Every couple of years I haul my boat to re-apply a coat of nasty toxic ablative antifouling paint. I use a full face respirator, disposable suit, gloves ... the whole works ... in an attempt to minimize my exposure to this stuff. In the back of my mind I always wish there was a better way to protect the bottom; one that does not leave a cloud of toxins floating in the water each time I sponge off the hull.
The latest issue of Good Old Boat Magazine published a letter from Robin Benjamin, who claims a paint called COPPERCOAT is the solution to this problem.The author had his Pacific Seacraft Dana coated with it and swears by the stuff in this Blog .
I've been thinking about hauling my boat home again to re-paint the deck and cockpit areas, as the gel coat has worn thin in places. It would also be a good time to strip and re-paint the bottom, again, this time with COPPERCOAT. The extra expense would be more than offset by the longevity of the product.
I must be getting old ... this kind of job used to take me a couple of hours at most. This one took a couple of days!!
While attempting to move my stern light from the pushpit to the upright tube on the Navik vane (it was being blocked by the vane) I managed to terminally destroy the light housing. In days gone by I'd cobbled it together with epoxy and liquid electrical tape, but I finally had to let it go. Besides, the lens was in two pieces and leaked salt water all over the electricl connections.
After much searching, I came up with a reasonable replacement, made by Perko. My only beef with the design:
Who on earth uses #4 screws to attach anything ? !!
A couple of years ago I installed an AIS receiver in Sin Tacha, and, connected to my GPS and laptop running Memory Map Navigator, it provides real-time position information on ferry and large shipping traffic. My position is also on my screen, and each target has a 15 minute position vector indicating where it will be at that time. If any of these vectors cross mine, an alarm rings to warn of a possible collision.
As I frequently cross the busy traffic lanes along Juan de Fuca and Haro Straights, I find this little device provides valuable information, allowing me to navigate away from danger involving large ships, towboats, and ferries. Even larger pleasure boats are now using AIS transponders to broadcast their positions. My unit is a receiver only, and does not advise other ships where I am.
This year's Rendezvous was at Port Browning Marina, on North Pender Island in the Canadian Gulf Islands. The venue has undergone some great improvements since our last rendezvous there in 2005, including new washroom and shower facilities.
OK, the blog is called MOSTLY About Boats, but every now and then I like to throw in a project that may be of general interest.
We live in a home we built ourselves back in the early 80's. Our focus was on energy efficiency, using superior insulation, passive solar gain, solar assisted water heating, and a wood stove for warmth and hot water in the winter. (Our stove, an RSF HF-65, is a massive piece of ingeniously designed welded steel plate, complete with an electric thermostat damper control, 1" stainless steel water coil, and a catalytic combustor unit to reduce emissions.) We have reaped the benefit of these methods for the last 27 years.
(Please click on any picture for a full-sized version) (*dodger = eu sprayhood)
I've spent many happy hours in my basement sweat shop doing upholstery work, sail making, and canvas work on an old Pfaff 438 sewing machine. This machine does straight stitch and zig-zag, but has no walking foot, a feature that would be nice to have. But it will sew easily through 7 layers of heavy Dacron, and just as easily through 2 layers of light weight spinnaker cloth.
Several years ago I bought a Lancer 25. I'd never had a boat with a dodger, so thought it might be a good project to tackle. I've seen a few nice looking boats spoiled by ugly canvas work, so my aim was to combine grace with function, and finish with something that added to the boat's beauty, rather than detracting from it.
Armed with Don Casey's book, Canvas Work & Sail Repair, I studied the rudiments of dodger construction, and also built the tubing bender described in the book.
Like most new things I make, trial runs preceded the actual cutting of bought materials. The frame was mocked up from brazed together old electrical conduit, and inexpensive plastic hardware used to attach it to the boat.
Radar has been on my 'wants' list for quite a while, but I managed to procrastinate until last week, when I finally got down to some serious research on the Internet.
