water) it does over time electrolyze on the inside and several have either begun to leak or in some cases fail catastrophically! As your beloved Ranger 26 ages it’s vital that you be prepared for the day when you stanchion sheave fails. Here is how!

B&G Navionics

The same time I upgraded to a folding prop and a new, full battened main sail (Thanks Kendall!), I also installed some fancy pants navionics so I could measure just how much faster that sale and that folding prop made my little Ranger go! (about a 1.5 knots in medium air).

After looking around at the various options, it was clear that B&G was the best, though expensive, option. I purchased and much later got around to installing their Triton Speed/Depth/Wind Pack for Sailing which includes:

• Wind vein (direction indicator)
• Aerometer (wind speed) that mounts atop the mast)
• Knotometer, (boat hull speed through the water
• Depth sounder
• Display Panel/Controller/Brain

Everything is connected via a coax thin-net network to the display panel which is mounted on the housetop bulkhead in the cockpit.

Due to the passing of my parents, boat repairs and other life issues, the system was not installed until 2015, and we then discovered that the panel was non-functional. After calling B&G service, they quickly setup and RMA and returned the panel for repair/replacement even though it was past the six month warrenty period.

Along came a leak in the cockpit bailing skuppers (stress fractures in the glass around the inlets) that took us out of the water for a season and then another season lost to low water levels in the resevoure/lake we moor at and we finally got the boat back in for a full 2018 sailing season. Sadly, the first time I turned on the system, the replacement panel was defective also!

You might think that I’m posting this story in order to warn you away from B&G marine products. Actaully, the opposite is true.

In my 50+ years of life, I’ve had many, many products arrive defective or fail soon after arrival. I can tell you horror stories about our $10,000 Viking 48″ professional range that was given to us by our parents – that from the day it arrived was defective in three ways that made it un-usable and dangerous! I can tell you how even after 6 in warranty visits it still has problems to this day and some of which were NEVER fixed or even attempted to be fixed by Viking Range Corp.

I will never purchase a Viking product again, and I have had such horrible and repeat ably bad experiences with their product and in particular their attitude of customer no-service, that I often go out of my way to warn friends or even strangers away from Viking.

But B&G has been the opposite of my Viking experience. When I first called about my new but defective unit that was a year out of warranty, they simple replaced it. When I called back two years later with news that the replacement unit was also defective, they did what only 2 or three other companies have done in my whole life. They simply replaced it.

I want everyone looking for top quality Navionics for their boat to know that while no company makes products that never fail and any company might have a DOA unit, or even two in a row, only a company that makes their goal and measure of their success a “satisfied customer” will go beyond what it “has” to do to willingly and happily doing what they ought to do. In this age of low customer service B&G is more than the exception to the rule, they are the top of the heap. Indeed B&G are up in the rarefied air where only a very few company’s fly.

You will LOVE B&G’s products. More importantly, they are the kind of company that you will love even more if you should have a problem with any of their products.

Full disclosure – I didn’t get a dime for posting this.

B&G forced me to be loyal to them and give this crazy glowing review by their sheer determination to take excellent care of me! I’m just a little giddy thinking about it!

Your Ranger 26 deserves B&G. You deserve B&G.

Here is their current model – Tritan2 Speed/Depth/Wind Pack

 

 

Port/lights

My plastic port holes and window lights are wearing out… dull, stained, brittle… one has even broken and now I have just the hole in the forward house port hole. What I need are some beautiful new bronze lights… like these:

These beauties were purchased and installed on the Westwind, owned by Rob Bridges. Here is what he had to say about them when I was checking them out.

“Well the windows and all the extras like screens and caulk cost $2950 (boat show discount) and I did my own install. First window install took 4 hours all the others took about 1 hour each. The rounds are spring loaded and “pop” open when you release the dogs. The large ones open but needs hangers to hold them open. I can send photos of this. It is easy to do and since the company is in Port Townsend I might be able to help get the best price. I took video and learned some shortcuts. I would even be willing to come to Portland and help out. I could pickup the ports and deliver. I am so happy with them and it really spruces up Westwind. I also added a new mainsail this year (had to the other was shot) from Neil Pryde. It a full batten and it helps Westwind point much higher and I’ve gain 1/2 to 1 knot more in speed.”

