Crystal clear windscreen - finally

COST OF NEW ENCLOSURES:  $4450

FastAlley came with stratoglass windscreens but they were so clouded and old that I could not see out of them – even if I cleaned and polished them for hours.  The only thing they were good for was protecting me in the cockpit from wind and spray.

The new windscreen (before adding the rest of the enclosure)

Access to dinghy

Starboard opening

Port opening

New mainsail with reefing lines and Dutchman system

COST OF NEW MAINSAIL + DUTCHMAN + NEW HARDWARE + NEW LINES = $6200

In anticipation of my dream of setting to sea in FastAlley one bright morning, I took a long hard look at my mainsail.

There were a number of problems with the mainsail – mostly it was just plain tired but more importantly it required that I go upfront to the mast to raise it, and then return to the mast to work it down later.  The mast is not the place I want to be in bad weather – and definitely not when the deck is bucking and heaving as the boat faces into bad weather waves.

My intention is to install the Dutchman system which, I understand, allows one to reef on any point of sail.  Since I intend to be sailing downwind as much as possible, when its time to reef I definitely don’t want to turn from a stately downwind run to a bashing head-on position during a storm.

I went sailing in the Meditteranean a few years back and it’s a vicious little sea.  One moment the wind is a little blustery and the next the radio is filled with pan/pan and maydays.  We regularly went from deeply heeled  (which is when I fell completely OUT of love with monohulls) to having to turn into nasty sea conditions in order to reef the main.  Fortunately we could reef from the cockpit but the boat still pitched and fell alarmingly as we struggled to reef with the huge main slamming back and forth.  I don’t want to have to go thru those “Med” conditions when I am singlehanding.

Another problem with my old mainsail is when it comes down, no matter how careful you are in gathering it in, it still tends to fall off the boom, puddle in an untidy heap on the deck, and drape itself over the wannabe pilothouse which completely obscures your vision.   Manhandling the mainsail back onto the boom and lashing it down takes at least 2 struggling people.  The Dutchman system, besides its reefing capabilities, would also control the main and keep it on the boom.

My goal is:

(a)    to be able to singlehand from the cockpit

(b)   to never have to stand exposed at the mast

(c)    to be able to reef (my current sail doesn’t have reef points)

(d)   to reef on any point of sail

Robin of Hood Sailmakers in Sausalito came to the boat and removed my tired mainsail.

After a month I visited Robin in his workshop and he pointed out all the failings of my current mainsail.  First it was tearing in a number of crucial areas.  Secondly it had no reefing points.  Thirdly, and most importantly, the sail was never meant for FastAlley but was a bastardized mainsail from a small racer.   Robin pointed out that doing any work on the current mainsail would just be throwing good money at a bad sail.  He suggested we go back to the drawing board and get a new sail cut.  So that’s what we did.

During the first week of August Robin spent a lot of time on FastAlley installing my new mainsail, its reefing lines, the Dutchman system, the boomvang (which didn’t exist), and extra brakes so that I could do everything from the cockpit.   We went out sailing together on August 14^th to test out the new system and it all worked flawlessly.

A week later Annie and I intended to go out and practice sailing with the new gear, but Annie went down with a bad cold so that left me alone on the boat.  What the hell, I thought, the boat is set up to singlehand, and I have to learn to singlehand eventually, so this is as good a time as any other.   I must admit I was not blasé about going out alone because the last time I singlehanded it was on my little Catalina 22 daysailer – and that was about 10 years ago!

I find that the scariest times on the boat is un-docking and docking – like flying, it’s the take off and landing that are the most dangerous events.  For me leaving the dock is scary because if the wind suddenly shoves me around as I exit my slip (as it has done in the past) I could hit one of those gorgeous yachts docked closely all around me.  With FastAlley’s high freeboard and canvas cockpit enclosures and just a single engine, I have very little actual directional control especially when going backwards.  Coming in to dock is slightly better from the point of view that I have forward directional control, but worse as I have to do a tight 180 swivel to get into my windward dock – the windward dock being another disadvantage.   For me, (un)docking is my most (un)favorite time on the boat.

Boomvang collar thru mast

So I asked Bob on the boat next door to help me untie the boat and push me off.   Without Bob, I had visions of me shoving my boat backwards and the wind whipping it off while I stood horrified on the dock.  As it turned out, my exit was painless.  Bob pushed me away gently, I put the boat is very slow reverse, backed off carefully, and then I was free and heading out on Saturday morning.

I decided that it was safest for FastAlley and myself to get far away from all the other boats out there sailing so I headed for the isolation of the San Mateo Bridge.  No one ever seems to hang out there.  I wanted solitude on this my first day of singlehanding FastAlley.  I raised the mainsail, pulled out the roller-furling blade, turned off the motor and waited for the wind to fill my new sails.  And waited.  I checked my speed and I was doing 0.0 knots.  I wasn’t even moving over the ground with the outgoing tide.

I checked that everything was ready to go, cleared the deck, tidied the lines, and made some coffee.  I settled down to wait for the wind.  After an hour or more sunning myself contently as I waited, I noticed that I was getting pretty dozy.  That scared me wide awake!!  All I needed was to fall asleep with all my sails raised and ready to fly.

Then I realized that should I encounter issues and want to stop the boat, I should have my anchor ready to deploy.  It wasn’t.  So I went upfront and untied the anchor so that it was ready to run when released from its brake.

While upfront and hanging over the bow working with the anchor, I realized I didn’t have my PFD on.  I had placed it in the cockpit but had not put it on.  Not smart.  I went back and put on my PFD.

I made lunch.  And waited some more.

Port reef lines in new brake

Suddenly I felt a breeze on my cheek.  I strolled over to check my speed and FastAlley was already at 1.1 knots and accelerating!  As I watched we clocked up 2.8, then 3.4, then 4.6 then 5.7 – we were blazing along within moments of the breeze coming up.  I didn’t know FastAlley could accelerate so fast.  I was thrilled.  I was also off course.

