Thoughts from Boat Show

Boat Show was fun, as always. We went on Thursday (VIP/media day) in order to miss the crowds and be able to get on the boats we wanted without waiting in line for an hour. Also a good day to get some shopping done (needed new foulies, went to the Musto tent and dropped a few $). As far as my impressions from the show-
The Esse 850 (top photo) stole the show. Hot rod race boat that can be sailed with a small crew for under $100,000.


Another notable was the Beneteau First 50 (second and third photos). I'm not a big fan of Beneteau in general... but this is a new idea. A roomy, comfortable, relatively inexpensive boat. Starts in the $400,000 range and tops out fully loaded nearing $600,000.





As you can see, the interior of the First 50 is pretty incredible for a boat in this price range. Really well done. It's roomy and would be extremely comfortable as a distance cruiser/liveaboard. Way to go, Beneteau- you finally got one right (as long as you quit calling this a race boat...).
Just don't ask for my comments about the new 10 R. Good grief.


Last, but not least, is my personal favorite pick for the show. The Open 5.70. What a great little boat! The costing involved with a new Melges 24 ($50k, just to get started) or comperable boats is a little more than I want to spend on a race boat of that size. If you buy used, the hulls get flexy and less competative in one-design over time. Here's a little 20 foot keelboat for less than $30k. Double rudder, sails with 2-3 bodies, huge cockpit, and a nice sailplan make this a winner in my book. Only issue is that the $30k would go a long way on Sequoia!

Annapolis Boat Show

Headed to the Annapolis Sailboat Show on Thurs-Fri for good shopping, planning and dreaming. See you there!

Started Rigging Business

I decided to start a running rigging business. If you are looking for great deals on line or halyards, tapered sheets, etc... just write in the comment section. Just as an example: 5/16ths halyard with a headboard shackle, whipping, and reaving splice retails for about $100 plus shipping, get it from me for $40 plus shipping. High Tech stuff (vectran, spectra) also available for performance boats.
So if you are looking for a set of light air tapered spin sheets, or a new halyard to replace that spin halyard that is all moldy and stiff, or want a new set of jib sheets, let me know.
S

J-29 North Americans

We went to the J-29 North American Championships as spectators on Sequoia. We had a great sail up to Oxford and made it in time for the last race on Friday. It blew pretty hard on Saturday so we stayed on shore and watched from the beach. Spinnaker in photo white with blue stripes is a local boat named Rhumb Punch that won the regatta. Congrats to them!
Windy trip back on Sunday with reduced sail. Fun weekend overall.
S

Fun Race

The club's annual Wed night fun race was entertaining. They had a theme this year: Fowl (foul). So we hung a big stuffed duck from the rig, cursed a blue streak at the race committee for check in, did the chicken dance, threw birdseed, passed out Old Crow and Wild Turkey and chicken nuggets, then flew 3 spinnakers. Drunk, kind of stupid, but still a good time.
S

Ernesto Update

We tied up for bigger winds than were predicted as Ernesto approached. It was a good thing- Ernesto was predicted to have 30-40mph winds, our dock neighbor saw 55kts blow by. Sequoia came out without a scratch.
Trick with tying up for this stuff is to make the lines as long as possible and use the smallest diameter that is appropriate so it will stretch more. As long as the boat can't rub on the pilings (but it should be close in all directions) you're set up for a surge. We always use extra springs and sometimes some very specific directional lines to keep her in a good spot in the slip.
Hopefully the hurricane season continues to be uneventful.
S

TS Ernesto...

We've been pretty lucky as far as the hurricane stuff goes for the past couple of years. We had survived Isabel with no damage several years ago after getting some really good advice about how to tie up a boat for a hurricane (thanks D!).

Ernesto is approaching as we speak (we're currently getting the first couple of serious bands through). We tied up the boat for up to about 50mph winds last night. I don't think we'll see anything more than that, and the surge shouldn't be too bad (although we did re-tie with it in mind). Should be an entertaining day/evening. We're supposed to race in Annapolis Race Week starting tomorrow... but the Benneteau is putting off until Sunday due to the conditions for the delivery up there. Assuming we survive without damage, I'll have a discussion about tie-ing up for a hurricane next week.