After making a list of what I would need it for, I came to the conclusion that a low power (1.5 to 2kW) unit with a LCD display would be just fine. After much reading I narrowed my choice down to a JRC 1000 MKII , a reasonably priced entry level model that would do all I needed it to.
The radome is only 12" in diameter, which makes it a nice compact size for mast mounting. (Being tall, I'm not happy with a radome on a pole behind me in the cockpit, beaming microwaves over, or maybe through, my head).
Unfortunately, this model seems to be no longer available :-( .... so it was back to the drawing board!
My next candidate was the Furuno 1623 . The radome was 3" bigger (15") but I thought I could live with that, and it got a good review by Practical Sailor magazine, always a positive sign.
While chatting with a dock mate the subject of radar came up, and he asked if I had heard of the new broadband units. I hadn't, but it sounded interesting, so off I went to spend more time searching the 'net for information.
It appears that Navico (sold under the Simrad, Lowrance, and Northstar labels) has developed a technology, already in use in the aircraft industry, that gives amazing results at closer ranges, which is exactly the area I am usually concerned with.
The unit has many desirable features, such as:
Instant on (no warm up).
Less radiation than a cell phone (mount the radome anywhere).
Targets visible within 10' of the boat.
Sea clutter rejection is up to 5 times better than normal radar.
Crystal clear image, making it easy to interpret the display (less of a learning curve).
After watching several videos, I've decided that "Broadband Radar" was the reason I was procrastinating. The technology has evolved to a more useful and user-friendly stage. Now all I have to do is find the right unit for the right price, which may mean another years wait, and ... more research :-)
Today we loaded the 'Fly' on the car, stuffed the rig and sail in the back, and headed down to the marina for the first sail. Pedder Bay is pretty sheltered, and there's always a good breeze blowing, either into or out of the Bay.
Unloading was really easy. The thing only weighs about 30 lbs and was easy to move from the car roof to the dock. With gear loaded in the dinghy I rowed around to where my boat is moored, and installed the mast, boom, sail, and rudder in an adjoining empty slip.
The following procedure is one I used to lower and raise the mast on my Albin Vega 27. Although the mast is only 30' long, it's quite a heavy piece of gear, and could cause damage and injury if it fell out of control.
I have recounted from memory of what I did two years ago. There may be some gaps, and there may be some changes needed for different boats. I found a slip clear of other boats and had an able helper.
Inspiration for my "A" frame comes from the Alberg 30 group post on the same subject.
Although I didn't take pictures the two times I used the frame, I thought I'd share my design with others who might be interested.
The material for the "A" frame is from a Chain Link Fence supplier, and is 1 7/8" 14 gauge pipe. The nice thing about the fencing material is that each size will fit inside the next larger one, making it easy to sleeve pieces together. Also, it's galvanized for longevity.
I bought two 20' sections and cut them in half, sleeving them together with the next size smaller as inserts. Having them in two pieces made them a lot easier to transport.
Thanks to an alert friend, I have discovered a very nice piece of software that rivals my present chart plotting program. It's called OpenCPN and has these features:
* GPS/GPSD Postition Input
* BSB Raster Chart Display
* S57 Vector ENC Chart Display
* C-MAP Vector Chart Display (CM93/2)
* AIS Input Decoding
* Waypoint / Autopilot Navigation
* International Language Support
* Cross-platform support
* Grib Weather Overlay
It works on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems. One of my favorite features is being able to see the direction and strength of local currents overlayed on the chart (orange arrows):
- tough enough to be beached on oyster shells (this would exclude skin-on-frame)
- light weight (this limits size, although a larger two-piece boat would solve that problem)
- row, tow, and sail well
- able to carry two people plus some cargo in safety.
- and most important, should be good looking!
My favorite build method is still 'stitch-and-glue'.
In the endless search for the 'perfect' dinghy, I'm now looking at two-part 'nesting' designs. This would provide for a larger boat with a smaller deck footprint, and the ability to be lifted onboard in two pieces ... ie. half the weight of a full dinghy.
