We're carrying 11 gallons of potable water, and a 5 gallon solar shower. Here is 6 gallons of our water storage, under the v-berth, on top of foam pads, to prevent the bottles from cracking if we slam into waves.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Storage on board
One of the really fun things about this boat is that, in spite of technically being very small, it's big enough to fit everything you need. For example, with two people, gear and food for 4 days, we still have room to carry a full extra set of sails. They go below the cockpit, as you can see in this picture.
We're carrying 11 gallons of potable water, and a 5 gallon solar shower. Here is 6 gallons of our water storage, under the v-berth, on top of foam pads, to prevent the bottles from cracking if we slam into waves.
We're carrying 11 gallons of potable water, and a 5 gallon solar shower. Here is 6 gallons of our water storage, under the v-berth, on top of foam pads, to prevent the bottles from cracking if we slam into waves.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Touch & Throw: sewing machines for sails
I know I promised a post about safety on board, but it hasn't happened because I got distracted working on the sails.
I originally started trying to modify the head of the jib with my Kenmore $100 sewing machine. But that was too much for it, so eventually that machine became de-timed when I forced it and a plastic gear slipped.
Last Monday I went trolling the local thrift stores for a replacement machine, and came home with a Singer Touch & Sew 648 for $30. I'm told these are affectionately known as the Touch & Curse or Sew & Throw, and now I know why. After waiting 4 days for the appropriate bobbins and foot to arrive from Ebay, and oiling and greasing the machine, it took approximately 5 minutes to destroy one of the top-end gears, which are made of nylon. Granted it was probably really old, and nylon ages badly, but even so, it would have been nice if that had all happened before I'd spent the extra $25 on manuals, accessories and oil.
So Friday night, minutes after breaking the Touch & Curse, Kitty and I headed to the thrift stores once more, and came up empty, so we stopped by Sears and picked up a new Singer Heavy Duty for $200. The reviews on Amazon are not stellar, but we figured, what the heck, at least we can return this one. Between the original Kenmore and this machine, we managed to finish the really critical bits of sewing, although not until after we hacked the HD. It turns out that it's common among low-end modern machines for the bobbin thread tension to have been set at the factory, and to not be tunable. To work on this heavy project the bobbin thread tension absolutely had to be fiddled with, so we broke the factory seal (a drop of glue on the setting screw) and did it. That's what allowed us to complete the job. In other words, as configured by the manufacturer, the HD was also useless.
Last night I decided to work on extending the mast climbing ladder. This project requires sewing bar tacks across two layers of webbing. The HD made three seams and then became de-timed on the third. I did not take it apart to see whether it had actually stripped a gear or merely slipped one. I unceremoniously boxed it back up and returned it for a full refund this morning.
The conclusion appears to be that to work on these projects we need a minimum of an all-metal-geared sewing machine, with zig-zag stitch, preferably a slow one. (One of the HD's most frustrating features was its extreme high speed!) The types of machines properly intended to sew sails on also have a walking foot. My research indicates that a number of old school Singer machines with all metal gearing would be able to handle some of our projects without becoming de-timed. These include the 237 (Fashion Mate), the Slant-o-matic 400, 403, 500 and 503, and the 306k and 320k. I'll keep an eye out for one of these, and if you know anyone who needs a Touch & Throw or Kenmore for parts, please let me know! It's beginning to look like a sewing machine graveyard in here!
I originally started trying to modify the head of the jib with my Kenmore $100 sewing machine. But that was too much for it, so eventually that machine became de-timed when I forced it and a plastic gear slipped.
Last Monday I went trolling the local thrift stores for a replacement machine, and came home with a Singer Touch & Sew 648 for $30. I'm told these are affectionately known as the Touch & Curse or Sew & Throw, and now I know why. After waiting 4 days for the appropriate bobbins and foot to arrive from Ebay, and oiling and greasing the machine, it took approximately 5 minutes to destroy one of the top-end gears, which are made of nylon. Granted it was probably really old, and nylon ages badly, but even so, it would have been nice if that had all happened before I'd spent the extra $25 on manuals, accessories and oil.