I turned FastAlley and we hurtled south at an angle down the channel.  I  tacked and tacked just for the hell of it.  My first few singlehanded tacks were messy when I managed to tangle the furling line and found a knot in the mainsheet.  But nothing that couldn’t be fixed from the cockpit.   Robin had set up the boat so beautifully that she was very easy to manage from the cockpit.  I got extremely comfortable being alone out there on the water ripping along beneath a sunny sky.

I have had the hardest time sailing to windward on FastAlley which didn’t bother me unduly since I intended to sail the world in a gently downwind fashion but it suddenly occurred to me that maybe now that I had the correct sail plan, maybe just maybe I could sail to windward.  The best I had managed in the past was just off a beam reach.  I adjusted the sails to closehauled and visually checked our angle to the wind.  I don’t have a meter to give me the exact angle but I was pretty damn close to the wind.  I couldn’t believe it – FastAlley was going to windward.  And blazing along too.   Seems as soon as I got a decent sail on her, she started pointing like a monohull.

The wind kept climbing and as my speed reached 6.0 knots I decided to test the new reefing system.  I thought that I would most likely want to reef when FastAlley is on a broad reach so I turned her downwind and when she was going at a good lick I reefed as Robin had shown me.  It was so incredibly easy and even with the force of the wind in the sails as I broad reached, she reefed as easily as if I was heading into the wind.  It was effortless and we barely lost a knot.  Under the first reef FastAlley slowed down to 5.2 knots.   I thought maybe she wouldn’t go to windward with the first reef in, but she sailed closehauled happily as I brought her nose up.

I know it sounds silly but when you havent been able to – ever – do something, and suddenly FastAlley is doing everything and more, then it is incredibly satisfying.  There is nothing like a good mainsail to get a boat performing as she was designed to perform.

And the most fascinating thing about FastAlley is that she holds her course – any course – without locking down the wheel.  She is so perfectly balanced that you just point her where you want her to go on any point of sail, take your hands off the wheel, and she keeps going that way until you change course.  I tried locking down the wheel thinking that would help FalstAlley hold her course but instead she tried to round up, so I left the wheel unlocked.  I would pick a course, set the sails, and then walk quietly away from the wheel to sit comfortably and watch her go.  And go she did.

I found myself humming quietly to myself as FastAlley hummed along.  It was truly a spiritual experience being out on the water all by myself with the warm sun in my face, the wind snapping in the sails and the water burbling over the hulls.  I was in heaven.  I realized after awhile that I was humming Amazing Grace so I tried to sing it but it is 40 years since I was in church and I had forgotten the words.  So I sang the words I remembered and hummed the lines I forgot and after about 6 repeats I found I had remembered all the words.  So there I was – speeding over the water and singing Amazing Grace at the top of my lungs!

I sailed around for about 5 hours and then turned for my marina.  There were whitecaps on the water and my wind meter registered wind gusts up to 18 knots.  I am not great at docking so, faced with docking singlehanded and in high winds, I chickened out.  I decided to drop anchor and wait for the wind to abate.  I picked a quiet spot, dropped anchor, set my iPhone timer for 2 hours, and lay down to doze.  When I awoke my batteries were topped up because the wind generator was howling.  So I checked the wind – still high gusts.  I made dinner and sat outside with a cup of coffee and watched the sun set.  Wind still gusting.  Eventually I crawled into bed and went to sleep.

I had a terrible nights sleep.  The wind generator would kick in, whirl crazily as it charged my batteries, then screech to a stop.  As I listened to the wind howl all night I was sure that come morning I was going to have to dock in high winds whether I wanted to or not, so I tossed and turned with trepidation.  It didn’t help that anchored in the the Bay is a roly-poly place to try and sleep with steep wave chop coming and going with the wind and tides.  Between the bouncing and the wind I was pretty groggy come Sunday morning.

I was up at 6:30am, had breakfast and looked out on a grey, overcast morning.  My wind generator was still roaring away in the wind but I decided that I couldn’t sit out in the Bay much longer.  By 8:00am I was sick of being bounced around by the chop, so I upped anchor and headed for the bouys marking the channel entrance to my marina.  By 9:00am, even as I turned into my channel, I still did not have the courage to dock my boat singlehanded.  I chickened out, grabbed my cell phone, and call Hank and Sandy in the slip opposite mine and asked them for help.  To my enormous relief, when I turned into the marina there they were waiting on the dock.   They grabbed my lines and tied me down.  I was home.  And FastAlley was safe.   I decided to treat myself to a power nap so I crawled under the covers and within short I was fast asleep.

The new mainsail is fantastic.  As is the new reefing system with its color coded lines.  And the new boomvang that Robin created.  And the Dutchman system that he fitted.  And the new brakes and rigging so that I can do everything from the safety of the cockpit.   FastAlley is a dream to sail now.

If your boat is not performing as it should, then you need Hood Sailmakers of Sausalito.  Tell Robin I sent you.

The port and starboard hatches give access to lazarettes. The center hatch leads to the bathroom.

When we brought the boat up from La Paz the weather was poor (being February up the Baja), and in addition it was uphill all the way to San Diego so we were pounding into the waves.  This is not a good time to find out that your forward port and starboard hatches leak considerably!  Every so often we would have to open the hatches, take a bucket down, and diligently empty the lazarettes of gallons of water.

2ft by 2ft hole of the broken center hatch after it is removed

The center hatch led to the bathroom and did not seal at all because the back latch was broken.  So that hatch was tied down by its handle from below and was duct taped to the deck.  All in all a very unsatisfactory solution for 2 weeks at sea.  Incredibly – yay duct tape! – it didn’t leak one drop although I was constantly worried that the waves over the bow would simply sweep the hatch overboard leaving us with a 2ft x 2ft hole in the bow!

