Calliope Log

WNR 6/10/09

2009-06-13T11:49:00.002-04:00

WNR was canceled on wednesday due to lack of breeze and thunderstorms. We were the first to bail. Looked like geniuses. We were nearly to the mooring by the time they called it. Christina got hold of my camera, and here are the resulting pix:

Joy learning how to trim the main and work the traveler.

Ken watches for the Woodwind coming across on port... Me, flappin gums about something or other...

Need all the help I can get rowing ashore with a broken oarlock...

Gooseneck

2008-08-12T06:14:00.003-04:00

My gooseneck broke. Ordering a new bracket from Garhauer, but in the meantime, I managed to coddle together a duct-tape-and-bailing-wire fix. 3 5/16" 18 TPI holes with hex cap screws. This should do for a temporary fix until the new bracket arrives.

Cooler Phase 4: The Drain

2008-07-17T10:11:00.002-04:00

As promised, here is my post on the subject of the drain. I went to Home Depot and bought a 1.5" schedule 40 PVC trap, tailpipe, and drain fitting. The drain plug itself is a threaded stainless job that fits (just) in the bottom forward inboard corner of the cooler. I actually had a little directions snafu because I should have installed this fitting before installing the last engine room bulkhead panel but I forgot that detail and had to install it afterwards. Because the hole was too small for it to fit, I had to come up with a creative way to get it in there which involved a hammer and a chisel and I'll spare you the gory details. Suffice to say I got it in. Then I shot 'great stuff' sprayable foam insulation around the fitting itself and let that cure. Once it was cured, I added polysulfide caulk to provide a watertight seal. Here are the pix:

Drain fitting close-up. You can see the remains of the masking tape I used to protect the fitting while caulking.

Drain fitting seen from the top of the cooler.

Trap and tailpipe. I had to grind a little off the front end of the port engine bed in order to make it fit.

Close up of trap and tailpipe.

Here you can see where the pipe comes out of the cooler and how that geometry all works.

Cooler Phase 3: Glass

2008-07-16T15:37:00.006-04:00

After I finished glassing all the panels I installed them in the boat again, foamed, caulked, filleted, and taped the seams. The seams were taped first with 1 layer of 6" 1708 biaxial tape, then with 6" 6 Oz cloth tape. I also added rails (made of fir chamfered to allow the glass to lay over and attached to the panels with thickened resin and overglassed with 6" cloth) to support 2 shelves and stops to support one longitudinal divider (longitudinal relative to the boat). The shelves and divider will be removable and will provide for air circulation in the cooler. They will greatly increase its utility by providing more 'usable' space. Here are some shots with the panels installed, seams taped, shelves and divider. I know they look kind of bad but don't worry this will all clean up and look nice in the end.

Looking outboard. You can see the shelf racks and divider stops on the fore and aft transverse bulkheads.
Looking down. Here you can see both shelf rails and both sets of longitudinal divider stops. Hopefully everything will line up right (if my measurements were good...)

Looking inboard. Again, you can see the shelf racks. You can also see the drain hole in the lower left. Drain fitting won't get installed until I'm done with the sanding, fairing, and gelcoat.

Looking forward. Here you get a pretty good view of the rails and divider stops.

Looking aft. Here again you get a reasonably good view of the shelf rails and divider stops.

I did all this work in the AM before going to work. Then I left work early to apply a coat of gelcoat to the interior with the goal of sanding and re-gelcoating before dark tonight. Here are some shots after application of the gelcoat:

Looking down. Drain in the lower left.

Looking outboard.

Also, I have been working on the cooler top which I insulated with 1.5" thick material. This I attached to the top using thickened resin and I also applied structural glass to the top surface of the insulation to increase its stiffness because the cooler lid will rest directly on the insulation. The cooler lid is the door from the old system which I am planning to re-use (why not?). I cut out the wood cutout so that the hatch will just fit inside the hole in the wood and rests on the top surface of the fiberglass. I applied unidirectional glass cloth to the top surface in the interest of maximally increasing stiffness of that side. Over the uni I will apply cloth. To the bottom I applied woven roving (I have run out of 1708 cloth and don't want to wait to get more) which is pretty burly. Over the roving I applied 10 Oz cloth and 6 Oz tape. the glass is run over the edges and onto the bottom surface of the top. Here are some pix:

The top side of the top. You can see the line on the left corner is where the electrical panel lines up and the studs there are for securing the panel to the cooler top. They are actually bolts which are tightened with nuts on the top side. Butterfly nuts are used for easy installation and removal of the panel.

This is what the bottom side of the cooler top looks like. Here you can see the insulation and on the right you can see the heads of the bolts that form the studs for the panel attachment.

A close up of the bottom of the cooler top after gelcoating. I left the inside edges of the insulation un-gelcoated because I am going to apply more glass cloth there (had trouble getting it to adhere before...hopefully I can fix that tonight...).

Another shot of the bottom side of the cooler top after gelcoating. This is the first of at least 2 coats of gelcoat.

