Electrical Part 2

Ok, the panel is made, now here is phase 2, the electrical design. 

Electrical Panel

Decided that I would re-run all electrical to a panel positioned in the port nav station (where the sink was). The existing electrical panel (installed on the side of the nav station) was in a bad position, and the switches were constantly being turned on when sails and people brushed up against them. The panel will be positioned in the space, fastened to the top shelf and fastened to the nav table below, in a vertical installation. The stereo will also be removed from its forward facing position and mounted in the electrical panel.

Port side speaker will be removed as well.

Went to the chandlery and picked up an identical panel to the existing panel installed on Santeria. I will require 10 circuits, so doubling the existing panel will give me 12 (6 in each panel). 28.99 + tax. Pretty damn close to the original 35 yr old panel.

Next, will need to mount them somewhere. I had some 1 inch x 10 inch pine board, and ran them through the planer down to 1/2". I then routed out the back of each panel as shown below. 2 coats of varnish and this is all that I'm looking for.

Will save room for more gadgets on this panel.

The stereo and other electrical panel will be mounted here.

Both panels will be mounted side by side

Main Reefer.....Smokem if you got'em

So, main reefing, here are some pictures and deep thoughts (similar to those by Jack Handy, without the punch line).

Introducing reef point #1 and #2 (as positioned by the Harken bullet blocks). Starboard side of boom, Aft end to the left, forward end to the right. The assumption with this configuration is that we will still have to go on the foredeck to move the cunningham from one luff reef point to another before engaging this system. Fully crewed, no problem, double and single handed (auto-tiller will theoretically steer).

Measurements were taken along each reef point from the luff edge (in-line with the reefing grommet) to the back edge of the clew. #1 is 8ft 10in, and #2 is exactly 8ft.

Distance from the main tack grommet to the #1 reef tack grommet is 3 ft. Distance from the main tack grommet to the #2 reef tack grommet is 7 ft.

Blocks are positioned about 3" aft of the furthest human stretchable position of each corresponding reefing clew. I figured that slight over-estimating is better than slight underestimating distance from the tack grommet (we want to keep the main foot tight!).

So, as the picture shows, I am undecided whether to use a cam-cleat or clam (locking) cleat to stop the reefing lines.

Each cam cleat is relatively small, heavier than its counterpart, has a fairlead, and is a superior solution in terms of "lock it and leave it".

The clam (locking) cleat also has a fairlead, is also an appropriate solution, and significantly lighter. It does however require some additional attention to make sure its locked in position.

So, we have 2 hypothetical reef-line mechanisms for use with a bullet block. Would like to hear back from the Banana Hammock crew (aka...the 2 nuts)

Another way to go is using a track system with a single cheek car for reef adjustment. A track system is neat and tidy, with some minor car pin adjustments required for reefing. Considering I already had most of the hardware (yes...recycling the deck hardware removed in the fall) for the previously discussed system, the track system would be an additional expense. This is not the Scottish way (right Peter?)

In addition, I also purchased 1/4" reefing hooks (for each reef point) for reefing the grommets down towards the boom.

To me, these baby's are a must have, easy pleasy. These would splice into thimbles of 1/4" double yacht braid, run down to the harken blocks and cleated along the boom, thereby completing the reefing system. The tack hooks would reduce cordage of each reef by 1/2 (compared to traditional jiffy reefing systems where lines are run up to the reef grommet and down to the boom).

I considered a slab reefing system, but again, too expensive for my blood. An example of a slab system is linked below (thanks google)

http://0.tqn.com/d/sailing/1/5/_/3/-/-/Reefing2.jpg

Splicing up my life

Bought a Sampson splicing kit. There are fids in the kit for  1/4" to 1/2" rope. Spent the last 2 evenings practising on some old worn out line taken from Santeria last year. Lots of swearing and screw ups, trail and error.

Built my first 2 successful eye splices with thimble tonight, one from 1/4" double briad, and the second from 7/64 amsteel.

I had to make a custom fid for the amsteel as it requires something very thin, and somehow magically hold line. Overall, 7/64 amsteel was a PITA (because took a long time to make a custom fid) and yacht braid was somewhat, but less painful.

7/64 Amsteel with Thimble

1/4" Double braid with thimble

Examples of splicing applications:

Genoa sheets
Reefing lines
Baby stay
Main Halyard

Lee Cloth

Purchased some brown canvas, webbing, and supporting clips for the lee cloth arrangement. I have reverse engineered the lee cloth design and layout used on Sumac, one for port, and one for starboard quarter birth.


