SV Rhapsody

Haulout and bottom paint

2014-06-08T23:54:00.000-07:00

Speedo and transducer holes, unholed.

New seacocks and throughhulls

New seacocks mounted on 1/2" fiberglass expoxied to the hull. Yard made fun of me for having ~1 1/2" solid glass, but these will not be a weak spot!


Ouch

Old throughhull. Yes, that's one entire thread holding the seacock on for the last 30 years.

Watermaker inlet

Watermaker brine discharge

Shaft Seal

2014-06-08T23:41:00.002-07:00

I suck at pictures, but....

New PSS shaft seal running on new shaft

The old stuffing came out as something like greasy sawdust. The old shaft, courtesy of a corroded flange fitting, came out in two pieces with the help of an angle grinder. In went a new shaft, rebuilt prop, and PSS dropless seal. Yay for maintenance, boo for the checkbook.

New cutlass bearing


Old now 2-piece shaft

Popped right off - after a few hours of cussing and beating, a very expensive hour of "professional" cussing and beating, and a half-hour with a grinder.

Staysail

2014-06-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

T-ball fitting spliced into top of solent stay


Below decks, 1/2" threaded rod with eye fittings lashed from deck throughbolt to stem throughbolt. "If you can't tie a knot, tie a lot."

Finished stay. T-ball fitting on top, Colligo terminator on bottom, both Brummel-spliced into 7mm Dynex Dux (16,500 pound breaking strength, comparable to 7/16" 1x19 316 SS wire.)


Tensioning mechanism - pair of Colligo terminators, secured to the deck with a 1/2" (20,000 pound) shackle. Lashing replaced with 3/16 Amsteel - the 1/4 was difficult to tension properly. The tail is left long enough to reach the windlass for tensioning.

Stay and sail tack. 1/4" Amsteel loop and soft shackle for pennant.

100 square foot heavy (7oz??) high-cut blade jib flying. Balances a double-reefed main perfectly.

Sheets are turned at the base of the mast through a system of soft shackles and aluminum rappel rings. Rhapsody has only one set of winches, so flying the jib and genoa at the same time is problematic.

leecloths

2014-01-21T17:54:00.003-08:00

seahood

2014-01-21T17:54:00.000-08:00

solent stay

2014-01-21T17:50:00.002-08:00

watermaker

2014-01-21T17:39:00.000-08:00

Oooo - nice box

New watermaker. Scary box barely fits in cockpit.....


Experimental dangling in former hanging locker

Mounted

another view

wires and hoses

more wires and hoses

guages

2014 annual maintenance - haulout

2014-01-15T17:51:00.001-08:00

15 Jan 2014 - 1559 engine hours

Hauled @KKMI

New Pettit Trinidad Pro bottom paint - 2000 barrier coat all paint blisters
repaint bootstripe - interlux flag blue
repaired rudder - minor delamination, lots of blisters, gelcoat cracking at end of doubler/waterline - drilled (lots) of 1/4" holes, injected thinned epoxy, followed by slightly thickened (with 403) epoxy, sanded, coated with West thickened with 407, wetsanded, 5 coats Interprotect 2000E barrier
new watermaker throughhull, 3/4 seacock

plastic scoop strainer over mushroom throughhull - no way to screw in scoop throughhull due to turn of bilge

new seacocks/throughhulls @head intake, pumpout, head sink
rebuilt cockpit drains, galley sink drain, engine intake seacocks

plan to replace galley sink seacock at next haul

removed paddlewheel & datamarine transducer, repaired hull
installed PSS dripless shaft seal, new 1.25" x 41" shaft, rebuilt propellor

16x16 prop

sprayed barnacle barrier on prop
changed transmission fluid
changed motor oil and filter
changed engine fuel filter
changed oil cooler and primary heat exchanger zincs

rigging

2012-06-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

jaw-jaw turnbuckles and eyes or single-jaw turnbuckles and studs?

1/4" wire 1/2" pin hayn: $46.35
jaw-jaw 1/2" turnbuckle: $77.56
------------$124
increased flexibility (so?)
more stuff to break/fall out

1/4" wire 1/2" thread hayn stud: $38.78
single-jhaw 1/2" turnbuckle: $56.00
---------------------- $94

less flexibilty (so?)
less stuff to break
less stuff to catch other stuff
$30 cheaper (x4 + >30 x 2 capshrouds+>>30xbackstay==ca. $200)

------------------------------------------------------------------

Furler Guts

taking the sail feeder off didn't do anything - just crusty red loctite, and nothing moves. I suppose that's good....

