I have booked my launch date! They pick me up Wednesday afternoon (June 10th) at 14h30 and leave me hanging in the slings overnight so I can install my depth sounder and paint my cradle pad spots. then, first thing Thursday morning (June 11th), S/V Fugu splashes for the first time. The funny thing is that this is exactly 1 year minus a day that I bought my boat. I transported the boat to the yacht club on June 12th from Lake Champlain on June 12th, 2008.
Now, I have to do my de-naming / re-naming ceremony, according to John Vigor:
http://www.48north.com/mr_offline/denaming.htm
Gotta go, there is copy to be written!
2009-06-05
Countdown to splash time.
There are a few critical steps to complete before I can put the boat in the water.
/Jason
- install raw water intake through hull
- finish bottom paint
- install new hose and packing gland and flax packing
- Install raw water intake through-hull
- cut hole for through-hull -- 30 minutes
- sand exterior to epoxy around hole (just a circle) -- 5 minutes
- clean area with acetone -- 5 minutes
- cut through-hull to length -- 30 minutes
- dry install through hull for positioning -- 10 minutes
- drill 3 through-bolt holes, drill one, drop screw in hole, do next, etc. -- 30 minutes
- countersink holes, inside and out for good seal -- 30 minutes
- clean up both sides of hull -- 10 minutes
- apply sikaflex to screws and apply from outside -- 5 minutes
- apply sikaflex to flange and centre over screw holes -- 5 minutes
- tighten down screws -- 15 minutes
- apply sikaflex to through-hull and install, tighten -- 10 minutes
- clean up squeeze-out, inside and out -- 10 minutes
- apply fairing compound -- 20 mintues, overnight cure
- light sand fairing, clean with acetone -- 5 minutes
- Interprotect the area
- Finish bottom paint
- sand colloidal silica -- 10 minutes
- wash hull to remove sanding dust -- 1 hour
- fair patch -- 20 minutes, 6 hours cure time -- which means overnight.
- paint with Interprotect -- 45 minutes, a few hours to cure, ie: overnight.
- apply VC17 to rest of hull (except patched area) -- 3+ hours (end of day task)
- Install new hose and packing
- cut hose to length -- 5 minutes
- fit hose over stern tube -- 5 minutes
- install packing gland -- 5 minutes
- fit double clamps (4 total) -- 10 minutes
- cut packing rings (4 total) -- 15 minutes
- install packing rings -- 15 minutes
- tighten packing gland, not too much -- 10 minutes
/Jason
Inspecting the prop shaft through hull
So my boat is 31 years old and I don't doubt that in that time, the only thing done in the area of the prop shaft through hull is sporadic replacing of the flax packing in the stuffing box. This week, with the help of my brother in-law, I removed the prop-shaft from the coupler and slid it back far enough to remove the stuffing box and the hose that connects it to the shaft log. The stern tube is bronze and is in fine shape. The stuffing box is also bronze but was rather caked with gunk. The hose between the two was definitely showing its age. It was still water tight but the outer skin was cracking and the inner skin was cracking when flexed. The only reason it lasted this long was that due to its rather short length (about 4") it never really had to flex that much.
The stuffing box is not the common large packing nut style. It is more like the packing glands offered by Buck Algonquin here: http://www.buckalgonquin.com/pages/ProductPages/drivetrain/pbs_page.html
Unfortunately, they do not offer them in a 22mm shaft size so replacing what I have is not an option. I have found out that the studs in my stuffing box are metric, just like everything else on the boat, M7 x 50mm to be precise. It is not easy to find bronze studs in metric sizes. Actually, M7 is not a very common size at all.I wonder if I could have the holes enlarged at a machine shop to take 5/16 or 9/32 studs. Those might be easier to find here. I would like to replace them since one of the studs has crushed threads at the end and came unscrewed from the stuffing box when I added my packing. At any rate, when I brought the stuffing box home for a good cleanup, I noticed that there were six (?!) rings of flax packing in there. Normally, 3 or 4 suffice. when I put the boat in the water last year, the stuffing box was leaking. So I opened it up and removed what I though was all the packing and was only able to put in 3 rings. What apparently happened was there were 4 rings, I removed 1 and added 3 more. Ugh. At least the prop shaft wasn't scored. With the packing fully removed, there should be enough room to cut off the bad threads from the stud and still have room for 4 rings of flax. Next chance I get, I will stock up on some M7 bronze threaded rod and nuts.
