Scamper

Standard Horizon 2100 AIS with Dedicated GPS Puck

2010-11-06T14:20:00.001-07:00

The Standard Horizon 2100 decodes AIS messages from the same antenna that is used for voice communications. It can display AIS targets on the radio's small screen and also send NMEA AIS messages to a chart plotter. In order for the AIS to work at all the radio needs to know where it is. This means it needs NMEA GPS messages coming in.

The real way to do this is to send the GPS data to both the chart plotter and to the radio. I wanted to see if I could use a cheap GPS "puck" to feed the radio its own GPS data. Turns out you can.

I picked up a serial PS2/USB GPS puck from eBay for about $20. It needs 5 volts to work so above you can see my "breadboard" setup to do this.

I got a 5 volt regulator from Radio Shack (item 276-1770) and wired it into the boat's 12 volt supply.

All my alligator clips forced me to make a rough schematic.

Once the GPS puck got power it started sending GPS sentences to the radio. The radio knew where it was and started plotting AIS targets.

The puck works fine below decks sitting right on top of the radio.

Studying for Captain's License

2010-11-06T13:15:00.001-07:00

Skip at Flagship Maritime Training is keeping the class busy. This is a good thing. His class is serious and interesting at the same time.

The boat is a pretty good place to get totally immersed in this.

Redwood City Tug

2010-10-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Went up the mast the other day and used my Leica to get great shot of the tug Redwood City.

Masthead

2010-10-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

Went up to replace the bulb and check the upper terminals of the rig. I wish I would have taken a picture a little more to the left to include the wind transducers. I have to service those ancient pieces of gear and it would be great to know what I'm getting into before I go up.

Rainy GIg Harbor

2010-09-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend in Gig Harbor at Jerisich Park (city dock). Rained hard the whole time. Still nice to get out. Watched movies, cooked, tackled some inside-the-boat projects. Surprisingly the dock was completely full the entire weekend.

Construction at Gig Harbor Entrance

2010-09-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

From what I could glean from locals at Gig Harbor they are changing their sewer outfall from the middle of the harbor (!) to outside where the current can help with the flushing.

There are two of these platforms, one inside the harbor and one outside, that they are using to lay the pipe under the spit that makes up the harbor entrance.

Be careful.

New Gennaker

2010-08-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

The new gennaker from North works very well. They were very late in delivering it - I ordered it in January, promised in 30 days, but didn't get delivery until May. The roller jib I ordered at the same time arrived as scheduled.

North was was okay to deal with and seemed to make an honest effort to get the sail built. They threw in a snuffer to offset any inconvenience and in the end I'm pretty satisfied.

The gennaker is a bit easier to fly than a symmetrical spin but it's still hard to find storage for it below.

LED Deck Lighting

2010-03-02T10:32:00.001-08:00

There's a combination deck/steaming light about midway up Scamper's mast. The steaming light is fine but I've never been happy with the deck light. The incandescent bulb draws almost an amp and is really not that bright.

I tried a "high power", single LED bulb from BulbTown.com. It draws very little current but is quite a bit dimmer than the original. In a pinch it is workable but I wanted a little more light so I poked around for parts to build a bulb I couldn't find anywhere else.

The bulb on the left is a "Miniature Reflector Bulb BA9S Base" from BulbTown.com. The middle bulb is from LEDLight.com. The assembly on the right resulted from cutting the reflector from the first bulb and attaching it to the second bulb. The bulb closest to the camera is the original bulb from the fixture.

The 5-LED bulb (middle and right) draws almost no power but in stock form puts most of its light out the side. I found the incandescent reflector bulb (left) via Googling for "ba9s reflector" and bought 5 of them for experimentation. They're cheap but not very bright. Not sure what they would be good for.

I cut the plastic reflector off with a razor saw, held it onto the LED bulb with some handy butyl tape, which also created a dam, and squirted in some epoxy using a West System syringe. I made 3 so I'd have spares.

The new bulb gives a nice glow to the foredeck, somewhat like bright moonlight. You can't quite read with it but you can do most other tasks and it doesn't affect night vision. Since it draws so little power I can leave it on all night in addition to the anchor light adding a bit of visibility.

Pipe Rack

2008-09-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

This is an arrangement to hold a couple pipes out of the way in the nav station desk. It uses plastic rail clamps in the appropriate size to keep the pipes against the side.

Damage Control Kit

2008-06-25T15:57:00.001-07:00

Captain Rodriguez asks "what's in your damage control kit?" Mine's similar to his - toilet-ring wax and spray foam - but I also have a tube of epoxy putty.

I worry about the can of foam rusting through so I put it all in a Seal-A-Meal bag. The foam still might burst the bag but maybe it won't rust as fast. What a mess that would be. Actually, if I let it go that long without inspection I get what I deserve.

Mmmmm, Small Bodied Guitars

2008-06-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

This is my latest "boat guitar." It's a Fender "Global Design" GDP 100 Parlor Guitar. It's a very cheap instrument, plywood, less than $200, but it sounds fine. Intonation's good, action is surprisingly good, and it looks great.

Small bodied guitars usually have good punch and this guitar is really snappy. It has a full 25.3" scale (that's Strat sized) and is very comfortable to play. It would probably sound better with upgraded saddle, nut, and bridge pins, GraphTech perhaps, but I'm in no hurry.

Sitting in the cockpit at sunset is exactly where this guitar belongs. It is small enough so that it doesn't get in the way and it hangs perfectly on a coat hook so it's ready to go whenever a little inspiration hits me.

New Batteries and Charger

2008-06-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Earlier this spring I swapped out two group 31 lead-acid batteries for an AGM 8D and an AGM group 24. Scamper's DC system is wired so that one battery is dedicated to starting and one battery is dedicated to the house. Not a bad setup but, since they're dedicated to different jobs, both batteries don't need to be identical.

What I had was essentially 100 amp-hours for the house and 100 amp-hours for starting. Scamper doesn't use all that much power - no fridge, no water system, all LED lighting - but 100 AH is pretty low if you want to anchor or sail for several days without running the engine.

Further, a group 31 battery can supply around 700 cold cranking amps (CCA) but Yanmar specifies that the 3GM only needs 200 CCA max. So there was a lot of excess capacity in the start battery.

The two group 31s weighed a total of about 145 pounds. The AGM 8D and group 24 together weigh about 205 pounds. So for 60 pounds I was able to more than double the AH capacity of the house bank - 100 to 245 AH.

In order go gain space for the 8D I needed to not use a battery box. AGMs can be fastened down without a box since they can't leak. You just have to insulate the terminals. I really like the idea that the batteries can't spill in a knockdown.

All in all it was a great upgrade. The hardest part was lowering the 150 pound 8D down the companionway. I used a tackle from the boom.

In order to keep all this electrical storage full I needed to replace the old Guest 10 amp charger. I went with a Xantrex Truecharge 20 amp model. The 40 amp model would have been a little better specification for the size of the house battery but the 20 amp model fit the space better, didn't require me to add active ventilation to the space, and was a bit cheaper. Accessories for the 20 amp model are a little cheaper too and I got the remote panel pictured above.

It is nice to be able to see what the charger is doing but the AGM setting on the device uses a lower range of voltages for bulk and maintenance charges. This puts the voltage indication on the remote panel at the very lowest end of its range so it's not as much fun as it could be.

Standard Horizon HX850S

2008-06-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

The new Standard Horizon HX850s is a handheld VHF radio with a built-in GPS. This allows the digital (DSC) portion of the radio to always have a position to send to other DSC-equipped radios. The Coast Guard in the Pacific Northwest (Sector Seattle) can receive and act on DSC distress alerts so this radio seems a pretty useful piece of safety gear. To get all this to work you need to get a free MMSI number (from BoatUS if you are in the US).

After using an HX460s for many years the HX850s seems a bit bare. It works well - the radio sounds good, seems to have a sensitive receiver and an adequate transmitter, the GPS acquires quickly, and certainly seems accurate. The 460 has so many bands though that it's like cable vs. regular broadcast TV.

The HX850s display is large but compared to the HX460s it seems somewhat lo-res. The available display modes are useful but the available GPS info will take you back 15 years to units that only had lat/lon, COG and SOG. That's exactly as advertised and perfectly adequate for the intended use. After all this is a radio with a GPS and in an emergency the position is what is useful.

The unit has a strong magnetic field. It affects the steering compass much more than the HX460s and any other handheld VHFs I've had. Gotta be careful where you set it down. This is probably due to a large speaker magnet which is responsible for the unit's great sound. Too bad it doesn't get more bands like the 460 which I sometimes use as a portable AM/FM radio.

I ordered the optional AAA battery pack. I'll load it with lithium batteries and will keep the HX850s in my ditch bag. Makes a lot of sense there.

Update: the AAA battery pack arrived and, oddly, it takes five batteries. Not a problem but you either have to buy 10 batteries or tolerate one left over. I got 10 and vacuum-packed the whole lot and have it stored in my ditch bag.

Re-Registering an EPIRB

2008-04-24T09:49:00.001-07:00

It was a hard decision to save $300 and pick up an EPIRB off of eBay but I went ahead and did it. The "used" (but never deployed) ACR unit is good until 2011 so that allows a bit of time for prices to come down before I have to decide on a new one again.

To register a previously-registered unit (in the US) you have to call NOAA at (888) 212-7283 and provide enough information to convice them you aren't trying to enable a stolen unit. The instructions on the registration website say you need the previous vessel's name but the nice lady I talked to wanted the person's name that previously registered the unit. Seems more logical since you could easily read the name off the boat's transom as you were making off with the stolen EPIRB.

Anyhow, it took 30 seconds for NOAA to clear the old registration and after that I was able to do a "new" registration.

Stern Ladder Quick Release

2008-04-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is a in-water release for the stern ladder. It's made from a rail-mount cleat kit, a quick release pin, and a couple strap-eyes. Both readily available at my local West Marine.

The blue line hangs down the transom almost to the water line. A tug on the line releases the ladder and brings it down on your head. The other end of the blue line is fast to the stern rail and is used to pull the ladder back up.

This setup also works well from the dinghy.

Recording On The Boat

2008-04-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Back to the boat as a recording studio. This is a great Zoom H2 on an UltraPod strapped to the saloon table bracket. Pretty good acoustic space but yesterday my dock neighbor was "tuning up" the two big gas engines in his powerboat. Didn't get much done.

Computer Upgrades

2008-03-05T10:34:00.000-08:00

The original Fujitsu LT C500 is getting called on to do more these days.

I added a Cingular PCMCIA AirCard and the service and performance have been outstanding. I'm seeing over 1 meg connection speed all over the south Sound with no dropouts. The advertised cost is $60 per month. The real cost is a bit over $70 with taxes and all the usual add-on fees. Still worth it to me. PDANet on the Treo is still backup and I also can do WiFi at various marinas.

