The second Titanic show is now scheduled to air June 16.  I haven’t found
out whether the scenes of me working on my boat made it into the final cut
but there are many other good reasons to watch it:)

–
Roger Long

i own a 1988 winners boat and it has 5.7 ltr 350 small block chevrolet with
an alpha one stern drive and it overheats . the engine is new and the
outdrive has been gone through by a cert. Mercruiser tch. i have replaced
waterpump, impeller,gauge,some hoses and have went as far as to take out the
engine and outdrive to reinspect all the hard work we have done just to have
an good runnin boat 2 enjoy Lake Erie with . i’m about at the point and takin
revenge out on my wonderful craft because i’m lost for answer so PLEASE HELP .
.. stranded and overheatin in the middle of Lake Erie and need either a tow
or a ___________ …..    lets put are heads together and try to solve my
dilema!!!!!!!!!!

Has anyone try to put s/s self tapping screws into fiberglass and have
the screw break..  :-(  Can a put liquid soap or grease/oil on the screw
before screwing it in to the fiberglass??

Any ideas??

Hanz

Hi,

I’m looking at mainly a Cal27 or maybe a Crown28, and both have what I
see might be a problem: they both have the main traveller just aft of
the companionway. I’ve looked around, and there doesn’t seem to be
another place for it without seriously compromising sail-ability.

Now, at anchor or at the dock, the mainsheet can be moved out of the
way. But underway (and of COURSE you’re sailing upwind – damn
Murphy!), doesn’t the mainsheet get in the way when trying to get in
and out of the cabin?

What’s your experience on this? I’ve seen many boats with the
traveller in this position: is it less of a problem than it looks? Or
do you just not go below when underway?

druid
http://www.bcboatnet.org

Hi All.

I don’t know if anyone can help with suggestions here but I’ll give it a
whirl.

I hauled out my boat last week to do the bottom paint and discovered
substantial blistering of the paint.  I attacked these with a high
pressure cleaner initially and that stripped most of the loose paint off.

In places bare metal was exposed, in others it was back to the primer or
undercoat.  It was particularly evident around welds and through skin
fittings (metal ones only) and even around the anode bolts.

I had a shipwright and a very experience boat painter look at the hull
and both confirmed a stray current problem, albeit relatively minor.
Interestingly, both said I had TOO MANY anodes on the hull and that this
in itself can cause a problem.

I have since done some quite extensive reading on the subject on the net
and in some books and all confirm the diagnosis.

So, armed with a multimeter I set about doing some testing but first a
basic description of my electrical system.

The boat has a large house battery and a decent engine battery plus 180
watts of solar panels.  The engine has a standard alternator (30A I
think) plus a heavy duty 120Amp alternator mounted on it.

The engine is isolated from the hull via rubber engine mounts.

All wiring that I can see is doubled with the positive wiring going back
to 2 main battery isolator switches with single pole appliance switches
in the circuit at the switch board. The negative wires all come back to
a bus then to the battery.

The only things that do not go through the main isolator switches are
the solar panels (via the regulator) and the bilge pump.

There is a Plasmatronics solar charge controller between the solar
panels and the house battery which appears to regulate the charge on the
negative wire…

There is also a sophisticated charging regulator for the heavy duty
alternator (can’t remember the brand). Manages the boost, absorption, etc.

Back to the multimeter testing, when checking voltages, I am able to
measure a voltage between the +ve and -ve wires of approx 13.4V.  I can
also measure a potential between the -ve wire and the hull of 0.6V with
the -ve being at a higher potential than the hull.  This then gives a
voltage between the +ve wiring and the hull of 14V.

With everything double wired I would not have expected any connection to
the hull and thus not be able to measure any voltage between either the
+ve or -ve wires and the hull.

To add to this, when checking with the ohmmeter between the -ve wiring
or engine block and the hull, I can measure a resistance (indicating a
connection ) with the meter in one polarity but open circuit with the
polarity reversed.

I have a limited electronics background from many years ago and this
suggests to me that somewhere there is a diode passing current between
the -ve wiring and the hull. The 0.6 volt drop plus the dependence of
polarity in measuring a resistance between the hull and the -ve.

