Thursday, September 30, 2010

Shopping list

This morning I picked up fender covers, a couple Harken 150 cam cleats and a sail track slide stopper. I also ordered a replacement mainsheet fiddle block with a cam & becket. I ended up ordering one of the fancy new all-synthetic Lewmars instead of a stainless Schaefer or a mixed Harken. We'll see how well that works. Other things on the shopping list (to aid my memory):
* outboard cover (smallest one from West)
* windex 15
* spin sheets (2x50 ft, 7/16 in diam)

Mainsheet data

Harken's Compuspec suggests the 1566 Midrange Hexaratchet as a replacement mainsheet block. This mainsheet load calculator suggests that at 25 kts (the most I imagine carrying a full main at) there should be just over 1,100 lbs load at that block. The 1566 is rated for 1,800 lbs.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The trip back

This morning I returned Koan to Ventura. There was absolutely no wind, so I motored at half-throttle all the way. I couldn't gun the engine, because it's still in its break-in period. I got between 4.5-5.5 kts, depending on waves, and burned through 2.5 gallons of gas in 5 hours.

It was beautiful on the Channel, with big interesting skies, lots of dolphins and little jumping fish, a couple sunfish. The sea state was a little confused, with a short period small swell from the SE, but you can't win them all. The dolphins were really the highlight, since they seemed unbothered by Koan's motor and hung around for an hour or so, pointing the way and playing along.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Our first trip to SB

This weekend's forecast was fantastic, and our best friends from San Diego were going to be in town, so I decided to bring up Koan on Thursday and take the opportunity to get some other jobs done. I put on the jacklines, did the motor starting penance -- you have to pull-start the Johnson 15 times before it starts -- and headed out of CIH at noon. There wasn't much wind until 3:30pm, at which point I shut down the motor and sailed the last 9 miles home. I pulled down the jib about a mile out of SB, lashed the tiller, refilled my tank and restarted the engine, and I was at the guest dock by 5:30. Taking the boat to its assigned slip was a little more adventurous, as the harbor employee drew me the wrong directions on the little map and I ended up in the wrong finger. I did not know that Koan does not go in reverse, same as Shadow. I tried to reverse her, and killed the motor as a result. Thankfully there was barely any wind, and I had managed to slow down a lot. A guy grabbed my dockline and there were no collisions. In the end, we were assigned another slip nearby, and we strongarmed the boat in.

On Friday I just cleaned and lubricated things, and worked on my list of todos. On Saturday morning Dan and I took off the old Johnson, which I'm planning to clean, service and keep around, unless we get a decent offer for it. We then put on our brand new Honda 5 HP, which we're very excited about. On Sunday we took Francis & Rebecca out for sailing and fishing. There was maybe 6-7 kts of wind, so we did a couple nice legs out and back to the top of the Mesa, and then a couple drifts down the edge of the kelp beds. The menfolk, as Rebecca calls them, didn't catch anything except mackerel for bait, but it was fun nonetheless. We also learned that Koan drifts very very fast if there's any wind at all -- and maintains great steerage, at that -- so I'll have to devise some sort of drogue system to slow us down for fishing. This morning Greg and I measured the boat with the new motor and found it to be marginal for fitting in a 25 ft slip, at exactly 28 ft. This puts us at the mercy of the harbor employee who'll be measuring it, meaning it's better to take the motor off if we get a slip out here. Just another small bump on the way...

TODO items:

* make insert for v-berth and get cushion made for it
* replace mainsheet fiddle block with cam
* recondition running backstay block -- how to unseize
* make hole for gas hose

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Rebuilding the weird winches


Rebuilding weird winches
Originally uploaded by slampoud
They're pretty worn, and there's all sorts of dissimilar metals in there, as well as some rubber shoes that are torn.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

My first project on Yoda (post moved from LDIK)

About a month ago Dan and I got a 1982 Capri Omega 14 dinghy. This is the precursor to the Capri 14.2, the sailboat we first took lessons in back in 2003, so we're very fond of it. The biggest difference with the Capri 14.2 is the lack of a cuddy cabin. The Omega has an open bow and a little storage area with a hatch instead. Also the Omega has fewer sail flattening controls. In our opinion it's actually a slightly more elegant little boat.

