01/23/2007

Some time ago I found a great deal on a DeWalt 18-volt cordless drill. Two batteries and charger came with it. Yeah, it was a "factory re-manufactured" unit but it had the full warranty and everything. And I'd bought from these guys at Harbor Freight before (and since).

This was to be a boat-drill. With no 110-volt source except a small inverter I needed a drill I could use while on the hook in some little anchorage in the middle of nowhere paradise.

My friend only buys 12-volt tools because he can run them off of his boat's 12-volt system. But not me. I had to have the 18-volt model: More Power (Can I get a Home Improvement grunt from anyone?).

Well here we are more than a few years later and the batteries no longer hold a charge. Both of them together will spin that drill for about 3 minutes.

I hit the internet looking for prices. I find now that the DeWalt 18-volt batteries cost a billfold-emptying $90 each. Even cheap imitations over the Internet cost $40-$60.

Had I gone with another brand such as Ryobi it would have been much cheaper. They sell a pair of 18-volt batteries for $40 at the local Home Depot.

So I start thinking about what my friend said about running his tools off of his boat's batteries. And I think, "Why the hell not?"

Now I know that running a motor at a significantly lower voltage than that for which it is designed can cause it to overheat and generally pull more amperage through the system than normal. But this is just a battery-powered device. How much current can we be talking about here?

So I disassembled one of the battery packs. Inside I found a cluster of 'C' size rechargable cells and the plug (visible at the top of the battery pack). I removed with prejudice the battery cells. Then I soldered wires to the plug (after determining which was '+' ).




I epoxied the connector back into place in the battery pack (it had been held in place by the cluster of batteries) and closed up the package. Running the wire through the side of the empty battery pack and to a 12-volt cigarette lighter styled plug I was in business.

The now-empty battery pack still unclips from the un-altered drill as before and stores with the wire in a separate bag. The drill runs just fine. The drill will still run off the remaining battery pack (or a new generic if I can convince myself to buy that one on ebay) as well as plug into a 12-volt receptacle. I put enough wire on the thing to reach anywhere on board Galena.

Am I cheap, or what?

Comments [0]

01/20/2007

While contemplating anchors I remembered this picture I took of a couple of anchors a neighbor was throwing away.


I was in Nassau and this guy had had a rough night on The Banks.


The imitation CQR broke at the top pivot tab. The amount of rust indicated that it had been weakening for some time (inspect that ground tackle!).

When it separated, of course he found himself sweeping across the banks dangling a bit of chain with a shank at the end. So he dropped the Danforth. It held most of the night. But strong, veering winds soon had him pulling backwards on the Danforth. It bent as it pulled free. With the flukes bent it would not reset. Again he found himself blowing across the Banks. He deployed his "backup-backup" anchor (a small Bruce) and it held till dawn when he continued on to Nassau.

Comments [0]

01/17/2007

In the past couple of days I'd noticed a spike in readership at my main web page (www.sv-galena.com). I found that my site was finally added to the premier cruising and sea stories site, Cruise News. That would explain it. I asked to be added to the list of cruising web sites about a month ago and they seem to have accepted me. My web statistics indicate that I had been getting about 30 hits per day, mostly from the Westsail Owners Association site. Now I'm getting over 100. with 70 coming from Cruise News. I also joined the Cruising Web Ring and that should increase readership a little, too.

It's very cool to have people appreciate your words. I've received a few nice e-mails from readers comparing and contrasting my cruising adventures with their own. They've said nice things about my site, too. Gee, how will my head fit through that hatchway now?