As for the stern tube hose, the existing is much to old and too short to have any useful markings on it for getting the same part. So I found what I think is suitable hose from Thermoid at my local hardware store. It is Thermoid Valuflex/GS red hose, 1-1/4" inner diameter. The hose is abrasion resistant and can handle 200psi working pressure at 200F (93C). I purchased a 1" length for $10 and should be able to get 3 or 4 parts out of that.
Fugu is almost ready for the water.
The stuffing box is not the common large packing nut style. It is more like the packing glands offered by Buck Algonquin here: http://www.buckalgonquin.com/pages/ProductPages/drivetrain/pbs_page.html
Unfortunately, they do not offer them in a 22mm shaft size so replacing what I have is not an option. I have found out that the studs in my stuffing box are metric, just like everything else on the boat, M7 x 50mm to be precise. It is not easy to find bronze studs in metric sizes. Actually, M7 is not a very common size at all.I wonder if I could have the holes enlarged at a machine shop to take 5/16 or 9/32 studs. Those might be easier to find here. I would like to replace them since one of the studs has crushed threads at the end and came unscrewed from the stuffing box when I added my packing. At any rate, when I brought the stuffing box home for a good cleanup, I noticed that there were six (?!) rings of flax packing in there. Normally, 3 or 4 suffice. when I put the boat in the water last year, the stuffing box was leaking. So I opened it up and removed what I though was all the packing and was only able to put in 3 rings. What apparently happened was there were 4 rings, I removed 1 and added 3 more. Ugh. At least the prop shaft wasn't scored. With the packing fully removed, there should be enough room to cut off the bad threads from the stud and still have room for 4 rings of flax. Next chance I get, I will stock up on some M7 bronze threaded rod and nuts.
As for the stern tube hose, the existing is much to old and too short to have any useful markings on it for getting the same part. So I found what I think is suitable hose from Thermoid at my local hardware store. It is Thermoid Valuflex/GS red hose, 1-1/4" inner diameter. The hose is abrasion resistant and can handle 200psi working pressure at 200F (93C). I purchased a 1" length for $10 and should be able to get 3 or 4 parts out of that.
Fugu is almost ready for the water.
sanding, patching, sanding, filling, sanding...
If there is one constant in boat ownership, it has to be sanding. In the past 3 weeks, I have bought:
Of course, one of the repairs was for the raw water intake. On that front, I have received some hardware. Specifically:
On the inside of the water intake patch, I had to prepare the surface for the adapter. For this, I added 5 layers of biaxial roving and mat. This is pretty thick stuff. And then after that had cured, I place a blob of peanut-butter thickened epoxy and spread it around. I then pressed in place a square of cardboard covered with packing tape as a release membrane. I place a heavy weight on top of it (the flange adapter with ball valve and hose bard assembly) and let that cure. A day later, the cardboard came off easily and left a mirror smooth surface for the flange adapter.
And now, on to the prop shaft through hull.
- a 4-1/2" angle grinder and sanding discs for it
- a 5" random orbital palm sander
- an electric (non-cordless) drill with a myriad of wire and nylon brush bits.
