Simon Says

Since we're both still working during the week we are pretty much limited to weekends for working on our list of projects.  For the last few weeks we've been chipping away at it and we're starting to see some progress.  Microscopic progress maybe but it's in the right direction.

The Mainsail preventer is installed and usable but not yet "finished".  My friend and twice-removed cousin-in-law (?) Simon wrote and suggested I make a few improvements to the system.  The two eye nuts at the end of the boom are attached to a 6" long 3/8-16 length of "all thread".  I placed nuts and washers on both surfaces inside the boom where it passes through and figured this, with the eye nuts on the outside, would be plenty strong enough.  Simon suggested backing plates would be a wise addition.  He's right.  I don't know why I didn't see that in the first place.  Probably in too much of a hurry to get things installed.  So I went back and took another look at what I had.  Inside the boom there is longitudinal bracing about halfway up the inner surface of either side.  There's also inner bracing at the end for the out-haul and topping lift pulleys.  I managed to place the "all-thread" just a washers distance from all of this which worked out well for the washers but leaves no room for internal backing plates.  My only option, other than finding a new location, would be to place the backing plates between the eye nuts and the boom's outer surface.  Even then there's not much room to play with since there are rivet heads nearby.  I ended up making my backing plates from 1/4" aluminum, 2.5" x 2.5", with the eye nut centered on the plate.  I think this will do the job of spreading the load with the nuts and washers still in place on the inside.  I do plan to keep an eye on it though and at the first sign of fatigue I'll have to go with plan B, whatever that is.

The second thing Simon suggested was using rope that had some stretch to it.  This would work like a built-in shock absorber.  With the reinforced eye nut at the back of the boom this will add some additional insurance.  I think I'll replace the 25' length, section A, that's mounted on the boom.  The double braid that I selected has less than 2% stretch. When I go to order the new line I'll get a recommendation for something more suitable.  Thank you Simon.  Both very good suggestions.

For the second section of the preventer, section B, that runs along the toe rail I needed to come up with a way to keep it off the deck and out from under foot.  I found these cool-man stanchion fairleads made by Allen.  Five on each side mounted on the life-line stanchions about 4" off the deck will be perfect.  No moving parts, just simple guides.  The run from the turning block up by the bow to the rope clutch aft by the cockpit follows the curve of the toe rail but is straight enough so there shouldn't be any binding or noticeable resistance.  I have ten of these on back-order from APS in Annapolis.

I ordered and received some nice heavy duty padeyes to mount the forward turning blocks on the toe rail.  I need to make up some backing plates for these.  We're getting ready to remove and re-bed all the stanchions and sand down and re-finish the toe rail this Fall.  I'll probably wait until then to mount the padeyes.  I need to order the two line clutches too but with tight funding that'll have to wait until next payday.  They wouldn't get mounted until next Fall either so that's not a big deal.

One reason we're re-bedding the stanchions and re-finishing the toe rail is because our boat leaks like a sieve.  Last week we suffered a major storm giving us 6" of rain in less than two hours.  Cheri was on board during the storm and called to tell me the lights were flickering and then there was no power.  Great.  When I got home we found that water had gotten into the inverter and fried it.  It's still under warranty but there's little hope that the factory will honor that.  I'm waiting now to see what the bill comes to for that one.  A new inverter is just under $2000.  Cheri came up with the brilliant idea of using a lid from a large Tupperware box and gluing it above the location for the inverter to deflect any water that might try to find it's way in again.  We need to leave enough room for airflow because that sucka gets pretty hot but I think this is a good idea.  We have always had a leak on the Port side that we couldn't find the source of.  Now we have leaks on both sides so I need to get serious with this.  The mast also needs to be resealed where it passes through the deck.  Never ending.
Update: I just got a call from MTS, the electronics guys taking care of the inverter.  It was completely covered by warranty and replaced with a new unit.  Holy smokes!  Magnum Energy really stands behind their gear.  Highly recommended.

