Improved Deck Ring

Eolian's deck ring was not molded into the deck because the Downeast 45 was sold with three different rigs: sloop, ketch (Eolian), and schooner.  Because each of these rigs required a different mainmast location, it was impractical to make three different deck molds.  Instead, the deck ring was fabricated from two pieces of teak and bolted to the deck in the appropriate position for each rig.  

But there has been a persistent deck leak originating between the deck ring and the deck proper.  Various attempts to seal the deck ring without removing it had been problematic, working for a while and then the leaks returned.  Eventually, I pulled the ring up and resealed it with butyl rubber. And then there was the little problem at the joint between the two pieces of wood where apparently a piece broke off of the cross-grain at the end, leaving a gap which was filled with a glob of caulk.  In the reseal, I at least used a small piece of teak for the bulk of the required filler. 

But even this was not a complete success.  I speculate that the wood would grow and shrink with moisture, working the seal.  The answer was obvious:  replace the wood with something which was impervious to moisture.  I used Trex composite decking, obtained as a scrap from a neighbor's deck replacement project.  I carefully traced the outline of the wood pieces onto a piece of paper, including the holes for the mounting bolts, took this paper home and relayed the outlines of the two pieces onto the Trex and bandsawed them out.

 

 

I made the outside edges a little rounder than the teak versions because the hose clamp that holds the mast boot to the ring did not apply sufficient pressure to  the straight sides of the original ring, allowing wind to blow rain up under the boot - thus the foam tape applied to the outer surface. 

 

 

(The mast wedges bear on the deck edge, not the deck ring)

In the final installation (also bedded in butyl rubber), I also applied foam tape to the edge, just in case my "rounding out" the straight edges was not quite sufficient to make a tight seal.

This should last forever.
 

Improved Deck Ring

Carbon Foam Batteries

Recently a friend of mine asked me to opine on carbon foam batteries.  This is what I told him:

First, how a conventional lead acid battery works. There are two chemical reactions going on in the battery as it discharges... at the positive plates, PbO2 > PbSO4, and at the negative plate, Pb > PbSO4. (that's a very simplified version). But here's the rub... PbO2 and PbSO4 are both non-metallic powdery solids. How to keep them in contact with the plates (which, BTW are also made of Pb)? The solution which has evolved over the century or so that lead acid batteries have existed is to form the Pb plate into a kind of grid of fine Pb 'wires' supported by a Pb framework, one which will hopefully provide pockets where the solids can be kept in contact with the plate metal.

The carbon foam battery is a departure from this. In this battery, the 'plate' is actually a sheet of carbon foam. Carbon, because it is a (pretty good) conductor - perhaps even better than the Pb of conventional plates - and because (unlike the Pb plates) it is completely inert in sulphuric acid. But the primary benefit is that each of those millions of little tiny pockets in the foam serves to trap and contain the PbO2 and/or PbSO4 powders, keeping them in intimate contact with the plate.

How is this an advantage?

• First, imagine a standard car battery - it is subjected to vibration all the time the car is moving. Vibration loosens the powders, allowing them to fall out of the Pb grid, to the bottom of the battery, where they are lost forever from participating in the charge/discharge chemistry, thereby reducing the battery's capacity. In fact, if enough falls to the bottom of the battery, it will create a shorted cell. Consequently, batteries are taller than they strictly need to be in order to give a little room at the bottom for lost reactants. Because the powder reactants in a carbon foam battery are more intimately contained and therefore less likely to be shaken loose, I would think therefore that its plates could be taller while still fitting inside the standard battery form factors, creating a slightly greater amp-hour capacity in the same form factor.
•  Charge and discharge rates are determined by surface area of the plates. Not the gross size of the plates, but the micro surface area. Carbon foam has orders of magnitude more surface area per unit volume than even the best lead screen design of a conventional plate. Therefore, the discharge rates achievable by carbon foam batteries should be much higher (perhaps only temperature limited? I don't know).
•  Battery capacity (amp-hours) is determined by the quantity of reactants available. The more reactants, the more capacity. I don't know how the reactant storage capacity of carbon foam compares to the capacity of the lead screen plates.  
• Never forget that the sulphuric acid is also one of the reactants (not shown above). The acid needs to get to and circulate around the plates for the energy producing reactions to happen.  The carbon foam battery needs to make provision for sulphuric acid circulation in depth in the plates. I don't know how they address this issue. If acid flow channels have to be made in the foam, this will reduce the potential storage capacity of the plate.