Compounding the leaky hatch problem was that the bedding compound of all the 9 ventilation hatches on the deck had degraded over the years and almost every single one leaked.  Or was broken.  The 3 over the port bed (my bunk) leaked so badly that I was sleeping in foul weather gear to keep dry.  When the water got 3 inches deep on my bunk I took my wet sleeping bag and crawled in with my surprised skipper in the middle of the night.   His bunk was not much better but at least it was just very damp and not soaked thru like mine.

7 of 9 deck hatches - all 9 had to be replaced

So I decided that it was time to replace all the hatches – the 9 deck hatches for ventilation, the 1 center bow hatch leading to the bathroom, and the 2 bow lazarettes.  I asked a boat handyman for a quotation for the work and it was so outrageous that it quite took my breath away.

A few days later my monthly sailing magazines arrived and one of the mags had an article on replacing a hatch.  I read it and thought, It doesn’t look that hard?!  When asking the advice of a friendly boater in the marina he assured me – “Its not hard, you can do it yourself”.  And he repeated almost verbatim the instructions of the magazine.

My first hatch replacement - I was awfully proud of myself

So I thought I would start with just one small hatch and if I messed it up completely, then I would call the professional with the horrendous $-quote.  I ordered the replacement hatch from West Marine and when it arrived a knowledgeable assistant set me up with the bedding compound, cleaning alcohol, rags, handy tools, etc.

I set to work with a will.

Busy, busy, busy!

Firstly I removed the screws holding down the hatch and put them together in a container so that I wouldn’t lose them.  Then I gently dug under the surrounds of the old broken hatch until I could move the flat tool all the way around it.  Then I pulled carefully and the hatch popped out, much to my delight.  I worried that it was too easy!

I then carefully removed all the old glue and bedding compound and wiped the area down with the alcohol until the surface was smooth and clean again.

Then I gently rubbed the area to be re-glued with sandpaper to rough it up a little, laid down a bed of 4200, and dropped the hatch back into the hole.  I inserted the screws but only gently tightened them until a small amount of the compound squeezed out.  Then I waited an hour.

After an hour I tightened the screws a tiny bit tighter and a small amount of compound squeezed out again.  And I waited 2 hours.

By late afternoon I tightened the screws down tight.  I could see that the compound had dried to a soft cushion that sealed the hatch nicely.  I was enormously pleased with myself, although I didn’t know if the hatch was bedded properly.  The magazine instructions said – Don’t get the compound wet for 24 hours, so I decided to leave it a week.

The following week I returned to the boat and ran a hose over the hatch.  It was sealed up tight.  I was elated.

I scooted off to West Marine and placed an order for another hatch.  And the next weekend I replaced the next hatch.  And so on for the whole of the summer.

In all I replaced 8 of the 9 deck hatches this summer.  I have one broken hatch left to do which is over the guest bunk.  I will get around to that next summer.  I have the hatch already; it is lying on the guest bunk and it stares at me balefully all the time, but I just have to get around to doing the deed.  Now that winter has set in I tell myself it will have to wait until Summer because I don’t work in the rain – and neither does the bedding compound!

I also un-bedded and re-beddded  the large port and starboard lazarette hatches on the bow.  They weren’t actually broken, they just leaked up a storm.

The hatch I am most relieved to have changed is the large center hatch that leads to the bathroom.  The duct tape solution to a bow hatch is somewhat unsettling for the spirit.

So FastAlley’s hatches should last another 10 years.

COST TO REPLACE:

9 small hatches at $230 each =  $2,070

1 large hatch at $350  = $350

Glue, glue, and more glue – $200

Sandpaper and flat tool – $40

TOTAL =  $2,660

FastAlley is ready for the sea again!

The port and starboard hatches give access to lazarettes. The center hatch leads to the bathroom.

Weather monitor - wind indicator

I have a West Marine model Weather Base 20 which works perfectly well and tells the temperature, humidity, time, and most important to me as a sailor, it tells the wind speed and wind direction.  That is, it did until one of the 3 cups on the external wind indicator broke off.  With only 2 cups left they balanced each other out and the monitor no longer spun/rotated in the wind – so I no longer got the wind speed.

I thought I would be able to dismantle the wind indicator, remove the offending piece, and replace it with a new piece with the requisite 3 cups.  The weather base is made by West Marine so off I went to WM to buy a replacement part.  I entered the WM store and headed straight for an assistant at the counter.

I explained my problem and the assistant looked dubious.  He said he thought that WM sold the entire base as one unit and that spare parts were not available.

At this time the gentleman standing next to me piped up helpfully.  Why not just stick a bottle cap in the place of the missing cup and it will work just fine, he offered.  And Coca Cola caps work perfectly, he added.

The mere thought of an ugly Coke cap glued onto any part of  my beautiful boat was about as attractive as a boil on a baby’s bottom.  I turned and gave the man a withering “You stay out of this!” glare.  He shrugged.

The attendant and I went thru the WM catalog.  Turns out that WM no longer makes that particular model, however, for just $549 I can buy a whole new latest-and-greatest weather base.  Excluding the cost of an electrician to remove the old weather station and fit the newest contraption, of course..

There are a lot of things I need for the boat right now, and a new weather base is not one of them, so I left the store.

Once I got back to the boat I studied the non-spinning wind indicator and pondered the problem.  The more I thought about the man’s suggestion of a Coke bottle cap, the more it made sense.  Eventually I decided it was worth a try, especially since the stupid indicator was not working anyway…  And there are no spare parts for it…  And I didn’t feel like buying a new one.

So off I went to the store and bought a 6-pack of Cokes.  I noticed that the bottle caps are a bright red so I decided to paint them black.  I picked up a cheap bottle of nail polish – black nail polish like people use on Halloween to enhance their witch costumes.