- multiple "job-packs" of sanding discs
- a valu-pack of dust masks
Of course, one of the repairs was for the raw water intake. On that front, I have received some hardware. Specifically:
- a 3/4" bronze mushroom head through hull fitting
- a 3/4" full-flow bronze NPS-NPT flange adapter
- a 3/4" full-flow bronze ball valve
- a 3/4" full-flow bronze 90 degree hose adapter
On the inside of the water intake patch, I had to prepare the surface for the adapter. For this, I added 5 layers of biaxial roving and mat. This is pretty thick stuff. And then after that had cured, I place a blob of peanut-butter thickened epoxy and spread it around. I then pressed in place a square of cardboard covered with packing tape as a release membrane. I place a heavy weight on top of it (the flange adapter with ball valve and hose bard assembly) and let that cure. A day later, the cardboard came off easily and left a mirror smooth surface for the flange adapter.
And now, on to the prop shaft through hull.
2009-05-13
It's here! It's here!
After nearly 12 weeks of waiting, my depth/speed/temperature sensor has arrived!
The box contains:
- 1 bronze through-hull
- 1 plastic filler plug
- 1 tri-sensor module with 10m cable terminated with a 7-pin Furuno plug.
I ordered the Furuno 235DST-MSE which is the Airmar DST800 as sold by Furuno. Airmar has the wiring diagram online here:
http://airmartechnology.com/uploads/wiringdiagrams/91_592.pdf
I spoke with Airmar who assured me that even should I cut the Furuno end off and wire it directly to an NMEA listener device, they will still warrant their product. Try that in the world of IT!
And, I measured against the existing knot-meter through-hull hole and I will need to slightly enlarge the hole in the fiberglass to fit this new sensor. I prefer that to having to patch up the old hole completely. There was even an article in the latest issue of "Good Old Boat" that deals with exactly how to enlarge a hole in your hull. Here is my plug for them. It's an amazing magazine. Go out an buy a copy now. Heck, buy two.
Unfortunately, I cannot remove the old depth sounder since it is inconveniently located right over the forward cross-bar of the cradle and does not allow enough clearance to drop the old transducer. The yard has agreed to leave me hanging in the slings overnight the day before they launch me so I will have a marathon of installation to do that evening:
- remove the old depth transducer
- enlarge the hole to 2" (51mm for you metric types)
- clean up the hole
- install the new through hull with lots of sealant, make sure it is properly oriented.
- insert the plastic plug for launch
On top of all this, I have a raw water intake for my engine to re-bed. In that case, the through-hull is installed on a wooden pad that would appear to be completely oil saturated. To top things off, the collar for the through-hull is not a hex-nut but rather a round disk with 4 notches every 90 degrees -- picture an iron cross. They look to be about 5mm wide, big enough to put a flat-head screwdriver in there. I don't have this kind of tool so my two options are as follows:
- get a screwdriver in there and hit with a hammer tangential to the collar in an effort to rotate the collar.
- I should be able to fit the tips of a 1" crescent wrench held vertically in two notches opposite each other and then use some vice-grip pliers on the handle of the crescent wrench to turn the collar.
Keep in mind that nothing on a boat is flat and no two surfaces will meet at a right angle. OH, and the line that is used as the "origin" doesn't actually exist. It is on an invisible plane that goes through the centerline of the boat. Makes for lots of certainty when doing measurements!
Baby steps... baby steps....
The box contains:
- 1 bronze through-hull
- 1 plastic filler plug
- 1 tri-sensor module with 10m cable terminated with a 7-pin Furuno plug.
I ordered the Furuno 235DST-MSE which is the Airmar DST800 as sold by Furuno. Airmar has the wiring diagram online here:
http://airmartechnology.com/uploads/wiringdiagrams/91_592.pdf
I spoke with Airmar who assured me that even should I cut the Furuno end off and wire it directly to an NMEA listener device, they will still warrant their product. Try that in the world of IT!
And, I measured against the existing knot-meter through-hull hole and I will need to slightly enlarge the hole in the fiberglass to fit this new sensor. I prefer that to having to patch up the old hole completely. There was even an article in the latest issue of "Good Old Boat" that deals with exactly how to enlarge a hole in your hull. Here is my plug for them. It's an amazing magazine. Go out an buy a copy now. Heck, buy two.
