Kaimusailing

This past week I made a trip up to Maryland to see my doctor for my annual physical. Drive up Thursday, blood work Friday morning, visit Cornelia Marie and travel down to Crisfield to see her house, stay the weekend, and while she’s mowing the lawn, I’m up on the porch enjoying an adult beverage. One of the townspeople walks by, I say, “I likes it this way”. Monday morning have the physical and then drive down to the boatyard, 11 hours nonstop except for fuel.
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A new cell phone had arrived as well as a heavy duty sewing machine. It was a special deal at Amazon, a Singer 4423 for $96. The cell phone was also a preowned Samsung Galaxy S5. It’s water proof and shock resistant. I added a clear gel protective backing and have screen protectors on order. My research on the phone resulted in a plan to upgrade its Android operating system. A new version of Android comes out about every year. The current version is called Pie. My old phone was running Kit Kat. The versions’ names are alphabetical, thus, Kit Kat, Lollipop, Marshmallow, Nougat, Oreo, and Pie. I expected to install Nougat on this phone, but I found it was running Marshmallow which is new enough to leave as is.
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The sewing machine resulted from a request by my younger daughter for a sewing machine and her sewing pro friend suggested she get a Singer 3352. I looked up that machine and then found the 4400 series of heavy duty machines. I asked her to ask her friend about those. The reply was that she should get the 4452 and I found one on Amazon, preowned, but described as 9/10 condition with all original accessories. I also found a 4423, a heavy duty machine with fewer decorative stitches, but perfect for making sail covers, which is what I needed. The price on this one was only $96 with free shipping.
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I spent some time winding bobbins with my large spool of sailmaking thread. I had a roll of navy blue ballistic polyester cloth that had black urethane coating on one side. I had used this same roll of cloth for my sail cover that went over the side with the mast and boom. My idea now was to not make a stack pack like I had before, but to make a simple sail cover with fasteners joining it underneath the boom. I had a small piece of that cloth and did some test stitches. I concentrated on straight stitch and zig-zag. The next day I repaired a gym bag that had a handle falling off and a zipper that was becoming unstitched. The machine sewed through the thick fabric and leather of the bag without any problems.
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I found it hard to begin any new projects due to the hot weather. Work could be done mornings and some days are not as hot. The hot days have forecasts 95 and over. The actual temperature in the boatyard is up to 10 degrees hotter than forecast. Days of lower forecast are pleasant if you do not exert yourself. I found the diamond spreaders were pinned to the tangs on the mast but the pins didn’t have any cotter pins in them. I pinned the pins and readjusted the upper shrouds and headstay.
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I wanted to get something done in spite of the hot weather, so I mounted the boom on the mast and threaded the topping lift through to the rope clutches at the gooseneck, then hoisted the boom up. Now I could put a shade cloth over the boom and work on deck and get something done. The new solar panels hadn’t been wired yet.
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My plan was to use butt crimp connectors, solder, heat shrink tubing, and E6000 sealant to connect the 3 individual panels that make up each large panel. I couldn’t get the soldering gun to tin the copper wire I had on hand and the solar panels came with some kind of aluminum wire. I couldn’t seem to make anything work and I quit on the project and went to shore to the boatyard.
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Capn Radio Bill heard of my problems and said why didn’t I just remove all the solar panel original wire and wire directly into the junction boxes. I hadn’t thought of that and back on board I opened one of the little junction boxes. Inside the solar wiring was clamped by a large screw. There was a junction box at each end of each small panel, one was the + connector, the other was -. I removed the aluminum wire and rewired the panel with landscaping wire. No soldering, just clamp down the wire with the screw.
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I had ordered many aluminum Z brackets to mount the panels. One Z bracket would raise the panel about 1 inch from the cabin top. Using multiple brackets would raise the panel further, and I needed about 4 inches of clearance above the cabin top for the panel to clear the hatch underneath it. The 3 small panels were joined together by aluminum angle bar at the plus and minus ends. The small panels are 13“ wide, so 3 panels are about 39“ wide and the angle bar is about 48“ long. When I trimmed the excess angle bar I realized I had 8 pieces about 4 1/2 inches long. I could visualize blind riveting the angle bar to the corner of the panel. I would have 4 legs on the large panel, I needed 4 feet for those legs. All the Z brackets were designed to mount to the cabin top and to the bottom surface of the solar panel frame. I gathered up 8 brackets that were different from the others. These had two holes for 1/4-20 bolts on one side and a long slot on the other side. I brought them ashore to the metal shop and used the 50 ton press to make L brackets out of Z brackets.
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The photo is of one of the L brackets. The two holes are for 1/4-20 bolts into the cabin top, the slot is for two large flange blind rivets into a vertical aluminum L bar. The L bar is blind riveted to the corner of the panel.