I used WiFi last summer in Friday Harbor, Victoria, and Port Townsend through Broadband Express. When it worked it was fine but there were several times I had to call support to get it going. I finally gave up on it and went back to PDANet on the Treo. Broadband Express has also been promising "fall 2007 install" at my home marina for quite some time.

Turns out the LT C500 has a built in CompactFlash slot. I picked up a 16 gig CF card on eBay for $50. That's the same size as the built in hard disk so I effectively doubled storage capacity. It just looks like the D: drive to Windows. So far I'm just using the solid state disk for recovery and log data.

I picked up the two-DVD set of "Raster & Vector Charts for United States Waters" from Managing the Waterway.com and now have an enormous library of publications and all NOAA charts on the CF card as well.

I've been fooling with getting HF weatherfax and NavTex messages into the computer using SeaTTY connected to a Sony 7600GR SW receiver but haven't been able to tune in any stations so far inland. The SeaTTY software looks good though.

With all this computing going on I bought a second LT C500 on eBay for $150. It's essentially a "hot spare" in that it has everything installed and ready to go. I don't keep it powered up, however. Maybe a plan would be to switch computers every month or so to make sure the spare is good.

Sailing With the Campbell

2008-03-03T10:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a very nice day. Temp in the 50s, party cloudy, 8 to 12 knots of wind. I sailed for a couple hours in Commencement Bay and then over to Quartermaster harbor where I anchored for a couple hours and had lunch and a nap.

I have to say that I can't see much difference under sail between the old Martec and the new Campbell prop. It was easy to see 6 knots of boat speed in 10 knots of wind. This is pretty comparable to performance with the Martec. Coming to anchor, ghosting along in the wind shadow of Vashon Island under main alone, the boat made way in drifting conditions with no problem.

On the other hand, with no wind on the way home, an effortless 6.5 knots at 2200 RPM was wonderful.

(Morning View: thanks for the question.)

From Martec to Campbell Sailor

2008-03-03T10:24:00.001-08:00

Removing the Martec and installing the Campbell went pretty well. In fact it only took 10 minutes. I was anticipating all manner of problems.

The "nut" that holds the center section of the Martec to the shaft is the cylindrical thing on the end of the "T" handle wrench in the middle of the picture. It has a hole in the end that a 1/2" drive fits into. You remove 4 split pins, two for the big pin that holds the blades and two to keep the nut from turning. Stick a 1/2" drive into the hole in the nut, and apply force. I used a monkey wrench to hold the shaft.

I picked up a gear/wheel puller from Harbor Freight for $15 and it made quick work of getting the Martec's center secion off the shaft.

Putting the Campbell on was even easier. I re-used the key, greased the shaft, and slid the prop on. Two nuts and a split pin and you're done.

2008-02-29T15:18:00.001-08:00

That time of year again. Hauled, painted the bottom, polished the topsides, and put on a new prop.

The new prop is a 3-blade Campbell Sailor, 14" diameter, 7" pitch, from WestByNorth.com. It replaces a 2-blade folding Martec, 16" diameter, 10" pitch.

So far, in just a half hour of motoring, the results look very good. Much reduced vibration and much higher spped at all RPMs. Backing and prop-walk were never much of a problem with the Martec so I can't really say it has improved. We'll have to see about sailing performance.

Scamper's engine and prop are offset to port so prop walk is magnified anyway. I've always been pretty happy being able to use the boat's ability to back severly to port though it's sometimes been annoying.

Cheap Ideas

2008-02-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a collection of things I've done that provide a pretty good value.

- LEDs for all cabin lights from SuperBrightLEDs.com. Much cheaper than upgrading electrical-storage system and much the same result. You can also get red ones to put into normal fixtures for saving night-vision.

- Bolt (rod) cutter from Harbor Freight for $20 vs. $200 from West Marine.

- Low-cost "pen PC" (Win2k) from eBay, SeaClear software, free charts, fairly cheap AIS from MillTech Marine - full featured nav computer.

- Inkjet printers are less than $50 now. So are scanners. These two things in addition to a label maker and possibly a laminator allow you to do documentation that saves money and lots of time.

- You can get a custom "boat stamp" made and, even better, one that uses permanent ink. Stamp everything in sight that is not fastened down, especially stuff that floats. I included the boat's name, home port, and US Coast Guard documentation number on mine.

- $18 hammock chair swing from eBay. On the spin halyard this keeps kids occupied for hours.

- "Tablet" style DVD player velcro'd to bulkhead.

- Black and Decker "alkaline" screwdriver. Not rechargeable, uses 4 AAs. Under $20 from WalMart. Indispensable. Speeds up any job, drills holes, takes a LOT of abuse. Batteries last months.

- Small, low-cost dehumidifier from www.Air-N-Water.com. Under $40. Heaters are nice but a warm AND dry cabin is even better.

- Fresh water flush for engine cooling. Y-valve draws from freshwater tank when putting the boat away. Less than $100 in parts.

- Thin, clear plastic sheet over nav station surface. Put a chart under it, the day's current tables, notes. You can keep your DR position and write notes on it with dry-erase markers.

- Wolfgang Puck's self-heating lattes. Not cheap but that first sip, on a cold night-watch, when you don't have time to go below, is worth $100. I've found them on sale locally for $1 each.

- Small pressure cooker (from CampMor). $50, easy to store, great to cook with.

- Weems and Plath electronic barometer. 24-hour recording/graph barometer. Has an alarm for high-wind prediction that has never failed or been wrong in four years.

- Small, 12v, aux fuel pump. $20 from eBay plus a couple fittings. Makes changing the filters and bleeding the engine very quick and simple.

- Computer fan to circulate air through hull-liner. $20 plus some vent grills. Lockers are dry. Tools stored there don't rust.

- Memory foam pad(s) from Overstock.com.

- Small plastic box full of really cheap toys. That, the DVD player, some small handheld fish nets, and the hammock swing buy a lot of busy-kid time.

- Blobs of silicone on bottom of drink glasses. Set the glasses on wax paper until dry. Makes the glasses non-skid.

- Gore tex or graphite packing works really well and is a very cheap upgrade.

Back to Olympia

2007-06-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend saw us heading back to Olympia. Sunny but windless trip down. Spent the first night at Eagle Island then on to Swantown Marina.

Uneventful trip down. Nice couple evenings on the boat. I headed back Sunday night and sailed through the night to catch the current at the Narrows.

Here we're motoring under the Narrows Bridge on the way down.

RAM Mount

2007-06-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

Moving the laptop to a RAM mount allowed me to get it much higher which gets it out of the way of any spray coming in through the companionway. The keyboard would still be vulnerable but I'll store it in the nav desk in bad weather.

The laptop has a real touch screen that you can manipulate with an actual finger - doesn't need a special pen. This allows you to do most functions, scrolling, zooming, without a keyboard.

My Treo 650 is in a new mount just below the VHF.

Aloft

2007-06-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

Went up the mast last month to replace some bulbs, lube and inspect the rig, clean som things, etc.

This was with the ATN TopClimber that I am still pretty happy with. I have a dedicated 1/2" Sta-Set line that I hoist up with the second jib halyard. I use the main halyard with a third ascender and a safety harness for a safety backup.

It's a little much to keep track of the ascender on the extra safety line but it seems worth it.

The Boat as a Recording Studio

2007-03-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

With three kids at home the boat is the quiet place to be. Acoustics aren't bad either.

I'm getting behind on releasing a new CD so I've found a place to get away and work on it.

Here I'm recording my Martin OM28 and Takamine EN132C with a newish Zoom H4. The built-in mics on the zoom are passable. I'm recording totally flat with no compression or mic eumlation. The raw .WAV tracks load directly into SoundForge where I add compression and a bit-o-verb.

The ship's strike clock gets in the mix once in a while so I guess I'll have to turn it off. Otherwise the acoustic environment is pretty good. A bit dead but no kids yelling.

I was able to get 20 tracks recorded last Sunday afternoon. Lots of those will end up being throw-aways but it's nice to get something done. If anyone wants me to make the raw tracks available let me know. I'll also be shooting an acoustic country blues instructional video on the boat in the near future.

2007-01-16T16:31:00.000-08:00

The August San Juan trip is now available as a movie. It was a nice trip with some great video. Music is, of course, from my two CDs.

I'll continue to post the trip log in parts here along with some stills.

2007-01-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

We had quite a blow here last month. Being a rather funky place the marina has purchased, over many years, various hulks to use for a breakwater. Much of the breakwater is made from old sections of floating highway bridges. Other sections are old ships. There's an old ferro-cement liberty ship in one section and a rusted-out hulk of a fish-processor in another.

The storm came in on the night of December 14th. Official wind speeds were above 50 knots in most places inland. Folks at the marina saw 70+ knots. One of the ships used in the breakwater, the New Star, broke loose from her mooring. Her stern swept through the outer docks of the marina and took out around 20 slips. At least four boats were sunk and three were driven ashore.

It was a pretty messy scene on the morning of the 15th. Power was out all over western Washington so everything was pretty dark and cold. The news trucks were there, lots of fuel in the water, flotsam everywhere, the Coast Guard, some pretty haggard looking liveaboards.

The liveaboards from the dock that was wrecked heard the conflagration and alerted everyone else. They all ran up the dock and spent the evening in the marina office.

The boats that went ashore have now been refloated and seem to be okay. The sunken boats were salvaged and removed.

August 2006 Trip

2006-12-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

Here's the start of the log from my August 2006 trip to the San Juans, Victoria, and back. I'm going to post it in several parts.

Monday, August 7, 2006

Standing in Scamper's cockpit in the warm evening the upcoming vacation seemed to stretch out forever. Three weeks in the San Juans with just a few days in the middle for work. Life is going to be good.

I hit the starter button just after 6 pm, the little Yanmar happily clattered to life, and I motored out into Commencement Bay. Rounding Brown's Point and turning north it was obvious I was looking at a pretty vigorous beat into a building northwest wind. It was a pleasant enough sail at 15 knots but by the time it started gusting over 20 is was sorry I put off reefing - especially since daylight was rapidly slipping away. It was a bit exhilarating but I got the second reef tucked in and the genoa rolled up and things quieted down nicely.

It was a rough beat for a good three hours. The conditions kept my hands full with boat handling but there was also quite a little bit of commercial traffic. A southbound tug towing a barge gave me quite a thrill at Point Robinson.

