23 April 2009

Current list of things to do in preparation for our next trip.

I have found that over the last three years, with a lack of use a lot of the sheaves and blocks have frozen, so they will have to be pulled apart and freed up.  I haven't yet figured out how some of these blocks are supposed to be removed. I will lubricate them with a PTFE dry lubricant to keep them running freely. I also need to see if I can find a spring to hold the main sheet upright, as the hold one has broken and allows the block to flop around.

The line locker for the mizzen halyard is slipping, and I need to see if there is some way I can tighten it up or if I will have to order a new one.

When we lift out in July to antifoul we are going to have the forward mast lifted out (they don't have the facilities to do it here while we are in the water). While it is out it will get into the space forward of the mast where we normally have very limited access. We will remove the pulpit and reweld and straighten up the foot that got bent when the preventer didn't prevent during the Atlantic crossing. While we have access to the anchor locker I want to epoxy the false floor into place, it keeps slowing working its way back and ends up stuck against the mast and generally tipped to one side. I'll also rig up a better system to tie off the bitter end of the chain.
While the mast is out I want to pull all the cables out and wrap multiple cable ties around them with the tails sticking out every metre or two. When I put them back in like that, it should stop the cables slapping against the side of the mast in rolly anchorages. With the mast out, I can remove the stand alone steaming light from the top of the mast and make sure that the install I did while sitting in a bosuns chair is installed properly and I can connect the wires properly (in the DR I couldn't get any butane for my gas soldering iron, so I just had to wind the wires together and wrap them with self amalgamating tape), must have all worked reasonable well though, it survived the crossing. The wind speed instrument hasn't worked since we got the boat, even though I swapped out the bottom unit, so there is obviously something wrong with the top section, but I won't know till I get a closer look.
We have consistently had a problem with the base of the mast moving a couple of millimetres back and forth, so I'll wax the top hat that it sits on and put some wet fibreglass on top just before we put the mast back into place, which should take up any slack and stop any movement. 

There is some chafe on the masts from where the halyard comes out of the just above the gooseneck and rubs on the reinforcing around the mast for the gooseneck. I need to figure out how to stop this, either by putting some sort of shield on the mast, or by moving the lower block out a little further to bring the halyard away from the mast.

Our electric water pump died shortly after we arrived in the UK, and we couldn't afford a new one at the time, so I temporarily installed the wash down pump to do the job.  Three years later we are still using it.  I need to buy a good quality replacement (from my research I believe I will probably get a Shurflo).

The bolts that hold the top of the vang to the boom have been dropping out, because the bolts are stainless steel and the boom is aluminium (aluminum to our American friends).  I plan to install riv-nuts, so that the bolts will eat those, rather than the boom.  They can be replaced every couple of years very easily.

After trying to repair my broken wind generator mount (thanks Chesapeake Rigging for doing a crap job) on the mizzen mast, I gave up and I am going to set it up on the port side of the transom.  I won't be able to leave it up while we are under way, because the mizzen boom hangs over stern and would take it out.  At this point in time I am waiting on an order for some tubing to install it.

I have received my new solar panels (2 x Kyocera 85 Watt), and have had some mounts made.  They are going to be insalled on ally tubing under the lifelines, as I couldn't come up with somewhere else to mount them.  The job is mostly done now, I am just waiting on the actual tube to install them on, and a Blue Sky 2512iX controller to come from a supplier in the US (Blue Sky appear to have been out of stock for a couple of months).  I have run the cables through the deck, just need to finish sealing the holes properly and run the cables to where the controller will go.

As a safety measure, I would like to install a big electric bilge pump, probably a Rule 3 - 4000 Gph unit.  It will necessitate running a new hose and putting in a new through hull (I will probably use the outlet for the air conditioning unit that I am pulling out, although the hole will need to be enlarged).

The bimini and dodger need to be replaced before we go.  The bimini got torn apart in a storm while we were on the Isle of Wight, and the dodger is just dying of old age and falling apart.  We are currently looking for a second hand sewing machine that is capable of sewing through the multiple layers of fabric and the clear plastic windows.  I would have liked a Sailrite, but they don't seem to come up second hand very often, so we are looking for an older, all metal Singer sewing machine.

I would like to reinsulate the fridge, but there just won't be time, and with the amount of power it pulls, I think we will probably turn the it off most of the time.

Replace steering cable

Replace perspex ports

Have scuba tanks tested

Gas detector needs to be installed

Service Life Raft

Windlass switch needs to be bolted down properly (need SS 1/4" Nylocks)

4th July 2009

I ordered new sheaves from the US, when they arrived I found I could not remove the bushs from them.  I spoke to one of my engineering customers (R M Engineering in Maldon for British readers) who offered to make them up for me sometime next week.  Great result!!!