So, carbon foam batteries should *potentially* have higher capacity and greater discharge rates, but whether this can be realized in practice will be dependent on the specific mechanical design of the carbon foam plates. This is an interesting technology to watch as it develops...  

Maybe someone out there with knowledge in the industry could comment?

Carbon Foam Batteries 

Hypervent Alternative

Some boats have a problem with condensation accumulating under the mattress in their berths (for some reason, we don't see this on Eolian... I don't know why).  There are several products offered to address this problem, but they all seem to have the "marine tax" assessed on them.

I recently received this tip from a fellow boater that addresses this very issue and thought I'd pass it along:

Bob,

As you know we are now living on our boat. The Vberth is our berth of choice but it suffered mightily from condensation under the mattress. We considered Hypervent , $9.69 a linear foot from Defender, 39 inch wide roll, and found it was sold here for $19.99 per square foot. Simple math says this is not a frugal choice. Then we found Keene's Driwall tm, a product used by the building trades to prevent rot and water penetration behind brick ( or similar) wall facing. $179 for 4 foot wide 45 foot roll, immediately a $90 saving even if you have 37 feet left over(it was only sold by the roll, no cutting). I managed to find an 8 foot piece from a builder friend of mine and we installed it. Success! No condensation and dry bedding. Total cost $0, even if I had to pay for it the total cost would have been under $30. Please pass this on to your more frugal readers.

Kevin

SV In The Mood

(I suspect all my readers are frugal...)

Hypervent Alternative

What A Simple Answer!

Aroma Diffuser

Why didn't I think of this before?

It lasts nearly forever and works beautifully!  Just be careful not to use a lot of diffuser sticks - a boat is a small place, and too much evaporating surface area will make the fragrence overpowering instead of just barely above the threshold of perception.  If one stick is too much, break it in half - it is the portion sticking out of the bottle that is doing the bulk of the evaporation.

What A Simple Answer!

Partners

Looking up at things

For several years now, Eolian has sustained a small yet nagging intermittent leak at the mast partners - where the mast penetrates the deck.  After several failed attempts to locate the leak or to pre-emptively stop it, I removed the interior trim and examined things from below, while it was raining.  And leaking.

I was relieved to see that the water was...

• not coming down the mast, which would indicate a leak at the top of the boot - one of the places I have very carefully examined several times, and
• not coming out of the foam deck coring, which would mean a wet deck.  Whew!

Instead, the water was appearing at the joint between the deck ring and the deck.  Tho I have repeatedly attempted to seal between the deck ring and the deck externally, it has never been rebedded.

Removal of the mast wedges

So I pulled up the boot and started the removal of the deck ring. I had thought it was a complete ring, but soon found out it was two half-rings, each held in place with three screws.  Well, not quite.

Half the deck ring is off

On the port side, the ring was less than a half, by about 1/2".  Apparently the end of the ring broke off, either in fabrication or during installation.  The pieces were cut from a teak plank - they were not laminated.  At the ends, the grain runs across them, and it is easy to see how an end could have been broken off.  What is a little more difficult to understand is that the installer solved the problem of the missing 1/2" of deck ring by simply filling the gap with what, I surmise, was a giant blob of polysulphide.  Now, after 39 years, it was as hard as a rock.

And so was the sealant that was between the ring pieces and the deck.  I had not given much thought to this, but the mast wedges driven in do bear somewhat on the deck ring.  And as a consequence, the rock-hard "sealant" broke loose from the deck instead of flexing.

Thus leakage.

Add a strip of 1/8" thick white butyl tape

After everything was dried out, I wiped things down with paint thinner and allowed it to evaporate off.  Then I applied strips of 1/8" thick white butyl rubber tape to the underside of the ring pieces.  I then screwed things back in place.  A couple of revisitations to the screws were required as the butyl continued to squeeze out of the joint.

Gap filled

The problem of the missing 1/2" of teak I solved by trimming down one of the wedge pieces and driving it into the gap (lined with butyl tape), and cutting it off flush.

Handy stuff

The final step was to line the complete outside of the ring with some self-adhesive aluminum-backed insulating foam tape, meant for preventing condensation in air conditioners, etc.  On the sides, where the boot hose clamp has little clamping pressure (the mast cross section is rectangular with rounded ends), I applied multiple layers so that the hose clamp would have something to bear against.

Does it leak?

Never thought I'd say this... waiting for rain.  To see if it leaks...

