Category Archives: Boat Work Projects

New Docklines: Thanks Northwest Rigging!

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Melissa and I decided that a we were in need of break this weekend. Instead of schlepping down to Astoria and working non stop, we stayed home and only worked at half speed. Melissa put some time into her garden which is looking beautiful. I helped by taking a nap.

But even when we aren’t at the boat, we are thinking boaty thoughts. We are doing boaty things. Melissa has finished up a number of the cushions for the salon with a beautiful new fabric ( a future post on those is in the works). For my part, I have been making new docklines for the boat thanks to the good folks at Northwest Rigging.

Back in February, Melissa attended the Women’s Boating Seminar in Seattle. Melissa had a great time; especially when she won a $200 gift certificate from Andy Schwenk at Northwest Rigging. This was a stroke of luck for us because the docklines on S/V Nameless are so stiff that we can barely wrap them around a cleat. They are 3/4 inch three strand and are almost unworkable. We have washed them and they are a bit better but still pretty difficult to use.

I was thinking that the Brait lines made by Yale or Samson would be easier to handle and store. If you haven’t seen this line before, check out Yale Cordage’s offering. It has a very easy hand and offers good stretch and strength; similar to traditional three strand but much softer.

So a couple of weeks ago, I went up to Fisheries Supply and used the the Northwest Rigging account to buy most of 200 feet of 5/8 inch Yale Brait.

Yale Brait

New Yale Brait with an old, stiff dockline in the background

Now 200 feet seems like a lot of line. The plan is to make two 25 foot lines for the bow and stern and two 50 foot lines to act as spring lines. That will leave 40 or so feet left over which I may make into a snubber for the anchor chain.

YouTube is great for so much more than cat videos. I was able to find a couple great splicing videos (see at the bottom of this post) from Samson and Yale on braiding the 8 strand line. It is very similar to splicing three strand; there are really just four parts that you have to keep straight. Check out the photos below:

Yales’s Brait has eight strands but they are in four pairs, making the splicing fairly easy.

Tuck, Turn, Tuck, Turn

Tuck, Turn, Tuck, Turn

After seven tucks, I cut one strand and finish tucking the remaining strand until I run out of room.

After seven tucks, I cut one strand from each pair and finish tucking the remaining strand until I run out of room.

I like to splice Al Fresco

After finishing the loop and cutting the lines to length, I like to whip the ends. It gives the lines a salty look and is easier on the hand than a hard, melted glob of nylon. Although more work, I thought it would be nice to have two whippings on the 50 foot lines to make them easier to identify. Again, thanks to YouTube, I learned to make a whiplock after whipping the line and really like the way it looks. Hopefully it will make the whippings last longer too.

The double whipped 50 foot line on the left.

I’ll finish the docklines this weekend and save the remaining brait for the snubber. If you have never tried splicing your own lines, check out the videos below and give it a try. You’ll enjoy handling the lines all the more knowing you made them yourself.

This is Samson Rope’s video on Brait Splicing. The video a little tedious but thorough. You can adapt the lesson learned to other sizes and brands of cordage[vsw id=”-zUFloSvYLk” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

This is an Annapolis Performance Sailing video on locking the whip stitch.[vsw id=”9RY2WZivFS0″ source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Also, take a look at Captain Mike’s quick rope whipping tutorial: http://captnmike.com/2011/10/26/mikes-quick-rope-whipping/ His site is full of useful articles on other topics, as well.

Finally one last thank you to Andy Schwenk at Northwest Rigging for supporting the women’s boating community. These new lines should help take some of the stress out of docking the boat.

 

 

 

Skidding Towards Victory

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Note: Apologies if the photos are looking weird on your browser. There is a problem with the integration of WordPress and Picasa and I’m working to resolve it.

We dared to say it this weekend. We dared to say we are getting just that close to being able to bring this boat up to Washington. So close that we are actually looking at our calender and beginning to make plans to take leave from work. So close that we’ve created a list of things that must be done before we leave. These are musts, not wants. We must, for example, have a plumbed head on board. We must make sure our safety equipment is up to date. We must call our boat insurance and add the engine to the policy, and be sure we are fully insured for this part of the Pacific Ocean. We must have good ground tackle. It’s exciting to be making that kind of list.