The vang has now been fixed, I had no problems installing the riv nuts (Suprise, a job went smoothly)

The wind generator is now finally installed, it seemed to drag out for about three weekends after I eventually got the tube.  It works well, we have seen a maximum output of 11 amps out of it so far.
 

The tube and the controller for my solar panels finally arrived and I have mounted the panels.  I installed them hanging over the side deck for now, while we are in the marina, so that nobody gets hooked up on them.  The batteries were pretty well charged by the wind generator, so the most we have seen from them so far is about 7 amps.  (We have stopped the wind generator for now, because the solar panels are more than able to keep up with our needs with no moving parts).

My new bilge pump (Rule 4000 GPH) and accessories have arrived, but I haven't had a chance to install it yet, and probably until after we have been out of the water in a couple of weeks.

I can't install the bilge pump, because Shelley has taken over the main saloon for her sewing, she has already made our new bimini, and is in the process of making a new dodger.

Update 2nd September 2009

I ordered new sheaves from the US based on the size of one that I pulled out, then found that it was different to the rest when the new ones arrived.  I have a customer with a machine shop who is sorting that little mess out for me.  With any luck I will pick them up tomorrow.

Well we have been out of the water and are now back in.  We put on three coats of antifouling and used about 18 litres out of a 20 litre tin (I wanted to put it on thick, as I don't know when we are coming out again.  We removed the pulpit and found that it didn't need welding (I did some "adjusting" of the foot with a hammer though), and we rebedded it which I have wanted to do since I got the boat.  I secured the false floor to the sides of the hull to stop it and the weight of the chain resting against the mast.  I now have the bitter end attached to some Dyneema so that I have the strength for the line to take the weight of the anchor and all the chain if necessary, but I can still cut it away if need be.  At this point in time the end of the dyneema runs through a stopper that won't fit through the hawse hole, and then finally tied off around the forward mast.  I can report that the cable tie trick listed above has worked very well, we have had some blowy weather lately and haven't heard a thing from the wires run down the inside of the mast.  The wires on the top of the mast have been properly soldered on, covered in heat shrink, covered in butyl and then wrapped in self amalgamating tape (I don't think I am going to have a problem with the connection getting wet).  I thought I had fixed the wind speed unit, when I pulled the wires for it, I found that the shielding was severed and fixed it.  Still doesn't work.  Bugger.

We waxed the top hat at the base of the mast put epoxied on a layer of biaxial cloth and layer of regular weave.  We didn't get the mast line up properly the first time we put it in, so it had to be pulled and realigned.  A lot of the resin had been squeezed out of the cloth, so once the mast was in place properly, I syringed about 250 mls of epoxy on top which ran down and into the cloth with some leaking out the bottom.  I sure hope Shelley was thorough with the waxing, other wise that mast is never going to come out again!!!

I bought a Shurflo water pump and installed it.  It worked fine for a few days, then only worked when it wanted to. I bypassed the pressure switch to test it and it worked fine, so it was a problem with the switch.  About this time, someone on one of the YBW forums came up with a Shurlfo Smart Sensor Pump at a reasonable price, so I bought it.  The day before the new pump arrived, the faulty pump started to work right and hasn't missed a beat since!

I finally got the bilge pump installed.  One of the most difficult parts of the jobs was running the 2" outlet hose.  In the end I pulled out the Eberspacher heater (who needs a heater in the South Pacific?, we don't plan on going anywhere cold ever again) and ran the hose where the ducting went, exiting the transom where the heater exhaust went, which meant that I only had to enlarge the existing hole slightly.  It really sucks water out in a hurry!!  The original little pump still needs to finish it off though, because when the pump stops, any water in the hose runs back into the bilge.

We picked up an old all metal Singer sewing machine made in the 50's or 60's which Shelley says is way better than her modern machine.  It took a lot of time and patience on Shelleys part, making the dodger and bimini, test fitting, unpicking stitching, resewing, refitting....  They are both now up and look brilliant. I need to put the las turn button in and Shelley needs to sew the aft edges of the side pieces on and it will be complete.

Windlass switch is now properly bolted down and sealed.  While looking at upgrading to heavier chain, a friend was looking at out windlass and discovered that the bearings need to be replaced in it.  He has the same model and has done it recently, so it will be a lot easier for me, as he knows where to get the bearings, and we can learn from the mistakes he made (I had never heard of one way bearings before).

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Last modified: 04/23/09