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Getting Ready for SHTP 2021

WHAT NEEDS FIXING OR CHANGING

1. The foredeck hatch leaks...either replace the hatch or remove and rebed.

2. I think the port chainplate seal needs rebedding. There was a pretty good drip right there but it might be from the toerail.

3. The tiny space between the sea hood and the companionway cover leaks like crazy. Gotta get a gasket in there.

4. Autopilot…..autopilot --sigh--

5. I need to figure out place to sleep. The saloon floor is not long enough for me to stretch out.

6. The S-2 7.9, stock is build with a tiny, almost useless head on the starboard side of the daggerboard case. Mine is really old, it stinks, and the space has a door on it, which makes the interior space so small that only an 8-year old can fit in there. It’s pointless for me and wastes valuable space in the middle of the boat. It has to go, and so does the door. I will probably put a little navigation table in there, add some drawers under the electrical panel, and use the increased floor space for my feet when I’m sleeping on the saloon floor.
 
Regarding point (6): I just installed a Thetford 335 in my Olson 25 last week. Although it is a little bit more expensive than the 135, the 335 includes a capacity gauge, as well as the previously-sold-separately hold down kit.

Both West Marine and Whale Point will order them for you, I got mine from Whale Point.
 
Finally.....e-rudder deployment videos! The gunk on my knees is slime rubbed off the primary rudder. This test left big smudges of bottom paint all over the cockpit, which I had to go back and clean off.

.

Between this and that, pulling the primary rudder and deploying the e-rudder, in the South Bay on a quiet day took me about 17 minutes. At least 5 of those minutes were spent A.) trying to find a pair of pliars, down below, and 2.) pulling the plastic rudder bushings off of the pintles. 3.) hammering the tiller into the very tight fit between the tiller plates.
 
I popped lenses out of both of my new pairs of glasses on day two, so since I'm going to take them to For Eyes tomorrow and raise a fuss over their crummy frames, I went up to the boat to find one of the missing lenses. I didn't find the lens but what I DID find was that the wiring harnesses that hold the wires from the battery to the autopilot switch had all let go. The wiring splice was lying in bilge water...about 6 cups of it.

Short circuit, anybody? I'll save the cussing for later, but $%^&*(*&^%

Maybe the autopilot is just FINE.
 
I got some tubular nylon webbing and replaced the stuff on my "long" tether. That tether was about 12 years old, time to replace the stuff. I also made it about a foot shorter than the old one. So now I have two tethers...a long one, about 5 1/2 feet for "in the cockpit" and a short one, about 4 feet for going up to the mast or the foredeck. I bought 5 yards of webbing so I now have two single loop etriers to hang on the boat amidships, as well as the 3-step etrier on the port quarter and the stock boarding ladder on the starboard half of the transom. My sewing machine does not like the combination of tubular webbing, sailmaking thread and the needles I was using. It was a struggle.

Yesterday I cut out the part of the autopilot wiring splice that went underwater during my qualifier and made new splices and tested the autopilot. Yes, it's toast. So off to Raymarine it goes. I full expect that they will decline to fix or replace it, but we shall see.

This weekends project is replacing the OEM incandescent bow lights with LED. The green one died on the trip. I got both of them off yesterday, only one of the six cheapo steel screws torqued off in the hole and the new red LED one is in. The OEM green one was corroded to mush, the red one was better, but on it's last legs. Hopefully today I can get the green one installed.

Hopefully this week I can get up to Rogue Rigging with my lower lifelines and get new ones made up.

PIPER STUFF, not Transpac

I think I'll ask Ryan to make new shrouds for the Piper at the same time. The port shroud is the only one that's stranded, but all the rigging is probably circa 1972. I'll need to replace all of it, but I can at least put the stick up with the one new shroud, and if I replace one, I might as well replace it's counterpart. The only turnbuckle on the Piper that's frozen is the one on the stranded shroud, so that's rather convenient. Thanks to the generosity of some SSS'ers I have main and jib halyards, as well as a good main, and two jib sheets. Thank you again, friends!

