Boat Projects - keeping track of them

Keeping Track of Boat Projects.

When we get to take the boat out, even though we have owned her for six years, we still have additions to the list of 'things to do' and keeping track of those 'projects' is a challenge.

Options:

• Google's Keep Notes 
• Google Sheets
• Blog Entry - updated as projects get done.
• Log book entries ( our log book is online and just not used enough!)
• Note book - the paper type
• Rocket Book - the jury is not out on these.
• Remarkable II - digital note book - I really like this idea.

I use Google workspace for just about all of my documentation. I keep our equipment manuals in our google drive, drawings, spreadsheets, notes, etc. all on Google Drive. I find it very appealing, easy to use and very accessible. I regularly download all of the drive contents to an external HDD so that I can get access to the material if we're out of cellphone range. Of course, there is also the big plus that if I link to a drive item then it's always updated when I make a change. So Google workspace gets really high marks.

So now it comes down to just the workspace options. 

Our Service history is already stored as a spreadsheet in google drive, the link to it in the Tabs at the top of this blog displays that spreadsheet. So maybe a 'Things to Do' spreadsheet would work.

How complex should the list be?

Here's my first pass

Dealing with Poop

Dealing with the Poop on the boat.

The Head on our boat works very well, we service the pump regularly and care for the Holding Tank after every pumpout.

We have a Holding Tank Sensor to let us know the level of the Poop, however it has never worked properly. A couple of months ago, I installed a clear (see thru) access panel in the top of the tank so that we could see the glorious contents. The word 'Sweet' comes to mind.

After a 3mile off shore pump out a few weeks ago, I could see, through the access panel, that there was a build up near the outlet for the macerator that restricted the flow to the pump. So I planned to flush the tank out, not a pleasant prospect, but you gotta to what you gotta do! In this case it involved #2 do do.

Part of our Poop Protocol is to pump out the tank often and to not put anything into the toilet that we did not eat or drink - no loo paper. Instead, we have a supply of brown paper baggies. All loo paper is put in a baggie.

So this weekend we flushed out the tank. Basically I arranged for a pump out at the dock we were visiting, and during the pump out I flushed the tank with a pressurized hose nozzle. The dock hand was very accomodating and extended the pump out process while I repeatedly flushed the inside walls and bottom of the holding tank.

The good news! Not only did we remove some of the longer term residents of the holding tank, but now the Tank Level Sensor works - for the 1st time!!

See you on the water.

Installing New Winches on Catalina 34 Pt.1

 Replacing the Cabin Top Winches on our Catalina 34

We have two winches mounted on the cabin top beneath the dodger. The port side winch is used to adjust the Jib Halyard, Topping Lift and if required, the 1st and 2nd Reef Downhaul lines. The starboard side winch is used for the Main halyard, Mainsheet and if required, the 1st and 2nd Reef Outhaul lines.

Both are Lewmar 30 winches but only the Stbd winch is self tailing, so the port winch has to be changed out. West Marine had a BOGO offer a few months ago so I purchased two new Lewmar 30 Winches.

I'll be posting the old winches on Craigs List, someone will get a bargain.

Inspecting the mounting of both winches indicated that the Port Winch should be an easy change out as the bolt pattern on the inside of the cabin roof, inside of the Head compartment, match those of the new winch. However, the Stbd winch bolt pattern show that the bolts are not perpendicular and so the bolts do not form a regular pattern where they protrude through the cabin roof in the Aft Berth.

The change out of the port side winch should be really easy. Just dismantle the old winch and remove the nuts from beneath the cabin roof, then lever up the winch. Clean the area, apply Butyl tape to waterproof the holes. The new winch will need to be dismantled, easily done, no tools required, then mount the new winch, tighten up the nuts and rebuild the dismantled winch - all done.

The starboard winch is a little more complex. Initially the same process. Dismantle the winch, remove the nuts from the underside of the cabin roof, lever up the winch and clean up the area. 

Now the tricky bit. This winch takes the load of the Main Halyard! No weakness tolerated, so I have to fix the holes in the cabin roof rather than just use the old, misaligned holes.