So Friday night, minutes after breaking the Touch & Curse, Kitty and I headed to the thrift stores once more, and came up empty, so we stopped by Sears and picked up a new Singer Heavy Duty for $200. The reviews on Amazon are not stellar, but we figured, what the heck, at least we can return this one. Between the original Kenmore and this machine, we managed to finish the really critical bits of sewing, although not until after we hacked the HD. It turns out that it's common among low-end modern machines for the bobbin thread tension to have been set at the factory, and to not be tunable. To work on this heavy project the bobbin thread tension absolutely had to be fiddled with, so we broke the factory seal (a drop of glue on the setting screw) and did it. That's what allowed us to complete the job. In other words, as configured by the manufacturer, the HD was also useless.
Last night I decided to work on extending the mast climbing ladder. This project requires sewing bar tacks across two layers of webbing. The HD made three seams and then became de-timed on the third. I did not take it apart to see whether it had actually stripped a gear or merely slipped one. I unceremoniously boxed it back up and returned it for a full refund this morning.
The conclusion appears to be that to work on these projects we need a minimum of an all-metal-geared sewing machine, with zig-zag stitch, preferably a slow one. (One of the HD's most frustrating features was its extreme high speed!) The types of machines properly intended to sew sails on also have a walking foot. My research indicates that a number of old school Singer machines with all metal gearing would be able to handle some of our projects without becoming de-timed. These include the 237 (Fashion Mate), the Slant-o-matic 400, 403, 500 and 503, and the 306k and 320k. I'll keep an eye out for one of these, and if you know anyone who needs a Touch & Throw or Kenmore for parts, please let me know! It's beginning to look like a sewing machine graveyard in here!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
New handrails
If you recall, one of the must-do projects that had to be completed before our upcoming trip was the installation of new stainless steel handrails to replace the original teak ones. Et voila!
These were purchased online, arrived slightly bent and were incredibly difficult to install, because they required drilling 4 holes at a 45 degree angle to the cabin roof, which is not the flattest place in the world, itself! I had to fabricate little chocks so that the fasteners would have a flat surface to lie against inside. This is one of them:
In any case, they're done, and the stainless fabricator, who came by today to spec out a different part I'd like him to make for me, approved of the installation. These are only one part of a multi-component safety system on board that also includes the life-lines (or trip-lines, depending on how tall you are!), the jack-lines that run from the bow to the stern, and the lanyards that connect the jack-lines to the chest-harnesses that the crew wears whenever there's a danger of going overboard. I'll be writing more about how we stay safe while sailing tomorrow!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
A boat by any other name?
A boat by any other name would sail as well. Or would it? Most sailors would probably strenuously object to the statement! We think the names of our boats say everything about them and about us.
My previous boat was named the "Shadow Line", after a novel by Joseph Conrad about a young captain's first command. (The boat's old blog is now defunct, but I'll try to take the blog entry about choosing her name off my backups and repost it on the second Shadow Line blog.)
I've raced on Joie de Vivre, Bullet, Escapade, Phantom, Fatuity, Prevail, Near Miss, Summer Wind... I sailed on Nevermind down from San Francisco. Don't try to tell me the owners didn't think those names were important! Other favorites of mine: S/V Nomadness and S/V Pestilence. And lest we forget my other loves, space and SciFi, think of the names of space ships, especially in imaginary universes, like the Culture from Iain Banks novels (among which the "Very Little Gravitas Indeed" probably takes the cake for me).
And so we get to Koan, with or without the little line above of the o. When we bought her (you know that boats are always female, right?) her name was Cosimo, after Italo Calvino's "The Baron in the Trees". I suspect the former owner had an affinity for that character, but neither Dan nor I especially liked what we read about him. I later found out that an even earlier name of our boat had been "First Light", which I love, but this came after our decision to rename her.