Mike is like the energizer bunny of late. He has so many projects on his ‘to do’ list, rambling around in his head, that I don’t know how he keeps them all straight. He trouble shoots issues during the week, shops for parts, then when we get to Astoria he hits the ground running. This week a new fuel gauge was on his list of projects. Until now, the only way to actually know how much fuel is in the tank was to remove the cover plate and look.  That’s too much work. Plus, every time you open the tank you risk exposing the fuel to dust and dirt. So he ordered a fuel gauge and set about to his business. In his  mind the most daunting part of the task was making a hole in the aluminum port cover. This little Ryobi drill has more than paid for itself with tasks like this one. 

A little cleanup with the dremel to make the edges smooth, insert gauge into hole, and voila, sort of: 

Next week he will install the visible part of the gauge. It will be next to the engine panel in the cockpit. There is already a hole there, but it’s just that much too big, so a piece of Star Board must be bought to finish it off. Next week that’s on the agenda.

As much as I’d like to sit around reading novels while Mike works his ass off, I, too have projects going on. First on the agenda was finishing up those port screens. Last week I began this project by removing the old screening material and cleaning up the aluminum frames which had old dried adhesive and worn out weather stripping. We won’t need them for awhile, but it will be nice to have them this summer. This week I rummaged around in the attic and found our old window screens from before we put new windows in the house. They had that fabric screen material that I wanted for this project. I cut the screening out with a razor blade and set it aside. Here’s a ‘before photo’.  

I needed silicone to attach the pieces of screen to the frames, and weather seal to go around the outside to provide a friction fit inside the port holes. This week found us at West Marine for something else, so I looked for the silicone. A small tube for 15$? Um. No. I am way too cheap for that. We went to Home Depot and I found a small tube for 4$, but it looked like I might need two. This was in the glue section. I put them in the cart, then toddled off to find the weather stripping. I found that, and just next to it a large tube of what, in effect, was the same kind of thing. Siliconized caulk. 3$ for a large tube. Just goes to show it pays to look around. Considering that the screen material was, in effect, free, the total cost of this project came in at 11$.  I consider that a win.

I put a bead of this stuff around the inside edge, then lay the screen on top and pressed into place. Little pieces of screen on each side will help remove the screen from the port easily. This stuff lays on white, but dries clear. After applying the rubber weather seal, they were done.

A perfect fit!

Next up was a new fresh water pump. If you recall, our brief ‘shake down’ cruise last weekend presented us with a water pump leaking like a sieve. We had researched which pump to use, noting that the old one was a ShurFlo, but we couldn’t tell which model or even how many GPH it was rated. We went with our Bible of Marine Information, Practical Sailor, to tell us what to get. They had done a review of water pumps in their May 2011 issue. I went to the shelf and pulled that issue and read the article, then we decided to go with the ShurFlo 3.0. The article described this particular pump as being the best one for people who want to take a ‘belt and suspenders’ direction with their choice. That’s us.  You’d think we’d want a larger pump considering the size of this boat and the number of faucets. But we don’t want to tax the system by putting too much pressure through it, and we are unlikely to be using more than one faucet at a time.

Down at the boat, Mike decided that the installation of the new pump would be a dandy project for me to take on. He would be working on another small project in the engine room (adding a rubber washer to the brace for the exhaust elbow to dampen vibration) and would be there to coach me and answer questions. He would teach me how to solder. (Be still my heart! Man-cave mysteries about to be solved!) Wide eyed, I asked him if he was serious. Did he really want me to install said pump? I felt the ground shift underneath me just a little as a bit of cognitive dissonance was created. But he looked dead sexy in his new glasses and, well, he believed in me. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

To be frank, the whole thing was pretty anti-climactic. Unscrew the threaded connections to the hoses, unscrew some other screws, clip some wires. Then use same screws to go in same holes, attach the threaded connectors, strip some wires and wind them together, solder, cover exposed wire and ‘Bob’s your uncle’. The worst part was stripping the wires to prepare for soldering.  This was probably the easiest part of the refit yet because it looks like we chose an identical pump. Works like a charm. 