Partners

Silicone, again

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might remember my declaring my absolute hatred for silicone rubber.  Our Previous Owner loved the stuff - he slathered it everywhere.  He even used it to glue stuff to Eolian's vinyl headliner.  I removed the various things, but try as I might, I was unable to remove the silicone from the vinyl without damaging it, creating a bigger problem than I was solving.

Years went by.

And then Drew reviewed a product: Re.Mov.It, aka DSR-5.  (Sorry Drew, I can't find the reference in your blog)...

I ordered some:

Holy cow!  This stuff actually works!

OK, it doesn't actually dissolve the silicone (I don't think anything would do that). But what it does do is soften it and swell it, making it easy to scrape off.

I applied it using the end of a paper napkin, wiping it on the silicone over and over.  And then I lowered my thumbnail and continued to wipe back and forth, scraping the silicone as well as wetting it.  The silicone came right off!

I need to mention again that previously I had actually reached the point of damage to the naugahyde headliner in trying to remove the silicone...  and now it's gone!

If you have a Previous Owner like ours, you need this stuff!

Silicone, again

The Opposite Perspective

We have anchored in Blind Bay and Indian Cove on Shaw Island countless times.  But other than the obligatory trips to the Shaw Island General Store for ice cream, we have never been on Shaw Island.

There was one exception however, when we took a hike from Blind Bay over to the campground at Indian Cove.  Now Shaw Island is not big - the hike is almost exactly 2 miles long.  When we did that hike, we promised ourselves that we'd repeat it some day, with backpacking gear and spend the nite at the campground.

We took the occasion of our 45th wedding anniversary to do just that last Thursday...

Backpacking on the ferry

When hiking on Shaw Island, you are likely to run into some of the residents...  residents who will not gracefully surrender right of way to you or car traffic.

On the way, you will pass this charming little hut, where someone is selling locally gathered seeds.  On the honor system, of course.

The campground is lovely.  There are 10 sites, most of which are on the edge of a 20 foot high bluff directly above the beach.  All are supplied with picnic tables and a fire ring (firewood is available).  Water spigots are not far.

And then there is the beach at Indian Cove, one of the nicest beaches in the Islands.

The view begs you to just sit and contemplate. 

So we had the opportunity to see the anchorages we are so familiar with, but from the opposite perspective - from land.

---

Finally, being the gadget nerd that I am, this trip provided the opportunity to try out some neat things that I had received from my son and daughter-in-law as presents...

Backpacker's beer - No one wants to carry the weight of a six-pack when backpacking.  But most of that weight is water.  What if you removed that water?  Yeah, that's the ticket!  It's real beer, with a real head, and it is as cold as your water source.  You won't believe how good it tastes!

Heating water for coffee... and charging my phone!

Unlike almost all of our backpacking campsites, This one on Shaw Island has cell service.  But the battery in my ageing iPhone 5s is failing and needs frequent transfusions of electrons to stay alive.  Imagine my delight then, at receiving this backpacker's pot!  Yes, it does indeed have a wire attached to it...  You see, the base of the pot is a thermoelectric generator, and creates electricity as long as there is enough temperature difference between the bottom of the pot and its contents.

The Opposite Perspective

Now we can go

You know, there is something kind of irritating about Facebook's "Your Memories" posts, well at least for me, this spring.  I've been getting suggested posts showing us out in the islands or otherwise off the dock, and yet, here we are, in the first week of May, still emulating a teak-lined apartment.

Well, that has changed, finally.  Two projects which have prevented the boat from moving are done.  First, the compass binnacle and pedestal have been reassembled, and the throttle and gear shift levers are once again connected.  Oh yeah, and everything is now spiffy-shiny.

Recursive project completed.

The second project took longer.  In fact, the compass binnacle was kind of a fill-in, since we were trapped at the dock and couldn't move anyway.  This project was the exhaust hose failure - a much more difficult project.  After removing the old hose, the next problem I ran into was that tho the engine exhaust elbow was 3" OD and the old hose (and thus the new hose) was 3" ID, the water lift muffler inlet was 2 7/8" OD.  Undoubtedly this was because the muffler was a custom construction and 2 1/2" schedule 10 stainless pipe was used to make the inlet...  that pipe is 2 7/8" OD, probably the closest to 3" they could get.  I discovered this when I went to clean off what I thought was just some of the inner liner of the old hose from the inlet.  Nope, it was some kind of rubber tape, wrapped around the inlet to fill the gap in diameters.  It was also apparent that this was not the first solution tried - there was evidence of water leakage at the inlet, probably caused by an attempt to just clamp the daylights out of a 3" hose and try to squeeze it down enough to make a seal.  Not.

