Read: Bahamas Shakedown or Refit or Caribbean or en Francais
Radar Arch
10/11/2006

The Tower of Power. We've tried hard to be weight and line conscience and this particular item is concurrently expensive, a shame, and a neccessity. The original pushpits provided an outboard storage mount and support for the radar mast: too much strain as evidenced by the cracking welds and bases. Towards our goal of adding solar and wind power we needed even more support. Our needs and a review of Griffin convinced us to, with great reluctance, add a radar arch. At 100+ lbs. its not what you want on the end of a boat (though it does balance the added chain on the bow) nor does it do anything for the lines, but we are cruising and do believe in alternative power so it is what it is. Here you see it stripped for hurricane season. Normally you would see the aft bimini, solar cells, and the blades on the wind generator. As a small consession, we now use a bimini cantelevered off the arch to get rid of all the strap and tube clutter around such crucial items as the rod holders and BBQ.

The radar arch was fabricated by Wells Marine: excellent work. It was installed by United Welding at the old Summerfield yard (now closed): terrible, aweful, shameful work. I'll reinstall it at some point.

In terms of windage, it turns out the arch itself is not much. The dinghy hanging from the davits certainly adds a bit, but it is the wind generator that really drags. Given that a running wind generator looks more-or-less like a flat plate disc, this comes as no surprise. We haven't been able to quantify the drag, but it could well take off a 1/4 kt. or so. The generator produces enough drag, and being offset and pivoting, that the boat sits quietly at anchor even without a riding sail. Before the generator, she sailed around the rode quite a lot. I did make a riding sail, but now we rarely use it. Note that the wind generator is mounted in an isolator (provided by SV Hotwire) to minimize vibration transmitted to the hull.

While we're here, see that binnacle? There's story there as well. The J/40 uses a special, and unfortunately steel, bracket as the backing plate/idler pulley mount to which the pedestal is bolted. It was corroded to the point of failure, so I ordered a new assembly and, what the heck, new chain, cables, breaings, ... as well. Things always seem worse once you get into them. The chain, which must have been original, wasn't looking so good. It had apparently had had a broken link which was replaced with a master type link. Well the other ones weren't far behind. The next link down had only one cheek left and the next one had crevice crack corrosion from pin to pin. Edson recommends replacing the chain/cable every five years or every year in hard service (charter). Good advice me thinks. Replaced the bearings, etc. while I had things opened up.

Refit
Welcome to the Refit
10/11/2006

This category shows off a subset of the refit activity as we prepare Norska as a temporary home of sorts for our Caribbean adventures. The theme is safe, comfortable cruising of the semi-costal variety. That we will always be within a couple of days of some reasonable port influenced the length of our spares list and some of the equipment that we've choosen to do without. What we have done is done to blue water standards, but we would do more if we were ranging farther out.

Most of the work we did ourselves. When it got really nasty, like grinding off bottom paint, we were pleased to let someone else suit up and deal with the mess. Some things, like heading rod and repairing the boom had to be done by folks with the right equipment, but for the most part its more effort and care than any special tool or skill.

Refit

Newer ]

 

Powered by SailBlogs