Upgrading Electrical...

I got this photo from our friends on Synergy that they took on their camera phone- of us in the mixed couples race working against a local J-29 that is extremely competative all along the east coast. They corrected over us because of the difference of our starting times, but we had kept in front of them for about 4 miles or so and this shot was us finishing in front of them. Just a cool thing to let us know that we are working in the right direction, and I'm guessing he didn't have 60 gallons of water or his grill on board:^) Not often you get a photo of your boat in front of this one at a finish...

Upcoming projects and events are getting scheduled: First, I'm upgrading the Alternator with a Balmar 621 series 80 amp and a 3 stage regulator to help our new batteries out. Along with that is the replacement of the tachometer that hasn't worked for a while.
We're going to do the Jack-Ass Regatta fun race on Wed (13th), then the Capt (my wife) is planning to race Sequoia in the club's annual fall women's series that next weekend (getting either a short haul bottom clean or a nice dive cleaning for this event), then we're going to Oxford to cheer on the above J-29 at their North American Championships http://www.j29class.net/index.htm.
I've gotten some nice compliments lately about this site, I appreciate it.

Mixed Couples Race

Our sailing club runs a "mixed couples" fun race every year where you can have one man and one woman crew. It allows for cruisers to mingle with racers and all have a good time. This year was no exception. It was a nice spinnaker run all the way up the 10 mile course. After which everyone rafted to Sequoia (15 boats on our anchor!) for race results and cocktails, then broke up into smaller rafts for the evening or some of the participants went home. Lots of fun, and one of the other racers actually got some Sequoia spinnaker shots... Other photo is of the "super raft".
Next planned activity is the Wednesday "Jack-Ass" race where we all motor around and the best theme/costumes or sailing show of skill. We placed 3rd last year with a full compliment of pirates and rum, 1st place won by sailing backwards down the course with their spinnaker full behind the boat. We have something special planned this year to compliment the pirate theme, let's just hope it works!
Then a week or so after that, we'll be headed off to be spectators for the J-29 North American Championships in Oxford, MD where we'll cheer on our friends on Rhumb Punch and any other club members who participate.

More Batteries...

We discovered a few more minor issues during the Governor's Cup- Batteries being prime among them... If you go back to the archives from January, I did some battery maintenance. Turns out it just prolonged the inevitable... The house bank bit the dust on the gov cup. So, a few "small boat units" later, the house bank is now 2 gel group 27's. When we do the new high output alternator, there will probably be a 3rd added, but this is good for now.
The other issue we had was the loss of our tack line on the spinnaker- it just blew up in the 25 kts of breeze. So I replaced that this week with 7/16ths Sta-set X. This is the same stuff they're using on 45 Ft cruisers for halyards, so I figure it will hold up.
Another of the fun races we do is this weekend-- the local club has a "mixed couples" race up the Patuxant River open to cruisers and racers alike. Should be a good time: lots of beer and rum and a few grills running.
Upcoming events include Annapolis Race Week on the 36.7

Governor's Cup

I have said before (and I'll say it again), we sail Sequoia primarily as a performance cruiser. Lots of furniture, usually full water tanks and 60 gallons of fuel. But every once in a while, we take her out racing. This year's Governor's Cup 70 mile race was one of those. Neither of the boats that we race on were doing Gov cup this year, so we threw together a top notch crew and did the race.
Wind was supposed to be really light out of the north, so we provisioned to be out there for a while. Turns out there was a small craft advisory, winds blowing up to 25 knots. Sequoia hit a new speed record with us on board at 10.5 knots and finished the race in 11 hrs 7 minutes. We ended up 19th out of 28 in our class, and midfleet overall PHRF. We felt good about it, safe the whole night, and always in control. Thanks to the super crew for great work!

Oxford Cruise...

July 28-30 we went to Oxford, MD with Synergy, Noon Somewhere, and Little Lattitudes. Getting there was a broad reach with winds blowing 18-20, then a nice thunderstorm blew in. Noon Somewhere saw winds approaching 50 knots during the storm.
We had a nice weekend, went to Lattitude 38 for dinner Saturday night and was surprised to meet the crew from Motu Iti! They joined us for dinner and drinks. Also got to try out the Sea Nettle Net pool that our little cruising flotilla has purchased as a group. Wow- it saved the weekend! Good Times. Total distance 54 nautical miles.