We decided that because the boat has cool green sails and we're giant geeks, we're going to call it Yoda. We have a bobblehead Yoda that we need to attach to the bow somehow, so maybe that will be the next project. We'd also like to add a little motor, a Honda 2 HP 4-stroke air cooled long shaft (what a mouthful!) so we can skip stepping the mast and go fishing some days...

I was reading up on how to maintain and improve the Omega and a particular modification struck me as a real good idea that would be quick to implement. The centerboard has two control lines, one to hoist it up and one to keep it down. In our Omega both of these were 1/4 inch line.

From Yoda projects

But when the centerboard is down, it's actually better if the system has some play. This is because if you run aground going forward, you want the centerboard to come up and allow the boat to keep moving. If the centerboard stays rigidly down, the chances that you'll break it or bend the bracket attaching it to the boat are pretty good. There's a simple way to make this happen: swap out the line that holds down the centerboard for a bungee. So I did. It still works just as well to keep the centerboard down, but in the event that we run aground, at least if we're moving forward, the centerboard should pop up and save the gear. Of course, if we run aground going in any other direction, this will give us scant relief.

From Yoda projects

Another little project I undertook was the addition of an outhaul. I'll take some pics and write about that next.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Weekend project update

This was a very productive weekend for boat projects.

  • On Friday I picked up a spinnaker pole. It's exactly the right length, which is pretty amazing. I need to swap out the wires to the topping lift bridle with Amsteel 1/8'', and then it'll be ready. Also, there is no bridle for a foreguy, so I'm probably going to bolt an eye to the opposite side of the topping lift bridle. Hmmm, alternatively I could through bolt two eyes on opposite sides and call it done. That might be the best way to do this...
  • I discovered a spinnaker halyard and topping lift in the boat's stores. This is fantastic, because line costs a lot and I was going to delay buying spinnaker lines for a while. That means we only need spin sheets at this point, and then I can run the lines through the mast -- internal halyards ftw!
  • Yesterday Dan and I installed the newly bought Lewmar 8 winches on the cabintop. It was a painstaking job: there are 5 holes per winch, and we wanted everything to be exactly right -- the bolts straight, the winches symmetric. In the end, after much over-engineering, I think we succeeded! They look fabulous! Now I need to buy them new covers.
  • I took off the old genoa winches to refurbish them. They are the weirdest winches I've ever seen, so I'll take some pics of the process. This will be my evening project this week.
  • I cut out three sections of the vinyl liner, the two sections under the shroud pins (no chainplates on this boat!), and the section under the cockpit on starboard, that a bunch of wiring terminating in the "electrical panel" runs under. I feel much better being able to readily inspect all those spots.
  • I cleaned the headliner and interior joinery.
  • I topped off the battery, but then we used lights at night, so I need to do it again this weekend. The battery lives in the lazarette, next to the gas tank, so I have to take one or the other out before I attach the charging leads. It's a hassle, and we'll move the battery forward when we redo the electrics.

Monday, July 5, 2010

A picture of Koan, then named First Light (gorgeous name!) in 1999, judging by the date on the photo, courtesy of her then owner. Always a looker, in any color!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Can't stop looking!

On Saturday Dan and I did the paperwork for our new baby, International Folkboat (IF-Boat, properly) 1244. On Sunday we did John Vigor's boat denaming ceremony. Hopefully next weekend we'll do the naming ceremony. We've decided to call her Kōan.

Monday, June 28, 2010

St. Tropez movie

Winch research



We'd like to change the ridiculous genoa winches on Koan to something more standard and usable. I've been doing research on what the appropriate sizes are in the different brands. It appears that we can use:
  • Andersen 12
  • Lewmar 8
  • Harken 8
  • Meissner 10-7
  • Barlow 16