Around the World from West coast?

[AlanH]

I'm getting Philippe's updates. for those who aren't... Some tough things have happened. While becalmed in the doldrums, Philippe discovered a growing crack in his boom.

He's fixed some troublesome issues with his autopilots, but the primary autopilot continues to lock the tiller down even when it's supposedly disengaged.

And when finally getting wind, it blew up to 30 knots fairly quickly, and while all his three spinnakers were fastened down on deck, two of them washed overboard. The only one left is his "big" spinnaker, which has already been shredded and repaired once, and then shredded again.

Not good developments for Philippe.

 

[everydaysailor]

He is wisely heading back to the barn. Chalk it up as an instructive shakedown.

 

[AlanH]

Philippe, I have access to a 16-18 foot long section of Hobie catamaran mast. I don't have the extrusions for the ends, and some of the rivets that are in the section will need to be cut out. It could be turned into a backup boom for CB, probably. You can have it, if you want it.

 

[sleddog]

Welcome home, PJ!

5443 miles, 35 days, 9 hours. Best day's run 230 miles.

 

[jamottep]

Welcome home, PJ!

5443 miles, 35 days, 9 hours. Best day's run 230 miles.

Thank you ... it was quite the shakedown cruise. Not the original plan, but a good outcome nonetheless. Trying to get things back under control ... Lots of work!

Thanks for all your words of encouragement throughout the voyage!

 

[Submarino]

Hi PJ,
Many are glad you're back in and we are eager to hear more about your voyage with pics if you have.

JB

 

[jamottep]

I'm looking for gainful employment in my field (SaaS professional services management/solution architect/PM)... But in the meantime if anybody needs a boat delivered ... I'm interested as I need to refurbish the cruising kitty

 

[sleddog]

An excellent repair on CaB's boom at Buzz Ballenger's. Buzz is no longer in the repair business, but........
The rivets are solid stainless steel, much stronger than hollow ones. $2 each.
The patch had to be external as the sidewall of the boom was collapsed and an internal sleeve could not be fitted. With the external patch, the rivets pulled the collapsed section back out and into alignment. Thank you to Buzz and Evan.

 

[Philpott]

Wow. The incomparable value of being in the SSS network.

 

[AntsUiga]

An excellent repair on CaB's boom at Buzz Ballenger's. Buzz is no longer in the repair business, but........
The rivets are solid stainless steel, much stronger than hollow ones. $2 each.
The patch had to be external as the sidewall of the boom was collapsed and an internal sleeve could not be fitted. With the external patch, the rivets pulled the collapsed section back out and into alignment. Thank you to Buzz and Evan.

View attachment 6016

That is impressive work by Buzz!!

My curiosity has been tweaked. From what I can search, solid rivets require access to both sides of the material. One option offered my McMaster Carr was hex rivets that work from the outside. The hex rivets are a variation of a drywall hanger, but listed as the strongest of the solid rivet alternatives. But, the boom doesn't look like those were used unless the heads were ground off.

Maybe Buzz has some specialized backing system that fits into a long extrusion.

Any comments would be appreciated.

PJ got good value in that repair!

Ants

 

[sleddog]

My curiosity has been tweaked. From what I can search, solid rivets require access to both sides of the material. One option offered my McMaster Carr was hex rivets that work from the outside. The hex rivets are a variation of a drywall hanger, but listed as the strongest of the solid rivet alternatives. But, the boom doesn't look like those were used unless the heads were ground off.
Ants

Good question, Ants. I was not present nor privy to the boom repair technique, other than overhearing Buzz say the rivets were solid stainless steel. I did notice the rivet heads were countersunk slotted flathead and thus flush with the repair surface. After that, your guess is as good as mine. The sealant between the repair bandage and the boom was white 5200, which Buzz says is as good as any adhesive he knows.

 

[WBChristie]

These are also known as structural rivets:

Structural pop rivets (structural blind rivets) are rivets that are specially designed with a locking mechanism to hold the mandrel in place. ... A rivet hat is the portion of the rivet that deforms and stays in the installation. The mandrel is the portion of the rivet that is pulled into the rivet and mostly removed.

PopRivets (tm) are a simple example of non-structural rivets. When assembled the steel core breaks off leaving a hollow rivet. These cannot be considered to be structural since the forces needed to destroy the joint are acting on a very small cross sectional area and failure is possible in shear, tension and torsional modes. They are appropriate for assembling a surface panel or decorative element to a design. Where significant loadings can occur, of course a denser rivet pattern will be needed, preferably following the distribution of load in the structure.

