Fuel Tank Cover

Sunbrella Fuel Tank Cover

On longer trips, we carry spare fuel for the Engine and Generator in portable tanks secured to the Starboard Lifeline Stanchions, To Secure the Tanks, I tie them down with a line to a horizontal Stainless Tube that runs between two of the stanchions. It's a pain to tie and untie the lines in order to use the tanks and they should really be covered.

So, armed with some old Sunbrella from the remants of our Sail cover no longer required.

The Diesel Tanks are typical 5 gallon, stubby rather than the taller models. Eximius holds 25 gallons and that's enough for about 33 hours at 3/4 Gallon per hour, our typical consumption at 5 knots under motor, or 166 miles. 

We use the plan of 1/3 out, 1/3 return and 1/3 reserve, so that gives us an outbound range, under motor, of 55nm. That's about the distance to Bimini from our dock.

When we go to the Bahamas, we carry an Extra 10 Gallons in 2 tanks on deck.

We also carry 5 Gallons of Gasoline for the Generator, that's enough to run the AC for a couple of days. Of course, we only run the Genny if it's hot and we're at Anchor. If we're sailing we use the Wind powered AC unit ;).

I used the template concept. Using tape over along the seams of the Diesel Can, then Basting Tape and Template material in 3 pieces: Side, Front (spout), Back (handle). 

For small designs like this, I use Builders Tyvec fabric for my templates, it's a lot cheaper than the Dura Skim, but it's nowhere near as easy to use. I find that Dura Skim is much nicer to work with and have several yards of it ready for when I make our new Dodger & Bimini bridge piece.

Here's the first cover, the tube is just a piece of Aluminum tubing to mimic the Stainless tube on the boat.

The Straps are left over from when I made the Outboard Cover a few months ago. They are sewn to the back face of the cover at an angle which eases the turn around the tube, seems to work ok.

Inboard view of the cover and straps.

The straps are connected with a re-purposed two piece buckle from an old life jacket.

FYI, before tossing out any old jacket, backpack, life-jacket, or anything with a re-usable Zipper, Buckle or Strap, I cut them off and put them in my 'One Day I'll use that' box'.

Time to make a cover for the Gas tank. I'll follow the same design.

Sty tuned.

Five Gallon Gas Can

Fillament Tape applied to center seam and corners (on one side as I mirror the end templates.

I know, it looks like denim, it's just the light.

This is the handle end piece, mirrored.

Yellow line are transferred from the edges of the cleaned up template

Red lines are with 1/2" seam allowance.

FYI, I gauge the seam allowance with my thumbnail, consistent and really ease, just put my thumb cuticle inline with the yellow line then mark the seam line with a chalk next to the tip of my thumb.

Spout end following the same technique.

All four pieces marked up[, cut using my hot knife and ready to sew.

Ready to start sewing, threads restrained using one of my magnetic thread restraints.

The two pieces are placed outsides together.

Sewing sequence is.
All four Corners up to the angled section
Sew the straps onto one of the side pieces.
Then the two pleats in the handle end.
Next, sew 4 angled seams.
Finally, sew the bottom hem all the way around.

Gas Can Cover complete with Securing Straps & Buckle.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out. There's enough slack in the jackets to allow for a bit of tank expansion rather than be to tight and split a seam.

I used Profilen thread, my first choice for any outdoor sewing projects.

See you on the water.

Paul

Pedestal Cover

Making a Pedestal Cover

The Instrument Shelf on the Pedestal is a custom job that I completed in year 1 of owning Eximius - details here.

It's very convenient as it not only holds the Chart Plotter, Depth display unit and the Wind Instrument, but it's also handy to clip info sheets close at hand when at the wheel. It also acts as a handy hand hold when moving around the pedestal to or from behind the wheel.

The wheel is 41" diameter. The outcome is that there is not an off the shelf pedestal cover made for out boat, so we have a compass cover (shown in the pic), a cover for the depth instrument holder & chart plotter holder and another for the wind instrument.

None of them offer any cover for the pedestal or wheel, so we have to do clean up often. Hence reason for making a new Pedestal Cover.

Step 1. Guesstimate the amount of material required.

We took the general measurements for a cover and figured we would need several pieces.

•  Front Piece: From the top of the Instruments, down in front of the shelf, snug up close to the pedestal guard (that's the vertical stainless steel tube structure  to which the wires are tie-wrapped) and down to the base of the pedestal.
• Aft Piece: From the top of the wheel, down the aft face of the wheel and then down to the foot of the pedestal. It would have a vertical zipper from the top of the wheel all the way down it's length.
• 2 Side Pieces: These would extend from the top center of the instruments on the shelf and reach down to the foot of the pedestal, connecting to the Aft Piece and the Front Piece.