I gave a lot of thought to this, how to match up the diameters.  Finally, I settled on the approach the last mechanic had used - it has lasted successfully for 19+ years, after all.  OK, so since the old rubber tape was gone, I needed a replacement.  

I bought a 36" length of 2" wide, 1/32" thick, adhesive-backed silicone rubber tape.  I chose the smaller thickness so that I could make two wraps around the pipe, minimizing a leakage path thru the joint at the ends of the tape.  I wanted adhesive-backed tape because the inlet is almost inaccessible, and the tape would have to stay in place while I fiddled with installing the hose.  And finally, I wanted silicone rubber because it has a much higher temperature tolerance (400°F +) than neoprene or buna N rubber.

Silicone rubber gap-filler tape installed

Then all that remained was to "just" install the hose.  Because it was the least accessible (and most fragile, I didn't want to mess up the silicone tape), I installed the muffler end first.  That part was easy, being pretty much a straight shot.  Everything got a good dollop of silicone rubber RTV too, just to seal any small gaps.  Then tighten down the two hose T-clamps to stabilize the joint.

Next the hard part:  wrestling the alligator - bending the hose and getting it onto the exhaust elbow.  The hose is only slightly more flexible than a 3" tree branch.  This part took blood, sweat, but thankfully no tears.  And then two more T-clamps and the job was done.

Alligator: wrestled.

I waited until the next morning in order to give the RTV time to cure and then started the engine. No leaks! Woo HOO!

So, by the time you read this, we will be out at anchor in the Islands somewhere.

Yeah!

Now we can go

Project Recursiveness

Projects on a boat are rarely singular.  Instead, what usually happens is that one project spawns another, or reveals another, or enables another.  Boat projects are recursive.

In the current case, the initial project was not a big one. Our compass binnacle is a beautiful brass construction.  But over time, exposed to the sea air, it takes on, well, a "patina".

Patina

The binnacle is not difficult to remove.  The upper domed section is a slip-on.  With it removed, the compass can be removed by extracting two screws and disconnecting the wires to the nite light.  The four bolts holding the lower cylindrical section are then accessible. 

Now, the project-within-the-project reveals itself.  The small wood shelf that surrounds the steering pedestal has never been refinished since its original installation, many, many years ago.  I didn't do it because I couldn't see how to work around the throttle/gearshift levers.  But with the binnacle removed, it was not much of a step to disconnect the cables and remove the section of the pedestal containing the levers:

Add caption

And so the shelf can be removed...

Project II

I will take this to the shop to strip off the failed Cetol and run a router around the edges to smooth them (the original edge finish used a very small round-over bit and left sharp edges...  and good self-leveling varnish hates sharp edges - it pulls away from them).  I'll reinstall after 6 coats or so of varnish.

In the mean time, a trip to the shop and an hour spent on the buffing wheel, and Project I is complete:

OOooo shiny!

Project Recursiveness

Bimini Renewal: One Third Done

OK, as promised, here is the result.  I am one third done with redoing the bimini and dodger. That is, I have completed the bimini roof (I am excluding the side curtains and the dodger front from consideration at this point in time - the vinyl is still serviceable, and because these surfaces are not horizontal they have not suffered sun damage to the same extent).

I think it came out pretty good. In fact, it looks about as good as the original did when it was new and before shrinkage pulled everything tighter than a drumhead.

So, can you do this yourself?  The answer is yes.  But first, I strongly recommend that you view the following Sailrite video: How to pattern a bimini. There used to be another video on the website that took you thru the process after patterning, but they have apparently taken it down. But if this whets your appetite, then get this DVD and study it, thinking thru each thing that is done, and understanding why it was done.

First, nomenclature.  In the roof panel I made, there are three major piece types:

• The roof panel itself - the largest piece of fabric by far
• The sleeves.  These pieces of fabric form the sleeves which zipper around the tubing at the front and rear of the roof panel.  
• The tails.  These are the narrow strips of fabric that hang down at the front and rear of the roof panel - they serve as the attachment points for the side curtains (at the rear - on mine you can see the rivets holding the Common Sense fasteners) and the center panel (at the front).
• There are also some narrow reinforcing strips that go on the bottom edges of the sides to strengthen the attachment points for the side curtains.