Had I bought the boat by myself, the name would have been "Anemone" which is a play on the Greek words for wind (anemos) and alone (moni), but since Dan and I bought her together, I argued that we should name her jointly. We threw around a lot of ideas and "Koan" stuck. We conducted John Vigor's interdenomination boat re-naming ceremony and the deed was done! When we tell people the name we get one of two questions, either "how do you spell that?" or "what does that mean?" As to the spelling, all the traditional caveats of transliterating the sound of a word representing a religious principle that crosses cultures apply. Some might spell it Goan, some think the little line is more important, and in America you'll often hear it pronounced "cone", which is quite far removed from the long o and separate a that I think is technically right. For a definition I can refer you here, but here's my short take on it: A koan is similar to a parable, in other words a story told by an elder to his or her disciples to help them figure out the truth of things. Specifically, koans were told by Zen elders to Zen disciples. They are not, as Christian parables often are, based on analogy, but rather are meant to help the disciples hone their intuition. Dan and I thought that was a very apt name for a sailboat, since we feel that, while sailing can certainly be done by the numbers, there is always a part that is lacking unless you apply your intuition. Also, sailors, being a bunch that loves life deeply, love to tell stories, and we often think our stories are deeper than they sound, which is very true of koans.
My previous boat was named the "Shadow Line", after a novel by Joseph Conrad about a young captain's first command. (The boat's old blog is now defunct, but I'll try to take the blog entry about choosing her name off my backups and repost it on the second Shadow Line blog.)
I've raced on Joie de Vivre, Bullet, Escapade, Phantom, Fatuity, Prevail, Near Miss, Summer Wind... I sailed on Nevermind down from San Francisco. Don't try to tell me the owners didn't think those names were important! Other favorites of mine: S/V Nomadness and S/V Pestilence. And lest we forget my other loves, space and SciFi, think of the names of space ships, especially in imaginary universes, like the Culture from Iain Banks novels (among which the "Very Little Gravitas Indeed" probably takes the cake for me).
And so we get to Koan, with or without the little line above of the o. When we bought her (you know that boats are always female, right?) her name was Cosimo, after Italo Calvino's "The Baron in the Trees". I suspect the former owner had an affinity for that character, but neither Dan nor I especially liked what we read about him. I later found out that an even earlier name of our boat had been "First Light", which I love, but this came after our decision to rename her.
Had I bought the boat by myself, the name would have been "Anemone" which is a play on the Greek words for wind (anemos) and alone (moni), but since Dan and I bought her together, I argued that we should name her jointly. We threw around a lot of ideas and "Koan" stuck. We conducted John Vigor's interdenomination boat re-naming ceremony and the deed was done! When we tell people the name we get one of two questions, either "how do you spell that?" or "what does that mean?" As to the spelling, all the traditional caveats of transliterating the sound of a word representing a religious principle that crosses cultures apply. Some might spell it Goan, some think the little line is more important, and in America you'll often hear it pronounced "cone", which is quite far removed from the long o and separate a that I think is technically right. For a definition I can refer you here, but here's my short take on it: A koan is similar to a parable, in other words a story told by an elder to his or her disciples to help them figure out the truth of things. Specifically, koans were told by Zen elders to Zen disciples. They are not, as Christian parables often are, based on analogy, but rather are meant to help the disciples hone their intuition. Dan and I thought that was a very apt name for a sailboat, since we feel that, while sailing can certainly be done by the numbers, there is always a part that is lacking unless you apply your intuition. Also, sailors, being a bunch that loves life deeply, love to tell stories, and we often think our stories are deeper than they sound, which is very true of koans.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Gear testing on this trip
This upcoming trip will be an opportunity to test a whole lot of gear I've recently purchased, and also a couple things I've made myself. I'll write about it here and on my review blog, IfPressed.
In no particular order I am planning to use the following new gear:
GoalZero Guide 10 Plus Adventure Kit
I'm really excited about this purchase. I had ordered a different brand of solar panel capable of charging the iPad last fall, but that company was having trouble with their product manufacturing in China, so they couldn't get their product to me before the trip on which I was hoping to use it. This GoalZero Nomad 7 panel should be able to not only charge the iPad, our camera batteries and AA batteries, but also trickle charge the double-battery house bank, via the 12 V output.
