Another Ten-year Project

Well, almost ten.

Way back in 2010, I bought a pile of 6" square solar cells, with the intention of making a bunch of solar panels.  I had no idea that it would take me this long to finish this effort.  This was a low-priority project, dependent on acquisition of used shower doors for free.  Thanks to craigslist, I was able to find the necessary shower doors, but this took way longer than I anticipated.

Nevertheless, finished it is.  By the time I had built 5 panels, the remaining cells I had were not enough to build that sixth panel, due to breakage in transit, breakage due to my clumsiness (these things are *fragile* - in comparison, a potato chip is way robust), and missing collector busses.  The seller had included extra cells to cover breakage in transit, but sadly none to cover for my clumsiness.  I might be able to resurrect those cells with missing collector busses, but I don't know if that would give me the required 40 cells.  So for now, I am finished.

For each panel, no-load output voltage (at zero current) is about 22V, and short circuit current approaches 8 amps, as advertised.  But as I have mentioned earlier, you don't get to have short circuit current and no-load circuit voltage at the same time.

Something else I have learned is that the output of solar cells is temperature dependent.  The cells produce significantly more power when they are cool than when they are hot.  And that dark color means that they will be hot in the sun.  The highest output I have seen from my array is on a day that is mostly cloudy (panels are shaded), when the sun breaks thru (panels are in direct sun, but still cool).

So, a realistic assessment of the power output from these panels is about 100 watts each, at our lattitude.  This means that I have the capability to produce a little more than 500 watts (including the three little panels that came with Eolian when we got her).  That power is directed into a grid-tie inverter...  there are no batteries in our system.  In essence I am using the power grid as my battery bank.  The inverter turns the output of the panels into 110V, 60 Hz and pushes it back into the line, synced with the line power (if the line power disappears, say during a storm, the inverter automatically shuts off to prevent back-feeding the line).  If my home is drawing more than 500 watts, part of that draw is supplied by the solar panels.  On the other hand, if the house is drawing less than 500 watts, then the solar panel system runs my electric meter backwards.  (With a maximum output of 500 watts, I don't think I will ever need to worry about what happens if I end a month with a negative meter reading.)

Sadly, the day that Jane and I got the last panel up onto the roof of my shop was the first day of the fall rainy season.  I have yet to see what the finished system can deliver in sunshine.  Nevertheless, it feels good to tie the ribbons on another long term project.

(The remaining posts on this project can be found here.)

Another Ten-year Project

Mainsail Stack Pack is Done

This weekend I completed the last portion of the mainsail stack pack sail cover.

Wait... "stack pack" - what's that?

A stack pack is kind of like a basket - it captures the sail when it is dropped and keeps it from going all over the place.  Yes, lazy jacks do that too.  In fact a stack pack uses lazy jacks, but it also serves as a cover for the sail when it is not in use - there is a zipper along the top surface which closes the stack pack over the furled sail.

For our mainsail, the stack pack is 18' long - much, much too big to do the fabric lay out inside the boat - I did it on the finger pier next to us.  Because of the height of the sail when furled, the fabric wasn't wide enough so I had to splice a panel at the forward upper end of each side.  Somehow I managed to not take any pictures of the process.

Needs Viagra

When the sewing was completed, it needed to be fitted to the sail and boom.  This turned out to be a non-trivial task.  There is a lot of fabric, the sail is heavy, and there is lots of opportunity to get the straps that go under the sail hooked up to the wrong places.  It took me most of an entire afternoon to get to the point in this picture.

Next the lazy jacks needed to be disconnected from the boom and attached to the sail cover, and adjusted so that the (PVC pipe) battens formed a pleasant curve.  This required a ladder.

Finally, a piece of canvas (lined with sailcloth for added stiffness) needed to be cut to serve as the front cover.

Front cover pattern

I picked a day when it was sunny, warm, and calm (a rare event!) to make the pattern using Sailrite's Duraskrim (highly recommended!  In fact, Sailrite is highly recommended...)

Long time coming - done!

Then a morning of stitching on the Sailrite LSZ-1 produced the product.  Looks pretty sharp!  The stack pack also eliminates the 1-hour long procedure of reinstalling the old sail cover over the sail after arriving at the dock, and eliminates storage of that cover down below while we are off the dock... hooray!

Next on the agenda is a new cover for the staysail - the old one has shrunken to where it can't be made up over the sail anymore.

Mainsail Stack Pack is Done

Closure

I have to give all 3 of you patient readers closure on the generator issues...

It's done.  Finished.

I filled the fresh water side with water/antifreeze mix, opened the seawater valve and started it.

There were two problems.  The first was apparent even before the engine fired - diesel mist was escaping from the exhaust elbow flange.  I had been gentle with the 8 mm dia bolts that hold it on, fearing that I could strip or break them.   Apparently I had been too gentle.  A little judicious torque applied to the bolts solved that problem.

