Wednesday, September 14, 2011
New Mast
I found a newer mast with in-mast furling and a Pro-Furl unit on the headstay. While this would not be the best for sail shaping, it would be easier to sail and reduce sail. the mast is about 12 feet longer than mine but it could be shortened. Even better it belongs to a fellow I know.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Anchoring out
While it is nice to go into a harbor just to check it out, unless I need a really good shower, or provisions, I'd rather trust to my own hook and pick my spot. Practicing anchoring often is a good skill for situations were you need extra skill.
For example, there some places that are very fun to go but have limited anchoring options. You are stuck anchoring in the outer harbor, a long distance away, exposed, or else on an expensive mooring or more expensive dock or perhaps there is no space for you anywhere.
For example, there some places that are very fun to go but have limited anchoring options. You are stuck anchoring in the outer harbor, a long distance away, exposed, or else on an expensive mooring or more expensive dock or perhaps there is no space for you anywhere.
I like anchoring out. In fact, if I can avoid going into a harbor I will. I like the secluded spots all to myself. I’m “in nature” and there is nothing to disturb it. Life is all around me and there is always something new. It also saves a lot of money, and frankly I think docking and mooring are places to be avoided, less beautiful. Unless you are provisioning or hiding out from a bad storm, I’d much rather take a hot shower aboard, if there is plenty of water and heat, than go ashore. I like the independence of being on my own, with everything I need and no traffic jams, and crowds of people all around me. I feel privileged to be out observing nature. I'm happy on the boat. I'm not in a hurry to get off or go somewhere.
My typical preference is a single hook with all chain, and a often a sentinel when I use a mostly rope rode. If I have chain it is unlikely I have a second all chain rode. So that means the second anchor is a short length of chain and a rode. I use a snubber in exposed situation but not in a protected spot. I anchor often with 3:1 scope, or sometimes 3.5:1, scope which is recommended for all chain. And for a short stay like lunch, or even overnight, I go as low as 2:1 if conditions are light. All chain is great in an outer harbor, if the weather is nice. And 3:1 scope means you can anchor in 60'of water with the big boats, with 200' of chain. Fast and easy, but sometimes the places you visit will have every possible anchorage spot filled with a mooring leaving nothing for those who anchor.
The other extreme, which I’ve used a few times is heading up river where it's shallow, as far as you can go. Lots of times I've gone up rivers as far as I could go. Then what? Paying close attention to the tide tables, I find a spot in the channel. They say no anchoring in the channel, and in my opinion the channel ends where I anchor. If that is as far as I can go, nothing bigger is going past me, right? They would risk of running aground. If nothing bigger than me is going upriver from there—the channel ends there, in my opinion even if there are buoys farther up, they are for much smaller craft.
Smaller craft can easily get around me if needed. One of the joys in motoring around is seeing all the sights. I consider myself one of the sites to see. I welcome the site of any nice looking boat anywhere I go--so do other people.
I really don’t get in anyone’s way. No one has complained, although I would not push my luck and camp out in front of someone house for weeks and weeks. I’m more typically moving on to the next spot, never in one place long enough to piss anyone off...
So because such a strategy means it is shallow in every direction but downstream, you need to stabilize your boats position in one fixed position. So that means multiple anchors in a Bahamian mooring-- two anchors set towards either flow of current. This keeps you in one spot. A sentinel or kellet is a weight used to hold the rode down below the keel. I use a length of rope and a spare anchor with a retrieval line attached. Easy to fabricate and no extra equipment and weight needed on the boat. This enables you to anchor in a tight spot with short scope, which keeps your position perfectly.
One particular spot I’m thinking of is Mystic 
Seaport. A great place to visit and their docks are not always available. I anchored in the channel. On the way out, past the last bridge, hoisted sail, sailed down the river, gybed at the bottom and caught the ebb out by Watch Hill and the northerly wind and favorable current spit us along the coast towards Newport in 5-6 hours, with only a little beating to weather the leg north at the end into Newport. The tide was high, no worries, I could have cut across the mooring field, but decided to honor the red and greens as running aground there at high tide a grounding would have been embarrassing. It was enough fun for me to sail down the channel. It was a weekday with almost no traffic.