Cheri is researching the life raft we salvaged last week.  It's an Avon off-shore, 6 man raft with double bottom and canopy.  Has a nice list of gear included too.  The problem is that it was due for re-inspection in March of 2007.  I don't think "overdue" is even the right word here.  If this was a library book we'd be going to jail!  So the raft is at least 9 years old and I think 12 years is the cut-off.  We're going to take it to Vane Brothers Marine Safety and Services in Baltimore.  They'll take a look at it and let us know if it's worth spending the money on re-cert.  Vane Brothers in Norfolk rented us a 6 man life raft for our trip to Bermuda and we were impressed with how helpful they were.  I feel comfortable taking their advice on this.  If they say dump it and go with a new one then that's what we'll do.  At least we wouldn't be out anything.

On Sunday we did some troubleshooting on the Espar heater.  Back in early March it stopped working after running non-stop for something like 2500 hours with only minor service.  I thought it might be the fuel injector and diffuser screen being clogged with carbon build-up so I replaced them.  They were dirty but that didn't fix our problem.  Since the weather was getting mild I let it go to take on more interesting projects.  But geez,  it's now half-way through August and the time is flying by.  We're gonna need this thing by the end of November so I'd better get it running.  Reading the manual (a novel idea!) I found a hint about the fuel pump possibly being the problem.  I climbed down into the cockpit locker and detached the fuel line from the heater.  With the tube aimed into an old orange juice bottle I asked Cheri to fire up the heater.  It went through it's start up cycle and the pump made some kinda pumping noise but hardly anything came out, just a few drops.  In fact the pump completely quit after about 10 seconds.  Uhm, I think it's supposed to do more than that. I removed the pump and took it apart.  At the input there's a fine mesh screen and it was filthy, 90% plugged.  I cleaned it out as best I could and put it back together.  When Cheri fired it up again I got much better flow but it still cut off after about ten seconds.  I put a meter across the terminals for the pump and it read 0.0 ohms.  It's supposed to read 8.5 ohms.  I think I'll replace the pump.

One more thing....we have an old spinnaker pole that I bought to use with the dinghy derrick.  It's too short (12') to use for a whisker pole on our boat so I was thinking about replacing the aluminum tube with a longer one (16').  Forespar sells them for about $450 for a 3" diameter aluminum tube with a clearcoat finish.  I could drill out the rivets on the old one and swap out the tube pretty easily.  Still, 16' is not quite long enough.  The measurement from our mast to the forestay that mounts the Genoa is 18' 11" and that's the dimension ("J" measurement in sail-speak) that's recommended for a whisker pole for our boat.  I was  cruising the 'net for boat stuff and came across a good site for used gear (click here).  There I found a listing for a Forespar whisker pole.  It's 3.5" in diameter, 21.5' long when fully extended and 12.5' when collapsed.  Asking price was $350.  I wrote the dude and it was still available so we made a deal and I'm planning to pick it up this weekend.  Six hour drive in each direction but we really, really, really like road trips.  We'll knock this out in one day and have us a proper whisker pole.  We'll hafta figure out the mount for this thing though.  Vertically on the mast is probably the best location if there's enough room below the radar mount.  Otherwise it'll mount horizontally on the stanchions on the Port side at deck level.  Another project for the list.  For a good explanation of how to use a whisker pole click here.  Having a whisker pole is a big deal for us.  Used to pole out the Genoa while the preventer stabilizes the Mainsail we'll now be well set up for running downwind efficiently and safely.

So we are making progress on several fronts.  We still have a huge list to complete though and it seems to keep getting longer.  Just gotta keep hacking away at it.

Providence

Collective Soul - Shine

Things happen, whether good or bad, and you just don't have any real control over any of it.  You might think you do but then something comes along to show you just how wrong you are.  We're getting close to our push-off date and we have a list of expensive things that we want to get for the boat.  We worked out a budget for all our known expenses through next March and we figured we're OK, we can do this.  Then something came up and our budget was blown out of the water, we're living paycheck to paycheck and all our big projects are put on hold until next winter.  Now I'm wondering how we're going to manage all this and still keep to our schedule for departure.  It's not making me feel too confident.  May have to switch to plan B.  So we're making do with what we can, taking on small projects and biding our time until things get better.  Then last weekend came along.

