New paint, anodes and now the CAPAC meter will hardly move at all.
It worked before the haul out and was verified with a digital meter.
The anodes were spent and with the addition of a mag guppy the boat was in the safe range before haul out.
They power washed the boat immediately after haul out and I didn’t get the chance to cover the plate on the hull. Grrr! They got to it while I was doing the paperwork! I put on 9’ of anodes that I got from boatzinks.com , etched, primed and 2 coats of trilux. I can only think the plate may have been ruined by the power wash. I know it takes a couple days for the boat to get to where it should be but I’m not getting hardly anything on the meter. So I guess I may be looking for a hand held meter I can drop a probe over the side. Any ideas on a good source for the meter? Also, one thing to look for if you have water in your tanks. The gasket on the filler cap can go bad and let water in the tank during hard rains. After cleaning the threads and the inlet to the tank I put the cap on and put some water on the cap. Dried the cap, took it off and found moisture in the threads going into the tank.

On a more positive note.
The boat jumps on plane with the new paint and I just had the props gone over as well. HUGE difference.

Thanks

JB

It was around .6 to .7 with no guppy.
With the guppy it was around .9 to 1.0
I'll check it with a meter when I go back Sunday.

Thanks Norm,

I kinda figured the with the old spent annodes the reading would be low.
Was thinking with new paint and fresh annodes the boat would get to the safe reading and not be way lower!?
I will install new washers on the shaft isolation just because.
No stray current to hull was measured.

Thanks

JB

Yep, I did go bare metal at contact points.
It was painted under the annodes before and I was expecting a positive boost by cleaning the old paint off under the annodes.
I have seen one post where they recomended painting and the bolts made the contact.
I chose the more popular way, metal to metal.
Their has been no change in the shaft isolation, yet the reading is WAY lower after paint and annode replacement.
I'll check tomorrow with the digital meter and go from their.

Shamrock said ... The anodes looked great after six years.

That just doesn't sound right. Something else is corroding?

Max

Capac would not affect wearing out of the anodes... it's just a measuring device. No wear on anodes after 6 years is at least unusual, indicating some other metal on the boat is sacrificing itself which is the job of the anodes. Appearance of anodes after that much time - often after just a season - should be like swiss cheese. Check thoroughly.

Shamrock,

First off after 6 years your anodes shouldn’t look fine. They should look like the moons surface or like someone took the penned end of a ball-peen hammer to them. You say U have new set from John Althouse, if U look at them U’ll see the lienal edges have a radius on them. It could be possible that one of the P O’s had put the wrong type anodes on? Seeing U stated the P O had been getting low reading for some time. I’d suggest U put the new sealloy ones on. Than see what your reading are. U can check your Capac meter out with a Ohm meter. There shouldn’t be a need to double up on anodes if your isolation system is up too snuff. 6' on keel 1' each trim tab, & 6" each rudder. I strongly advise a S.S. wire brush cleaning of anodes on both side at each pull out for proper contact of anode to metal plus U’ll be surprised at the critters & crud that gather behind them. AnyWho that’s my ½ penny’s worth.

Norm,

Big s Live On

If you had a piece of silver wire you could hang it over side and read wire to ground and you would get a reading close to what regular meter should read.
I calabrated my meter when boat was out of water I put known voltage in at hull (checked with calabrated volt ohm meter) and read meter on dash
My meter was real close. I say silver wire because your meter head on hull is silver plated, which tends to not add to voltage
Note silver wire is expensive, some day I will have to try and see what reading would change with a copper wire or a piece of S S sheat metal
Actually I have a used set of spare S S shafts I could try one. It is time to pull the boat this week have to be out by Nov 1 according to insurance
I once fixed a CAPAC meter for some on it was a broken wire or solder joint I forget The I calabrated it while on the bench

SICK LEAVE / Bob

Don't bypass the switch to leave the meter constantly on. This will kill the sensor on the hull bottom. The hull/water/sensor form a battery, and when you use the meter to read the battery's voltage (by pushing in the button) you are using up the battery to drive the meter. It's not much, but you don't want to have the meter running all the time.

This would not be a problem if you used a high-input-impedance meter, such as some digital voltmeters, but that would require a 12v connection to operate the digital meter. Probably not worth the effort.

It is likely something fairly simple such as a bad switch or bad connection somewhere.

When I pulled my boat for the first time the anodes looked great after 3 years....I was baffled myself...after a little investigating of my own (not the marine mech) I figured out that some BOZO put sheet metal pieces on as anodes ...I guess the previous owner got ripped off ! Hull had popcorn corrosion that had to be repaired.


Pics here


Maybe you have or had sheet metal anodes as well