So that my friends is the secret to finding a super protected anchorage spot in a river for an over-night stay. The proper solution to the problem is a Bahamian mooring, some rope and a spare anchor to fashion a sentinel and anchor right there in the channel as far up as you can reasonably go.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
New Head Stay Coming up!
One of my near term project is a new headstay. I will be using the same size wire, only it will be Dyform wire, which is stronger, and NavTec terminals. So this involves going up the mast, removing a clevis pin, removing the forestay, and then measuring it for some new wire. I could do this after I pull the mast, but while that would be easier, I'd like to have it in place so I can test the furler, and re-cut my Genoa.
Genoa Cleaned
My goal is to do something every day for ECHO. That is not so easy given my other obligations. However it is a worthy goal and one in which I include the many back steps needed to go forward. Today I made a forward step. I took ECHO's #2 Sail, in fact it's Working sail. I guess they called the #1 sail the drifter, which is a lightweight hank on sail--I'll address that later one.Flopping it out of my truck was easy enough.
Then spreading it out on the driveway.
First the #2 sail is 62' on the luff, 60'3" on the leech, and has a 30'5" foot. To approximate the sail area lets average the luff and the leech. The difference is 21". Half of that is 10.5", so we add that to the lesser of the two the leech and get 61'1.5". The formula for the area of a triangle is 1/2 the base times the height. So the size of the sail is approximately, 15.25' x 61.125' about 932 square feet.
That explained the weight of the sail. I was thinking my Genoa was 78 lbs. Thinking back, I weighed my main and that was 78 lbs and 440 sq feet. So this sail is twice the size, and it is reasonable to assume it is about 165 lbs dry.I used mild bleach and water in a squirt bottle. I also use Black Streak remover-Oxylic Acid, and Fantastic as cleaners. Later I combined the Black streak remover with the Bleach and water. I used a scrub pad and while I did not get it as clean as I'd like, it is much cleaner than it was.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Galley Cupboard
I am thinking about building a galley overhead cupboard with a cutouts for appliances like a coffee maker recesses and fixtures to hold plates, bowls, cups nested goblets, and cookware, in a compact and easy to clean assembly. Everything will have it's place. Once built, it just needs to be tabbed in with fiberglass tape, or bolted in place. Do I make it out of wood or out of foam and fiberglass? I have an design ready to be finalized. I'll have to scan that in at some point.
Short Tacks and Tacking Depths.
I was thinking about a certain spot in the Caribbean where the wind and current are always against you. The island to the north is a notoriously deep drop off. You could never anchor there because the water is 65' just off the bluffs.
One thing I've done many times is tack up through there. Tacking is the zig-zag process of sailing upwind since sailboats can sail at most 45 degrees to the wind. So this is a challenging tacking situation--worthy of your full attention.
It is also a good exercise in choosing a tacking depth. Usually my tacking depth--the depth of water where I feel it is necessary to tack is on the order of 10-15'. This particular spot I used 70 for many years and dropped it to 65 and occasionally saw depths around 35 in the course of the tack as the stern swung through the turn.. We were a softball throw away from cliff side and a small thin tiny beach.
Why cut it so close? Because this spot was narrow, the wind and current was particularly strong. Every time you tack you lose a boat length of distance upwind. The fewer of these tacks the better. Also while the water was deep near the shore, it was still shallower than the center of the channel, and much of my progress upwind was made close to shore is current less swift than the middle. Hugging the edges makes sense.
Frequent tacking in a narrow channel is called short tacking. So short tacking through this narrow passage is zig-zagging back and forth trying to make headway against the current and wind both in the most adverse direction.
