Philip
03/18/2006, Georgetown yacht basin, MD

It was a trying year. Jabulani was moved from her re-construction site to the Sassafras river, in MD, where some problem areas in the hull were detected. Fixing Ferrocement boats is easy, but time consuming, and with my work schedule it took another 5 months before Jabulani was launched again, this time more permanately. So on November 4th, Jabulani floated on her own bottom in more than 6 years. The winter was spent doing several projects, to prepare Jabulani for some extended offshore sailing.

Shakedown Phase

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Philip
04/11/2005, New Jersey

Jabulani is nearing the end of her construction phase. She was purchased on December 16, 2000, and since then she has undergone a major refit.

Construction Phase

Comments [2]

Tony
12/31/1969, Jersey City

I called Phillip to see how he was doing. I got his voice messages and left the following message. "I hope you are not answering your phone because you are out sailing and I caught you at a time when you are in the middle of making a tack! Talk to you soon. Tony."

After playing phone tag for a while we finally talked. Phillip said that he was still dry docked and that he had some work do before launching. We arranged to meet Saturday at the Liberty Harbor marina at Jersey City, NJ.

I arrived at the boatyard at 8:30 am. Phillip was busy lightly sanding the bottom of the hull as Luke sat looking on. I waited for Phillip to break. The electric sander stopped and I greeted Phillip.

Phillip called out to Ekkehart who was in the main cabin. Ekkehart popped out of the cabin and said, "Hello." Phillip said that he was sizing up the ice box to figure out how to install a new refrigeration unit that Phillip had purchased. Phillip asked me if I would like to take a look. I said, "Yes". I climb up the ladder kicked of my shoes and entered the cabin to take a look.

Ekkehart had already place boundary line to mark the possible spot to place the coolant unit. Ekkehart had also picked a location for the compressor that was on the outside wall of the ice box.

Coolant Unit Placement
The installation seemed easy until one actually began placing the units. Originally the coolant unit was to be placed on the inside wall away from the hull. The problem that I had with that placement was that every time someone reached in to retrieve an item they would have to reach around the coolant unit and also make sure that there item did not bang in to the unit during retrieval. I suggested we should consider relocating the unit to the hull side. If we did that the unit would be out of the way.

Compressor Placement
Ekkehart showed me where he wanted to place the compressor. He choose a good spot that laid on the aft wall outside of the icebox. The position was good and the unit came with a nice mounting bracket that could be easily screwed in. I suggested that a cover be built to house and protect the compressor from items that go bump in the night. Installation seemed very doable!

The Problem
The coolant unit sits inside of the icebox and the compressor sits outside the icebox.
Lets drill a hole!
The coolant unit has a copper coil that one can unravel during installation to fashion to the desired bends to meet the compressor.
All seemed very doable, until we discussed the size of the hole and the thickness of the wall that the copper tube needed to be fed through.

Ekkehart and I agreed that we did not want to bend the 9 feet of copper tubing too much for fear that we would break it. The wall that we needed to go through was about 7 inches. The inside width of the ice box is about 30 inches. The question! What shape should the coolant coil be unraveled so that it could be fed through the interior of the icebox and through the 7 inch hole?

Options
Unravel the coolant coil - Unravel the coil into a big C shape that will allow the tube to be fed into the icebox and through the hole in the 7 inch wall. Suggestion, buy a piece of copper tubing that would represent the size and length of the copper coil coolant tube. Buy a PVC tube to represent the size of the hole and 7 inch width that the copper tubing will need to be fed through. Also get a cardboard box that would represent the interior space of the icebox. If you can not find the right size box to represent the icebox get enough cardboard to mock up the dimensions of the interior of the icebox.
Let's play. Cut a hole into the cardboard mock up icebox and tape the 7 inch tube at the hole. Attach support legs to the tube to stabilize the PVC tube so it will not move during the test. Take the test copper tubing and shape it into the shape of the original coolant coil. Unravel it into a C shape that will allow one to feed the tube into the icebox and through the PVC tube. Gently straighten the tube as it begins to enter the PVC tube. Continue until the tube has been completely fed through the hole. Is this doable? I think there may be a better way.

Cut a large hole into the side of the icebox - Cut a large enough hole to allow the coil to pass from the interior to the exterior of the icebox. Build two panels that will cover the interior and exterior icebox holes.

Positioning the wall holes - Drill the panel hole as close to the edge of the side panel as possible. Remove enough material so that your hole forms a U shape to the edge of the panel. This will allow you to slip the panel around the tube. This will eliminate the tube feeding problem and recoiling the copper coil. This will also allow you easy access if you ever find the need to replace the coolant unit or the compressor.

Dealing with Condensation - A puddle of water will accumulate at the bottom of the icebox. How do you get the water out? One could move the items so one could scoop the water out. Or, one could drill a hole that would allow water to drip into the hull eventually allowing the water to find its way to the bilge. Or, one could place a PVC pipe in the corner of the ice box that would extend from the top of the ice box to the bottom. This PVC tube would reserve a space to allow one use a straw method to siphon the accumulated water from the bottom of the icebox. The straw would be made up of another piece of PVC that would act like a straw and a flexible tube that would connect the straw to the pump. One would insert the straw into the icebox PVC pipe to pump out the excess water. The beauty of this method is that one could measure the water level with a stick by inserting the stick in to the station PVC pipe to determine how often one would need to pump out the water from the icebox.