Unfortunately, I cannot remove the old depth sounder since it is inconveniently located right over the forward cross-bar of the cradle and does not allow enough clearance to drop the old transducer. The yard has agreed to leave me hanging in the slings overnight the day before they launch me so I will have a marathon of installation to do that evening:
- remove the old depth transducer
- enlarge the hole to 2" (51mm for you metric types)
- clean up the hole
- install the new through hull with lots of sealant, make sure it is properly oriented.
- insert the plastic plug for launch
On top of all this, I have a raw water intake for my engine to re-bed. In that case, the through-hull is installed on a wooden pad that would appear to be completely oil saturated. To top things off, the collar for the through-hull is not a hex-nut but rather a round disk with 4 notches every 90 degrees -- picture an iron cross. They look to be about 5mm wide, big enough to put a flat-head screwdriver in there. I don't have this kind of tool so my two options are as follows:
- get a screwdriver in there and hit with a hammer tangential to the collar in an effort to rotate the collar.
- I should be able to fit the tips of a 1" crescent wrench held vertically in two notches opposite each other and then use some vice-grip pliers on the handle of the crescent wrench to turn the collar.
Keep in mind that nothing on a boat is flat and no two surfaces will meet at a right angle. OH, and the line that is used as the "origin" doesn't actually exist. It is on an invisible plane that goes through the centerline of the boat. Makes for lots of certainty when doing measurements!
Baby steps... baby steps....
2009-05-11
Oh, that's truly foul.
So this weekend, I dug in to some interior projects. Mostly the kind of stuff that you want to get out of the before you have dock-neighbours. No one likes to get to their boat only to find a nice layer of dust is all over it because you were grinding and sanding stuff all day. you also don't want to extract a toilet and holding tank system while your dock-mates are trying to enjoy a beer on a nice spring afternoon. No, these things should be done in a boatyard where *everyone* is grinding and sanding and otherwise molesting their boats' hull.
So things I have done this weekend:
Main cabin
- removed knot-meter and through-hull from starboard side.
- removed instrument-head unit from nav-station.
- removed sea-hood instrument display cluster.
- removed all instrument wiring, from the base of the mast back to the nav station.
- could NOT remove depth-sounder since it is located right over the boat cradle's forward cross-bar and there is not enough clearance to drop it.
- removed main cabin speakers and wiring.
Head
- removed toilet. It was glued down to the wooden pad so a good chunk of that came up with it.
- removed wet-locker panel behind toilet, port side of head.
- removed vanity and mirror above sink, starboard side of head.
- removed holding tank vent hoses, port and starboard. eeeew.
- removed hose from toilet to holding tank.
- removed holding tank pump-out hose.
- removed foam-backed vinyl liner in wet-locker and vanity. It was falling down anyway sicne all the foam had long since disintegrated into orange dust.
Vee-berth
- removed holding tank.
I found a slow leak in the diesel tank valve, located in the wet-locker. This is a slow leak that has lost me perhaps 1 or two litres over the winter (since October). However this fuel has to have gone somewhere and that is into the bilge. The wet-locker foam-dust and vinyl liner soaked up a lot of it but I will have some serious cleanup to do before launch. I soaked up as much as I could and put down a pad to catch what is still leaking until I can drain the tank and fix the valve. Diesel smells. Some people call it that "bilgey, boaty smell" but frankly, I can do without it.
There is still a tonne of work to do, but this weekend gave me a great sense of accomplishment. Much preferable to compounding a featureless hull...
So things I have done this weekend:
Main cabin
- removed knot-meter and through-hull from starboard side.
- removed instrument-head unit from nav-station.
- removed sea-hood instrument display cluster.
- removed all instrument wiring, from the base of the mast back to the nav station.