Extrusion pulled up as far as it will go. It hits the masthead junk here. The big round doohickey is the internal turnbuckle, I think, and the long skinny jobber that's normally inside the extrusion looks to be an extra long swage fitting on the end of the wire. I hope. Maybe.


View of whole system with extrusion up as far as it will go

Shroud-->mast terminations


zoom and squint

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bobstay
5/16 cable @ 6'
UpperTerminal - 5/8" eye - http://goo.gl/oYQ2W
LowerTerminal - 1/2" fork - http://goo.gl/a7NGn
Turnbuckle - 5/8 toggles - http://goo.gl/n504j
SpecialConcerns: The pin at the waterline seems small

Forestay/Furler
FurlerModel: Harken Series 1-193
5/16 cable @ 38'6" (order 40)
UpperTerminal - 1/2 eye - http://goo.gl/RDmNA
LowerTerminal -
Turnbuckle - none
SpecialConcerns
- 2" from top pin to furler-foil
- not sure what is under the drum on the bottom

Backstay
5/16 cable @ 39'6" (order 41)
UpperTerminal - 1/2" eye - http://goo.gl/RDmNA
LowerTerminal - 5/8 eye - http://goo.gl/oYQ2W
Turnbuckle - 5/8 toggles - http://goo.gl/n504j

Upper Shrouds
9/32 cable @ 35' (order 36x2=72)
UpperTerminal - T-ball - http://goo.gl/Mr8rp (x2)
LowerTerminal - 1/2" eye - http://goo.gl/Amno4 (x2)
Turnbuckle - 1/2" toggles - http://goo.gl/8YRya (x2)

LowerShrouds
1/4" cable @ 19' (order 20x4=80)
UpperTerminal - T-Ball - http://goo.gl/DXuNy (x4)
LowerTerminal - 1/2" eye - http://goo.gl/PZF1c (x4)
Turnbuckle - 1/2" toggle - http://goo.gl/8YRya (x4)

Packing List

2012-04-09T20:59:00.001-07:00

Stolen from various places and distilled:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtA8jKNH8nVLdFhuOG5RNHloSkdTblk3ZkZ2Zm9fUUE&pli=1&hl=en_US#gid=0

washdown

2012-03-22T21:15:00.001-07:00

Jabsco Par-Max 4.0 pump under head sink, teed off toilet intake, deck fitting by anchor. Sweet!


Pump. Out of the way, tolerable access.

Deck fitting. I was going to go with a flush-mount system, but in the end decided to stick with simplicity at the severe cost of having to twist a hose end for a couple seconds every now and then. I'll live.

tillerpilot

2012-03-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

Raymarine 2000+ in hand - waiting on a bracket...

solar

2012-03-22T18:28:00.002-07:00

After much arm-waving and boat-stalking and soliciting opinions of how exactly to put a usable amount of solar on a pointy double-ender, I found Custom Marine Products' solar mount. It's a really great idea, but 1) it's $800, and 2) I couldn't figure out where to put it on my boat. So, I ordered about $200 worth of junk from onlinemetals and McMaster-Carr and got out my trusty sawzall.

2 100-watt panels mounted on poles above the pushpit. These twist and swivel - here one is "up" (in back) and one "down" to catch the morning sun. (Mid-March 38*N)

125W panel on the dodger

Morningstar 45-amp MPPT charge controller. Plenty of capacity to grow.

9-ish AM. Mostly-full batteries. Backstay shadow on one 100W panel, boom shadow across dodger panel, dew on all the panels, kinda-sorta pointed sun-wise. 11.5amps. Whoa!

Table

2012-03-22T18:26:00.002-07:00

The boat came with a very nice teak table plonked down right in the middle of everywhere and taking up way too much room.

We finally just unbolted the thing shoved it under a bed. We've tried various folding and rolling and collapsing tables, but all of them found a way to piss us off in one way or another. Dogs and babies and coffee habits and boats and shitty tables don't go so well together - who knew?!?

So, after a year or so of staring and drooling, a masterpiece emerges. It's perfect. It's wonderful. Sadly, it's also a mockup of a real table, made from $14 of Home Depot ply"wood," (can wood be that shity??) mostly cut out with my trusty sawzall. The heavy-wall stainless and teak slidy-hinge-thingee is real enough, so I just need to find wood, skills, and/or tools, replicate the table, and screw it to the hinge-thingee. If anyone knows someone in the SF Bay area who'd like to make me a real table...