If you decide to tackle this project I have the following recommendations for you:

• Use Tenara Teflon thread.  I can't recommend this strongly enough.  The special "UV resistant" polyester thread will last approximately 5 years (in the PNW - less in the tropics).  The Tenara thread will last indefinitely - far outliving the fabric.
• When sewing, use the basting tape that Sailrite sells.  The stuff you can buy in your local fabric store is designed to wash out and is a far weaker adhesive.  Use 3/8" for most seams and 1/4" for zippers.
• When installing zippers, make sure that they will be covered - that is, protected from the sun.
• Tools - you should buy these tools and consider them part of the cost of the bimini.  Your cost will still be far, far less than what you'd pay for professionally built canvas.
• First and foremost, a walking foot sewing machine.  You just can't do this work with a home sewing machine. I have a Sailrite LSZ-1 and love it.
• A binder of some type for applying bias edging tape
• This nifty tool set for installing male Common Sense fasteners
• This punch for installing Common Sense eyelets
• Please note that my project did not require installation of snaps, Lift The Dot fasteners, etc. so I have not included tools for their installation here.  But if you need these fasteners you should look carefully at the tools that Sailrite offers.
• If you are doing what I did, replacing an existing bimini, you can pattern right over it without removing it.  This allows you to get a better take on where the edges need to be, and saves a lot of labor.  You should apply the seam stick tape directly to the old bimini without an intervening layer of some other kind of tape.  It holds better, and yet can still be removed after the patterning.
• For the panel to install correctly and fit well, it is critical that you consider and think about things like this:
  

  When patterning, the line defining the front and rear seams (where the sleeves and tails attach to the roof panel) should be made, not on the top of the tubing, but rather 90° away on the front (or rear) side of the tube.  Doing it this way makes it simple to attach the other edge of the sleeve.  Magically, you can just smooth the sleeve flat against the roof panel and stitch the zipper where it lays, without making any allowance for the wrap around the tubing whatsoever. I know that doesn't seem right, but it is.  Get out some strips of paper and try it out - I know that I had to in order to convince myself.
  
  If on the other hand you need for the seam to be on top of the tubing (as for example if the seam joins two adjacent roof panels over an intermediate support), then you cannot simply lay the sleeve flat to determine its attachment point to the roof panel.  Instead, lay it flat, mark the edge, and then move it back 1.25 inches (I think...  get out your paper strips and confirm this number - it will depend on the size of your tubing) and attach it there.  Because in this case you do need to account for the wrap around the tubing, and it's a surprisingly large amount.
  
  If you should use a top seam for the forward edge of your roof panel, you will need to make the tail wider by half the diameter of your tubing so that it will extend the desired distance.

• You will face a decision whether to use "hang down" tails or "tuck back" tails.  Hang down tails are just straight rectangular pieces of fabric; tuck back tails are contoured to match the edge of the bimini to which they will be attached.  I initially made mine with the hang down tails, but I was disappointed with the way they, well, hung.  Because they are straight fabric pieces, they do not follow the contour of the bimini - they just look bad.  I made new tuck back tails, ripped out the seams and installed them.  
• When laying out the sleeves or the tuck back tails, the video may encourage you to use the pattern to determine one edge and then laboriously lay out a second line the desired distance away by making a series of markings perpendicular to the original line.  This is unnecessarily tedious.  Instead, lay out the first line using the edge of the pattern, pull the pattern back the desired amount, and lay out the second line, again using the edge of the pattern. 

As you can see, there are two more panels that need to be reconstructed. And that sail cover is looking pretty shabby too...

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Bimini Renewal: One Third Done

A Perfect Match

A couple of posts back I talked about getting some color-matched gelcoat from Fiberlay.  And I promised I would tell you about the results.  Well here they are:

Filling some screw holes and chips on the edge of a cockpit seat

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?  I must say that managing the gelcoat as you are applying it is difficult.  Just like working with polysulphide, it seems to get on everything, including my hands, my pants, and my feet.  You will want to keep a can of acetone and a rag handy. 

Before I applied it to the problem areas, I used my Dremel tool to clean them up.  Some were just small screw holes or chips as in the picture above, but one area needed severe remedial work.  I mixed the gelcoat in a plastic cup with a tongue depressor and then used the tongue depressor to apply it.  On the next batch I think I will try a paint brush for the larger areas - the stuff is pretty runny.

After it goes off, it needs to be sanded, a process I am way too familiar with from doing automotive body work.  I used 220 grit wet/dry paper, wet, and I applied blue tape around the area to be sanded so that I wouldn't accidentally sand thru the gelcoat on adjacent areas.  Once I had the patch down to about the thickness of the tape I switched to 400 grit, removed the tape, and sanded it flat.  Then a touch of polishing with some compound, and...