I was working on the mainsail preventer making measurements for some backing plates.  A friend on the dock stopped by and we started talking.  He told me about this guy he met the day before who was preparing his boat for a trip to the Mediterranean next June.  He was stripping out a lot of gear that the previous owner had installed.  I heard something about a water maker that was being tossed.  Excuse me?  I hustled over to this guys boat and started making a nuisance of myself.  I mentioned that I had designed my own water maker and was looking for an AC motor to drive the high pressure pump.  He looked at me kinda sideways and said to follow him over to his shed.  When we got there he pulled open the door and pointed to a motor sitting on the floor beneath a ton of other stuff.  I got down there and looked over the info plate.  This was exactly what I needed and it looked like it was in very good condition.  I asked him how much he wanted for it and he says "take it, it's yours".  Cool!  He then started pulling out all kinds of stuff and before I knew it there was an entire water maker system in a pile on the gravel.  The guy said I should take the whole thing because there might be more stuff in there that I could use.  Uhm, OK.

He then says to me "do you need a 6-man life raft"?  Well gee, we were thinking we only wanted a 4-man raft because it's cheaper and about twenty pounds lighter.  How much?  "It's free, just get it outa here".  Are you sure?  I mean, this stuff could be worth some money.  He says "old used gear isn't worth much, especially life rafts".  OK, well let me help you out then.  I unburdened the guy of all this old junk.

I loaded everything up and hauled it back to our shed.  I looked the water maker over and wrote down some identifying info, part numbers and serial numbers.  Back at the boat I looked it up and found the system was made by Sea Recovery, model # SRC 600 AM.  This thing makes 25 gallons per hour and draws 32 amps while running.  If I substituted the Iwaki fish tank pump for the feed pump in the system it would drop the power requirements to about 25 amps which is perfect for our situation.  Cool!

This is not a new water maker.  It's probably at least ten years old.  Just looking at it though I can see that it's in very good condition and the dude told me it ran fine when he had the boat surveyed three years ago.  What I plan to do is get a service kit and go through and rebuild everything in the system.  I think I'll dump the three proprietary membranes and replace them with the ones I had planned to use in my original system, Filmtec SW30-2540.  These are available anywhere in the world and are fairly reasonably priced.  The SRC came with pre-filters and housings and a bag full of spares.  These are the exact same filters I was going to use so that's a bonus.  The SRC control panel has two flow gauges, a flow control valve and two pressure gauges.  I had already bought some of this stuff but these appear to be in good condition so maybe I'll clean them up and hoard them for spares or sell them on eBay or something.  It has control relays for automatic operation.  I was going to do a similar set-up in my original system.  There's nothing special about old crusty relays though so I'll probably just replace these with new ones for a fresh start.  There's also a large, heavy, sealed box that serves as the system controller.  It has "on" and "off" buttons and a string of LED's that I suppose are the TDS (total dissolved solids) display.  I already have a TDS controller that actuates relays for system control that I was going to use in my original system.  Mine has a nice digital display and is something I'd really like to use.  Maybe, just maybe, my cool-man TDS controller can find a place in there.  I may have to open up this control box and see what makes it tick.

The pile of parts also included valves, tubing for low pressure water and some high pressure hoses.  All the fittings are stainless steel and everything looks to be in very good condition.  Once I go through everything, clean it up and replace seals and motor brushes I'll try running it without the membranes in place.  I don't want to use this thing in the Chesapeake Bay because it's brackish water, diluted salt water, and not what this system will be made for, not to mention the fact that the algae would kill the system.  I also don't want to run my brand new membranes through crappy water and then have to pickle them for six months.  I'll just hook it up to verify that everything works properly and have the water dump overboard, then flush it all out with fresh water.