Materials and cost:

2 meters of canvas = 24$ ( on sale, 50% off at Fabricland, GO NOW IF YOU NEED FABRIC FOR SPRING)
2 sets of clips = 9$
2 Sets of sewing needles = 3$
Strong UV thread = 4$
Webbing 6 meters = 6$
TOTAL 46$



Essentially, while under-way, sleepy pecker-heads will not sleep in the V -birth, and will instead snuggle into a 28" x 58" coverage of canvas with adjustable straps (for those of us that need to loose a little weight around our mid sections). The long side of the cloth (from the picture above, directly opposite of the strap side), will be fastened to the inner fibreglass liner, under the quarter birth cushions.  The strap end will be fastened to the overhead storage area shelf (see image below). Will see how this arrangement works in the spring when I get a chance to install.

Companionway Boards

Ou la la, new companionway boards. 

Went to Peacock Lumber and order 1" x 10" x 10' piece of Meranti Mahogany. I used my thickness planer to bring it down from 1" to 1/2" to fit in my companionway slots. I notched the board joints, sanded and applied the stain last night. Today I gave it 1 of 5 coats of Sunbar Spar Varnish. Very happy with the mahogany grain. The stain gives it a deeper brownish red finish than its original color. Can't wait to fit them in the spring. 

Say Bye Bye to the old plexiglass companionway piece!

Bart has provided some good feedback regarding how to latch the boards for racing (based on French Vanilla's latching system). Will attempt to do this in the spring.

My concern here is similar to the concerns raised by Storm Trooper (Soverel 33) in 2010. I believe that the same predicament and solution applies to Santeria, even more important to be able to permanently latch the bottom companionway board while underway.

Unfortunate for Storm Trooper, the companionway boards were the least of their worries in 2010 (de-masted in heavy winds).

LO300 Safety Requirements FAQ’s

Q. – It seems however there is a new rule that may not have been in play for last year’s event. Specifically it is 3.083, which seems to come from the Offshore Special Regulations where a companionway hatch cannot extend below the Local Sheerline for a boat with an open transom. A Soverel 33 has an open transom and the companionway entrance is lower than the settees but elevated about 10 inches off of the deck. Is the meaning of Local sheerline the deck or is it the classic sense of the term sheerline which would refer more to the top extremity of the hull. Would we actually be ineligible to race given this layout of our deck and companionway or are there other things that we can do, ie. Build a special companion hatch and secure it that extends to the top of the settees etc…?

A – you are correct in noting the wording is from the Offshore Regulations Cat.3. I am assuming the requirement stems from the concern of a following wave coming in through the open transom and finding its way below. I have always liked open transoms from a safety point of view, having once been swamped with a boarding wave into a closed cockpit with two miniscule cockpit drains, promptly blocked by loose spinnaker sheets. Keeping the water out of the cabin is the paramount concern, long enough for the outflow through the open stern or drains. I would recommend you try to have the bottom of the companionway blocked up to the side deck level with a secured drop board (Shock cord or slide bolts)Let us know if this is possible and we can put the answer onto the FAQ link for others to follow.

Auto Helm - Tiller Handle Modifications

During my last sail before fall haul-out, I was playing with the configuration of the auto helm in relationship to the tiller handle angle and location in the cockpit. I had already installed the epoxy plug on the starboard cockpit seat the day earlier and wanted to be 100% about the height and placement of the auto helm arm and pin before drilling holes in the tiller. In a nice 9 knot sail, I was able to figure out the required height above the tiller handle using wooden block and a hose clamp. A temporary work around on a not so windy evening.

Last night and this afternoon, while my daughter was sleeping, I had just enough time to create the base for the auto helm tiller arm and pin. The base is made of 2, 1 foot length pieces of 2 X 4 cedar, epoxied together. The tiller arm and pin for the auto helm had to be 2 1/4 inches raised from the tiller handle in order to be installed parallel with the cockpit mounting location of the auto helm, hence the purpose of this arm base.

A groove was router'd to fit the width of the arm down the center of the base.

The ends were tapered upward towards the arm groove. 

A little magic with the mitre saw and some sanding with the mouse sander returned a pretty decent looking base. I applied 2 coats of stain but didn't have time for the varnish. 

:

 The result mounted

The result, up close.

Cost of project, 4.50$ for a 2 X 4 cull cedar board (this board was badly warped but still salvageable, apparently Home depot will sell you defective lumber for 50% off the sticker price), 8$ for 3ft of threaded SS 1/4" Rod (couldn't find 4" SS 1/4" bolts anywhere). Nuts and washers I had from another project. The tiller arm was fashioned from an existing piece of 1/8" X 1 1/4" X 12" SS  given to me bykj another boater 2 years ago. The pin came with the auto helm.

Will complete the 5 coats of varnish next week after I return from 4 day of deer hunting.