The process is to clear out the area where the holes are misaligned, fill them with epoxy and filler, let it cure, then redrill the correct size holes. I asked the guys on the C34 forum and they suggested that the process described is good, but when I remove the old starboard winch I may find that all is well. 

Update July 3rd 2021

Well, that didn't go as planned! 

It turns out that the bolt hole pattern in the new winches are not the same as the old. At best only 3 of the 5 holes can be aligned. So that means I have to fill the existing holes, drill new ones before fitting the new winches.

The pic shows the underside of the old port side winch, it looks cruddy, but it's actually in pretty good shape.

Not only do the new winch bolt holes not align with the old but the old holes were badly drilled as can be recognized by the 5 bent bolts that held the winch down to the cabin top.

A secondary problem is that the existing bolt ends are visible i the Head on the underside of the cabin top.

I really don't want to have the old and new holes visible, it will be ugly. So my plan it to place a plate (Stainless Steel, Wood or Starboard) such that it covers the holes. That way the new bolt holes will extend through the Winch, cabin Top and the plate, which should result in a nice clean finish.

Of course, I don't have any epoxy resin to fill the holes, back to the store!

Fixing Mainsail Crease

Fixing our Mainsail Crease

You have to look carefully, but there is a diagonal Crease in our mainsail extending from just above the 2nd Reef Cringle down to the Clew of the mainsail.

This photo was taken as we crossed the start line of the Palm Beach Regatta Coastal Race in June 2021.

We're not racers! But a great opportunity to sail with a bunch of other boats is tough to turn down. We did well, beating our nearest competitor by 14 minutes over a 30 nm race. However, that crease really spoilt our sail shape. From all of the sail trim studies we have made over the past year (thanks Covid) we know that the sail should be smooth in order to allow laminar flow of the wind over both sides of the sail. The diagonal creases caused about a 2" ruffle in the surface of the sail.

I discussed the issue with a good friend with a lot of sailing experience. He suggested that I slack off every line on every sail trim system. That includes: Main Halyard, Lazy Jacks, Vang, Main Sheet, Reefing lines (4 lines - Reef #1 Downhaul & Outhaul, Reef #2 Downhaul and Outhaul) and the Clew Outhaul and finally the topping lift.

So that's what I did and the diagonal crease remained! I was getting worried that we had stretched the sail sometime over the past 5 years since they were new, that's a $3,000 error! Grrrr!

With everything slackened off, I shook the boom to see if there was anything still causing the creases.

Found it!!!

Our Mainsail was designed as a Loose Footed Main. The only point of restraint at the boom is at the Tack (front lower corner of the sail) and the Clew (aft lower corner of the sail). However, if the clew outhaul ever broke, the main would slap itself to death or at the least a very expensive repair. In order to protect the sail, the sailmaker installed a strap that went around the boom and through the outhaul (clew) cringle. The problem was that that strap was preventing the clew from moving when the outhaul was released !!! 

The strap is a piece of 1" webbing about 3' long with velcro sewn on both sides of the strap, so when it's wrapped around the boom, the velcro adheres the surfaces together. But the strap prevented the clew moving!

What's the purpose of moving the clew?

Good question.

The outhaul pulls the clew (aft lower corner of the sail) towards the end of the boom (the end furthest from the mast). As the clew is tensioned with the outhaul, the bottom of the sail is flattened. This reduces the depth of the sail and improves higher wind performance while reducing heeling. In light air, the outhaul is eased to increase the power in light winds or in choppy seas (that power is more consistent as the boat rises and falls and so helps push the boat through the waves.)

And, the whole reason for this. By allowing the clew to actually move for and aft, it eliminated the crease in the sail. This should result in smoother, laminar flow of the wind over the sail and that means better sailing! 

So, Thanks Ira! Your advice helped solve the problem.

See you out on the water.

Oh! what do I do about the safety strap? I'm making a new one that will have more slack and thus will allow the clew to move.

Old style 'spindle' sheaves
broken and worn.