Next, after a few minutes of running, the engine started to slow down in what all of us with diesel engines recognize as the dreaded 'air bubble' somewhere in the system.  I bled it again (and got out some more air) but that didn't solve the problem.  Apparently there was now a bubble between the injection pump and the injectors.  Finally I started it up and applied a load (the water heater) which caused lots of diesel to be injected into the cylinders.  That did it - the air was swept out, leaving behind a smooth running engine.

So, this may be the longest oil change on record...  I started the oil change on 3/23, and here we are at the first day of May.

Gratuitous picture showing the finished product, again

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Closure

Almost...

It's hard to remember after so much work on the generator, that the original intent was only to change the oil.

Done, nearly

Nevertheless, here we are.  I got everything reassembled, with only a couple of difficult spots.

The first relief was that reinstalling the fuel line to the pump went a lot easier than when the filter end was firmly attached (I made up the filter connection, and then installed the filter...).  Everything else went pretty much by the book.

Old vs. New

But the new exhaust elbow caused a little difficulty because the water connection was rotated counterclockwise a little (see the little block bolted to the head at the far left in the 'old' view - where the wires go).  As a consequence, it interfered with the cylinder head over-temperature sensor.  But that was remedied by installing the sensor to another threaded hole in the head only an inch below the original.

The biggest problem was the wiring to the head over-temp sensor and the exhaust elbow over-temp sensor.  At the head sensor, there were two wires in the terminal (the sensors are in parallel - either can shut the engine down).  When I was sliding the connector on, one of the wires pulled out of the terminal.  It turns out that these are unusual terminals (read: Sebo's doesn't stock them), so I had to spend nearly an hour laboriously un-crimping the terminal and then re-crimping it with both wires firmly attached.

Done!

But I ran out of time.  I have bled the fuel system, but I still need to bleed the seawater side and refill the fresh water side of the engine.  Then I need to run it and look for:

• Oil leaks
• Exhaust leaks
• Fresh water leaks
• Salt water leaks

Hopefully there won't be any of these, and I can finally pull the curtains closed on this year's annual genset oil change.


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Almost...

Recursive Maintenance Continues

Maintenance recursiveness continues.

Being unable to budge the stubs left from grinding off the bolt heads, the only remedy was to remove the exhaust manifold/cooler to provide access for more drastic treatment of the bolt remainders than I could bring to bear with it in situ.

But...  before removing the exhaust manifold/cooler I had to drain both the antifreeze treated fresh water and the seawater from it.  This posed a problem because the genset and the heat pump share a thru hull, strainer and feed line.  Because it is still too cool here to do without the heat pump, I needed to install a shutoff valve in the genset seawater feed.

Genset seawater feed shutoff valve

This had it's own set of problems, first of which was a trip up into town to get some fittings.  Of course.  Despite the fact that I have a huge number of fittings aboard, none of them were suitable.  Then shut down the heat pump, close the seacock, cut the hose and clean up the mess from the drainage.  Finally, install the valve.

Draining the manifold/cooler

Now it was possible to drain the manifold.  Because Yanmar provided both drain petcocks and even drain hoses on the 2GMF, this was a clean job. 

And finally, removal of the now empty manifold was quite straightforward.

It turned out that the bolt stub removal was also easy...  because I took the manifold to Gustav at EngineTec here in Anacortes (highly recommended by Jason, and now I can add my enthusiastic recommendation as well).  An hour after I had dropped it off, Gustav called me telling me it was ready for pickup.  I barely had time to finish a post removal celebratory beer!

All I lack for reassembly is the gasket that goes between the manifold and the engine - currently on order.

---

I lay the blame for this incident at the feet of Kohler, the genset manufacturer.  Kohler adapted the Yanmar 2GMF to power the generator.  When they did so, one of the changes they had to make (in addition to relocating the oil filter) was to reorient the exhaust elbow.  The Yanmar elbow points straight down - that would have interfered with the generator body.

Kohler tilted the elbow to the right

So Kohler cut the elbow pipe off the flange and rewelded it at an angle to clear the generator body.  So far, so good.

The problem was that they made a dog's breakfast of it.  When the pipe was rewelded to the flange, the flange warped, making a seal against the manifold completely impossible.  Rather than redoing the weld, perhaps on a fresh, heavier flange, Kohler sealed the 1/8" gap using JB Weld or something similar applied to the manifold, and then to make sure, they installed two gaskets.  This all became obvious when I was able to inspect the manifold, and when I removed the gaskets and exposed the JB Weld (or whatever) on the manifold flange.  This crappy jury rig held for a while... perhaps 400 engine hours.  And then the leakage started.