I have a mainsail from a Pearson Ensign, which is a bit short but it more or less fits, and it was $100. I have two jibs that are about the size of the Piper genoa. What remains to get her sail-able is:

- replacing the shroud
- running new halyards
- sorting out the "control center", the area at the front of the cockpit and behind the mast where all the halyards and the kicking strap terminate
- make a tiller...or find the original one, which I sanded and refinished and then it promptly disappeared.
-remove the non-functional original winches and replace with the single-speed, self tailing winches I bought years ago for the Wildcat, but never installed.
- repair the chipped off spooge that covered/faired the lower bronze fitting that holds the rudder
- cut out ( have a pattern already) and 'glass in the piece of plywood that anchors the strap that transfers the mainsheet loads to the hill.

It's a significant list but really only about 4-5 LONG weekend days work. Maybe this winter I can get it done.

I'd really like to sand off all the old 70's vinyl bottom paint, all the way down to gel coat.
 
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I finally worked up all the numbers, now that the credit card statement is in. I actually managed to do the Qualifier within 7% of budget....I only went 7% over my estimate. That's...like...

You all know....we're talking a BOAT, here. The usual mantra is to make your estimate, then double the dollars and triple the time and that'll be close, but no. SEVEN percent.
 
Back is seriously screwed up after the qualifier and coming home to....yeah, well...anyway. There may be some big changes ahead. Or not. Hell if I know.

I'm working on the windvane again, back to cables-in-housing as the geometry of the pushrod system I envisioned isn't going to work out. By running the bicycle cables through the teflon housing, instead of the monofilament, I've cut friction in half, easily. I've glued on and then cut off some bits of wood, which gets me more or less back to where I was for starters. I did deploy the other, large air blade the other day. Between more power from the blade and half the friction, maybe it'll work.
 
Oversized wind blade....needs paint.
Big_Wind_Blade.JPG

Little changes can make big differences. I'd tried bicytcle brake cables in brake housing...too much friction. I tried thick monofilament through teflon tubing, too much friction. But I hadn't tried the brake cables through the teflon tubing, seeing as the brake cable housings are lined with teflon. Well...son of a gun. These rotating hangers mean that the wire pull is always a straight line, too....cuts friction.
cable-hangers.JPG

And finally, adding a little bit of material here and there to ensure the cables don't rub on anything, helps, too.

block-angle.JPG
 
All right, I officially give up on the windvane. It hasn't been a money sink but it's been a time sink and I'm done throwing time into it.
 
Raymarine/FLIR. replaced the fried motor in my ST2000 and mailed it back. I just had to pay postage TO them...about $20. I'll test it once my back recovers.

I've got a compression between C-6 and C-7 that was strongly irritated during the qualifier and by some nasty stress right when I got back. No sailing for me until it clears up and it hurts like hell. S leeping on the cabin floor, sliding down into a crushed-up fetal position on the way out didn't help things. I'm taking Gabapentin which helps with the pain. This has happened 3x in the past 12 years, more or less and I'm just getting older. If it follows the same pattern as the other times I have another 5-7 weeks of pain to get through before it clears up. Now, have to consider as to whether it's smart for me to be in the middle of the Pacific by myself....if this happens while I'm out there, it will be very unpleasant. ~Very!~
 
I pitched the RHM part of the system, today. In the trash it went, after I removed a mess of the hardware. I will try to get the upper half to drive a trim tab on the main rudder. So this afternoon was spent digging the class rudder out of the leaves alongside the house, hosing it off, sanding the wood and getting 4 coats of polyrethane on it. The rudder has a pretty big crack up near the pivot. I ground it out, looks like it's only gel coat at a big of the underlying glass. I'll make an epoxy/glass mash and fair it and seal it.

The Class rudder will go on the boat while I diddle around with the rudder I made to get a trim tab on it.
 
AlanH said:
Raymarine/FLIR. replaced the fried motor in my ST2000 and mailed it back. I just had to pay postage TO them...about $20. I'll test it once my back recovers.

I've got a compression between C-6 and C-7 that was strongly irritated during the qualifier and by some nasty stress right when I got back. No sailing for me until it clears up and it hurts like hell. S leeping on the cabin floor, sliding down into a crushed-up fetal position on the way out didn't help things. I'm taking Gabapentin which helps with the pain. This has happened 3x in the past 12 years, more or less and I'm just getting older. If it follows the same pattern as the other times I have another 5-7 weeks of pain to get through before it clears up. Now, have to consider as to whether it's smart for me to be in the middle of the Pacific by myself....if this happens while I'm out there, it will be very unpleasant. ~Very!~
Click to expand...