Then back to the boat.  Over the weekend I drank the cokes and kept the lids which I painted black.  Then I mixed up a batch of marine glue, climbed up on the roof of the dodger, leaned over the davits precariously, and glued a now-black cup in the spot of the missing cup.  I waited expectantly for the indicator to start spinning happily in the 10-knot wind but it just sat there.

Its the little fella below the big wind generator

I sat and watched the movement of the indicator – or non.movement in this case – and it seemed that since the other 2 cups were on extended arms and my Coke cup was glued straight to the mounting base, it was preventing a rotation from starting.  If I knocked it with my hand then it spun away and continued to spin, but once I stopped it again, it couldn’t restart its spin.  Obviously I must have slept thru the lesson about wind dynamics in school.

So I thought if I glued another 2 cups to the mounting then the new 3 cups would generate the start speed needed to get it spinning.  So I did that.  Now I had 5 cups on the indicator – 3 Coke caps (painted Halloween black) glued directly to the monitor, and 2 originals on their extended arms.

By this time the wind had picked up so I sat back waiting for the vroooom that would indicate my monitor was spinning wildly – but it didn’t move.  All I had done was counter balance the stupid thing again.  As I watched, the wind would catch the cup on the extended arm and shove it clockwise.  Then the wind would catch the other extended cup and shove it anti-clockwise.  So the indicator wobbled back and forth, but did not fully rotate.

Obviously I needed to replace a-cup-on-an-extended-arm like the one that broke off.  I know, I know, I shouldn’t have second guessed the original designer – but who knew 5 cups would not do the trick?!

Back to the drawing board….  I cut up an expired credit card into thin strips to use as the arm extension and glued the strips together to get rigidity.  And painted it black.  Then I glued the (4^th) cup to the extension, and glued the extension in the missing place on the indicator.

The thing started spinning madly – at last.  I bolted downstairs and my weather base showed the wind at 15 knots.  Oh joy!

Tah-DAAHHHH

So now instead of a neat wind indicator on my davit with 3 neat cups on extensions, now I have the thing bristling with Coke bottle caps – all painted Halloween black.

The next time someone comes up with a simple fix to an expensive problem, I hope I have the good sense to ask some in-depth questions instead of dishing out a snotty look.  To the man in WM that received The Look, I humbly apologize.

Cost to replace:                    Newest weather base $549         + handyman electrician at $65 p/hr

Cost to fix:

6-pack of Cokes           $2.99

1 black nail polish      $1.99

TOTAL =       $5 (I already had the marine glue)

The weather station on my Navigation station

I wanted to spend a weekend in Sausalito going around the houseboats in my dinghy, but when I dropped it in the water I discovered that the transom piece had separated from the pontoon.  That’s not good.

What a schlepp to get the dinghy to the repair shop.  It has a fixed base so it wouldn’t roll up and fit into my car.

Eventually a boat owner with a truck agreed to drive me – and the dinghy – across the Bay to Alameda.

Sal’s Inflatables in Alameda quoted $230 to reglue the transom to the poontoon, so I paid the man and left the dinghy.

Fetching the dinghy was an equal pain in the neck.  The boat owner was away sailing in the Caribbean so I couldnt  use his truck.  And I didnt know anyone else with a truck.

Just when I decided that I would have to rent a U-haul, a friend of mine said she was sure it would fit into her hatchback.  And it did.

REPAIRS to dinghy        $230

Nav station board

APRIL 2010 – BATTERIES & ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

• House bank batteries replaced
• Engine starter battery replaced
• Battery charger replaced
• Shunt repositioned
• “Amps in” dial replaced

When my boat was in Long Beach I took the boat out regularly and gave the engine a run under load, but this year I am up in the San Francisco Bay and the winters are wet, wet, wet so I found that I simply never walked thru the rain to the boat.  It just sat there at the dock, neglected and forlorn.

And it rained.  And rained.  And rained.  For months.  And months.  And months.

It April now and after the sun broke thru quite suddenly and brightly and I was off to the boat again.  I tried to fire up the engine but no joy.  I checked both battery banks, the house bank and the starter battery, and they looked charged according to my reading of the dials (I could be wrong), so I tried again to start the engine.  And again, nothing.  I tried cross-connecting the house and starter batteries with the combined effect of zero.  I shut the boat up and trudged back up the dock to my car.

The next time the weather cleared I met an electrician out at FastAlley.  He went over the electrical board, examined the batteries, checked the battery charger – and declared the whole lot dead.  The battery charger had failed and taken out the house set.  Or, he said, one of the batteries had shorted and blown the rest of the batteries as well as the charger.  Who knows.  All I did know for sure was that all 4 house batteries were fried, as well as the battery charger.

The 4 (dead) batteries in the boat are about $400+ each, which made me unhappy, however, I felt better when Duane said that the batteries were from 2003 and long past their useful life, and should be replaced anyway.  He said the life of a battery is at most 5 to 6 years so I had had good use out of them.  That only lessened the $-pain a little.

He asked when I was going cruising?  I said, Probably in 2 years.  He said that I really don’t need 4 deep cycle gel batteries while I am tied up to the dock and using shore power, and suggested that I buy just 2 house batteries, and a good engine starter battery.

New battery charger & shunt moved

Yesterday we met at the boat, with the 3 batteries, installed them, and turned on the engine.  It groaned and coughed and then started.  What a wonderful sound – I feel so lost when my engine won’t run because I won’t sail in or out of a slip in the trimaran.  I did that in my little 22ft Catalina but I won’t do that in this wide-bodied monster.

I ran the engine for about 45 minutes to fully charge the batteries.