Swan Creek Anchorage

2008-07-16T11:46:00.004-04:00

The anchorage for the full moon cruise happening this coming Friday. The Meinhold Family will be on station listening on channel 16 and their cell phones.

Cooler Project Phase 2: Cutting and Fitting Insulation

2008-07-14T07:25:00.009-04:00

The 2-year ongoing cooler project continues! Having ripped out the silly, poorly insulated, and inefficient old cooler (for reference, see http://calliopelog.blogspot.com/2008/05/cooler-framing-rough-in.html), I finally managed to get new cooler construction to the top of the list and focused this past weekend on completing this project.

My friend Pam came out yesterday (Sunday) and helped me with cutting and installing the cooler insulation. The plan for this project calls for 3" of insulation on all cooler sides except the ER bulkhead which will have 4" of insulation. The innermost layer of insulation gets treated with fiberglass. The bottom layers get woven roving followed by 2 laminations of 1708 biaxial, followed by 2 laminations of 10 oz cloth. Then when the fiberglass is kicked these panels will get inserted into the cooler and the seams will be taped over thickened resin in the joints to bond them all together. The top of the cooler will be a separate and fully removable piece so that it can be removed for servicing. The cooler top will be separately insulated with 2" thick foam.

The foam that I used is Polyisocyanurate foam available at Home Depot in 4x8' sheets. They are about $30 each. I used almost a gallon of polyester resin doing the fiberglass work. I attached the foam to the bulkheads with silicone sealant and filled in the cracks between foam blocks with 'great stuff' sprayable foam also available at Home Depot for about $6 per can.

One feature which is very important to me is that the cooler have a very good drain. My previous cooler had a terrible, small drain that was useless because it clogged ALL THE TIME and it did not drain properly. Also it was not possible to close the drain so there was no ability to keep cold water in the cooler. Furthermore it did not have a trap so cold air simply leaked right out of it into the engine room. It was made of copper therefore that also conducted heat straight out of the engine room and into the cooler. Finally, the drain hose always sent water down the side of the engine beds, not direct into the bilge. In short, the old drain sucked, and I am intent on having a very good drain in the new cooler. Therefore, I bought at Home Depot a 1.5" bathroom sink drain with a closing fixture and PVC trap and tailpipe which will go straight down into the bilge. This should make the cooler easy to clean and easy to keep cold. So it's an important feature and I'm sure there will be a full post just on the drain at some point in the future...

The cooler will have one level of shelves which will serve to subdivide it vertically. I will also install one longitudinal bulkhead member to divide it in half transversely. The subdivisions increase usable space in the cooler. If I get fancy enough, I may decide to install a condiment rack...

Without further ado and before I get carried away, on to the pix:

This is the aft bulkhead with the first piece of foam installed.

This is looking outboard you can see the first pieces of 1" thick foam installed on the forward and aft transverse bulkheads.

This is looking inboard at the engine room bulkhead (inboard, longitudinal bhd) and the 2 transverse bulkheads (forward is on the left).

The forward, inboard joint.

Pam 'The Cut Woman' Jacobson looks up from the layout table.

This is after installation of the cut and tapered pieces along the hull surface. These were made from 2" foam and cut/tapered (by Pam) to fit the contour of the hull.

This is looking down at the bottom. Inboard long'l bhd (ER bhd) is on the bottom of this picture. Forward transverse bhd is on the right. The bottom is made to slope inboard and forward. There will be a 1.5" drain in the inboard, forward corner of the cooler.

Looking inboard and down. This is the bottom of the cooler. Forward is toward the bottom of this picture.

Another shot looking down. This picture includes the full 4" insulation (1", 2", 1" layers) on the ER bulkhead (bottom of picture). The forward transverse bhd is on the right and you can see the full 3" of insulation on that bhd.

Another shot of the completed insulation. Note the small wedges that we use to get an exact fit where our measuring has been less than flawless.

Looking inboard and forward, this is the seam between the ER bhd and the forward, transverse bhd with the cutout for the drain at the bottom.

Inner panels, having been laminated, left in the sun to cure.

Closer shot of the inner panels with fiberglass on them. The fiberglass doesn't go all the way to the edges because the seams will be taped anyway and it's easier to avoid having to trim the glass.

Very close up shot of one of the panels with fiberglass lamination on it. You can see how I made sure we would laminate the right side of the panel!

Stereo Remote

2008-07-14T07:23:00.002-04:00

Recently I went sailing with Bruce on his J/35 'T Bone' and noticed that they have a sweet remote control for their stereo in the cockpit. This is a really nice feature because it allows you to turn the music down without leaving the helm, which is something you need to do surprisingly often.

I got the Sony RM-X55M which has many functions and also includes an integrated display for track, time, and radio information. It's pretty sweet. Coming next...an iPod interface!

