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Jim:
I know that several of the East Coast shipyards have degaussing
facilities, but I doubt that you could schedule your Potter into them
with out displacing an aircraft carrier or such.
I do, however, believe that you can remove the magnetism from a metal
object by striking it sharply with a hammer or other heavy object.
Perhaps you could remove the keel from your boat and give it a sound
thrashing with a three pound sledge using care to strike each side
equally so the keel does not bend in any particular direction. If your
keel has been galvanized, this might damage the coating, but perhaps you
could paint over the dings with epoxy paint. I think keel painting has
been discussed at some length on the list....
I don't think that a magnetized trailer will be any problem as the field
is probably not strong enough to be transferred to the keel of the
boat. To keep the trailer from being magnetized by the earths magnetic
field, I would suggest that you periodically park it facing different
directions to neutralize any long term effects. It would probably be a
good idea to try to drive only in north-south directions so that you
only cut a minimal number of flux lines -- or maybe that would magnetize
the thing even worse. Where's my physics book?......
Then of course you could add a pair of those big iron balls on each side
of the compass like they do on the big ships to correct for residual
magnetism, but I don't know what that would do to the stability of a
small boat like the Potter. If they are placed near the front of the
boat, they may allow you to point closer to the wind. Of course I don't
know if I would like to become known as the guy in the Potter with the
big iron balls. The little white balls that smell of ammonia seem to be
about enough problem at this point.......
Regards
Rye
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Jim:
I know that several of the East Coast shipyards have degaussing facilities, but I doubt that you could schedule your Potter into them with out displacing an aircraft carrier or such.
I do, however, believe that you can remove the magnetism from a metal object by striking it sharply with a hammer or other heavy object. Perhaps you could remove the keel from your boat and give it a sound thrashing with a three pound sledge using care to strike each side equally so the keel does not bend in any particular direction. If your keel has been galvanized, this might damage the coating, but perhaps you could paint over the dings with epoxy paint. I think keel painting has been discussed at some length on the list....
I don't think that a magnetized trailer will be any problem as the field is probably not strong enough to be transferred to the keel of the boat. To keep the trailer from being magnetized by the earths magnetic field, I would suggest that you periodically park it facing different directions to neutralize any long term effects. It would probably be a good idea to try to drive only in north-south directions so that you only cut a minimal number of flux lines -- or maybe that would magnetize the thing even worse. Where's my physics book?......
Then of course you could add a pair of those big iron balls on each side of the compass like they do on the big ships to correct for residual magnetism, but I don't know what that would do to the stability of a small boat like the Potter. If they are placed near the front of the boat, they may allow you to point closer to the wind. Of course I don't know if I would like to become known as the guy in the Potter with the big iron balls. The little white balls that smell of ammonia seem to be about enough problem at this point.......
Regards
Rye
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