Although I brought the digital camera with every intention of taking over a hundred pictures, we ended up taking 40 and I killed a few with wrong settings.
Things I learned over Memorial Day weekend:
1. Things get exciting between Brant Isle Shoal and Ocracoke
2. I forget to take pictures when things get exciting (I would oleve to have remembered)
3. Everybody's faster than me (ok, everybody's bigger than me)
4. A 2.5 year-old does not get sea-sick playing in a v-berth healed over 20+ degrees pounding into 3ft waves but you do when she asks you to join.
5. I can make sandwitches in above-mentioned conditions.
6. Club cruises gives you serious boat-envy
[more later]
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Pictures can be found here
[Disclaimer: I do not want to insult any of the POs or the nice people at the Catalina factory, but the text below contains some rants and insults. I did use the phrase "incompetent monkey" a few times while working, I apologize to the unified Karma]
Finally started the DC panel project. Several things were not working and the back of the existing panel hanging over the diesel made me nervous (I assume all the wires, switches etc were cooked from being 5-8 inches from the engine for 16 years).
Step one: hold the 12x21 Starboard panel in its planned place. Realize the shelf is not deep enough at the aft end of the starboard settee.
Step two: confer with admiral and the supreme commander (the latter at this point is more interested in touching untouchables (scissors, heat guns, Clorox wipes) than boat architecture), agree on the aft end of the port settee (realize all wire measurements previously made are now wrong).
Step three: start gutting. I removed the existing panel (did not require removal any screws since installation of said screws made everything quit working, yikes!) and the quarterberth-side and forward panels from the engine compartment and with copies of the electrical drawings from the manual plus the schematic I drew of the planned system in hand got to tearing apart:
After much head scratching and later tracing a "mystery white wire" it turned out whomever installed the radio disconnected the deck light and used that switch (small rant, now who does that?). Took longer to trace the mystery red/blk pair connected to one of the batteries. The "memory" power for the radio was connected to one of the batteries directly with no switch or fuse (big rant; just pick up a $10 book and READ it!!!)
We removed all cable hangers and tie wraps and wrote everything on the manual copy so later we know what goes where. After a while we gave up on trying to asses the status of the wiring and the crimp connectors and cut the wires to the stereo, VHF and the instruments at both ends and decided to re-wire.
Time to figure out the boat wiring, ended up removing both galley cabinets to see what goes where. It seems the mast wiring is in a big brown (4x14 or16?) cable snaked through the engine compartment, behind the galley, through the top of the bilge (and presumably up the compression post). The good news was when we un-snaked all that there was plenty cable to reach the new panel position so we do not need to extend those wires. The bad news is it did not reach far enough to get rid of the nastiest bend in the cable, so we need to test that further.
The running+cabin lights bundle was another story. It seemed to be wound in electrical tape through-out the whole boat. I used to work in a place that also made car wiring harnesses. They used what looked like electrical tape without the glue; which works fine if you wind it tight. Reason being after a few years the glue fails anyway and all you have is gunk (now imagine after 16 years). Again the good news was by the time I un-snaked the bundle out of the engine compartment and the lazarette it reached the new panel location.
In the lazarette the shore power wiring and the 12V wiring was all mixed up and in places pulled tight against each other. I may be new to boat electrics but I did not like that. [Side bar: with the batteries completely disconnected an the charger unplugged I kept working in the boat and later the lazarette until I realized I was yank-testing shore power wiring with the shore power plugged in. I froze mid wiggle with metal tool in other hand and teeth and had to yell for the admiral to unplug before her idiotic beloved fried hisself]
and One more rant: speaking of electrical tape, there was way too much everywhere (the battery terminals, every crimp terminal, some bundles were all wrapped in generous amounts of black tape with gunk. Someone recently referred to 5200 as "-the-next-guy-in-a-tube"; well in my book electrical tape is "-the-next-guy-in-a-roll"
Now we have a hole near the aft end of the port shelf where the panel will be and the following have been routed there:
The mast cable (in a new split loom) coming up through the hole
#8 Red + #8Blk + #14 Red (to bring switched and a little unswitched power to the panel) in their own loom coming up through the hole
The running+cabin light bundle coming out of the deck/hull joint (where that bundle seems to run around the boat
two 2x14 cables for instruments and for the VHF+Stereo hung under the galley cabinet
Here are the steps I followed:
a. Make cardboard templates to fit between the port shelf and the overhang above it.
b. Build plywood box to fit there and finish in 2 coats of varnish
c. Cut holes in starboard front and install switches
Lay out terminal blocks and strips and the front panel on a table and run all internal wiring.
d. Remove the blade connectors from the front panel (I labeled all wires with writeable heat-shrink tubing)
e. Take everything to the boat
f. Find out the box does not go into place (it probably would have fit but did not GO in), cut some pieces off (annoying that a few places now do not have varnish)
g. Install box on the shelf (it is mounted to the shelf with self-tapping screws and the ceiling overhang with t-nuts)
h. Pull wires and cables into box, terminate and attach to terminal strips
i. Attach front with the hinge
j. Connect the blade connectors
k. Connect the batteries
Still missing:
Wiring for the GPS power
Small cable for the compass light
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Pictures can be found here.
Easter weekend we finally managed to name the boat and go on our first cruise ever.
We left Oriental for Morehead City, NC for the NSA (Neuse Sailing Association) Easter Cruise. This would be our first cruise, until now we slept on the boat at dock and zig-zagged up and down the Neuse. The trip is a 4-nm sail across the Neuse and 14 nm down the ICW. The weather held and we had a good time.
We are still working on the full story, but here is what I learned in three days:
1. I have a really inflated view of my ability to sail in marginal winds and angles.
2. Dolphins live in the strangest places along the ICW. Also they prefer a noisy boat to a quite one (on the way down we were sailing and my daughter was sleeping, they checked us out and left. on the way back we were motoring and the supreme commander was yelling and squealing at the "big fish", they followed us for 30 minutes or so)
3. Of all the combination of steering, lounging, etc, the one that does NOT work is one of us steering and the other one watching and helping
4. The C25 can go 6.3 kts downwind with just a (non-poled) genoa if the tide is going out really fast
5.Just because I can dock in our berth with the known winds and turns, does not mean I can do it in a new marina with dozens watching. At least did not hit any of the boats attended by scared looking people. Can't say the same for pilings but they did not look scared.
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