Rudder Shoe Upgrade

2008-07-14T07:18:00.002-04:00

When I had the boat hauled for bottom paint, I realized that my lower gudgeon had just a bit too much play for me to be really happy. When the boat had last been hauled, I had replaced the lower pintle with a 1/2" hex cap that I cut the head off and filed down. The problem is that the hole in my rudder shoe was 3/4" so there was about 1/4" of play in the lower gudgeon which just did not feel right. Since Tim was also out of the water at the same yard I went over and checked his lower gudgeon and it felt much tighter. Therefore, I decided to have my lower gudgeon tightened up. I did this by taking it to Shaw's welding in Annapolis. There I had them insert a piece of 3/4" oil impregnated bronze round bar stock (I ordered this from McMaster for about $13). Then after they pressed in the bronze they drilled a new hole with 9/16" diameter (to allow for a 1/16" misalignment error in assembly). For this they charged me $50 which I thought was a very good deal. When I re-installed the lower gudgeon it was nice and tight and I was very happy with it. They also cleaned it up for me at Shaw's so the part looked nice and shiny.

WNR 6/18/08

2008-06-18T22:15:00.002-04:00

Tonight was an insane WNR. There was a big squall that rolled through and wrok all kinds of havoc on the fleet. People were broaching and out of control. The highest wind speed that I clocked was 34 kts. We had a tough time keeping things under control, but we managed, you know. It was good to be out there at least, and nobody got hurt. Mike and Ken did a great job getting the jib down in a pinch. We saw a killer rainbow. No finish, but hey we survived and that's a moral victory.

Osius regatta track

2008-06-18T12:55:00.001-04:00

Screenshots of the Osius regatta from GPS Action Replay

Pizza Oven Phase 1: Construction

2008-06-15T08:35:00.006-04:00

I have always wanted to have a wood fired brick pizza oven in my backyard for al fresco cooking. Let's face it, making pizza and eating outdoors are both just awesome. The brick pizza oven is a special thing because it makes really great crust and is just generally awesome. I can say now that it is also a lot of work! I have had a lot of materials for the oven in question for over a year, and gotten more than a little grief for not having completed the oven before now. The catalyst for this project was that last weekend Parrish volunteered to help me build it, and even after I discouraged her saying it would be a lot of work, she persisted and was adamant that she could help me. Her experience building wood stoves in Honduras was invaluable as she turned out to be a much better mason than I am. I have some pix that are interleaved with the story so follow along...

I built the oven according to the following plan:

http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/0,20633,690891,00.html

First, I had to haul the masonry. Turns out the Tragic Wagon isn't quite such strong sauce as I thought as I had to make 4 trips to the brickyard. Who knew bricks were so heavy? The first load they put in with a forklift and I thought they were going to break the springs on the truck. It wasn't pretty.

She was saggin a little low in her boots...

Here you can see the rear spring compression factor...it was pretty significant.

A load of firebricks and cinderblocks. Note that the trailer hitch is bottomed out on the curb. Ouch!

I used 6"x6" Burnie Blend paving stones for the base, which I laid twice because I did it once, and it wasn't perfect, but I called it good. Unfortunately, Will came along behind me and did a bang-up job of laying the patio for the picnic table and I just couldn't let myself get shown up like that so I took it all apart and re-laid it. Anyway, this is a picture of the base with some cinderblocks down.

Base, cinderblocks, capstones, and some of the firebricks.

Base, cinderblocks, capstones, firebricks, slab, and dome arch cut and installed.

Here you can see the granite slab I'm using as the cooking surface. The plans don't call for this, but my parents gave me this slab which was an offcut from when they re-did their kitchen. This whole project is basically an exercise in figuring out how to make use of the granite slab. Awesome.
Parrish mixing the refractory mortar. I should add in here that we attempted to make a brick arch over the oven dome, but we aborted that plan when it became apparent that our (and when I say 'our' I mean 'my') arch building skills are not quite on par with the Romans (though we are somewhat ahead of the Greeks, maybe...) Anyway, we tried to make a brick arch and well it didn't work out so we punted on that and switched to just using straight up adobe.

Another shot of the completed basework and dome form in place.

I am holding back the fence as Parrish applies mortar in this picture. I kind of hit the wall right as she was getting all motivated. Something about mixing up the mud got her real fired up so it was good timing because I had become overwhelmed, tired, and dehydrated...

Parrish, getting excited about mudding up the dome.

Parrish lays the smack down. Fortunately, we had some help all day in the form of Matt and Will. But late in the process, James and Elaine showed up and the whole thing turned into a barn-raising. I am not sure we could have finished if this had not happened, so thanks to Elaine, James, Will, and Matt for helping us out completing the job!

Parrish and Elaine trowel on the adobe. Note the door (Matt and I built the door as they were putting on the mud...)This is the last shot I have showing the final mud layers going around the oven opening and the door installed with flashing.

Overall it was a tremendous 2-days work. Thanks to everybody who helped out. Thanks especially to Parrish who is absolutely awesome for helping me do this. Hopefully we'll get to see the oven in action in a few weeks here!

Dodger

2008-06-11T07:21:00.003-04:00

These pictures say it all. The new dodger got installed yesterday. Stoked!

Thanks, Bebe!