Replacement $cost – the battery charger, batteries, shunt, dial

AC Charger, Xantrex TrueCharge,                        $280

1 EA Battery, 12V, Flooded, Group 24               $135

2 EA Battery, 12V, Flooded, Group 24              $216

Troubleshoot problems                                          $195

Replace charger+batteries                                    $130

Total, parts and labor $1,015

Still to do                                                                   $——

Probable total                                                      $1200

I hate it when I get a quote for $200 and then get a bill for $600.

Completed                                                                $ 600

ACTUAL TOTAL                                              $1615

– - – - – - o – o – o – o- – - – - – -

• Companionway Hatch Shocks
• Companionway Hatch Bar
• Heat Exchanger Bolts Replaced
• Kitchen Sink Re-Bedded
• Deck Hatch Replaced
• Weems & Plaath clock fixed

INTRODUCTION 

Let me explain that firstly I am a woman and secondly an IT Project Manager by profession, so doing boat fixes or manual labor has never been in my set of skills.  The most exercise I do is running my fingers over a computer keyboard.

 Also I have never owned any tools until I got the boat, and now I have inherited enough tools for a small workshop. 

Since trying my hand at boat projects, I have also noticed that women obviously haven’t gone into the marine parts design profession, because men seem to know automatically how things work – its seems so obvious to them – whereas I have to revert to reading the instructions and even then they don’t make much sense to me. 

 A Man’s mind obviously works differently to a Female’s mind.

 I am learning on my boat that I often have to replace parts (you cannot repair them) – I think it’s a conspiracy with marine spare parts makers because just when you replace PartA then PartB caves in. 

 I also suspect that boat parts are primed to fail serially so that you spend the entire summer working – and $spending – on the boat. 

COMPANIONWAY HATCH SHOCKS

 The shocks that hold the companionway hatch open suddenly decided to give up the ghost.  One moment the shocks were holding up the hatch, the next it slammed down narrowly missing my head.

So I examined the hatch shocks trying to figure out how to remove them so that I could take them to West Marine for replacement.  Obviously a man built the stupid part because there wasn’t any indication of how to prize the shock off its mount.  Really, if a woman had designed the piece there would have been a large arrow with engraved instructions.  All highlighted in pink.

 Empty handed I went to West Marine, found the same part on their shelves, and spent 5 minutes examining the instructions on how to remove it – it was embarrassingly easy.  I returned to the boat, prized off the piece, returned to West Marine and bought the same (length) size.

The gas shock said it would hold up 90 lbs.  The instructions said if I had 2 shocks before, then I should replace with 2 again.  I realized my hatch was at most 25 lbs, so 180 lbs was a bit of overkill, but that seemed to be the only weight:length combination that would fit my hatch. So I shelled out the $50.

Back I went to the boat, clicked the new gas shocks into place and watched admiringly as the hatch stayed open and did not slam down on my head.  Then I tried to close the hatch.  Before, with the old shocks, I simply leaned gently on the hatch and it closed.  Now I yanked and yanked but the hatch didn’t move.  Thinking the gas shocks were somehow stuck in the “open” position I went back to the instructions to figure out how to unstuck them.  The instructions didn’t cover this.

After staring at the obstinate hatch some more I realized that maybe 180lbs force to keep the hatch open, required a similar opposite force to close it.  So I grabbed the hatch, leaned my full weight on it, and down it came – reluctantly.  In fact, it took so much effort that I figured I could use the open hatch as an exercise bar for chin ups. 

Then I tried to close the hatch from inside the cabin but I couldn’t pull hard enough to bring down the hatch, and keep it down.  Back to the drawing board.  I stared mutely at the gas shocks.  They stared back unhelpfully.

Eventually I removed one of the gas shocks reducing the load to 90 lbs again – notwithstanding the instructions that if I had 2 shocks then I should replace with 2 new shocks.  Bringing down the hatch against 90 lbs force is still pretty heavy for me especially when pulling it down from inside the cabin, but at least it stays open as desired. 

Price:  $25 each  ——–>>>> pleasant surprise, I only needed one.

COMPANIONWAY HATCH BAR

When you close the companionway hatch then the crossbar or beam across the front of the hatch has part of the bar protruding out at the corner.  The screw that is supposed to keep the corner flush had worked thru the steel bar and under it, and so it was no longer lying flush.  Every time I pulled the hatch down and tried to close it, it balked at the slightly protruding piece.

Previously I had the protruding piece glued back in place, but with minimal continued use, pretty soon it come unstuck again.

This time I decided to remove the flat head (sunken) screw and get another one with a bigger head so that it could not work thru the steel.  Then glue it as well for good measure, clamp it all together, and wait. 

Of course, having made this decision I then realized I don’t own a clamp – so it’s off to Home Depot again.

I used to love shopping and browsing thru malls for all manner of frilly things.  Lately my shopping habits rotate between West Marine and Home Depot.

Cost to fix (my labor comes free):  93 cents for a bag of flat head screws

HEAT EXCHANGER BOLTS REPLACED

I thought I had to change the impeller so I got a mechanic, Bill, to take a look at the engine.  He declared the impeller just fine, but when he touched the heat exchanger it came loose in his hands.  It looked like the bolts had sheared off. 

The solenoid was also hanging loose from its mounting.

It seems the heat exchanger had 2 bolts – or is that screws, I never could tell the difference – anyway it was big and it had a thread.  One bolt was too big for its hole, and the other bolt too small for its hole.  To the casual gaze it all looked secure, but in fact was completely unsecured.  One bolt had sheared off and the base of the bolt was embedded in its hole.  The other bolt was so loose it came out in his hand.  It was basically just sitting loose in the hole, not actually screwed in.  I was so lucky that the whole contraption hadn’t fallen off during our trip up the coast from Long Beach which would have done irreparable damage to the engine.