Yanmar: 1
Kohler:   0


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Recursive Maintenance Continues

Genset Stage Three

Heads ground off the bolts

As I mentioned previously, I intended to grind the heads off of the bolts.  I could not budge the two on the right with a wrench without risking twisting them off, and the two on the left had corroded to the point where their heads were just nubs.  The plan was to grind off the heads, remove the elbow, and then use ViceGrip pliers to grip the stubs and turn them out, if possible.  The only tool that I could get to bear on the bolts was a Dremel tool with a little 3/4" grinding head...  it took about an hour for each bolt.

It's off!

Amazingly, even with the bolt heads removed, I had to drive a screwdriver between the elbow and the exhaust manifold to free the elbow. Corrosion products completely filled up the space between the bolts and the holes in the elbow flange, bonding it tightly. This does not bode well for being able to remove the bolts...

The inner tube is loose

...And this tells part of the story. The inner pipe was loose and had been ejected part way down the hose that attaches to the exhaust elbow...

Warped flange

And this is the rest of the story: the near edge (the bottom) of the flange is significantly warped. Combined with the loose inner pipe (above), this meant that hot seawater would be leaking out of the bottom of the flange. That seawater was supposed to cascade down around the inner pipe and join the exhaust gases near the far end of the elbow. Instead it was right there at the warped flange.

New fuel pump installed

With the primary and time-limiting task out of the way and the old elbow shipped off to Ben at ExhaustElbow.com, I had more room to work and more time, so I installed the new fuel pump.

Shiny new exhaust elbow

Late breaking news: Ben has completed the new elbow and will be shipping it soon! Gotta get those bolt stubs out!

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Genset Stage Three

Genset Saga Continues

Well, there has been a little progress.

Kohler oil filter stand-in

I have removed the remote oil filter mount, the (rusted out) oil lines and the heavy iron casting that Kohler installed to replace the oil filter and provide attachment points for the oil lines.  Holy cow!  That was not trivial work.  The banjo fittings at the oil line ends used 25 mm bolts, and it was pretty much everything I could muster in the confined space to break them loose.

As another example of Salnick’s Law of Recursive Maintenance, it was not possible to actually separate the oil lines from the engine because they were behind the water feed line to the sea water pump.  Since I had then to drain and disconnect the pump, this provided a perfect opportunity to replace the pump impeller.  The old impeller looked like it was new.

And while the pump was out I got the oil lines out, tho even with the water fed line out of the way it was still a complex geometry problem to unthread the lines in the cramped operation space.

Oil filter in Yanmar factory location (oil lines still in place)

In order to ensure that I had no leaks, I installed a new filter, reconnected the sea water line and fired up the genset.  There were no leaks, oil or water!

Next on the agenda:

• Replace the corroded mess of a fuel lift pump
• Remove the exhaust elbow and send it to the fabricator who will make me a new one out of 316SS.  This will not be easy.  Two of the bolts that hold the elbow on are corroded to the point that the heads are just nubs.  And of course these are the ones that are nearly impossible to get at.  To add, I can’t budge the other two... without risk of snapping them off. 
  
  My next plan is to use a Dremel tool to tediously grind off the heads of the bolts, remove the elbow and then use vice grips to attempt to remove the remaining “studs”.  Two of the bolts go into thru-holes in a flange on the block, so the worst case scenario there would be that they get drilled out and replaced with bolts and nuts.  The other two, the hardest to get at (naturally), go into blind holes...

And so the saga continues...

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Genset Saga Continues

The Boaty Way of Things

As a normal part of pre-season maintenance, I change the oil in the generator.

No big deal, right?  Should take less than an hour.

Before I remove the oil via a suction tube shoved down the dipstick hole, I heat it up - this makes the process go much faster.  I heat it up by running the generator, naturally.  So I started the generator.

After a while, it shut itself down.  Not the slowly chugging of a fuel starvation issue, but sudden - like I had hit the kill switch.

I pulled up the floorboard and was rewarded with an oil-spattered view...  the generator had spat out all its oil and shut itself down on lack of oil pressure.  What a mess!  Thankfully there is a drip pan under the engine big enough to contain the entire oil charge...  and that's where it was.  The part not on the batteries, walls, floorboards, etc.

I had had this happen once before due to the failure of the oil filter gasket, so I presumed that was what had happened here.  Consequently, I purchased (dearly) a factory authorized oil filter, presuming that the aftermarket filter that I had installed last year was the culprit.  And installed it. and filled the generator with fresh oil (whew!  that was the original objective).

When I started it, I was greeted with a spray of clean oil, right in the face.

OK...  not the oil filter.