Harken Roller Furler

2008-05-05T17:42:00.000-04:00

The boat came with this Harken roller furling system. I am posting these pictures mostly so I can show them to the sailmaker. But for what it's worth, here are some close-up shots of the roller furling system. I don't really have much to say about it other than that sometimes when I try to roll the jib with the spinnaker up I get halyard wraps, which are the bane of my existence. I HATE halyard wraps!

Rigid Boom Vang

2008-05-05T17:40:00.000-04:00

Another rigging upgrade that I installed is the rigid vang. I got this from Garhauer at the boat show in 2006 (maybe 2005?). They made a template of my mast & boom and made custom collars to make sure they fit the spars, which was really cool. The vang works great. It doesn't fully support the boom with the full weight of the sail while furling, but it keeps it from crashing into the cockpit until you can get the topping lift on. It is very powerful so makes it easy to control the leech tension of the sail underway. When the main is up and going downwind, it does a good job of holding the boom at a reasonable angle and keeping the boom from closing the leech down too much in light airs. It is a really nice feature. Not as nice as a real traveler, but still nice nonetheless.

Engine Panel

2008-05-05T17:39:00.000-04:00

This is a shot of my recessed engine panel. This is the Beta type 'C' panel. I bought the recessed setup from SSI Custom Plastics. Here is a link to the actual item: http://www.ssicustomplastics.com/everything.htm. It's item # 47800000. I installed it where the A4 panel had been. I really like having the recessed panel because before people were forever kicking the switches & gages on the A4, and having the panel recessed really reduces that. Also, it had room for the fuel gage and the water washdown outlet (more on that in a later post...).

I just like having a nice, neat, recessed engine panel installation. It makes me happy.

Two New Stanchions

2008-05-05T17:35:00.000-04:00

Originally, when I bought Calliope, she was fitted with a boom gallows which was a silly apparatus. Basically this was a stainless structure that went over the cockpit and supported the boom. What it also did was prevent you from trimming the main properly. She also was fitted with ratlines but we won't even go there. Anyhow, the boom gallows was something that I removed relatively soon after buying the boat, but this left a gap at the cockpit where the lifelines would be unsupported so I needed to buy some stanchions. My 'quick fix' for this entailed going to bacon's and buying what they had. I got 2 stanchions with circular 4-hole mechanical bases and installed them. This system worked fine for 4 years, but it was less than ideal...they were not very stiff, the mechanical bases were not so great, they were 7/8" rather than 1" like the other stanchions, and the collars I was using did not hold the lower lifelines properly. I got new lifelines last year which have pelican hooks for the end attachments so that they can be opened at the cockpit, forming a 'gate' which makes it easy to load and unload things at the cockpit...super nice.

I decided that it was finally time to replace these stanchions so I bought some with welded bases off the rack at Tops in Quality. They sold me these for $40 each which I thought was quite a good deal. They don't exactly match the other stanchions but I don't care too much and they are very stiff. I also got some gate braces from Bacon's which fit them nicely. Installing them was a bit tricky as the bases have no angle to them but the stanchions could not be installed perpendicular to the deck or they would be sticking waay out. So I had to make some wedges for their bases which allows them to stand at the proper angle. I ordered some plastic splitting wedges from McMaster which I cut out to form base wedges of the proper angle to fit the stanchions on. While I was at it, I fabricated some backing plates from 1/4" G-10 which would make them nice and stiff. When I marked the holes, I overdrilled them with a 3/4" forstner bit, and backfilled these oversized holes with thickened epoxy. Then after the epoxy cured I drilled & tapped 1/4" x 20 TPI holes for the fasteners. I installed stanchions, wedges & backing plates in a generous bed of polysulfide caulk. Christina helped me to tighten the through bolts which was very nice of her.

After I had attached the stanchions I installed the gate braces at the proper angle and I also attached bushings which hold the lifelines forward of the stanchion under tension even when the gate is open. I am very happy with this system. These stanchions are much stiffer and they look better than the old ones too! It's nice to be able to open the gate without the whole lifeline going slack!

Here are some shots of the new stanchions:

This is what the big picture looks like. Note the gate brace and strop bushings on the lifelines. This is a close-up of the base where you can see the plastic wedge under the stanchion.

This is a view from the underside that shows the bolts (a bit too long) along with the 1/4" G-10 backing plate.

Binnacle GPS

2008-05-05T17:33:00.001-04:00

The binnacle in the bridge deck has never been useful. You can't put a compass there because it's too close to the engine for the compass to work properly. I have been trying to figure out a way to use this space since I got the boat. I thought about cupholders but could never make that work. I thought about glassing back over it and recovering the space inside the boat. Never did that. Then I found that West Marine was having a sale on GPS chartplotters, and I got this one which fits PERFECTLY in the space for the binnacle. I had to make a (minor) modification to the mount bracket in order to get it in there, but it worked, and it's awesome. I got an external antenna for it which lives on the stern pulpit and it is plumbed right into the boats main power system (on the electronics bus). It works great. We used it for navigating out of Cantler's at night last weekend and it was phenomenal. It has a nice RS-232 interface that allows you to plug it into a computer to upload/download maps and routes. And I *think* that I can get it to interface with my other instruments, although I'm not 100% sure about that...yet.

