Forums > Sailing General

What did you do to your sailing boat today ?

Reply
Created by Boatin > 9 months ago, 12 Jun 2013
PLanter4
NSW, 106 posts
13 Jul 2023 4:46PM
Thumbs Up

Yes - Have same problem/shape after argument with jetty - jetty won !
Hard to fix in situ,as do not want to crease tube + not the place to use heat .
Difficult to dismantle,as all part of bow fitting/forestay.
Annoying as in line of sight .

Bananabender
QLD, 1590 posts
13 Jul 2023 6:10PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
PLanter4 said..
Yes - Have same problem/shape after argument with jetty - jetty won !
Hard to fix in situ,as do not want to crease tube + not the place to use heat .
Difficult to dismantle,as all part of bow fitting/forestay.
Annoying as in line of sight .


Better the pulpit than fibreglass so my neighbour said .

PLanter4
NSW, 106 posts
13 Jul 2023 7:25PM
Thumbs Up

Yes - imagine having to rebuild Bow !

Ramona
NSW, 7583 posts
29 Jul 2023 6:49PM
Thumbs Up

This morning I sprayed the last two coats of white paint on the bottom of my Finn dinghy. This is just off the gun finish and I will rub it back in a couple of days with wet and dry for a slippery finish!



julesmoto
NSW, 1505 posts
3 Aug 2023 11:32AM
Thumbs Up

So good to get back on my NS 38 today after the trailer sailer. Really only went down because I had a diver clean the bottom but wanted to put the safety and wet weather gear back on that I took with me to the Whitsundays.

Boat seems enormous of course but more than that everything underfoot seems like walking on a concrete slab with absolutely no flex and the nice solid sound on deck and below. Forgot to bring the toolkit bags back on board in my haste so nothing really to do.

Absolutely no water anywhere, no musty smells or even bird poo outside :-).

Beautiful day today although can't stay for a sail unfortunately.

BeamReach
SA, 167 posts
3 Aug 2023 2:37PM
Thumbs Up

Yes, you can not replicate the strength and solidness of a keel yacht. My mate, who is not a sailer regularly says a trailer sailer would be a lot less maintenance.
Plus a keel boat can be an offshore cruiser and not with a trailer sailer, unless you own a Imexus 28 and do the real hard getting there, by road.
Cheers

julesmoto
NSW, 1505 posts
3 Aug 2023 3:47PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
BeamReach said..
Yes, you can not replicate the strength and solidness of a keel yacht. My mate, who is not a sailer regularly says a trailer sailer would be a lot less maintenance.
Plus a keel boat can be an offshore cruiser and not with a trailer sailer, unless you own a Imexus 28 and do the real hard getting there, by road.
Cheers







Yes everything is disproportionately bigger on a keel yacht. The most obvious thing is the rigging. The shrouds feel so massive when you put your hands around them compared to the tiny thin shrouds on the trailer sailer which by the way still has an absolutely massively long (but thin) mast bigger than any other trailer sailer I have ever come across at 10.75 m off its deck step.

It's going to need to be less maintenance if it's 2200 km away. One nice thing is that when it goes in the water you know that there are no barnacles or slime on it slowing you down. The 38 was cleaned today but won't stay that way long and will require slipping within three months at a yard where you're not even allowed to watch much less do any work yourself.

BeamReach
SA, 167 posts
3 Aug 2023 5:31PM
Thumbs Up

Yes, I have read the slip yards close to the Sydney CBD have got the game sewn up and the EPA are out in force.. I only hope we don't go down that path..
It's expensive enough, getting the boat slipped and doing the work yourself.
You get the option where I go..
There is another option at an old club where the costs minimal and you get keen volunteers doing the work for again a minimal cost. You have to be a member. The only downside is, its 1.5hrs motoring from my Marina and about an hour to our open Gulf waters for members..This would be a bit of a pain if I was to sail across our Gulf to the other side on our Peninsula. I have done it many times, generally taking 6.5 hrs for 32 nautical miles..A nice day or night sail in relatively protected waters.
Nothing like it would be getting out of your heads in to open seas..
Cheers

Bananabender
QLD, 1590 posts
4 Aug 2023 10:41AM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
julesmoto said..

