The project list is getting shorter!

A few weeks ago I moved Luckness out of the slip at the YachtFitters shop back to her slip at Shilshole.  I'd been away for something like 3 months.  YachtFitters isn't just a place to go to get little projects done - although they do that - its a place to go to learn and get involved.  Luckness has been at their shop twice for extended visits.  The boat has made fantastic progress in that time and she is now moments away from being in the final shape I want her in before heading off this summer - and Terry and Justin who are YachtFitters have acted as true partners in the process.  They have lots of good ideas and the skills to get things done.  They were also generous enough to allow some of those skills brush off on me.  Its been a real learning experience working with them.

Thanks guys!

Its a little daunting trying to author a blog posting detailing what went on in that period of time.  I went in with a list including: new prop; cutlass bearing; rudder post/packing gland; replace old transducers; install two new grounding plates; install water maker thru hull; install TackTick instruments; install new pedestal guard; install new chart plotter; install forward looking sonar; install forward looking sonar keypad at pedestal; add remote VHF mic at pedestal; replace throttle, gear and stop cables; install solar panels; install solar controllers; battery temp sensor for solar controller; install wind generator; install new radar; install SSB radio/antenna tuner/insulated back stay/wiring; install pactor modem; install monitor windvane; free up my boom caps and improve the outhaul; add a soft vang; replace old deck clutches with new spinlocks; mount pole track on front of mast; install hardware for whisker pole; install two mast steps at top of mast; install four new fans; install stereo and speakers.  All of those items were done and all of the installations look good.  Each project was done well - the installations are tight and out of the way as much as possible.  Along with those items, more were found along the way: added new clutches to the mast for all my halyards; replaced my forestay toggle with something much better; the fuel tank was removed and inspection ports added; the aft water tank was found to be leaking and has been repaired; add a new topping lift; tensioned the rig to add pre-bend to the mast as per Carol Hasse's wishes; changed the reefing setup at the mast to use snap shackles rather than a hook; replaced my old strong track with new; removed the traveller to install new hardware and change from 3 to 1 to 4 to 1 setup; re-anodize the traveller track; install four alarms and led's for the AIS, radar, forward looking sonar and instruments; build a new NMEA (0183) network.  I could be missing some big items - there was a lot of work done.

So, the thing is that I could delve into great detail for all of those projects (the new outhaul has a 10 to 1 advantage!)  Some of them were handled by me entirely; some were shared between Terry and Justin and myself; some of them were handled entirely by Terry or Justin.  Justin installed the SSB and water maker without any of my help.  Terry designed the pole that holds the new radar, wind generator, gps and dinghy engine lift.  Its a cool pole, it packs a lot of functionality into a tidy package.  I installed the stereo.  We each did a lot more than those examples.  During the time Luckness was at YachtFitters I had a 6 week sabbatical at work - and I was on the boat working for almost every single one of those days.

There is no way I would be ready to take off this summer, with the boat in anywhere near the shape she is now without their help.  They have helped me turn this dream into a reality.


So, what follows is by no means indicative of all that was done, but its a taste of what was going on.

This is Justin in my aft cockpit locker.  He's entirely inside the locker, wrapped around the rudder post installing the SSB antenna tuner.  It worked out really well, the box is nicely out of the way leaving me the maximum amount of storage in that locker.  I tried to mimic this later as I worked on the solar panel wiring in the same locker - and I couldn't make it in.  I think I would fit, but I'm not as flexible.

This is a view of the aft water tank that hopefully other PSC 37 owners won't ever have.  Getting the lid off was a pain.  Not recommended...unless you have to, in which case I recommend it.  I think my water strategy is going to be to fill my aft tank with water, add some chlorine and then turn the tank off and not use it.  I'll have my water maker feed my forward tank and use it as my working tank.  The aft one will be my reserve.  So I want the water to be there when needed - not draining slowly into the bilge, as it was.

This is one of the cracks I had in my water tank.