Stoked on this upgrade!

Mast Beam Reinforcement

2008-05-05T15:22:00.000-04:00

At the 2007 Maintenance Seminar, with a good deal of help from Mike Lehman, I re-did my mast beam. Unfortunately I don't have pix of the old reinforcement, and I don't have pix of what the beam looked like after we removed the old reinforcement. But the main thing is I only had one aluminum plate (on the aft side) which was clearly not sufficiently strong to carry the load because the beam had sagged to the point where I could not close the hanging locker door anymore. So I realized that I needed to reinforce the beam with the 'official' fix which is to have 2 aluminum plates sistered on either side of the original beam and through-bolted. I had these plates made at a machine shop up in Baltimore. I think they were about $400 or so. Mike and I drilled holes in them, etched them with acid, epoxied them to the original beam, and through-bolted the whole mess. We did this after loosening the rig and jacking the main beam back up into position.

Mike was hugely instrumental in completing this project. It was a HUGE job, much bigger than I had anticipated. Without Mike's help I never would have got this done. One funny story is that just before we were going to etch the plates, Mike dropped one in the water and I had to go swimming to retrieve it. Only afterwards did he tell me that they had a water treatment facility overflow into their creek last year. No wonder the bottom was so soft and slimy... ;-)

Here are some pix of the results:
Looking forward at the main beam in the head. You can see the teak vertical support that Mike added to carry additional load.
Looking aft at the port side of the forward beam in the forward compartment.
Looking aft at the starboard side of the beam in the forward compartment.
A close-up of the aft side of the beam in the head, looking forward.

Bow Pulpit & Anchor Hawse

2008-05-05T15:13:00.000-04:00

A couple years ago when I still had the dying Atomic Bomb, I had hit the SSA dock while coming alongside singlehanded and the engine was acting up on me. I wasn't going fast but it was enough to bend the pulpit significantly and really messed the pulpit up. Last year I tried to salvage it by having some new forward supports made and applying some brute force to bend it back into shape but ultimately it was just not to be and after sailing for a season with one of the mechanical terminals refusing to stay connected or be bent back into shape, I decided that it was enough of a safety issue that I should bite the bullet and get a new pulpit. I went to talk to Marc McAteer at Atlantic Spars & Rigging who I have worked with several times in the past. I really like Marc. He is not cheap, but he's honest and very professional. They do really great work for a competitive price and I have always enjoyed working with him. Thus far I have gotten lifelines, a table leg, and a bow pulpit from him and each transaction has been great. Check out www.atlanticspars.com for more information about what he might be able to do for you.

I have long thought that it would be good to have a welded instead of mechanical pulpit. It's much stronger, stiffer, and safer. I also have thought that having a double-rail pulpit would significantly increase stiffness. So I asked Marc to incorporate both of these features (well, actually he recommended welded construction and I didn't disagree). I also wanted to have lights installed on the pulpit so that I would have legal navigation lights (I'm told that the doghouse style nav lights are not technically legal for use while sailing at night because they are obscured by the jib). So I had Marc install some LED lights which you can see in the pictures at the corner of the forward upright post and the top rail.

2 other noteworthy features of this pulpit are that the lower rail does not go around the bow. This is to allow clearance for the furling drum. Also, note that the lifeline connection for the upper lifeline is in line with the LOWER rail and the lifeline connection for the lower lifeline comes to the deck. This means that the lifelines go down at the bow and this is by design to allow for the foot of the jib to clear. If the upper lifeline tied into the upper rail, this would cause the jib foot to be located really high with bad results for available sail area.

In addition to the bow pulpit in these pictures you can see a new anchor hawse which I recently installed. My old hawse was too small for the chain shackle to go through and it forever drove me crazy having to go below and take the shackle off to feed it up through the too-small hawse. So I bought a bigger hawse and installed it. Fortunately, Andrew Cole helped me put it in and he made sure that I installed it the right way, with the hinge on the forward, not aft side. This helps to keep water from running down the hawse. The chain comes out of the back of the hawse in this arrangement.

Here are the pix:
Overview of the pulpit and hawse.
Close up of the forward posts where they attach to the deck and the hawse. You can see the chain clearance hole in the aft side of the hawse.
Aft portside lower post for the pulpit. You can see the lower lifeline attachment point in this picture, along with the ultimate roller furling line lead.
Port side of the pulpit with roller furling lead. Here you can see where the upper lifeline ties in at the upper rail.
The pulpit bases are through-bolted with backing plates made of 1/4" G10. Here you can see the aft starboard backing plate. A close up of the backing plate. Sorry it's a bit blurry. Hard to take pix up there!