My original plan was going to cost about $4,000.  I think we'll now be able to put together a complete water maker for about $1200, the cost of two new membranes and housings.  This would be for a system that produces 40 gallons per hour.  That's a lot of water for just two people but I want a system that would quickly top off our water tank and be done.  Maybe run it once a week.  Since this operates on AC voltage it means we'll hafta run the genset when we want to make water.  By going with two 40" membranes instead of one we can make 40 gph and cut our power requirements in half as well as reduce the amount of diesel fuel we burn.  If we could keep the run time short and/or reduce the system's power requirements just a bit more we could possibly run this thing off the inverter and batteries alone.  With solar and wind power for back-up we could be very efficient.  Green even.  We'll hafta see how this thing goes.

I feel pretty fortunate.  Bad things do happen, one step back.  But then just as I'm adapting to that my overall situation improves, two steps forward.  Maybe more.  What originally looked bad has turned around and made room for something even better to work out for us.  Of course, who knows what's around the next corner?  That's OK, life is a trip and we're enjoying the ride.

Time To Change Our Socks

 Having a boat is a lot of work.  Just the every day upkeep keeps you busy for a good portion of your time.  Getting that boat ready for serious cruising compounds the issue.  We've been working on a five year plan for about 4.5 years now.  I gotta point out that the first three years were spent repairing and replacing.  It wasn't really until last year that we started making improvements to the boat to get her ready for extended off-shore sailing.  We have our list of major boat projects but I don't think I've ever mentioned any of these.  What we have here are some details that make life on board a little nicer.

Last weekend Cheri took on a project that she's been asking me to do for several years now.  The shower in the forward head is a stand-up type that's separated from the rest of the room with a bi-fold door.  The door doesn't extend all the way to the floor and there's about a 4" gap at the bottom that allows water to splash all over the place.  When we first got the boat we had a water dam put in but it's only about 1" high and the floor still gets wet outside the door.  We've always rolled up a towel in the opening to catch the spray.  I've been planning to replace the dam with a taller one but......well, it's been kinda low on my list.  Cheri came up with a better idea.  She took some scrap pieces of Isinglass and cut them to fit at the bottom of the doors.  She installed snaps in the Isinglass that connect to stick-on pads that are mounted at the bottom of the doors.  With the doors closed the Isinglass hangs in front of the water dam and zero spray gets by.  No more rolled up towels, no more mess when you take a shower.  Job well done.

Another thing she came up with is for our glassware.  When we moved onto the boat we decided not to use plastic for our dishes or glasses.  After all, this is our home, not a weekend tent in the woods.  The dishes we use are called "Everyday White" from Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Our glasses are a mix.  For everyday drinks we do use the plastic insulated glasses but for wine, martinis and that kind of thing we use nice glassware.  These we keep stored in the cabinet in the Main Salon where the table folds up.  To keep them from getting knocked around we've always stored them in heavy cotton gym socks (clean!  I swear!) but we've noticed some guests get this funny look on their face when we offer them a drink and pull the glass down from the shelf.  Cheri has started knitting "cozies" for the glassware using a heavy yarn.  Each one is custom made for the shape of the glass and they look very classy.  Here's how it's done in her own words:

"I'm using "Knit Quick" round knitting looms, different sizes depending on the glass. Got a package of four at Michaels for about $15 and purchased an additional really small one, $5, for the cordial glasses. I'm using a 4p natural warp cotton knitting yarn that I got from Walmart. I believe the 4P is how many strands are in it. Came on a 800 yard spool. Probably enough to do all of our glasses. Can also be used to make dish cloths for washing dishes. I think the spool of yarn cost $10. Only thing additional that is helpful is a crochet hook.  Comes with a hook and a large sewing needle. Which I promptly lost.

First I crochet a round bottom for each glass, then hook the loop on the knitting loom and knit to the length needed...which for our needs is the height of the glass plus some for stuffing inside. Then I wrap stitch the round bottom to the sock and voila...glass sock.