In other project news, I’m in the middle of a temporary re-do of the aft cabin.  I ran into such a good deal on fabric that I had to take advantage of it. I am making covers for the berths. I’m pretty tired of having an aft cabin that always looks messy. After working on messy projects all day, we would like a more soothing environment to sleep in. This is what we had to work with:

We’ve been using heavy sleeping bags as sheets, then using our blankets to cover. The sleeping bags were comfortable, but slide around and hang off the side creating a messy space. They are hard to fold and put away in the morning as well and take up a lot of space. Eventually we will do a more serious remodel this cabin but there are more urgent things on the agenda. So meanwhile I wanted something cheap, easy, and hopefully something we could reuse after the remodel. I wanted to create a covering that would act as both a sheet and as upholstery; something that would give the space a bit of a facelift and our raise our spirits as well.

My thought was to go to a thrift shop and get something to recycle but I was not finding anything that was worth the effort there. Instead I went to Hancock Fabric, which was having a huge sale, and found the perfect fabric, in the perfect colors, for 5$ /yard. It was front and center when I entered the store.  For less than 50$ I had enough fabric to do the aft cabin. For another 50$ I bought fabric to make slip covers for the settees in

the salon.

 

. 

In our Cal 34 we used a memory foam mattress topper on top of new foam cushions in the V berth and we found it to be a satisfying and comfortable solution. I wanted to reproduce that comfort in this boat. I had twin size memory foam topper from Andrew’s years in the dorm, and a twin size mattress cover as well. These would do for the small berth. (And as an aside, THIS is why I have trouble getting rid of stuff. I’m always repurposing things.) I cut the mattress pad to fit the irregularly shaped cushion and tacked it into place with needle and thread (you cannot see this in the photo).  This will keep the topper in place and provide air circulation between a body at rest and the memory foam. I don’t plan to remove this mattress pad until we replace the whole sleeping unit during the remodel phase. But if I have to, it’s simple enough to snip the threads. 

They I lay the fabric on the berth, cut to shape, pieced it where necessary, fit it using pins, then removed and took it to the sewing machine for finishing. I’m pretty happy with the result and Mike pronounced this berth to be perfectly comfortable. This fabric is definitely a win, and 100% cotton as well. Note that the colors match the pillow cases and blanket that were already on board.P1050196

Next is the double berth (a misnomer if I’ve ever heard one). That will be more difficult because I would like to replace the really worn out mattress. At one time it was a good one, but now it’s not. Since we’ll remodel in the future, I don’t want to spend good money on a new mattress or even new foam at this point. Let the scrounging begin.

Our final work of the weekend: Mike installed the mizzen sail before I even got out of bed on Sunday morning. Then we needed to figure out how to use the Lofrans Falkon windlass and take a close look at the anchoring gear. The windlass works great. We’ve never had an electric one before and both have serious trust issues with such things. Therefore we had to be sure we knew how to do it manually. 

Here’s what we have to work with. This compartment needs cleaning and some minor fiberglass repair, but that’s not on the list of things that must be done before we leave this marina for Washington. This, however, definitely IS on the list:

Would you trust your boat to this chain?

Would you trust your boat to that chain? I think not. The other chain is loads better, but we will be checking each and every link, and we’ll likely replace it before we leave. The latest issue of Practical Sailor came this week. There is a review of anchor chain. Very timely, no?

Finally, we are getting serious about this whole boat naming business. Honestly, it was easier to name our children! I am about to get out the large presentation paper and create venn diagrams, if not spreadsheets. Progress was made, however, when the name of the new engine popped into my head: Hiram. Yes, we have named the engine Hiram after Mike’s Grandfather Boyte, whose nickname was ‘Red’. So there you go. Let it be written, let it be done. Red Boyte lived a long and fruitful life. Let it be so with our engine.

Lady Washington comes a-visiting

Look who visited Astoria this weekend! The Lady Washington.

 

Jiggety Jig

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We’ll certainly be dancing a jig when these drives to Astoria are over. I almost named this post ‘New Lamps for Old’, but in that story, the old lamp holds a powerful genie. As far as we can tell, we might have an old boat, but there is no genie inside because so far we’ve been unsuccessful in using magic to make headway on all the projects. No, the only thing we’re trading so far is one problem for another, some big, some small, some easy, some hard, some cheap…no, that’s a lie. None of them are cheap. But we knew that going in, so whatever. We can’t really complain about that.

Still, there is progress. Our exhaust guy, Caleb, finished the new exhaust elbow and a fine piece of metal art it is. It fit perfectly and he even machined a brace for it. Take a look:

You can’t really see the brace, but it’s on the right toward the bottom of the insulation wrap. Simple, effective.

