June 9, 2016

A bit of a mixed week. Finished the lee board for the v-berth (in more ways than one), got the rudder for the Hydrovane painted with antifouling and installed, and the new deck awning was trial-fitted by the canvas-maker. I've also frittered away quite a lot of time getting ready for the boater's swapmeet on Saturday. I tried gettiinng my electric scooter to charge, but the connector just fell apart in my hand. I'll have to try replacing the connector. If I can't get it to work, I'll just have to junk it, despite it's relatively high initial cost. I also cleaned up my old surf kayak and started going through my storage unit, sorting, pricing and loading up the first load in the Mini. Speaking of the Mini, while I was able to pick it up, it turned out the fog lamps were not working, so I had to bring it back. I sat waiting for a couple of hours while they tried various fixes. They think the new replacement light was bad out of the box, so I'll have to go back yet again when the parts come in. I struck out getting any information on hull identification numbers from my friend Clark or the Salar Owners Group. Clark's Salar doesn't have an HIN either, and the only response from the Salar Group was an Englishman, whose Salar has only the English system number. I tried one more email to the Coast Guard. If I don't get a clear answer, I'll try making up something as I said last week.  No call-back from the sailmaker after two weeks, so I'll have to start pestering them next week. Still plenty to do, but I'll make it.

 

September 25, 2014

It might be a bit ironic that I would be bring back a cold from the rather sad visit to Des Moines where Carol’s father was laid to rest.  Nonetheless, I managed to get a few more coats of Cetol on the stern rail and take care of a few other little projects this week. 

I added some rub strakes to protect my newly refinished rub rails from chafing dock lines as well as added a couple of more cleats that can run along the genoa tracks.

To finish connecting up my heavy cast stainless Danforth anchor to the rode I had to get one more Crosby high-tensile galvanized shackle and have a machinist drill out the hole in the shank a couple of millimeters in order to accept the new stainless shackle.  He noted that the metal was tougher than the usual stainless, which led me to do a little research.  The anchor was obviously cast stainless steel, but it still got some surface rust and was magnetic, unlike the 316 stainless for most marine use.  I learned that for castings, more iron is used in the alloy.  This ferritic stainless prevents cracks in the casting, is less susceptible to crevice corrosion and can be as much as twice as strong as non-ferritic stainless.  This anchor might drag, but it’s never going to bend or break!

A dockmate friend who is a welder welded up a handle for a brake for the Hydrovane that allows me to set and lock the vane for a wind course.  It’s just an “L” shaped handle welded to the adjustment screw on a large hose clamp, but much simpler and less intrusive than the cable system suggested by the manufacturer.  I also got a short length of 5/8 aluminum rod to insert into the receptacle on the Hydrovane to use as a tiller so that the vane rudder can be used as an emergency rudder.  It needs a little grinding and filing yet, but that will be a small job.
The last little job I did was to add a jumper between the neutral and ground on a pigtail connector that will be used ONLY to connect my new Honda generator to the ship's shore power circuit when used in lieu of shore power.  Good practice is to to connect the ground and neutral of an ac circuit only at the source, in this case the generator.  (When connected to shore power, the two are usually joined at the breaker box on shore.)  The ground is normally not carrying any current, but if there is a fault and a tool handle or something becomes "hot," the ground will carry current and a short will be created with the neutral, saving anyone holding the handle and blowing the breaker.