A close examination revealed that the leak was likely at the oil pipe...  "Oil pipe," you ask?  Yes.  Kohler, the manufacturer of the genset, used a Yanmar 2gmf diesel engine as a power source.  But the Yanmar design has the oil filter screwed into the block in a horizontal position.  This means that when it is removed, it dumps a cup of oil all over the place, and more particularly, it would dump it outside the drip pan under the engine.  Kohler's answer?  Relocate the oil filter to the other side of the engine where there is a tight spot where it could be mounted vertically, and over the drip pan.

The fuel pump is in that corrosion... somewhere...

But sadly, this location is exactly under the location where the exhaust elbow will drip, if it is failing (uh oh...).  Yeah.  And so add the fuel lift pump.

So far, it seems that I need to replace the feed pipe to the oil filter, the lift pump, and the exhaust elbow.  Here are the costs:

Item	Cost
Lift Pump	$86
Oil Pipe	$209
Exhaust Elbow	$767

Now I want to put this into perspective...  A fuel pump for a big block Chevrolet engine costs less than $20.  And $209 for a 12" piece of 1/4" steel tubing??  But HOLY COW!  The exhaust elbow is breathtakingly expensive for an 8" long fabricated mild steel item.  I would have to bet that if I just bought the parts to build this generator from scratch it would cost as much as the entire boat!

In the boaty way of things, the perforated oil pipe cannot be removed without disconnecting and draining the sea water feed to the generator.  And a BIG wrench.  So, since I will have the feed disconnected from the sea water pump, I might just as well change the impeller there too, right?  Add another $40 and a big hassle.  And this presumes that I can get it apart without stripping any screws...

So, the current status is this:

• I have a new fuel pump on order.  
• I have a water pump impeller on order.  
• I will order the oil feed pipe once I have everything apart and haven't (hopefully) broken anything else in the process.  I don't see any alternative to this yet.

And as for the exhaust elbow?  I have a query out there with an individual who will build me one out of 316 stainless for far less than the factory mild steel one...

Salnick's Law of Recursive Maintenance

Whatever you want to do, you have to do something else first...

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The Boaty Way of Things

Actualization

As with many projects, the design and planning stages take longer than the actual execution.  Making a new sail cover for Eolian's mizzen was one of those projects.  I started thinking about this last summer, while hanging on the mizzen boom by one arm, way out past the stern rail, making up the fasteners on the far end of the sail cover.  I have been doing this acrobatic act for 20 years, but lately my shoulders have started to bother me, telling me that this process was going to have to change.  

Well finally last week everything came together and I was able to spend the time to put the plans and design to the test: actual sewing.

You really want to use a hot knife for this...

I unrolled the Sunbrella on the dock, laid out the pieces using a chalk line, and cut them out using my brand new, handy-dandy hot knife (you really want to use a hot knife for this work because it seals the edges of the cut, preventing unraveling).  The only tricky part of the layout was the placement of the cut outs on the side pieces for the lazy jacks.  To get these right, I tied the lazy jack lines to the boom at their design locations, and then stretched a tape measure along the diagonal that the top of the sail cover will make, taking the measurements where the diagonal intersected the jack lines.

Then the depth of the cut outs needed to be established.  I wanted them to be just deep enough so that the top of the cut out, which will be the bottom once the stitching to make the batten pocket is completed, would be just above that seam in the finished product.  Here's the detail on that:  I had determined that a 4.5" circumference would make a batten pocket large enough to accommodate the 3/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe that I was going to use as battens.  Adding a 1/2" seam allowance, I struck a "fold-to" line 5" away from the top edge of the side piece.  Then I laid out the cut outs so that their ends were 1/2" (seam allowance) + 3/8" (allowing for the edging to be applied to the cut outs) = 7/8" from the fold-to line.

The rest was just sewing.  The cover is just shy of 12 feet long, and there is no place inside Eolian to stretch it all the way out.  But sewing it over the saloon table worked out OK.

I mentioned that I used 3/4" sched 40 PVC pipe for the battens (the gray kind, rated for outdoor use).  PVC pipe comes in 10 foot lengths; the sail cover is just shy of 12 feet long...  a splice was necessary.  I didn't want to use a coupling, since that would make a lump that would make feeding the battens into the pockets difficult.  It turns out that 1/2" sched 40 pipe has an OD just slightly larger than the ID of 3/4" pipe.  So I bought a short length of 1/2" pipe, cut two 12" lengths, a slit one side of each piece lengthwise on my little table saw.  That 1/8" kerf provided just the right amount of clearance to allow the 1/2" pipe to telescope into the 3/4".  Assembling with pipe dope gave me a smooth splice.

Almost done...

I added ties that go under the sail using black Sunbrella webbing and Common Sense fasteners (not visible in this picture - they're on the other side). 