Cooler Framing rough-in

2008-05-05T14:52:00.000-04:00

One of the jobs that I have wanted to undertake since the first summer I owned the boat has been to re-do the cooler. I hate the side loading factory installed cooler. The reason I hate it is because the insulation sucks, the deck access hatch allows heat to leak in like a seive. Whenever you run the engine it just melts your ice. The drain is WAY too small. The side opening door dumps all the cold air out every time you open it. And because of the small drain and the side opening door, you are forever running cooler water out onto the settee if the drain gets clogged. It's a dumb system and I have always hated it. The only SLIGHTLY redeeming quality is being able to get a beer from on deck, but I don't mind taking a short walk for a beer if it means I can keep a block of ice for more than 24 hours during the summer.

I have a number of references on other folks who have re-done their coolers by cutting out the old one and installing a top-loading cooler in its place. Most of these are from Triton owners who are a group of folks remarkably good at documenting what they do (dare I aspire to get there...) Here are some links:

http://www.triton381.com/projects/restoration/galleyconstruction2.htm - This is Tim Lackey's infamous triton381 site where I got the original inspiration for the cooler project. This guy is a superstar. You could spend days just browsing his websites.

http://www.dasein668.com/projects/winter0405/icebox - Another triton owner who redid his cooler and had very similar ideas to mine, particularly about installing a HUGE drain.

I had also run into another Alberger who keeps his boat at Fairwinds (I can't remember his name now) and he had undertaken this job. What he wound up doing was re-using the fiberglass liner from the original cooler as the liner for the new cooler, which was kind of neat, but I felt this would limit the size of the cooler too much so I decided to start over from scratch with my own framing.

With these items as inspiration, and since I was replacing the engine anyway, I boldly forged ahead with removing the old cooler and its framing. Here are some shots of the removal process. First, here is a shot of the cooler with exterior woodwork and framing removed, but still in place. You can see how thin the insulation was:
This is the cooler laying on the ground next to the boat. The big hole in the top is where the side-loading hatch had been. You can see my old bronze propeller shaft with the coupling permanently frozen on in the near background. Boat is in the far background. Another shot of the cooler laying on the ground. You can see the boat in the background. The hole in the side of the cooler is where the deck top-loading hatch had been. This is the hole that was left behind by the cooler. Outboard you can see the 3 shelves that were poor storage space when the cooler was there. My plan was to turn this space into the new electrical locker. At the bottom of the cooler locker is where the hand bilge pump hose ran through. I re-routed this hose, which was a real bear, but it had to be done in order to build the new cooler. Another shot of the space left behind by the old cooler. In this one you can see how high the old bulkhead came. I would later cut this down to make room for the top loading access. Unfortunately (for me) I planned poorly and my first cut on this longitudinal bulkhead was too low which later necessitated building a whole new bulkhead, costing me some time...This is the deck hatch in the bridge deck after I had done some cleanup and prepped it for glassing. Another shot of the cleaned up deck access ready for glassing. I used a LOT of 1708 biax cloth filling in the deck access. It's solid glass , which is pretty burly. I thought about coring it and in hindsight I probably should have but I was young and dumb when I did this and thought I didn't need to core it. I didn't know how many laminations it would take...a LOT. After cutting down the original bulkhead too much, I had to make a new one. Here you can see the new inboard longitudinal bulkhead which defines the boundary between the cooler and the engine room. This is 4 or 5" above the level of the top of the ER. This makes a big difference in the amount of storage contained in the cooler. My criterion was that I wanted to have enough vertical clearance to open a smallish laptop between the top of the cooler (which would double as galley counter and navigation table) and the bridge deck. The clearance is 13" I think. I haven't measured it in a long time. Should double-check that. Basically I wanted the top of the cooler to be as high as possible without compromising its usefulness as a navigation table and counter space. So I had to skate the line between capacity and usefulness.
This is another view of the empty space with version #1 of the electrical panel installed and the new longitudinal bulkhead.
This shows the electrical mains fuses, the handheld VHF temporary location (with its charger) and one of the stereo speakers. You can see the top of the cooler is installed here.
Here's another shot of the cooler where you can see the transverse bulkhead and the top are installed if you look closely at the lower right you can see the locking lap joint that I cut into these two pieces to lock them in place, which is a nice feature, but took a lot of test fits to get right.
Here yo ucan see the whole cooler installed, with the old side loading hatch temporarily installed as a top hatch. At this stage, I would call the cooler framing complete. I have not gotten around to actually installing the insulation, waterproofing it, and installing the drain. That will have to come later.
Here is a view of the inside of the cooler where you can see one of the vertical cleats that the inboard longitudinal bulkhead is screwed into. We use the cooler in this capacity as a food storage location but obviously not as an actual icebox.
This is the forward, inboard corner of the cooler, where the drain will eventually be located. Note the goslings and ginger beer. Good times had at the NOOD!
I still have to actually build the insulation and install the drain. It's a work in progress more as it progresses!

Mainsheet & Traveler

2008-05-05T14:34:00.000-04:00

One of the best upgrades I have done since I got the boat is install a new mainsheet traveler that I got from Garhauer. I've seen several other boats that have this mainsheet traveler system (Skybird, LinGin, and Sam to name a few). I finally was able to get around to buying it last fall and I LOVE it. It is SO much better than the old pin stop situation.