BeamReach said..
Yes, you can not replicate the strength and solidness of a keel yacht. My mate, who is not a sailer regularly says a trailer sailer would be a lot less maintenance.
Plus a keel boat can be an offshore cruiser and not with a trailer sailer, unless you own a Imexus 28 and do the real hard getting there, by road.
Cheers








Yes everything is disproportionately bigger on a keel yacht. The most obvious thing is the rigging. The shrouds feel so massive when you put your hands around them compared to the tiny thin shrouds on the trailer sailer which by the way still has an absolutely massively long (but thin) mast bigger than any other trailer sailer I have ever come across at 10.75 m off its deck step.

It's going to need to be less maintenance if it's 2200 km away. One nice thing is that when it goes in the water you know that there are no barnacles or slime on it slowing you down. The 38 was cleaned today but won't stay that way long and will require slipping within three months at a yard where you're not even allowed to watch much less do any work yourself.


Talking about rigging as someone who has gone from keel boats to a ts the one thing I am now very aware of is rigging tension . When I purchased the
ts the owner showed me how to raise and lower the mast with the shrouds intact. This was very convenient until you were hard on and the leeward shrouds were flapping all over the place with resultant trim issues . I now use a loos to get the tensions right and even though mast is left up I regularly check. I'm not too sure about a ts being a lot less maintenance . The ts has a drop or swing keel ( wear) ,a trailer to be regularly serviced if doing a lot of travelling and even though the items are smaller and cheaper they still require servicing , cleaning ,replacing etc. Actually I reckon there's more to be done

julesmoto
NSW, 1505 posts
4 Aug 2023 5:58PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
Bananabender said..

julesmoto said..


BeamReach said..
Yes, you can not replicate the strength and solidness of a keel yacht. My mate, who is not a sailer regularly says a trailer sailer would be a lot less maintenance.
Plus a keel boat can be an offshore cruiser and not with a trailer sailer, unless you own a Imexus 28 and do the real hard getting there, by road.
Cheers









Yes everything is disproportionately bigger on a keel yacht. The most obvious thing is the rigging. The shrouds feel so massive when you put your hands around them compared to the tiny thin shrouds on the trailer sailer which by the way still has an absolutely massively long (but thin) mast bigger than any other trailer sailer I have ever come across at 10.75 m off its deck step.

It's going to need to be less maintenance if it's 2200 km away. One nice thing is that when it goes in the water you know that there are no barnacles or slime on it slowing you down. The 38 was cleaned today but won't stay that way long and will require slipping within three months at a yard where you're not even allowed to watch much less do any work yourself.



Talking about rigging as someone who has gone from keel boats to a ts the one thing I am now very aware of is rigging tension . When I purchased the
ts the owner showed me how to raise and lower the mast with the shrouds intact. This was very convenient until you were hard on and the leeward shrouds were flapping all over the place with resultant trim issues . I now use a loos to get the tensions right and even though mast is left up I regularly check. I'm not too sure about a ts being a lot less maintenance . The ts has a drop or swing keel ( wear) ,a trailer to be regularly serviced if doing a lot of travelling and even though the items are smaller and cheaper they still require servicing , cleaning ,replacing etc. Actually I reckon there's more to be done

Chris 249
NSW, 3350 posts
4 Aug 2023 10:14PM
Thumbs Up

I replaced the beaten up Yanmar control panel (Yanmar wanted about $2500 or more to replace) with a much cheaper one from Vetus which looks better to my eye. It took a bit of decoding of wiring diagrams, made more complicated by the fact that the J-Boat uses US coding instead of standard Yanmar coding, but the engine is now stopping, starting and charging happily and the rest of the job looks fairly simple. It seems to be charging better too, which is odd.

