I am the process on getting a NACRA 20 and want to bend the ear of a few of you that have owned these for a few years.

The one I ma getting is going to need a once over when I get it, that is some minor hull work, rigging etc... the normal stuff you looking into when you buy a used boat.

Are there some things that I should be looking at when I go through the refit over the winter. Not so much concerned about the upgrades but more so stuff that would be keeping me off the water come spring - summer.

Thanks

John

I have sat staring blankly at the wall for a while now and really can't think of anything that could be called a weak point on the inter 20! its a really good boat - congratulations!

One trick that I did learn was for when the rudders start to come up a fraction at speed, giving a bit of weather helm. the first instinct is to change or try and tighten the springs. But it is the pairs of rollers that are wearing. If you wrap some insulation tape around the top one to thicken it up a bit, it does the trick.

Check the bridle tangs for fractures.... Don't ask me how I know.

To quote that line form Dirty Harry "Hey...eyes gots to know"

The spinnaker or the forestay jib pairs

Replace the eye screws that attach each rudder to the top gudgeon (Checking they look good is not enough - don't ask me how I know)

My last great race against the I20 fleet in SD had us pushing Brandon on the infamous Black boat pretty good...nipping at his heels as the breese came up. On the second of three beats, we were looking good to pass him for the first time on course when we split tacks. Knew it would be closer at the next cross...but we were denied our glory when his main traveller shackle-loop exploded, forcing him to pull up lame and we strolled to victory.

He stated that part was the original...never heard of one blowing up before. We walked around the yard checking other I20's and found one out of the six other boats had a stress crack in the same part.

We actually had 2 parts blow in that neighbourhood:
A bolt holding the main traveller shackle loop blew its head - you can't even see cracks without taking it apart.
The becket in the center of the lower main main block, to which the sheet is spliced, blew.
Both times we ended up jury rigging with spare dyneema we always carry aboard.

Definitely replace anything thats metal or plastic on the rudder assembly outside of the castings.

What type of tramp style is it? If its the bolt rope system then you'll need to convert it over to a bolt-rope-lacing system that works much much better.

Other basic boat maintenance stuff applies. It really is a solid boat overall.

If the tramp is the bolt rope system in the hull with side lacing check the straps coming from the bolt rope in the hull. They wear fairly quickly. If you plan ahead you can find an awning shop to make them for about $1.25 to $1.50 ea. If you don't plan ahead and you have five kids showing up and you find that some have worn thru, you will end up driving to a sail maker and they will charge you $5 each while you wait. Don’t ask me how I know…

I would not sail with too many of these straps that are worn thru since the hull slot can become overloaded. I've seen a crack develop and it then becomes a much larger problem...

Right now it has the old style tramp and it is in fair to good condition and usable for at least another season. But thats today, things could change tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for your r help here. I appreciate the advice.

I have a much better system for the side bolt lacing system than the little webbing tabs. Let me go take pics of mine real quick and I'll brb.

Ok so what we have here is a solid piece of webbing. There's the bolt rope that goes into the slot, and then the holes burned into the webbing for the lacing. There's a 3/8" fiberglass backing rod to support it.

The theory (that has worked for me):

The reason why the old style tramps pulled out of the slot was because the groove in the hull expanded gradually over time. Then came the webbing straps - but the problem with that was that it only put pressure on the bolt rope at very specific points, like right at the daggerboard trunk, and that eventually pulled out of the slot too, or it slowly sliced itself apart over time. The solid piece of webbing with the fiberglass backing rod spreads the load out evenly before it gets to the bolt rope. Its worked for me, and worked well. Only thing to be careful about is the ends will fray.

This set I ordered have reinforced ends to account for that.

upper rudder gudgeon (and lower, for that matter) need to be welded on both top and bottom. Don't ask me how I know

Hounds on mast - check how stretched out the forestay attachment hole is.

Those were the only two things that ever gave me trouble... but I wasn't very hard on the boat.

Tad,

Where did you find that webbing? Whats the specs on it?

How was yours compared to this?

That's thin and slightly elongated. Just a matter of time till it breaks. We weld stainless steel washers on both sides of the lower hole.
We also run a short 5mm dyneema line through the eyes of all 3 stays and loop it through the top (trapeze) shackle. That way, if the lower hole or shackle gives the mast stays up - Saved the day a couple of months ago.

That, and a lot of us used to shim the shackle that went into the hounds to avoid all the movement (which exaserbated the elongation/cracking). I used plastic shims since they were disposable. I basically cut up a plastic kitchen cutting board with a drill and set of bits. I also used SS washers but had trouble finding the right sizes..

I replaced my hounds when I started to see a small crack at the bottom of the fitting. Adding the shims seemed to correct the problem, but I didn't have as many years of sailing on the new hounds before the boat was sold, so I don't know how the modification worked long-term..