I also bought a new mainsheet block to go with it which is a harken fiddle with becket (sorry I don't know the model #) that also has a selectable ratchet. The ratchet is nice because when it's breezy the main trimmer can hit the ratchet and get extra friction, but when it's light you can take the ratchet off and the sheet runs through nice and easy. From the dinghy sailing background, I HATE the downward-facing mainsheet cleat, and another benefit of this block was that I could remove the cleat and re-mount it with the cleat facing upward. This is super nice because it makes it very easy for the trimmer to uncleat the sheet in a gust. You just pull and ease. No more trying to 'snap' the sheet down in order to ease it.

While I was at it, I upgraded the mainsheet to a nice high-tech line that they had at APS called paraloc. This is the latest rope technology and you can read about it at http://www.paraloc.com/sailing/en/index.asp Gordon Laco sells this stuff as well www.rwrope.com. I really love it. It's super light so won't weigh down your boom and runs through the blocks well. I am a slut for nice line, but that's just me. I used 5/16" stuff which is a bit on the small side, but it feels really good in the hands and with the extra friction from the ratchet I have not had any trimmers complain about it. The only downside of paraloc is that it's REALLY and I mean SUPER DUPER REALLY difficult to splice. All I could manage was to force a Brummel through using a spike, a hammer, and a block of wood that I didn't want to hold onto. Forget tapering or burying it. I used a piece of heat shrink tubing to hold the end down. Here is a shot of the completed mainsheet bottom end with the tail of the splice still loose: Here is a shot of the portside mainsheet traveler. I used 5/16" Maffioli Swiftcord (another of my favorite ropes, but also not cheap) for the traveler, red for port and green for starboard. This stuff also can't be tapered or buried so same deal with using a brummel and whipping the end down with heat shrink tubing. The heat shrink hasn't yet been applied in this picture.
Another shot of the mainsheet bottom end. Note the upward-facing cleat.
This is the mainsheet after application of the heat shrink tubing.
And traveler with heat shrink tubing applied.
LOVE these upgrades!

Electrical Panel

2008-05-05T13:39:00.000-04:00

One of the things that I have been working on for a long time on the boat is a new electrical panel. This grew out of the fact that the old panel was totally inadequate. It was a 6-fuse panel with soldered connections and a 3-way switch. The boats wiring was very unreliable and it was difficult to debug if anything went wrong. I tried to find pix of the old panel but I can't even find them. Trust me it was not pretty and it was not reliable either.

As part of the cooler re-construction project I decided to spend some time thinking about and re-doing the panel. I wanted to move the panel so that it was not underneath the companionway and therefore would be better protected from spray. I decided that a good location for it would be an inboard facing longitudinal bulkhead aft of the main settee lockers. I had a number of requirements for this panel:

1. Provide plenty of DC breakers with room for expansion.
2. Provide a minimal set of AC breakers with connection to a built-in battery charger.
3. Provide DC Voltage and current meters.
4. Provide AC Voltage and Current meters with a polarity indicator.
5. Provide an inverter (mostly to power xmas lights at the light parade, but also for laptops and other various AC sundries...inevitably a hair dryer sooner or later... ;-)
6. Incorporate a stereo
7. Incorporate a nice VHF radio.
8.Be easy to service and repair in case of problems.
9. Be neat, clean, and easy to understand.
10. Have a well-defined interface that is easy to connect and disconnect. This requirement mostly was begotten as a result of the fact that I knew it would take several iterations to get this right and I didn't want to have to stop using the boat for a long time just to be able to work on the panel. I wanted to be able to disconnect and remove it quickly to take it home and service it in my workshop.
11. Provide good built-in ventilation to keep things cool.

There were other requirements but these are the main ones. With this in mind, I proceeded to start working on a notional design. I decided that I would make the panel hinged so that it could be opened and serviced easily. I also decided that I would attach the panel to the deck below it by using 5/16" 'studs' which I made by installing bolts with fender washers and nuts installed on the deck. Then I drilled matching holes in the bottom part of the electrical panel assembly and attached the panel into the boat using these 'studs' and butterfly nuts with locknuts & fender washers.

Here is a notional diagram of the arrangement of the panel: This is the back side of the panel itself (1st iteration). The wiring is still pretty messy. It is bloody hard to get so many wires to be clean and neat. In the upper right you can just see the VHF radio. In the middle right you can see the cutout for the stereo.
This is the bottom part of the panel. You can see the charger along with the positive terminal strips and the ground bus bar. The terminal posts are in the lower left and in the lower right is the shunt for the DC ammeter.
This is an overview of the entire assembly. Here you can clearly see the VHF panel and cutout for the stereo. This is still iteration 1 (I am currently on iteration 2).
Here is what iteration 1 looked like installed in the boat. Iteration #2 wound up being taller, so there was more space for the outlet and so on. Iteration #1 was basically dictated by the location of the existing deck, but I eventually decided to move the top of the cooler down a few inches which gave me some more room to play with, vertically. This is a further out view of iteration #1 installed in the boat. On the left you can see the mains fuses for battery #1, #2, and main grounding post with aux ground bus bar. These are the mains fuses. Main ground post and aux ground bus bar are at the top. When I upgraded to iteration #2, I added a few auxiliary items. As you can see, both breaker panels shifted to the left so that I could make room for installation of an AC outlet which is wired right into the AC breaker panel to its left. I also installed a 12V outlet on the face of the panel for charging cell phones, and other 12V appliance connectivity. There are a few other 12V outlets already installed elsewhere in the boat which I will also be wiring up.

