What a change from last week's snowfall and bitter cold temperatures (9.5 degrees one morning!) Less than a full week later, we were basking in 80-degree temps down in Whortonsville on our Catalina 30, Logos. We spent several days on the boat doing projects and enjoying amazing spring-like weather for early March. Our bones finally had a chance to thaw out, and good spirits were the rule, even though we weren't able to sail this time. Barry was working on the alternator, and the March winds were pretty high, so we just hung out at the marina and enjoyed being outdoors and warm for several glorious days.
Paisley basking in the sun
Barry in working mode, but smiling because he's at the boat
Barry wrote such a nice trip report for his Dad that I thought I'd include it here, as he does a great job at explaining his various projects (and it will save me a lot of time!) His words are in italics:
First off, the weather was excellent the whole time. Temps around 80, and a nice breeze that at times was pretty stiff. The winds were out of the south and southwest for the most part, which built up a bit of a chop, but we rarely noticed it. Two other negatives of a south wind are that they blow our boat away from our finger dock, making getting on and off the boat more of a chore, and that it blows the water out of the creeks, making our boat much lower at our slip, also making getting on and off more difficult. Minor inconveniences that were gladly tolerated since the south winds also brought the warm, sunny conditions that we love.
We arrived at the marina around noon on Friday and after unloading the car and eating lunch we started our first project. This was to add larger inspection/access ports to the water tanks. The water tanks only had a small port in the center of the top of each tank, which was not large enough to reach in with your hand when tank cleaning was needed. My plan was to add a larger port to each tank. Both tanks were almost totally empty, so it was a good time to do so. We held off on making up our beds in the V-berth, as one tank resides under the bed. The project went smoothly, and it took about 2 hours total to add the new ports, clean the tanks, and get them filled with fresh water. You can see the result of this project in these photos.
After dinner I worked on the shelf unit for the quarter berth. The Qtr-berth is where we store a lot of stuff and it was in need of some organization. To make use of some space that had been mostly unusable, I devised a way to add a shelfing unit that would hold our nice cockpit seats when they weren't in use, and also our boat poles and fishing net. I made the brackets at home out of aluminum, and used some PVC siding material I found at Lowe's to use at the actual shelf. The teak pole holders were added to the undersides of the shelf. They came with our boat, probably used to hold fishing poles, as they weren't in a place where they could hold any decent sized boat pole. The finished project was deemed a total success, and as you will see from the photos, the qtr-berth is much better organized and also will hold more stuff now.
Saturday morning, after taking Paisley for a long walk and eating breakfast, I started on the alternator/voltage regulator project. The reason for this project was to increase the battery charging efficiency when we are running the engine. You may recall that I had taken the alternator off the engine, brought it home and modified it to bypass the internal one-stage voltage regulator. First step of this project was to mount the new 3-stage voltage regulator. I found an ideal spot in the back corner of the cabinet under the sink, which is right next to the engine compartment.
Next I reattached the alternator to the engine. This took longer than expected, as I finally broke down and took care of another problem that had been causing me some grief, that being the alternator belt adjustment. This seems to have been a problem for some time. All the belts that came with the boat were large enough that to get the belt adjustment correct required adjusting the alternator to the limit of it's range. After a while the belt would stretch and I couldn't get it any tighter. An investigation of this problem revealed that the alternator case was hitting an engine bracket, preventing the alternator from being moved to the full range of the adjusting arm's limit. I had bought some new, slightly smaller belts that I just couldn't get on the alternator because of this limitation. So I finally bit the bullet and ground off some of the offending bracket to allow the alternator to be fully adjusted. This allowed me to use my new belts, and once I got them installed and adjusted, I still have plenty of room to tighten them in the future.
After getting the alternator reinstalled, I wired up the new regulator. We waited until Monday morning to get the regulator programmed, then we fired up the engine to test it out. I was very pleased to see everything working as they should! This will now allow us to recharge the batteries faster in the future when we are away from the marina, and with less engine running time.