I've just confirmed that D'Albora in Port Stephens still allow you to work on your boat on the hardstand, if you do the simple BIA safety card course. I've been there twice and found the management and staff to be cooperative and helpful. The only real downside is that you can only be in the yard during trading hours so can't sleep on your boat, but given the shortage of marinas in Sydney that allow you to work on your boat it could be useful to some. There's plenty of caravan parks and other accommodation nearby.

Also had a nice swim to clean the bottom and a quick topside clean in perfect weather on beautiful Port Stephens.

cammd
QLD, 3777 posts
13 Aug 2023 5:52PM
Thumbs Up

Playing with electronics today and removing some redundant wiring.





woko
NSW, 1592 posts
14 Aug 2023 4:06PM
Thumbs Up

Turned my attention to the fit out, nice to find minimal rust when I pulled the chain locker out. Anyone hazard a guess at the purpose of the lug with a bolt in it under the Sampson post, in the inside of the stem ?




Ramona
NSW, 7583 posts
15 Aug 2023 8:35AM
Thumbs Up

The bolt may have been holding some form of anchor chain container in place.

woko
NSW, 1592 posts
15 Aug 2023 11:32AM
Thumbs Up

That or somewhere to secure the end of the chain would be the obvious, part of me thought it may have been a vent for when the lead was poured in the keel, now I'm thinking it might be a good place to pour some fish oil or the like into the keel

UncleBob
NSW, 1220 posts
15 Aug 2023 12:13PM
Thumbs Up

Bought the boat a new anchor chain, G43 from sydney lifting.

Chris 249
NSW, 3350 posts
23 Aug 2023 8:18PM
Thumbs Up

Not today, but over the last couple of weeks I fitted a new engine control panel to the Yanmar. Yanmar want a fortune for a new panel and I'm not nuts about the quality, so I ended up with a Vetus and a re-wiring job to adapt the Vetus loom to the Yanmar loom. She fired up and stopped first go, which was a relief, and saved a couple of grand.

Last weekend we came back through the passage north of Soldier's Point, Port Stephens, into the teeth of a damn big westerly with a gale warning out. At 36ft and 5 tonnes our boat is a bit underpowered by modern standards with a 20hp and I'm not convinced about the Kiwiprop she has, but because one of the dogs isn't mad about heeling we motored. Towing the big dinghy and with a bit of dirt on the hull we were making very slow progress so we said stuff this, went back under the lee of Soldiers Point and hoisted the triple reef main and turned off the donk. It was more than enough at times, but the boat went much better upwind under sail than under motor which I did like; it just reinforces that she's a sailing boat rather than a motorboat with a stick. The handling was impeccable, with never a hint of a missed tack when short tacking through the island passage into the teeth of the wind and heavy chop, despite dragging the RIB behind. Once again I was very happy to have the simple short-overlap fractional rig with Harkan roller cars on the main and a boom bag; reefing is incredibly easy.

woko
NSW, 1592 posts
15 Sep 2023 7:25PM
Thumbs Up

Feels like a lot longer but my last post on this thread was a month ago, that's some cause for rejoicing. Anyway the forepeak has been prepped and coated with jotamastic & the new chain locker is taking shape


cammd
QLD, 3777 posts
18 Sep 2023 5:46PM
Thumbs Up

Some sewing jobs starting to accumulate so set up the "loft" to get them underwater





cammd
QLD, 3777 posts
18 Sep 2023 5:46PM
Thumbs Up

Some sewing jobs starting to accumulate so set up the "loft" to get them underwater





cammd
QLD, 3777 posts
23 Oct 2023 11:40AM
Thumbs Up

Resealed a couple more deck fittings, working my way around the boat, its 16 years old and the sika is starting to fail so just going to do them all with butyl.