Poof!  Gone!

Yes, there is a little bit of white showing on the edge chip where I failed to remove enough of the Previous Owner's MarineTex patch.  I will grind it out and apply more gelcoat.  Again, a process I am way too familiar with...

But the color match is absolutely perfect!  Huge kudos to Fiberlay for a match well made!

A Perfect Match

I wonder if you knew

Say you have a boat, and say that the gelcoat has some flaws in it (but I repeat myself).  These might be caused by, say a dock that approached too quickly, or a wayward buoy.  Never fear... you don't have to live with those flaws.

Gelcoat is simply polyester resin with pigment and some flow modifiers added to it - there is nothing magic in it.  The magic *is*, however, in getting the right mix of pigments so that it matches the gelcoat on your boat.  You can do this (I have), but it is a truly tedious process and, for me anyway, very very challenging.  Instead, I have an alternative for you.

I wonder if you knew that Fiberlay will make up a quart (minimum size) of gelcoat to match your sample.  They scan the sample using not one, but three different light sources, take the average of those three results, and use that as a starting point for a manual match.  You even get a custom label!

(Pay no attention to the gelcoat smeared on the outside of the can, and don't let the can fall out of your car onto the pavement - the lid will probably come off)

The cost is surprisingly reasonable:  $73 tax included.  That compares to a quart of off-the-shelf Interlux Brightsides urethane paint which pushes $50 pretty hard.  Not bad at all.

Now, here's the tricky part - how do you get them a sample to scan?  If you have something that can be taken off your boat that has representative gelcoat on it (a lazarette hatch for example), then you are in good shape.  If not, then I hope you have saved all those plugs you cut out when installing instruments, etc. 

Always save those plugs

But even failing that, for an additional charge, Fiberlay will send a technician to your boat to do the scan - but I expect that the additional charge is not necessarily trivial, skilled labor being the most expensive commodity in today's world.

Next, you will have a choice to have the gelcoat mixed up with or without wax.

Wax?  Why wax?

You see, oxygen is a chain stopper for the polymerization reaction  that turns liquid polyester resin into solid polyester resin.  That means that the surface of a gelcoat application will not cure where it is exposed to air.  When you are making a boat in a female mold, this is a good thing, insuring that the next layer to be applied will bond chemically with the uncured surface of the gelcoat.  When patching this can be handy too, especially since gelcoat shrinks some while curing, and thus will likely require more than one application to a given patch.

PVA

But eventually, you will want the final layer to cure.  That's where the wax comes in.  If the gelcoat has wax mixed into it, the wax migrates to the surface as the cure progresses, sealing off the surface from the air and making a complete cure.  This is what you would want if, for example, you were spraying gelcoat onto a finished lamination on a male mold.  Or if you were willing to scrupulously dewax the surface before applying another layer of gelcoat.

I chose to have the wax left out.  And I bought a small bottle of PVA (polyvinyl alcohol).  This is a water soluble plastic that can be painted over the final layer of gelcoat to exclude air from the surface.  A simple water rinse removes it.

I will post some before/after pictures later... after the weather gets nice enough to spend time out on deck in the sun.

I wonder if you knew

New Spreaders For The Mizzen

Rot.

It's funny, isn't it - how something like this can prey on your mind - kind of subconsciously, but still gnawing away just below the surface.  Just like the rot - slow  but relentless.

Yes, I've known about the rot in our mizzen spreaders for a while now.  And I have been intending to deal with it for all that time, but the "right" time hadn't occurred - until now.

So I tied off the mizzen halyard to act as an auxiliary cap shroud and climbed the mast with my tools.  Removal of the spreader was far easier than my worries had been leading me to anticipate, even tho it had been up there for 37 years, untouched and uncomplaining.

More rot at the root.

I had decided that the replacement spar would be made from  pressure treated lumber (like the second-generation bowsprit) so that rot would never again be an issue.  Now if you have ever hoisted up pressure treated lumber at the lumber yard, you know that it is heavy.  And heavy is not good aloft on a sailboat.  But most of that weight is water:

To pressure treat lumber,

• it is put into a sealed vessel,
• the vessel is evacuated, removing nearly all the contained water in the wood as well as air trapped in its porosity.
• Then after a suitable degassing period, the water-based treatment solution is admitted to the vessel, and it is pressurized, forcing the solution deep (well kind of - see below) into the wood.

That's why the wood is so saturated with water when you buy it.   But if you simply let it stand in a reasonably dry place for long enough, it will return to a more "normal" moisture content - and much lighter weight.  In fact, the replacement spreader is actually lighter than the old one (which of course does have a lot of water in it due to the rot).