- could NOT remove depth-sounder since it is located right over the boat cradle's forward cross-bar and there is not enough clearance to drop it.
- removed main cabin speakers and wiring.
Head
- removed toilet. It was glued down to the wooden pad so a good chunk of that came up with it.
- removed wet-locker panel behind toilet, port side of head.
- removed vanity and mirror above sink, starboard side of head.
- removed holding tank vent hoses, port and starboard. eeeew.
- removed hose from toilet to holding tank.
- removed holding tank pump-out hose.
- removed foam-backed vinyl liner in wet-locker and vanity. It was falling down anyway sicne all the foam had long since disintegrated into orange dust.
Vee-berth
- removed holding tank.
I found a slow leak in the diesel tank valve, located in the wet-locker. This is a slow leak that has lost me perhaps 1 or two litres over the winter (since October). However this fuel has to have gone somewhere and that is into the bilge. The wet-locker foam-dust and vinyl liner soaked up a lot of it but I will have some serious cleanup to do before launch. I soaked up as much as I could and put down a pad to catch what is still leaking until I can drain the tank and fix the valve. Diesel smells. Some people call it that "bilgey, boaty smell" but frankly, I can do without it.
There is still a tonne of work to do, but this weekend gave me a great sense of accomplishment. Much preferable to compounding a featureless hull...
2009-05-06
Wax on... Wax off...
The best part of owning a boat is cleaning the hull! Yay! I get to stand tip-toed on a ladder with a 10" buffer over my head and compound and wax my boat. All 30 feet of it. Needless to say, the going is a little slow. Doesn't really make a difference since my depth-sounder has yet to arrive. If you are going to order something, don't order from Raytech Electronics in Laval. Speed is not in their vocabulary.
In the mean time, I have a lot of other tasks to do, such as re-seat the engine water intake and replace the stuffing box tube. I have decided to not invest any more money in my engine and to instead save up for an electric repower using an E-Pod 3000 from Re-E-Power.com.
And, the compounding continues. I copied what many people in the yard are using, the reddish brown rubbing compound from Turtle Wax. And it is leaving a light pinkish residue on my hull. No idea what to do about that. Next, I will try to get a white compound and go over those areas again. However, it does vastly improve the smoothness of the hull. It is almost shiny and the water beads up on it when wet now. So all things considered, I am on the right track.
In the mean time, I have a lot of other tasks to do, such as re-seat the engine water intake and replace the stuffing box tube. I have decided to not invest any more money in my engine and to instead save up for an electric repower using an E-Pod 3000 from Re-E-Power.com.
And, the compounding continues. I copied what many people in the yard are using, the reddish brown rubbing compound from Turtle Wax. And it is leaving a light pinkish residue on my hull. No idea what to do about that. Next, I will try to get a white compound and go over those areas again. However, it does vastly improve the smoothness of the hull. It is almost shiny and the water beads up on it when wet now. So all things considered, I am on the right track.
2009-03-11
Boys and their toys...
I am a geek. I love technology and especially when bits-o-tech talk to other bits-o-tech.
But I am also a cheap bastard. I don't like spending money on things that don't directly benefit my life... So as part of the spring refit, I am installing some new instruments on the boat.
The "normal" instrument package for a boat in my size range is the Raymarine ST60+ package that includes depth, speed and wind sensors as well as their respective displays. Each display is a roughly 4"x4" square bezel that mounts in the bulkhead of my cockpit. These displays are essentially waterproof, backlit, large character, 3-digit, seven segment LCD displays capable of showing water depth, speed of water under the hull and wind speed/direction. Meh.