I've sailed many boats down there, and I think I'd like to sail my own at some point. My boat was made for the trade winds. It would power up and sail upwind beautifully. One difficulty would be handling my Genoa. It is a huge sail to sheet or trim in on every tack. So what I decided I wanted was a self tending stay sail, or possibly a jib also on the same track. That makes it easy to tack, you throw the helm over. It makes for a smaller sail without overlap which develops much more power, so I thought a double or triple head sail configuration would work best.
The idea is the outer sail is a spinnaker or drifter, set flying. The next in is an overlapping Genoa, for longer tacks. Inside of this is a stay sail with a single sheet going to a track just in front of the mast. So if you are in a short tacking situation, you don't use the Genoa or the lighter sails of course, and instead. The self-tending stay sail flops back and tacking only involves one person at the helm or someone steering with the auto-pilot. What could be easier?
Then on longer tacks, when you need more power, you unfurl the Genoa or perhaps a high cut Yankee. My plan is to make a curved track and support it at the ends--through bolted thru the deck, or else a glassed in structure. For the former, I might be able to buy a whole track system from Hanse--and voila--done. Nothing to it but bolting it in, which means it could also be removed if desired.
I think that little stay sail is the perfect place to fly a storm jib. My third reef is pretty deep. At most I'd need a hollow cut trysail about half that size and the pair of sails would keep me going upwind in any conditions.
A bigger problem would be light air downwind sails. In my case, I'd just as soon motor. Light air sails can make it hard to steer unless the winds are very light. I feel they are only necessary close to the equator, and even then a motor and lots of fuel are better. I don't like bobbing around. I like to keep moving--which means that at my heart I'm a cruiser not a distance racer. I don't like hours of tedium going nowhere with flapping sails.
So my boat sails well in light air in flat water--Long Island Sound for example, or the Cheasapeake Bay. It is even better in places like San Francisco or my favorite, the Carribbean Trade Winds. In fact the trade winds are perfect for my boat. It would blast through the Drake Channel light chop like it's nothing. Even the north side waves are not a problem for my boat in those conditions. While in the open ocean, it would be fine, but stuff the bow from time to time.
And because ECHO is heavy, it is one of the most comfortable rides. You can still get sea sick, but not as bad as on a lighter boat.
One thing I've done many times is tack up through there. Tacking is the zig-zag process of sailing upwind since sailboats can sail at most 45 degrees to the wind. So this is a challenging tacking situation--worthy of your full attention.
It is also a good exercise in choosing a tacking depth. Usually my tacking depth--the depth of water where I feel it is necessary to tack is on the order of 10-15'. This particular spot I used 70 for many years and dropped it to 65 and occasionally saw depths around 35 in the course of the tack as the stern swung through the turn.. We were a softball throw away from cliff side and a small thin tiny beach.
Why cut it so close? Because this spot was narrow, the wind and current was particularly strong. Every time you tack you lose a boat length of distance upwind. The fewer of these tacks the better. Also while the water was deep near the shore, it was still shallower than the center of the channel, and much of my progress upwind was made close to shore is current less swift than the middle. Hugging the edges makes sense.
Frequent tacking in a narrow channel is called short tacking. So short tacking through this narrow passage is zig-zagging back and forth trying to make headway against the current and wind both in the most adverse direction.
I've sailed many boats down there, and I think I'd like to sail my own at some point. My boat was made for the trade winds. It would power up and sail upwind beautifully. One difficulty would be handling my Genoa. It is a huge sail to sheet or trim in on every tack. So what I decided I wanted was a self tending stay sail, or possibly a jib also on the same track. That makes it easy to tack, you throw the helm over. It makes for a smaller sail without overlap which develops much more power, so I thought a double or triple head sail configuration would work best.
The idea is the outer sail is a spinnaker or drifter, set flying. The next in is an overlapping Genoa, for longer tacks. Inside of this is a stay sail with a single sheet going to a track just in front of the mast. So if you are in a short tacking situation, you don't use the Genoa or the lighter sails of course, and instead. The self-tending stay sail flops back and tacking only involves one person at the helm or someone steering with the auto-pilot. What could be easier?
