On Board with Mark Corke

Rigging adjustment

It's been a very wet weekend up in the north east but none the less I have been out tuning up the rig on Mallard. The mast is fairly short but I have definitely found that getting the rig set up correctly makes a big difference to the way the boat handles and sails. With the mast sloping back there is a tendency for the boat to head up into wind in the puffs when sailing to windward but if the rig is too far forward the boat develops lee helm and the boat does the opposite and tends to bear way in strong winds which is far more undesirable than weather helm. The ideal is for a very slight amount of weather helm so that should the helm be left to it's own devices the boat will slowly come up into wind and stop making way.

Mallard has a long keel and so she is slow to respond which is in stark contrast to many fin keel boats which will turn in their own length and need constant attention to the wheel, indeed the rudder is the only thing that stops them from instantly coming up to weather. The advantage of a long keel like Mallard has means that the boat will tend to track well and indeed when correctly set up with the wind just forward of the beam she will steer herself for a good five minutes with no hand on the tiller. So hence the need for rig adjustments to reach this happy state of play.

Because I take the mast out of the boat at the end of every season and reinstall it each spring I've got pretty good at guesstimating how it should be set up but I know that fine tuning will always be required. To set up the rig for fore and after rake I loosen the upper and lower shrouds port and starboard, then with the runners set up just a bit slack can adjust the rig for rake with the forestay as I am doing in the picture. It is very easy for the inexperienced to alter the rig too much, a few turns on the forestay sweeps the top of the mast significantly so if you do this yourself at any time on a sailboat take it gently to start, you can always readjust it some more.

Once I am happy with the rig rake I will adjust the shrouds both for tension and to ensure that the mast is plumb then when I am finally happy with everything I lock up the rig with monel seizing wire passed through the holes in the end of the bottle screw studs before taping up to prevent toes, fingers and sails from catching on any sharp ends.

Here is the completed job all nicely parceled up. Note that I have left a very small gap, which is just visible at the bottom of the tape where it wraps around the lower part of the bottle screw (turnbuckle to you Americans). This is important as it allows water to freely escape which would otherwise have nowhere to go and could and would find its way into the threads causing crevice corrosion.

Lumitec LED lights

Fans of On Board will know that I am very keen on LED lights so was pleased to see these babies from Lumitec.  The picture shows the flush mount version which would be a great fitting for the bridge deck of a sport fishing boat for lighting up the cockpit. There are other versions which would be suitable as spreader lights on a sailboat for lighting up the deck or as a spot light for a work boat.
The lights look pretty cool, resistant salt water and I do especially like the rounded and nicely smoothed off casing which would complement many boats. The overall dimensions are small too, the light has a foot print of 5 inches long and 1 3/4 inches wide and the cut out is a diminutive 3 3/4 by 1 1/4 inches so these lights should fit in many places where traditional halogens would refuse to go.
The light output of this model is claimed to be equivalent to a 55 watt halogen which is plenty of light so a couple of these would give plenty of light for working in the cockpit or on deck.
The light has a MSRP of $194.

Blue Sea systems monitor

    

Blue Sea Systems the well known and respected boat and yacht electrical people bought this systems monitor out a while ago but it has taken me this long to get around to writing about it. Called the VSM 422 this is a marvelous piece of kit that should be a boon to many boat owners. The display can be customized by the use of simple easy to follow drop down menus but what makes this unit unique is that it is capable of monitoring fuel and water tanks, AC and DC electrics and bilge pumps and alarms all in the same unit. It connects to sender units that may already be fitted to tanks or you can buy sender units from Blue Sea which run to about an extra $75 each. The monitor itself retails for around the $450 level but the neat thing is that it will replace a plethora of other monitors for battery condition and so on. This I find very appealing because by installing the SM 422 it frees up a ton of space at the helm or nav area as it will obviously now be only necessary to fit one monitor instead of perhaps 3 or 4 as was the case previously.