The top zipper would be impossible to operate if its aft end were not stabilized - a short strap there is seized to the topping lift line.  The finishing touch is a tiny block seized to the topping lift line just above the zipper seizing - and a 1/8" line loop routed thru the block and tied to the zipper pull allows the zipper to be operated while standing on the deck, not hanging over the rail.  Doing this work was interesting...  I had to swing the boom out over the dock and stand on top of a ladder to reach the aft end of the boom.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with closing off the aft end - I think I'll do nothing - the opening is not large enough to bother with. 

I still need to make a front panel that wraps around the mast - the zippers that will attach it to the sail cover are already installed on the sail cover.

And I haven't yet cut the lazy jack lines to length - I think I am going to fiddle with them a little more - I want to see how things settle in with some use.

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Actualization

Still Thinking...

Design notes

For some reason which is obscure to me,when I am designing something, all my ideas and calculations end up on sticky notes.  This pile is right next to the laptop that I am typing on, right now.  Every design idea I have had on the new mizzen stack-pack is in that pile.  Scary, really.

But sticky notes are not the only tool I use.  For the layout on the fabric (and determining, therefore, how much fabric to order), I used LibreOffice's draw tool, with a scale of 1" = 1':

The order to Sailrite has been made (7 yd of the 46" wide Erin Green fabric, plus a whole bunch of notions: zippers, fasteners, etc). 

And delivered.

Now all I need to get going is weather decent enough to go out and lay out the cuts on the fabric... out on the dock.  Can't do it inside - the panels are 12 feet long.

Waiting for spring...

Still Thinking...

Stack Pack, Step I: Thinking

 It's cold outside.

Eolian sits in her slip, double-tied and with our additional "winter fenders" as prevention against the winter storms, with temperatures in the 20's, 30's and 40's and winds the same.  It is a time for dreaming, for planning.  (Well, except for the occasional repair, like the lazarette drainage problem which I'll write about some time...).

So what am I thinking about?  I'm designing, in my head, a stack pack sail cover for our mizzen.  I like to have the whole of a project firmly understood, run thru completely in my head...  before I start.  There are always surprises, but this minimizes them.

Why the sail cover?  First, our existing sail cover is shot.  It will make it thru this winter, but the next one is doubtful.  So some kind of sail cover is called for.  But why a stack pack?  I assure you, this not a fashion statement - there is a sound design reason.  Eolian's mizzen boom extends well beyond the stern rail:

Can you imagine putting on a conventional sail cover?  How would you do it?  Well, what this 69-year old man has to do is stand on the stern rail, wrap his right arm over the boom, and with only his left hand reach waaay out there to the end of the boom and single-handedly make up the three Common Sense fasteners on the cover at the end of the boom.  I haven't fallen in the water yet.  Yet.  But my right shoulder has been giving me some trouble of late, and so I can see the end of this procedure coming...  A stack pack solves the "dangling old man" problem.

A stack pack is supported by lazy jacks, which I installed last fall as the first step in this process.  This brings us to the first design issue:  how to actually support the cover with the lazy jack lines.  You might think that this was a "solved" problem.  Not so, by any means.  A walk down E dock showed this:

1. Lazy jacks attached to short straps sewn to the cover

2. Lazy jacks attached directly to the batten thru a grommet in the cover.  Note that there is no provision for adjustment of the lazy jack leg length

3. Openings cut in the batten support tube and lazy jacks tied to the batten

4. Lazy jacks attached to full-length straps sewn to the cover

All of these sail covers were professionally made; all are different.  In each case, I find something that is objectionable:

• Two sail covers, examples 1 and 4, have the jack lines attach to straps;  the batten provides no vertical support.  Consequently the cover "drapes" around the straps.  Example 4 provides far better support for the cover fabric than does example 1.
• Example 2 has the jack lines supporting the batten directly, but because of the single grommet hole, there is only a line entry.  I conclude that the line is terminated on the batten internally.  That must mean that there is no provision for adjustment of the jack line lengths.
• Example 3 also has the jack line support going directly to the batten.  In this case, the lines are tied around the batten which gives good shape to the cover (as in example 2).  However, all jack lines have a forward component to their pull.  As you can see, this has caused the attachment to slide forward against the opening of the fabric and will eventually cause a chafing problem there.

I have decided to use a variation of example 3.  In my case, I will drill a hole in the batten (sched 40 PVC pipe), and pass the jack line end thru that hole.  This fixes its location on the batten and yet provides for adjustment of the jack line length.

In order to make those openings in the cover to admit the jack lines, I will make the cover sides of two pieces of fabric: a side and a top.  If it were a single piece, sewn to make a loop or pocket for the batten (as for example, in the Sailrite design), cutting and finishing the openings out in the middle of a large piece of fabric would be very difficult.  In addition, if the top edge of the sail cover is to have any curve at all (a curved sheer is always more graceful than a straight one...), then the side of the cover and the top must be made of two separate pieces of fabric.