Racing in Newport

Just a side note away from Sequoia... In July I went to New York Yacht Club Race Week in Newport, RI to race on a Beneteau 36.7 for the class North American Championships. The sailing was fantastic, even though the class insists on playing bumper boats at full speed. Boat I was on placed 7th overall, with a bullet on the first day. That's why I've been away for a while... Boat I race on is sail #93266

Weeklong Cruise- Day 7

Sequoia Log:
27 May- Depart Onancock headed to Tangier Island. NW winds ended up on the nose most of the day. Sequoia and MI decided to try Reedville, VA instead. Close reach single fetch across the bay. Anchored on east side of Reedville peninsula. 35 nautical miles.

The anchoring options at Tangier Island were not appealing and the group decided to make a try for the marina at the island. The cruising guide gave depths of 5 ft at mean low tide, so Sequoia and Motu Iti (both draw 5'6") decided to push on to Reedville back on the western shore instead. We had a nice fetch across the bay and got in anchored and rafted with Motu Iti before dark. A little grilling and life was grand. The three other boats in the group reported a great time at Tangier. Headed for home tomorrow.
Photo is of part of the Reedville commercial fishing fleet.

Weeklong Cruise- Day 6

Sequoia Log:
26 May- Depart Cape Charles headed to Onancock. S winds 18-20 on the way out the channel, seas 2-4 feet. Winds made for more downwind run, which was unpleasant when thousands of flies swarmed the boat. Storm cell passed over on the way in to Onancock. 37 nautical miles.

Well, if we weren't impressed with being in Cape Charles as we spent the night- the flies as we left made it a sure thing we'd never go back. We were infested on the hull of the boat. They were everywhere. We destroyed a fly swatter as we killed hundreds of the little beasts. We called ahead to some friends meeting us in Onancock to get fly paper and fly swatters. Too bad, it would have been a great warm, sunny day otherwise. Onancock was nice. Cute little town, nice resteraunts, etc... Several of us had breakfast as a group at the spanish place in town, it was great. On to Tangier tomorrow...

Weeklong Cruise- Day 5

Sequoia Log:
25 May- Depart Put In Creek headed for Cape Charles, VA. S winds all day starting 12-15 kts, then building to 15-20 kts upon approach. Anchorage in cruising guide is now a marina. Dragged anchor in the harbor due to sandy bottom. Used marina instead. Marina full of fishing/crabbing vessels and slip queens. 21 nautical miles.

Another fun day of sailing... We had a great time on a close reach across the Chesapeake. We had been to Cape Charles before by car- cute little town. We will never return by boat... The anchorage that was listed in the cruising guide is now a marina-- and anchoring in the main harbor is not a great idea either with the sandy bottom, the concrete factory across the way, and the train barges going in and out. So we stayed at the marina, which was full of working boats that stunk and kept pumping diesel into the water from their quickly filling bilges and slip queens that had marine sanctuaries growing on them. Cape Charles gets the big red "X" in the log.
Photo is of the train barge on it's way out as we were coming in.

Weeklong Cruise- Day 4

Sequoia Log:
24 May- Depart Tides Inn headed for Mobjack Bay. NW-N winds made for lots of nice DDW out of the river. Saw Dolphins just off the Stingray Point coming out into the Bay. Attempted to anchor in Tabbs Creek, but couldn’t due to depth and crab pots. Anchored in Put In Creek instead. Nice anchorage- quiet (until we got there) and protected. 30.5 nautical miles.



Another fantastic day on the bay. We paraded out of the Tides and headed down to Mobjack Bay. The DDW was fun out of the Rappahannock River... Noon Somewhere put up their new kite, Synergy put up their kite, we can't go real deep with our kite- so we went wing-on-wing, and Motu-Iti did wing-on-wing as well. We don't get south on the bay very often, so seeing the dolphins a unique experience for Sequoia. The wind died as we got to Mobjack Bay, so we fired up the motor to get in. Both photos are Sequoia- second is passing Wolftrap Point light.
Day 5 is on to Cape Charles...

