banking and sailing

This video explains how enslaved we are to the banks and the banking system. It explains how people like me, who only use banks as a clearing house for our paychecks, are not liked. (Though in fact, even though we are debt 'free', we are still trapped). It is a little frightening.

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Perkin 4-108 is winterized

Ahhh, it is done. My first inboard winterization is complete. there was some worries as we bought the boat and never ran the engine. It started up like a charm:) A bit of a panic when I couldn't find the shut off switch........didn't think that all the way through...lol

Seacocks and thruhulls.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/seacock_primer
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/replacing_thruhulls
http://www.diybob.com/diySeacock.htm

I am in the process of changing all my seacocks and thruhulls just because I feel this is the weakest and most dangerous factor in our boats safety. Other that the sailing skills of the wife and I:)

I just learned through research that the thruhull fittings are made with a straight thread and the valves that are being sold have tapered threads. The two do not make a good combination. I have only bought the thruhulls and have not looked at the valves being sold at the chandleries yet. Here to hoping that they have straight threads.

What you see here is the bronze thru-hull, being held in place with duct tape from the outside. I had to use a Dremmel to cut out the old fitting and clear more fiberglass out of the way.

I have made a 1/2" plywood backing plate, slightly larger in diameter than the base of the seacock. My wife 'painted' the backing plate with resin to seal it from water. The next phase is to make resin thickened to the consistency of peanut butter and mount it to the uneven hull, insuring it is perpendicular to the thru-hull. By perpendicular I mean the plate and thru-hull threads have to be 90 degrees from each other in order to get the best seal between the backing plate and the base of the seacock.

When the backing plate is cured in place, I will remove the thru-hull fitting and put a bead of Silkaflex in the groove in its base to seal it. Then I insert it in the hole in the hull then have my wife spin on the seacock, (also after putting a bead of Silkflex on its base), ensuring the handle has clearance to open and close with obstruction.

I will then tighten the whole system from the outside. There is no obvious way to grab and tighten the thru-hull without a special tool, a tapered plug wrench with two slots milled in its sited to match the two tabs INSIDE the thru-hull. Cost is approximately $50.

Now, as I am a cheap bastard, I made my own from a 9/16 deep socket and cut a slot in the end.

Socket was an old find at a yard sale (less than $10 for the set). The benefit of the store bought one is that as its tapered it will fit multiple sized thru-hulls while mine is only good for that one size (FYI, its a 3/4" fitting).

We found mascot? Plus thruhull and sea cock replacement.

Since we own a Seafarer, I think its only fitting that Seafarer matches are the only official matches allowed on the boat!

The matches are a match for this, a brass oil lamp. "Oil lamp?" you say, "Thats old school!". But the beauty of an oil lamp is that it does not draw battery power! On a sailboat at anchor or at sea, one has to be miserly with power consumption.

It has been a frustrating four weeks working on the boat. We would get down there, work one day then life would kick us in the face and before you knew it a week would go by before we see her (the boat) again.

It has been slow progress changing the engine cooling water inlet thruhull and sea cock. what with grinding away at the hull to make room for the backing plate. Then Sunday, I ran out of resin $$$$. Like I said, slow. In my defense, this is my first thruhull/sea cock replacement and as it is such a critical piece of equipment it will be done right and way over engineered. When I am done with this, you could set off a tactical nuke in the boat and the thruhull, sea cock and the reinforced section of hull will remain.

Running out of resin wasn't such a bad thing though. The wife and I chased down many leaks and sealed them up. We had some massive rain and they were easy to find.

Speaking of the wife, she is a trooper. I was on the ground strategizing my next move (Ok, Ok, I was playing with the portable generator), and when I boarded the boat my lovely wife was upside down, head buried in the engine room bilge cleaning it out. She came out oily and grimy. She was the most beautiful sight in the world. How many wives would do that?

Now that we found the battery charger for the camera, I will document the thruhull and sea cock replacement.

Power boaters

This isn't a rant against all power boaters, just a lot of them. I don't understand how they think!

Hamilton Bay, in Ontario Canada, is enclosed by two (2) bridges. One is so high that it impedes nothing, and I mean nothing from passing underneath it. A hundred meters past it is a lift bridge with maybe fifteen (15) feet of clearance when down. (That is an estimate on my part).

I am not sure of the width of the restricted waterway that allows us boaters to travel under the bridges but it is wide enough to allow us pleasure craft to enter it along side the huge lakers (freighters) at the same time.

The lift bridge is raised at the top and bottom of the hour if there is a vessel in the channel waiting to pass. Needless to say, sailboats need the bridge to lift in order to pass.

This is where I cannot fathom the mind set of power craft operators. Small runabouts, jetskis and small cruisers flock there at top and bottom of the hour and race through the channel creating huge waves in the restricted water way. There has been literally dozens of these boats cramming in there when they could pass any time of the day or night.

Unfathomable.

Allan

New stove

This was the stove that came with the boat. It is similar to the Coleman camping stoves with the pressurised fuel tank, you know what I am talking about, the one where pump up the fuel pressure by hand. It has been replaced by a Force Ten, two burner stove. We got it for $100 brand new at a nautical flea market just south of Toronto. I will post a picture when I get one.

Three days after delivery...

Not to be confused with the religious term 3rd Day, it took the wife and I three (3) days to get down to the boat, our boat, THE BOAT, to really, really look her over. It was dirty, we figure about three years worth of unused boating grime. A hornets nest in a shelving unit. The fridge/freezer was a disaster, (more on that later), but overall, we did really, really well for ourselves.

This is a newish yard we chose, maybe three years old. here is a couple of middle aged fellows living on sailboats there. One of the boats belongs to the yard. They don't work at the yard, they live there though. The only power they have is from a  small generator, ( which they gave us permission to use). I say they don't live there but one of them crawled in a huge backhoe and started landscaping. I obviously don't know the dynamics of the yard at all but I like the attitude for sure.

Now the fridge, it was mouldy and I am sure not working. The top as so rotted it came apart in my hands. Not unexpected.I know nothing of sailboat refrigeration. The wife and I removed the coldplate, heat exchanger and compressor. This is the kind of trooper my wife is, while I was digging grime out of the fridge box, she was lowering the HEAVY refridgeration equipment to the ground! That is mans work my love, but thank you very much:)