The hinge is 2 pieces of 1.5" teak - crappy plantation stuff, but at least it was expensive - and 36" of heavy-wall 316 stainless tubing. The table is held on by 4-inch screws.

One bulkhead table, folded up out of the way

Folded down, folded up, slid in - it's almost entirely over the starboard setee and out of the way.

Open but not slid out, the boat is still mostly usable, although the head door won't open in this configuration.

Open and out. It's a couple inches narrower than the original table, and comfortably seats 4.

"Normal" position - easy access to head and V-berth, plenty of room for a laptop and legs. Also, I wanted to show that we really do own cushions. See the scars from the old table on the sole.

I think this is going to work well.

Also, if someone wants to buy a pedestal-mount table made out of 5/4 old-growth teak, make me an offer.

Electrical: Part - uhh, lots

2012-03-22T18:02:00.002-07:00

Starting from the "starting battery" has always been dicey at best. So I finally sucked up and replaced the battery cables that weren't replaced during the initial electrical upgrade and - viola! I have a spare electrical system that - you know - will start the boat! I also have all new, all oversized battery cables now. No idea why I didn't just do that in the first place...

sail handling

2011-11-28T15:20:00.001-08:00

Lazy jacks. Got em.

Slab reefing. Check.

Pictures? Crap....

Monitor Self-steering

2011-11-20T16:56:00.000-08:00

I managed to make it through an entire Monitor installation without taking a single picture. Whatever - it's stupid-simple to install, and works like MAGIC! Pictures to follow. Eventually. Maybe.

Refrigeration

2011-11-08T08:59:00.002-08:00

Top off. Insulation was dry and looked good. Surprising.

Liner out

And plywood liner-liner out


Original structural newsprint	.

For sale: 1 icebox liner. Small dent, will buff out easily.

Sawzall action complete.

Engel drop-in enroute.

Updates imminent. (Eventually!)


The Engel arrives, with giant thermos for scale.

Helpful instructions. Yep, that's pretty much all of it. Now we have to find something printed in Korean....


Fitting

I added anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of foil-backed blueboard insulation around the already-insulated Engel box, because why not.

The box is hanging from a composite plywood ring. There's also some aluminum angle in there to stiffen things up.

TA-DA! The trim ring is cheap pine, and I'm slowly replacing all the counter tops with cheap laminate flooring. We're sort of waiting until we get to somewhere with cheaper and more reliable labor to do something fancier, but in truth I don't mind the "poor man's yacht" look....

We also ended up with a new large locker. No idea what we're going to do with this yet.

chartplotter

2011-03-08T22:52:00.000-08:00

I wanted to mount my new Garmin 740s where it would be usable from the cabin and the cockpit, so a swing mount made sense. My companionway is lined with hand holds, and the inner cabin wall housed the compass and a light fixture, making room tight. I couldn't find a manufactured mount that fit right, and I didn't trust the PVC option (from a recent Good Old Boat magazine) to hold up a couple thousand dollars in electronics.

I had a foot-long teak 1x4 laying around, so I bought a small teak cleat mount, a 1/2"x3" stainless bolt, a nut, and some washers.

I first notched the cleat base so it would fit over companionway trim, and beveled it so the "top" (which fases down in this application) was level. I drilled a 1/2" hole, and using my wood chisel recessed the head of the bolt and expoxied the bolt in place. The block is secured with 2 1/4"screws into the companionway frame. A stack of washers provides clearance. The GPS is mounted on the provided bail mount, installed upside-down. A pair of heavy stainless fender washers sandwich the teak "arm" to provide a bit of extra support, and a stainless lockwasher keeps everything in place. I'll probably locktite the nut once everything is settled in. I'll take it all apart and finish the wood - eventually.

Cleat base notched, beveled, and drilled

recessed bolt

mounting pilot holes drilled in companionway frame, through trim

Finished product. The internal GPS works great, even through the bracket, teak board, cabin top, and dodger!

The hinge point

Next up: Installing a transducer and my new GMR 18 radar dome.

