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Crownsville! Boat on the Severn River? We are practically neighbors. CB is in Whitehall Creek.
Hey out there, how many Chesapeake Bay P-424s are there? Enough to raft up at Wye River, Shaw Bay, and steal bragging rights from those Long Island Pond guys?
QuentWe have the same bow platform as the Texas boat. At some time before us, poor Clairbuoyant put enough stress on the platform to bend it down 1/2″ on one side, and deform a large Danforth anchor. We bent it back but now it is showing some stress cracking on one side. The platform is surprising sturdy considering there is no lower support. Actually, a support would have to be very long or almost horizontal, not very helpful.
We have an electric horizontal windlass and a large Manson Supreme anchor. Coming up is ok, but the anchor shank always whacks the Harken drum on the way down. Amazing how much abuse the Harken can take!
QuentKATO here in Annapolis lightened my wallet by about $600 for seven chainplates made from 316 bar stock. If I were to do it now, I would order the metal on the Internet, using Duplex 2205 alloy, and get a local machine shop to shape and drill them.
The problem with 300 series including 316, is that it is suseptable to stress corrosion cracking. The crack progresses along the grain structure of the metal kind of like paper tearing. Duplex is a mixture of two different grain structures which gets in the way of the progression of the crack.
Polishing, especially electropolishing makes the chainplates prettier, and makes it easier to see cracks, but probably doesn’t do much to prevent them from failing.
One other thing to look at are the tangs that connect the lowers to the mast. Ours had spiderweb cracks and were close to failure. Polish them with Mother’s, then look for cracks in reflected light.
QuentHi James-
Here’s a link to a relevent article
http://www.oceannavigator.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=803A297D175C4C85842B61DB799BB305
We just took the chainplates out and had them duplicated. All our shroud chainplates are the same dimensions. If you search my name on the ON site, there is also an article on stainless steel. Duplex stainless is available on line and is a better choice than 316 or other Austinetic alloys.
Quent
Clairebuoyant, #132A wise Mainer once told me, “Asking ain’t the same as getting.” This is apparently a wonderful time to buy a boat. Check out Craigslist.
QuentTwo sails, two sailors. Give me a couple days to drag them out, check for mouse holes, and measure them, and report back. Then you guys can figure out who gets what.
QuentAnother use for a good sparkproof blower is to remove any propane from the bilge should your propane alarm go off. This would require the blower duct to extend to the bilge sump bottom. On a diesel powered boat, propane is probably the biggest risk of fire or explosion.
QuentWell, I can say that based on our trip down the ICW last Fall, the blower does make a pretty good hand warmer.
QuentRich-
We started with that same Gunert system, and tried to keep it after installing an equally robust 12 volt dc holding plate system. The theory was that this provided redundancy, hence reliability. It didn’t work out and we pulled out the engine drive, replacing the compressor with a second 100 amp alternator. It was just too many things to break, and unless all the holding plates all froze at the same time, they worked against each other.
The engine drive system was fast and powerful, but because the holding plates were bolted to the uninsulated top of the frig box, things thawed quickly. After we pulled the engine drive out and added much insulation in its place, holdover time increased substantially even though we halved holding plate capacity. One thing that helped a lot was a vacuum panel in the lid that we got from Rparts.com.
With a large battery bank and the ability to charge in excess of 150 amps, engine run time to keep the frig is the same or less than it was with the engine drive.
We still have the old holding plates if anyone wants to build their own system. They are Dole galvanized plates, not pretty, but functional and indistructable.
One observation that might be helpful. If you have little or no insulation, the incremental improvement of even a little insulation can be significant. For instance, when we were working with the engine drive system, we stuffed 1/2″ rigid foam insulation in the small space between the upper holding plate and the underside of the countertop. It made a significant difference in holdover time.
QuentIf you have a Westerbeke 58, you most likely have a direct drive Warner Velvet drive transmission and a Walter 2:1 reduction RV-20 V-drive.
A friend of ours has a Campbell prop on his Pearson 36-2, and is very happy with it.
However for a P-424, I can’t see how a prop smaller that the original Michigan Wheel 18 by 12 in size and also smaller in blade area would be optimal.
We went to Bahamas and back at about 1800 rpm, 6.5-7 knots, and the Westerbeke was very happy all the way. Our buddy boat, a Caliber 40 with a Yanmar, ran about 2600 rpm to pace us. Their fuel consumption was about the same as ours, about 0.8 gallon per hour.
At full throttle, the boat does about one knot faster, and consumes a lot more fuel. A considerable amount of that fuel ends up as soot on the
transom.
QuentDon’t know if it relates to the L shaped galley, but in our 1981 U shaped one, it looks like Pearson used 2 part foam and molded a couple inches of insulation around the sides and bottom. There was no insulation in the top, and the lid was inadequate. There is space between hull side and under refrig box for Great Stuff. Quarter inch copper tube extends the GF tube so you can get to the back. Best to use the minimal expansion kind, otherwise it can push the box sides in.
We added rigid foam inside on three sides and bottom, and under the top. Forward side is blocked by the holding plate, and up against the bulkhead, so we are stuck with what Pearson gave us.
Regarding the lid, we built a new one using rigid foam, an R-parts vacuum panel, and formica. The lid is critical for us. For some reason, the sun always figures out how to shine through thr hatch onto the refrig lid.
I think that foam insulation is the most cost effective way to improve refrigeration. Way cheaper than upgrading the system.
QuentSeems to me that the problem here is that the pulpits are pretty high, 36″, and need to stand the weight of crew against the top. That is a lot of leverage on the fasteners in compression/tension cycles. Combined with the fact that the coach roof is a really bad place for deck leaks, the priority becomes attaching the pulpits so that nothing loosens up.
So, IMHO, you should take out plugs with a hole saw through the outside skin and plyood core, one for each fastener, fill the cavity with epoxy and high density filler. I’d use backing plates that conform to the inside conture of the coach roof and are both large and inflexible. Otherwise, the plywood core will compress, and water will get into the core.
I’d use fender washers and nylock nuts inside, above the headliner. If you use acorn nuts or barrel nuts, you can’t tighten the fasteners without shortening the bolts.
A couple other tricks; drill the fastener holes a tiny bit undersized when the epoxy is still green, but has set up. The fastener (or a tap) will cut threads in the epoxy for a tighter fit. Also, when you bed the pulpit base, leave the fasteners slack until the caulk sets. This way it doesn’t all just squeeze out, and you have some gasket effect.
Quent.One and one half inches in diameter. Left hand rotation. I have no experience with Max-prop. We have a fixed prop 18″ diameter, 12″ pitch, three blade that seems to work well with the W-58.
QuentHi Aaron-
Forward end, port cockpit lazarette. There is an access door from the quarter berth. Old round one came out, new box shaped one went in. It was a pretty close fit but once it was in. I think I had to remove the battens from around the opening, and bend down the mounting flanges on the new water heater. I was younger then.
Quent