Weeklong Cruise- Day 3

Sequoia Log:
23 May- Depart Grog Island headed for Tides Inn in the Rappahannock. Tides Inn was nice--- great pool and facilities, nice dinner. 17.5 nautical miles.

If you haven't had the opportunity to go to the Tides Inn (www.tidesinn.com) on a cruise, do so! They have a nice facility for boaters, a beautiful pool, and a nice fine dining resteraunt. If we were to do it again, we'd anchor in one of the nearby creeks on the evening we arrived, then go to the Tides early the next day to enjoy the pool, biking, spa, etc... then have dinner in the resteraunt, stay the night and head out the next day. It was a welcome stop on our cruise.
We also felt like the slip fees were not unreasonable for the facilities that were available (extra long pumpout hose, water, electricity, etc...). They even gave us our own private dining area, which in retrospect was a great idea :^)

Weeklong Cruise- Day 2

Sequoia Log:
22 May- Depart Crisfield 11:00… Winds NW 10-18. Arrived Grog Island 16:00. Anchored with NS, Moto Itu, and Synergy. Beautiful island and anchorage. 27.7 nautical miles.

Grog Island (just inside Dymer Creek north of Windmill Pt) is the closest thing to the carribean that we have found in the Chesapeake Bay. It is a tiny little island that used to be part of the penninsula- but it is slowly erroding away. All it is missing is the beach bar. This is a great spot for doing some swimming when the water is warm. The shallows are all pretty easy to see from the surface- if it looks shallow, it is! This is definitely a spot that we will be returning to soon!

Weeklong Cruise- Day 1

Sequoia Log:
21 May- Depart 10:15 after taking on 32 gallons diesel and pump out. SW-S wind all day 13-17 kts. Anchored in Crisfield w/ Noon Somewhere 17:30. Cold front moved through between 22:00 and 02:00 with NW winds 30-40 kts. Reset anchor after drag due to 180* swing. 32 nautical miles.

We had a great first day of our trip... going upwind, but nothing outrageous. No horrible beating or anything. It was a wee bit chilly for the first day. Definitely a sweater and long pants day. Note for the future: we should have set and dug in a second anchor since we knew the wind was going to do a major shift. Sunset photo is at Crisfield.

Race Winner

Sequoia is set up as a cruising boat, since that's how she's used most often... but every once in a while we take down the dodger and take the dinghy motor off the rail and take her out racing for fun.

We decided to take her out for the club's "Double Handed" (2 people) race again this year to try to improve on a dismal (but fun) performance last year. Performance was much improved, Sequoia took the gun and the win in the non-spinnaker class! Lots of fun was had by all.

She goes back to cruising mode for our spring Bay cruise next week. I'll post upon our return.

S

Weekend Cruise...

15-16 April, 2006- Notes from Log:
4-15-06, 1200- left Marina. Headed NW up the Patuxant River. Light and puffy conditions early, storm appearing with front about 1500. Main alone for comfort of dogs on their first cruise. Both dogs did very well. Anchored in Rollins Cove with s/v Noon Somewhere rafting to us about 1700. Managed to miss the storm completely. Quiet evening at anchor. Returned 4-16-06. Total miles logged 16.
CM

Running Rigging Project Complete

One of the projects that I've been working on this winter has been the replacement of old running rigging and the update/upgrade of the associated deck hardware. This first photo shows the deck organizer with a couple of old lines left on for the winter. It is a 4 sheave organizer, which is fine unless you want to keep both reef lines in it and have two halyards, the pole lift, and the spinnaker tack line come through it.


In this photo you see the coachtop at the cockpit just aft of the above photo. You'll notice a distinct lack of clutching (and the old Easylock Midi that is there is at the end of its lifespan). Without a clutch on the jib halyard at left, it was impossible to secure it without leaving it on the winch. That tied up that winch permanently which meant that you couldn't use the other spare halyard rigged on this side of the boat. Also no clutching for the pole lift or any additional lines other than the two reef lines (one of which is coming through the Easylock. This set-up provided basic functionality (one headsail, reefs if needed) and worked fine for that. The issue was if you wanted to do anything more than basic.