Spreaders

While having the mast down, I noticed that the rivets holding both spreader bases to the mast were sloppy.

Each base had 4 stainless steel rivets. Needed 8 total. Finally found some at a Toronto based chandlery and paid 0.50 cents a piece. Rip off!

After removing the spreader tips, I realized that there was a chunk of leftover plastic housing that appeared to go completely around the spreader tip, separating the base and the tip. It was way down at the bottom of the base and I'm guessing this was likely original.

Spreader base

Throughout the 2011 sailing season, various crew members pointed out the sloppiness of the spreader tips at different points of sail. The missing / destroyed piece would explain their behaviour this season.

Aside from the missing plastic, the tips were in good shape with only a few wear points as a result of the missing plastic. The spreader base and tips were removed and were taken home to fix. I measured the thickness of the plastic piece removed from the spreader base and eventually found a $1.50 cutting board at the dollar store with the same thickness. The cutting board was moulded to the circular shape of the oval housing using a heat gun. An hour later I had 2 replacement pieces that fit the spreader tips perfectly. I replaced the bent, under-engineered 10-32 SS bolt holding the spreader tip to the base with a 1/4" SS bolt

All together, the repair of the spreaders was $5 for SS rivets, $1.70 for a dollar store cutting board and $2.50 for 2 new 1/4 bolts and 2 lock nuts.

I don't believe there is a store within a 50km radius of my home that sells 3/16" stainless steel rivets.

Cars...Cars... and more Cars...

Santeria is fitted with a high load, low friction car system made by Kenyon. Kenyon Traveller Systems are designed around a hardcote anodized Aluminum I-Beam Track that comes in 2 sizes. Cars run on SS wheels with SS Ball Bearings in free-floating races for minimum friction.

Originally marketed under the SEABOARD name.

Santeria has 5 different cars, 2 on the genoa sheeting track (6 pin), 2 on the genoa sheeting angler (4 pin), and 1 on the baby stay track (6 pin). Each pin runs on 6 stainless steel bearing. It would have cost me over 700$ to replace the cars. A company called RigRite still sells replacements for the Kenyon car system.

The project, take cars off for maintenance and repair.

What I found:

1. years of old gunk and grime built up around the pins impeding bearing efficiency.
2. Non stainless ball bearings, rusted together, really impeding bearing efficiency!
3. Inspection of the genoa car sheaves mounted to the top of the cars are garbage.
4. Some SS bearing had tiny flat spots from the years of wear and tear.

The solution:

1. A good cleaning
2. Throw out non-SS bearings
3. Replace SS ball bearings with flat spots (Ordered a bag of 100 SS 3/16" bearings for 8$ at Fastenal)
4. Fashion up new sheaves out of round plastic shanks until I can replace them...maybe next year.

The result:

1. Free flowing, smooth cars along the baby stay and genoa car tracks
2. The genoa sheet angling cars were running on ceased non-SS bearing and caused damage to the track by creating small burrs along its surface. I will have to sand and smooth down the aluminum burrs before the bearing will run unimpeded.
3. Found round plastic shanks from an old junk drawer and used these to replace the sheave.
4. Hours of swearing putting the bearing system back together 

The car system on this boat is now working much better.

Cost of project: 8$

Stern Navigation /Running Light Converted to LED

I thought that my stern light could be a little brighter and a little more power efficient...enter the LED bulb.

Went to a local automotive store and found that they sell LED replacement bulbs that would fit the existing bayonet of my stern light.

I found that the old #90 2 pin bulb was wired with the positive and negative wire running to each respective pin. However, with the new LED bulb, I found that the two bottom pins were BOTH positive and the negative had to be connected to the bayonet of the LED bulb. DOH!

Not to be defeated (and to take advantage of my $7.99 investment!), I decided to remove my stern fitting and re-wire the bayonet base to the configuration of the new LED bulb.




The bayonet base was easily removed from the rear portion of the stern light housing. I then proceeded to take the bayonet base red and black wire and wire them together (reason: as mentioned before the LED pins are BOTH positive so I will need positive contact across both pins), solder, and shrink wrap. Positive side taken care of.

For the negative, I would have to ground it to the bayonet base of the stern light. To do this, I soldered the cut negative wire to the spring inside the bayonet base (so when the LED bulb is fitted into the bayonet base, the spring is compressed, and thereby pressed against the basonet base, grounding the bulb).

The final product

Ok, now does it work? Yes it does. Here we have the LED sitting next to the old incadescent #90 bulb. There is a noticeable difference in light output as noted by the below two pictures.

The LED bulb draws 0.05 AMPS and the old incadescent #90 bulb draws 0.75 AMPS.

Lights On!

Lights Off!