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Thatcher
There are a number of things that can cause your belt to wear. One of them
is old age. Both the alternator and belt are service items and must be
serviced at a regular interval. Once the belt starts slipping, it will
burnish and won’t grab the pulleys well from that moment on. A burnished
belt should be changed and not overtightened. Here are some tips.Belts come in three flavors, no notch, notch on the outside and notch on the
inside. The notches are for cooling the belt. Ignore the first type. Don’t
use them. For the other two, one is designed to take a shock load and the
other is designed to wear well. The first type is thinner. It avoids damage
when subjected to a shock load by slipping slightly. They usually come with
ribs on the outside to provide better cooling. They tend to wear out
quicker, but rarely snap. Use this type if you have an oversized alternator.
When the regulator switches into high charge, it will put a shock-load on
the alternator belt. The other flavor has a thicker construction and slips
less. These belts frequently have ribs on the inside. Since they have more
surface area in contact with the sheave, they don’t slip as easily. When
subjected to a shock load, they may snap.Belt tension must be maintained properly. Too much tension can cause
premature wear of the alternator or water-pump bearings. It can also cause
a failure of your engine crankshaft. Too little tension can cause the belts
to wear. I tension my belts until there is about the same amount of play as
the belt thickness when I press down on the belt. I use a tensioning tool
to make the adjustment.The pulleys must be in alignment with each other. A bent alternator or
water pump bracket can cause the belts to wear unevenly.Don’t overtighten the alternator rack bolt. A proper bolt, nut, and
lock-washer shouldn’t allow the alternator to slip in the rack.Belts must be of the proper size for their load. If you retrofit a
high-capacity alternator, your stock pulleys may not be large enough. This
can cause you to overtighten the belts to keep them from slipping. If you
have this problem consider adjusting your regulator max charge setting if it
has one.If you have everything setup properly, you won’t have belt-dust on the
accessory end of the engine.Rich
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I assume we mean Ed. Merrick. Ed was a wealth of knowledge and I’m sure we all miss him. I remember the discussion. I searched through my email archive and could not find it.
I did something similar but not quite as elegant. It seems to work for me, but I’m sure his solution was better. The biggest improvement came from fixing the leaks under the hatch frame. Keeping the water from getting under the hatch slide is of little help if it leaks under the frame.
Rich
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James
Do you know what your “I” measurement is or perhaps the total length of your mast? The 54’8″ measurement sounds a little high for “I=47.25”. I had thought that Pearson offered a taller version of the cutter, but I can find no measurements for it.Regards
Rich
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Be careful! Most ketches have the taller 47.25′ “I” measurement, putting
the masthead at about 51′ off the water, not including any antenna,
windspeed sensor, or running lights you might have up there.Rich
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Dan
There’s nothing special there. Just be sure to caulk the fasteners when you put them back in. Here’s some useful information.
http://www.richardcarter.net/boat/deckRot/Regards
Rich
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Alan
You could check the strut by checking the V-drive alignment. On the hard, things sit differently so it won’t be aligned perfectly. If its withing about .0020, its probably OK. I suppose you could get an error if the prop shaft is bent between the strut and V-drive. That’s pretty easy to check by bringing the shaft to a shop which you probably need to do anyway. So if you haven’t taken things apart so far, disconnect the shaft coupling and measure V-drive alignment. Then pull the shaft and have it checked. While the shaft is out, you might consider replacing the cutless bearing if its got a couple of thousand hours or more on it. If your shaft is an original bronze shaft, it may have needed replacement soon anyway. Consider a stainless replacement. If the shaft was bent so that it threw off the V-drive alignment you won’t know if the strut is bent or not. When you pull the shaft, it should slip just to starboard and below the skeg. A tiny bend in the strut can be compensated for by realigning the V-drive.By reputation, the W58 is a good engine. If its running well and seems reliable, why replace it? I’d recommend pulling the engine and have a compression test done on it. If it checks out OK clean it up and repainting it. Replace whatever leaky gaskets you have and inspect/rebuild the accessories (starter, water pumps. alternator). Maybe rebuild the injectors. If the compression check is off, it may just need a valve job which isn’t a big deal unless Westerbeke is holding the parts for ransom as they did with the W60..
The Velvet-drive transmission is a very reliable piece if equipment too, but if its never been rebuilt, you might consider having that done. Its heavy, but easy to pull. A rebuild should run around $600. Have the transmission heat-exchanger cleaned and inspected too.
Rich
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Interesting. I’ve never seen another cost rollup. Yours is a little over
$22k including labor and including new batteries and inverter. Mine was a
little over $21K and I did all the labor. My costs included a new V-drive,
prop-shaft and prop.Rich
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I posted my notes when I repowered. It would be difficult to do a simple
comparison because cost and labor is much dependent on how far down the
rabbit hole one goes. Once you start replacing things, its hard to stop.Rich
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Alan
What a bummer! I would guess your insurance would cover this. As you may
already know, the strut bolts are under the engine. You can lift the front
end of the engine to access the nuts. The strut should be offcenter to
starboard a little bit. This allows the prop shaft to slide aft and pass
the skeg, though I think it would have cleared it below the skeg anyway. It
is likely that the shaft is bent, almost certain. The strut is probably the
least of your worries. My guess is that its OK. They get bent when you run
over a line and the torque twists the strut.Rich
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Interesting thoughts.