The unit ships with the shunts necessary for battery monitoring but the battery temperature sensor is an extra cost option which you may or may not need depending on the charging configuration fitted to the boat. For instance the Bomar charger and external regulator has that already built in so in this case the external temperature sensor would not be needed. There is a ton of technical information on the Blue Sea website including the owners installation instructions and operating manual.

Handy Electric Pump

    One the average boat there is a variety of pumps but one of the most useful and the one that is used often is this one which I made up from spare parts that I had lying around. It is basically a Jabsco reversible pump taken from a portable oil changer connected to a couple of lengths of hose with the pump itself mounted onto some scrap plywood to keep it stable when in use. Although I don't use it for transferring oil anymore as I have a dedicated built in oil change pump I do use if for pumping water. Being portable I move it to wherever I need it and have used it in the past to pump water from inaccessible areas which can't be reached or emptied completely with the normal bilge pump. I've emptied fish wells and  with the pump drawing water from the sea even used it as a poor mans wash down hose. It also saved the day for me on one occasion when the water pump on the engine packed up and I jury rigged it so that I could use it for a substitute raw water pump for the engine. Finally and I hope never have to put it to the test it could even be used as a portable fire hose.

As you can see it is fitted with a couple of crocodile clips and a fuse so when the need arises I can pull it out of a locker clip onto the battery and it is ready for use in no time flat. I've used it so often now that i wonder how I ever managed without it and best of all it cost me next to nothing to make.

Gate Valves

I had interesting yesterday surveying a 30 year old Pearson 424. The boat was in remarkably original condition and had been very well cared for. There was very little wrong with the boat although I did find the usual suspects of sea cocks that were frozen open and this little beastie which the new owner will be replacing before recommissioning the boat.

Gate valves should never be used as skin fittings for a number of reasons. They are often, think usually, made of brass, which will dezinctify when exposed to salt water turning them to a soft mush from the inside out and it is impossible to tell if the valve is open or closed at a glance. A proper sea cock will have a lever style handle which will clearly show when it is open as the handle will be in line with the pipe, moving it 90 degrees closes it. A gate valve on the other hand can only be checked by screwing down the handle and if there is anything under the seat of the gate then it will not fully close thus making it impossible to shut off the water. Gate valves are often fitted by well meaning DIYers who think that they can save money by popping in to Home Depot and picking up a valve for a fraction of the cost of a proper sea cock. But this may well be a question of penny wise and pound foolish. If the sea cock fails the boat could well sink costing the owner dearly.

Also closer inspection of the picture above highlights several other problems with the installation, there is no backing block to the skin fitting and the hoses should be double clamped with the screws at 180 degrees to each other.

Blocking the boat

 I spent a very pleasant but long day down at the boat yesterday. There always seems to be a bunch of last minute jobs before the boat goes into the water and despite telling myself every year that I'll have everything ready ahead of time it never works out that way.  The red boot top strip needed doing so we chocked the boat up in the yard for a few hours to enable me to get this done. But the main reason that I am enclosing the picture of Mallard is to show the chain connecting the two stands together and prevent them from spreading. If you click on the photo to make it larger you can easily see the chain running under the keel connecting the stands together. I've lost count of the amount of boats that I have seen where this has not been done. A little wind and the stands move and before you know it the boat topples over. It is especially important in windy latitudes to makes sure that the boat is properly chocked and secured. Incidentally had I been leaving the boat for any longer than a couple of hours I would have placed a couple more stands on either side.

 

As I was working on the boat Bentley Collins rolled in on the new Sabre 40. There has been a lot of buzz about this boat and rightly so I believe, it looks fantastic.  At present only the sedan version is on the water but Sabre, will I understand be offering the boat with a fly bridge. Personally I like the boat in the sedan version it looks just right. Although I never had the chance to go for a spin it does look very impressive and standing at the helm with both engines running it was very quiet. Oh one  of the cool features  that the boat had was an electric sliding Webasto roof which lets in tons of light and air.

