End of the season

Its over the mast is coming down this weekend and we are going to winterize and put the boat to bed
I took the measurements of how far I have to move the mast u bolt out to fit into the ones on the deck
Once this is done everything will finally fit for the mast step next year  I hope
The Bimini is also going to get an adjustment so that the back stay can pass thou without it taring everything up
The engine is fine and runs great now that i put in the voltage resister for the distributor
I do have to do something about the water intake it gets clogged constantly and is a pain to clean when the boat is in the water  A project for next year

The fried coil in the Atomic 4

On me last trip the coil got really hot. Its been an ongoing annoyance that the engine would quit just before my destination ,right after a power change. Also the batteries were draining quite rapidly .
Well it seems that the resistor wire had failed and was feeding 14.5v directly into the coil. The last trip it got so hot you could not hold it, ultimately frying the resister wire from the switch all the way back to the coil in a smoke test. It really stinks , literally.
I pulled out the old coil and trashed it. Some posts say you can still use it when it cools down, especially the ones that are oil filled (old style) but i did not want to take any more chances , I threw it in the trash and replaced it with another old style, I could have used one with an internal resistor but those are solid carbon pile coils also subject to a much higher rate of failure than liquid filled.
I placed a ceramic drop down external resistor  on the wall mounting it on a cork spacer. The resistor gets hot when it drops the voltage down from 13.5 to 9, and mounting it to fiberglass bulkhead is not a wise move.
This repair has seemed to solve the problem, I have now run the engine for over 12 hours on and off with one run almost 8 hrs and no problem.
Yes the coil does get hot under normal use but not to the point where you cant touch it
Dropping the coil voltage also changed the way the engine runs I'm going to assume this is because of the spark to the plugs is much cleaner now. I no longer get that occasional misfire under load. This may also be because I changed all the wire harness while I made the adjustment. In any case the throttle throw to get the engine to 2000 rpm is now much larger and smoother, without changing any of the mechanical linkage divestments.
I also set the timing to 17 deg BTC under load at 1800 rpm  this improved the shaft HP output quite a bit.
Reverse is now a pleasure instead of an adventure  Time will tell but im happy with these changes

A solar charging system

We installed a solar charging system in the boat because I was using more amps than I was charging. The constant charging was also burning up the battery cells and trickle charge took way too long. The new system is fully regulated and totally separate and independent of the boat system.

We have also installed a master kill switch and an amp and volt gauge

new problems noticed

Yesterday I stepped the mast the old way because the master hinge pin did not line up properly and my flimsy gallows that i built for the mast did not look safe. This means that the mast step project will continue next fall because im not taking down the mast again for the adjustment.

Also the new pedestal guard that we installed now interferes with the shift linkage arm and throttle arm. The throttle arm has to be backed off and readjusted . This may sound easy but because of the cable location its not. The shift arm will have to be bent back about 20% to properly fit. This means heating and bending a 1`/2 inch ss rod ,not an easy function I may take it to my local machine shop and have them do it

bimini

The new binini looks good but the dodger that came off the westerly will not work

New screens

We made up some new screens for the hatches and entrance doors so we can keep out the bugs this year

Electronic egnition

The old points finality came out of the engine and we put in electronic ignition This should solve all the intermittent starting problems I also have a 70 amp alternator that I would like to install but this requires a new belt the right size, more measuring

The Head

The Head sprung a leak over the winter so i picked up a rebuild kit and attacked the "shitter"

No much fun but now it has all new seals and will take a "crap load"\

We also replaced the spreader boots and a new fuel vent line . This will hopefully stop my fuel flow problem,

Step 3

The hinge pin and the side stablizers comming soon

Step 2 for the mast

This is step 2 for the mast upgrade

Now level out the u bolts with your jin pole bar as shown, dont use a level because the boat is not level measure with a tape on each end within 1/8 inch is fine

You have determined the height of the U bolts and the one on the mast does clear the mast base plate right?

I hope so

Now set up your U bolt for the mast .

You must be exact on this or the mast will not step into position when you raise it and most likely something will break. Measure from the from the front of the mast to the front of your hindge tube ,this is the length the u bolt must extend from the mast .

The pics show my adjustment method just follow those steps and you wont have a problem.

Step 1

The new mast step, I started by cutting off the standing water tube flush with the mast. Next, locate your first hole with a pilot drill from inside the cabin to make sure all your hardware clears the bulkhead. This is your starting point. set your first U bolt and then duplicate the other side. Do not tighten down anything . That will come later Ill post the mast next week. Remember ,to do this you must have all lines aft and lazy jack lines install or it will not work.

We had to install a new battery selector switch and then i also replaced the blower circut breaker with a new one.