And! While doing this I found the the Sheaves on each end of the boom that allow the outhaul to be trimmed or eased were failing. They were also simple spindle sheaves. I replaced them with Ball Bearing Sheaves. Now the outhaul is easy to adjust and the clew actually moves. Here's looking forward to seeing you on the water, and hopefully it will be as we head off towards the horizon.

Paul

Palm Beach Regatta 2021 - the Race

The 2021 Palm Beach Regatta Race

The headline: We Won our Class! WooHoo!

Friday evening we arrived at Lake Boca and secured the boat at anchor then both of us took a shower - hot water as we motored from just outside the Hillsboro Inlet, into the ICW and then North to Lake Boca, about two hours altogether. Hot water tank was hot! :)

Around 6pm, Larry Geller picked us up in his gorgeous boat to ferry us to the dock where the Pre-race party was being held. We were quickly joined by others that either Larry ferried from their boats or arrived by car. Bob Odell had arrived with the party goods and guests brought plenty of food - as always - nobody would go hungry. 

I asked Michael Duvall to give the racing introduction and he, along with a couple of others, answered the several questions about the start and the finish. Too soon is was time to hitch a ride back to our boats. I say 'Too soon' because we always have such a good time talking to other boat owners and their crews.

After a good night asleep at anchor, we woke to catch the 7:40am Camino Real Bridge so that we could head down to the Hillsboro Inlet, several other boats that could not negotiate the Boca Raton Inlet (too shallow) were in line as we headed South. Our recent bottom paint job and the PropSpeed finish on the Prop and shaft is still showing it's worth. 

Once out of the Inlet, we turned North towards the Start Line - we could see the Beach Committee location, they had setup their big Orange Rectangular Mark on the beach, easy to see from 1/3mile off shore. Lady Gray was the outer mark and we were close to them when they dropped anchor and tried to set, but they were not having a lot of luck and ended up keeping their engines running to hold station.

Prior to the start, I had rolled down the Sail Bag and secured it with the straps that were sewn into the inside of the bag. This did mean that we would have the advantage of the lower 3' of mainsail area working to our advantage rather than just a big bag of canvas that would more likely hinder our progress than improve it. Once the Mainsail was raised, I eased off the Lazy jacks so that they would not misshape the sail. 

There were 5 starts and we were in the 2nd: Gunkhole Class. Jim Wallace on Contrails was working his way up and down the start line during the 1st start and he called over to us advising that this was his start box and we should keep out of his way, we did. However our past races have seen us passing the start line as much as 20 minutes after our start! We learned from those rare events and today we kept close to the start box and kept within it when it was our start. We crossed the start line within 2 minutes of the start time, and we were headed in the right direction. We were stoked at doing so well at the start, can we do better, of course, but compared to previous efforts, this was amazing! Thank Jim for hinting on the best start maneuver.

Just in case you're interested, here's some info on Sailboat Racing starts that I found very useful: https://www.sailingworld.com/how-to/how-rules-work-start/

The JAM (Jib and Main) class were 5 minutes ahead of us so we could see where they were headed and that would have been our normal plan - follow everyone in front of us, however we had sailed the route just a week ago for the Memorial Day Cruise and we knew that the Gulf Stream had been apparent in less than 2/3mile offshore. So our plan was to head NE (which happened to be the course that the JAM fleet were headed) until we felt the push North from the Stream and then turn to a more Northerly direction.

 As we were still heading NE, we could see Imagine hoisting their beautiful spinnaker off of our Starboard Quarter. We knew that they would soon overtake us, but they were in the Corinthians class.  

It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and I must admit, I experienced a bit of Sail Envy as Imagine passed us chasing the JAM fleet.

Imagine had a full crew. Eximius was just Peggy & I, but it was an easy sail.

As soon as we saw a consistent increase in our GPS speed over our Through the Water Speed, we started our turn towards the North. Monitoring the speed difference helped us take the maximum advantage of the Gulf Stream's push north. If we saw the difference drop down, we would ease Eastwards a touch. With the wind over the Starboard Quarter, we kept adjusting our sails intent upon using the knowledge we had recently gained from studying sail plans.