Then on longer tacks, when you need more power, you unfurl the Genoa or perhaps a high cut Yankee. My plan is to make a curved track and support it at the ends--through bolted thru the deck, or else a glassed in structure. For the former, I might be able to buy a whole track system from Hanse--and voila--done. Nothing to it but bolting it in, which means it could also be removed if desired.
I think that little stay sail is the perfect place to fly a storm jib. My third reef is pretty deep. At most I'd need a hollow cut trysail about half that size and the pair of sails would keep me going upwind in any conditions.
A bigger problem would be light air downwind sails. In my case, I'd just as soon motor. Light air sails can make it hard to steer unless the winds are very light. I feel they are only necessary close to the equator, and even then a motor and lots of fuel are better. I don't like bobbing around. I like to keep moving--which means that at my heart I'm a cruiser not a distance racer. I don't like hours of tedium going nowhere with flapping sails.
So my boat sails well in light air in flat water--Long Island Sound for example, or the Cheasapeake Bay. It is even better in places like San Francisco or my favorite, the Carribbean Trade Winds. In fact the trade winds are perfect for my boat. It would blast through the Drake Channel light chop like it's nothing. Even the north side waves are not a problem for my boat in those conditions. While in the open ocean, it would be fine, but stuff the bow from time to time.
And because ECHO is heavy, it is one of the most comfortable rides. You can still get sea sick, but not as bad as on a lighter boat.
Friday, September 9, 2011
ECHO Hauled for her new Yanmar Engine
Here is a picture of ECHO taken last year when she was getting her new engine installed. She'd also recently gotten a new rigid vang and main boom--both Forespar products and a custom toggle to mate it up to the mast. I guess I'll be posting some things out of order as I'm be playing catch up and trying to pull this all together as a sort of ships log. Most of the information will be on restoring the boat, some on trips taken on other boats, and soon there will be posts of trips taken on ECHO.
Note this is an old post that was in draft format. I realized it was never published so I did that today. This post is actually at least four years old.
Genoa Removed from ECHO for cleaning and folding.
Another major milestone. It may not seem like a milestone, but it was a very difficult job, pulling my Genoa out of the V-berth, rolling it up as best as possible, hauling it up on deck through the companionway, and binding up the middle with some rope, hoisting it up and over the lifelines with a spinnaker halyard, and then carrying it up the dock and up a narrow ramp into my pickup truck Bruiser. Actually, it involved stuffing the sail into the bed of the truck with the equivalent of a football tackle to shove it in there. All in 84 degree heat and 85% humidity. Not fun at all.
My niece helped me and was very unhappy it was so hard. I could not have done it alone. As it was I needed several rest breaks because each spurt of effort was a maximum effort. This sail is 600 sq feet and weighs about 80 lbs. It felt like much more because it was so awkward.
Next up. Pressure washing it and rolling it up, and then lifting it back into my pickup bed and carrying it to my tent garage for storage. I have a few tarps to protect these two sails and cover them.
This opens up a lot more possibilities for me. I can set up my V-Berth as a place to live while I refinish the floors in my bedroom. I can start to plan to remove my fore stay and start assembling my roller furling--which will require a couple of helpers. I want to buy some new wire and Norseman fittings--I can start to plan that as well. I'm thinking about hauling the boat out soon. So it makes sense to pull the mast out and make a few changes to the shroud attachments, and fabricate new shrouds as well. I need to replace my VHF antenna feed line and make some repairs to my wind vane--also to be done with the mast out. It would make sense to do all this at once. On the other hand, I'd like to have the fore-stay work done so I can measure the Genoa for luff groove and to shorten the head for a furling system.
After fixing the leak in the inner fore stay attachment well, my next priorities are to repair the topsides, and begin work on installing a new head and holding tank. It would be nice to have the stove installed also, even though I might be removing it again to work on the ice-box/refrigeration system. I might want to remove the boom and spinnaker pole--just to clear the deck and prep ECHO for haul out and mast removal.