Rob’s a really nice guy! And I was really tempted to take him up on his kind offer until I called to get current pricing for my boat.

4 – 8” x 18” bronze ports, $569.95 – I would need hangers and screens
2 – 8” Round Bronze Friction $239.95 Screens are $30

So about $4500! Which is quite a jump from the $2950 Rob Paid.

You’ll also need:

Teak spacing for thin cabin wall
Bronze hanger to hold it open.

Sadly, I can’t afford them. But maybe you can, so here is were you can get them:

Here is a the site to look at; http://www.newfoundmetals.com/dimension-bronze#8rb

New Found Metals, Inc.
240 Airport Road
Port Townsend, WA 98368
(888)437-5512
Fax: (360)385-6097

If you do buy some of the lights, please send me photos, but warn me first so that I don’t actually look at them and start to cry!

Here is another place that has 8″ bronze, round lights for a little cheaper.

http://www.trinitymarine.co.uk/trinity-portholes/new-portholes/new-portholes–opening/opening-bronze-porthole–20cm

 

Inboard Water Strainer parts

Save a Dog, kill a filter! The Perko water strainer that protects the in-board Yanmar 8 diesel engine has worked pretty well for nearly 30 years. By pretty well, I mean that rather than buy the expensive cork or rubber gaskets ever couple years, we keep applying a bead of blue silicone instant gasket to the top cover seal every year and cleaning it out and re-applying each spring. Ugh. It’s a bit of a pain but allows us to flush anti-freeze through the water system and protect the engines cooling jacket from a winter freeze. All has gone well until the spring of 2015, when upon putter the Innisfree in the water and opening the ball cock valve to allow fresh water to cool the engine, we began to quickly take on water. Looking back, the cause was clear. We keep the boat to the side of my sister’s house during the winter and last fall, while flushing anti-freeze through the engine I heard frantic yelling to stop! Stop! Stop!!! Now, mind you that It’s hard to hear anything with the engine running from down below decks but I quickly came up on deck to see my brother in law frantically trying to get his cute dog, Epiphany (Pip for short) away from the sweet smelling anti-freeze that was pooling at the stern of the boar on the concrete. It seems that dogs like to drink the stuff and it likes to kill them. Who knew?

In the chaos, maybe I didn’t get back to check that I had enough anti-freeze in the water filter? No, there was pleanty in there and all that was left was 100% anti-freeze. Then I remembered that the fall before I had taken the boat to a local yard to have some repairs done (my scuppers were leaking water into the engine compartment through cracks that had developed under them in the glass) and some fancy new nav-ionics installed. After they finished the work, they put just put the boat outside without any thought to winterizing my engine, and when I came to pick it up in the spring, the damage had already been done. I just hadn’t realized it yet. Out of site, out of mind doesn’t really count with engines and freezing temperatures so I’ll take the “credit” for that.

So whether by my or their neglect, the plexi-glass “glass” of the strainer was cracked all the way down it’s length and was allowing lots of water to pour into the bilge. At lest we managed to save the dog 😉

If you have a similar problem, no matter the cause, here is your easy, if not so cheap remedy.

www.marineengineparts.com – Good guys who have a whole range of great products.

PKO49300499N – Spare Cork Cover Gasket – $4.98 each – Now that the price has come down I bought 5 of these so I can change them every couple years.

 PKO0493DP599M – CORK GASKET KIT  $13.99 You’ll want to replace the top/bottom gaskets if you are putting in a new cylinder.

PKO049300499C – REPLACEMENT CYLINDER $44.99 These have a 3/16″ thick walls so they are much stronger than regular plastic pipe that you might be tempted to MacGyver in there 😉

PKO0493004PLB – The whole Perko RAW WATER STRAINER ASSEMBLY $204.99 Just in case you need to replace the whole thing someday.