GARMIN 200/50 KHZ 12/45 DEG. ADJUST IN-HULL TRANSDUCER mounted under the starboard setee. It's glued on with 4200 and filled with mineral oil. I could only find foo-foo scented mineral oil at my local CVS, so the boat smells like a whorehouse now.


Closeup of the transducer mount. Performance has exceeded all expectations, and I have no holes in my hull.

I decided to pull the mast to install the radar. I really liked the idea of having the radome up and out of the way rather than on a pole in the cockpit, and I'm pretty sure the mast hadn't been off since it went on in 1982.

KKMI hooked me up with a shed to work out of the rain. They're a little expensive, but the service is spectacular. I ended up pulling the mast on a Friday evening and sticking it back in the next Monday morning. Then I slept for a couple days.


Stick-less. Ouch.

The radar is mounted on a SeaView platform below the spreaders.


I added Antal fiber mast steps while I had the mast down. One of the best things I've done to the boat.

All new wiring, including the radar wire. I spent most of the weekend trying to stuff all that shit through the mast-to-deck hose and fittings.


Ta-Da!

port gaskets

2011-03-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

Rhapsody has 6 bronze opening ports, all of which came equipped with long-expired gaskets.

Crunchy rubber. This was one of the "good" ones!

I order 5/16 inch square Buna-N O-ring cord stock from McMaster-Carr.

I'll take this opportunity to just say thanks. The service was exactly what online service should be, but very rarely is. I'd done some research, figured out what I wanted, and found it online. I halfheartedly clicked the "order" button about 5PM, hoping I'd get something in the mail in a week or two. Around 9AM the very next morning my package arrived, all for a shipping charge of five dollars and thirty-three cents. So, McMaster-Carr, thank you!

I carefully cleaned out the old gaskets, tightened the screws, checked the glazing, and fitted the new gasket material into the groove. I sealed the ends with a dab of flexible super glue, and did not seal the rubber to the frames in any way. Reinstallation went as expected, although the rubber was not as flexible as I'd have hoped.

Rubber and glue

The ends of the rubber were joined on top of the portholes, where imperfections are not likely to cause leaks anyway. I used my trusty re-appropriated garden snips to trim the rubber to fit.

Prepare to snip....

Ready for reinstallation. The joint is under the cordstock/pointer, just to the right of center

Everything got a good coat of Lanacote (why not?!) and was re-installed. So far, so good....

anchor

2011-02-27T13:54:00.000-08:00

Rhapsody came with a 35-pound CQR on a short 1/4" chain plus nylon rode, riding on a small side-mounted roller. The mounting was not particularly satisfactory because the anchor could swing into the bobstay, and was mounted off to the side of the bowsprit.

Original CQR installation on bronze roller

Anchor locker containing 250 feet of 5/8 rode, 50 feet of 1/4 chain, and a spare 250 foot 1/2 inch rode. (Plus the usual junk!)

Original deck showing bronze deck plate for anchor rode

We installed a large stainless steel roller, a manual Simpson Lawrence Seatiger windlass, and 200 feet of 5/16 HT (G4/G43) rode. The windlass was mounted on top of the bowsprit, feeding chain through an existing gap in the teak. ABS pipe was sanded, heated, and "beated" to fit the oval chain feed of the windlass and epoxied into the deck for a chainpipe.

New Manson Supreme 35-pound anchor on new rode

Seatiger windlass installed on top of bowsprit

ABS pipe used as a through-deck fitting

Chainpipe from the inside, with 200 feet of 5/16 HT chain piled under it. The line is 50 feet long and provides the ability to cut the anchor and rode free in the case of an emergency, while retaining the anchor and rode in a lesser emergency.

A piece of the ABS pipe was split and screwed to the caprail to provide chafe protection. When taut, the chain just touches the teak and stainless

Final install from the front. The anchor is lashed to the lifeline stanchion, even though it's rock-solid without the lashing. And I think this is a cool picture....

The original rode was left in place, with a hook installed on the deck pipe cover for quick and easy retrieval.

We still have to find a place to store the CQR, which will serve as a secondary or backup anchor.

The Head

2011-02-27T12:37:00.000-08:00

Rhapsody came with an old Raritan head with all the usual age-induced "features" - dry seals, random leaks, and even a cracked pump body. I tossed it and installed a new Jabsco toilet. I considered the Lavac, but was under the mistaken impression that the Jabsco would be a simpler affair. If only!