Regarding the ice-box. I will have to remove the deck lid and build a new one with formica and new doors. I have a supply of stainless steel I can use to fabricate the interior, or it might be easier to use fiberglass cloth over foam insulation.
Finally, while I like big boats, they are really way too much work for one person--particularly in a renovation such as this. Everything is easier on a smaller boat. Once ECHO is back in service, though, I'll have a ready supply of students and crew to help me with this work. I could probably find a ready supply of helpers now, but the problem is it takes more work to organize them than to do the work myself--with the exception of the two and three man jobs.
My niece helped me and was very unhappy it was so hard. I could not have done it alone. As it was I needed several rest breaks because each spurt of effort was a maximum effort. This sail is 600 sq feet and weighs about 80 lbs. It felt like much more because it was so awkward.
Next up. Pressure washing it and rolling it up, and then lifting it back into my pickup bed and carrying it to my tent garage for storage. I have a few tarps to protect these two sails and cover them.
This opens up a lot more possibilities for me. I can set up my V-Berth as a place to live while I refinish the floors in my bedroom. I can start to plan to remove my fore stay and start assembling my roller furling--which will require a couple of helpers. I want to buy some new wire and Norseman fittings--I can start to plan that as well. I'm thinking about hauling the boat out soon. So it makes sense to pull the mast out and make a few changes to the shroud attachments, and fabricate new shrouds as well. I need to replace my VHF antenna feed line and make some repairs to my wind vane--also to be done with the mast out. It would make sense to do all this at once. On the other hand, I'd like to have the fore-stay work done so I can measure the Genoa for luff groove and to shorten the head for a furling system.
After fixing the leak in the inner fore stay attachment well, my next priorities are to repair the topsides, and begin work on installing a new head and holding tank. It would be nice to have the stove installed also, even though I might be removing it again to work on the ice-box/refrigeration system. I might want to remove the boom and spinnaker pole--just to clear the deck and prep ECHO for haul out and mast removal.
Regarding the ice-box. I will have to remove the deck lid and build a new one with formica and new doors. I have a supply of stainless steel I can use to fabricate the interior, or it might be easier to use fiberglass cloth over foam insulation.
Finally, while I like big boats, they are really way too much work for one person--particularly in a renovation such as this. Everything is easier on a smaller boat. Once ECHO is back in service, though, I'll have a ready supply of students and crew to help me with this work. I could probably find a ready supply of helpers now, but the problem is it takes more work to organize them than to do the work myself--with the exception of the two and three man jobs.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Downsizing
The other thing I did today was to move more of my nautical hardware to
the tent. So my office is clean and with a few small exceptions, nearly
perfectly in order. My plan is to start selling all my surplus sailing
gear and free up more space in the tent for working on projects. I've
already sold some automotive parts and plan to put at least one item on
eBay every day. Today I listed two items. A fuel pump and and laptop
sleeve. I need to downsize and get rid of everything I can.
Books, CDs, and DVD's take up space. I've been converting everything to digital form. It came in handy we watched a movie on my laptop when power was out and later when power was restored but there was no cable or broadband, I had my home network up and watched three movies located on my desktop system but routed to my Apple TV hooked up to my TV upstairs.
I have been organizing my eBooks, but having some difficulty with that. I have a duplicate library I just discovered, so I need to eliminate duplicates. I have also had some issues with cover art, and author names. These are tedious and something I can work on bit by bit so that when I take off sailing I will have a decent library of books to read, along with a huge library of movies, many of which I've never seen.
I have always been one to hoard paper. I had a huge file system about 10 years ago with 9 file drawers. Realizing that I never looked at much of this stuff, I threw out a two drawer file cabinet and got myself down to 7 file drawers. That was still too much. I threw out another two drawer cabinet and got myself down to 5. Still to much. I did it again and got down to 3 file drawers and I managed to hold it to about that until the last few years when things ballooned again. Last month I purged my files again and today I have about 3.5 file drawers. I'd like to scan some of these documents and store them on-line and on a memory stick and get down to 2 file drawers--which is about as small as I can reduce to. In any event, I'm very happy tha.
