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Surprise!

Rich Baker reminded me that I've fallen behind with my Surprise! posts and indeed, it's been a couple of months.

Sunday prior, Philpott came down the dock with Ed Ruszel and Melissa Trace in tow. Ed and Melissa keep their J/32 Flicker at Brickyard Cove and Ed has stopped by before. It was chilly and Philpott suggested that some tea would be nice. I fumbled around and finally remembered the sequence to turn on the propane and fire up the stove - except it wouldn't. The propane gauge showed no pressure and there was no gas reaching the stove. Philpott shook her head, took pity and walked back down to Dura Mater to make us some tea.

Surprise!'s propane system has been largely ignored and it has worked when I've wanted to use it. But I had recently noticed a trace of propane smell when I opened the propane locker. I keep the bottle turned off and the locker is vented directly overboard so I hadn't done anything about it. Now it was time to take a hard look. After my guests left I ended up ripping the whole thing out. Over the next few days I sourced all the components and last Sunday I rebuilt the system with better parts that won't rust out. Here's the old system and the replacement:

Old propane setup.JPGOld Guage.JPGNew Propane Assy.JPG


I'll follow up with a small PSA: McMaster-Carr is my go-to site for project stuff. I LOVE that site! It's well-organized with drill-down detail about what you're ordering, you can buy small-project quantities, and the shipping is fast (though a bit pricey). This time I bought a stainless strip to make the bracket and thread sealant tape: PTFE with nickel to use on stainless steel threads (but it's also fine with brass). Amazon had the propane parts - the correct solenoid but made from stainless steel, a stainless pressure gauge, the regulator and a stainless MPT coupler.

We all know about Amazon but in case you haven't bopped around on McMaster's site, check it out.
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In an earlier life, I lived aboard with propane stoves for 20+ years. I highly recommend the FireBoy S-2A propane monitor / controller with MS-2 propane sensor mounted low under the the stove. As an unplanned test, one time I was using some spray foam which I subsequently learned uses propane as its propellant. It set off the sniffer alarm. :)
 
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My only complaint about McMaster is that they don't tell you the shipping cost before you order. A couple of years ago I ordered a bunch of drill bits to make all my sets complete. One small bit came from a different location than the others, and they charged me something like $10 shipping on a $2 part. But to their credit, when I phoned them to grumble they deleted that cost.

Last time I ordered from McM, I asked them for the shipping cost before they processed the order. It took a couple more days, but it was worth it for the peace of mind.
 
Funny you should bring up MM and shipping. I ordered a few small pieces of HDPE for like $12 and the shipping was $35. I called customer service and she was like "oh, I'll refund the shipping fee". Couldn't believed it after all the other horrible customer service experiences of past.
 
Well Bob's pretty boat, Chris's new shiny paint and others doing their best peacock strut finally shammed me into painting the Azzura. She has the original Awlgrip that is 24 years old and was crazing and chalking in sections.

OutsiderRefit - 1.jpg

OutsiderRefit - 2.jpg

OutsiderRefit - 3.jpg

OutsiderRefit - 4.jpg

OutsiderRefit - 5.jpg
 
Oh man - I did that to Ragtime! in 2009-10. I didn't do the actual painting but I removed and re-installed every bit of hardware.

Good for you. I'm sure she'll look great when you're done.
 
solosailor said:
Well Bob's pretty boat, Chris's new shiny paint and others doing their best peacock strut finally shammed me into painting the Azzura. She has the original Awlgrip that is 24 years old and was crazing and chalking in sections.
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Wow - I can't believe we built the boat 24 years ago. I'm glad the beast has held up!

- rob
 
Yeah I remember walking through Arne Johnson Boatbuilders (now townhomes) watching the master Yokem put a few more layers on the keel fin..... something like 90-110 layers per side !. She has held up very well. Most everything came off without issue. Of course we had more than a handful of seized fasteners that needed the head ground off but a dozen out of hundreds isn't bad. The box with all the labeled fasteners was like 60lbs. I'll a photo album started and share the link.
 
Dazzler said:
In an earlier life, I lived aboard with propane stoves for 20+ years. I highly recommend the FireBoy S-2A propane monitor / controller with MS-2 propane sensor mounted low under the the stove. As an unplanned test, one time I was using some spray foam which I subsequently learned uses propane as its propellant. It set off the sniffer alarm. :)
Click to expand...

Good sailing friends were recently camping in the New Mexico desert, 50 miles from the nearest town. It was cold, and early in the morning Robbie got out of bed and lit the stove in their pickup truck camper. Apparently there had been a leak overnight, maybe from the rough road, and there was a terrific explosion. Fortunately Robbie had on a lot of clothes and a watch cap. Still, her jacket caught fire, as did her hair. She ran outside where the door had been and shed her clothes and put out the fire in her hair.
She is recovering, but has a burned face and hands. Luckily her eyes are OK. Her partner in the overcab bunk was OK, but the force of the explosion separated the roof from the sides of the camper. Word to the wise. Thanks, Tom!
 
