Are you prepared for a hole in your hull?

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were flying along and heard a giant THUD as debris in the water put a hole in your hull?  If not, you should.  Part of proper seamanship is preparedness, and to me that means a lot of playing the "what if" game.

These two videos were fascinating to me.  In the first video we see what kind of strength it takes to put a hole in the hull in the first place - good to know.  We also see what it looks like when a big hole is below the waterline.  I'm glad that I haven't seen this in real life thus far in my sailing career.

What really surprised me was that the best tool for stemming a leak was a small tarp held in place with light lines.  I still really like the idea of the Forespar plugs, but what an easy trick that tarp is.  I never would have guessed it to be more effective than a sail used for the same purpose.

Watch the videos below, and spend a little time pondering what your plan is if this should happen to you...

Hugging the Furler

One of the many things I enjoy about sailing is the constant opportunity it provides to evolve by facing new challenges.  Sometimes the challenges are as simple as learning a new knot.  Other times those challenges test your skill, and courage.

I headed out one evening singlehanded for a quick spin.  There wasn't much time to spare, but I was determined to get a little time on the water.  I motored out the channel uneventfully, and entered the open lake.  The wind was blowing around 10 to 15 knots - mostly on the lower end of that range, and there were moderate waves.  Nice.

I cut the motor after raising the main, and entered a close reach.  Wanting a bit more excitement I then unfurled the 150% genoa and hit the gas.  Ravat healed over to a nice 15 degrees, put a bone in her teeth and took off.  I was enjoying the heck out of this run, and knew turning around was going to be a tough pill to swallow.

The wind continued to build as I put distance between myself and shore.  This is common due to the land formation off Rochester.  After a while I decided I needed to bring the genoa back to around 100% to reduce heal a bit and rebalance the boat.   I headed up a bit to relieve some strain on the furling line.  After uncleating the line I pulled, and nothing happened.  The furler was stuck tight, and no amount of jiggling or course changes were letting it go.  Looks like I was going to stay out longer than planned despite my intentions.

This was one of those moments sailing throws at me which put me in my place, and force my evolution.  It is not so much that a stuck genoa put me in peril, but rather that it knocked me out of my comfort zone and out of the comfort of "plan-A".  I began considering my options.

The wind dies down as you enter the channel, so I could probably motor into my marina with the genoa out and loose-sheeted.  Getting docked would be exciting in a cross-wind with the genoa out, but certainly possible.  Clearly, this didn't seem like the ideal circumstance.  Next I started thinking about trying to take the genoa down from the furler.  Again, this was probably possible, but would be very challenging single-handed.  That's a lot of sail to be flogging around.

The last thing I thought of was, why not go up there and fix it?  And so I spent some time working on balancing the sail plan so Ravat would stay on a course.  I watched the compass for a minute and saw very little change in course.  I made my way up to the bow, nestled into the pulpit, and hugged that furler.  After some investigation I discovered that the line had somehow jumped the drum and gotten wedged between the "fingers" and the drum itself.  Back to the cockpit...

A quick verification showed that Ravat was still holding her course happily.  I went below to unfurl my tool roll and grab a pair of channel locks, then back to the bow.   The waves were breaking on my feet and legs as Ravat pressed onward.  (The picture is a re-creation which unfortunately took place on a day with flat seas).  With a subtle bend I was able to get the line back where it belonged.

After inching back to the cockpit I came about and headed back to port.  Another small victory in my journey, and a short but sweet sail.

Got Butyl?

Whether you have a shiny new boat, or a lovingly restored Good Old Boat, you need to know how to properly bed hardware on deck or you will eventually create a nightmare that is hard to wake up from. Take this from a man who scooped balsa-turned-chocolate-pudding out of his rotten decks.

There's a myriad of goops you can use to seal things, and almost all of them tend to be a bad choice.  One of the more popular marine sealants is incredibly expensive, and incredibly hard to clean excess ooze from.  It also cures much faster than you typically want it to.

Then there's butyl tape.  It's not marine-specific, and is in fact used by the RV industry also.  It lasts 30+ years, leaves no residue, has better elasticity than most marine products, and allows you to easily pull and reposition something that you set incorrectly.  If you spend time researching best practices for sealing deck hardware, you will also find that most of the people who really know what they are doing swear by it.  Hands down.

The thing that I am baffled by is how hard it is to buy the stuff.  There's a wide spectrum of quality, so you can't just buy whatever you find and expect success.  This is something all marine chandleries and your local West Marine should be stocking, pushing, and selling like mad.  But that's just not the case. 

Until the day of rejoice in which the enlightened mariners of the world embrace an expectation of getting butyl in their own city's stores, please support someone who has done a lot to support the rest of us guys trying to learn how to do it right so we can afford to sail. 

Compass Marine Butyl Tape

I used this tape to rebed just about everything on my boat.  It's very high quality stuff.  Buy more than you need so you have it on hand long before it's needed.  A big part of doing the job right is having what's needed to get it done on-hand when the time comes so you're not tempted to cheese-ball the project.