The engine has had a small seawater leak near the mixing elbow, last time I replaced the impeller there were missing blades, so I decided to remove the heat exchanger and service the entire system. Haven't had any heating/cooling issues as yet but found the following

Heavily calcified outlet to the mixing elbow down to about half its internal diameter
Exhaust hose from mixing elbow to lift muffler is stuffed, split inside needs replacing
Lift muffler need re-fibreglassing where exhaust hose mounts on it, has gone brittle and cracked with the heat
Most of the hose clamps are shot and on the verge of failure all will need replacing
Engine hoses are shot and need replacing
Sea water hose 1/8 bsp brass connection from engine seawater to PSS shaft seal failed and snapped off when I tried to remove the hose, this goes to the outboard side of the seal and has the potential to fill the boat (very slowly) if it snapped and was not notice so a good thing it snapped now when I was across it

Still yet to get the heat exchanger out of the manifold as I didn't trust my cheap allen keys so left over night to soak in some liquid spanner and purchased a quality impact allen key today to the remove bolts. I expect it to be heavily calcified as well

Didn't get any pics but I will and post later as I re assemble it all.

For a system that was operational it sure has a lot of items close to failure, glad I decided to go over the whole system.

sydchris
NSW, 387 posts
14 Nov 2023 4:39PM
Thumbs Up

Not me so a bit off topic, but one for the S&S34 followers. Tim Lackey has just started a rebuild of the interior of one. Nicely documented starting at lackeysailing.com/calliope-girl-1/ , including his struggles to get the mast step removed.

Grith
SA, 88 posts
15 Nov 2023 12:11AM
Thumbs Up

Two things done today both for my yacht rather than to my yacht. I completed my portable casing of a secondhand Katadyn Power Survivor in a cheap pelican style copy box from supercheap auto and ordered an expensive 8.5 meter by 3 meter pontoon jetty which is supposed to be able to handle my yacht/powersailer being driven up into it out of the water. These new Australian made modular pontoon jetties are rated to carry up to 4 ton apparently unlike my current Chinese built one rated to 2 ton which has my hobie adventure island on it. We have purchased a second very cheap waterfront home with its own boat ramp and small jetty here in our remote unknown corner of SA. This one is single level and on close to three times the usable block area of our current two storey home with upstairs kitchen and features a drive in forwards and turn up around the back yard and back down its boat ramp to launch. Having done this you can then drive out forwards down the narrow driveway beside the house. The downside is our new home despite its huge waterfrontage is that it's on the end of a peninsula and much more exposed to the winds and wave action which means mooring against its jetty could see the boat thrown against this in some conditions. The concept of using the unusually huge outboard on my yacht to drive it up out of the water and onto a pontoon as is often seen with jet skis is attractive in stopping this potential source of damage and also stopping growth on my yacht in the water for longer periods as it isn't antifouled.
Despite careful confirmation with the manufacturer I remain cautious about the likely success of this project but as the unit isn't tremendously more expensive than buying another of the Chinese built ones I feel it was worth the gamble.

julesmoto
NSW, 1505 posts
15 Nov 2023 4:23PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
Grith said..
Two things done today both for my yacht rather than to my yacht. I completed my portable casing of a secondhand Katadyn Power Survivor in a cheap pelican style copy box from supercheap auto and ordered an expensive 8.5 meter by 3 meter pontoon jetty which is supposed to be able to handle my yacht/powersailer being driven up into it out of the water. These new Australian made modular pontoon jetties are rated to carry up to 4 ton apparently unlike my current Chinese built one rated to 2 ton which has my hobie adventure island on it. We have purchased a second very cheap waterfront home with its own boat ramp and small jetty here in our remote unknown corner of SA. This one is single level and on close to three times the usable block area of our current two storey home with upstairs kitchen and features a drive in forwards and turn up around the back yard and back down its boat ramp to launch. Having done this you can then drive out forwards down the narrow driveway beside the house. The downside is our new home despite its huge waterfrontage is that it's on the end of a peninsula and much more exposed to the winds and wave action which means mooring against its jetty could see the boat thrown against this in some conditions. The concept of using the unusually huge outboard on my yacht to drive it up out of the water and onto a pontoon as is often seen with jet skis is attractive in stopping this potential source of damage and also stopping growth on my yacht in the water for longer periods as it isn't antifouled.
Despite careful confirmation with the manufacturer I remain cautious about the likely success of this project but as the unit isn't tremendously more expensive than buying another of the Chinese built ones I feel it was worth the gamble.