Engine Cowling Insulation Foam Tape

The engine compartment cowling on the inboard Ranger 26 flips open to gain access for hand cranking (when your all night poker game left your batteries too drained to start the engine) and can come completely off for minor/major maintenance tasks. It’s sealed all the way around by a 1″ wide 1/4″ thick strip of neoprene foam that dramatically reduces engine noise, bringing it to within the limits of human survivability. Our foam came off years ago and having not found any to replace it… we just stay on deck when motoring. I asked my local boat yard to put some new neoprene strips on but for some reason they didn’t know the difference between loose felt strips that started off the first time I opened the cover. So, since I have to clean it off anyway, I’m going to put the real stuff on myself. You can get yours here:

SPONGE NEOPRENE STRIPPING WITH ADHESIVE
1 INCH WIDE X 1/4 INCH THICK X 35 FEET LONG $21.20

This is a closed cell sponge neoprene that will not absorb water or oil. It is often referred to as weather stripping or rubber sealing and is primarily used as sealing tape to block air, dust and moisture. Neoprene stripping is used for store fixtures, noise insulation, padding, expansion joints of precast concrete and steel, HVAC & refrigeration, and is an excellent door seal for truck and bus bodies. Simply peel back the liner to expose the adhesive on one side and apply to metal, plastic, wood and other smooth surfaces.

Vent Cowlings

http://www.sailboatstuff.com/co_abi.html

Antifouling Bottom Paints

I’m probably going to open a whole can of bottom paint here so just let me warn you that I’m not an expert on the mass biological killing of algae, repression of plant growth or modern biocides. I’m just going to tell you what I put on my hull and why and you can decide if it helps you either by example or by way of warning you off!

2015 marks the last year that will have used INTERLUX Super KL on our boat.

Super KL is a premium antifouling coating that provides effective protection against all marine fouling for use on boats that remain in the water for extended periods between haul outs. The fast dry formula of Super KL allows you to paint and launch your boat the same day.

We are in fresh water about 4+ months, on the trailer 8 months and every couple of years we might put in to salt water up in the San Juan’s for a month. So, we put at fresh coat on every 4 years, whether we need it or not! 😉 You typically need their reducer/thinner to clean up or thin out any of these but sometimes acetone will work for clean-up. check the label. (applied with a shot nap roller)

This year we got one coat on but the undercoats were so gone that we decided it really need two. So I did a terrible thing. I mixed products! I ran to my local huge hardware store and bought 2 quarts of Rust-Oleum Marine Coatings Flat Black Antifouling Boat Bottom Paint

Now I’m in the interesting situation of having a soft ablative coat underneath a hard leeching coat of copper based paint. Which I hope just means that the top coat will flake off prematurely and reveal the under coat which will last one or two seasons until I can choose what to put on next before I have to sand it all down and switch to some new fangled coating that will be complaint with the ever changing laws here in Oregon.

Do you Race your Ranger 26? (I like a good joke as much as the next admiral! 😉

INTERLUX VC 17m Extra with Biolux

This one is used and recommend for anyone what wants best performance in the water with quick and easy but “yearly” application. Great for racing… put on 2-3 coats and then recoat once per year. It’s fast to apply and leaves a super smooth hard finish that helps you go as fast as possible. Hard, Smooth Ablative, copper based anti-fouling.

If you do it each year, it’s easy to keep up with.

I’m thinking of switching to this one is the future…

ZO Antifouling Paint

http://www.epaint.com/products/9

http://www.greenboatstuff.com/epaepenfranb.html

Uses photoactive paint that takes photons and breaks the water apart at the surface of the hull to create carbon dioxide (or something) which nearly instantly re-absorbs into the water, but inhibits growth naturally! Very cool idea and no harmful effects on the environment!

NRG Marine SoniHull

Another really cool product to watch is the NRG Marine SoniHull Ultrasonic Antifouling System. Ok, admittedly at $1800 for the up to 32′ size system is not cheap, but if you consider the cost of hull paint $200 per season, plus time sanding and painting 6-10 hrs per year at say $20 per hour if you pay yourself (Ahahahahahah!) then you could break even at about 2 years! plus, you are smooth and fast all the time. Hummmm….

General Marine Supply

http://www.marinesupplyandhardware.com/default.asp