What I did last season for my first season out was to use an old laptop and LCD screen on a flexible arm that could be seen from the cockpit. The laptop ran GPSNavX, a chartplotting package for the Mac. Charts were in BSB4 format, provided by the Canadian Hydrographic Service. And the GPS was a small USB/bluetooth GPS data logger. this worked great but was frankly a bit fidgety and rather power hungry. See a previous post about a dead battery preventing me from pulling my mast for the winter. I also used the existing instruments (depth/speed) to compare with the depths marked on the charts. These instruments have bright orange incandescent bulbs for each segment of the 7-segment display of each digit. The instrument cluster has a control box down below for setting depth alarms, brightness, etc. It's all very 70s and very retro and very much not my style.
My new instruments are as follows:
- Airmar DST800 combination depth/speed/temperature sensor (Furuno 235DST-MSE)
- Technologic Systems TS-TPC-7390 touch panel computer.
- generic usb/bluetooth GPS
- next season, I will get the Airmar PB150 weather station.
The DST800 gives me speed temperature and depth in one unit, meaning one hole in the boat. The old instruments each required their own sensor and subsequent hole. Also, the new transducer is a "smart sensor" which means it outputs its data in NMEA-0183 format. This is a basic serial line protocol that runs at 4800 baud, 8-N-1. I can connect the two data wires directly to an RS232 header on the TS-TPC-7390...
The TS-TPC-7390 is the heart of my instruments. It is a 7" touch panel computer with a 200MHz ARM9 cpu and 128MB of RAM. It runs an embedded Debian OS off of 512MB internal flash and an SD card slot. It boots to a shell in under 2 seconds and a usable X Windows desktop in 17 seconds. It has an aluminum bezel and gaskets to make it splash-proof, although it lacks IP67 or NEMA4 certification. But at $509, it's also 25% the cost of so-certified devices... Now, it doesn't have any navigation instrumentation software out of the box so I have some development work ahead of me. But here is where the magic of open software shines. I am building on top of gpsd and nmead and will be using perl/Tk or wxPython for the user interface. My goal for this season is to just have a 4-way split window showing water depth, speed through water, speed over ground (from GPS), and direction (from GPS). Ultimately, I plan to build a gui that will let me select the screen layout and what information to display in each panel.
The advantage of using these new instruments is that should I decide that the touch panel computer just doesn't cut it in the real world, I only have to add in some Raymarine or Furuno or whoever display units and the DST800 transducer as well as the PB150 weather station will work just fine with them.
Chartplotting will continue to be done on my laptop for now, but instead of an old iBook laptop and external monitor, I am using an Acer Aspire One netbook with SeaFarer/LX which is chartplotting software for Linux. This will have to connect to its NMEA data source from the touch panel. Also, at present SeaFarer does not support BSB4 charts which are encrypted. So I will have to scan the paper charts for my area into tiff format and geo-reference them. However, the developer of SeaFarer did mention that he has BSB4 working and it will soon be ready for beta testing. He has also produced a software package in the past for the Sharp Zaurus called zNav which does very basic chartplotting functions on that ARM-based mobile platform. Perhaps it could be revived and I could run the chartplotting directly on my touch panel. Endless possibilities, but extremely finite time.
Stay tuned...
But I am also a cheap bastard. I don't like spending money on things that don't directly benefit my life... So as part of the spring refit, I am installing some new instruments on the boat.
The "normal" instrument package for a boat in my size range is the Raymarine ST60+ package that includes depth, speed and wind sensors as well as their respective displays. Each display is a roughly 4"x4" square bezel that mounts in the bulkhead of my cockpit. These displays are essentially waterproof, backlit, large character, 3-digit, seven segment LCD displays capable of showing water depth, speed of water under the hull and wind speed/direction. Meh.
What I did last season for my first season out was to use an old laptop and LCD screen on a flexible arm that could be seen from the cockpit. The laptop ran GPSNavX, a chartplotting package for the Mac. Charts were in BSB4 format, provided by the Canadian Hydrographic Service. And the GPS was a small USB/bluetooth GPS data logger. this worked great but was frankly a bit fidgety and rather power hungry. See a previous post about a dead battery preventing me from pulling my mast for the winter. I also used the existing instruments (depth/speed) to compare with the depths marked on the charts. These instruments have bright orange incandescent bulbs for each segment of the 7-segment display of each digit. The instrument cluster has a control box down below for setting depth alarms, brightness, etc. It's all very 70s and very retro and very much not my style.