For the record, the inverter is totally separate from the main AC system. There is absolutely NO connection between AC and DC wiring other than via the battery charger.

This is what Iteration #2 (the current iteration) of the panel looks like folded down so you can see the wiring behind. I know it is still kind of a rats nest. I have more grand plans to clean it up, but that is going to have to wait. One thing that I have done which you'll notice if you look close is to label most wires with heat shrink tubing printed on a label printer. This is a really awesome way to keep everything clear. Also you can see the PC-style molex connectors that I have been using as quick disconnects.
This is the wiring bundle at the forward end of the harness. In the lower right you can see the positive connection post for the inverter, which as a high-amperage appliance requires large wires and a lot of power, thus its own grounding post. All breakers in the DC panel are 15A breakers, except the inverter which is a 50A breaker (need a LOT of power for all those Xmas lights!) You can also see the butterfly nuts on the 'studs' if you look in the lower right corner. There are 6 of these which hold the bottom part of the panel in place.
Here you can see some auxiliary buses that I had to install on the transverse bulkhead which separates the electrical locker from the settee lockers. On the left is the cabin lights positive distribution bus. There are so many cabin lights connections that you can't make them all on the terminal strip, thus the distribution bus. The right side of the bus is the electronics which also has many connections (VHF, sailing instruments, GPS, Tillerpilot).
This is just a close-up of the wiring bundles. You can see some labels and the molex quick-disconnect connectors. These connectors are made with a special crimping tool which is pretty expensive. The connectors themselves are inexpensive but high quality. It's really easy to make them if you have the tool and they work great! The red and white striped wires are speaker wires. The large red wire is the #2 battery supply wire.
Here is another shot of the main fuses and main ground post. The coiled white wire is the VHF antenna which is mounted to the stern pulpit and comes through a cable clam just forward of the transom. On the right is one of the stereo speakers which are bulkhead mounted on the port side fore and aft. The black thing at the bottom is the stereo antenna, which I still haven't determined a good installation method for... In the lower right you can see the hatch for the to-be-built cooler which has been framed but not finished yet.
This is still very much a work in progress. I still need to finish the installation by completing the following items:

1. re-do main panel on a nice piece of plywood (currently it's a home depot junker handypanel, but I have some nice sapele marine plywood to make the final version from).
2. Enclose the mains fuses and ground post.
3. Permanently mount the stereo antenna.
4. Re-do the panel wiring so that it is more under control and not as messy. Make sure everything is the right length, not too long, not too short.

I'm sure there are others but that's what I can think of right now.

Taffrail

2008-05-05T13:00:00.000-04:00

Calliope recently got a new taffrail which I made out of teak I bought at Exotic Lumber. I made the rail from one piece of teak by sawing out the curve from a template that I made from the old rail. And the cool part was that I took the ears from the waste that I cut out of the central curve. This was nice because it allowed me to save pretty big on the lumber. It was still expensive, but not insane. The lumber was about $100 including milling. I joined the two ears to the main piece using epoxy thickened with wood flour to a mayonnaise like consistency, and I used biscuits with a biscuit joiner for alignment.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pix of the rail-making process or of the rail before I put it on the boat. So this is all I got. I re-used the previous blocks and attached them to the boat with 1/4" x 3" flat head phillips machine screws , fender washers and locknuts. I had previously drilled and filled the old holes with thickened epoxy to seal them up. After attaching the blocks, I attached the rail to the boat with more of the same through-bolts. I did not counterbore and plug the holes. I'm not sure if I will do this...maybe.

The spinnaker lead attachments are also attached with 1/4" through bolts except for the most outboard hole which has a wood screw. I still have to attach the chocks but I didn't receive them in time to do that for now. So I will do it in a few weeks when I'm back from my trip.

HUGE thanks to Bruce for helping me wrestle this thing into place and tighten down the bolts. Also MEGA thanks to Dorian for coming through with some fresh drill bits at the 11th hour when I had broken or dropped all mine in the water...

Cushions!

2008-04-29T23:23:00.001-04:00

Bebe bought me some cockpit cushions for xmas. These are pix of them in action. They are awesome. Stoked! They were made by Chris Ford Yacht Canvas in Annapolis.

Oh and this is a sweet shot of the Annapolis sunset that Christina took while she was helping me install winch bases. Nice!

New Winch Bases

2008-04-29T15:08:00.001-04:00

New winch bases are finally done in time for the NOOD regatta. This isn't going to be in order, but I got some pix of the bagging process and stuff as well.

LOVE the new winches.

Old electrical panel shots

2007-03-20T19:52:00.000-04:00

Old school shots of the electrical panel from way back.