The Fireboy sniffer arrives on Monday. After research, I bought the model Lee recommended awhile back. Eventually the sensors fail and the automatic-shutoff type prevents you from using your stove when that happens. There was some other issue (can't remember) that persuaded me that simpler was better.

After sitting pressurized for a couple weeks I checked the propane gauge. Its needle hasn't moved. BTW, that's why you want a gauge. (Sentence construction left as-is for your amusement.)

I also got a Fireboy/Xintex CO monitor. Cute little thing. Sled, do you recall your post when those became mandatory? It was when you were first registering the little cat.
 
BobJ said:
I also got a Fireboy/Xintex CO monitor. Cute little thing. Sled, do you recall your post when those became mandatory? It was when you were first registering the little cat.
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Yes, I recall about 9 years ago, attempting to register WILDFLOWER at the DMV. Here it is:

The good news is the tax was waived and registration bill was reduced to $29. I was issued my HIN (Hull ID) and CF numbers and stickers. The HIN has to be permanently affixed in two places in 1/4" figures. The CF numbers have to be 3" block letters.

I was ready to escape with my success. Not so fast. The clerk wanted to be very clear she was issuing me two carbon monoxide stickers. By (new) state law one sticker must be posted in the interior and the larger 7" one on the transom.

I read the CO stickers. They warn of brain damage, even death, and advise to get fresh air if feeling nausea, headache, dizziness, or drowsiness. I was feeling all four as I walked out to the car. Just a morning at the DMV, not included in the manual on boat building.....

 
On the middle 1980s Sunday afternoon I was working on my Newport 30 in Clipper Y.H. in Sausalito. There was a large "BANG" and I looked up to see pieces of sailboat exploding into the air over in Basin 4. Before cell phones, I ran up to the phone booth with a dime in my hand; someone had beaten me so i continued over to Basin 4 and down to the boat, an older Cascade 36. The deck and house were lifted off the hull, the rig was leaning over onto the next door boat, and the owner was stretched out on the dock being administered to by earlier arrivals. He was a singed and dazed elderly live aboard and wasn't seriously hurt, but the arriving ambulance crew hauled him off to Marin General. He'd lit his stove for an after-nap cup of tea, but had forgotten to turn off his stern mounted propane tank before taking his nap. The boat was hauled over to Anderson's Boatyard for disposal and his daughter arrived to take him to the assisted living facility she'd reserved. There are several lessons here.
 
Are you going to change the layout?
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No real layout changes but I was trying to remove a few pounds to compensate for some weight that was added elsewhere including 12lbs up the rig with a new Antal metal mainsail track last year. Removing some small fitting that are never used and the smaller outboard jib tracks that I don't use. Also removing the stern hoop ring that the backstay led to (6.5lbs). I had recently discovered a broken weld joint at a stern pulpit. That made to get paranoid about of of the 4 90deg welds holding that hoop ring together and if one let go the rest would likely cascade and I'd have no backstay and maybe a broken rig. Replacing with standard style chainplates in titanium. I'm only at 9lbs of removed hardware of my goal with not much left to delete. I looked into replacing piles of the heavy fasteners in titanium but I don't think it's cost effective.
 
This is Ruben's Passport 40. Nice boat! I want to paint Surprise! the same color, keeping her green Micron 66 bottom - which is about to be sprayed. I'm thinking dark blue for the boot stripe. It's a wide stripe and could be done like Ruben's, with a cream* band where it meets the green bottom paint. The boats I've seen with a dark stripe directly against the green bottom don't look that great to my eye. No boot stripe at all (cream topsides going straight to the green bottom) only seems to work on small boats. Opinions (and photos) welcomed! * The actual Awlgrip/Awlcraft color is "Oyster."

Ruben's Boat.JPG
 
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I vote for a Toreador red boot stripe!
Is the Oyster white darker than your cabin house? And the cove stripe? Is it gold now?
Also interested in your awlcraft/awlgrip decision.
sb
 
That would be a circle-of-life thing: Surprise! had a red boot stripe when I bought her. No, I don't want red.

Oyster is darker than the cabin sides but lighter than the nonskid and the spars. It has the same yellow tint. The cove stripe is gold now.

The painter insists on Awlcraft because you can touch it up. If you bang up Awlgrip you have to paint the whole side - you can't blend in a repair. I found this to be true with Ragtime!'s Awlgrip topsides. Um...multiple times.
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