I was bemoaning the problem to a colleague at work, telling him that the previous mechanic had put a 3/8 inch bolt in a 1/2 inch hole.  My colleague said he understood perfectly – in fact, his last girlfriend kept complaining about the same thing.  I added that when touched, the thing just fell out in my hand.  My colleague nodded – he said his ex complained about that too.  He didn’t like his ex that much, he said.  Super helpful colleague – not.

Bill drilled the embedded bolt base out and found the threads were gone so we couldn’t replace the bolt with a new one.  Instead he went off and created a base plate that he bolted to the engine and then bolted the heat exchanger onto its new base plate.  It looks and feels really solid now. 

He also bolted the solenoid to the new plate.   With all the work I have had done on the engine in the last year, I hope it lasts at least another 1000 hours before I need to rework anything again.    

Mechanical fix:  $300 = $50 in parts and $250 mechanic’s labor.

KITCHEN SINK RE-BEDDED

The kitchen sink has small bolts underneath it, one in each corner, to hold it firmly in place.  However, the tiny bolts were obviously not effective because they had rusted off over time and the back left corner of the sink lifted out of its hole, leaving a gap between the sink and the counter.

For ages I worried that when I washed the dishes any splashed water on the counter would seep under the gap and drip down onto the refrigerator below.  Finally it bugged me enough that I decided to take a peek.   Sure enough, water had seeped down under the sink and worse, had dripped onto the fridge electric cabling.

To avoid any further damage to the underlying refrigerator, I stuck blue painters tape all around the sink until I figured out a fix.  Actually the makeshift tape worked so well, that I left it like that all winter.

Now that the Spring has sprung, and the grass is ris…..  its time to fix the damn thing.

Did some shopping at Home Depot – again.  Got the acetone, got the scraper, the painters tape, the clamps, got the DAP caulk for kitchens – time to try my hand at this new boat project.

I squeezed the scraper all the way around and under the kitchen sink trying to prize it out of its hole but no luck.  It stuck firmly in the two front corners.  I fiddled around underneath and felt clamps in the two corners keeping the sink embedded.  These 2 front clamps hadn’t rusted off.  After 20 minutes of contortions trying to get the clamps unscrewed I decided the only way to reach anything under the sink was to remove the refrigerator.

Amazingly the fridge is held in place with just 4 smallish screws, so I unscrewed them, read the DANGER SHOCK sign on top of the fridge and hurriedly turned off the mains – and the batteries for good measure – then I dragged the fridge out of its cubbyhole.  This left a nice big gap under the sink that I could now reach into.  I removed the clamps on the 2 front corners – the back 2 having already rusted off long ago.   I could only heft the sink out about 2 inches because it was still connected underneath to its plumbing.  Try as I might I didn’t have the strength to disconnect the threaded hose, so eventually I gave up the unequal struggle.

I thoroughly cleaned around the sink with my new acetone, re-taped the area with the blue painters tape, cut the caulking spout at a 45 degree angle per the instructions, and squeezed the caulking under the rim.  Man, that caulking stuff is messy.  I managed to get it all over the place and especially all over my fingers.  Thank heavens for the painters tape otherwise it would have been all over the counter too. 

After I caulked it all and left it for awhile, I noticed that I hadn’t done a very thorough job – notwithstanding the amount of caulk on my hands.  So I re-taped the sink perimeter and recaulked it again.  Second time around it seemed so much simpler.  Finally I pushed the refrigerator back into its cubby hole under the sink, screwed it back in place, cleaned up the mess, and left it to dry. 

I decided to watch On Golden Pond while I made dinner.  A nice quiet movie I thought because after the last 4 hours I didn’t need any added stress.  Unfortunately its all about an old man with Old Timers having massive stress attacks as he gets lost and forgetful – so that didn’t help my stress levels any.

But the sink is looking good.  The instructions said not to use water around the caulking for 24 hours so I will check the seal next weekend by squirting water all around the rim of the sink and check that nothing drips through onto the fridge beneath.

(Next weekend….. the caulk is holding beautifully.  There is absolutely no water seeping thru).

Cost of repair (my labor is free):   $8 in caulking, tape, etc.

DECK HATCH REPLACED

Winter in San Francisco is wet, wetter, wettest with strong cold winds howling across the Bay.  Even as the weather warms, it is not much better.  In fact, Mark Twain said something like… the coldest season he ever endured was the summer he spent in SanFran.  Or words to that effect.

So when I finally returned to the boat after weeks of awful weather, I found rain water had dribbled in through a bunch of hatches.  At $300 per hatch, the wet patches were not a fun sight.

Off to West Marine where I ordered one new Bomar hatch, and picked it up a few days later.  I thought I would need a handyman to replace the hatches for me, but Bill (the local mechanic) took a look and said – you look smart enough, you can do this yourself.  He gave me a list of stuff to buy at West Marine and Home Depot, told me exactly what to do, and exited.

This is just like caulking the sink – just using a different kind of caulk and some brute force to tug the old hatch out of its hole.  First you have to use a sharp knife to cut around the rim of the hatch to “release” it where it has set itself over the years into its hole, then unscrew all the screws and put them together in a baggie so that you don’t lose them.  Then use a thin scraper and work it under the rim so that you break the seal where the rim is glued in place.  Use a hammer if you lack the strength to really get the scraper under the rim.  Once you have worked all the way around under the rim, give the hatch a tug.  Actually mine came out relatively easily – witness the water that had dripped into the boat – obviously the caulk wasn’t holding it in very tightly.

After tugging out the hatch, scrape and clean the area thoroughly using rubbing alcohol or acetone.  Maybe even sand it a little with fine 100 sandpaper to rough it up for the caulk.  Lay down a perimeter of blue painters tape so that if any of the caulk squeezes out then it will not ruin your deck.  I put down enough caulk to seal the Titanic then I dropped the new hatch into its hole and got caulking all over me and the tape as it squeezed out all over.  I quickly wiped it away with an old telephone card. 