I've been doing similar things with books. Many paperbacks I have tossed out. Some I save to re-read once and then toss. Others I have discovered are worth a lot. I have one series of books that I found is worth about $400--so these will get sold soon. Everything else I'm selling except for some books I can't part with like my Patrick O'Brien series, and some computer reference books. My goal is to have no more than one bookcase of books.
I tried setting up an account on Amazon.com and it was such a headache that I gave up. I will sell everything on eBay.
While getting rid of things is nice. I still need to store some things. For example: I want to store my mainsail. The best place for that is on ECHO. But I'd rather not at the moment. As much as I'd like to go sailing on ECHO, that involves putting the sail back on, which is an exhausting job, and then taking it off again for the winter. I also plan to haul out ECHO soon, so I have to have the sail off the boat in any case. Better to tie it up in a small bundle and store it.
My realization is I need a trailer just for dry storage of normal boat gear and also as a mobile work bench. My Silverado, named Bruiser, can haul a large trailer. My Volvo, Sea Dog, can haul at most 3000 lbs. I have the mainsail in the bed of Bruiser, but not for too long. I need to bring the Genoa home next. For the near term, I have plenty of tarps. I'll make a clean place to store these sails in the tent and keep them covered and clean. That means reorganizing the tent to store two rather big sails. See how it is two steps back and then three steps forward if I want to make forward progress? It can be painfully slow for a boat this big.
I really don't want to buy a trailer right now, but it is something to think about. I also lost my parking brake on the Volvo and in the process noticed my clutch is slipping. Another two steps backwards.
Books, CDs, and DVD's take up space. I've been converting everything to digital form. It came in handy we watched a movie on my laptop when power was out and later when power was restored but there was no cable or broadband, I had my home network up and watched three movies located on my desktop system but routed to my Apple TV hooked up to my TV upstairs.
I have been organizing my eBooks, but having some difficulty with that. I have a duplicate library I just discovered, so I need to eliminate duplicates. I have also had some issues with cover art, and author names. These are tedious and something I can work on bit by bit so that when I take off sailing I will have a decent library of books to read, along with a huge library of movies, many of which I've never seen.
I have always been one to hoard paper. I had a huge file system about 10 years ago with 9 file drawers. Realizing that I never looked at much of this stuff, I threw out a two drawer file cabinet and got myself down to 7 file drawers. That was still too much. I threw out another two drawer cabinet and got myself down to 5. Still to much. I did it again and got down to 3 file drawers and I managed to hold it to about that until the last few years when things ballooned again. Last month I purged my files again and today I have about 3.5 file drawers. I'd like to scan some of these documents and store them on-line and on a memory stick and get down to 2 file drawers--which is about as small as I can reduce to. In any event, I'm very happy tha.
I've been doing similar things with books. Many paperbacks I have tossed out. Some I save to re-read once and then toss. Others I have discovered are worth a lot. I have one series of books that I found is worth about $400--so these will get sold soon. Everything else I'm selling except for some books I can't part with like my Patrick O'Brien series, and some computer reference books. My goal is to have no more than one bookcase of books.
I tried setting up an account on Amazon.com and it was such a headache that I gave up. I will sell everything on eBay.
While getting rid of things is nice. I still need to store some things. For example: I want to store my mainsail. The best place for that is on ECHO. But I'd rather not at the moment. As much as I'd like to go sailing on ECHO, that involves putting the sail back on, which is an exhausting job, and then taking it off again for the winter. I also plan to haul out ECHO soon, so I have to have the sail off the boat in any case. Better to tie it up in a small bundle and store it.