One thing really bugged me. The Mainsail had a crease in it, imagine a pleat running from just above the 2nd reef cringle at the luff (close to the mast) and diagonally down to the clew. From our studies, that meant that we would not have laminar flow of air on either side of the sail and that would reduce our speed. I tried easing everything: Halyard, Mainsheet, Reefing lines (which were not being used) Outhaul and the Lazy Jacks, nothing! I could not remove the pleat. But we did improve our speed by adjusting the sails, with the light winds, we needed a bit of twist in the Main and easily accomplished that. 

As expected, it was about a 5 hour ride up to Lake Worth and we had plenty of time to fiddle with the sails - I worked at balancing the sails. The method I used was to put the wheel amidships and see which way the boat steered, it should have a slight tendency to turn upwind (weather helm) but not so much that it required more and a degree or two of helm to correct. I adjusted the Genoa so that it looked full. As were on a very broad reach the tell tales were not too much help to me in identifying when it was correctly trimmed. But we were able to adjust it so that the outer tails were flying straight. Then I adjusted the Mainsheet and Traveller so that the leech tell tails were streaming aft and then adjusted the MainSheet until the wheel was able to keep us on course with the minimum amount of drag from the Rudder.

As we neared the Northern end of the course, we had to turn to the East where the finish line was located. A quick note about the Finish Line.

At the 2021 Palm Beach Regatta, the Finish line was based on the location of the Green #3 Marker just to the south of the Lake Worth Inlet, the virtual line extended from the Mark East for 100 Yards. This meant that we had to leave the Mark on our Port Side and that the mark be less than 100 Yards away from the boat as we passed the mark.

We expected the wind to Veer (move in a clockwise direction) to the West and as we felt it moving further South as the day passed, we started our turn East and eventually the wind did shift not as much as expected but we were South and East of the finish line when we Gybed the sails over to the Port. Very quickly, as the wind veered beyond Southerly, we were on a Beam Reach and sailing hard. The Green Mark was now easily seen and we turned further towards the north, aiming to pass within feet of the mark rather than risk being too far from it. There was a fishing boat hanging around just to the North of the mark so we steered to put us between the mark and the fishing boat. 

As we got near the mark, Peggy brought my cell phone up to the helm. Now it was getting exciting, sailing hard, Wind had increased and we were doing over 6knots through the water, the Mark off our Port Bow, fishing boat ahead, all the while trying to take a picture of our Chartplotter as we crossed the virtual mark.

Seems we did good! We had a corrected time of 3 hours 17 minutes and 43 seconds over a calculated course distance of 25 miles. Our average speed was 5.5 knots (velocity made good over the course) 

What a great race. Hectic at the start and exciting at the finish with a few hours between them. Time for lunch sandwiches. 

Once across the finish line, we left the sails up until we had stabilized our course into the Lake Worth Inlet, then we started to stow them. Before we had the chance to secure the main down into it's sail bag (Cradle) we were at the Eastern end of the inlet channel and could see another boat having a tough time getting their Spinnaker down, it looked like a figure of eight and was flying hard off of their port side. Despite needing to get our own sails down and secured, my primary goal was to stay away from the other boat so as to give them the best chance of getting their sail down and not worry about keeping out of our way.

The wind was picking up as we turned onto the Western side of the ICW and headed South intent on Anchoring on the East side of the ICW but opposite from the Palm Beach Sailing Club. As we held station just to the East of the Palm Beach Sailing Club house, the wind really picked up and it was difficult to hold station, we had to shift up the engine revs to over 1500 in order to be able to steer against the wind. 

On VHF #68, we heard another club member, Jim Wallace (the same guy that we heard from at the start) called us and advised that he was anchored on the East side opposite the PBSC. So we turned across the mooring field of boats and headed over to the otherside of the ICW. We found the anchoring area and dropped anchor letting out plenty of scope to avoid dragging in that heavy wind.