I've also received some good advice from my readers. One has raised the issue of anchoring. Now, in case you don't know, starting a discussion among cruisers on anchors and anchoring is like bringing up gun control at an NRA meeting. Anchoring is something we all do and something we all think we're good at. Most of that bravado is warranted as most of us have not ended up on the rocks. But there are many different styles of anchors: CQR, Delta, Spade, Bruce, Fortress, Danforth, just to name a few. And one might encounter so many different types of bottoms in an anchorage: Sand (fine or course, grassy or clear, deep or shallow over rock), mud, or rocky or a mix of all the above. And the wind and current while anchored can be steady, reversing, strong, or mild. Don't forget the various methods of anchoring: all chain rode or chain-rope, 5:1 scope or 7:1, snubbed at the waterline or at the tip of the bowsprit, et al.

When you add up all the possible combinations of anchor, anchoring, bottoms, and conditions and throw in the fact that our very lives may depend on getting it right you have a field of study that is ripe for fiercely held beliefs and hotly debated alternatives. So when Andrew suggested that I change from CQR to Spade, while he made some good points (Really, thanks for information, Andrew; it made me think and that's always good.) he mostly pushed me down a path that just makes my head hurt.

Most of us inherit anchors on the boats we buy. If they work, we leave them in place. After all, a new anchor costs $250 - $300. That's a lot of beer. We usually need a terrifying night to convince us to change. I've only had two such events (that I recall). I'm stubborn.

Galena carries two 35-lb CQR anchors on her bow and a 20-lb Danforth on her stern. The starboard (main) CQR is attached to 180-ft of 3/8" BBB chain and 75-ft of 5/8" tripple-strand nylon. The port CQR is attached to 50-ft of 5/16" BBB chain and 250-ft of 5/8" tripple-strand nylon rode. The Danforth has 10-ft of chain and 150-ft of 9/16-inch tripple-strand. All of that was in place when I purchased Galena.

My anchoring style has evolved in the past couple of years to this:
-Place the starboard CQR on the bottom.
-Start backing down gently paying out chain until I have either 75-ft on the bottom or reach 5:1 scope.
-Snub the chain and back down hard watching adjacent range marks for movement.
-Once set, I lay down at least 100-ft of chain (that gives me 250-lbs of steel on the bottom).
[-In a reversing current, I'll Bahamian Moore by dropping back another 100-ft, try to align myself with the expected current, place the port CQR, pull myself back to windward until I have about 100-ft on both rodes.]
-I set a single, starboard-side snubber to keep the chain off Galena's bobstay.
And that's it.

As to which anchor(s) I should be carrying (again, good points, Andrew) who knows? Yes I've had some problems with the CQR. I've had it get clogged up with grass. I've had it pop out of hard sand and not reset. I've had it pull free in a blow (I only had 3:1 scope and the wind hit 50 knots so that was my fault). And I've had trouble getting it to set on some bottoms. But it's just so big and strong; massive it is. I look at that anchor, I heft it, and I believe, Yes, I can trust my life to this thing. It will not come apart. It will not bend. And if I do my part and put it where it can work, it will hold as well as anything else.

None the less. Andrew's comments and the comments of other cruisers, and the documented tests all over the Internet (just Google "Anchor Tests") have got me rethinking the matter. I'm again thinking about replacing one of my two CQR 35s with something more... er... modern? Something like a Delta or a Spade or even a Fortress. I don't know, though. I have a lot of reading/investigating/soul searching to do.

Comments [1]

01/16/2007

The dodger kit is setting on my family room floor. I have unpacked it and am just about ready to start building it. Actually, I'm going to build the frame, then Jane is going to sew the canvas.

I've been hessitent about this because of a couple of unresolved engineering issues.
First of all, how big do I make it? I'd like to be able to see over the top of the dodger when standing in the cockpit. But at any height, Jane will be forced to look through it since she's so short.

And how far astern of the companionway should I make it? I'm thinking that if it's 25" high and 12" back from the opening I should still be able to go in and out of the companionway with reasonable ease. I know there will be some degredation of ease of access to the cabin but just how much should I create?