I think I have the seaming details worked out:

• Cut out the fabric pieces, and then for each side of the cover:
• Cut out the jack line openings in the top edge of the side piece.
• Apply finishing binding to the edges of the cut out openings
• Sew the top surface to the side surface at the top edges, wrong sides together
• Make a loop or pocket with the stitched seam folding it back against the side piece, leaving sufficient room to slide in the batten pipe.  Stitch it down.
• Done properly, this should provide lazy jack openings which are finished on all but the bottom edge; the bottom edge is formed by the seam between the side and the top.

See what I mean by "thinking it out?"

OK, now I have to think about the forward and aft ends of the cover and what they will look like...

Stack Pack, Step I: Thinking

A Plea For Help

Eolian is a ketch.  And her mizzen boom extends out considerably beyond the stern rail.  As you might expect, this makes putting the sail cover on the mizzen rather a difficult proposition.

For 19 years I have been standing on the stern bulwark, draping my right arm over the boom and inching my way out until my body is at nearly a 45° angle.  Then, using only my left hand, I have to make up the common sense fasteners at the end of the sail cover.  Not exactly the safest thing I could do.

And now, arthritis in my right shoulder is making that a painful activity as well, as you might imagine.  Combine this with the fact that besides me, the mizzen sail cover is also old and rapidly failing (will it survive the storms of winter?  Who knows?), and well it is obvious that something needs to be done.

It's new sail cover time.

And in the intervening 30 (40?) years since that sail cover was made, a new idea has appeared:  the Stack-pack sail cover.  It really is a new idea, and like all new ideas, there are still some kinks to be worked out in the design, for instance where the cover wraps around the mast.  A walk around the marina will show you that there are multiple ways to create a stack-pack cover, and that standardization has yet to occur.

Flush with my recent success with creating new roof panels for our bimini and dodger, I am going to tackle making a stack-pack cover for our mizzen.  But before I start a project like this, I need to have the whole design in my head.  And I am not there yet.

For me, the critical part of the design is the attachment of the lazy jacks to the cover.  Should there be straps that they tie to?  I've seen several like that, including the custom one that Ullman Sails made for the Sun Deehr 56 across the dock from us.  Wouldn't the design be stronger if the straps somehow wrapped around or supported the battens?  How to actually do that?  Should the batten be at the highest point of the side of the cover? Or down the side a little like on the Ullman cover?  If I support the sail cover with webbing wrapped around the batten, won't it naturally try to be the highest point of the cover?  See, my concept of the stack-pack is that the lazy jacks, the battens and the webbing form a framework, and that the fabric is just a cover for the framework.

Sailrite, my go-to gurus for marine canvas, have a video up covering construction of a stack-pack, but it appears that it was their initial design that they documented in the video.  Their lazy jack attachment was made by burning holes in the fabric and tying the lazy jacks thru them around the batten.  That satisfies my desire to have the lazy jacks support the batten, but seems unnecessarily crude.  And there is nothing to keep the lazy jacks from creeping up along the batten until they are at the upper edge of the burned holes in the fabric, and then pulling on the fabric, making wrinkles.

So.  This is a plea for help. 

I can't start the project until I solve this dilemma.  If anyone of my readers has a stack-pack sail cover that addresses this, or better yet has constructed a sail cover that addresses this, I'd love to see pictures of how it was made, in particular how lazy jack attachment and batten support were done.

Anyone?

A Plea For Help

Bimini Canvas: Cost

In the "last" post (OK, now this one is the last post...) on the bimini canvas renewal, Kelvin asked what the final cost was.  I'm afraid I can't give that because I used some supplies from earlier projects.  But what I can do is to make an estimate on materials costs, based on the Sailrite catalog I have here on board (check the Sailrite website for current prices):

Item	Quantity	Unit Cost	Extended Cost
Sunbrella, Erin Green, 46" wide	10 yd	16.95	169.50
DuraSkrim	10 yd	2.95	29.50
Binding tape, 3/4", Erin Green	80 ft	0.50	40.00
Zipper, #10, 48"	6	7.50	45.00
Zipper, #10, 60"	4	8.70	34.80
Zipper Pull, #10	10	1.70	17.00
Zipper Stop, Stainless	2 packs of 10	2.50	5.00
Common Sense fastener, male	50	0.60	30.00
Common Sense fastener, eyelet	17	0.195	3.32
Rivet	100	0.15	15.00
Seam Stick, 3/8"	1	8.95	8.95
Seam Stick, 1/4"	1	6.95	6.95
TOTAL			$405.02

I also bought some tools that, tho they were used in this project, will be used again in future projects.  I don't know if these should be charged against this project or not (you decide), but you should definitely have these tools to do the work:

Item	Cost
Rivet Setting Tool Kit	89.00
Common Sense Eyelet Hole Punch	69.50

I did not include the cost of the thread because I bought a large spool years ago and have been using it since.  You definitely want the Teflon Tenara thread or equivalent - it will outlast your boat.  Don't settle for polyester thread.