Launching is Bittersweet

Ravat is happily in the water now, which marks the first time in three seasons of ownership that I've been able to meet my launch goal.  This is a big milestone for me, which is almost as exciting as the start of the sailing season itself. 

Stepping onto my boat in the water is magical; The slight rocking as my weight shifts makes me feel she is alive beneath me.  This is in stark contrast to the stiff and lifeless motion of the boat while cradled in the off season.  And so it was that I enjoyed my first steps onto the boat yesterday.

And then I noticed that the yard crew was wearing combat boots and had recently walked through mud.  I had spent three hours cleaning the non-skid before this launch.  Then I entered the cabin to find that the main bettery switch had been left to "combine" rather than "on".  Not sure why as the starter battery is brand new and fully charged.  Oh yes, and the engine cooling seacock was left wide open.

I'm not sure how this sort of thing goes in other marinas, but here at my own, no one gives your boat the love that you do.  All's well that ends well though, and with a bit of scrubbing she'll be her old self.  In the end, my silly grin overpowered the cringes.

Let the rigging begin!

Ships Log... First Entry

What am I doing?  I've asked myself that question many times over the past few years as I grew my sea legs.  Perhaps I should call them fiberglass legs since I spent the majority of that time working on the boat rather than sailing it.

The details of all that refit work are captured on my boat's web site.  But as I started to complete the bigger projects I realized I have two distinct tracks to the information I'd like to share.

The intent of this blog is to provide a venue for my thoughts about sailing.  Not about the specific details of restoring CS27 sailboats, but the experiences of a sailor.  One who reads sailing and maintenance books, internet posts, magazines, and everything I can get my hands on.  One who rebuilt his boat, and gets into a lot of different projects.  One who loves to walk the docks and observe cool ideas to integrate.  And yes, I even get out to sail my boat which generates even more ideas! All that reading, observing, and thinking gives me a lot of things to write about.  So you see, this blog is an essential outlet for me.

All the articles on this site will probably show a bit of a CS27 bias, and certainly the bias of a DIY oriented sailor, but the focus will be on the experience more than the engineering.  If you're still with, please clip your tether to the jack lines as we are about to clear the dock and set sail.

Installing a Carbon Monoxide Detector

One of the (long list of) items on my boat's last survey suggested that I should install a Carbon Monoxide detector in the main cabin.  I did some research on this topic, and I can't help but agree that there is some degree of risk, and it seems to be something that strikes in very unexpected situations.

My young son loves to play in the cabin while we're out, and this often includes the 20 minute motor in or out of the main channel which is difficult to sail through due to wind direction and other traffic.  If he were to be affected by CO poisoning I wouldn't even notice from the cockpit.  So yes, I'm in favor of adding a simple measure of safety.

The next step on my journey was to select a model to install.  Many people suggested installing a residential unit.  This has the benefit of opening up to products which are battery powered, and thus won't require running wires and ripping out panels.  On the other hand, these models aren't usually rated for marine duty.  Does that matter?

I think so.  For one thing, most homes don't exist in the constant state of humidity which boats do.  A cheaper unit could have connections which are more susceptible to corrosion.  More significantly though is that a non-marine unit may not be rated for the constant motion and vibration associated with being on water.  Is there a tangible and observed difference in build quality I can point to?  No, not at this time.

I selected the Xintex Fireboy CO Sentinal.  It's marine rated, and one of the smaller units I could find.  My boat is only 27 feet long, so I don't have a vast cavernous interior which has numerous places to put this hunk of plastic.  It's not a very attractive unit, and I really prefer the look of teak and brass to this.  Having said that, I think this is as unobtrusive as it gets, so I'm happy with the decision.

Now that I have a detector, I need to find a location.  And here's where it gets interesting.  The instructions suggest eye level mounting.  Is that eye-level when standing?  Or when seated?  Or when I'm lying on the settee?  After a bit more research it looks like the recommendation is to ensure you can see the little indicator lights, so it's more about visibility than mounting level.  The next suggestion was to avoid proximity to hatches or something like a galley stove.  That makes sense.  But what are other people doing?

I asked my owners association mail list what other people had done, and got back very little that was helpful.  I don't think many people have them installed.  Next I tried consulting the omniscient Google, and again, found almost nothing which described an installation process, location, or photographs of this project.  So I'm left wondering how other people have tackled this job, and why this project has almost no record of others doing it.  You can find a million detailed project descriptions out there for anything... Else...

I'm still debating the location in my own cabin.  I have a few choices, and I'm trying hard to figure out which one will let me see the LEDs, but not draw much attention to the rest of the unit.  I'm beginning to think that like me, most DIY boaters have a CO detector sitting in their lockers waiting for someone else to come up with a great idea to inspire them to complete an installation.  I'll try to come up with something over the next few weeks and post a photo which starts the movement.

120V AC Outlets. Still?

