July 3, 2009 - Galley Sink Faucets

After a day of sailing & swimming, I decided to stick around and finish out another project.

The freshwater system is getting a total makeover, and this means new faucets as well. The old system in the galley had a footpump & faucet, as well as a pressure hot and cold faucet. The pressure water system was toast and the water heater didn't come with the boat, so this was pretty worthless. The icebox pump also drained straight into the cabinet under the galley sink, so we couldn't store anything that couldn't get wet in that cabinet.

I replumbed the ice box pump to the old foot pump faucet in the back part of the sink and this works great now. Nice and dry.

Marine faucets are either hideously expensive or hideously ugly. We picked up a faucet for a filtration / reverse osmosis system at Lowe's for $40. The holes matched perfectly, and with a couple reducers, was able to plumb this right into the water lines for the boat. I also like how much more reach into the sink this gives us, which will make washing dishes easier. The faucet also turns aft enough to be tucked under the cockpit recess; this should provide a little bit of protection from sheets and halyards that drop into the cabin while sailing.

The water system is almost complete!

July 3, 2009 - The Great Search for Breeze....

Crew: Tauri, Chris & Arabella / The Austins

Got to the boat early and did a little cleaning, including pulling the knotmeter transducer again. This thing just will not stay clean. Time to figure out a way to keep the growth off. Also took the kayak for a quick spin and scrubbed off as much of the growth on the starboard side as I could. The bottom paint is still doing a decent job, but I think I may change it up again next time.

Tauri and the Austins showed up around 1015 and the debate over whether there would be any breeze raged. We all stood in awe, watching the thermals work their way down from Beaufort and totally crap out about 100 meters from the mooring. We decided to go for it anyway and left the dock at 1045.

1045 - Wind NW 0-5, Sky Clear, Temperature 90F, Tide Ebb, Engine, Mainsail

Left the dock and headed south towards McTeer Bridge. Raised the mainsail on the way towards the bridge. Still no breeze...

1210 - Wind WNW 0-5, Sky Clear, Temperature 95F, Tide Ebb, Engine, Main & Genoa

Reached G "37" off the NE corner of Parris Island. Ran the engine back and into neutral to see if there was even enough breeze to drift...nope... The kids were getting hot and the fishing lines started getting all tangled, so we decided to turn around and head back to the club.

1240 - Wind NW 5, Sky Clear, Temperature 95F, Tide Ebb, Main & Genoa

Turning north into the Beaufort River, there was just enough breeze to get us going upwind and we sialed along at about 3-3.5 knots for about 20 minutes. It was a good sail while it lasted, but the breeze eventually crapped out again. We saw some dolphins, so we turned downwind and drifted a bit watching them play. There was a very large dolphin and 2 smaller ones playing alongside the boat. Unfortunately, whenever a powerboat would come along, they would disappear for a while. Eventually, we totally lost even drifting steerage and decided it was time to head back to the club. Tim drove while I furled up the genoa and flaked the main.

Dolphin Watching Drift:

1315 - Wind NW 5, Sky Clear, Temperature 97F, Tide Slack

We arrived at our mooring (#5), since all of the club piers were taken up with the junior sailors. We had lunch on the boat and watched the juniors sail out, then motored over to the docks.

Lunch on the Mooring Drift:

We had some drinks and capped the day off at the pool.

After everyone left, I stuck around to install the new galley faucet.

Total Distance: 8.8 nm

Avg Speed: 3.0 kts SOG

Total Time: 2h 39m 5s

June 30, 2009 - Freshwater Tank Plumbing

We finally finished up the fill and vent hose plumbing for the freshwater tank. Why did it take so long you may ask? Well, it seems that everything we went to install new would break an old fitting. The final piece to break off was the tank vent thru-hull. Snapped right off just pulling the old hose off. Ohh well, $12 and a trip to West Marine later, we have a pretty good looking new vent. This one has the screen in it to keep crud out, which the old one didn't. Upgrade!

Routing the new plumbing for fill and vent was easy and they attached straight to the tank with no other problems. Check another one off the list. By the way, I'm really let down with the new Blackberry photo quality...

June 14, 2009 - Installing Instruments

With the backing plate cured, I was able to finally install the new Raymarine ST40 instruments. I used the templates provided with the instruments to layout the holes. The instruments fit perfectly, the gasket seamed to seal very well (haven't done the hose test yet), and the backing nut was very easy to tighten and set up. All in all, probably the easiest set of instruments I've had to install.

June 14, 2009 - New Head Sink Drain

While removing more of the freshwater system plumbing, we managed to break off the head sink drain. The existing drain had a copper pipe brazed to the bottom of it to reduce it to the 1" hose. This hose also ran to the head sink thru-hull and had the bilge pump hose tied into the middle of it.

I ordered a new 2" drain, with 1" hose barb from Forespar for $20. The new drain came with a nice stainless flange and strainer basket. Much nicer than the old one!

Tauri did the install and replaced the drain hose as well. The whole job came out phenomenal!

June 7, 2009 - New Instrument Backer Panel

I removed the old Signet knotmeter and depthsounder to find that, of course, the old holes were much larger than the new holes for the Raymarine ST40's. I looked around at some wooden backer plate ideas, but that just didn't suit our style. I got the idea to build a carbon backer panel, with a 2x2 twill on the face for that "carbon" look.

The panel was wet laminated, with peel ply on the back. Since epoxy is inherently not UV stable, the panel was wet sanded, then varnished to provide a level of UV protection. I suppose I could have clearcoated, but I didn't have that at my disposal in the time I had.

Step 1: Lamination

Step 2: Dry Fit

Step 3: Final Install of Varnished Panel

May 31, 2009 - Beaufort River Sail

Crew: Chris, Tauri, Arabella, the Wrights

Another hot day in Beaufort, but we made it out for a sail to cool off. We started the day by removing some more of the freshwater system plumbing and knocking the head sink drain off. Turns out, it was so corroded that just a small tap made it fall apart. We made a quick trip to West Marine, but of course they didn't have any type of sink drain in stock. The galley sink drain is also tied to the bilge pump discharge, so we just closed the thru-hull so that we could go for a sail. Ordered a new drain from West Marine.

Also removed the knotmeter transducer and cleaned off the growth. It's amazing how fast the growth is here in the Beaufort River. Bella thought there was shrimp growing on the paddlewheel! The new Raymarine ST40 thru-hull transducers, with the flapper doors, really cut down on the amount of water that gets in the boat when you pull a transducer and replace it with the plug. That being said, it's always a tense moment when you reach the last thread and pull...

The breeze was forecast out of the west, but was of course out of the south. We motored south to Parris Island, then turned and sailed back under full main and full genoa. Had a great sail back up the river.

Total Distance: 6.7 nm

Avg Speed: 3.2 kts SOG

Total Time: 2h 4m 16 sec