Anti fouling safety

       One of the most unpleasant jobs for many boat owners is anti fouling the boat. The paint is smelly, expensive and on top of that the shape of the boat means that you spend a good part of your time on your back getting splashed with paint. For this reason it is essential to keep the paint out of your eyes (I am not wearing them here as I was trying to operate the camera and pose all at the same time) and the vapors are not good to breathe either so now I wear a good organic respirator when applying the paint. By the way if the respirator is doing it's job you can't smell the paint at all, forget those disposable type masks they are ineffectual and allow the fumes straight through. I suspect that applying the paint in the open air is less hazardous than working in an enclosed space, like say a garage or workshop where the vapor do build up. Nevertheless I think it best to wear a respirator even outside.

Incidentally a far greater health risk is presented if sanding anti fouling, the boat should be tented over and a slight positive pressure should be achieved within the tent via means of a small fan, neither the EPA or your next door boat owner will thank you if you sand in the open air. The dust is very insidious and unless contained goes everywhere. It is also illegal to allow the dust onto the ground, it should be captured and disposed of as hazardous waste.

Actually removing all of the old bottom paint is something that I think I will have to do next year. Although I use Micron extra, an ablative paint there is still a build up on the underside of the boat which I would like to remove entirely, inspect and fair the boat and then reapply. That's going to be a big job but I think that it would be worth it and give me a little extra speed.

One of the best machines is the Festool dustless system, expensive perhaps but it does capture the majority of the dust. I might just have to invest in one.

Spreading the word

    How about that then? The back of the car is now sporting a spiffy new license plate. I've never been much for the whole vanity plate thing but when the time came to renew and it turned out that ON BOARD was available we just had to have it. What do you think, classy eh!

Flush trimming router bits

One of the first posts that I did on this blog when I started it was how to make your own inexpensive router table.  The router is a very versatile tool and it is most definitely one of those workshop tools that once you start using it you find all sorts of tasks for it and you wonder how you ever managed without it. Like I said back then nothing looks more shoddy than poorly executed wood trim. There is plenty of trim work on even all but the most basic of boats and a well fashioned piece of wood work looks fantastic and shows off the boat to it's best advantage.

There are a myriad of router cutters and it is probably best to start off with one of the boxed sets or either six or twelve. One of the most useful of the cutters is the flush trim bit shown in the picture above. Basically the ball bearing guide is exactly the same diameter as the cutter and this makes it perfect for making  several identical components. Say you want to make 6  hatch covers all the same then make the first by hand using conventional tools as accurately as possible. Then with this first one stuck with a couple of finish nails or double sided tape to another piece of wood cut an eighth of inch over size all round it is simple matter to reproduce the other 5 in no time at all. Because just about all router bits these days are made with tungsten carbide cutting edges they will also quite happily cut fiber glass and other plastic such as King Starboard almost as easily as wood.

    You can also buy cutters with bearings top and bottom too which can be handy when working with woods like teak and mahogany that have tricky grain. By flipping the template over it is thus possible to always be working with the grain and thus prevent tear out and chatter.

You can click here to watch a short video on using flush trim cutters.

Origo stoves

 I've never been a fan of gas on board boats. The last couple of boats that I have owned have had Wallas cookers which have proved to be reliable and efficient albeit expensive. Electric stoves and cook tops are good too providing that you have the battery power and a good inverter and/or generator to power them. My dislike of gas is that the fuel is expensive if you use the boat a lot and that there is the ever present danger of explosion. I once surveyed a steel boat that had had an explosion when a couple of bottles exploded, one person died and the deck was peeled back like a banana, not something that i ever want to see again. The cheapest type of stoves seem to be the Origo range that operate on non pressurized alcohol. In my experience the people that complain about them the most are those that have never used one but like east european cars have just got a bad reputation that is hard to shake no matter how good they are.
So this post is my plug for these stoves, cheap to buy and install, they work a treat, you don't need heavy gas bottles or plumbing and they are easy to light and install. If you are in the market for new stove they could be worth a look. They come in a variety of styles, there is even a two burner cooker and oven which works as a direct replacement for many of the gimbled gas varieties.