And finally, you need a heavy-duty sewing machine to handle this.  I heartily recommend the Sailrite LS-1 or LSZ-1 (zig zag - if you intend to sew sails).  They are expensive and worth it.  We got ours used for less than half the new cost.


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Bimini Canvas: Cost

The Third Shoe Has Dropped

Finally, I have completed the last of the three cockpit bimini canvas pieces:  the center section.  This panel is zipped to each of the forward and aft roof panels, meaning that its size is completely dependent on the placement of those two panels; they had to be completed first.

But because the old center panel had to continue in service until the new one was fabricated, the forward and aft panels had to be properly located.  In other words, because I did this work in sections instead of all at once, the new roof duplicated the old completely...

Because the old center panel fit perfectly, rather than pattern the center panel with DuraSkrim I chose to simply roll out some Sunbrella and trace the outline of the old center onto it.  The size is not terribly critical; instead it is the zipper placement that is crucial.  That being the case, I did a lot of measuring and annotating on the old center panel:

Again, placement of the zippers is what controls the fit here.  So I measured outside-tooth to outside-tooth at perhaps a dozen stations along the old panel.  Then, when applying the zippers to the new panel, I duplicated the station locations and ensured that the zippers conformed to the measurements.

I have learned thru this project that zipper position in a lengthwise direction is also critical, especially when there are pairs spanning the length.  To make this work out properly, I followed these steps:

• Locate the centers of both the old and new panels by folding in half, and mark them.
• Install the old center panel, and transfer the center markings to the forward and aft panels.
• Work on one edge at a time, I started with the aft edge.  Install one of the new zipper halves to the aft panel zipper.
• Hold up the new panel, matching the center marks.
• While continuing to hold the panel in place (you may need help here), make match marks on the new zipper half and the center panel an inch or three away from the center.
• Remove the new zipper half from the aft panel.
• Position the new zipper half on the new panel using SeamStick basting tape, matching up the match marks.  Note:  at this point, with no other reference it is not possible to exactly locate the zipper width-wise.  Instead, using another new zipper half on the opposite edge, simply ensure that zipper placement will allow both zippers to fall approximately equally on the fabric.  Exact spacing at the measurement stations will be established when the opposite zipper half is installed.
• After sewing the first zipper half, take the panel out to the cockpit again and zip it up.  Install another new zipper half on the other aft panel zipper.
• Pull the panel firm athwartship, and make match marks on the new zipper half.
• Following the steps above, install the second zipper half.

At this point, zipper installation is half done, with the attachment to the aft panel complete.  Complete the forward zippers in a similar fashion, with these two modifications:

• When establishing the position of the first zipper half, match up the centerline marks as before.  But this time, slide the panel a little port and starboard, watching for wrinkles to form and dissipate.  You are looking for that placement where there are no wrinkles - it may fall when the centerlines are not quite matched up.  Match mark the zipper half and the new panel.
• When sticking the zippers in place with SeamStick, be very, very careful to get the outside-tooth to outside-tooth spacing at the measurement stations the same as on the old panel.

Ta DAAA!

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The Third Shoe Has Dropped

Ratty Port Replacement

One of two failing ratty fixed ports

Last summer while doing gelcoat repair, I mentioned that the ratty fixed ports on Eolian's aft-facing cabin house were long overdue for replacement. Well, now is that time.

Even Plexiglas eventually falls prey to the relentless UV from the sun, tho it lasts far, far longer than Lexan - this port is 38 years old.  If it had been polycarbonate, it would have looked much worse after only 5 years.

Tho there are no leaks (yet!), the bedding is overdue for replacement, as well as the port.

Removing the port was easy.  Back out the screws on the inside, and then push it out.  No, that bedding was definitely NOT firmly holding the port in place.  Tho it was clearly not leaking, there appeared to be no reason for that except for habit.

The next problem was that the new port is a little larger than the old one (well, I guess that's better than the reverse...).  First I taped over the entire area with some white duct tape I had on board to protect it from the vibrating sabersaw table.  Then I used the outer trim ring of the new port as a stencil, and marked a cut line.  My trusty (but crummy - I gotta get a better one) saber saw with a grit-edge blade cut thru the 1" thick sandwich of fiberglass, foam, fiberglass with relative ease.  To constrain the mess, Jane was  inside with a shop vac positioned to catch the dust and chips.

(Note to self:  Next time, just tape some plastic over the inside and clean up afterwards - that will be more effective and easier.)

The new opening port is a little larger than the old one.