My new instruments are as follows:
- Airmar DST800 combination depth/speed/temperature sensor (Furuno 235DST-MSE)
- Technologic Systems TS-TPC-7390 touch panel computer.
- generic usb/bluetooth GPS
- next season, I will get the Airmar PB150 weather station.
The DST800 gives me speed temperature and depth in one unit, meaning one hole in the boat. The old instruments each required their own sensor and subsequent hole. Also, the new transducer is a "smart sensor" which means it outputs its data in NMEA-0183 format. This is a basic serial line protocol that runs at 4800 baud, 8-N-1. I can connect the two data wires directly to an RS232 header on the TS-TPC-7390...
The TS-TPC-7390 is the heart of my instruments. It is a 7" touch panel computer with a 200MHz ARM9 cpu and 128MB of RAM. It runs an embedded Debian OS off of 512MB internal flash and an SD card slot. It boots to a shell in under 2 seconds and a usable X Windows desktop in 17 seconds. It has an aluminum bezel and gaskets to make it splash-proof, although it lacks IP67 or NEMA4 certification. But at $509, it's also 25% the cost of so-certified devices... Now, it doesn't have any navigation instrumentation software out of the box so I have some development work ahead of me. But here is where the magic of open software shines. I am building on top of gpsd and nmead and will be using perl/Tk or wxPython for the user interface. My goal for this season is to just have a 4-way split window showing water depth, speed through water, speed over ground (from GPS), and direction (from GPS). Ultimately, I plan to build a gui that will let me select the screen layout and what information to display in each panel.
The advantage of using these new instruments is that should I decide that the touch panel computer just doesn't cut it in the real world, I only have to add in some Raymarine or Furuno or whoever display units and the DST800 transducer as well as the PB150 weather station will work just fine with them.
Chartplotting will continue to be done on my laptop for now, but instead of an old iBook laptop and external monitor, I am using an Acer Aspire One netbook with SeaFarer/LX which is chartplotting software for Linux. This will have to connect to its NMEA data source from the touch panel. Also, at present SeaFarer does not support BSB4 charts which are encrypted. So I will have to scan the paper charts for my area into tiff format and geo-reference them. However, the developer of SeaFarer did mention that he has BSB4 working and it will soon be ready for beta testing. He has also produced a software package in the past for the Sharp Zaurus called zNav which does very basic chartplotting functions on that ARM-based mobile platform. Perhaps it could be revived and I could run the chartplotting directly on my touch panel. Endless possibilities, but extremely finite time.
Stay tuned...
The best laid plans...
We are in Montreal, Quebec so obviously, the boats come out for the winter. Fugu is sitting on her cradle under some tarps and a wood frame I quickly erected late last fall. There are many lessons learned about how to build a frame and how to prepare a boat for winter storage. It does not need to be expensive but I do need to arrange for non-wife-based assistance. Perhaps an assistance exchange with other club members.
This season, I left the stanchions and lifelines in and the mast up. I had planned to drop the mast for the winter but had some motor trouble at the end of the season and couldn't get the boat over to the crane when I had helpers. The problem turned out to be a dead battery, which in turn was due to something I am ashamed to admit. Lessons learned here are:
- more a-frames along the ridge-poles.
- remove stanchions and lifelines so that tarps can hang over the hull better.
- with mast up, 3 tarps are required:
- over cockpit from backstay to mast
- forward of mast to babystay
- between babystay and forestay
- need to prevent water from pooling on tarps and forming big heavy blocks of ice. This means a high-pitch, taut tarp which is best accomplished by raising the ridge pole and running the tarps over the edge of the deck.