As the tug was rounding the point I checked bearings and made sure I would pass astern of him. Within seconds the windblown barge swung broadside to the tug on the side away from where I was. To keep the barge behind him the tug's skipper had to alter course directly toward me. Now the tug was nearly dead ahead if I stayed on port tack and Vashon Island was dead ahead if I crash-tacked over to starboard. Both were way too close for comfort so I turned downwind and ran out of the way at close to eight knots. I lost a bit of very hard-fought distance to windward but it was certainly better than a collision.

The wind finally died around midnight, in anticipation of a shift to the south, and I motored the last 30 minutes to Blake Island and took a buoy on the southwest side. The buoy was hard to find in the darkness but the GPS was surprisingly helpful - the buoys were on the chart-chip and the old-tech Garmin was accurate enough to put me within yards. The Johnson "Grab-n-Go" hook also worked very well and made picking up the buoy pretty easy, even short-handed.

Corroded Bilge Pump

2006-11-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

Well, there is a pump under there. This is a 25 year old Whale Gusher 10 from Scamper's cockpit. These pumps are made of aluminum and Whale recommends flushing them after use. I really don't like that thought for a bilge pump but the alternative is a plastic Titan.

I talked to a guy at Whale and he strongly recommended staying with the metal pump. Since the plastic pump would also require different mounting holes I guess I'll pony up the extra cash and get a new Gusher vs. the plastic Titan.

Clogged

2006-11-17T15:39:00.000-08:00

We've had a lot of rain lately and it has washed a tremendous amount of junk down the rivers and into the sound. We're not far from where the Hylebos river dumps into Commencement Bay and this is what most of the marina looked like earlier in the week.

They've got a lot of it cleaned up now. It would have been pretty hard to get a boat through this if anyone had wanted to get out.

AIS and Internet Connectivity

2006-11-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

My new nav computer (see below) give me USB. This lets me get AIS and internet connectivity pretty easy.

The MilltechMarine AIS receiver was very easy to install and has been a lot of fun. It works seamlessly with the latest version of SeaClear. From my slip in Tacoma I can see ships coming around Pt. Robinson about 4 nm away. That's over some pretty high terrain so I'm expecting much better range once I actually take the boat out (it's been a very wet fall).

For internet connectivity I'm using my Treo 650 running PDANet software. This is also amazingly easy. Install a bit of software on both the Treo and the host, connect via the USB sync cable, run the software on the Treo, and start browsing. It's literaly that easy.

So now, not counting the Treo, I have just under $600 invested in a nav computer that gives me GPS, free, easy-to-update, US charts, AIS, tide info, weather radar (via the net), buoy data (via the net), email, webcam, word processing, the ability to store manuals (in PDF), the list goes on. A big Garmin would be a little less fiddly to get going but this is way cheaper.

New Nav Computer

2006-11-15T13:50:00.000-08:00

The old Win95 "pen" computer was working fine but had no support for USB. I found a Win 2000 Fujitsu "pen" computer on eBay for $200 and put my cheap PCMCIA GPS card in it.

SeaClear and wxTide run just fine, as expected and are still free. Now I'm able to do AIS and internet through my Treo 650. Whoohoo.

Hammock Chair Swing

2006-11-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

The kids just love this hammock chair. It's been the big foredeck attraction all summer.

Video

2006-11-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

Did the San Juans, Victoria, and most of the Sound this summer. Shot a video using a regular Sony HandyCam and the Horizon True rail mount.

Red Sails in the Sunset

2006-04-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

Had a real nice sail last night in 10 to 15 knots of wind. Water was smooth so speed with the 135 was often over six knots. I beat out of Commencement Bay and almost up to Point Robinson before I turned and had a nice broad reach back home.

The wind really came up when I started to douse the sails and I had to beat up to the marina seawall under main alone before I got into enough of a lee to comfortably furl the main. The jib on the roller was easy to furl after heading off and letting the main blanket it. Good stuff, really.

2006-03-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

There are better guitars to keep on board. I would really like my onboard guitar to be my Rainsong but its hard to beat the size and durabilty of a Baby Taylor. It sounds pretty good too. The Baby Taylor is mostly plywood so it is still pretty impervious to environment problems though I do keep the cabin warm and dry most all the time. The only downside to the Baby is that I really couldn't play a show with it.

The case stays on a shelf that is a good place for crew to store their seabags so I like to take the guitar off the boat or store it in the v-berth if there is a crowd. The few times I've used the boat to go play out I've brought the Rainsong and stowed the Baby Taylor in my truck.

I may finish recording my next CD on the boat. It's pretty quiet and I'm not often disturbed there. The acoustics aren't bad either. Since I'm doing the solo acoustic thing it's pretty easy to sit down and play most anywhere.

Heaters

2006-03-24T16:49:00.000-08:00

These are great little heaters. They cost about $40, are thermostatically controlled, and use 400 watts - about half of the power used by the full-size models. There are two of them on Scamper over the winter and it is always comfortable.

Fenders

2006-03-24T15:22:00.000-08:00

Two worthy pursuits - reducing the steps needed to get the boat ready for a quick daysail, and cleaning up the looks, lines, and decks. I decided to fasten two fenders to the dock. This way I or my crew are not bothered with retrieving or setting the fenders when leaving or coming into the slip. I bought a set of small cleats for each dock-mounted fender and have been pretty happy with the level of protection so far.

I also got six of these Taylor jam cleats (they call them something else but that's what they are) and put three on each side. They seem to work really well but I haven't tried educating deck-crew in their use.

Engine Flush

2006-03-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

Last spring the fresh water cooling system disintegrated enroute to Olympia so I converted the engine to raw water cooling just to get me home. The engine was originally raw water cooled and I have no idea when the aftermarket cooling kit was installed. I talked to several Yanmar mechanics and they all agreed it should be no problem leaving the engine raw water cooled as long at the zincs got replaced as needed. Scamper has no hot water system (a plus in my mind) so I would not be missing any functionality.

I have added some sort of fresh water flush mechanism to all inboard boats I've owned in the past. They all required hauling out a hose when returning to the slip. When I re-plumbing Scamper's cooling system I added this feature and, for a year, dutifully flushed after every sail, short or long. This has the added advantage of regularly flushing the exhaust system which would stay salty even with a fresh water cooling system.

My wife rolls her eyes at my after-sail antics and it would be nice to make it a bit easier and quicker to take out and put away the boat.

To that end I'm trying out a Y valve that lets the engine get cooling water from the sea or from the fresh water system. Scamper holds 50 gallons of water and it takes a lot of dishwashing to go through the tanks during normal daysail and weekend use. The engine cooling system doesn't use too much water anyway. I've never thought the "emergency" bilge pump setup where you can get your engine to draw its cooling water from the bilge would be much use. In any case, using the fresh water tanks to flush the engine helps go through the water a bit quicker and will result in fresher water.

The new after-sail procedure is to open the cockpit locker just before I get into the slip and switch the valve over to the flush position. This lets me dock, idle for a minute or two, then shut the engine off almost right away. I don't have to get the hose out of the locker, connect it up at both ends, run the engine, and then put it all away.

I left the hose connection in place so I can put anti-freeze or a de-salt solution through the engine when necessary.

Everything In Its Place

2006-03-20T16:35:00.000-08:00

These little plastic clips are great. A pair came with my cockpit table to clip the lowered tabletop to the binnacle guard. I've since found several places to stash a handy flashlight such as in the v-berth and under the nav station.

More Light

2006-03-20T16:30:00.000-08:00

Boat US is selling these for around $75 on eBay. They list for around $120. I already had one and decided more light and heat is a good thing so I got another. There already was a screw-eye over the main cabin table so I added one over the galley, one over the nav station, and, seen here, one on each side between the after part of the cabin (where the galley and nav station are) and the main cabin.

I also added chains to get the lamps further away from the overhead. This lets me run the lamps bright (and hot) enough that I can read by them. The heat from two lamps keeps the cabin pretty warm too.

Back In The Water

2006-01-23T13:06:00.000-08:00

Scamper went back in the water Saturday morning and she looks wonderful. Hylebos Marina really does great work and are very good folks to work with. The bottom is smooth and even and the topsides look like a new boat.

I motored home in the rain and was tied up by noon. I took care of a couple of projects Saturday afternoon and Sunday which I'll blog about shortly.

Like a New Boat

2006-01-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

The lighting is way different but compare this picture to the "before" post below. New bottom paint and a polished hull.

Haulout

2006-01-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

Boat's out of the water now. I arrived at the dock early and had a bit of lunch. While I was eating, a newish Catalina 36 came in towed by an also newish Catalina 40. Two steering wheels on that one, whoohoo.

The 36 had hit a log in Commencement Bay and bent the prop or shaft and could not make way on it's own.

The haul went well. The travelift operator said Scamper weighs 12,500 pounds. That's full of fuel and about 3/4 full of water with all most cruising gear aboard. C&C's specs put the displacement at "approximately" 10,090 pounds.

I drilled a 1/4 hole in the bottom of the rudder to make sure it wasn't full of water. No problem there. I left it overnight and then filled it with epoxy. I was also able to rebuild an old Groco seacock that has been broken since I bought the boat. I called Groco about it some time ago and they were extremely helpful with tips about what I would find when I got around to the job.

I was also able to clean the prop and shaft and replace the zincs.

Hopefully the paint will go on this week and Scamper will get back in the water by next weekend.

2006-01-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

New shades from SailBoatOwners.com. Four of these took about 20 minutes to install and cost less than $200. They look very nice and are quite lightweight. I wouldn't call them durable, the kids can't swing from them, but I see no reason they would not last a very long time.

They are fastened at the top with small stainless screws (provided) about every four inches and at the bottom with small velcro patches. The velcro patches that came with the shades fastened with one screw in the center of the patch. I instead used small, round, stick-on velcro patches just to have a few less screw holes.

SailBoatOwners.com provides great service too. It took about four weeks from the time I ordered the shades until they arrived.

Highly recommended.

New Toys

2006-01-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

Just got some pleated shades from SailBoatOwners.com's "chandelry" and also made a trip to West Marine for some plumbing hardware to set up a new engine-flush mechanism.

The current engine cooling setup uses raw-water and has a hose connection for flushing. I'm looking for something that is even easier to use. I'm looking at using a diverter valve (Y valve) to briefly draw engine-cooling water from the fresh water tanks after a day's sail.

More to come with pictures.

Boat's also coming out of the water next Saturday for regular service - bottom paint, zincs, seacock rebuild, etc. I'll document that as well.

2006-01-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is a "rim lock" deadbolt I installed on Scamper's companionway hatch. It required the drop-boad to be built-up almost 1/2 inch to add enough room for the key mechanism. I really like it - there's no need to fool with padlocks and it's easy to lock from the inside.