Yes, I'm still working on them.  The real problem for me is that the original box outlets didn't have a monster honking GFCI in them before, and that monster honking GFCI takes up a TON of space.  I couldn't event get the ground wire in place with a heat shrink terminal as it stuck out in a direction that wouldn't fit into the box.  I finished up the outlet in the V-berth, and eventually got the GFCI more or less in place.  I just need to tie in the grounds to the box and it will be done.  Then, I'll just need to finish up the wet locker outlet.  Very, slow, going!

The good news, however, is that I managed to get all my new halyards reeved.  I have to say, they look really nice.  The StaSet-X is definitely stiffer than the Sta-Set, but given how little I handle a halyard vs. a sheet, I don't see where it will be a problem.  I think all the talk about StaSet-X being unfriendly to handle might be awfully nit-picky.

I'm continuing to work on reassembling the shelves for the starboard outboard cabinet.  I had reassembled it, but inadvertently left the long shelf out, and the wine holder had broken way back and not been repaired.  I now have the shelf back in place, and have made a template for the wine holder.  Once I'm sure of the fit I'll cut a new one from some of my leftover teak plywood.  That stuff is so expensive I'll be measuring 10 times and cutting once.

The salon table's varnish work is coming out stunning.  It is doing exactly what I wanted and filling the pores to seal the wood.  I think the prior owners of the boat used teak cleaner one too many times, leaving the pores really eroded.   Although the going is extremely slow, after around 6 coats the surface gets to be a very smooth sheet of glass that won't let water do any further damage.  I don't plan to use varnish everywhere, but the table needed some kind of preservation or it wasn't going to look good much longer.  One sweaty glass of ice water set in the wrong spot would have been permanent damage.

I'm very anxious to get the table project finished because it has taken over my workshop, and the fumes from each coat really stink up the house.  My wife is being very patient with me, but I know it's driving her nuts.  And finally, there's just enough parts when you take the whole thing apart...  To make me wonder if I'll be able to get it back together the right way!

120V AC Outlets - More Delays

I have small pockets of time I can spend getting things done out at the Yard, and last weekend was no exception.  My plan was to get the AC 120V outlets wired up.  Not really critical to launch, but fairly easy and the aesthetics of closing up the box holes in the cabin would please me.

The first thing I did was to take a terminal screw out of the GFCI to check to see if it was a #10 or #8 terminal.  After determining that it was most definitely a #8 screw I set about crimping three #8 terminals onto the line side wire.  And then came the frustration.  I tried and tried to get the screws back into the GFCI, but couldn't do it.

It turned out that there is very little clearance for re-engaging the screw in the GFCI, and the heat shrink tubing ate up about 1/16", which was just enough to keep the threads from hitting the plate.  It looks like I have two options:  [1] Obtain longer screws for the GFCI, which will most likely risk causing other problems.  [2] Use fork terminals.

If I'd done this before or had properly researched the task I would have realized that the screws really aren't meant to come out of the outlets.  They are meant to be captive.  With that in mind, I realized I'd need to obtain a package of #8 fork terminals for 12-14AWG stranded wire.  Unfortunately, that means a trip to West Marine, and that would have eaten up about 50% of my remaining work time.  So, no luck on finishing that project.

I'm going to try to pick up the terminals this week so I'll be ready for a weekend installation.  Hopefully the second time will be a charm.

AC Mains are Live, Charger Works!

I had a very productive afternoon completing the wiring for the battery charger. I actually never needed it last year since I have a 20 minute round-trip cruise under power from the slip to the end of the channel. 40 minutes of 25amp alternator time has always completely recharged my banks. Despite this, I was anxious to get this part of the boat wired so that it was there if I need it.

I tied in the charger's chassis ground to the main ground bus, then ran all the wire for the AC outlet circuit. The original CS27 AC system was solid core 14/2 wire. This breaks a few rules. I picked up enough wire to replace it all from GenuineDealz.comusing 14/3 stranded boat wire. Next trip out I need to bring a GFCI and a two regular outlets to finish the job.

After running the wire I rigged the shore power cable up and connected it. I was a bit nervous as I flipped the AC Main on, but no problems occurred. Next I flipped on the charger circuit, and in a moment I saw my Victron Energy Battery Monitor indicate a charging current so I know everything was working. I left it to charge overnight, and will take it off tomorrow evening when it has had a nice 24 hours on float charge.

Although it is a bit of a diversion from my critical path, I brought home the folding salon table to refinish.  I've been dying to do that for a long time, and I decided it would be a nice thing to putter at in the evenings when I can't make it out to the boat yard.

This week should bring the delivery of my new running rigging, which I'm very excited about...  This season's progress and projects are going to be very exciting.  Especially the detail about not having any major structural work to delay getting on the water!

2012 Countdown Begins

I just set the timer - the 2012 launch goal is April 30, 2012.  I'm feeling pretty good about making that date since the boat is mostly ready.  She's already uncovered, and everything is in good shape from the winter.  At this point I'm in the process of replacing some running rigging.  I need to get my sails back from the loft from winter repairs, and I need to recommission the engine.  At that point I'm ready.  Bring on the early season - I'm not spending any wasted weekends in the cradle this year!