Well it only took a couple of hours with a skill saw, power plane, belt sander, and a router to duplicate the shape of the old spreader:

 

If you've ever cut into a pressure treated board, you know that despite the violence of the treatment process, the treatment does not reach the core of the board.  And since the spreader tapers from 1-1/2" thick at the root to 1" at the tip, and from 5" to 1" side to side, a lot of wood was removed from the surface and from one side.  Tapering the thickness and cutting away the sides revealed wood that was only lightly treated.  What to do?

People who handle pressure treated lumber day in and day out (building decks, for instance) have always had to deal with the cut ends of boards, where the untreated core gets exposed.  Long ago they found the answer:

Want to rot-proof some wood?  This is just the ticket

 

This stuff, which you can find now that you know its name, is just the ticket.  You just paint it on and wait for the solvent to evaporate.  Wear rubber gloves - its not nice stuff.

Add a coat of epoxy to permanently seal the surface.

Bed the hardware in polysulphide.

A couple coats of paint, and et voilà!

And now, even tho I still have one more spreader to go, it feels like an invisible weight has been lifted from me. The subconscious mental anxiety that was silently eating away at my contentment, my satisfaction, my peace, is now gone, just like the rot.

New Spreaders For The Mizzen

Parting The Veil

Here on Eolian, we are not television mavens.

Nevertheless, there are occasions when we like to be able to view television (NFC playoffs, Superbowl anyone?).  But when we moved Eolian from what was essentially downtown Seattle up here to Anacortes, we moved out of the over-the-air broadcast area.  Yes, that's right - here at the dock at Cap Sante Marina we receive exactly zero stations.  Zip.  Nada.  With our ancient Shakespeare SeaWatch 2015, that is.

So last fall I looked into the new offerings in the marine TV antenna market.  Surprisingly, the 2015 was still being offered, but we already knew how this performed.  And there were newer models too.  But ignoring the cheap Chinese ones left either a Winegard or a Shakespeare (which was also manufactured by Winegard).  And both of these had (what for us) was a difficulty.

The power supply for our existing 2015 uses either 12V or 110V.  On Eolian, it was the 110V option that was used in the original installation, presumably because there is no 12V nearby.  But both the new antennas offered only 12V power supplies - and had an overly elaborate switching enclosure that was designed to be installed in a standard switch wiring box like you'd find in a house... or an RV.

So I equivocated.  But as of the first of the year, Shakespeare abandoned Winegard and began manufacturing their own antennas.  And with these new antennas, the elaborate switch box is gone, and we are back to a power supply that can use either 110V or 12V.  Hallelujah!
 

(That's a temporary coax hookup)

As I mentioned above, Anacortes, is a far-far-fringe area for TV reception.  Our best shot was a couple of repeaters on top of Mount Constitution on Orcas Island.  But because of the terrain surrounding the marina basin, we are pretty well shadowed even from them...  and Seattle stations are irredeemably distant.  So, in my wildest expectations, I had hoped that we might be able to part the digital veil just enough to see those repeaters on Orcas Island.  Maybe.

Part the veil?  Holy cow!  It ripped wide open.  We get a total of 18 channels!  Yep, those from Orcas and more, and several from Canada as well. 

Can I recommend the new self-sourced Shakespeare antennas?  Absolutely and without reservation!

Parting The Veil

Nano-tech Experiment #3 (and reports on #1 and #2)

This is the third experiment with the Rustoleum nano-tech product called "NeverWet" - a super hydrophobic coating that can be applied from a spray can.  (Experiments #1 and #2 are here and here.)

For this experiment, we will be seeing how long the retained air film persists, and if the nano-coating has any anti-biological properties in sea water.  I think it might, since the retained air film could make barnacles and such uncomfortable, or might even prevent them from touching and attaching to the actual surface.  We'll see.  

Here's what I did:

• I took a scrap of fiber-reinforced ABS plastic (left over from the refrigerator refurbishment) and masked off one side of it.  The other side got the NeverWet treatment.  I suspended it (from the hole you can see, partially covered with blue tape) in the water off our finger pier at Anacortes on December 21, 2014.  The finger pier is a floating one, so the coupon will never be exposed to air, except when I lift it up for inspection.