When I did a Google search for "nesting dinghy" I was surprised at how many different ones came up. Some I found interesting are listed below:
Another nice pram by Offshore Designs Ltd. , CHAMELEON.
The PASSAGEMAKER, by CLC is the same as my Eastport Pram, but a bigger boat. CLC's plans are very well engineered and easy to build. Of my 3 dinghies, my CLC Eastport Pram is my favorite one ... so far!
Here's a skin-on-frame nesting dinghy called STASHA, and although not as pretty as some, I like the concept. Imagine how light each half would be!
and a STASHA build log.
As usual, more research is needed. But I have all summer to ponder the subject, before buying a set of plans and laying in a pile of materials for a winter build. One thing about dinghies: they don't need much storage space!
(Please click on any image to see a larger picture.)
Before doing any work on the sailing rig, I felt the need to test the boat in the water to see how it handled. It weighed in at 35 lbs, a little more than the advertised 28, but that's probably because I built with oak and, ash rather than softwood. Anyway, lifting on and off the car racks was very easy!
(Please click on any image to see a larger picture.)
While investigating paints at a local store, I spotted a pile of cans labeled "Mis-Tints" sitting in a corner. One label that captured my attention said "Elasto Wall". Now that sounded interesting, so for $4, I took home a gallon of beige rubberized paint.
This is a water-based coating that's 45% solids, and rolls on very easily ... no smell, easy cleanup!
After applying the first coat I realized I should have had a light inside the hull to better monitor paint coverage and thickness.
(Please click on any image to see a larger picture.)
The Route
Not too many pictures this day as the seas were heavy, and it was cold and wet. China Cloud logged up to 14.9 knots, surfing down the backs of the swells, as we made a good run of 40 miles!
I've installed a pair of weather cloths along Sin Tacha's cockpit sides to create a little more shelter in the cockpit. I had shorter ones before, lashed top and bottom to the boat and stretched nicely flat, but this time I opted to go for the "baggy" look because the way I have them fastened makes them easily removable in seconds. Being a bit baggy allows clearance around the winches, and it's easy to lower a lifeline for access to the cockpit.
(Click on any picture for a larger image.)
Side view, shows overall "baggy" look:
(You can see how the Dodger and sail cover material has faded in two years!)
Tired of worrying about battery drain every time I turned on a cabin light, I've converted to LED's in all Sin Tacha's inside lighting, and the anchor light at the mast head.
Most of my bulbs came from LED Wholsalers and were a lot more reasonable than many of the bulbs advertised as "marine". The marine ones may be better, but for the relatively small outlay I'm willing to experiment with the cheaper ones. It takes a little digging to find the right bulb for each purpose, but that's half the fun.
The three dome lights have been modified to accept festoon LED bulbs.
It involved changing the socket to a festoon bulb holder, not too big a deal.
It's been a year since Sin Tacha's last haulout, a thorough one at "The Boatyard" in Sidney B.C. where she got the full treatment of power washing, fresh bottom paint, new zinc, and a professional survey.
I knew the bottom was still clean, but was concerned about the condition of the zinc on the prop shaft, so decided to use the beaching legs to check things out. The tides lined up for an April 1st event, and luckily the weather cooperated too. After careful calculation it was determined that we had to be aground by no later than 6:30 a.m.
This time I picked a small cove near the marina with a gravel beach. Previous beachings had been done in the mud, a pretty messy exercise!
The legs were attached the night before, so at 6 a.m. I motored slowly over to the cove in the dark. I'd previously set up a couple of pool noodles on shore as leading marks so as to miss some rocks on the beach. Being bright yellow, they were easily picked up with a flashlight.
The stern anchor was dropped about 60 feet from the beach, and a bow line was dinghy'd ashore and attached to a drift log. Using the two lines to control the boat, she was pulled ahead until the front of the keel gently touched ground. With all lines made fast, it was time to relax for a while and let the moon do it's work of dropping the ocean level by four feet.
Resting easy on the gravel, while the skipper enjoys breakfast aboard:
