The staysail, kindly donated by Richard F., is ready for it's next big adventure. Initially equipped with a luff tape and a head strop to be hoisted on a boat's main forestay, it had to be adapted to Auriga. As explained before, we decided to have hanked-on headsails throughout. Further, the luff extended with the strop was too long for our inner forestay. Thus, we had to shorten it while keeping the full-strength eye for attaching the halyard, and insert stainless grommets and hanks along the length of the luff. While Matt was preparing for his viva, I made best use of Richard B.'s living room to work on the staysail, as well as to finish stitching on the remaining jibs.
FOR SALE
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Storm Staysail - Ready to Hoist!
The staysail, kindly donated by Richard F., is ready for it's next big adventure. Initially equipped with a luff tape and a head strop to be hoisted on a boat's main forestay, it had to be adapted to Auriga. As explained before, we decided to have hanked-on headsails throughout. Further, the luff extended with the strop was too long for our inner forestay. Thus, we had to shorten it while keeping the full-strength eye for attaching the halyard, and insert stainless grommets and hanks along the length of the luff. While Matt was preparing for his viva, I made best use of Richard B.'s living room to work on the staysail, as well as to finish stitching on the remaining jibs.
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
New Electrics - 12V
Getting the boat back to England required mostly quick fixed to the existing system. Surprisingly, most electrics worked, and we learnt what a "torpedo fuse" is (found in old Italian cars and in older boats by young Italians). Some fuses would fall out every time the boat slammed into a wave trough, but it got us here. For more extended passages, it seemed appropriate to make sure the system is simple, reliable and maintainable. We installed LED lighting, replaced a lot of the wiring throughout the boat, and re-run all of it to the new heart of the electrical system - the switch panel above the chart table.
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Wind of Charge
Our yacht's navigation lights, instruments and other appliances draw power from the battery bank comprising two 110Ah batteries. This means we could (in theory) run, say, a light with a power of 12W - corresponding to a current of 1A - for 220h, or 9 days. On longer passages, this obviously means that we must have ways to charge the batteries - and/or keep our electricity consumption to a minimum. On the latter front, we have replaced internal lights, as well as the tricolour - a masthead navigation light used while sailing - with efficient LEDs. For charging, Auriga came equipped with the engine alternator and a dated wind generator (Rutland 913) - a favoured option for offshore sailing providing almost unlimited clean energy. Unfortunately, the old wind generator suffered irreparable damage following two ocean crossings and 12 years in the scorching Spanish heat - the bearing which allowed it to turn following the wind direction seized. A replacement was needed.
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| Our new wind generator |
Thursday, 12 June 2014
Current Affairs
Another item on or wish list has been relocating the batteries and simplifying the cable routing. Previously, one battery was stored under the cockpit floor, while another battery (and the battery switch!) were in the starboard cockpit locker. Opening a locker lid at sea just to switch batteries seems less than ideal, and the inaccessible space under the cockpit looked ideal for the two batteries.
A Game of Thrones
While Matt was finishing his thesis (congratulations!), I have been busy on Auriga, aided in no small part by the beautiful weather.
The most important part of a yacht is undoubtedly the heads (toilet). How else does one explain their increasing number and size on many production boats? However, location is everything - put the heads in the wrong place, and it becomes unusable on one tack, or one keeps falling off with nothing to hold on to. This, and the more efficient use of the interior space, promoted us to move the heads to, well, the head of the boat.
The space under the step is enclosed on three sides and feels much more comfortable than the old place, which can now turned into a huge storage cupboard.
First, I built the wooden pedestal. Fitting two side battens and the plywood platform to the existing space took some iterative creativity. All wood was waterproofed with PE resin, and the joint along the edges sealed with Sikaflex to avoid any moisture accumulation in the inaccessible gaps.
We replaced the old Jabsco-type heads with a Lavac. Instead of a double-action pump for supplying sea water for flushing and evacuation, the Lavac uses a single bilge pump. The sea water is sucked in by the vacuum created when the lid is closed. The pump is connected to the heads via a hose, and can be mounted in a convenient location. Further, by including a diverter valve before the pump, we can use it to evacuate the bilges, too.
All pipework would have been impossible without Frank's hairdryer - no amount of force can force the hose into any if the fittings until the house has been softened by the hot air. Further, all confections were secured with stainless jubilee clips, used in pairs at the critical through-hull fittings.
The sea water system needs an extra valve near the pipe's highest point, providing the function of the Jabsco's flip lever. Without, the vacuum holds the lid shut, only to by replaced by sea water siphoning in one the lid is forced open ("where us all this water coming from? ").
With all pipework easily accessible, and only a simple yet powerful bilge pump having any moving parts, the new system promises to be reliable and easy to maintain, while providing an important back-up to the other bilge pumps.
Now, a few pipe clips to tidy up, and the new cupboard can be made even more useful with a shelf or two.
The most important part of a yacht is undoubtedly the heads (toilet). How else does one explain their increasing number and size on many production boats? However, location is everything - put the heads in the wrong place, and it becomes unusable on one tack, or one keeps falling off with nothing to hold on to. This, and the more efficient use of the interior space, promoted us to move the heads to, well, the head of the boat.
The space under the step is enclosed on three sides and feels much more comfortable than the old place, which can now turned into a huge storage cupboard.
First, I built the wooden pedestal. Fitting two side battens and the plywood platform to the existing space took some iterative creativity. All wood was waterproofed with PE resin, and the joint along the edges sealed with Sikaflex to avoid any moisture accumulation in the inaccessible gaps.
We replaced the old Jabsco-type heads with a Lavac. Instead of a double-action pump for supplying sea water for flushing and evacuation, the Lavac uses a single bilge pump. The sea water is sucked in by the vacuum created when the lid is closed. The pump is connected to the heads via a hose, and can be mounted in a convenient location. Further, by including a diverter valve before the pump, we can use it to evacuate the bilges, too.
All pipework would have been impossible without Frank's hairdryer - no amount of force can force the hose into any if the fittings until the house has been softened by the hot air. Further, all confections were secured with stainless jubilee clips, used in pairs at the critical through-hull fittings.
The sea water system needs an extra valve near the pipe's highest point, providing the function of the Jabsco's flip lever. Without, the vacuum holds the lid shut, only to by replaced by sea water siphoning in one the lid is forced open ("where us all this water coming from? ").
With all pipework easily accessible, and only a simple yet powerful bilge pump having any moving parts, the new system promises to be reliable and easy to maintain, while providing an important back-up to the other bilge pumps.
Now, a few pipe clips to tidy up, and the new cupboard can be made even more useful with a shelf or two.
Thursday, 5 June 2014
Adding an inner forestay - Part 5, in which Igor goes diving.
Having completed the deck eye, we were only missing a tang to attach the upper end of the stay wire to. We chose a two-part stainless fabrication from Wichard that slots inside the mast for maximum strength.
The unexpected problem? The tang needs inserting and removing repeatedly during the fitting process, all while hanging in a harness and balancing power tools on your lap. The expected outcome? I dropped both pieces, and one of them disappeared in the cold UK spring waters.
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| Inner forestay tang |
Putting the forepeak back together - the water tank
With any maintenance job, 90% of all efforts remain hardly noticeable until it all finally starts coming together with the last 10%. Our forepeak was long a pile of plywood and fiberglass, but now it is returning to its functional form.
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| Reinforced storage in the forepeak |
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