Not that I'm in the market for that kind of thing but it will be interesting if you keep us posted particularly with a video of you driving up onto it and lowering it to get off.
In the long term do they slowly sync with accumulated growth on them?

Babinda
5 posts
6 Dec 2023 1:20PM
Thumbs Up

Started the process of freeing up the centre-board on my fixer-upper RL34. The rebar/concrete ballast under the floor has naturally started to rust and expand, squeezing the fiberglass centreboard trunk. Now i've just got to cut/crowbar out the solid lump of ballast around the centreboard trunk without making to much of a mess. Site won't let me post photo's yet, will do when I can.

Grith
SA, 88 posts
8 Dec 2023 9:45AM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
julesmoto said..

Grith said..
Two things done today both for my yacht rather than to my yacht. I completed my portable casing of a secondhand Katadyn Power Survivor in a cheap pelican style copy box from supercheap auto and ordered an expensive 8.5 meter by 3 meter pontoon jetty which is supposed to be able to handle my yacht/powersailer being driven up into it out of the water. These new Australian made modular pontoon jetties are rated to carry up to 4 ton apparently unlike my current Chinese built one rated to 2 ton which has my hobie adventure island on it. We have purchased a second very cheap waterfront home with its own boat ramp and small jetty here in our remote unknown corner of SA. This one is single level and on close to three times the usable block area of our current two storey home with upstairs kitchen and features a drive in forwards and turn up around the back yard and back down its boat ramp to launch. Having done this you can then drive out forwards down the narrow driveway beside the house. The downside is our new home despite its huge waterfrontage is that it's on the end of a peninsula and much more exposed to the winds and wave action which means mooring against its jetty could see the boat thrown against this in some conditions. The concept of using the unusually huge outboard on my yacht to drive it up out of the water and onto a pontoon as is often seen with jet skis is attractive in stopping this potential source of damage and also stopping growth on my yacht in the water for longer periods as it isn't antifouled.
Despite careful confirmation with the manufacturer I remain cautious about the likely success of this project but as the unit isn't tremendously more expensive than buying another of the Chinese built ones I feel it was worth the gamble.



Not that I'm in the market for that kind of thing but it will be interesting if you keep us posted particularly with a video of you driving up onto it and lowering it to get off.
In the long term do they slowly sync with accumulated growth on them?

My current lightweight floating pontoon hasn't accumulated any significant growth despite being in the water nearly two years now so I don't expect that will be an issue with the newly ordered and about to arrive drive up on top of one.
Our waterfront location is freshwater however.
My concern remains both the drive up on top of process and back off with my about 3 ton yacht/powersailer and breaking/sinking not being able to do this issues. We shall shortly see. I do already drive up onto my roll on roll off trailer like some powerboats when the boat ramp is appropriately long and it's not risking scouring at the end. Beats the heck out of winching the 8.5 metre yacht up onto its trailer.

Lazzz
NSW, 885 posts
17 Mar 2024 3:02PM
Thumbs Up

Not exactly today, but I have been putting together a water maker over the past weeks.

It has an automatic 12v flush system which is used after making water or once a week via a timer.



I used some parts I had as spares including a 40psi water pump, which had burnt out the switch, as the boost pump.



I used a fan on the boost pump to keep it cool. No low pressure by-pass here yet.



This was the most expensive outlay, at $934, for the membrane & housing.



The rear of the panel - not the prettiest but compact.



Membrane assembled, ready to go in.



The membrane & the Karcher K2 high pressure pump mounted under a storage compartment behind the washing machine.



The boost pump, with the low pressure by-pass mounted (pic is upside down). I added the low pressure by-pass to keep the boost pump pressure down to 5 - 10psi to lessen the load/overheating down to a bare minimum.



This is the brine overflow with the HP needle valve wide open with the HP pump at 200psi not making any water.