ORC requirements specify a mechanism to lock the companionway from both the inside and outside. In really heavy weather it would be a good thing to keep the companionway locked closed so I fastened a lanyard to a spare key and will leave the key in the outside lock and clip the lanyard to the eye to the right of the lock.

ORC also specifies the ability to fasten the companionway to the boat so that it cannot be carried away as it is being removed. I made up a lanyard to clip between the the eye next to the lock and another eye just inside the companionway.

Checklists/Standing Orders

2005-12-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

In response to a question on the Latitides and Attitudes forum I’m posting the document I use on Scamper for standing orders and for emergency checklists. I stole some great ideas from this page that is attributed to John Neal’s website, which I originally found on the Lats and Atts forum.

I also made up a single page that contains Scamper’s accomodation plan with arrows pointing to various emergency and safety gear. I have both of these documents, along with the VHF mayday procedures, posted at the nav station.

Crew overboard
Shout "crew overboard" to alert everyone
Throw cushions
Hit "MOB" button on GPS
  Everyone not specifically doing something must keep an eye on MOB
Disable autopilot
    Lift tensioner
    Hit "standby" button
Head into wind
Toss LifeSling
Circle MOB
Free winches
Release mainsheet
Free main halyard, mainsail will drop
Check carefully for lines in the water before starting engine
Engine idle in neutral
Drop boarding ladder but don't open gate until necessary
Use spinnaker halyard for lift if necessary, route to cockpit primary winch.

Flooding below decks
Slow the boat and get it level
Taste water, if it is fresh there is no danger.
Make sure electric bilge pump is on (switch on panel over nav station)
Get bucket out of starboard cockpit locker
Don't bail to cockpit (cockpit drains could be letting water in)
Get bilge pump handle out of port cockpit locker
Close all through hulls except engine intake and electric bilge pump outlet (both on starboard
side of engine compartment) unless they are the cause of the problem
Use wood plugs if a through hull has failed
Use cushions, locker covers, sails, or towels to shore up a crack

Fire
Shut down blower
Shut down engine
Stop boat
Locate extinguishers
If fire is aft crew gathers on foredeck after moving dinghy from stern, otherwise gather in cockpit

Grounding
Drop sails/stop boat
Locate deep water
Check for lines in the water
Engine at idle in neutral
Check for damage/flooding

Heavy weather
Secure deck
Coil halyards
Stow loose gear
Latch cockpit lockers
Latch anchor locker
Seal head vent
Seal engine dorades
Secure dinghy
Secure cabin
Stow loose gear
Close seacocks (except engine intake)
Lock stove gimbal
Stow stove top
Latch icebox lid
Latch locker tops
Latch companionway ladder
Stow table, secure tops
Secure lamp
Check bilge
Close cabin vent
Close and dog foredeck hatch
Life jackets/harnesses
Fill thermos w/hot water

Standing orders
Log entries every hour
Check to make sure head is secure (not filling)
Harness on deck after dark and whenever a reef is tucked in
Always keep a 360 degree lookout, includes looking astern
Monitor a change in wind or weather
At least two crewmembers on deck for sail change

On watch change
    Communicate course, vessels, lights or land, in sight
    Understand the sail plan
    Tidy sheet and halyard tails
    Check bilge
    Look at engine
    Check gauges

Alert skipper (wake him up if necessary) if:
    Lights, ships, or objects are sighted
    You notice approaching weather, lightning, or dark clouds to windward
    Increase in windspeed or change in direction
    Unidentifiable sounds
    If in doubt at any time for any reason

The Real Wish List

2005-12-06T10:52:00.000-08:00

It's common to make a list of things to do on the boat. I keep mine on my Treo phone using ThoughtManager. It has a desktop component too and is pretty useful for many other things besides the boat list.

But the real list needs to be the voyages and adventures I want to get to in the upcoming season.

Swiftsure - I'd really like to do Swiftsure but there are several issues I need to tackle. I'm mostly done with modifications and gear purchases that make the boat conform to the race requirements. I still have to work out a crew and then the logistics of everyone getting time off, getting the boat to Victoria, back home, etc.

Olympia - We had a great time in Oly last Memorial day. We'd like to do it again but that gets in the way of Swiftsure.

San Juans, Victoria - For the last three years we did our "big" summer trip in a chartered powerboat. This is a nice change and is very comfortable for the entire family. Two years ago we took my parents and that turned out to be a very memorable trip for us all. This year we will very likely do this in Scamper and, since there's now the relatively slow leg north from Tacoma, the trip will be in sections which present their own logistics to work out.

My "week off" trip - The wife and kids usually go to the Oregon coast for a week in the summer which leaves me time to do a "carefree" sail trip. I'm torn between a trip to some busy and interesting port like Port Townsend, versus a trip to some quiet, out of the way spot like Cutts Island in the South Sound.

Mid Sound - I have really enjoyed Eagle Harbor the few times I've been there and would like to get back. Maybe I'll fold that into another trip and make it a stopover enroute to Port Townsend or further north. The ports behind Bainbridge are nice too - Bremerton, Port Orchard, and Poulsbo. An overnight at Elliot Bay or Bell Harbor marina might be fun too.

Vancouver Island Circumnavigation - Someday, but not this year.

Vic Maui - Even better!

More on V-Berth Fan

2005-12-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

Leslie Paal asked "I saw in your blog a part about putting fan under the V-berth. Could you give a bit more information how did you do it and what areas could you ventilate." Here's more:

When the boat was new to me I washed out the area under the v-berth with a hose and bleach, etc. To dry it I put one of those round dehumidifiers from West Marine over the step, aimed downward, so that it would blow warmed air into that area.

There's a 6 inch inspection port, the kind with the screw-on cover, in the side of the hull liner, just under the nav station. Unrelated to cleaning out the v-berth area, but while the dehumidifier was still in place, I removed the cover and noticed quite a bit of air flowing out of the port. I tracked it down to the dehumidifier.

I thought this might be somewhat useful since the space between the hull and liner, where I could see it, was somewhat moldy and I was using a lot of bleach and elbow grease to get it cleaned out. Being an occasional pipe smoker I used the opportunity fire up a bowl and use the smoke to see where all the air was going.

I took a straw and blew a bit of smoke in front of likely openings and observed the air currents. Turns out there was a bit of air coming out from the finger-holes in every locker door, from under the stove, and from the bilge when I took off the floorboard.

The water-tank area under the port settee was always pretty cool and damp and I wanted to ventilate that area anyway so I bought several 1 inch Perko "locker vents" from Defender. I installed them in several places such as the sides of lockers that were only accessible via under settee cushions (no doors) and also in a couple dead air spaces like under the nav station seat/quarterberth and under the galley's pan.

After installing the locker vents I did the pipe-smoke test again and could see that some air was moving out of all the new vents. Not much in some places but there was still a bit of air movement in areas that were probably pretty stagnant for a lot of years.

I spent last winter and last summer going through the ritual of opening the step and laying the dehumidifier on the opening every time I left the boat for more than a day or two. Everything stayed real dry in the lockers.

To make it more permanent I bought a 5 inch, AC-powered, computer fan from Radio Shack for under $10 on clearance. I wired it in to the AC outlet in the v-berth's aft bulkhead and changed that receptacle to a single outlet with a switch.

The boat is always in a marina when it is not being used, not many moorings up here, so the thought is that if I'm not plugged into shore power I'm probably using the boat and that kind of ventilation is not an issue. There are 12-volt fans available at Radio Shack (and many other places) that use very little power. One of these could be wired directly up to a solar panel or even to the boat's batteries. I had pretty good luck with my catboat using only solar power to keep the batteries charged through our gray winters.

McMaster-Carr has 200 watt and 400 watt heaters that mount over the computer fans. These would be, I assume to keep equipment, mounted outside in a box, warm. The West Marine dehumidifier has a 100 watt element in it and I'm not sure how much the heating element, vs. the fan, contributed to the success. If necessary I'll add one of the 200 watt elements at around $35 but I'm hoping I can avoid that.

LED Cabin Lights

2005-11-30T09:40:00.000-08:00

The LEDs arrived from SuperBrightLEDs.com and I rushed out the boat to install them. I just had to hang around until after dark to test them out.

The fixture at the far right has the original "xenon" bulb (.75 amp) and the fixture at the far left has the new 12-LED bulb (.002 amp) intstalled. The xenon bulb is certainly warmer and brighter but I test-read a bit under the LED and it works very well. I'll probably try the 24-LED bulbs in these lights since they are not very expensive.

The "festoon" bulbs in the red lights above the chart table and galley are a bit dimmer but are also perfectly adequate. The "coolness" is not as apparent behind the red lens.

I'm very pleased with the results. I can run these lights all night with almost no noticeable drain. It's like adding another battery. Once I'm able to upgrade to LED navigation lights the only significant draw will be the autopilot and heater (Espar) fan. The 40 watt solar panel will have no problem keeping up with the power budget.

Ventilation

2005-11-29T10:10:00.000-08:00

Over the last several months I've been adding "locker vents" to various dead-air spaces. I also discovered that I could push air into the v-berth step and get circulation throughout the entire space between the hull and liner, including lockers and the above mentioned dead-air spaces.

This was worth making permanent so I installed a small computer fan behind a louver under the v-berth step.

Nav Station

2005-11-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

Low end Raymarine VHF, Weems & Plath recording barometer (works very well), and my $100 eBay electronic chart laptop (Win95 "Pen" computer).

2005-11-22T12:45:00.000-08:00

This is a dehumidifier from West Marine with the cover removed. I mounted it to Scamper's companionway ladder in such a way that it moves warmed air from the cabin into the engine compartment. From there it goes out the bilge blower vent.

Some previous owner put a 6 inch access plate under the lowest companionway step but I never found the cover plate. Thought I'd take advantage of the hole.

Electronic Charts

2005-11-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

As everyone probably knows by now Maptech is offering free chart downloads.

The ENTIRE west coast, border to border, including all of Puget Sound, 279 NOAA charts, all scales, zoomable, fits in 550 megabytes. (Call me a glutton.) You *could* download a lot of charts and leave them compressed to save space until you need them.

My electronic chart setup at the nav station consists of:

- Mitsubishi Amity VP Color Tablet: $50 from eBay. This is an old Win95 "pen" computer. Stills runs SeaClear fine and I was also able to hook it up to 12 volts with no problem. No keyboard; everything is done with a mouse and could be done with the pen but I figure I'll loose that.

- Holux PCMCIA GPS card: $55 from eBay.

- SeaClear: free.

- Charts: free.

- WXTide: free. Perpetual tide/current table generator.

I also bought a PCMCIA 5gig hard drive (for $150 from eBay) to transfer charts and programs from my "good" laptop at home to the Amity on the boat. I also use it to backup the Amity.