I searched for the original equipment Lewmar deck organizers to do the stack I had planned, but they no longer make them and I was unable to locate any at this time (they are 2" sheaves with 2.25" center to centers, if you have any you'd like to part with, please let me know!). Without the Lewmars available, I found that Schaefer had the size and spacing I needed for now. I put lines that don't get much use or load through the upper level (second reef, spin tack, etc...).


Then in the cockpit, I put in 3 new Spinlock rope clutches. The first one I added was an XCS (XTS would have worked fine, too) for the jib halyard and spinnaker/spare halyard- both lines replaced with 3/8ths Samson XLS-Extra. I replaced the Easylock double with 2 Spinlock XAS doubles to house the pole lift, spin tack, and both reef lines. I also replaced the main halyard and the traveler control lines during this process. I think all of this will make spinnaker work, double headsails, wing on wing, and reefing easier and safer. I'll let you know after we start using it more what changes, if any, I would have made.

First Voyage of 2006

We just couldn't resist the weather this weekend and took Sequoia out for her first voyage of the season. It felt really good after going through all the maintenance and upgrade stuff this winter to have it all do what was intended- GO SAILING! It was puffy (lots of gusts and shifts, some over 20 kts), so we just stuck the main up and still cruised around at 5.5 knots through the water. It just felt wonderful to be out on her again. Left is a wind observation chart from Sailflow, who has some great stuff if you haven't used it! Planning another cruise for Saturday--- We're racing on Sundays right now (on other boats), so Sequoia just sits quietly and watches.

The work done right!

I try to keep this thing pretty positive... I haven't done my "I hate the marine industry" rant on here. But as we all know, the service one receives can often be terrible. I won't get into all the bad experiences here...
Well, we got a call from our current marina service manager the other day who had a couple of questions about the work that they had done on the exhaust riser (see a couple of posts ago). Turns out his guys had done the work with the materials they always use and just added the bronze part that I had ordered to that mix. Let me say here that they did a GREAT JOB! But, they used galvanized parts on the rest of the assembly--- Turns out that bronze parts are only another $50 and will last longer. The manager realized what had happened and offered to replace the galvanized with bronze for just the price of the parts- he'll cover the labor, since he feels like it was a mistake on their part. I am thrilled! I'm not so worried about the labor cost, just really impressed with the fact that he thought this was what we would have wanted in the first place, and decided to make it right. Have heart, boat owners-- good service is out there if you look!

Taking advantage of the weather...

I've been taking advantage of the first peek of summer in our area to work on the exterior of the boat. It's been in the 70's and 80's for the past few days. I started out with a good teak cleaning and brightening, then a light sand. I got everything taped and put on 3 coats of Cetol. We don't have much teak on the boat (thank God!), just the stern rail, the washboards, and the grab rails (pictured). I know a lot of people that just let the teak go grey, but I think on this type of boat a little bit of nice teak looks pretty sweet.
I did some of the metal polishing this weekend. There's still more to do, but I got the worst of it done- the rest can wait until cleaning day. We also started pulling the messenger lines and putting all the new running rigging on. It was a great feeling to pull off the wire to rope halyards and kiss them bye bye. The last of the rigging projects for this year is to put in the 2nd level of organizer on the port side. Lewmar doesn't make the same model anymore, so I'm going to have to stack Schaefer on top for now. I'll probably put Shaefer on the first level later- but time is up for major projects for this year!
We also had a rigger come out and start figuring out what needs done this coming fall-- looks like replacement of most or all of the standing rig, strip and paint the mast, and get new life lines. That's going to be some large boat units... 

Sometimes Murphy is wrong...

You know the old Murphy's Law saying, right? "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Well, as we all know, nowhere is that more true than older boats. After the great finish to the project the other day that found the corroded contacts, the starter turned over just fine. Whew. So when I went back yesterday to do some other work, I thought I'd fire up the diesel and let her run for a little bit--- but the fuel pump had quit working. I followed the wiring from the pump around and down and found a wire that had been spliced into the harness and had a broken terminal on the other end of it. After checking the wiring diagram and seeing that it should be a ground wire, I tested it on the block with the ignition on. Fuel pump went clicky clicky. Whew. So for $0.26 I got a new terminal from the chandlery at the marina and put it back on the block. The engine took a few minutes to start due to the cold, but she fired up just fine and ran like a dream.

