Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Just a bit of Boat Work

New Anchor

Our primary anchor has been a Delta 25lb plough style anchor. It gets great reviews, but we have dragged often even with 90' of anchor rode out in 7' of water, with a 4' anchor roller to water length that's 11' and 7:1 rode would be 77', yet we would still drag even after digging the anchor in by backing down.

West Marine had a new model of anchor that had a list price of $299 on sale for $68, at that price it was worth trying.  

To install the anchor, I first had to remove the existing anchor, the shackle was seized but soaking in WD40 for 24 hours. With the new anchor attached, I next needed to remove our secondary anchor which is past it's best by date by a few years. In order to remove it, I had to pull out all of the rode for both anchors. That's 100' of chain on the primary anchor and a further 250' of 7/8" 3 strand rope. Then the 50 of chain and 150' of 7/8l" rope on the old secondary anchor. 

With all of the rode out of the anchor locker, I was able to give it a significant clean, it's been a couple of years.

There was a plastic cover for an old hole near the top of the locker, I peeled that off and cleaned up the area then looked for a suitable cover.

I found a 'Sample' of formica available at Lowe's for $0.25 including shipping !!! 

I'm guessing that the hole (behind the white piece of formica) was probably the original position of the 12v power outlet which had been moved forwards so that it was out of the way of the flukes of the anchor.

To secure the panel in place, I used double sided duct tape, it stuck really well. The Delta anchor (shown in the lower left corner of the photo at left) does not have flukes that are likely to damage the sides of the anchor locker.

Then the rode for both anchors was put back in place, pretty neatly, by using a boat hook to push down the anchor line into the depths of the locker. 
That mesh bag seen in the right lower corner of that photo is the bag that contains our Snubber. Also in the locker is our Day Marker for when we use the anchor during the day.


Another job was to complete the new backing plate for the shower thermostat.  When I installed the thermostat, I didn't realize that the front of the control could be removed, so the hole drilled in the surface in which it was mounted was cut to allow the control handle to pass through. 
The thermostat is held in place by two pipe supports on the inside using 4 bolts. I replaced those today with countersunk bolts and then covered the hole with another piece of the Formica sample from Lowe's. Again, secured in place by using double sided duct tape.

The result is actually better then expected. The panel fits really well behind the thermostat control knob.







With this panel complete it looks much more 'finished'

The top edge of the panel slides up behind the underside of the teak countertop surround.


Last project for the day was to modify the way that the new fan in the v-berth was installed.

When the fan was attached to the teak on the port side of the v-berth, it was too close to the deck head. Consequently the fan could strike the deck head :( 

Today I removed the fan, screwed an extension  piece of teak about 7" tall to the teak rail and then the fan to the teak extension. The whole job took about 15 minutes, but that included getting the tools ready and the clean up afterwards. 

So today was a nice and quick visit with three projects crossed off the list.

We're hoping to be able to take the boat out on a cruise down to Biscayne Bay starting this weekend, but the weather is not cooperating, We're happy to let it slide for as long as necessary, but if we don't get away by Wednesday we'll take a break and spend a night at a hotel to celebrate. 

Hope to see you on the water.

Paul & Peggy