The original Raritan head

My first surprise was after installing and testing (not _that_ sort of testing, thankfully!) was water seeping from under the setee in which the holding tank is built. Re-sealing the openings (intake, vent, and pumpout) didn't help, so I used my reciprocating saw (part of a Ryobi kit, which has so far been a really great set of cheap power tools) to open up the plywood-and-epoxy tank, but still could not find the leak. I coated the inside of the tank with several layers of Gluvit, which stopped the waterworks.

After moving the pump to the other side and rebuilding the floor plate, I managed to get the Jabsco head shoehorned in, and then ignored everything for a couple months. I finally finished the plumbing, which ended up as this:

Intake water comes through a seacock to the head pump
Water from the head pump is routed through a vented loop and back to the toilet bowl. The vented loop keeps our boat from sinking in the event of head pump failure, and we continue to keep the seacock shut when we aren't aboard
The toilet discharges into the holding tank. The holding tank is a plywood and epoxy built-in unit of about ten gallons. It's located under a settee immediately adjacent to the head, so plumbing is minimal.
The pumpout pickup exits the tank to a T-fitting, where

A deck fitting may be used to pump out the tank, or
A Guzzler diaphragm pump may be used to pump the holding tank overboard through a seacock. This seacock stays closed and locked except when we're actually pumping waste overboard.

Jabsco head installed and plumbed. A little industrial, but very functional

engine data

2011-02-18T12:20:00.000-08:00

Rhapsody is powered by a W30 Westerbeke 4 cylinder diesel engine turning a Westerbeke "short sailing" transmission, then a 1 1/4" shaft, then a 14x16 (?) right-hand bronze 3-bladed propeller.

Engine data:
Serial Number 1517C102
Model WESTERBEKE30
Spec HBW100
BLOCK MFG IN ENG

Oil Filter:

Fram PH8A
AC Delco PF2
Baldwin B-2
Bosch 0-451-104-001
Deutsch D539
Donaldson LFP17-0008
Fleetguard LF3313
Goodyear L-8A
Hastings P115A
Kendall K1
Knecht OC-4
Lee LF-1A
Lucas F-678
Motorcrap FL-1A
Napa 1515
Pennzoil PZ-1
Purolater PER-1A
Toyota 15601-41010
Wix 51515

Secondary Fuel Filter: FRAM C1191A

Primary fuel filter: Racor 500 FG with 20 micron filter element

Oil Capacity: 5qt 30WT (Delo 30 Weight Oil)

Transmission Capacity: ~1/2qt ATF
Transmission Plug: 17mm (11/16 in a pinch)

Raw water pump V-Belt: part number 9375 or Gates 17375

Computers and navigation

2011-02-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

We purchased a HP Mini 110 Netbook and a GlobalSat BU-353 USB GPS Receiver, and installed OpenCPN rather than buying a chartplotter. It was terrible - every time we really needed it, either HP or Windows was busy updating something, had crashed, or had lost connection to the GPS. The only way to re-gain GPS connection was to reboot, and we never - not one time - got the machine to shut off on it's own. So you have to hold the power switch until it dies, then deal with the "oh geez, Windows got all crashy" errors after it restarts - in about 5 minutes.

We installed Ubuntu Linux, and so far so good. The install was a little tricky due to HP's use of a non-standard network card, but there is good help available on the Internet. A cold boot, from pushing the power switch to looking at a chart in OpenCPN with a GPS fix now takes 35 seconds. Total number of Linux crashes to date: Zero.

However, we're still ogling the Garmin GPSMAP 740s. Not being able to see the laptop screen in bright sunlight is inconvenient at best, and the option of radar and depth information integrated with charts is VERY appealing. There's also the weatherproof factor - we KNOW we're eventually going to get the HP wet and it will die, we just hope it doesn't happen at an inconvenient time. The Garmin will happily ride out weather in the cockpit with us. Decisions, decisions....

Fresh Water

2011-02-16T21:08:00.000-08:00

Rhapsody has a single freshwater tank of yet-indeterminate size (60 gallons?) under the V-berth. Hand pumps of indeterminate model are provided in the galley and head sinks.

Head Sink

Galley Sink

I was able to get both pumps working with a thorough cleaning and a bit of plumber's grease.

The galley countertop/sink seal was a bit rough, and I needed to remove the sink to install the stove gimbals, one thing led to another and I ended up with a battery tray fiberglassed under the galley sink counter aft of the sink and a new (temporary?) vinyl countertop.