Corrosion, how I despise thee...

Obviously this photo is just a fun pic showing of corrosion, and not what I found on the fuse fitting causing my starter trouble. I will say that I was pretty darned happy when we discovered that we simply needed to clean some corrosion off of a terminal to end the issue. It was a nice day, so I continued to work on another project... I replaced the old Easylock Midi rope clutch with a new Spinlock XAS double. Incredibly, the mounting holes were so close that I just had to drill each 1/16th" over (which I had to do anyway to get my machine screws to fit) and the new clutch dropped right into place. Miracles never cease! Only one more rope clutch left to mount in order to finish up my running rigging refit in the cockpit. I'm pretty pleased with how easy it has been so far.
Only a few more maintenance projects for this winter, then it will be time to do a good cleaning and get it ready to go!

Wiring Diagnosis...

Somewhere there is a place where electricity should be traveling--- and it's not. I've asked a friend who is really good with electrical systems and electronics to come and help diagnose and fix our problem. This all becomes greek to me very quickly and my patience runs thin trying to figure it out. We've had intermittent issues with trying to get the starter to turn over in the past and always thought it was a starter issue. I've been doing some diagnosis with the starter as well (again, upon the advice of people with more knowledge than me) and it seems to be fine for now. Although at a replacement cost of less than $200, it will be on the budget for later this year or early next. So we're getting out the multimeter and going to town tomorrow to see where we're losing continuity.
In the meantime, I've finished splicing the spin halyard... which leaves the spare and the topping lift yet to do. At $20 per 'eye splice' in the retail market, learning the splicing stuff has already saved me over $100 in the past week or so. And to think the set of fids cost $30... go figure.
There are also the last 2 winches to get broken down, cleaned and rebuilt...

Running Rigging...

I'm working on replacing all of the running rigging on the boat over the next year or so. I've already replaced the main halyard, and main sheet. Today I finished up splicing the lines for the traveler controls. I'm expecting the new line for my spinnaker halyard in the mail tomorrow, and I have the line for my new vang.
I decided to get myself a set of good splicing fids as a "gift to me" for X-mas, and I spent some time teaching myself to use them. Everyone I ever chat with about it says, "You know how to splice double-braid?" Yep, it's just really not that hard once you get the hang of it. I don't claim to be some rigging genius or anything, but putting an eye splice in double braid just isn't that hard. Download the directions from the rope manufacturer's website and get yourself a few scrap pieces of NEW line and go nuts! I saved myself about $75 this evening working on my lines. Add that to the money you can save buying end of reel pieces of line, and you're talking about saving about 60-70% of the cost of new running rigging. Seems like a worthwhile skill to learn, if you ask me... It's also a great project to work on when it's too damn cold to be working out in the cock-pit!

New Riser...

The new riser elbow has been installed and looks great, as you can see. I'm hoping that the silicone bronze cast will outlast the iron, and that this is the last one I ever see go bad.
Work continues on the upgrades and re-organization of the running rigging on the coach top. New traveler control lines, new spin halyard, etc... Next big project there is going to be the mounting of 2 more new rope clutches.
Also on the short list is re-wiring the wiring harness from the cockpit control and guage panel down to the alternator. I've enlisted the help of an electrical engineer friend to see what improvements we can make here as well. More on that as it comes.

Exhaust Riser...

For our exhaust riser replacement (due to the failure shown in the picture), I contacted a diesel repair specialist in Annapolis, MD who suggested that the old iron one be replaced with a silicone bronze elbow that they had custom cast by the thousands. Seemed to me that it should have been that way from the start, but what do I know???
This was not a project that I was at all interested in tackling myself... So we had the yard do it. They did a fantastic job, it really looks great.
It's still cold, wet, and miserable... which means that I'm not doing any wiring work that requires me to be out in the cockpit- so my wiring diagnosis may have to wait until the sun comes out.

Snow...

Six inches of snow has put a damper on boat projects for a couple of days. But...
Only a few more weeks until spring commissioning!

Zincs...