A structural rivet is usually comprised of a single piece of material that is deformed to bind the parts together. Some hot riveting systems rely on the contraction of the cooling fastener to hold the parts together. Unlike PopRivets there are also cored and coreless versions available in a variety of materials with the necessary properties. Again the rivet pattern is important and some effort should be applied to understanding the optimum distribution.

 

[tiger beetle]

These are also known as structural rivets:

+1

Buzz sent to me a set for for an intermediate (solent) stay tang and it is installed with structural rivets as per Buzz's specifications. The rivets are designed such that the center mandrel breaks off after setting the rivet, leaving a solid stainless post in the mast rather than a hollow 'rivet'. The now-solid post/rivet handles shear loads well. I have half a box of them left over from my installation and I've saved them for purposes of repairing the boom vang bracket. I got them from McMaster-Carr.

https://www.mcmaster.com/98778A528/

You can also get them as a flush-head finish that uses a counter-sink drill hole.

- rob

 

[AlanH]

+1

Buzz sent to me a set for for an intermediate (solent) stay tang and it is installed with structural rivets as per Buzz's specifications. The rivets are designed such that the center mandrel breaks off after setting the rivet, leaving a solid stainless post in the mast rather than a hollow 'rivet'. The now-solid post/rivet handles shear loads well. I have half a box of them left over from my installation and I've saved them for purposes of repairing the boom vang bracket. I got them from McMaster-Carr.

https://www.mcmaster.com/98778A528/

You can also get them as a flush-head finish that uses a counter-sink drill hole.

- rob

Will a regular old aluminum pop-rivet tool set these?

i ask, because I went up to the Piper (my other boat) this past weekend, to find that someone had tapped the end of the Pipers mast. The mast was down, sitting on plywood brackets on deck an the head of the mast was about 2-3 feet forward of the bow, while the boat sat on it's trailer. Apparently their window got broken in the process, as there was busted glass on the Pipers foredeck. The mast was pushed back 3-4 feet on deck, which destroyed the fabric cockpit cover I had made. One spreader was broken and the s.s. spreader base was bent. At least the mast was not dimpled. I'm going to have to drill out the s.s. rivets and remove the spreader base, bring it home and straighten it. I daren't do it on the mast.

I'll have to rivet the base back onto the mast once it's straightened out. I have a pop-rivet tool which I've used for aluminum rivets, but I also have a box of s.s. ones. The ones from McMaster Carr look rather more substantial.

 

[tiger beetle]

Hi Alan -

I know that 1/4" structural rivets can be set with a large lever rivet set tool as I keep one on Beetle for purposes of replacing the rivets keeping the boom vang tang inside the boom (the rivets eventually break and need replacing, I can't get a large nut/bolt in there so a blind rivet does the job). The tool will set the 1/4" structural rivets, the one I have looks like this:


I'm not aware of structural rivets less than 3/16" diameter, and stainless is a hard material to draw the mandrel through. If you're using the smaller one-hand pop-rivet tool it might not work. Simplest thing to do is get some rivets and see if the tool you have will set them - and definitely try out a rivet in scrap material to see how it operates before setting things back into the mast.

- rob

 

[jamottep]

Have been away from the SS forum for a while ... Happy belated TG ... Just a small correction on that boom repair, when I spoke with Buzz he indicated that he was taking in a few repairs as their backlog had come down considerably. Considering the extent of the damage it was a great repair. I put the boom back in place (it's not 100% straight but I do think it's stronger), and replaced the gooseneck fitting.

Ok, so ... you may recall that Changabang was shipped on its cradle to San Diego. The cradle was then transported to Berkeley Marine Center. Ruben wants it out of the yard. I was wondering if anyone had a room to store it. It can be disassembled (vertical posts, resting pads, base). The base is just one piece (although worst case I'm considering cutting it). I would also need a way to move it around.

There is little value for this cradle on the West Coast. But if the boat sells somewhere else there would be value. It's been used for Transat races return and (winter) dry storage. If I can't find a storage solution, I'm afraid I'll have to chop it down, sell the steel for scraps, use the wood for winter fires ...

That's all for now ... Trying to fix the boat, one small projects at a time ... what with my two left feet when it comes to boat projects. The two big items next on the list: engine maintenance, water ballast plumbing (pump seems dead).

Stay healthy ... it's spreading like wildfire ...

 

[jamottep]

 

[todd22123]

Svendsen’s Chandlery, when it was located at Alameda Marina, loaned me the installation tool. They may still do this if one is installing a few 1/4” rivets.

 

[solosailor]

I've got a large rivet tool if anyone ever needs to borrow it.

 

[AlanH]

I've got a large rivet tool if anyone ever needs to borrow it.

I might take you up on that! Next time I'm out at the Piper I'll be pulling that fitting off the mast. I can measure the hole, I don't think they're 1/4. inch but we'll see!