Peace returned to the cockpit and we took a break. A few radio calls and we scheduled a launch ride from Eximius to the PBSC via their very helpful sailing instructor that was acting as ferryman for the evening. We had time for a shower and change into dry clothes before the ferry arrived and were soon safely on the jetty of the sailing club.

I quickly made an introduction to Quincy, Commodore of the PBSC, and we sorted out the schedule of the evening - Drinks, Dinner, Awards, Socialize, head back to the boats.

We had a great time meeting with our own club members and those of the PBSC. Their Bartender barely kept us waiting despite the small crowd surrounding the bar, there were some tall ship stories going around about conditions on the course.

The Bartender served our drinks of choice - Pinot Grigio for Peggy and Jack & Ginger for myself. She served my drink is a short glass (no plastic 👍  ) with Ice and two very thin straws. Speaking with a couple that I knew standing next to me I asked "You realize that I'm English, right?" "Yes, they responded" " Then you understand that to put a straw in my drink is odd and normally I inform the bartender, in the nicest way " I'm a big boy now, I don't need a straw with my drink." to which my neighbor replied, " It's just a stirrer" and I replied "But you do realize that I'm English?" "So what they commented, realizing that I was going somewhere with this. "Well, being English, I take my drinks Shaken - Not Stirred!"  Yep, got a laugh out of that one. 😎

Here's a picture showing our route during the weekend, if you click on it, you'll see our route on our Garmin Inreach Explorer chart online.

See you out there on the Water.

2021 Palm Beach Regatta Gunkhole - 1st Place

Expensive Oil change

 Expensive Oil Change - NOT!

In preparation for the Palm Beach Regatta this weekend, our plans included doing an Oil change on Eximius - not really due - we did an oil change last year - didn't record it but barely used the boat.

Anyway... Oil changes on Eximius are actually pretty easy.

The process (there is a point to this, so bare with me.)

• Warm up the engine for about 10 mins
• Shut down the engine
• Insert the Oil Extraction Pump hose into the Dipstick - as low as it will go.
• 10 to 20 pumps on the extraction unit - 2 mins
• Wait for a few minutes until the sound of sucking air is heard from the dipstick  - it's clearly audible.
• Put a couple of Puppy mats beneath the Oil Filter and release the oil filter with the filter wrench
• Coat the seal surface of the replacement Oil Filter - of course we carry spares.
• Replace the filter tight by hand
• Pour in 2 quarts of oil and check the oil level with the dipstick - add more - check again until oil level is correct on the dipstick.
• Check the other fluid levels, clean up, run the engine for a few minutes, check the level again.
• Wait till engine cools down and check again (we typically do this the next morning)

See, no big deal. I decant the oil from the pump into an empty laundry detergent bottle and take it to the city recycling center.

The actual oil change may take about 15 minutes. 'Normally'

So, yesterday, we got to the point where we were ready to install the new oil filter I noticed that it was defective. The cylinder that should be inside the threaded hole was clearly bent, totally unusable. Grr.

Not to worry, I keep spares on board, quickly pull one out, apply a coat of oil to the seal and install it. It's a different color from the other spare and original, no big deal. But we now do not have a spare, so we take pics of it in order to ease the purchase of spares.

Then we add the fresh oil, Opp! added to much. This if never a problem as long as it's no so much that it overflows from the Dipstick. Just use the oil extraction pump to suck out some of the excess oil and check with the dipstick again.  As we had to suck out some oil and test with the dipstick multiple times until the level was correct we put a flashlight in the work area of the Stbd side of the engine. Oh Look! There's  the Engine Fuel Filter just astern of the dipstick and look, that number on the side of the filter looks like the number we took a photo of the spare oil filter we just used.

DUH! I had just used a Fuel Filter for the replacement Oil Filter! Huge DUH! As I now had neither a spare Oil filter or Fuel Filter - we have to go get some.

Checking online - Walmart was nearest - no good - no equivalents.

Checking on google - West marine was pretty near, they'll have them for sure. 20 mins later - no they don't. 'But' the helpful guy at West Marine said - They're Napa Filters and their store is on the other side of the road.