The loom is so easy I taught my five year old niece to knit."

Cheri was inspired by some port curtains she saw that Pam Wilson had done for IP420 "Pappy's Packet".  She borrowed the design and modified it to make it her own.  They're shaped like shower caps with elastic sewn into the opening.  They stretch over the ports for a nice snug fit and look great.  The material she used has no definite pattern and she used different colors for different parts of the boat.  With the light coming through from behind they look like stained glass windows.  She had so much fun making them she made extra sets for different seasons.  In the winter she puts foil backed foam inside the curtain and it does a nice job of keeping the cold out.  We found that the one curtain in the forward shower kept getting soaked because the hand-held shower head hangs on the wall right next to it.  Cheri recently picked up some cheapo shower caps (real ones, $0.99) and replaced that one curtain.  It works great and the water just rolls right off.

An Ounce of Prevention...

We're coming into the final phase of outfitting and preparation.  Our goal is to cast off no later than the end of March 2015.  Cheri retires December 31, 2014 and at this point has something like 150 days to go.  I'm going to keep working until the end of February, maybe into March.  It sounds like a long way off but the time is flying by and we still have a ton of stuff to do.

We're making lists.  This is not something I normally do but with so many projects going on we'd end up forgetting half of them.  We're concentrating on the smaller projects for now and leaving the pricey ones until later.  Right now the list has 20 current projects and 15 new ones.  The new ones include the single side-band radio (SSB), life raft and it's installation, water maker and a few others that we just won't be able to complete until after the first of the year.  The current projects include finishing the Monitor wind vane, building storage for the cockpit lockers and some cabinets for the aft cabin, varnishing the toe rail and some other stuff that we can knock off now with low out-of-pocket expense.

Last weekend I installed a new 110VAC outlet at the head of our bunk.  Cheri's been asking for that for about five years now so I thought that one should be at the top of the list.  Like everything else, that turned out to be an all day job.  Most of the work was under the bunk beneath two levels of storage.  By the time I got everything emptied out the boat looked like our old storage locker with stuff piled everywhere.  It took as much time to move stuff around as it did to run the wire and put in the new outlet.  Life on a boat.

My big project for this past weekend was to install a preventer for the boom.  When we depart next year the places we want to go will have us running before the wind (trade winds) for much of the time.  When you run before the wind the boom is pulled out to one side or the other to catch the wind.  In light winds the mainsail tends to flop around if there's any kind of wave action.  We'll most likely be running with the waves too so the boats motion will be rolley-poley and that boom will want to go all over the place.  If the boom swings too far aft the wind can catch the sail from the opposite side and force it all the way over to the other side of the boat.  This is called a gybe and when uncontrolled can be dangerous for the crew and possibly damage the boat.  A preventer attaches to the boom and gets run forward and tied down to keep it under pressure and stop any movement.  We have a line that we use for this now but it requires that you go up on deck to attach it or to make any adjustments.  It attaches to a point about halfway out the length of the boom and I've found that this can be a bad thing.  There can be tremendous pressure exerted on this preventer as the boat moves around.  Not only that, our mainsail is "loose-footed" and attaches at the mast and the end of the boom but not along the length of the boom.  As the sail flops around it puts pressure on the attachment points.  If the boom is "prevented" half way out it can cause the boom to snap in half.  This could very possibly ruin your day.  To "prevent" this I've come up with a better plan.  Actually I copied it from another guy's boat.

What I plan to do is attach our preventer about 6" in from the end of the boom.  I want a permanent set-up so we'll have a preventer attached on each side of the boom to use depending on which side the boom goes out to, port or starboard.  The preventer will be in two parts for each side of the boat.  Section "A" will be permanently mounted on the sides of the boom.  It'll attach to eye nuts at the back end and pull forward to a cleat at the front of the boom and store there when not in use.  Along each toe rail will be the other half of the preventer, section "B".  One end will have a snap shackle spliced into it which will attach to the eye at the end of section "A".  When not in use the snap shackle will attach to a storage ring on one of the life-line stanchions.  Section "B" runs through a block attached to the toe rail forward of the shrouds, up towards the bow.  From there it runs aft to a rope clutch, then into a turning block and up to a winch in the cockpit.