SeaClear and WXTide are in the startup folder so when I turn on the computer everything eventually gets ready like a "real" stand-alone GPS unit.

Of course I have other navigation tools - two handheld, mapping GPS units, and real charts. (SeaClear can also print the electronic charts.) For under $200 though, the SeaClear setup is pretty hard to argue with. It's not resistant to dampness in any stretch of the imagination but I've been using the setup with older charts for over two years with no problem. Win95 is stable if you don't fool with it. Eventually the HD will crash or something will fail but when that happens I'll just use the other GPS units until I find another cheap laptop.

LED Replacement Bulbs

2005-11-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

Scamper still has several "stock" light fixtures. Some of them are getting a bit long in the tooth and will probably need replacement. I've already replaced two of the overhead reading lights with a more modern brass halogen type. I used the parts left over to rejuvenate the remaining three original
fixtures.

These folks have a pretty good selection of LED replacement bulbs. They have some that will work in the original red lights above the galley and nav station and some that will work in the old overhead fixtures. Prices are pretty good. I'm ordering a bunch of them (but have no affiliation).

Once upon a time fluorescent lights were considered really efficient but now it looks like those are going to be the most power-hungry fixtures on the boat.

2005-09-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

Nice late afternoon sail over to C.I. Shenanagins in Tacoma. Commencement Bay is in the background. It's one of the busiest places on the sound but it looks very lonely here.

What I Did This Summer

2005-08-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

Commencement bay, nice 20 knot breeze, sunny and warm. Scamper is going real fast here. She's pulling a very large stern wave.

Squealing Bilge Blower

2005-07-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

The bilge blower announced yesterday that it was time for maintenance. Access to this item requires me to crawl down into the starboard cockpit locker and then aft into what would be the lazarette on most boats.

The bilge blower is a healthy piece of gear fastened to a bulkhead with two hoses and two wires leading to it. Four screws, two large hose clamps, and two quick snips later and I’ve got the thing laying on the nav table.

Surprise, the device is old enough so that it is not a throw away and, instead, is designed to be dis-assembled and serviced. The motor housing was a bit corroded so I wire-brushed and painted it. The bearings were very dry so they got a touch of grease. One of the wires came off the internal brush assembly so I re-soldered both of them.

It all went back together amazingly well and now emits a low, satisfying, rumble and seems to move gobs of air.

Marathon

2005-07-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

The whole day yesterday (Sunday) was mine! I left Crow’s Nest at 10 am and sailed around Brown’s Point and beat all the way up to Pt. Robinson. The wind was about 10 knots from the north so I was able to use the 150% genoa which gave me 5 knots of boat speed most of the time. That’s livin!

At Pt Robinson I turned around and put up the light spinnaker. Even more livin! The weather was beautiful, clear, about 80 degrees, not too many boats out, a few ships to keep clear of, and a two-hour spinnaker run.

I ran out of wind after I turned the corner under Vashon so I motored about 30 minutes into Gig Harbor, anchored, and had spaghetti. After I cleaned up I sat in the cockpit, smoked a cigar, and watched the boat traffic coming and going. I motored all the way back under a beautiful sunset and ended up at Crow’s Nest just after 10 pm.

Ventilation and Heating

2005-07-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

Now that summer’s on us there isn’t much need for a heater on board so I took everything in that category off the boat a couple weeks ago. I used two, small, oil filled, radiator heaters all winter and that kept everything pretty reasonable – probably not for full-time living aboard but nice enough for doing work during the day and also to keep the mildew down.

I also have a small fan-assisted heater from West Marine that is useful to move air around the cabin. Moving air – getting fresh air into stale pockets – is as necessary for mildew prevention as heat is. I found that I could push air into the forward bilge area, under the v-berth step, and get air circulating through the bilge and through most lockers. To make the most of this I installed several 1–inch “locker vents” from Perko in various dead spaces.

I laid a West Marine fan-assisted dehumidifier on the v-berth step, upside-down, so that it pushes air down into the forward bilge space and from there throughout the boat. This kept the lockers dry throughout the winter. I still have the dehumidifier running in the warm weather and am also using the heater/fan unit, with only the fan running, to push air down into the large part of the bilge.

Now that I’d like to move cool air into the cabin I’ve got a windscoop for the foredeck hatch and two 12 volt fans from Caframo. I took a nice breezy nap the other day in the v-berth under the windscoop.

Chartering

2005-07-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

We chartered a Maxim 49 powerboat out of Bellingham last week. We’re still doing this trip once a year because it’s so nice to have comfortable space for everyone and also to be able to set a fairly concrete itinerary that doesn’t involve the weather as much. In fact it rained a bit while we were underway and it really meant nothing. Most of the family naps during this time and I enjoyed time at the helm when there were not too many other boats out.

This boat was fairly new (2003) and therefore very clean. It’s also a fairly well-built boat (but it’s still a Bayliner). The sheer size of the thing makes it more seaworthy in some ways. You’ve got 30,000 pounds and 740 horsepower to punch through seas. We left Roche Harbor heading for Victoria and went south around San Juan Island (Lime Kiln Point) looking for whales. It wasn’t until we were well out into the Strait and I stepped out of the pilot house that I realized that there was over 30 knots of wind over the deck.

I was happy cruising at 10 knots. Slow by most powerboater standards but at this speed the engines are just loafing at 1800 rpm and burning less than 10 gallons per hour. We only used 170 gallons of diesel for the whole week. That included Friday Harbor, Roche Harbor, Reid Harbor, Victoria, Sidney, Roche (again) and back to Bellingham. All of these places except Reid Harbor have pools.

The boat had a bow and a stern thruster. Too easy. Bigger boats are easier to handle, in my experience, and thrusters and twin engines mean you can put the boat wherever you think it needs to go. A guy in a Crealock 34 at the customs dock in Victoria was cringing at all the windage we had but it was my observation that his mast, a bunch of rigging, three roller furled sails, lots of crap on deck (because there is nowhere to store it below), is a lot of windage too. It may not look that way but it is.

I’m not about to give up my C&C and lay down the big bucks for a 50’ powerboat, but there are certainly good arguments for that type. Now that I have the family satisfied with their boating fix it’s time for me to sail my boat.

Chartering

2005-07-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Tall Ships

2005-07-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Tacoma had the “Tall Ships” in town for the fourth. Pretty impressive bunch of boats. We went over to Foss Waterway on Sunday the third and had a look. The waterway was packed with little Bayliners having a look and the ships themselves were packed with sunburned folks having a look. We got out of there pretty quick and had a nice sail in just under 10 knots of wind around Browns Point.

We went over to Ruston (Old Town) on Monday the fourth and anchored in 130 feet (!) of water. The new Guardian (low-end Fortress) anchor works well. Probably has a lot to do with the 50’ of chain too.

I retired the too-small Bruce last week and picked up a Guardian G23. I’ve drug Bruce anchors across every bay within 500 miles of Tacoma. The catboat I had came with a Danforth Hi-Tensile that never let me down so I thought I’d give that style a try. The Guardian is nice and light which makes sense for a “performance” cruiser. It’s also a joy to handle on the foredeck.

Old Town was crowded. Dinghies zipping all around, little speedboats dragging anchor, great big motor cruisers trying to thread their way through the densely anchored boats. The airshow was okay but by far the most exciting part of the day was the giant Crowley tugboat gently threading it’s way through the anchorage. The very definition of powerful elegance.

The fireworks were nice, the kids loved it, and the crow was appreciative with cheering and horn-blowing. The trip back across Commencement Bay to Crow’s Nest took a lot of attention in the dark with little speedboats, at speed, zipping here and there in the very dark night.

We got the boat put away just before midnight and the kids fell asleep on the 15 minute drive home.

Bridgenorth Bailer

2005-07-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

I ordered one of these as soon as I saw it on Panbo.com. It came last week and it is very well built and works as advertised. There’s an item on today’s Panbo that Ben Ellison is concerned about service. I just thought I’d mention that service was fine from the US distributor.

It’s a pretty good boathook but the fact that it can suck up and hold a bit of water is pretty useful. Scamper gets a bit of rain down the keel-stepped mast and the puddle is too small for either bilge pump to reach. In the past, when I felt like it, I got out a little Whale pump to get that little bit of water out. That also requires the hose that came with the pump and the bucket. The Bilgenorth Bailer lets me stick the boathook end down into the bilge and get the water out in one operation.

What's a Good Boat - My Thoughts

2005-06-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

Look at a boat and try to imagine putting it under a big waterfall. With tons of water falling on it what's going to break, how is water going to get in? Where’s that water going to go? What happens to the boat’s stability when the cockpit fills up?

Imagine dropping the boat off a fairly high dock, say 10 feet or more. Imagine dropping it at different angles, letting it land on its top, sides, bow, stern. What's going to break when you do that? What’s going to happen to the things inside the boat, the gear, the tankage, the engine, you?

To a point (and comfort aside), the more experience you have, the less boat you need. Conversely, someone with a couple years daysailing experience is going to need a pretty good boat, at least initially, to cross an ocean.

Someone with 30 years blue water experience should be able to look at a boat and instantly decide if that type of boat is suitable for a long voyage. This is not only because the experienced sailor has seen a lot of design devices but also because they can imagine that boat being hit by tons of water or dropping from a large wave. Perhaps they've seen it.

Nice Father's Day

2005-06-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sunny and windy. That’s rare up here. Usually our month of summer is August and every day is warm and windless. Beautiful but not very good for sailing, I’ve noticed.

Yesterday had 15 knots of wind, no clouds, and temperature in the mid 70s. Very nice. I got a nice little cockpit table for the binnacle guard for father’s day so I went out and installed it, lounged a bit, then the rest of the family came out and we went for a sail.

It was a little too windy for everyone to be really comfortable. Had the first reef in the main but it was still a bit much to unfurl the 150 genoa all the way. I tried various amounts of furl but it really doesn’t set well enough when furled to be useful in anything above a beam reach. Below a beam reach the apparent wind goes down enough so that the full, unfurled sail is not too powerful.

The alternative, of course is to change headsails. What a great idea. Scamper came with four head sails (plus two spinnakers) so there’s certainly a choice. All of the headsails are set up to go into the furler so I haven’t wanted to do too many sail changes.

The headsails for a 34’ boat are pretty big, especially for an older, IOR-influenced design with great big head sails and a tiny blade of a main. Storage and weight become an issue quickly. I carry the 150 genoa on the furler, the light-air spinnaker, and a storm jib that hanks onto the baby stay. Yesterday, it would have been nice to have the 130 or even the 100 but once I start carrying several bags of sails there’s suddenly no place to sleep.