Amen for Gabapentin! 1 a day, every morning. And several in my pocket "pharmacy." Just a day on the Bay (yesterday's delayed CYC Fall Series Race for instance) and by the time I'm in the parking lot I gulp one for the drive home. Nothing about getting old gets any body part younger! Especially backs. How come there's so much bending over putting a boat to bed after a long day?
 
Wylieguy said:
Amen for Gabapentin! 1 a day, every morning. And several in my pocket "pharmacy." Just a day on the Bay (yesterday's delayed CYC Fall Series Race for instance) and by the time I'm in the parking lot I gulp one for the drive home. Nothing about getting old gets any body part younger! Especially backs. How come there's so much bending over putting a boat to bed after a long day?
Click to expand...

I hope that the gabapentin will break the pain-tension-compression cycle and I'll get off of it pretty soon. I can still feel the effect in the tip of my middle finger of my right hand, so the compression/inflammation is not gone. However, I barely feel an effect...and no pain (which is probably due to the gabapentin) in my right armpit, so I think this is progress.
 
OK so before I to to the trim-tab-on-the-main-rudder thing, I thought I would try to make a bigger and lighter vane and just try linking it directly to the tiller. I can't imagine this is gonna work, but what the hell...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9vxaUwYXd4

Now, because I'm using an "Upside Down" vane, I have limits on how tall/long I can make the vane itself. If it's too long, it will hit the pulpit or the solar panels. I could make the pole taller but I doubt this is going to work so I'm not willing to alter things TOO much....basically start over. So I'm putting together a blade sort of like that one in the video. It will be lightweight fabric...ripstop for now 'cause I have some of it..over a framework. I'm using what I've got around the garage...which is some pretty stiff 1/4 inch fiberglass rod....plywood...polyurethane glue PL Premium... and the ripstop.

Here's the new, lightweight and 20% bigger blade "frame" gluing up, next to a tiller I'm making for the Piper, from leftover mahogany, that came with the boat. I HAD a tiller, but hell if I can FIND it, now.

WindBlade-rods.jpg

Glue-up.jpg
 
Many thanks to Greg Nelson for the opportunity to scrounge through boxes and bales of leftovers from Nelson Composites, Inc. ! I now have some raw material for the trim tab, cleats, blocks and camcleats for the Piper, and even the Caragnone, when I get to that. The little leftovers of marine ply will get turned into breasthooks and quarter knees for at least two boats! AND....I have a ridiculously stout and very light 6 foot piece of c.f. tubing, which I will be turning into a sprit for the Wildcat.

Now I just need to find an asymmetrical spinnaker about 32-33 on the luff.
 
HA!..."sensitive". Well. kinda!

OK! IN the haul from Nelsons Composites, Inc. were a couple stanchion sleeves, the kind that you attach your lower lifelines to, at the bow/stern pulpit. I'd been using a cobbled-together setup that would no way pass inspection for SHTP. Since they're like $15 each, the drive to Greg's just saved me $35 bucks! Thanks Greg!. The new lower lifelines are on, made up by Ryan at Rogue Rigging and a ton stronger than the DIY jobs I had before.

Ryan also made up new upper shrouds for the Piper. I need to replace one spreader, just some thick-ish walled aluminum tubing, and fabricate a spreader tip and I can put the mast up. At some point I'll need to replace the rest of the standing rigging...the headstay for sure... but patience. I can't launch the Piper at Bethel Island anyway, ther'es an overhead power line about 25 feet above the road/berm where the launch ramp is, so I'll have to wait anyhow. Getting the stick vertical will just be a milestone, a mental and spiritual HURRAH!

I'm putting together a new tiller from some leftover mahogany I got from the Piper. I think it's the former owners traveler support for his long-gone Flying Fifteen. Well, some sawing, epoxy and creative "filling in"...and I'll have a tiller soon. The epoxy is kicking off as I write this.

I have the rod and the bearings (Thanks McMaster-Carr) for the rudder trimtab. We'll see how a sintered, oil- bronze bearing does on a s.s. shaft in the marine air.

The One Design rudder had some suspicious looking cracks, which I ground out only to find they were just into the gel-coat. GOOD. They're patched up with glass/epoxy mash, which is kicking off right now. Once it goes off, I can sand it, get a coat of paint on it and swap rudders.
 
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