Wrapped and rolling

The mast was wrapped with thin foam and the rigging secured to it and then wrapped with plastic stretch wrap.

Then it was loaded atop the boat and the vessel was shrink wrapped for the long haul to San Diego.

It was an uneventful three day run down to San Diego though she did draw a quite a few looks and she rolled onwards dwarfing the truck. She looked huge shrink wrapped.

The following day the boatyard lifted her gently off the trailer and lowered her into the water.

Four years building and she was finally floating! It was an incredible day and an amazing four years!

There are so many people that helped along the way and I am forever grateful for the  help and encouragement to git-er-done! I could not have done it without you all! Thank you thank you thank you!!

Rigging

We took down the wall and moved the boat to the middle of the shop for loading.

The trailer was backed in and the yardarm jacks were used to lift the cradle onto the trailer.

We pulled the boat outside for the first time in several years and rented a lift to put the mast up and rig her.

It was the coldest and windiest day of the winter thus far. We froze and tried to keep our fingers moving as we hung on to the freezing stainless wire and fittings. It took us all day with a few breaks to get warmed up but we got her rigged with all new 316 wire and stayloc compression fittings. Then we took it all down and moved her back inside the heated shop.

Dodger

With the launch date drawing near I put the hard dodger project on hold and asked Jerry at Mariners Canvas if he could put together a temporary cover over the companionway hatch.....nothing fancy, just something temporary. He and his assistant Justin came by to have a look and Jerry said he could put something together for me that would make do.

He suggested a temporary cover would probably be aluminum with plastic fittings to keep the cost down for me.

They stopped by while I was out fetching parts and put up the frame for it. When I got back I was amazed to see a beautiful frame out of one inch stainless with robust stainless fittings instead of plastic. Jerry smiled "Justin and I got talking about the conditions you may encounter and felt we should use one inch tubing and all stainless fittings. Its such a small dodger we have some offcuts we can use to keep the cost in line"

I was so damn happy! She was getting a stout dodger after all.

Jerry said it would be strong enough to sleep on and we tested it by anchoring a hammock to it and it didn't mind it one bit.

Thank you Jerry and Justin for a job above and beyond what I had asked for!

12/14/2011
Many folks have emailed and asked how to get in touch with Jerry, here is his contact info;
Jerry Holmes
Mariners Canvas
(208) 667-1903
 715 E Harrison Ave,
Coeur D'Alene, ID 83814

motor

For an engine we decided to go electric.

After doing some homework online we contacted Thunderstruck electric and ordered their brushless electric motor kit for sailboats.

The folks at thunderstruck were fantastic to deal with. They spent a lot of time explaining the system and what was best for our application. Their after sales service was first class and I was very impressed with this company.

The installation was very straightforward and went very smoothly.

Gary fabricated a custom motor mount out of half inch thick aluminum plate and mounted the motor to it at the top and two bearings at the bottom to prevent side loads on the drive-line.

A two to one gear ratio and idler was used along with a toothed drive belt.

The motor controller was installed behind the engine on the bulkhead and a drip-less coupler on the propeller shaft completed the installation.

Cabinet doors

We cut out the face panel for the head's cabinet and set to work on making a door for it.

A couple of decades ago an ol' shipwright taught me how to build these doors.

They are easy to make, allow good ventilation, and are surprisingly strong.

You can make them any size, I like my frames to be 1.5 inches wide and about 7/8" thick to allow them to be routered down making a rabbet around the edge to inset them into the door frame. This leaves me with a half inch thickness atop the panel face.

Once the frames are cut I run them through the saw with the blade set to half an in depth to make the groove for the slats.

We made the slats by ripping boards to the width we wanted then running them through the table saw to get the strips. A thickness planer was used to clean em up and get them all to a uniform thickness.
Then several coats of finish was applied and after they were nice and dry they were cut to length on a chop saw. This is by far the most tedious and time consuming part of the process. I usually spend a day and make a large number of slats at one time and apply the finish and store them in long strips. That way when ever I get the urge to make a door I have plenty of slats on hand and  just have to cut them to length and the door can be assembled very quickly.

I bevel the ends of the slats slightly to make inserting them easier.

For the frame I like to inset the top and bottom rails a half inch into the side rails. this hides the groove for the slats when the door is viewed from the top (or bottom). A screw can be driven into the top and bottom rails from the sides if you like to stiffen it up and covered with a nice wood plug.

The slats are simply popped into place without glue (none is needed) working from one end to the other.

When we decide what the length of the door should be we typically divide it by the width of the slats and then adjust the length slightly so that the last slat fits perfectly without trimming the width.

I forgot to do this on this door so the last slat is a little narrower as a result,...but it will be at the bottom and no one but me will know!.....well .....me, and all of you now..... 

Bending in the last slat.

Test fitting the door and panel.

Shore power plugs

One of our suppliers passed on this article (picture below) that was published in Latitude 38 magazine.

I found it interesting and wanted to post it here for others to read.

As a marine surveyor I often go to a meticulously cared for vessel to perform a survey and find the ends of the shore power cord to be badly worn and in need of replacement.  It amazes me how something that gets handled every time the vessel leaves the dock can be left to deteriorate to the point where it causes so much resistance that it causes a melt down or in the extreme case in the article, almost kills someone.

If your plug is worn it would serve you well to replace it. I have seen insurance claims denied for fire damage caused by faulty receptacle plugs, it is often considered a maintenance issue and as such is not covered.

When unplugging the shore power cord from the vessel turn off the main circuit breaker on the vessels electrical panel before unplugging the vessel. Ideally this should be done on the dockside panel but they are often locked or otherwise inaccessible. When the plug is disconnected while energized it creates little arcs that cause minute pitting on the connectors. The pits fill with carbon deposits that are created when it arcs, the carbon creates resistance that leads to more arcing, more pitting, more carbon, etc. Before to long you have created significant resistance in the connection and are well on the way to a melt down.

Moving along

Lately the focus has been on finishing up loose ends.

A wash-down fixture was mounted on the foredeck and tied into the water pump for the toilet inlet. The toilet inlet water pump does three jobs now; provides water for the toilet, the deck wash-down, and a faucet at the head sink. There is no discharge  thru-hulls anywhere near the intake so their is no threat of contaminating the incoming water. The head discharges directly into the holding tank and is pumped overboard from time to time when permitted, or drawn thru a deck suction fitting when required. 

I plumbed a tee into the toilet discharge line and took it up to a deck fitting so that when pumping the holding tank the deck cap can be removed and a water hose used to flush the holding tank.

A ball valve was placed on the discharge side of the holding tank  and a macerator pump was plumbed in.

I got the pump from a customer who wanted a replacement pump as he considered this one to be too noisy.

I took it apart and cleaned, sanitized, and rebuilt it, put in new check valves and installed it my boat.

The disassembly and cleaning was a thoroughly disgusting job as there was a significant buildup of foul deposits that needed to be scraped and picked at to remove them from the orifices. Even though I saved a few hundred bucks on the pump I don't think its a task I'd care to repeat!

A two way valve was installed and the discharge line plumbed into it. From there one side of the valve went up to a deck suction fitting and the other through a vented loop to the overboard discharge thru-hull.

The last connections were made to the holding tank vent and filter and now the toilet system is finished and operational....although not tested at this time. It feels good to have another system completed and struck from the "to-do" list.