Finally there's the issue of how do I attach/seal the dodger at the foreward edge where it hits the companionway hatch? I don't have a turtle over the hatch so it has to slide back and forth under the edge of the dodger. I've sort of decided on a rigid dam-like wall running from port to starboard about 4" high and following the line where the dodger will hit the cabin top. Made of fiberglass and bolted to the cabin top, it would provide a place to attach the front of the dodger with snaps and provide a spash-proof seal over the companionway hatch.

I'll have to take the frame kit to Galena on the next day with reasonable temperatures and start laying it out and making some decisions.

Comments [0]

01/15/2007

I finally finished the bowsprit and reinstalled it on Galena. She looks so much better with her nose than without.

The weather was fantastic and so there were several of my dock-mates on hand to help. Billy (s/v Betterdays), Terry (s/v Cloud Nine), and Gene (s/v SeaWoof) were all helpful in not only lifting the bowsprit into place, but also in solving the many inevitably problems that surfaced as I tried to bolt it into place.

We assembled the platform to the bowsprit and tied a halyard to each end just so we wouldn't drop it. With the platform in place it weighed in at about 75-lbs.



Then Terry and I swung it into place on Galena's bow. Once it was wedged between the Samson posts it stayed in position with the forward end hanging from the jib halyard.



The bowsprit is attached using three half-inch bronze carriage bolts. They go through the deck and into the chain locker below. There is also a bronze ring-bolt that carries the intermediate forestay to the bow tang below the bowsprit. These four bolt holes in the bowsprit had to align perfectly with the existing holes in the boat.



Since I was re-using the teak top trim piece, I used it as the template for the placement of the holes. But the bowsprit is over 5" thick. And my vertical alignment was not quite perfect. Even though I had marked and drilled the holes on the bottom of the bowsprit, once in place we found that the aft-most bolt was just a little (1/16") off. After much debate between the four of us on how to resolve this, how to get all of the bolts into their holes, we came up with a series of methods. Fortunately the first one worked. We kept the forward (ring-bolt into bow tang) nut in place and pushed down on the forward end of the bowsprit, tilting the aft end up. That allowed the bolt to angle just far enough aft to find the hole. Much pounding and twisting of nuts later the bowsprit was in place

Of course, while laying on my back stretching to reach the forward most bolt as it protruded into the top of the chain locker, I accidentally dropped the bronze nut into the pile of chain. Do you know how fast and completely a nut disappears into 300-feet of chain? Do you know how hard it is to buy a 1/2" bronze nut in this place? After a trip to the local marine and hardware stores I realized I would have to haul all that chain up out of the locker to recover the nut. But with one last search of the nooks and crannies I found the nut nestled in amoung the links.

All of that assmbly stuff took about 3 hours. It was enough work for one day. I blame the short days of winter with my decision to stop work and hit the bar for a couple of cold ones.

The next day, after recovering from a nasty hangover, I reinstalled the rigging, the pulpit, lifelines, one of the anchors, and generally cleared the foredeck so she looks a bit more seaworthy.

I found that one of the whisker stay turnbuckles was broken. That is, the toggle on the left-hand end was turning on the threaded shaft. A quick trip to the local West Marine disclosed that a new turnbuckle would cost a whooping $57. But just the T-bolt would only cost $17. And they happened to have the left-handed one in the proper size for me.


The whisker stays were new. The old ones have become corroded and frayed. I had the people at Chesapeake Rigging make up a new set for me. The cost was a bit much at $180. But it's a one-time cost; these should last as long as the boat. And they did a fine job.

After I tightened up everything I noticed that I had put one of the turnbuckles on 'backwards.' As a general rule of thumb, the turnbuckle should be affixed so that the right-hand thread is attached to the 'fixed' tang and the left-hand thread attached to the wire. That provides a more intuitive and consistent direction when adjusting the tension. I'll have to remove and reinstall that turnbuckle sometime soon, before I forget. Once the rigging settles, I'll also have to remember to install the codder pins to prevent the turnbuckles from loosening.



All that effort resulted in yet another trip to the local pub to recover our strength. Yes, Terry was a bad influence on me all weekend.

Comments [1]