Before the final installation, one more step was necessary.  Because we often sit on the back deck and lean against the bulkhead that has this port (and a second one, which will also get replaced), it was necessary to trim the spigot to a minimum projection - for comfort.  So I installed the port, held the trim ring in place, and traced around the projecting spigot with a ballpoint pen.

Then I removed the port and laboriously cut off the extra spigot length with a hand hacksaw (the same one I used to cut the exhaust hose...).  I preferred to use a hand tool for this job because, tho it cut slowly...  it cut at a speed that permitted me to maintain a uniform 1/8" from the pen marking.  After cutting, I used a fine file to smooth off the saw cut markings, and break the resulting sharp edges slightly.

Trimmed and ready for final caulking

Before final installation, I carefully sealed the exposed foam core in the opening with the same silicone that Beckson requires for bedding the port*.  If there was any leakage in the future, I didn't want it to get into the core.  Then I injected silicone into the gap between the port and the deckhouse, and smeared a little on the back side of the trim ring.  Press the trim ring into place, some clean up, and it is done!

Now, one more to go, and then all the fixed and opening ports on the boat will have been replaced, giving us a total of 11 opening ports.

---

* I hate the use of silicone on a boat, but this is one of the few places that I will use it.  In this case, it is because Beckson specifies it.

Ratty Port Replacement

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

Canvas - Round Two Completed!

Round two of cockpit canvas replacement - the roof section of the dodger - is done!  Here's how it went:

Topstitching the aft tail seam

Having completed the actual construction of the panel, I needed to create the attachment to the "windshield" portion of the dodger. The original canvas had the roof and the windshield sewn together, making a hugely unwieldly thing, almost impossible to handle with all the compound curvature and the easily damaged vinyl.  As I reported last time, I made a design decision:  The new roof panel would be separate, and attach to the windshield via Common Sense fasteners.

So, how to locate those fasteners?  For a taut roof panel, the fasteners need to be in the exact right spot, and further, the eyelets and male portions need to end up in registration with each other.  How to do this?  I solve problems like this as I am falling asleep and letting my subconscious work on them.  This is the procedure I came up with: 

• Mark, on the tuck back tail of the new roof panel the desired location for fasteners - this portion will show in the final installation
• Place the new roof panel in place, carefully aligning the sides, and positioning the front seam on the front surface of the tube, as designed.  You'll note that the old panel seam (built by a professional) missed the tube by as much as an inch in the center.
• Insert T-pins at the marked locations.  By pushing them all the way in, they made a good solid temporary connection because the vinyl in the windshield gripped them, allowing tension to be applied so that wrinkles could be worked out.  Adjust the T-pin locations in the windshield as required (keep the pin locations in the tail as marked since, again, these will show) and reposition as needed for a good fit everywhere.
• Mark exactly the T-pin locations on both the tuck back tail, and the windshield.  To mark the windshield, pull a pin part way out, giving enough room to work under the tail, but keeping the location established.  Since this is all done with the existing canvas all in place, it is easy because the old roof panel is keeping the windshield tensioned and in place.

T-pins for alignment

• Pull the new canvas off
• Punch holes in the windshield using Sailrite's Common Sense punch...  this is the only way to do this, given that 4 layers of Sunbrella and the vinyl need to be cut.  Jane was inside, with a buck made out of a 6" piece of railroad track with a piece of Starboard taped on as the working surface.  Without something to work against, the punch would not have worked.
• Install the eyelets in the windshield.

Holes punched and eyelets installed

• Install the male portions of the fasteners on the tuck back tail of the new canvas.  Getting the male fastener mounting holes in the right place cannot be done by eyeball.  I made myself a jig out of an old blank non-silvered CD, by drilling holes at the correct spacing and then marking the outline of the fastener and horizontal and vertical centerlines.  This can then be held in place on the marked T-pin location and a pen can be used to mark the rivet locations thru the holes in the jig.  (Sailrite?  Are you listening?  You need to sell something like this...)

Homemade drilling jig

• The moment of truth: Test fit.  Will everything work?  In order to get a true assessment, I disconnected the rear of the old canvas from the rear tube and installed the new canvas completely.  Since the old roof canvas was still attached to the windshield, it hung down inside.  Yup, it looked good.

Test fitting

OK, punching the holes in the windshield was a commitment, but not a serious one...  Eventually tho, it was time to make the big jump, and say "I do."  So I cut the old roof panel off of the windshield and voilà, c'est fini!

Done!

And man oh man is it good to see the old faded canvas as a jumbled up pile (and eventually in the dumpster) instead of gracing the cockpit!

Good riddance!

Now there is only one more roof panel to make - the center section.  This is much simpler to construct, being a single panel of cloth with only edging installed.  Ah, but exact sizing and zipper placement are critical for a taut installation.  Gotta think about this...

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Canvas - Round Two Completed!