Construction Phase

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Tony
12/31/1969, Jersey City

I called Phillip to see how he was doing. I got his voice messages and left the following message. "I hope you are not answering your phone because you are out sailing and I caught you at a time when you are in the middle of making a tack! Talk to you soon. Tony."

After playing phone tag for a while we finally talked. Phillip said that he was still dry docked and that he had some work do before launching. We arranged to meet Saturday at the Liberty Harbor marina at Jersey City, NJ.

I arrived at the boatyard at 8:30 am. Phillip was busy lightly sanding the bottom of the hull as Luke sat looking on. I waited for Phillip to break. The electric sander stopped and I greeted Phillip.

Phillip called out to Ekkehart who was in the main cabin. Ekkehart popped out of the cabin and said, "Hello." Phillip said that he was sizing up the ice box to figure out how to install a new refrigeration unit that Phillip had purchased. Phillip asked me if I would like to take a look. I said, "Yes". I climb up the ladder kicked of my shoes and entered the cabin to take a look.

Ekkehart had already place boundary line to mark the possible spot to place the coolant unit. Ekkehart had also picked a location for the compressor that was on the outside wall of the ice box.

Coolant Unit Placement
The installation seemed easy until one actually began placing the units. Originally the coolant unit was to be placed on the inside wall away from the hull. The problem that I had with that placement was that every time someone reached in to retrieve an item they would have to reach around the coolant unit and also make sure that there item did not bang in to the unit during retrieval. I suggested we should consider relocating the unit to the hull side. If we did that the unit would be out of the way.

Compressor Placement
Ekkehart showed me where he wanted to place the compressor. He choose a good spot that laid on the aft wall outside of the icebox. The position was good and the unit came with a nice mounting bracket that could be easily screwed in. I suggested that a cover be built to house and protect the compressor from items that go bump in the night. Installation seemed very doable!

The Problem
The coolant unit sits inside of the icebox and the compressor sits outside the icebox.
Lets drill a hole!
The coolant unit has a copper coil that one can unravel during installation to fashion to the desired bends to meet the compressor.
All seemed very doable, until we discussed the size of the hole and the thickness of the wall that the copper tube needed to be fed through.

Ekkehart and I agreed that we did not want to bend the 9 feet of copper tubing too much for fear that we would break it. The wall that we needed to go through was about 7 inches. The inside width of the ice box is about 30 inches. The question! What shape should the coolant coil be unraveled so that it could be fed through the interior of the icebox and through the 7 inch hole?

Options
Unravel the coolant coil - Unravel the coil into a big C shape that will allow the tube to be fed into the icebox and through the hole in the 7 inch wall. Suggestion, buy a piece of copper tubing that would represent the size and length of the copper coil coolant tube. Buy a PVC tube to represent the size of the hole and 7 inch width that the copper tubing will need to be fed through. Also get a cardboard box that would represent the interior space of the icebox. If you can not find the right size box to represent the icebox get enough cardboard to mock up the dimensions of the interior of the icebox.
Let's play. Cut a hole into the cardboard mock up icebox and tape the 7 inch tube at the hole. Attach support legs to the tube to stabilize the PVC tube so it will not move during the test. Take the test copper tubing and shape it into the shape of the original coolant coil. Unravel it into a C shape that will allow one to feed the tube into the icebox and through the PVC tube. Gently straighten the tube as it begins to enter the PVC tube. Continue until the tube has been completely fed through the hole. Is this doable? I think there may be a better way.

Cut a large hole into the side of the icebox - Cut a large enough hole to allow the coil to pass from the interior to the exterior of the icebox. Build two panels that will cover the interior and exterior icebox holes.

Positioning the wall holes - Drill the panel hole as close to the edge of the side panel as possible. Remove enough material so that your hole forms a U shape to the edge of the panel. This will allow you to slip the panel around the tube. This will eliminate the tube feeding problem and recoiling the copper coil. This will also allow you easy access if you ever find the need to replace the coolant unit or the compressor.

Dealing with Condensation - A puddle of water will accumulate at the bottom of the icebox. How do you get the water out? One could move the items so one could scoop the water out. Or, one could drill a hole that would allow water to drip into the hull eventually allowing the water to find its way to the bilge. Or, one could place a PVC pipe in the corner of the ice box that would extend from the top of the ice box to the bottom. This PVC tube would reserve a space to allow one use a straw method to siphon the accumulated water from the bottom of the icebox. The straw would be made up of another piece of PVC that would act like a straw and a flexible tube that would connect the straw to the pump. One would insert the straw into the icebox PVC pipe to pump out the excess water. The beauty of this method is that one could measure the water level with a stick by inserting the stick in to the station PVC pipe to determine how often one would need to pump out the water from the icebox.

Construction Phase

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