After we removed the fuel tank to add inspection ports and a more robust plate for the fuel pickup line to tap into, it was the ideal opportunity to incorporate my 6,200lb lead keel into the SSB grounding plane.  Here's the grounding strap leading to one of the keel bolts.

Here's a little lesson on what happens when you have dissimilar metals in contact for a long time. This was a screw going through my mast holding something on (forgot which screw it was.)  When it was originally installed, there was no duralac or tefgel added - and the stainless and aluminum have bonded.  When the screw was removed, the threads were stripped out of the aluminum.  To avoid this, just coat with Duralac or Tefgel.  There's no reason not to!

I made a mockup of my solar panel complete with installation hardware so we could work out how to mount them. 

One of the installed panels, there is another on the starboard side.  Each panel is rated at 135 watts.  Of course if either of them is shaded, that drops down to around 0, and with my pole, mast, boom, bimini etc, one of them is bound to be shaded.  But if they both have sunlight, I'll be making lots of power.  I'll track my energy usage and creation as I'm pretty curious how close to energy balance I'll be.  The rail mount seemed to most minimal of the options - if after using it for a year I'm not happy, we can change it.

Here's a picture of my new radar/wind generator pole.  I haven't been out to test it yet - that will come.

This is hard to see, but its my new forestay toggle. There is good movement fore and aft, as well as side to side.  Its also beefy.  Much beefier than what it replaced.  The part came about twice as long as what you see.  I was imagining a trip to a machine shop to get it cut to what we needed. Terry disappeared into his shop for a few minutes and came out with it the right size.  Then he disappeared again and came out with it rounded and polished a few minutes after that.  As we were installing it, we found that part of the toggle was too wide to fit between the two anchor rollers.  One last trip inside the shop fixed that.  Its a custom bracket fit to my boat.  Looking at it you wouldn't realize it had been fit at all.

This follows up one of my earlier posts which showed a fresh gapping raw hole in my nav station.  I had a plan to cut a hole out and then install a piece of teak plywood with all my instruments fit.  This is the result.  Removing the panel to get at the solar controller behind is easy.  I had been planning on building an extension to my nav station aft of where it was now, extending into the quarter berth - but there turned out to be no need - everything fit into the available space.  It worked out pretty well.

I'm looking forward to wrapping up my house and moving onto Luckness full time.  I'm also looking forward to having enough of my project list done so that I can get out sailing again!  

I can't imagine that the project list will ever be empty - but I can see that soon it won't have any items on it which would stop me from leaving.

Going Cruising

I resigned my job on Monday, April 18th.  I've been with Alias/Autodesk for a little over 20 years and have worked on many cool and interesting projects, with cool and interesting people.  I went from a new PhD grad to developer, team leader, technical director, principal engineer and back to software developer as the company was sold and bought three times.  The work remains interesting - but I'm feeling the Call of the Cruising Lifestyle and it can't be ignored.

My last day is May 13th.

Its busy times here, as I have a house to wrap up and sell, a boat to finish outfitting and some sailing to get done!   Once again, this blog has taken a back seat to my other activities.  My last posting had Luckness on the hard at Canal Boatyard.  Rest assured that she's not there still.  Luckness has been at YachtFitters for quite some time now and is looking awesome.  I'll be sailing what is in many ways, a new boat in the coming days, headed back to Shilshole.  One of these days I'll start to update this blog with what has been going on.  I have some stuff to show off :-)

---

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. 

--Mark Twain 

"He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea."

-- Dr. Thomas Fuller (1608-61) 

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your goal.

--Napoleon Hill 

Up anchor! Up anchor! 

Set sail and away!

The ventures of dreamland

Are thine for a day.

--Silas Weir Mitchell. 

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

-- Water Rat, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows 

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

-- Oliver Wendel Holmes 

A strong nor’-wester ’s blowing, Bill!

Hark! don’t ye hear it roar now?

Lord help ’em, how I pities them

Unhappy folks on shore now!

--The Sailor’s Consolation 

Never in my life before have I experienced such beauty, and fear at the same time…

-- Ellen MacArthur 

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

-- William Shedd 

You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.