CaseLogic water resistant iPad case
DicaPac WP310 waterproof digital camera case
My iPad and my Canon S95 are both prized possessions, and I would hate to see either hurt. But we'd like to shoot a lot of video, and the iPad will be our primary chart tool, so it's important to keep them both protected and tethered to the boat.
By the way, we'll be using two iPad apps for navigation on this trip, so you can expect to read more about them, too: iSailor and iSailGPS. My trusty Garmin 76cx will also be in play, of course.
I'll also be using the Origo stove for the first time in the field, in combination with a pressure cooker. I've heard that pressure cookers can be especially good on a sail boat, as they cook faster and they are closed tightly, making them somewhat safer in a potentially tricky environment.
Finally, we'll also be switching to full time use of the new tiller I that Dan and I made last fall.
(Note that these items were purchased with my own money and NOT provided by the companies that make them. My opinions and reviews are, as always, my own.)
In no particular order I am planning to use the following new gear:
GoalZero Guide 10 Plus Adventure Kit
I'm really excited about this purchase. I had ordered a different brand of solar panel capable of charging the iPad last fall, but that company was having trouble with their product manufacturing in China, so they couldn't get their product to me before the trip on which I was hoping to use it. This GoalZero Nomad 7 panel should be able to not only charge the iPad, our camera batteries and AA batteries, but also trickle charge the double-battery house bank, via the 12 V output.
CaseLogic water resistant iPad case
DicaPac WP310 waterproof digital camera case
My iPad and my Canon S95 are both prized possessions, and I would hate to see either hurt. But we'd like to shoot a lot of video, and the iPad will be our primary chart tool, so it's important to keep them both protected and tethered to the boat.
By the way, we'll be using two iPad apps for navigation on this trip, so you can expect to read more about them, too: iSailor and iSailGPS. My trusty Garmin 76cx will also be in play, of course.
I'll also be using the Origo stove for the first time in the field, in combination with a pressure cooker. I've heard that pressure cookers can be especially good on a sail boat, as they cook faster and they are closed tightly, making them somewhat safer in a potentially tricky environment.
Finally, we'll also be switching to full time use of the new tiller I that Dan and I made last fall.
(Note that these items were purchased with my own money and NOT provided by the companies that make them. My opinions and reviews are, as always, my own.)
Monday, March 19, 2012
Getting ready for an islands trip
 |
| The project area of the living room |
At the moment I'm categorizing the unending list of projects in order of importance, and deciding which absolutely must be done before we leave the dock, which can be left undone altogether, and which we can do while we're out at the islands.
Must do:
* install the cabin-top hand rails
* do the machine sewing on the jib and genoa
Can be done out there:
* finish the hand-sewing on the jib
* install the GPS main battery cable
* eye splice the new main halyard
Can be scuttled before this trip, but would be nice to do:
* dinghy build
* table extension over port berth
* chain locker closure
* move hanging locker from port to starboard (?)
* extend mast climber
* replace cabin ceiling & stbd bulkhead lights w/ LED
One of the big jobs we've started is the re-cutting of the jib to make it fit the furler. We began sewing the re-cut jib together on my cheap and weak and plastic home sewing machine, which eventually broke from the strain. So I spent yesterday trolling the thrift stores for a used stronger sewing machine that can do a zig-zag stitch, and came home with a Singer Touch & Sew 648. The machine cost $30, the service manual $10, new bobbins and a foot another $10 (arriving later this week, I hope), and I still need to pick up some sewing machine oil. Hopefully, after oiling, greasing and re-assembling it, I will have something capable of completing the remaining sewing of the sails, leaving us with only the heaviest of the sewing to do by hand.
In the meantime, I'm compiling lists for everything. We have:
* a list of equipment for each crew member to bring
* a list of equipment that doesn't live on the boat but should come along for the trip
* a list of manuals & books that we want to have on board
* a list of things in our med locker
and many more. So over the next days I'll be sharing some of those checklists, as a way to give you some insight into the kind of preparation that goes into a ~4 day offshore trip.
Welcome aboard!
I leave you with a Koan: The real miracle.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
New v-berth cushion
My friend Bee helped me construct a new v-berth cushion. Here it is!
It's going over the boards I made several months ago. This is the ideogram for Koan.
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