The winter is grudgingly retreating and I am anxious to start the spring commissioning process:
- removing the covers and frame
- cleaning the hull
- cleaning the deck
- removing EVERYTHING possible from the interior
- cleaning the interior with nasty chemicals
- removing the falling-down headliner and grinding off residual foam/glue stuck to the ceiling.
- painting the newly exposed fiberglass in the interior
- cleaning up and assessing all interior movable items before bringing them back to the boat
And... the fun task that I am learning every boater looks forward to in the spring
- installing new toys. But this deserves its own post
This season, I left the stanchions and lifelines in and the mast up. I had planned to drop the mast for the winter but had some motor trouble at the end of the season and couldn't get the boat over to the crane when I had helpers. The problem turned out to be a dead battery, which in turn was due to something I am ashamed to admit. Lessons learned here are:
- more a-frames along the ridge-poles.
- remove stanchions and lifelines so that tarps can hang over the hull better.
- with mast up, 3 tarps are required:
- over cockpit from backstay to mast
- forward of mast to babystay
- between babystay and forestay
- need to prevent water from pooling on tarps and forming big heavy blocks of ice. This means a high-pitch, taut tarp which is best accomplished by raising the ridge pole and running the tarps over the edge of the deck.
The winter is grudgingly retreating and I am anxious to start the spring commissioning process:
- removing the covers and frame
- cleaning the hull
- cleaning the deck
- removing EVERYTHING possible from the interior
- cleaning the interior with nasty chemicals
- removing the falling-down headliner and grinding off residual foam/glue stuck to the ceiling.
- painting the newly exposed fiberglass in the interior
- cleaning up and assessing all interior movable items before bringing them back to the boat
And... the fun task that I am learning every boater looks forward to in the spring
- installing new toys. But this deserves its own post
It's a good ship
So this is my opening blog post about the good ship Fugu and the fun I intend to have bringing her into the 21st century. Fugu is a 30 year old 30' sloop - a Beneteau First 30 with a lead keel to be precise.
I bought this boat in the summer of 2008, right in the midst of moving and renovating my house. I firmly recommend against doing this. One thing at a time.
Being an older boat, she has her problems... The plexiglas ports are cracked on port and starboard. The motor mounts are completely compressed and desperately need replacement, the exhaust box is rusting out and this past season developed a pinhole leak. There are stress cracks around many of the stanchion posts which will need to be dealt with. The exterior wood needs mostly to be replaced. The entire starboard side of the coach roof has delaminated so I will need to open that up and replace the core which is undoubtedly soaked and rotten. And the instruments are pretty much original.
On the good side, she floats and the bits that keep the water on the outside of the hull seem to be in good shape. The hull is sound and drawing 5'6" and carrying 45% ballast, she is stiff and points well. I am told new sails will help that even more but there is a lot more I want to get done before I invest in new sails. I consider making the boat more comfortable on weekend cruises a priority.
Stay tuned for my progress...
I bought this boat in the summer of 2008, right in the midst of moving and renovating my house. I firmly recommend against doing this. One thing at a time.
Being an older boat, she has her problems... The plexiglas ports are cracked on port and starboard. The motor mounts are completely compressed and desperately need replacement, the exhaust box is rusting out and this past season developed a pinhole leak. There are stress cracks around many of the stanchion posts which will need to be dealt with. The exterior wood needs mostly to be replaced. The entire starboard side of the coach roof has delaminated so I will need to open that up and replace the core which is undoubtedly soaked and rotten. And the instruments are pretty much original.
On the good side, she floats and the bits that keep the water on the outside of the hull seem to be in good shape. The hull is sound and drawing 5'6" and carrying 45% ballast, she is stiff and points well. I am told new sails will help that even more but there is a lot more I want to get done before I invest in new sails. I consider making the boat more comfortable on weekend cruises a priority.
Stay tuned for my progress...
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