Sounds confusing but it'll work like this.....

• the boat comes to a new course to run before the wind and we adjust the main sheet to allow the boom to extend out over the starboard side (or the port side, depending on the winds direction).
• one of us will go up on deck and remove section "A" from the cleat on the boom and attach it to the snap shackle on section "B".
• back in the cockpit we'll take the other end of "B" and wrap it around the winch and snug it up to pull the boom forward and put it under tension.
• once the line is adjusted we'll close the line clutch to lock down the line and we'll be able to remove it from the winch so that can be used for other jobs.

There may be times when we'll sail for days without changing course and all adjustments can be made to the mainsail from the cockpit as needed.  This is absolutely gonna be the cat's meow.

So, the weekend went by and despite being pulled off-track by other "necessities" I managed to get started on the preventer.  Earlier in the week I had ordered the parts I needed on-line.  The eye nuts are available in polished form for $40 from Wichard but I opted to get rough castings from McMaster-Carr for $7.  Didn't have to think that one over for very long.  I also got a good price on the snap shackles and 6" cleats from another on-line source and all my parts arrived by Friday.  I made measurements for the line I'd need and had them made up at the West Marine in Annapolis.  Section "A" is 25' long and has an eye in each end.  One side is reinforced with a metal eye to reduce abrasion and is formed on the ring of the eye nut.  Section "B" is 50', has an eye formed on the ring of the snap shackle and the other end is left plain.  All ends are whipped.  I used 7/16" Sta-Set double-braid for both sections, two each since a duplicate preventer will be  mounted on each side of the boom.

With all my parts on hand I pulled the boom out over the finger pier and lashed it down to keep it from moving around.  I pulled the end cap off the boom and chose a spot to drill based on the flattest location with the fewest extrusions.  The holes I drilled are almost 6" in from the end and slightly more than half way up the side of the boom.  The end-profile of my boom is kinda square on the top half and tapered on the bottom so I chose a part that has parallel sides.  I ran the 3/8"-16 all thread through the holes and placed nuts, lock-washer and flat washers on each inside surface.  This is going to be a pressure point on the boom and I wanted to make sure there would be no flexing.  The all thread extends out each side enough to mount a lock washer and the eye nut.  Where it extends through the inside of the boom I plan to cover the threads with a section of 3/8" hose to prevent any chafing of the out haul line.  I don't think it'll ever come in contact with it but I'm doing it just in case.  Next weekend I'll mount the cleats on the forward part of the boom to complete section "A".

Section "B" will require a little more work.   I'll have to mount padeyes on the toe rail to hold the turning blocks.  I could hang them off the rings at the bottom of the stanchions but I'm not sure how bullet-proof those are.  Be a bummer to have one blow out while you're running before 20 knots of wind in 10' seas.  The padeyes and the line clutches will need backing plates and those will be mounted from the inside of the boat so this job will require two people.  I plan to fabricate the backing plates during the week and hopefully find enough time to complete this project the following weekend.

I'll make an effort to get some installation pictures and do another update next week.

One more thing.....our vegetable garden is awesome!  The tomatoes are incredibly delicious.  We planted two kinds, little cherry ones (sweet!) for salads and big heirloom ones (so much flavor!) for sandwiches.  We also had cucumbers and zucchini.  The zuchs were made into bread and Cheri came up with a recipe that includes curry and ginger.  Out of this world!  We also planted enough herbs to keep us going for a year.  We had a ton of mint for Mojitos!  This will be the last garden we do for a while and it's been a total success.  Lotsa fun.  Many thanks to Herrington Harbour North marina for letting us play in their dirt.