My realization is I need a trailer just for dry storage of normal boat gear and also as a mobile work bench. My Silverado, named Bruiser, can haul a large trailer. My Volvo, Sea Dog, can haul at most 3000 lbs. I have the mainsail in the bed of Bruiser, but not for too long. I need to bring the Genoa home next. For the near term, I have plenty of tarps. I'll make a clean place to store these sails in the tent and keep them covered and clean. That means reorganizing the tent to store two rather big sails. See how it is two steps back and then three steps forward if I want to make forward progress? It can be painfully slow for a boat this big.
I really don't want to buy a trailer right now, but it is something to think about. I also lost my parking brake on the Volvo and in the process noticed my clutch is slipping. Another two steps backwards.
Fiberglass and Paint Prep Work
A few years back, when I faired and painted ECHO, I built an outdoor, weather proof work bench to store materials and to mix epoxy. I will have to post some of those pictures as the amount of work I did, with my brothers help was considerable. In any event, today I moved this extremely heavy work bench into "The Tent". "The Tent" is a 22' x 20 ' tent shelter I bought last year. I am splitting the space with my brother who built the foundation. I want to use it to do fiberglass repairs on my Sunfishes, and any custom molded pieces I might need for ECHO. So it made sense to move it into "The Tent" and get it organized and set up to make stuff.
When Hurricane Irene blasted through here, I took the tent down and recently put it back up. I'd like to reinforce it some to make it stronger. It would be nice to have a framed back wall. In the mean time, the workbench is pretty cool. It has inside and outside outlets and wire to connect two 20 Amp circuits. Right now that is not hooked up, but I will add that to my list of things to do I have a heavy gauge extension cord going to the tent at the moment. I will probably remove the other wire and wire in a connector for that input.
Part of the reason the workbench is so heavy, is I primed it, and painted it, and then as I worked on fairing ECHO's hull, I used up any surplus smoothing out the plywood. Later I painted it with epoxy primer, and then coat after coat of epoxy paint. So it really is pretty water proof.
So this all goes to show that for every step forward there are a few steps backwards. The amount of prep work involved with boats is amazing.
Next up, I have a new hose for the boat, and I plan to fill up one of the water tanks and start cleaning the other tanks. I need some stainless steel covers and bolts and tap and dies to attach the new covers. It will be very nice to have all three water tanks working.
I am planning on purchasing a Techma Silence Plus tall model for the forward head. It will be using fresh water for flushing. So it will have a solenoid to control the water pump circuit. So this will be a very clean smelling head, quite and easy to use. For local sailing this will be the head people will use.
The aft head will probably use sea water and perhaps be manual just to conserve power. I do not plan to install an aft head in the immediate future. I want to haul the boat out and move a couple of sea-cocks to make it easier to operation. Or in the case of the forward head, I'll be removing the raw water inlet thru-hull and sea-cock.
When Hurricane Irene blasted through here, I took the tent down and recently put it back up. I'd like to reinforce it some to make it stronger. It would be nice to have a framed back wall. In the mean time, the workbench is pretty cool. It has inside and outside outlets and wire to connect two 20 Amp circuits. Right now that is not hooked up, but I will add that to my list of things to do I have a heavy gauge extension cord going to the tent at the moment. I will probably remove the other wire and wire in a connector for that input.
Part of the reason the workbench is so heavy, is I primed it, and painted it, and then as I worked on fairing ECHO's hull, I used up any surplus smoothing out the plywood. Later I painted it with epoxy primer, and then coat after coat of epoxy paint. So it really is pretty water proof.
So this all goes to show that for every step forward there are a few steps backwards. The amount of prep work involved with boats is amazing.
Next up, I have a new hose for the boat, and I plan to fill up one of the water tanks and start cleaning the other tanks. I need some stainless steel covers and bolts and tap and dies to attach the new covers. It will be very nice to have all three water tanks working.
I am planning on purchasing a Techma Silence Plus tall model for the forward head. It will be using fresh water for flushing. So it will have a solenoid to control the water pump circuit. So this will be a very clean smelling head, quite and easy to use. For local sailing this will be the head people will use.
