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.