TIP – here is a useful tip I got from someone.  Keep old telephone cards whenever you find them.  People throw them away when they are “empty”.  The edge of the card is perfect for scraping up caulk and leaving just the right size bead in place.   Or you can use your old Gold Card that has maxed out its credit limit – that works just as well too.

Don’t tighten the screws down tight right away because you will squeeze out all the caulk you just carefully laid.  The weight of the hatch is enough for now.  Replace the screws lightly in their holes.  2 hours later the caulk has set up a little so you can tighten the screws a little more, and wipe away the excess that squeezes out the sides.  2 hours later tighten the screws just short of “very tight” and leave to dry for a few more hours.  Finally when you think the caulk is mostly set, tighten the screws that final little bit.  Even though it is 8 hours later and you think the caulk is firmly set, a thin line of caulk will still squeeze out – I didn’t wipe it away, I left it in place as a sealing cushion.  Maybe a man would have cleaned it up the final time, but I didn’t.  This is my first hatch that I ever replaced and with no one watching over my shoulder, and lacking experience, I just followed my (female) logic.

Cost to fix (my labor comes free):  $260 for the new hatch + $8 in caulk, tape, acetone, etc

WEEMS & PLAAT Clock 

My W&P clock stopped working.  My first thought was that the battery was flat.  It is a French made clock so finding a small “N” battery (1/3 the size of a AAA) was easier said than done, but eventually I found 2 so I bought them both.  I installed the new battery in the clock only to find that the clock still didn’t work.  The clock innards were at fault.  Another thing to (expensively) replace instead of (cheaper) repair.  

I checked the clocks in the West Marine catalog and they cost $145 – no kidding, $145 for a clock about 6 inches in diameter with no special features like say brass numerals, or fancy interior brass clock wheels, or even a cuckoo.  Just a run-of-the-mill everyday clock.

There are a lot of parts of the boat that are very expensive to replace but I could not bring myself to shell out $145 for an everyday clock. 

So the chap in the next boat unscrewed the clock from the wall and turned it over and we examined it closely.  Before I had just glanced at the parts as I replaced the battery but now I took a good look.  Turns out the innards of the clock is just a little plastic box – the kind you see at the craft store Michaels for all those crafters that like making their own clocks.   We gently prized out the little box and examined it – yep, it was exactly like the Michaels clocks except for the raised letters that said “Made in France”. 

I took the little plastic box down to the Michaels store to make sure I bought the same size replacement part, handed over $7 for the new piece – with new clock hands – and returned to my Weems & Plaath clock.   I took the clock apart, removed the French hands (they didn’t fit the Michaels piece), replaced the hands with my new hands, noticed the face of the clock is just a plain ole piece of PAPER with black lettering, inserted my new easy to obtain USA battery – and voila! my clock works again.

So lets see….. the components of the W&P clock are the expensive non-rust outer shell that screws to the wall, say $3 to manufacture each little holder.  The faceplate of the little clock is glass so lets say 50cents.  Then there is the paper clock face with black numeral lettering, lets say 2cents.  That is a total of $3.52 for the clock so far. 

So W&P reckon that the $7 part that you can buy at Michaels actually costs more than $140 if it says Made in France.  I know, I know, there is W&P distribution and marketing costs included in the price, but Michaels has those same costs – so they negate each other in my book.

So – advice to you ladies – if your Weems & Plaath clock goes on the blink, don’t pay $145 for a new one, buy the $7 replacement part and fix it yourself.

Cost to fix (my labor comes free):  $7 in parts

<<<<<< —– End of March projects —– >>>>>>>

Bottom paint
The following was included in this item. We hauled out the vessel, pressure and solvent washed the hull bottom, applied one coat of antifouling bottom paint with two coats at the water line and launched your vessel. The bottom paint was applied with rollers and brushes.

NOTE 1: The bottom paint applied is Seahawk AF-33 (black) antifouling bottom paint.

Removal of additional marine growth, and sanding and spot priming of bare spots
In addition to the scope of work described above, we sanded and spot primed several bare areas on the hulls where primer was showing through the existing bottom paint. This was necessary to provide proper adhesion of the anti-fouling paint. Sanding and spot priming of
bare areas was charged on a time and materials basis. We did not provide a Change Order due to the work in this section not exceeding more than the ten man-hours labor re-authorized in the original work

Repaint the hull topsides and underneath the bridge deck
The vessel’s representative requested an estimated cost to repaint the hull topsides, underneath the bridge deck, and the bootstripes. We provided the vessel’s representative a verbal estimate of between $4,000.00 and $5,000.00. Later we received e-mail authorization to repaint these areas.

We tapped off the waterline and along the upper limit of the deck edge (approximately where the non-skid starts), and various hardware. Due to ease of removing two deck plates and four scuppers mounted on the undersides of the bridge deck, we removed them instead of tapping
them off.  We began sanding the above-described areas to remove the existing paint down to a solid substrate suitable for applying primer.  We found that the layer of paint below the outer layer was a poorly cured one-part paint similar to Latex. This inner layer of paint could
not be removed by normal sanding due to gumming up and burning the sand paper. We removed this layer of paint with a grinder, then sanded the areas with a soft pad to remove the swirls created by the grinder.

Filled and sanded flush approximately 12 small areas of dings or gouges. While performing this work, we noted a crack in the fiberglass skin on the outboard forward starboard deck edge, and cracks on the bow pulpit. We contacted the vessel’s representative regarding these
cracks. The vessel’s representative viewed these cracks and elected to not have us repair them prior to painting due to time and budgetary constraints. NOTE: These cracks will allow water intrusion and rot that will affect the structural integrity of the underlying wood.