Sacrificial zincs are an important part of your boat in any place that sea (raw) water comes into contact with metal. This metal will corrode and breakdown before any of your other metal fittings. This keeps your other fittings in good shape. For instance, there's one on the prop shaft to keep the shaft and the prop from corroding in the sea water. I won't bore you with the chemistry involved-
I will say that none of the boat yards we've ever had the boat pulled at have replaced the zinc from the heat exchanger. That's the one in the picture. Make sure you confirm which will or will not be changed by the yard, and do the rest yourself!
Upcoming projects include wiring and exhaust riser replacement. Stay tuned...

Filter Day

Time to go through and replace fuel filters. I started with the pre-filter/water separator. It uses centrifugal (or is it centripetal? I can never remember the difference...) force to separate the water from the fuel, then runs the fuel through a 10 micron filter. So I replaced the filter element, then cleaned up the transparent water collection bowl. Then put it back on.
Next it was on to the actual fuel filter on the motor. This is a 2 micron filter to be sure you don't have anything nasty go through your cylinders. It's just a spin off, and prep and fill the new one and spin on. Then checked everything for leaks when I turned the fuel line back on and gave the pump a quick run.
Don't forget that the "Marine" label is just that- a label. There are only a couple of companies that actually build filter elements. Why pay double for the same product just because it says something about marine use? Just make sure you cross-reference your part numbers and double check the fits and gaskets!

New Rope Clutch

I've been working on a new organization plan for the running rigging on the coach top to make it more user friendly for double handed sailing. The boat didn't have a rope clutch for the jib halyard or the spinnaker halyard, so that was first on the list for this year. I found a great deal on a Spinlock XCS double. Drilling holes in the boat is a little nauseating, but it had to be done. If you're going to embark on this task in the future, make sure you call a buddy and have a beer for him. It's pretty much impossible to hold the machine screw and tighten the nut at the same time by yourself. Whole project only took about three hours (if you count the hour it's going to take me to put the headliner back to rights).

Battery Problem Solved!

The starting battery turned out to be bad... Nothing a small boat unit ($100) can't fix. The new one is a maintenance free battery- so no worries about maintenance with water and stuff. The newly built house bank and the starting battery both had a good charge on them today. Everything seems to be coming up voltage--- I mean roses!

More Maintenance---

Ahhhhh, battery... How I despise thee.

More fun maintenance work this week. Yet another three winches cleaned and rebuilt. Always exciting since there are four coach-top winches--- all different. There's a 21, a self tailing 21, a self tailing 17, and a 22. I guess I must have a thing for puzzles. But, this week finished the coach-top winches, just the cockpit winches to go.
I also did some battery work this week and discovered that none of the marinas have ever done battery maintenance during winterization and spring commissioning. Jerks. So I checked levels in the batteries (I know, I should do this more often... but I don't) and they were VERY low. Did I mention they were low. Well, let's just say they were low. So I topped them off. Then it was time to add a battery to the house bank. I took the starting battery out and linked it to the house battery (both same battery and age). Then I installed a dual-purpose that we have as a spare to be the starter. Everything is charging as I write this.

Winch Cleaning Season!

Ahhh the joys of winch maintenance! Tear it all apart, then soak it in mineral spirits, then brush it all clean and rinse it, then try to figure out how it all goes back together. I will say that our winches were happy to get a good cleaning and lube job. It wasn't too bad of a job either. The Harken article on doing the job suggests cold beer- Good Suggestion! Also ordered a new double rope clutch today, but that's a story for another day.

One quick tip that I picked up somewhere (probably the Ericson web board) is to cut a hole the diameter of the winch base in the bottom of an appropriately sized cardboard box and put it over the winch while you're taking it apart. This will keep any errant parts from doing the "bounce-bounce-splash" trick and ending up at the bottom of your slip. And remember to use only light machine oil on pawls (not grease or they'll stick, and that will stink!) and a LIGHT coat of winch grease on the other moving parts. More pictures will follow as I continue the process of cleaning and lubing these- there are still a few left. 

Holidays are over!

With the Holidays finally over, it's time to get back to work on the boat! This week is going to be winch maintenance week. Should be fun and exciting! Then we get to keep working at that list--
S