--Yogi Berra 

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.

--Ursula K. Leguin 

http://centermark.blogspot.com/2005/09/great-quotes-for-sailing.html

Looking around at the projects

Luckness has been on the hard at Canal boatyards for a week and a half now.

The original plan was to: install new transducers for the new instruments (new depth, speed, water temp); install the new prop; replace the cutlass bearing; install a transducer for the forward scanning sonar; replace an old grounding plate; install a new grounding plate for the SSB; install a thru-hull for the water maker and then get back into the water.  A little project creep has happened.

The picture below has the old grounding plate with the old speed transducer removed and one of the new holes marked (for the forward scanning sonar.)

In order to replace the prop and cutlass bearing, you can normally take out the set-screws in the cutlass bearing, detach the prop shaft from the engine at the coupler and then pound out the bearing using a trick with pipe sleeves from the inside.  This didn't work for us.  The other way to remove the prop shaft is to remove the rudder - which means lifting the boat, disassembling and pulling the rudder out from below.

Here is where some of the project creep comes in.  After dropping the rudder, we (well, Terry as I was at work doing my day job) found some odd corrosion on the rudder shaft.

That pitting clearly shouldn't be there.  Speaking with Thumper at the factory (who has been extremely helpful on a wide variety of questions) suggested the pitting might be the result of a weld in the past that didn't use stainless steel welding rod - Terry had come to the same conclusion.  Both of them suggested that I have it fixed before putting it back in the boat.  

The other bit of project creep was in the prop shaft.  A test I had heard for a cutlass bearing (the bearing surrounding the prop shaft as it exits the hull) was to shake the prop shaft - if there isn't much play in the shaft the bearing is probably fine.  We did this when the boat first arrived in Seattle and it seemed fine.  It seemed fine after hauling the boat last week as well, but I thought I would play it safe and have it replaced anyway.  It turns out the bearing was completely shot and the shaft had some pitting and ridges on it as a result.  So as a result I had a new prop shaft made.  The last piece I had done here was the coupler of the prop shaft to the engine used to be 'old school' and is now 'way better' - I now have a 'split coupler'.  The new style results in a more positive lock of the shaft into the boat, which has to be a good thing.

So once again, my playing it safe and replacing something that "probably didn't need it" resulted in two good finds - odd corrosion in the rudder shaft and a cutlass bearing that was in very poor condition.  Yay.

Onto other projects - just after the boat was hauled out of the water I realized that the bottom paint was in pretty good shape, but was thin in parts - so I added a new coat of bottom paint to the projects.  This was also a good chance to change the color to something other than bright blue which I never really liked.  Here's the hull after some sanding of the old paint.  Also included below is the new thru-hull for the water maker, the new transducer for the forward looking sonar, a new grounding plate (covered in blue tape) and the new speed/temp transducer.

The last bit of project creep is in the hull itself.  Terry had a helper for part of this project and she had been cleaning the hull in moments she wasn't helping Terry.  The last time I waxed the hull, I also did some compounding of the gel coat, but their was still a lot of oxidation in the gel coat.  After the hull had been cleaned in parts, all of the oxidation in those areas was removed and I discovered there was a deep blue hull down there waiting to come out.  Seattle had beautiful weather last weekend, monday was a holiday - and I spent the whole time working on the hull's finish.

The very first picture of Luckness in this post shows the hull before any work - notice the grey flecks and that the color is not deep blue.  Here is a picture of the side with a section finished and a section not  yet started.  The section on the left is clean, its dull due to oxidation.  The right section is after my working on it for a while.

Here is the stern, with the left (port) side finished, and the right not yet started:

The finished surfaces were wet sanded with 600 grit, then 1000.  Then I used a sanding block at 1500 grit.  Then 3M imperial compounding followed by Collinite 885 paste wax.  It took three solid days to do a section around the whole boat up to between a foot or more below the caprail.  Doing this section is much easier when you're standing beside the boat rather than in a dinghy in the water.  I can complete this project later this summer when its warmer.

