A few days ago, I ran into a man who does canvas work. He also bends and cuts the steel. Had a chat with him about things, and decided to make some changes.
We’ve not been terribly happy with my “makeshift” solar panel mounts because they were made partially of aluminum, on stainless steel (not a good combo in a salt air atmosphere, but it was what I had at the time). Also, the ancient bimini wasn’t in the best spot, and I ended up putting holes in it first with a soldering iron (to melt the threads together) and washers and screws through it, to hold the solar panels above the bimini.
Another thing that has bugged me since day one on the boat was the fact the main boom was so high up. In looking at other vessels of my type, with similar in-mast furling, I noted most are lower than mine (significantly) and I can’t find a reason for the boom to be so high other than missing the bimini.
As it turns out, the height on the steel was close to 7.5 above the sole of the cockpit. About 2.5 feet above my head. Also, mounting the panels there put them in danger of the boom sweeping them off, so sailing on run was something I was extremely cautious of doing, ever. An unexpected Jibe would have ripped the panels off, perhaps the bimini and bent the steel.
After consulting with JoAnne, and Dave (the man who runs Custom Canvas, out of New Bern) we decided to go ahead and hire him to assist.
The changes will be as follows:
- Lower the boom (in a good way! ha ha) several inches, actually almost 18″ to be exact.
- Lower the bimini top to a few inches over MY head (I’m 5’9″).
- Rebuild the dodger and bimini
- Add stiffeners to the dodger, bimini
- Add grab rails to the bimini which will double as a holder for two new bows over the top
- The bows will give me a mounting point 2-3″ above the bimini (no more holes in bimini)
- The dodger will cover the hatch correctly
- Bimini will have a window (had one before but was unusable due to age)
- Stiffener will be at Mizzen mast
- Dodger will cover the lower part of the cockpit, with an Esenglas panel to cover the upper part to bimini
Lowering the boom will give me a bit better sail shape than I was able to get. However, I will have to definitely add a preventer and consider using the topping lift to prevent a sideways SMACK across the bimini.
Solar panels can be moved around now more forward or back as needed. My alternate/backup small panel will remain movable from side to side of the ship hanging from the mizzen rig to keep it on the sun-side most of the time.
We’ll finally have some new canvas on the boat.
Over the past few months, I’ve done little things here and there. JoAnne and I have gone through most of the “Junk” we have and pulled some off the boat and placed in storage, and pulled things from storage and put on the boat. We still have “too much stuff”. We get to do a very good going-through of the boat in the next couple of weeks to empty anything we simply don’t need or can’t use, place in storage and ensure we absolutely have parts we CAN use on the boat for repairs and emergencies. I am down to one tool bag (and a small one for small tools for electronics stuff).
JoAnne has pared down the other things like cooking utensils and so on.
But we have shade and a water-maker. I want to have the forward cabin usable for a guest or two – though we don’t foresee that any time soon.
Other items:
Someone went by and it appears they have punctured the dingy (one of the tubes). Why? Not sure, but it’s kind of impolite to do such things. And expensive. So, one of the things I had to do was locate the repair kit for this dink (I have a couple of repair kits, one for rubber dinks and one for the hypalon dink we currently own) and I’ll need to hoist the boat, soapy-water-the-hell out of it to find the hole and clean and repair it.
Transmission is an on-going pain in the rump. Borg-Warner, Velvet Drive. Moving the boat before Hurricane Dorian, I discovered (too late) that the transmission wasn’t quite right and I think the fluid has gone where ever it goes, again. Had a devil of a time trying to get the boat into the slip, ended up pulling in forward, and not backing like I wanted to do. Going to dig into that tomorrow morning and see if it’s simply a fluid issue. Friend Kevin says his does exactly the same thing; leave it sit without running for a few weeks and you have to re-add fluid.
This one didn’t USED to do this. But it does now. /sigh
Today is Friday the 13th of September 2019. I get my first “Social Security Check” next month on the 9th of October. (I thought it would start this month, but they apparently don’t think they should, so whatever). When that check starts, we will have our “income” doubled. haha JoAnne gets to apply for February.
Where are we going?
We don’t know honestly. Marsh Harbor was on our “sail to” list, but due to a Cat 5 Dorian – not now. We aren’t setting plans, destinations or schedules.
We’re going to provision for a month and a week or so of perishables.
Our plans are to go somewhere, cruise like we were before, head south(ish) and head for some islands somewhere. We do have places like BVI, USVI, Turks and Caicos in our sights. Whether we get there or not, remains to be seen.
The challenge has been thrown to us to go. So, we meet the challenge!
Let the Winds of Time blow over our heads
Winds of Time 