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Report on Experiment #1

Experiment #1, as of Dec 2014

Experiment #1 began more than a year ago, in October, 2013.  For this test, I applied the NeverWet to our canvas sea hood. All was well until Nature's own nano-tech (pine pollen) arrived on the scene.  It coated and buried the NeverWet, and allowed water to once again wet the surface.  In an attempt to remove the pollen, I gently wiped part of the surface with a sponge damped in soapy water.  As you can see, that portion of the surface never recovered its hydrophobic properties.  Whether it was the mechanical action of the sponge or the surface tension-destroying property of the soap, I will never know.  But the portion of the sea hood that did not suffer from pollen accumulation or the soapy sponge is still every bit as water-repellent as ever.  From this I can propose that the coating is not strongly affected by UV.

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Report on Experiment #2

Experiment #2 began in April of 2014, when I applied NeverWet to our dinghy propeller. It was amazing to see that the submerged prop looked like it was made of polished silver due to the thin layer of air it retained while submerged.

We used the dinghy normally for the entire 2014 season, giving no further thought or special attention to the prop.

By the end of the season, the nano-tech coating had ablated off the outer 1/2 of the propeller blades, but was still active on the inner half.

From this I conclude that NeverWet is not suitable as an anti-barnacle coating for boat props (guess we're still stuck with Barnacle Ban), but it could likely serve well on things that do not suffer from the abrasion of high-speed turbulent water contact.

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The Future

It is the results of Experiment #2 that led to Experiment #3. Experiment #2 showed that the air film persisted while submerged over periods of days, and even in the presence of extreme turbulence. Will it be retained for months on end? And if indeed the retained air film is effective at retarding or preventing biological growth, NeverWet could serve for difficult-to-protect items such as depth sounder or speedo transducers.  And if the price could be gotten down low enough, perhaps NeverWet could even serve as a bottom paint alternative (for sailboats at least).

Nano-tech Experiment #3 (and reports on #1 and #2)

Origami Kayak

This morning while walking down the dock, we passed a gentleman pushing a dock cart with two unusual looking packages in it.  So of course we stopped to talk to him.  It seems that he had just purchased (at REI, in Seattle) a pair of ORU Kayaks.  And that was them in those suitcase-sized packages.

Huh?  Really?

This is a full-on 12 foot kayak, not a sit-on one.  Yes, it takes a spray skirt - it's a real kayak.  It is made of polypropylene sheets, the kind that have the internal bracing (you've seen light-duty versions of in lawn signs, etc).  It folds up (rated for 20,000 folds) into a package that is 32" x 28" x 13" and weighs 26 lb.

Go measure some of your storage onboard and see if it will fit...

(If you go to their website be prepared to be assaulted by an excess of fancy bells and whistles.  But do it anyway...)

Origami Kayak

On The Opening Of Ports

One of Eolian's two Previous Owners outfitted her opening ports with curtains.  In order to hang them, he used an extruded aluminum curtain track that was available at the time - the same track, as a matter of fact, that the factory used to hang the shower curtains in the heads.  But on two of the aft cabin ports, the installed track interfered with an overhead beam, preventing the complete opening of the ports.  (These are not the original curtains; they are the curtains that Jane made back in 1989, one of her "make the boat mine" projects.)

Original setup only opens part way

Unfortunately, the only fittings available at the time for attaching the curtain extrusions were these (now rusty) steel spring clips, which he installed by wiring them to the port hinges.

Rusty steel attachment clip, wired on

While making a recent Sailrite order (I must do a post on this wonderful company sometime soon!), I found that they carried three forms of the curtain track:

• one like the ones used on Eolian,
• one designed for mounting to a vertical surface,
• and one designed for mounting to a horizontal surface.

It was the last one of these that caught my eye.  With a little modification, a piece of this track could be used to mount the curtain track to the port in a much lower position...  that would allow the ports to open quite a bit further!  So I included a piece of this track in that order.

A little work with a hacksaw cut two pieces of tracks to length, and then removed the mounting flange from their ends so that they could be mounted to the port lens:

Hacksaw hack

Then I drilled holes in the track flange and matching holes in the port lens.  Using a couple of 3/4" 6-32 SS screws and nylock nuts, I attached the track to the under side of the top flange of the port lens:

Better than a wired-on rusty steel clip

The port now opens almost completely!

Open wide!

Look Ma!  No wires!

And yes, it looks a lot better.  Eolian has six more ports for which this treatment should be done, tho none of them have overhead interferences... doing the work would only serve to improve the professionalism of the interior finish.  So, yeah, that means that I will do them, but not as a high priority task.  There will be another piece of track in the next Sailrite order.

On The Opening Of Ports