The bottom of the cover would have a sewn in shock cord to close up the bottom around the pedestal.

It might work out that the side pieces would only extend from the shelf down and that a separate 'Top Piece' would extend over the shelf and instruments, joining the Front, Aft and 2 Side pieces. That decision will have to wait till we make a template out of Dura Skrim patterning material. I also have some Tyvek House Wrap that can also be used for patterning but prefer the Dura Skrim as the transparency is useful in allowing view of what is beneath the template material.

The rough measurements show that I'll need about 6 yards of 48" material. I already have 3 yards, so just need to order another 3. But will wait until we have made the pattern, too much material is OK, but not enough is pain.

And now some good news!

A sailing buddy gave me a box of canvas (Unlikely Sunbrella as it is faded on the outside surfaces.) that was left over / removed from a friends boat and too much to deal with at the flea market. Bonus! It included an old dodger & bimini that was failing (not UV thread). I was able to salvage a 50" piece of YKK Zip #10 in great shape and quite a bit of the material that is clean.

We went down to the boat and used the Sailrite technique to make a template for the cover. I made the template in 4 parts.

• 1/2 the wheel - Starboard side only
• Starboard Side Piece
• 1/2 the Aft piece (stbd side only)
• 1/2 the top piece (stbd side only)

Brought them home and cleaned up the edges, laid them out on the material and marked the edges + 1/2" for the hems. I did make a mistake with the center part of the wheel where the zipper would be installed. The Sailrite video showed the need to add a 2" center piece between the port and starboard segments of the section that covers the wheel, ie. 1" to each side down the middle, for the zip. I added 2" to each segment, so the wheel cover is 1" wider than it should be. You would have to know in order to criticize the finished product.

Sewing the zip was a breeze thanks to the Sailrite video and the result looks great. Sewing the segments together was easy too. I used Profilin Clear thread, that will probably last longer than the pedestal cover. I did not sew the bottom hem and the shock cord before taking the cover down to teh boat and checking that everything was ok. It was, but while there, I marked the hem in a slightly better position than when making the templates. Back home I quickly marked up the hem and shock cord lines, 10 minutes work with my machine and it was all done.

We took it down to the boat and it fit really well, it will not blow off if it's zipped up (down, as the zipper starts closed at the top and open at the bottom) 

When I feel like blowing the money, I may remake it in Sunbrella (sans the 1" error) but it should last a few years. Here's some pics.

I know, it looks weird - but then it covers our weird pedestal and wheel. We get really heavy rain down here in South Florida, so I raised the front bottom end.

Onto the next project.

See you on the water.

New Sewing Tips

Tip #1: Goodwill Stores

I needed some denim material for some fender covers.  A trip to Goodwill and the purchase of a few

pairs of Fat Boy denim jeans provided enough material for 4 fender covers. After cutting and sewing the material into shapes it was easy to make new fender covers.











Tip #2: Magnetic Thread restraint

I learnt from the Sailrite website about holding the upper and lower threads during the first few stitches to make sure that neither get pulled out. They showed a solution of using a Quarter ($0.25) with a piece of basting tape to hold it to the surface of the machine base trapping the threads.

Well that works, but far from ideal. A better solution is a round magnet (about the size of a Quarter) covered in leather with about a 1/2" overlap. This allows an easy way to sweep the threads away from the sewing point and capturing them between the leather and the machine base. After the first few stitches, just pickup the covered magnet. I keep two of them near the machine - the 2nd is for when I have a bunch of material that won't fit between the threads if held by just one magnet. I use the 1st magnet to hold down the lower (bobbin) thread and the 2nd magnet to hold down the upper thread passing the thread over the material.

Oh! Tip #3: Guess where I got the leather from?
Same place I get the denim. 😊

To make the thread restraint, simple find a suitable magnet (Amazon has them) and a piece of leather about 3" x 1.5". Fold in half to create a square. Sew from the folded edge about 1.25", rotate the square by 90º and sew a 2nd edge to form a pocket a little bigger than the magnet. Insert the magnet (Raise the foot out of the way, lower it after magnet is in it's pocket. Rotate the square another 90º and sew back to the folded edge. Include a couple of reverse tack stitches at the start and finish. Trim off the excess leather. All done

Here's how I use them.

Simple.

See you on the water.

Saving the view

Adding a Cover for the Cabin Top Hatch

New cover for the Cabin Top Hatch on Eximius.