Sunday we did a bevy of smaller projects. One was to add some snaps along the edge of the companionway entrance for the companionway cover Emily is making. This purpose of this project is to have a cover to keep the rain and sun off our companionway door while we are away from the boat, thus protecting the wood and minimizing the amount we have to refinish them.
Next we tried out some of my prototypes. The cockpit table was very close to fitting. We decided I needed to shorten it by an inch so it wouldn't hit the floor when folded up. The new swing-open companionway doors were even a better fit, requiring only a 1/4 inch needed to be removed from the top. Both projects can now move on in the development phase!
It is going to be great to have opening doors rather than horizontal panels!
We also found time to watch the UNC-Duke basketball game on Sunday afternoon, and were thrilled with the second Tarheels victory this year over our dreaded rival.
As I mentioned earlier, Monday was when we tested out the alternator/regulator. After eating lunch we packed up and headed home. News from the marina is that they will finally be building the new clubhouse/bathhouse this year. That will be nice, as the old one is really showing its age. :-)
And finally, a few more random photos from our long weekend:
After dinner I worked on the shelf unit for the quarter berth. The Qtr-berth is where we store a lot of stuff and it was in need of some organization. To make use of some space that had been mostly unusable, I devised a way to add a shelfing unit that would hold our nice cockpit seats when they weren't in use, and also our boat poles and fishing net. I made the brackets at home out of aluminum, and used some PVC siding material I found at Lowe's to use at the actual shelf. The teak pole holders were added to the undersides of the shelf. They came with our boat, probably used to hold fishing poles, as they weren't in a place where they could hold any decent sized boat pole. The finished project was deemed a total success, and as you will see from the photos, the qtr-berth is much better organized and also will hold more stuff now.
Saturday morning, after taking Paisley for a long walk and eating breakfast, I started on the alternator/voltage regulator project. The reason for this project was to increase the battery charging efficiency when we are running the engine. You may recall that I had taken the alternator off the engine, brought it home and modified it to bypass the internal one-stage voltage regulator. First step of this project was to mount the new 3-stage voltage regulator. I found an ideal spot in the back corner of the cabinet under the sink, which is right next to the engine compartment.
Next I reattached the alternator to the engine. This took longer than expected, as I finally broke down and took care of another problem that had been causing me some grief, that being the alternator belt adjustment. This seems to have been a problem for some time. All the belts that came with the boat were large enough that to get the belt adjustment correct required adjusting the alternator to the limit of it's range. After a while the belt would stretch and I couldn't get it any tighter. An investigation of this problem revealed that the alternator case was hitting an engine bracket, preventing the alternator from being moved to the full range of the adjusting arm's limit. I had bought some new, slightly smaller belts that I just couldn't get on the alternator because of this limitation. So I finally bit the bullet and ground off some of the offending bracket to allow the alternator to be fully adjusted. This allowed me to use my new belts, and once I got them installed and adjusted, I still have plenty of room to tighten them in the future.
After getting the alternator reinstalled, I wired up the new regulator. We waited until Monday morning to get the regulator programmed, then we fired up the engine to test it out. I was very pleased to see everything working as they should! This will now allow us to recharge the batteries faster in the future when we are away from the marina, and with less engine running time.
Sunday we did a bevy of smaller projects. One was to add some snaps along the edge of the companionway entrance for the companionway cover Emily is making. This purpose of this project is to have a cover to keep the rain and sun off our companionway door while we are away from the boat, thus protecting the wood and minimizing the amount we have to refinish them.
Next we tried out some of my prototypes. The cockpit table was very close to fitting. We decided I needed to shorten it by an inch so it wouldn't hit the floor when folded up. The new swing-open companionway doors were even a better fit, requiring only a 1/4 inch needed to be removed from the top. Both projects can now move on in the development phase!
It is going to be great to have opening doors rather than horizontal panels!
Paisley's "boat kennel" now covered with a never-used Cleveland Indians beach towel that was a gift to Emily at Fantasy Camp for being Barry's "favorite fan"
Emily and Paisley walking the dock, enjoying the shorts weather!
The first mate relaxing...
No comments:
Post a Comment