New Harken travler

I needed a new traveler for the boom ,under load it would not slide as it should so I managed to assemble some of the parts I had to remove the old track and reposition the new one a bit further back because the slider had to clear the new ss pedestal arch that i installed.

All lines aft

All lines aft will let me set up the new mast step system that I have been wanting to do for several years now. This also allows me to raise and lower the sails without having to go on deck, something that is getting harder to do now. This installation consisted of the turning block ,which was hard to locate on the deck because of the bathroom bulkhead. The jam cleats for the line, these are offset from the winch so that the line will not rub on its side when the winch is pulling the line. The winch is centered on the upper deck . This location is important because it has a heavy backing plate on the back side. The other 2 components pass through both inner and outer decks . The entire deck is wood sandwich so oil canning is not a problem, Making it look clean and neat is.

The windows

Both port and starboard widows were replaced with some nice brass ones that open up.

The old ones did not come out easy. I had to resize the opening but this was not bad.

There was a wall thickness difference between each side so the brass bolts all had to be custom cut ,all 16 of them I would have liked to have them sit in a bit further but that would mean a custom built backing plate that would have stuck out in the cabin and would have looked trashy.

The Cleats

The old cleats never held up after the quick repair last year so I replaced them with heavy bronze cleats. The old ones had to be hacksawed off, and the new ones mounted on a pad because of the irregular surface of the boat .The entire installation was backed up with a steel plate.

New anchor holder

The old holders were broken and I kept loosing the anchor overboard while sailing. New holders are now installed .I like these better because they distribute the weight a bit better than the single lock kind. Less train on the pulpit.

Genoa cars

This item is used to set your Genoa sails and allows you to sail upwind much tighter. They are E$XPENSIVE I picked up 2 on ebay that were unusable because the sheaves were destroyed and with the old style the sheaves were installed with a ss pin in an aluminum housing (very bad)

How to fix It. It took 3 days of research and study and about 1/2 hour each to repair.You cannot buy sheaves that size so to find one I wet to home depot and bought 2 wheel casters rated at 2k lbs ,make sure the have a rubber tire, which you will cut off you should end up with this . cost $18.00

To make them fit into the housing cot the end flush with the sheave and sand smooth done great job

Now for the hard part Removing the old sheave First do not try to push out the old ss pin on an arbor press because when it was made the ends of the pins were flared and after 30years in aluminum all your going to do is bend the housing. Take your saws all and cut thru the old sheave and the ss pin on one side avoid cutting into the housing stay away about 1/8 inch when you cut thru one side take a screwdriver and pry out the small cut sheave and slide the big side over . This will give you enough room to cut the other side. Pry out the cut sheave . You will end up with 2 end pins

Drive the pins out with a punch from the inside because the are flared. Apply a bit of heat (not much)30 seconds is enough . They will come out easy.

Drill out the aluminum housing to the same diameter as the sheave shaft that came with the casters. The shaft will fit perfectly without cutting. Time to assemble and You just saved yourself a $600.00 purchase for both of them. Good wheel casters work great for sheaves they are cheap and of good quality.

Bow cleats

The Bow of the boat is going to be reworked this year, There is a lot of stress there and the old cleats that hold the dock lines are just not holding up anymore I guess 33 years is enough. So before anything gets really damaged we are installing some fine cast bronze 8 inch cleats. They have a nice patina that has developed over the years, but I chose to polish them up anyway, just to clean up the burrs on the cast. The color will return over time. The motor is being repaired for the electric winch, which will also have to be installed along with some new electrical work.

Planns for this year before the boat goes into the water

The bottom paint gets redone (each year)

We will be designing and building a new mast step system (parts are in)

The 2 front windows are being replaced with some well purchased ones off eBay ( brass)

All lines aft 2 block only (parts and new winches are in)

Improve the lawrence system its not working the way i want it.

Install the new compass

A new electric winch for the anchor ( I hope)

We are going to start the interior woodwork and replace the temporary one that was installed when I bought the boat

All the life lines need replacing and because Torry will be on board this comming year I need to put up safety netting

The furler is not going to happen this year as much as I want.

I have some new instruments coming for installation but they too will take some work to set up

Im way over budget for the year on upgrades and its time to stop

The compas light

well Im going to have to modify the light housing so, before I start cutting things up I want to make sure this is going to work.r

for 2010

first there are a lot of things planned for this year but we will start with the new

Danforth constelation compass an ,ebay buy. We took the light housing off, it was just raw cast bronze that was never finnished, it got pollished and the light had the old 1940s bulb in it , it got modified and we mounted some LED lights into it , it looks much cleaner now.