Racers like to keep it light and cruisers tend to bring heavy supplies and gear on board but it will take MANY cans of Dinty-Moore to weigh as much as three or four headsails.

For cruising I may keep the 130 on the furler and plan on motorsailing in less than five knots of wind. The 130 might furl down to 100 or so and be able to keep it’s shape but I’ll have to experiment. That would let me sail to windward in 20 to 25 knots of wind without changing sails. From there on up the storm jib on the baby stay along with the third reef in the main would be pretty comfortable.

After the sail yesterday I stayed at the boat a while and took off the rest of the fresh water cooling system. Heat exchangers are pretty heavy. I also drained, cleaned, and filled both water tanks. I have no idea when the last time that was done but there was quite a bit of brown sludge in the bottom of the tanks. Pretty disgusting. Bleach and a bit of Joy did a nice job on that though. I’m now on my fourth gallon of bleach since I bought the boat last fall.

Checklists

2005-06-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

My dad and I went out for a nice little sail on Friday afternoon. Just a little wind, about 7 knots, and I only unrolled the 150 – didn’t even bother to raise the main. We only stayed out about 45 minutes but with the modern convenience of roller furling, not to mention having most other gear optimised and in its place (and a good checklist), we were able to get underway in about five minutes. Stowing everything when we were done, including flushing the engine, took just a little more time than that.

I told my wife when we bought this boat that I wanted a fast, seaworthy, comfortable, daysailer. The C&C is certainly capable of significant coastal if not ocean passages but my main focus has been to keep it clean, uncluttered, and light with most gear set up and in it’s place for quick and easy use.

For a quick daysail I check the oil, disconnect shore power, start the engine, and cast off. When I’m done I connect the hose to the flush connection and run the engine for about five minutes while I reconnect shore power.

There’s still a bunch of stuff to forget. They are mostly trivial items such as “stow companionway locks under steps” but they do need to be done and, under some conditions, undone trivial items can add up and cause real problems.

The CnCPhotoAlbum has brochures online for most C&C models. From one of those brochures I was able to get a deck plan and cabin layout that I could import into a Word document. I put the text of the checklist into the Word document, along with the pictures, and drew lines (in Word) to the relevant area of the boat that the checklist item refers to. I printed a startup and a shutdown list and posted them on the bottom side of the chart table.

I tried to imagine the instructions someone un-familiar with the boat would need. Not only did I include the item, such as “remove pedestal cover…” but I tried to include enough information to get the job done, such as “…and store it in the quarterberth.” I’ve observed problems that guests and family had with various pieces of gear and added notes to help out when possible. I also included a small bit of history of the boat’s design from the naval architect for the curious guests.

Raw Water Cooling

2005-06-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

After the cooling failure on Memorial Day I’ve been messing with the system. Simpler-is-better so I decided to leave the engine plumbed for raw water cooling. That’s what it was designed for to begin with (Yanmar 3GM) and the fresh water system that was added by some previous owner was a hack-job at best.

I installed a SpeedSeal on the pump that is now the raw water pump and have ordered a Globe impeller. I built in a flushing connection just after the raw water strainer that sends garden-hose water to the engine and back-flushes the strainer. I can also close the intake seacock and the raw water pump will pull MarSolve into the engine through this connection. I also installed a colder (125 degree) thermostat.

I built a similar connection into my old powerboat. The engine itself was fresh water cooled but I used the connection to flush the saltwater side of the heat exchanger and the exhaust manifolds. The manifolds and heat exchanger were both 19 years old when I sold the boat but they looked like new.

There is less stuff in the engine compartment. There is also less stuff in the starboard cockpit locker. The old fresh water cooling components were a bit corroded from many years of use without flushing. It is nice to have that stuff gone.

Memorial Day to Olympia

2005-05-31T12:03:00.000-07:00

Around 1400 on Thursday we headed over to the public dock just below Old Town Tacoma. We arranged to pick up my younger daughter there after school but discovered that facility is out of service – all of the docks aren’t in the water and the gangway to the pier is retracted. There’s a nice, new, public dock just to the West of the Old Town dock and we had that all to ourselves. It’s in front of the Silver Cloud Inn. It was low tide and a lady on shore, pretty alarmed, shouted “how deep is it there?” Scamper’s depth sounder showed 17’.

From Ruston Way, through the Narrows, and down to Eagle Island we had no wind but a fair current. Under power, we were making just under six knots through the water but our speed over the ground, according to the GPS, was never under eight knots – sometimes up to 11 knots. We made Eagle Island in less than two hours!

Eagle Island is a marine park and a really beautiful place. We managed to get a buoy on the West side of the island. Being a holiday weekend there was a lot of traffic in Balch Passage so there was plenty of wake into the anchorage but it was still a very pleasant evening. We went for a walk around Eagle Island and then had a spaghetti feed.

We dropped the buoy just after 1000 on Friday and had a pretty uneventful trip until we got to Budd Inlet, just in view of the capitol. The exhaust note changed, got louder, and stopped burbling, so I shut down the engine. Plenty of steam came out when I opened the cockpit hatch so it was obvious that raw water wasn’t getting circulated – the engine had started to overheat and the water-lift muffler had gone dry.

Suspecting debris in the strainer I climbed down into the cockpit locker and checked the screen. Pretty clean. I opened the through-hull and water flowed freely out of the now open strainer body (it is below the waterline).

I un-furled the genoa and was able to get about a half-knot of control while I did more troubleshooting.

I removed the companionway stairs and discovered the pulley for the raw water pump, along with the belt, laying in the bilge. The center hole in the pulley, where it mounts on the shaft, was very distorted – I suspect from a too-tight belt.

After a bit of thinking on the problem I decided to re-plumb the cooling system back to raw water only. I’ve never liked the fresh water system – some of the hose clamps were rusty and required replacement, the zinc was totally gone when I first looked at the boat. Things like that made me suspect it wasn’t a really good installation.

Amazingly, it only took about 10 minutes to get the system temporarily converted back to raw water cooling. I fired up the engine and we motored the rest of the way, about two miles, to Swantown Marina.

Swantown is a very nice marina but it is a pretty good walk to shore-side facilities. There’s a great Italian restaurant and an Anthony’s in the “Market”, about two miles away. There’s a Safeway about three miles away. All in all it was a nice stay but it was very crowded with several clubs staying for the holiday weekend.

There was really no hope of finding a replacement pulley in Olympia, especially on a holiday weekend so, on Saturday, I took a cab to West Marine. I bought a LOT of extra parts so I could make the raw water cooling conversion a bit more permanent for the ride home. I also incorporated a garden-hose flush connection so I can at least get the salt water out of the engine until I sort out the fresh-water-cooling problem.

My other daughter drove down on Saturday night, we had dinner, and everyone but my younger daughter and me left by car on Sunday morning. We departed Olympia in Scamper shortly after. We had the current going with us and were able to get from Olympia to Tacoma in under four hours with no further engine problems.

West Marine was great. I bought almost $100 in parts in Olympia, only used about $20 worth of them, and the Tacoma store gave me a refund on the parts I didn’t need with no questions asked. I used that money to buy another cabin fan. It was hot this weekend.

Connectivity

2005-05-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm using a Treo 600 (GPRS, not WiFi) and get reasonable coverage from Olympia to most of the San Juans and into the more populated areas of Canada. I get weather radar from AccuWeather.com and NOAA gives me text weather and NDBC buoy data. There are several online directories of Puget Sound marine facilities such as marinas, gas, parts, etc. and I also have a pretty good collection of frequently used facilities in the address book.

Surprisingly I've encountered several marinas that only take same-day slip reservations over VHF, not cell phone. I called Point Hudson (Port Townsend), asked for a slip, they said yes they had one but I'd have to call back on the VHF. Proves I'm nearby I guess.

TideTool comes in handy for trip planning but I rarely use it if I'm near a tide book. I also have an app called Colorize that lets me change all the colors to shades of dim red for nightime use.

I'm also able to do all my email from the Treo and I have Mobile TS that lets me into a Terminal Server connection at work if they need support.

I have MMPlayer and a 1gb memory card and keep several full-length movies on the Treo in addition to lots of music. This, of course, isn't a replacement for the on-board DVD player and stereo system but I *can* lay in my bunk and watch a movie if the kids are watching something I'm not interested in.

You *can* do all of this with a laptop. I have an old laptop, mounted at the nav station, running SeaClear with a GPS PCMCIA card (reception is fine without an external antenna). I have a Sierra wireless card the lets the laptop get on the Internet through a GPRS (cellular) connection and that works fine too but I rarely use it outside of work.

We did connect to a couple of WiFi networks last year in Roche Harbor and in Victoria. I have little use for general computing outside of work so it was mostly for my wife and 17 year old daughter.

More Maintenance

2005-05-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

The grease cup on the rudder post turned to to a ball of rust so I replaced it with a zerk and forced a bunch of grease in. This required climbing into the cockpit locker and then crawling aft about four feet into the transom area. There are a lot of things in there such as the bilge blower, the steering mechanism, and the cockpit-drain seacocks that all need a bit of maintenance. Too bad they are so hard to get at.

Sunday was really windy and I wanted to go out and try the storm jib with the third reef tucked into the main. Didn’t really have the time. I drained the water tanks into the bilge (55 gallons take a LONG time to drain) and refilled them. I also topped off the fuel tank. Getting ready for our trip this weekend to Olympia.

We were thinking of stopping at Longbranch or Eagle Island on the way to Olympia but one of my neighbours in the marina said there are three yacht clubs converging there over the weekend. He’s going down Wednesday to be sure to get a spot. Longbranch will probably be full by Thursday night. Have to find another spot to stop.

Dreamboat

2005-05-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

I am so pleased with Scamper’s performance. She has so many ways to control sail shape that the end result is a thing of beauty. The sails are flat, smooth, and round. The slot is perfect. Even in 7 knots of wind the speed through the water seems exhilarating. My frame of reference is a bit skewed though. My last boat was a 6,000 pound, 22’ catboat.

Owning a boat like Scamper has been a dream of mine for many years. Having a boat like this is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced. I’ve known that I wanted a mid-size performance-cruiser for a long time and I really don’t know why I fooled around with powerboats and smaller sailboats for so long. I’ve heard the adage that smaller boats give more fun and that’s true to some extent. The things that Scamper offers, and and the challenge of mastering some of the aspects of this boat, are satisfying beyond mere fun.

LED Bulbs

2005-05-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Sailor’s Solutions has some LED replacement bulbs for less than half the price of those available at West Marine. These bulbs have 19 LEDs in them but the bulbs from West Marine (they’re Davis brand, I think) have only 6. This makes the Sailor’s Solutions bulbs quite a bit brighter but they still only use a reported 0.175 amps. (The conventional bulbs they replace use from 3/4 to 1 amp.)