The aft head will probably use sea water and perhaps be manual just to conserve power. I do not plan to install an aft head in the immediate future. I want to haul the boat out and move a couple of sea-cocks to make it easier to operation. Or in the case of the forward head, I'll be removing the raw water inlet thru-hull and sea-cock.
Cleaning the Mainsail
The second picture shows some of the accumulated dirt with the cleaned portion rolled up.
Echo was a beautiful nymph, fond of the woods and hills, where she devoted herself to woodland sports. She was a favorite of Diana, and attended her in the chase. But Echo had one failing; she was fond of talking, and whether in chat or argument would have the last word. One day Juno was seeking her husband, who, she had reason to fear, was amusing himself among the nymphs. Echo by her talk contrived to detain the goddess till the nymphs made their escape. When Juno discovered it, she passed sentence upon Echo in these words: "You shall forfeit the use of that tongue with which you have cheated me, except for that one purpose you are so fond of REPLY. You shall still have the last word, but no power to speak first."
This nymph saw Narcissus, a beautiful youth, as he pursued the chase upon the mountains. She loved him, and followed his footsteps. Oh, how she longed to address him in the softest accents, and win him to converse, but it was not in her power. She waited with impatience for him to speak first, and had her answer ready. One day the youth, being separated from his companions, shouted aloud, "Who's here?" Echo replied, "Here." Narcissus looked around, but seeing no one, called out, "Come." Echo answered, "Come." As no one came, Narcissus called again, "Why do you shun me?" Echo asked the same question. "Let us join one another," said the youth. The maid answered with all her heart in the same words, and hastened to the spot, ready to throw her arms about his neck. He started back, exclaiming, "Hands off! I would rather die than you should have me." "Have me," said she; but it was all in vain. He left her, and she went to hide her blushes in the recesses of the woods. From that time forth she lived in caves and among mountain cliffs. Her form faded with grief, till at last all her flesh shrank away. Her bones were changed into rocks, and there was nothing left of her but her voice. With that she is still ready to reply to any one who calls her, and keeps up her old habit of having the last word.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Priorities
Here is my plan to make ECHO liveable and sailable:
1. Order and install a Techma Electric Head
2. Repair topsides damage
3. Fabricate a holding tank
4. Install new headstay and already purchased Roller Furling unit
5. Aux Fuel Tank--Buy a rubber fuel tank sized to fit in the cockpit between the seats. This will be used for longer voyages after the real fuel tank is installed.
6. Water Tanks--cleaned and new covers, screws and seals
7. Stove--already purchased--Installed and gas lines run
8. New Companionway ladder with mount for propane tanks
9. Measure forward seat for fabrication in either teak or fiberglass
10. Replace Engine Solinoid
11. Wire up Depth Finder
12. Install manual bilge pump, replace hoses and test sensors on electric bilge pumps
13. Wire up Ham Radio Antennas
14. Buy mount for iPad on Binacle
15. Buy and install auto-pilot
16. Install heating system for winter use.
1. Order and install a Techma Electric Head
2. Repair topsides damage
3. Fabricate a holding tank
4. Install new headstay and already purchased Roller Furling unit
5. Aux Fuel Tank--Buy a rubber fuel tank sized to fit in the cockpit between the seats. This will be used for longer voyages after the real fuel tank is installed.
6. Water Tanks--cleaned and new covers, screws and seals
7. Stove--already purchased--Installed and gas lines run
8. New Companionway ladder with mount for propane tanks
9. Measure forward seat for fabrication in either teak or fiberglass
10. Replace Engine Solinoid
11. Wire up Depth Finder
12. Install manual bilge pump, replace hoses and test sensors on electric bilge pumps
13. Wire up Ham Radio Antennas
14. Buy mount for iPad on Binacle
15. Buy and install auto-pilot
16. Install heating system for winter use.
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