03/09/2010, Simons Town
Hi, its been a while since my last update. I am working from my yacht today in order to get it ready for a viewing later this afternoon. Im having mixed feelings about selling Shamrock and am not really sure why I am entertaining a potential viewer. I guess that everything is for sale and its just a question of price...We will see how things go a bit later on this afternoon.
She seems to be picking up a fair bit of weed these days and despite me diving and doing a good scrape it seems to be as bad as ever again.
Thinking about doing a pursuit race this weekend from Simons Town to Gordons Bay this Saturday and a leisuely sail back on Sunday. Even my wife is volunteering to come with which is a surprize.
Weather is looking good for the race...no excuses.
Im busy charging the batteries today and making sure that everything is ready for Saturday. Must speak to the race officials and enter formally.
|
Comments [0]
02/11/2010, Simon's Town
New windows
|
02/01/2010, Simons Town
I managed to scrounge an autohelm 6000 and a B & G wind indicator from a chap on the marine who was leaving recently. I have fitted the instrument into the bulhead and the wind direction and anonometer on the stern rail. I need to get the plugs for the power and to connect the instrument to the indicator. The Autohelm is a different story and will require a linear drive in addition to all of the parts that I already have. Haven't even thought about sourcing one of those yet.
I have had soem recent problems with the enginbe starting which has caused some difficulty recently. I have had the starter motor rebuilt and have eventually rewired the starter swithc and bypassed the relays to the starter solenoid. The engine now starts on the button and is a pleasure. In reflection there were several issues which occuring which made starting difficult. They were, a lazy relay in the wiriing to the starter. The power source which I used to initiate the starting didn't have a 12volt feed and was only registering about 10V so there was some voltage drop somewhere along the line. Also the starter solenoid was loose which was addressed with the rebuild.
|
12/02/2009, Simons Town
Since my last blog note, I have made major progress and have completed a number od outstanding activities. My nice new Head is in place complete with new seat/lid and all the internals and sanitary hoses. What a mission to get that working and connected. Not for the feint hearted.
Otherwise, all my old round windows have been remove anmd replaced with much more contempory dark perspex oblong windows. This has made a serious improvement to the overall appearance of the yacht and I am delighted with the end results. All of the internal window fittings have been cleaned and refitted. The entire effect is great and I can now see out of the windows, something I have never been able to do.
Ogther work completed recently include a new started button and wiring (yet another failure on the little engine control unit).
Otherwise not too much else done and very little sailing recently...No excuses, more sailing required...
|
11/09/2009, Simons's Town
My momentum carried me forward on the replacement of the portholes and i managed to get all the new perspex, drilled out the template holes, sourced the correct grade stainless steel self tappers this past week and negotiated with one of the local shipwrights to do the external installation. So to save money, this past weekend I stripped out all of the internal porthole fittings and nuts from the end of the screws. !48 in all to remove and a few of them were real beauties....
Another on-going project is the head. I sourced a replacement service kit for the head last week and planned to upgrade it over the weekend. After collecting it from the suppliers and after much debating whether or not the kit supplied would fit, they phoned me on the way home and offered me a replacement pump for the same price as the kit. I swapped things out on Saturday morning and planned the swap on Saturday afternoon. A yachts head has to be one of the worst possible place on a yacht to try and work in. It is so small especially where you are well of 6' foot tall and access is appalling..Anywho I started to undo the head from its plinth, messy job as the head has leaked for a prolonged period and everything was damp. I eventually managed to get it apart amd off the plinth but couldn't move the toliet as a complete unit as it wouldnt fir through the head door. Nothing for it but to seperate the bowl from the other assembly. The old head was in a poor condition and was showing all of its 25 years. To remove the main assembly I did have to unscrew the output linkage from it and at a later stage had to remove that plastic fitting from the outlet house. Not fun either but eventually managed to get everything stripped and ready for the refitting. I cleaned the bowl throughly ands scrubbed the most unaccessable areas and it came up quite good. Decided to replace the toilet seat as well while Im at it, so in addition to a new gasket between the bowl and the fitting, I will stick on a new seat. Whilst Im still at it I think I'll replace the fresh water inlet pipe and hose clamps as well.
Hopefully it goes back together reasonable easily and works. During this work I was hosted on my friends Catamaran Compromise and have come away with a number of useful tips concerning heads on yachts. use white vinager to reduce the calcification and smell of the heads. Also grease the bottom of the pump piston before use to slightly reduce the pressure within the unit. The alternative is too much to comprehend. I also managed to scrounce 3 fresh water pumps last Friday and my friend John "have a cup of tea" Gordon is rebuilding them and we hope to have a few running pumps in the next few days. That will address the running water problem.
Seems like my "to do" list is getting shorter but Im sure that it is only an illusion and if I really start to think about it, there is lots of new items to be added to the list.
|
10/27/2009, Simon's Town
Managed to get a couple of bits and pieces last week whilst on leave to address a number of outstanding issues. Firstly we have had two bad blows recently one of which has damaged the stack pack and caused the main to falp around badly last week. The wind was so bad that all I could do was to take a[part the stack pack, undo the main and stuff everything downbelow into the foc'cle. I went back on Saturday and refitted the danmaged stack pack and main and redid all of the stack packs ropes with a heavier gauge 8mm rope, which hopefully should managed better against the wind. I also managed to source all of the perspex and had it cut to size and the corners rounded in anticipation of replacing all of the original portholes. These circular porthold gives the yacht quite a dated appearance and new oblong dark perspex windows will improve things no end. Another job which has been on the to-do list for a while is to rejig the galley sink, and bilge outlet. I disconnected the sink and the t piece that connected both pipes to the tru hull fitting and refitted the sink outlet directly to the tru hull fitting. The new drilled hole for the bilge outlet has been fitted very high up under the gunnel and I have fitted 6 meters of new 19mm ID hole a very cirtuitious route to the bilge pump. Dont think there is enough water in the bilge to get it to work yet but will try again next weekend and hopefully we wont need a booster pump.
After this I will undertake a similar process with the forward bilge and its connection to a t piece under the heads sink. I have difficulty in working in the heads as it is so cramped (relatively) and hard to manouver in let alone do any work. In thinking about it I need to improve the ventilation and replace the aged mushroom fitting with something more appropriate.
Another project succesfully completed has been the modifications doen to the original genoa and the change to a roller furler from a hank on. After several frustrating attempts to make a plan, I took the original sail to Quantum sails in Cape Town and they did a great job on it. When I went to fit it last Saturday morning, I have a blonde moment and initially attempted to fit the sail upside down. I was panicing badly when I realized my mistake and rectified it. The new sail fitted like a dream and rolls away neatly. Think I need to increase the length of the roller control sheet as it appears to be a bit too small.
Hopefully the next pictures will include the perspex windows....
|