I bought a couple of these to try. They arrived yesterday so last night I went out to the boat, rigged the TopClimber, and put the new bulbs in my spreader lights. Very nice. The ammeter doesn’t move when I turn them on and they seem at least as bright as the old conventional bulbs. This is great for me since I like to leave the spreader lights on, in addition to the masthead light, when I anchor in a busy anchorage. This is really a great use of the technology and I’m hoping someone will soon get bulbs like these approved for use in navigation lights. They could save a considerable amount of power on a long passage.

Sailor’s Solutions is a great organisation, by the way. They have items that are not generally available anywhere else, some things I didn’t even know existed.

The weather was pretty good for an evening sail after I got down from the spreaders so I went out for a couple of hours. My wife thinks it’s somehow odd or wrong that I enjoy singlehanding a 34 footer but winches and roller furling make it a pretty easy job. Heavier air is a bit harder since the boat’s really set up for a racing crew as far as reefing goes. It usually requires a couple of trips between the cabin-top winches and the mast to get the reef tucked in all snug.

Last night was not reefing weather, however, and it was wonderful. Started out with about 7–10 knots and dropped to dead calm just after sundown. That’s PNW summer weather.

Heavy Air

2005-05-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon was sunny but the wind was up. My family was envisioning a relaxing, quiet, spring sail but that was not to be. It was certainly a success but there was not much relaxing.

I was pretty happy I got to try out my storm jib. I picked up a storm jib for a 24’ boat on eBay for cheap. It was very small but clearly well made. I was looking for something tiny to fly on the babystay in really heavy weather. Something that would move the center-of-effort way inboard.

The babystay attaches to the deck on a track which allows the stay to bend the middle part of the mast. The horizontal distance from the mast to the stay is only about four feet. The stay is about 17 feet long. Pretty odd geometry from which to fly a jib.

The jib I got off of eBay has an extremely high tack – like any good storm jib should. It really sets pretty good and tacks through that narrow slot with no problems. The main needs to be down at least to the second reef for the two sails to have any semblance of balance but that’s the idea anyway. I’ve set the sails this way in the slip, with no wind, and it kind of looks like a fractional rig on a 22’ boat.

We sailed a bit with just the main, with one reef in the main and just a bit of the genoa unfurled, and with one reef in the main and the storm jib. On an old IOR-type boat like the C&C the main is a pretty high-aspect proposition but sailing with just the main was pretty reasonable. The wind was holding 20 knots and gusting to 25 (I can know now thanks to going up the mast two weeks ago).

In really heavy weather with big waves I think the extra power from a slot is necessary. That’s where the little, odd storm jib works pretty well. It was like sailing a real boat upwind. There was room for a bit of slop in the relative angle to the wind, nothing flogged about, and there was plenty of power. Now I need to get out in a real gale off a lee shore and see how it really works!

Up The Mast

2005-05-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon was pretty nice so I hauled out the TopClimber and all the relevant gear and went up the mast. I made it all the way up on the first try, stopping at the spreaders for a new pair of boots, stopping at all relevant rigging terminations for appropriate service. I got to the top, serviced the wind-speed sensor, lubed and otherwise serviced everything up there, and lubed the entire mainsail track on the way down. I spent a total of nearly three hours aloft. It really does take a lot more time than you think.

I'm very sore! I work out a bit but, aside from the muscles used for actually going up, there's a lot of twisting, holding yourself out to the end of the spreaders, gripping at weird angles, etc. Nothing but more of the same could adequately prepare a body for this. I'm not sure I could have made two trips in the same day if it was necessary to get parts or something like that.

The TopClimber is a pretty good success. It obviously would have been easier to have someone else winch my considerable bulk to the top - someone else doing the work, so to speak, but now I know I can do it on my own when necessary. I used a third ascender (in addition to the TopClimber's two) on a separate halyard connected to a regular deck-harness as a safety backup. It all felt pretty stable and secure but it was very slow both up and down.

If I didn't stop at the spreaders it would have probably taken at least 20 minutes up and a similar amount of time down. This is really not something you'd want to do alone at sea with just the auto-pilot in control There are too many things that could happen that you would need to get to quicker than 20 minutes. Too, any kind of rig, that far aloft (50ft) is going to be a very wild ride with even the slightest boat motion. I could easily feel motion, transmitted through the docklines, from someone walking down the dock.

Based on this very limited experience, my observation is that the static climbing line works better near the mast. The ATN site recommends you lead the bottom of the static line to the rail so you have room to dangle and spin. I did this and it worked okay but when I got higher I still ended up near the mast. It turned out to be pretty easy and confidence-inspiring to be able to straddle the mast with my feet and knees. The mast being nearby is also pretty easy to hold on to.

The next time I go up I need to remember to make the static line bar tight. It does say this in the ATN directions but I under-estimated this and had to deal with a little slack below the lower ascender. A tighter static line would probably make it all go faster as well.

The next time I go up I also need to remember to bring my camera.

Sunday Sail

2005-04-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

Took the family out on Sunday afternoon for a little sail. Worked on teaching the kids to raise the main and unfurl the genoa. They seemed to like it but I'm not holding out for them to be my racing crew. Little wind but Commencement Bay is pretty good for finding little pockets of wind here and there.

Went over to Shennanigans to eat but discovered, even at high tide, there is almost not enought water at their dock. Fortunately we arrived almost exactly at high tide so there was a foot under Scamper's keel. Luckily I noticed this, consulted the tide tables, and decided not to stick around. There was over an hour's wait anyway so we sailed home and drove to a restaurant.

This is too bad. Shennagins is a favorite family boating destination for afternoon sails. Never had a boat with this much draft - six feet. Maybe we'll anchor off and dinghy in.

A Few Hours

2005-04-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

I managed to eek out a couple of hours after work yesterday to sail. Not much wind in Commencement Bay but it was still really nice to get out. I managed to jump between wind shadows enought to actually sail.

In such light wind I thought it would be a great time to test out the North Snuffer spinnaker sleeve. It worked great. This was in concert with a North Tack Strap, flying the boat's light-air, symmetrical spinnaker.

With no pole, anything beyond a beam reach caused the spinnaker to be in the main's wind shadow. The rig is so easy to use I have no problem giving up that little bit of extra sail area by dropping the main. Everything worked great. I set and doused the spinnaker twice with no twists or any other problems. This is a great way to cruise with a spinnaker, even single handed.

Indoor Projects

2005-04-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

It was a squally, windy Sunday yesterday. Periods of sun with breif, heavy showers. I stayed in the cabin for several hours.

One of the things I've been wanting to get to was to check out the Autohelm 3000. Looks like it's several years old and I wanted to make sure it was still sealed and waterproof. It was very easy to take the control module apart, four screws, rubber gasket. Inside was clean and no corrosion so I just put plenty of silicone on the gasket and screwed it back together.

The motor/gearcase module was equally easy to disassemble. Just screw off the end, the motor comes out. Three screws get into the really scary section of planetary gears and whatnot but I was very careful to not spew those across the cabin. I dabbed in a little extra teflon grease for good measure and had it all back to gether in no time.

I also was able to oil all the interior teak and install some little vents in the under-settee lockers that don't have doors on the face of the settee. Getting close to being "done" with the initial big-list. The only thing left is getting up the mast and doing some service up there - windspeed sensor, check the bulbs, change the spreader tips, and lube the sail track. Hope to put the ATN TopClimber to use this weekend.

Missing the Boat

2005-04-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

Been away for a week with no boating activity, sigh.

Rigger's Apprentice

2005-03-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

Brion Toss was in Seattle last January for the Seattle Boat Show. I had contacted him earlier, through his great website, about doing a rig survey and he got back to me just before the boat show and said he would come by while he was in town.

He was spewing information much faster than I could take notes - touching everything and recounting experiences with this or that piece of gear, pointing out how this could be re-routed slightly for easier use, noticing that this or that part has been recalled by the manufacturer and could be replaced for free, on and on.

Much to my delight he did spend a fair amount of time pointing out and admiring C&C's engineering and build quality. I wish I could have plied him with whisky and tobacco and kept him there all day.

He didn't go up the mast nor did he disassemble anything. He did look at all fittings accessible from the deck including blocks, winches, boom, gooseneck, and the chainplates. I took up the floorboards and he inspected the mast all the way into the bilge and also looked closely at the collar and the step. From the cabin he closely examined the chainplates and the tie-bars.

Re-heading the rod-ends was something he mentioned. I don't have any information if it was ever done before by any previous owner. He observed that there was probably enough space on the turnbuckle screws to allow the existing rods to be re-headed without replacement but he was going to do a quote for both re-heading and replacement. He said that, while racing is hard on the rod, the Pacific Northwest climate is much easier on it than other areas - almost no freezing and plenty of rain to wash the salt out.

He also pointed out that the bronze Navtec turnbuckle screws are pretty resistant to galling. The hull surveyor stated that the screws needed replacement every 10 years but Mr. Toss said that they rarely had problems with the bronze screws. He thought maybe the hull surveyor had experience with the stainless units.

After meeting Mr. Toss I went out and bought his book The Rigger's Apprentice. It is slightly mis-named because it is full of information about how to do most things boating-related The Right Way. It takes over where Hervey Garrett Smith's The Arts of the Sailor leaves off.

Among other things such as the proper procedures for going aloft, it contains a lot of information related to ropes and rope-work. It applies that information to many aspects of boating. It is new enough to cover modern, high-tech lines and is relevant to both racers and cruisers, modern and tradional craft.

It was an honor to have Mr. Toss aboard my boat. He deserves his good reputation, respect, and is a nice guy.

Clean Fuel

2005-03-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

I recently made up a rig consisting of a 2' length of copper tubing, some 1/4" clear hose, and a priming bulb normally used on the hose between outboard motors and their gas tanks. I've seen this mentioned in other texts.

The fuel tank on Scamper was built with several threaded connectors on it's top, two are in use - one for the engine and one for the Espar heater (plus the returns ). There are two extras that have caps on them. I removed one of the caps and put the copper tubing in there and pumped out a half gallon or so. I kept moving the tubing around and it picked up an alarming amount of black fuel. I did this until the fuel consistently came out clean.

OrcaGear

2005-03-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

Got a new OrcaGear jacket from AhoyCaptain.com (those are really good folks). It isn't exactly like I though it would be, a little warmer, a little softer, a little lighter material, but it's made pretty well and I'm happy with it. It isn't quite the same material as regular foul weather gear, it is a little lighter like a heavy windbreaker, but I think that makes it more comfortable. I haven't worn it in the rain yet but it was nice and cozy in the big breezes we've been having.

