External zinc

[Dave39]

After hauling I saw that my new(to me) 28TE w Yanmar 315, has no external zinc. All the boats I've owned had one so this begged a question. I note that the Albin info states that everything is bonded to the engine. As this is the most expensive single component in the boat, I'm thinking of adding a transom mounted external zinc connected thru the hull to internal bonding. Has anyone done this, and/or are there reasons why it should/should not be done?

[JackK]

I have a large round zinc on the rudder, one on the shaft, one on each of the trim tabs and several small zincs on the engine itself. There is also a zinc on the bow thruster (behind the prop).

I'm not an expert but someone told me, you can over zinc a boat.

Jack
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2003 28 TE Dogonit

[DougSea]

Perhaps there was one on the rudder...which is no longer there? (Having done it's duty and sacrificed it's self away)

When I moved my boat to the local marina in preparation for hauling I knew my rudder zinc was nearly gone and I was worried about stray electrical current doing serious damage to my running gear. I bought one of these 'stand-alone' zincs, which is a large shaped zinc on the end of a cable. I clamped the cable to my raw water intake and dropped the zine over the side. After a few weeks it showed definite signs of depletion. I find it hard to believe you have NO external zincs on the boat, something's up, there had to be at least one.

(For those interested, my stand-alone zinc was shaped like a fish - they were out of mermaids!)

[Denis]

My 28 TE has a large zinc mounted on the transom, all the bonding wires run to it on the inside. I also have a large zinc on the rudder and on each trim tab and on the line cutters. Denis

[Dave39]

My 28 TE has a large zinc mounted on the transom, all the bonding wires run to it on the inside. I also have a large zinc on the rudder and on each trim tab and on the line cutters. Denis

I'm sorry in that I didn't mean to imply that I has no zincs whatsoever. I have zincs on all my running gear, but at season's end, very little was left. I'm thinking of installing a transom mounted external zinc, though I could go with a zinc on a cable attached (as noted) to the raw water thruhull.

[DougSea]

Well...that's a bit different!

I like my "Grouper" zinc since I can readily see that it's doing it's job and there's no effort in replacing it, plus I'm hoping it's slowing down the depletion of my mounted zinec, which are much harder to replace when the boat's in the water. Here's a link to the one I got at West Marine:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... artial/0/0

The fact that ALL of your many zincs were gone would have me thinking there's a fair amount of current flowing in the water around your boat, not necessarily from yours. Are you in a marina?

[RicM]

There was a great article in Soundings magazine in September 06 about this whole question:
http://www.soundingspub.com/ME2/dirmod. ... F03B90165F
I put a galvanic isolater in my boat after reading it and it did seem to reduce the rate of loss on my zincs.

[tomcat rio]

...
a while ago a young child was actually electrocuted while swimming in a marina due to stray voltage...so there may be more than enough stray 'trons around your boat to justify frequent zinc inspections...
...
http://www.mikeholt.com/safety.php?id=u ... 20(7-1-2K)