The new bottom paint is now on - I choose black:

The rudder is being installed again now.  The prop should go on tomorrow followed by our splashing the boat and moving it back to YachtFitters.  Once she is back there, we'll continue working through the list of projects.

Update: a few more images before splashing the boat and moving back to YachtFitters:

The new thru-hull, grounding plate, Interphase forward looking sonar, knot meter.

SSB grounding plate.

The new 18" max prop

The max prop feathered

Yet another shot of the hull

The mostly-assembled quadrant.  There is a new hose section and flax packing material

A couple shots of the old cutlass bearing.  There should be rubber on the inside, with ridges to allow water to travel the length of the bearing which keeps it lubricated and cool.

What's going on?

This blog has taken a back seat to my other projects for the past few months.  I've been busy!

Ever since buying Luckness I have wanted to outfit her for ocean going voyages.  She's a blue water cruiser - if properly outfitted.  In this usage, the word Properly is going to have as many different definitions as there are sailors who would undertake (in reality or in theory) the plan on how she should be outfit.  When I was looking around for my boat I saw many which had a more complete set of gear.  Part of my attraction to Luckness was that she was very simple - there was not a long list of gear that I would need to live with or justify replacing.  Buying a more complete boat can save a person many hours of work and lots of money.  Selling a sailboat with a long list of equipment returns a surprisingly small portion of the money used to buy and install those pieces of equipment.  However making all of the choices over what pieces of gear I put on the boat is one of the things I put in the Fun category.

For the past few weeks, Luckness has been back at YachtFitters where Terry, Justin and crew are working on many installations.  They bring much more to the table than simply installing equipment - they have been doing this for a long time and enjoy clean elegant solutions and bring many ideas to the table to achieve those results.  I expect the boat to be busy for several weeks yet.

Last summer after my 16 day 'testing single handing' trip, I came back and varnished for 8 weeks.  I really want this summer to be free of any large projects and so am taking this opportunity to add pretty much every piece of equipment I can think of.  If everything goes well, I should be able to avoid any more long projects and being out of commission for some time.  Losing 6 weeks of prime summer last year won't happen again, with any luck.

So, what's going on is:

• installation of two solar panels.  I've chosen Kyocera 135 panels.  The panels are large, but I wanted to have as much solar power as I could fit on.  Since Luckness is a double ender and doesn't have a stern arch right now, I've chosen to mount them on the rails.  This installation option is the cheapest and simplest.  If it proves inadequate I can revisit how they are mounted in the future
• Blue sky 2512iX solar charge controller with IPN remote.  This is a MPPT charge controller which supports three stage charging.  The remote also provides battery monitoring
• installation of an Air Breeze wind generator.  The breeze is a 200 watt (max) wind generator.  There were many factors in this choice - among them is that Practical Sailor reviewed it well.
• design and installation of a pole to hold new radar and wind generator.  I was torn between either installing an arch on the boat, or using two poles for the installation of the radar and wind generator.  I've seen many arches which look strange on canoe stern boats, and boats with two poles are also often very busy visually in their stern.  Terry suggested using a single pole which would both mount the radar and the wind generator.  This is the approach I'm taking.  The pole will also have a hoist for the dinghy engine and other accessories.  PYI is manufacturing the pole to a YachtFitter design.  The pole will be installed in a hole through the deck in the stern just to the port of the propane locker lid.  This should lead to a very strong installation
• installation of a single side band radio.  The backstay has now been cut and insulators have been installed so it can act as the antenna.  There is an Icom 802 and AT-140 antenna tuner in a box about to be installed.  Along with this there is a Pactor IIusb modem with a Pactor III license
• installation of monitor wind vane
• new instruments.  I'm replacing my older wind/speed/depth instruments with new ones.  I've chosen TackTick and have new wind/speed/depth/temp/heading ready to go.  TackTick instruments are wireless, so mounting is very flexible.  I also have a remote capable of displaying all the information in the system as well as showing the alarms (depth, wind, cross track error, etc).  The remote will be useful when I'm below, allowing me to keep track of the boat when I'm not on watch
• new radar.  This decision was made long ago, although I spent quite some time reevaluating it and justifying it recently.  I have liked the Simrad BR24 since it came out.  Its not a pulse radar, but instead is FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave.)  Google those terms if you want to learn how it works.  It has a very low power draw, very good resolution close to the boat but trails pulse radar in range.  It only draws around 17watts when operating, which is very low
• new chart plotter/multi-function display.  As I wanted a BR24 I needed some way to display it.  I had an older pulse radar displayed on a CRT behind the nav station, but I wanted the radar at the helm where I steer the boat.  So looking at chart plotters that could work with the BR24 I saw a few options.  The Simrad NSE12 is toward the high end of simrad plotters and looked awesome.  A new one from B&G came out just recently based on the NSE12, the Zeus.  The Zeus has many sail specific features, which would be cool.  These units consumed quite a lot of power however, around 3 amps.  Simrad also offers the NX45 which is a 12" plotter which uses C-Map charts and draws a max of 750ma (350ma without the backlight.)  I picked the NX45.  (as an aside, check out the coverage of the MW18 C-map chip - one chip covers the entire west coast, Alaska to Panama and out to Hawaii.  Less than $300.)
• upgrade pedestal.  I'll replace my current Edson straight guard with a new offset guard so that I can mount the chart plotter there
• new forward looking sonar - an Interphase Escort.  This is a vertical forward looking sonar that scans from down to forward.  It will be displayed through a video connection to my multi function display.  It has alarms for depth and obstructions forward of the boat.  It draws 0.5 amps
• new sails.  Carol Hasse is going to build me a full suit of sails for Luckness.  I'm really looking forward to these.  I want to be able to pole out my Genoa, and the clew on my current genoa is too low for that to work.  So I need a new genoa.  My stays'l is smaller and not as strong as I wanted, so another new sails.  I didn't have a storm stays'l or trys'l, so two more.  I wanted a better spinnaker, so will add a cruising spinnaker.  Of my sails the main is the one I could use for a while.  However Carol's work is excellent and I have gone for the whole set.
• a pole.  I was going to buy a whisker pole but Carol has convinced me to get a fixed pole instead.  I'll work with the folks at Port Townsend Rigging on this as I saw and liked their setup at the boat show
• work on the boom.  My outhaul will not move once the mainsail is loaded up.  I'd like to fix this.  I also want a vang - either soft or hard
• Pacific Seacraft recommends an 18" prop for the 37.  It turns out that my prop is 15". I've been pretty unsatisfied with the performance while motoring into wind and seas (even the small seas we get in Puget Sound.)  Finding out that my prop is 15" is a big clue in the under performance.  The current prop is a max-prop, which I like.  I'll be installing a new 18" Max Prop.  Since I was buying a new prop, I tried to get one of the new Eco-Wind max props which looked good - they claim to save 30% on fuel which given my 40gal tank would be welcome.  However they don't fit in the aperture.  The Max Prop classic is the only max prop which fits
• new dodger.  My current dodger was one I was going to live with.  Its pretty weak, but in strong winds it could just be folded forward and out of the way - exposing the crew to the full brunt of the elements.  Oh well.  My biggest complaint about it was that while leaving the cockpit and going forward there was no side rail on the dodger so there was a short distance where there was no good hand hold (aside from the life lines which I prefer to avoid for something rigid.)  Iversons's dodgers are awesome and very sturdy.  They have strong side rails as an option which will make going forward safer.  After visiting with them as the Seattle boat show and speaking with many folks, I've chosen to get a new dodger, an iTop.  A few more bucks.  At this point, why stop now!?
• new canvas work.  I'll have lee cloths made, as well as weather cloths, a new sail cover, a new pedestal cover etc.

There is more, but that's enough to give the impression that I'm not sitting on my butt idle.  What's going on?  Quite a lot really!