This is the Reverse Osmosis output before going into the tanks after closing the HP needle valve to take the pressure up so as to push the raw water through the membrane.



Producing water with a TDS of 140ppm (500ppm is drinkable) @ 75 litres per hour while working at 800psi.



My schematic




I could have done this a bit cheaper, but I went with using the John Guest fittings & pipe for neatness but all up a tad over $2000 which is a lot cheaper than any you can buy??

If I find that I want more than 75 lph it's easy enough to add another membrane to this system!!

I usually run it off the inverter but if the batteries are down, I'll use the genny.

It's also been a lot of fun & kept my brain active while researching & building this!!

SeanTsv
QLD, 17 posts
18 Mar 2024 2:09PM
Thumbs Up

Lazzz,
I have a similar set up with a SaltWater Pro. I was wondering how you set up your raw water feed. My system has a 12v 50 amp high pressure pump drive run from the starter battery due to cable size. I only use the watermaker with the engine running and under weigh. No gen set. I have a battery monitor just on this battery as well.
I set up my raw water feed with a suction pipe tied to the back stay and sitting a metre under the surface. It kept drawing air pockets which then ended up in the membrane and HP pump system.
I was thinking of using a 'break tank' such as a jerry can to fill with raw water and seperate water and air before feeding the raw water pump. Requires an additional pump or some sort of scoop arrangement on feed pipe to take advantage of vessel momentum. I would be interested to hear other's set up for ideas.
I had my fresh water flush set up for manual only as I did not want hose issues to cause problems whilst I am away from the boat.
I chose to 'pickle' the membrane using Brigalow brand Sodium Metabisulphite. Same chemical the OEM recommended but about $5 in Big W vs Big Bucks from OEM.
Sean

Lazzz
NSW, 885 posts
18 Mar 2024 4:13PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
SeanTsv said..
Lazzz,
I have a similar set up with a SaltWater Pro. I was wondering how you set up your raw water feed. My system has a 12v 50 amp high pressure pump drive run from the starter battery due to cable size. I only use the watermaker with the engine running and under weigh. No gen set. I have a battery monitor just on this battery as well.
I set up my raw water feed with a suction pipe tied to the back stay and sitting a metre under the surface. It kept drawing air pockets which then ended up in the membrane and HP pump system.


My RW feed comes off the intake for the heads etc through a few filters - separate from the engine feed. Nobody is allowed to have a crap while I'm making water, although there is still probably enough to do both - I'll test it soon!!

What about if you try an elbow on the end of the suction pipe with the opening facing forward to eliminate getting air in, or even cutting the end of the pipe at an angle??
Or use a "12V Washdown Pump Kit 20L/MIN 70PSI High Pressure Wash-Down Deck Caravan Boat"
www.batterymate.com.au/products/12v-washdown-pump-kit-20l-min-70psi-high-pressure-wash-down-deck-caravan-boat?_pos=1&_sid=1b9d77190&_ss=r

You could use it for a deck wash as well. I have one for my house fresh water with a pressure reducer thingy for the shower etc but full 70psi pressure for the water maker flushing & deck wash.

Thanks for the tip about Sodium Metabisulfite from Big W - I got some online.

SeanTsv
QLD, 17 posts
18 Mar 2024 4:27PM
Thumbs Up

Lazzz,
Mine is a SeaWater Pro not SaltWater Pro as I wrote above. I plan on experimenting with various pipes with U bend facing forward. Hoping to be able to set up a pipe that will fill and overflow a jerrycan located at the swim platform whilst under weigh. Then I can plug my raw water pump into that.
One trap when pickling. Make sure you use water that has been through a carbon filter to mix your pickling solution so you don't get chlorides in your membrane. I have a filtered water outlet in the galley sink so easy to do.
I do like the look of the deck wash pump and will think about how I can use that into the system. Be good for cleaning muddy anchors.
Sean



Subscribe
Reply

Forums > Sailing General


"What did you do to your sailing boat today ?" started by Boatin