Dinghies and Outboards

2005-03-22T09:52:00.000-08:00

Over the years I've had several dinghies. My first, when I lived in Texas, was a nine foot Boston Whaler Squall. That's a pretty good boat but it is way to heavy for a dinghy. After we moved to the Pacific Northwest we bought a traditional eight foot dinghy with all the sailing hardware.

With good oars and a good boat rowing is a very good way to go for pure dinghy functionality, that is, getting ashore, a little exploring, rowing out the anchor, etc. In the San Juans there are enough situations where your anchorage is within a couple miles of several really interesting things. We longed for a fast dinghy and considered a 11' Whaler with a good-sized outboard.

We never did get the Whaler but when we bought the powerboat it had an eight foot Livingston. That's a catamaran-style fiberglass boat. Somewhat more stable than a traditional dinghy but it doesn't row very well. Its in between a solid dinghy and an inflatable.

We sold the Livingston and got a ten foot Avon with an inflatable floor. It could certainly hold more than a traditional dinghy and was a lot more stable. Forget about rowing. A 5hp outboard would plane it with a light load but, all in all, I really didn't like the inflatable floor.

I also picked up a really small Achilles "donut boat" several years ago. It is easy to row but you don't go far with any one stroke. I powered it with a 1.2 hp Tanaka outboard and that made for a really lightweight, compact setup for one or two riders at a time.

We let the big Avon go with the powerboat so I looked around and bought a Mercury RIB. It is the right combination of price, size, and durability for the way we'll use a dinghy. I plan to power it with a late-'80s 5hp Mariner that has been giving really good service through the years.

Since the kids are older we plan on this dinghy being somewhat of an entertainment device. Not powerful enough for skiing, obviously, but the kids really love to go out on their own exploring or making trips to the store for goodies.

I also picked up a British Seagull Featherweight model (2hp) from the British Seagull Shop a couple years ago. I used it on a little 16' sailboat I had briefly. That's a great engine and the folks at the British Seagull Shop provide very personalized service. Even though that engine is quite a bit heavier than the Tanaka I think it will make a great combination with the little Achilles. If I can find suitable stowage on Scamper I will keep the Achilles and the Seagull on board all the time and only use the bigger RIB for longer cruises.

Soundproofing

2005-03-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

I put three SPM tiles from Sailor's Solutions on the board that makes up the back of the companionway ladder which is also the front of the engine compartment. The racket from the 3GM is way down, especially the mid-range rattle.

I bought the 6-panel kit and used three on the ladder and one on the overhead. They were really easy to cut and install. I cut them with a sharp rigging knife and cleaned the surface with a diluted mixture of dish soap. So far so good.

I have two panels left that I'll use on the port side of the engine compartment, between the engine compartment and quarter berth.

There are still a lot of things on the boat that rattle under power. Everything on the stove and in the oven, the propane bottles in the cockpit, etc. The previous owner "solved" this problem by stuffing open cell foam everywhere. Of course, when I got the boat, there were soggy sponges all over the place. I filled up a big garbage bag with wet foam the first night on the boat. What a mess.

Making Music Onboard

2005-03-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

On our old powerboat I kept a Martin Backpacker hanging in the passageway to the v-berth. It hung there (and got played) for 15 years or so and is none the worse for wear. Strings got changed in the spring, like just another fitting-out task.

I kept a Baby Taylor in an SKB case on the catboat for a couple of years and have moved that guitar to the C&C. The guitar stayed in its case on the catboat and I was doing that on the C&C too. The C&C has some nice shelves outboard of the settees and the case fit there. It was handy and could be opened in-place.

Yesterday, I tied a peice of small-stuff to the tuning keys and hung the guitar on the coat hook on the main bulkhead. That allows me to grab the guitar for a quick flail much easier. That kind of playing is probably the most beneficial for developing new ideas. Much better than formal, sit down practice sessions. I'll have to deal with stowing the case, maybe even take it off the boat.

I also have two battery-powered amps that I have considered taking on board - a Crate Taxi and a Roland Micro-Cube. With the availablity of low-cost and efficient, small inverters it's probably not necessary to look for a battery powered amp, though I doubt if you could power your Twin very long from a battery bank!

I just saw the JamPlug FM and would consider that for electric guitar but an acoustic guitar seems to fit much better on the boat. I could also get a little mixer, run that through one of those FM transmitters into the boat's radio/CD player and let everyone plug into that.

I've thought about having a bass, harmonica, and conga player out to the boat for a acoustic jam. If the bassist brought his bass guitar, not the standup, I think we could all fit. That would be a pretty great summer evening activity. Keep the marina entertained or anchor off a local waterfront restaurant.

Rigging

2005-03-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

Really windy from the SE yesterday (Sunday). My hand-held Davis Wind Meter showed 25 knots from the foredeck in the marina. It would be cool to use the masthead windspeed instrument but that has been frozen since I first saw the boat. One of the reasons I ordered the ATN Mast Climber.

Went around to all of the rigging reachable from deck and hit it with a wire brush and some Boeshield. Nothing too bad and everything cleaned up really well.

The lifelines still aren't tight enough to pass an ORC inspection. I can't believe that there is no way to tighten them - no turnbuckle from the bow rail to the boarding gates. It looks like I can shorten the wire in the gates a bit and I might try that. The outer plastic coating is worn in some spots but there are no meat-hooks so I really wouldn't need to replace them for a while. On the other hand it's a shame to re-do these old ones with turnbuckles etc.

Found out that the steaming light at the front of the mast, called bow light on the electrical panel, doesn't come on unless the running lights are also on. Makes sense but I though the bulb was burned out.

Weather

2005-03-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

I installed a Weems & Plath electronic recording barometer. So far (24 hours) it's agreeing with NOAA. It's also predicting bad weather.

Several Items Today

2005-03-20T00:18:00.000-08:00

Raining and wet.

One of the cabin reading reading lights just fell apart in my hand when I adjusted it so I replaced both fixtures in the main saloon with the little brass "Xenon" units from West Marine. They look good and put out a lot more light. Perhaps I'll replace the other three old fixtures.

Picked up a "tablet" DVD player off of eBay and mounted it in the main cabin with a RAM mount from West Marine. Takes up little space, always set up ready to use, visible from most of the main cabin. This is first rate.

Discovered that if I push air into the forward bilge area, through the v-berth step, using a fan-powered dehumidifier, that air circulates throughout the lockers. This is great news for keeping those lockers dry. I tried pumping heated air through those spaces using the little space heater on high but it blew the shorepower breaker. I'll just leave well-enough alone and use the dehumidifier.

Really want to get out sailing.

Going Up the Mast

2005-03-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

The windspeed sensor at the top of the mast is frozen. Hopefully it just needs service. I also want to go up the mast and install LED bulbs in some of the lights up there.

I bought a webbing ladder on eBay but it didn't get me up there. You need stout shoes for that job but stout shoes make it hard to get your feet back into the loops on the way down. I put it back on eBay and it sold immediately.

The Prime-Climb mast ladder looks good but it requires a square sail track. Scamper's is round, as in a bolt-rope could go in there. The guy I talked to at Prime-Climb was very nice and quite helpful.

I know all the pro riggers use a bosun's chair with a tackle and I came pretty close to making the huge investment in line and blocks for a rig like this. I was going to use a six-part setup but that required close to 250' of line. Ouch.

I broke down and ordered an ATN Top Climber from Defender. Should be here next week.

Acquiring Scamper

2005-03-16T15:54:00.000-08:00

When I first moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1983 we bought a 15' Montgomery sailboat. My wife, Beth, and I sailed that boat for a couple of years culminating in a week in the San Juans. We came back to Seattle and immediately traded it for a 25' sailboat. We kept that for about two years but as children started coming along we needed something bigger.

Having never tried powerboating our "family boat" became a 28' Bayliner. We ended up keeping that boat for 18 years, most of that time moored in Friday Harbor. The kids became pretty attached to it and it was hard to let it go. The reality was that the kids were growing up and had plenty of their own pursuits, gas is pretty expensive, and, when it's for me, I really want to sail.

To satisfy the desire for sailing I picked up a 1975 Marshall 22 catboat and kept it in Tacoma, near the house. That's a pretty great boat but owning two boats with upkeep and expenses for moorage, hauling, maintenance, insurance, etc. was too much. I decided to consolidate.

I found Scamper, a 1981 C&C 34, on YachtWorld back in October of 2004. I made the two hour drive from Tacoma and decided she was exactly what I was looking for so I began the task of selling the Marshall and the Bayliner, and then purchasing the C&C.

It didn't work out exactly that way. The Marshall sold almost immediately. I put an ad everywhere on the internet that was free and then in 48 North. Before the 48 North ad came out I got a call from a great guy in Olympia who was looking for a traditional catboat. He and his wife came out, looked the boat over, and bought it on the spot. I left that meeting and drove straight to Anacortes to look over the C&C. The Bayliner needed work and I decided to wait until closer to spring to sell it.

Judging by its condition, the C&C had been neglected for at least six months. The previous owner just wasn't as interested in sailing as he had thought. According to the broker he raced a bit but there was no evidence of any cruising gear or activity. Plenty of dirt and moisture everywhere. This didn't look too good for the balsa-cored hull.

Fred West at West Yachts was pretty helpful with the long distance aspect of buying a boat but I don't think brokers, in general, have caught on to this Internet thing yet. We arranged for a hull survey and a separate engine survey.

Before I went up to take posession, North Island Boat Works in Anacortes did a pretty good engine survey. They knew the circumstances of me taking this strange boat for a two-day trip home with lots of motoring likely. In addition to a condition survey of the engine they replaced the fuel filters, the water pump, both batteries, the belts, and checked the injectors. The biggest problem with the boat was that it sat idle so there was plenty of deterioration, etc. Everything turned out okay and the engine seems pretty healthy so far. The engine has pretty high hours (2,100). Most folks I've talked to say that the Yanmar 3GM should go 5,000 hours or more.

The boat has no "systems", no pressure water, no water heater, and that is a plus to me. A hot shower would be nice but I put a drain in the head's pan and can run a sun shower's hose through the vent.

Turned out the easiest way to get up to Anacortes to pick the boat up was to get a cheap rental car. Both the bus and train were in the $30 neighborhood, one way, and that wouldn't allow me to take any gear. I wanted to take a minimal amount of my own gear since the boat was pretty empty and was also rather old and unknown. My 13 year old son came along as deckhand and found the trip a great way to sleep in and watch DVDs.

The trip home went well. It rained most of the time but we had a nice sail across Juan de Fuca to Port Townsend. We got up early in Port Townsend and, with no wind, motored 11 hours to Tacoma. Last August, I made this same trip in the Bayliner in under 4 hours. Used a lot more gas though.