This is a modification to the Sailrite Hatch Cover in a couple of ways.

• The Corners are hemmed even though all edges of the material were cut using a Hot Knife.
• The Line exit is moved from a corner to the middle. This makes it easier to put the cover on as all 4 corners can be secured before pulling down on the cord lock to secure the line.

Very pleased with how it turned out. Used some of the old Sail Cover (it's huge).

This is my 5th Hatch Cover, and I really like the design. I can pull up on any edge or any corner and it will not release from the hatch, but easing the cord lock will release it right away.

Using my new Sewing Machine table and Servo motor for my Sailrite LSZ-1 machine makes it a breeze to sew accurately. Very pleased with my investment.

Here are two more hatch covers I made today.

Piece of Cake

Still trying for a decent loaf

After several bakes on board, I'm nearly satisfied with my bread making, but it's always a delight when a loaf actually turns out better than expected.

This loaf was baked using a dough recipe from King Arthur's Flour website, here a link: 

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-100-whole-wheat-bread-recipe

I substituted 1/8th cup of brown sugar for the 1/4 cup of Honey just to keep my grand daughter interested in the bake.

After kneading the dough for 10 minutes with my grand daughter's help, we left the dough to rise and it rose to over double it's size in an hour sitting on top of my cooker (off). Next, I divided the dough into three nearly equal pieces (that's a good game!) and rolled them on a slightly oiled surface into sausage shape about 12" long. Then Platted them, squeezing the ends underneath and placing into a prepared sprayed baking tin. 2nd Rise for 1 hour, heated the oven to 350º F (regular bake, not 'Fan') and baked for 40 minutes.

Turned out nicely.

This is definitely doable on the boat. I did not use city water, which probably explains why the rises were so good. It makes great toast but is delicious (Peggy & KT both gave it a 10) and it looks nice.  The lower temperature for this bake, 350ºF v 400ºF of my other bakes should make it even more repeatable on the boat. I'll have to try it on a baking sheet rather than in a bread pan, it seems to hold it's shape really well.

If you see me on the water, you might come aboard for a snack of Cheese, Grapes and some fresh baked bread. 

Admiral cannot get out of the cabin

Cabin Sliding Hatch is a pain to open

Peggy has been complaining about how difficult it is to open the Cabin Sliding hatch from inside the cabin - this past weekend I realized that she cannot open the hatch from the inside! Not good!

The problem is well known to the members of the C34 Association (http://www.c34.org) and one of the members has developed a cure.

Basically the problem is that the Hatch rubs fiberglass against fiberglass which has gathered dirt and grime during it's 30 Year lifetime. Not only is the hatch difficult to open & close, but it makes a nasty screeching noise in the process.

There appears to be two solutions: #1 - Remove the hatch cover which involves removing two 7' long strips of teak and possibly some traveller hardware, then clean up the underside of the hatch and the surface that it slides upon, then put it all back together - pretty simple, but wow!

#2 - Insert a piece of UHMV plastic on the sliding surface. Done!

Mark (from c34.org forum) has taken the trouble to purchase a sheet (or more) of the UHMV 1/16" thick material and has cut it into the appropriate length strips. I contacted Mark this morning, asking if he had any of the strips left over, he does. I paid him by Pay Pal and by mid day he has packed a pair of the strips and dropped them into a USPS drop box. WOW ! 

Several of the guys that have already installed them have left very positive comments with the advice to secure the strips in place with a countersunk screw at the aft end of the strip and as far forward as can be reached without removing the hatch.

I'll take pics.

Thanks Mark! Great product.

See you on the Water.

Not a big Fan

Can you hear me or the Fan?

Fan motors really spoil my day, I detest the noise as much as that of a vacuum cleaner and we have 5 Fans on Eximius: 2 in the Salon, 1  in the V-berth, 1 in the Bathroom(head), and one in the aft Berth. I purchased them all at the same time, installed them all and all of them are NOISEY!

It finally got to me on our last trip and I plead my case with Peggy that I made a bad choice when purchasing the fans and would like to replace one to see if we could find a more bearable option.

The Galley Fan (old one shown here) was mounted just forward of the Fridge/Freezer lid and did not have a lot of room for positioning. It did have a good blow, but the noise was awful.

$40 from Amazon Prime.

This is the model I replaced it with. No cover over the blades, which the manufacturer claims will not harm fingers.

Well, that's my experience as shown in the video below.

So, with one fan replaced and the new is soooo much better than the old, I'll be swapping out the rest of them over the next few weeks/months.

See you on the water.