I am suspecting something to do with my solar panels as their frames are
screwed directly to a SS bimini and hence the hull…  (Can solar panels
leak to their frames???)

This voltage was measurable both with the boat on the hard and in the water.

What I don’t understand is how the hull can be at a lower potential than
the -ve wiring.   I also don’t know whether there are any diodes
connected to the panels as the controller has a mosfet switch in it to
prevent battery drainage back through the panels.

Is it possible that instruments (depth sounder, autopilot head, etc)
could be leaking to the hull?

Sorry for the long winded post but hoping to get to the bottom of this
without paying a sparkie a fortune to do it for me…

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any assistance.
Cheers,
Nick.

Hello everyone

Can someoe tell me how com[plete the cell coverage on the NJ coast,
between Cape May and Sandy Hook is?  How far out to sea does it
extend?

We will be in the area this weekend and it would be nice to phone my
better half occasionally to keep her up to date.

Many thanks in advance

matt

Hello

Can anyone enlighten me as to the extent of thecell coevrage off the
NJ coast between Cape May and Sandy Hook?  I.e. how far off the beach
does it extend?

We’ll be there this weekend and it would be nice to keep my better
half up to date every once in a while.

Many thanks in advance

Matt

Hi Everyone,

I got around to fixing problems with our Irwin
38′s head recently, and as a result, I’m seriously
considering completely rebuilding the sanitation
system.  For one thing, the 1-1/2" sanitation hose
was original, and it was quite brittle.  For
another, the holding tank is only 8-1/2 gallons,
which is ludicrously small even for just two people.

We currently have a small electric head with a
macerator which pumps through a vented loop
directly to a 1-1/2" thru-hull under the floor in
the aft cabin.  If you shut off the valve at the
thru-hull, and open another valve, it pumps to the
holding tank in the back of the boat (behind the
aft cabin).

Right now, I’m "cogitating" (that’s a Texas
expression) on whether it would be better to pull
the electric head, and install a Sealand Vacuflush
head and vacuum generator while I’m re-doing
everything.  In any case, I will put in a larger
holding tank.

An advantage to the Vacuflush system is that I can
install the vacuum generator in the top of my
starboard cockpit locker, and let it drain by
gravity into the holding tank.  Since the holding
tank is vented at the top, this does away with the
need for a vented loop since there would be no way
that a siphon could develop from the thru-hull.
Also, since the vacuum generator effectively
"sucks" the line clean there is an added advantage
of not having anything standing in the sanitation
hose–a disadvantage of the present system.

I’m thinking that I might use an electric
macerating pump to pump the contents of the
holding tank to the thru-hull when emptying at
sea, rather than relying on gravity to do the job.
  I’m a little concerned about having the
macerator head sitting in raw sewage all of the time.

All of this is likely to cost a few boat bucks, so
I’d like to be sure I’ve thought it through before
commiting the money.

Any thoughts or comments you’d like to offer??

Don W.

I use to set the old Loran for anchor watch.
Now with the new GPS Chart Plotter installed in the cockpit I will not be
able to hear the anchor alarm from inside.
I wonder what would be the best way to solve this problem without having a
repeater inside the boat.

I brought the boat down from the yard today. The rig wasn’t set up so it was
fifteen miles as a power boat. As soon as I got out of the river, I set up
the newly installed ST1000 driving the Cape Horn windvane.

Wow. I never had so much fun not doing something I used to think of as fun.
I know most of you take this for granted but I’ve always been a "keep it
simple", minimalist sailor. There’s something about a boat that steers
itself that makes you feel like an adult.

I spent a good part of the leg down the bay sorting out lines and making the
boat a bit more presentable after the hasty mast stepping and departure. The
remote was close at hand and what luxury to just reach down and push the
buttons when a floating log or pot buoy came up.

It was a cold, raw day (an inch of snow in the northern part of the state)
and would have been a long cold trick at the wheel single handed. Another
nice thing I’ve discovered about autopilots is that being able to move
around and do things makes you feel a lot warmer.

I don’t know how I ever got along without this thing. I may never steer
again. What’s next? Radar? (Now that I can leave the wheel, I could even go
and look at it.)

–

Roger Long