He installed the piece, Mike happily wrote him a check for his work, and then Mike completed the installation of the hoses and the insulation wrap. He used one roll of the wrap, and there is another in reserve if it’s necessary. The stuff does take up some space, though, so if we can get away with using only the one, we’ll be glad. No modification of the shelf or rearranging of the hoses for the hot water tank proved necessary. Two fewer small tasks to accomplish. We’ll take that. The good news is that this project is finished (knocking firmly on wood), ready for Shawn to come down to the boat and address the shaft/engine alignment once more. We are keeping fingers crossed that he can do that this week, as since he started on our job, Shawn has received a huge contract for on-going work for his business. He’s a very busy guy. We might be small potatoes to him, but we know he wants this off his plate.

The other good news is that it looks like our tweaking of the transmission cables is going to work out. We won’t know for certain until the prop is engaged, but it’s looking good. It would be terrific if we didn’t have to mess with that anymore. Let’s all knock on more wood, throw salt over our shoulders, and spit three times while spinning, okay? We may not have any genies, but who knows what other kinds of gods are watching?

The problem ‘de la semaine’, as it were, is the Airmar 744VL transducer that is supposed to be talking to our new Garmin 820XS chartplotter. Mike bought a special cable to connect the two so they would speak the same language. Yet it remains silent, which means we have no depth showing up on the GPS. Curses! Foiled again! Mike spent several hours tweaking and problem solving, to no avail. I am encouraging him to call Garmin and discuss this issue, as we are hoping their reputation for good customer service (which was one reason we chose to stick with that brand of chartplotter) will bear fruit. If any readers have knowledge of this problem, please do comment.

While Mike and Caleb played with their tools in the man cave, I began a very important task that has waited long enough. Cleaning the cockpit. With all the engine work, moving of stuff onto and off the boat, grit from being near a bridge, and the fact that winter is barely over, the cockpit was a pit of filth, not to mention the ubiquitous green algae that marks a boat from the Pacific Northwest. I got to work with scrub brushes and a mild bleach cleaner. Nothing kills algae like bleach. Of course, once I began cleaning, I had a hard time knowing where to stop, as the deck needs a scrub, too. Several hours later I could barely move, but by God my cockpit was lovely to behold. Remind me to buy a Costco bottle of aspirin for the boat. The rest of the deck awaits my attention.  I got out the bottom siders and the cushion covers, et voila. Gracious living, sailboat style. Stunts performed by Skipperdee. 

While I was cleaning, two new sailboats came in and docked at the guest moorage. And both of them had trouble docking because of the current. I looked up just as this guy hit the boat next to him in the slip.

A beautiful aluminum Frers design.

No harm done as the boat is aluminum, and the boat he nudged is steel with a lot of tires hanging like fenders on the side.  I ran down and he threw his stern line to me and soon he was snugged to the dock. He was single handing and I don’t know how he would have docked the thing in that current without help since he was almost sideways in the slip by the time I got to him. The other boat that came in was a Nauticat motor sailor and they looked like they had good control until they slowed down to make the turn into their slip. Then they started drifting quickly away from the dock. Mike and I ran to grab their lines as well.

All that’s to say that we cannot wait to get out of this marina. It has served its purpose and we’ve enjoyed the area, but we are ready to bring this boat home as soon as possible. Being right in the midst of that current is not my idea of where I want to be when trying to learn to dock this boat. I can see why there are so many steel boats in this marina, since apparently it’s not unusual for there to be games of bumper tag at the dock. But our boat isn’t made of steel, or even aluminum. And I don’t want to hurt it. We’re not even docked in a proper slip, because the piling fell over months ago and it still isn’t fixed.

When these things come to town, the marina parking lot and bathrooms are turned over to the tourists. It's quite a show.

When these things come to town, the marina parking lot and bathrooms are turned over to the tourists. It’s quite a show.

No, reasons to leave are stacking up. Between the three hour drive, the increasing traffic due to summer approaching, the lack of security, the closing of the marina parking lots to accommodate the cruise ships, the lack of a secure slip, and the constant wind and current, we’re pretty much done.  We’ll miss Astoria, but we’re ready to go. We’re ready to have this boat in our home waters, waters we know well after 10 years of sailing them. Home again, home again, jiggety jig.