From: Norm Clark <norm@dancris.com> Subject: Re: TWL: Re: Zincs >Just wondering if there is a "less expensive" place to buy shaft zincs than West. I'm not endorsing West Marine, as there are plenty of marine stores that sell zincs. But there are zincs and there are zincs. We learned from somewhat expensive experience that there are zincs out there that do not do a good job of protecting the boat. Some of the cheaper suppliers of marine zincs have products that barely do anything. We've been told by several people, including people in the marine electric business, that they have seen zincs that did not deteriorate as they should, but stayed pretty much intact for several years. Our transom zincs, fitted by a local yard when the boat was trucked from California to Washington, lasted three years, although the shaft zincs needed replacing every six months. This saved us $48 in transom zincs every year, but the downside was we had some electrolysis problems. According to the people we subsequently talked to, zincs should not last more than six months or so, depending on their size, of course, before needing replacement or at least showing obvious signs of deterioration. Otherwise, they are not doing their job properly. Obviously there are a lot of factors affecting zinc life- your boat, the marina you're moored in, and so on. In our case, our boat's electrical and bonding system checked out fine. The only culprit that could be found were the two no-brand transom zincs, which had become almost black but were still more or less the same size as when new. The surface was flaky and crumbly, as opposed to simply dissolved away. We were told that several years ago, there were a lot of cheap zincs on the market, and that a number of boats had had problems as a result. The electrical shop that has done work on our boat recommends using only mil-spec zincs, as these are manufactured to have the correct properties needed to combat electrolysis. If you can't find these, at least use a reputable brand of zinc, or buy them at a store that sells zincs that are known to work properly. Saving a few dollars on a set of zincs, which are pretty cheap anyway even for a mil-spec set, may cost you a lot more in the long run. _________________________________________ C. Marin Faure GB36 "La Perouse" Bellingham, Washington