Sprayed the prepared areas with primer. Sanded the primer and filled several additional areas near the repairs of the hull to bridge deck joints, and on the outboard side of the starboard hull. These areas were spot primed, sanded, and then the hull topsides was painted with Awlgrip “Snow White” L.P. paint.

Taped off, and painted the bootstripes Awlgrip “Pearl Grey”.

TOTAL COST of repairs and painting =  $7,558.63

Haul out

While bringing the boat up from La Paz to Long Beach, we hit a set of waves that ripped the skin of the port ama.  We did a temporary glassing in MX but it was just a rush job, and not professionally done, and it was feared that water may be trapped under the glass which would cause a whole ‘nother set of problems.

It was decided to remove the quickie repair and do it again professionally in Long Beach.  At the same time we would structurally reinforce the hulls so that it was much stronger.

Copied from the invoice of the boatworks that did the work……

Hull repairs
Upon the vessel’s arrival and prior to haulout, we visibly inspected the reported areas of the hull damage in an effort to determine if the vessel was structurally sound enough for hauling out with only slings.   After haulout, we further evaluated the condition of reported areas of damage, and reviewed the owner-supplied construction drawings.   We found that there was a fillet in the areas of cracking.  This fillet had no structural fibers in it, and the fillet was excessively large.  Over time, this non-reinforced fillet had cracked.  Upon grinding out the cracking fillet, we noted cracking in the underlying fiberglass skin.

We conferred with a Naval Architect regarding the cracking who requested that we grind out the failed fillet so that the underlying fiberglass skin could be viewed. We ground out the failed epoxy fillet and noted cracks in the underlying fiberglass skin, but did not note any visible evidence of wood rot, or structural failure.

As recommended by the Naval Architect, we ground off the surrounding fiberglass skin approximately 4” – 5” outwards from the junction of the hulls to bridge deck, and also sanded off the paint outboard of the removed fiberglass skin approximately 2” – 3″ so that we could get good continuity between the wood, the existing fiberglass skin and the new fiberglass laminates that are applied using WEST system epoxy.  WEST system bonds very well to wood and the old fiberglass skin.

Installed a properly sized epoxy fillet that is reinforced with micro-fibers. Applied two layers of DBM fiberglass roving @ +/- 45 degrees over the junctions of the hulls to the underside of the bridge deck, using West System. The areas were sanded, primed, epoxy filled, and moderately faired.

(Owner comment:  After viewing the repairs, the Naval Architect said the boat’s life had been extended 15 years at least).

Labor ………………. $7,540.00
Proj. Mgmt. ……… $754.00
Consumables……. $829.40
Supplies ………….. $2,212.06
Section total  =  $11,335.46

Replace propshaft zinc
Upon the vessel’s arrival and haulout, we noted that the propshaft zinc
was extremely deteriorated and close to falling off. We removed the
propshaft zinc, cleaned the mounting location of the zinc to remove
surface corrosion, purchased and installed a new zinc.
No Charge

This work was done professionally at a boatyard – and copied from their invoice.

Upon the vessel’s arrival and haulout, we evaluated the vessel’s charging systems to include the battery condition, battery charger, wind generator, and solar panels.

We found that one of the Gel-cell house batteries was bad and would not hold a charge. The vessel’s representative for the owner informed us that he would replace the battery himself at a later date.  (The cost to replace all 4 house batteries is around $1000).
It was also found that the battery charger was charging the start battery, but was not charging the house bank. We troubleshot the battery charger and found that the leads to the house bank had no output.  Due to the battery charger having two outputs, we connected the working output to the house bank, and took the dead battery out of the house bank.  We found that the battery charger was capable of charging the house bank with the one working output. We returned the charger wiring back to its original configuration. We recommend that the vessel owner purchase and install a new battery charger.
When we had adequate wind conditions, we checked the output of the wind generator, and the stop function. We found the output of the wind generator to fluctuate with the wind speed, and when placed in “stop” mode, the generator blades slowed as per the manufacturer’s literature.
We checked the output of the solar panels and found that it had no output. No other work was performed on the solar panel.
Upon the vessel’s arrival (at the boatyard), we inspected the hose that was contacting a drive belt, and alternator adjustment limitation. We found that at some time in the past a larger alternator had been installed. With the larger alternator, there was not adequate adjustment room for the alternator without the alternator case contacting the stud on the motor mount. In addition, the raw water hose was routed close to the alternator drive belt where the loose drive belt was wearing away the hose. We contacted the vessel’s representative regarding the limited adjustment clearance.  The vessel’s representative authorized cutting the stud of
the motor mount shorter to provide additional clearance. As authorized by the vessel’s representative, we cut down the excess stud above the lock nuts on the motor mount and were able to adjust the alternator drive belt tension. We removed the worn raw water hose. Purchased a new length of raw water hose, bronze hose barbs, and a bronze 90 degree elbow. Installed the new hose and bronze fittings so that the plumbing is routed away from the drive belt.

We checked the vessel’s forward bilge pump by activating the manual toggle switch and listening for the bilge pump’s motor. We also checked the float switch in the forward bilge by lifting the float switch and listening for the bilge pump motor. We noted that there is no float

switch on the aft bilge pump, but could hear the motor when the toggle switch was placed in the “manual” position. Though we could hear the motors running, we did not put water in the bilges to check if water activated the bilge pump or if the bilge pumps evacuate water.
NOTE: WE highly recommend that the vessel owner test the bilge pumps by placing water in the bilge and verifying that they actually evacuate the water and there are no leaks.  (Owner’s Note:  I checked the bilge pump with water in the bilge and it pumped the engine room dry).

Labor       ……………  $373.75
Proj. Mgmt………….  $ 37.88
Consumables………   $ 41.11
Materials ……………  $43.16
Supplies …………….   $41.52
Section total……. $536.92

Mechanical repairs

Mechanical repairs