Quick drive and into Napa - WooHoo! They have them $16 and $10 each. Not so bad, I'll take two of each. Surprise! The $52 dropped to $26 - at that price I'll take more! Always need spare filters on the boat.

I walked away with 15 filters and two Gallons of Engine Oil for $116 that's crazy! Sorry if you got to the store after me, but I cleaned out their stock on Thursday.

Back to the boat, prepped the new oil filter (double checked I had the right one), installed. Checked the oil lever, ran the engine for 5 mins and checked again. Time to wait overnight.

Friday morning, we're at the boat loading it for today's trip, 1st thing: Check the oil level - spot on!

So we're good to go.

We motored from our dock to the Ocean, put the sails out, headed out to the 3 mile limit, did a dump, turned up towards Hillsboro Inlet, Sailed to within a half mile, then ran the engine for the two hours it took from the Inlet up to Lake Boca. We're sat at anchor right now. Taking a break before the skipper's meeting this evening and the Regatta start at 10:05 Saturday (tomorrow)

See you on the Water.

Palm Beach Regatta 2021

Let's get real - We're Not Racers! Eximius probably has several hundred pounds of tools and spares onboard, plus we carry 10 gallons of Diesel on deck as well as 10 gallons of Gas and 24 gallons of fresh water, that's roughly 44 gallons of fluid, guestimate about 8lbs per gallon = 352 lbs, equivalent of 2 additional crew but they just sit there on the rail. So, as stated, we're not racers. However the Palm Beach Regatta is such a fun event we couldn't resist.

To be fair, we did race in 2019 and scored a trophy - we didn't finish, same as everyone in our class, but we did tell the best story and scored the 1st place trophy.

This year there are 15 boats in five different classes, only two of us in Gunkhole, us and another Catalina but at 36, just a bit bigger than our 34. Only one of us will get a trophy this year as it requires at least 3 boats in a class to result in trophies going to 1st, 2nd and third. So the challenge is on!

Preparation. 

Most of the preparation has been in getting the race setup, the pre-race party and skippers meeting, there's not much for us to do to our boat, it's going as is, but we are doing a bit or normal servicing and trip preparation:

• Oil Change
• Water tank flush and fill
• Non-perishables
• Drinks
• Bedding (we'll be staying aboard while anchored in Lake Boca on Friday, West Palm Beach Saturday and Sunrise Bay Sunday)
• Our serviced PFD's (we service them every year)
• Charting our anticipated course (we're expecting very light winds, so we'll head ENE from the start line until we feel the Gulf Stream pushing us North.)
• Loading all of our Electronics on board - including our inReach (here's the link) satellite tracking service.
• Clothing for 5 days, including attire for the Awards Party at the Palm Beach Sailing Club on Saturday evening.

Ok, that's easily done, we do have one other thing to do:

We'll be mounting Rail Boards to the Stanchions on both sides of the boat forward of the Shrouds in order to attach the fuel/gas/water cans. The boards will be 4" White UV Plastic boards from Lowes and Stainless Steel U-bolts. The cans will get secured to the rail boards with Webbing Straps and Buckles.

Of course, we'll need some fresh baked bread, but no time on Thursday, so here's today's results

Two Loaves of Wholemeal Bread

So, the boat will be ready by Thursday afternoon.

Friday morning we'll take the perishables down to the boat and put them in the fridge. Stow our clothing, get the boat set for sailing and then pull away from the dock around 10am and head out to Port Everglades. Heading East we'll go for the 3 mile limit and pump out, then head up to Hillsboro Inlet. We hope to get some practice on setting up for the start line before going inside the Inlet and up to Lake Boca where we'll anchor overnight. We'll leave the anchorage at 6:50 in the morning so that we can catch the 7am Camino Real Bridge, the 7:30 Hillsboro Blvd Bridge and get out of the inlet around 8:45 and head up to the start line about 1.5nm North of the Inlet.

That's the plan!

See you on the water.