Regarding the Riding Sail, I’ve frequently run into something related when
anchoring in a spot that’s not well protected. The wind and waves don’t
always come from the same direction. I run a line from one of the cockpit
winches and tie it onto the anchor chain. I pay out about 30 feet of chain
and crank in the line to put the boat at the proper angle to make it
comfortable. I tie the line to the chain with a small piece that’s intended
to break if the wind picks up, 1/8″ line seems to work for me. Its amazing
how much more comfortable we can sit while the rest of the anchorage rocks
and rolls all night. Oddly, I’ve never observed anyone use a similar
technique.Rich
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Dan
I assume that you mean the tang welded to the pushpit for the mizzen sheet?Rich
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I put in a cockpit table. The table legs are a great place for the sheet-monkey to brace his/her legs.
Rich
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This is MHO, no flames please!
The sloop rig is not a bad choice, but lacks flexibility. There is little
that can be done about changing the headsail when the weather picks up.
Deeply reefing a roller-furling headsail compromises shape to the point
where the boat won’t point at all. The short rig begs for a more sail area
in light air (is there any other kind here in the NE during the summer?).
This puts a 150% genny on the roller-furler if you want to go anywhere.
This is a low-aspect rig, so the boat doesn’t point all that well
out-of-the-box.The ketch rig looks cool. It has a few problems however. The mizzen is
short and the boom is too high. Lowering the mizzen boom would interfere
with the helmsman however. I don’t know why Pearson didn’t make the mizzen
a little taller. You’ve got barely a hankercheif up there. It makes a
convenient place to hang a radar dome and good foothold for the
sheet-monkey. It preclueds a backstay adjuster which agrevates the poor
pointing ability of the 424. The extra rigging clutters the deck and makes
it difficult to fit a proper bimini. Without the mizzen, the center of
effort is pretty far forward anyway. Owners report that it makes balancing
the boat easier. You don’t really need a mizzen to balance the boat. It
might be nice to drop the headsail entirely and run with just main and
mizzen, but there are other ways to balance the boat in heavy air (e.g
flatten the sails and ease the main). I guess it’s a matter of wanting a
boat that looks cool and I must confess that I wish my boat had more
pleasing lines. I see no other argument for the mizzen. I even know one
owner who removed his mizzen and reverted to a sloop rig. If your cruising
grounds require passage under a low bridge, the stock ketch may be the right
solution for you. Comon ketch owners, fess-up. Your boat looks cool and
you know it. Does it really sail better than a sloop?The standard sloop avoids the clutter in the cockpit, facilitates adding a
proper backstay tensioner, makes it pretty simple to add a bimini and even
enclose the cockpit, and avoids the clutter of that extra rigging. It looks
awkward with a what is still a short rig; looking almost naked with nothing
over the cockpit (see attached). With a proper backstay and decent sails,
it will point reasonably well. Moving the mast aft by three feet as is done
with the cutter doesn’t really do anything for headsail area or aspect
ratio. A cutter with a 130% genny and a sloop with a 150% genny have
approximately the same headsail area. The cutter has a longer boom however.
This moves the center of effort back and the boat looks better. I suppose
you could increase the cutter headsail size to 150%, but then again you
could also increase the sloop to 170%, same difference. The cutter does
however add the staysail. This allows you to strike the headsail when the
wind picks up and never need to leave the cockpit. It makes tacking the
boat difficult unless a small headsail with a high-clew is flown. This
removes the sail area advantage that the cutter could have.Adding a solent-stay solves the headsail problem in heavy air. It doesn’t
interfere with the boat when tacking. Yes, you have to go forward to set
the sail in heavy air, but after rolling-up the headsail this isn’t a big
deal. I think this is the best solution. As noted above, it doesn’t look
cool however so its not for everyone. I think a cutter modified for a
solent-stay has more attractive lines and would be my choice if I had to
pick.I thought the cutter was available in a taller rig, but I can’t find specs
for that configuration. This would improve the aspect ratio and provide a
better sailing boat.The 424 is a stiff boat no matter what you put up there. I remember very
few occasions when I burried the toe-rail in the water. I’m sure that
perhaps all of us have different opinions as to which is the best rig
compromise. No matter if you have the stock ketch, tall-ketch, sloop, or
cutter it’s a comfortable and beautiful boat.Rich
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I have a sloop. I’ve tie-up to other 424’s at several rendezvous and compared rigs. My sloop is identical to these ketches except I lack a mizzen. The ketch comes in two flavors, the most common has a taller rig (I=47.25). I could add a mizzen if I came across one with little effort. The cockpit is reinforced for the mast step and the attachment points for the mizzen chainplates are glassed into the hull. I don’t know why Pearson made the sloop the way they did. It would not be my first choice. The boat sails OK the way it is however and balances well. I fly a 150 genoa.
At the end of the production cycle, Pearson changed the sloop rig to be the same as a cutter without the inner stay. This moves the mast aft about 3 feet. I don’t know how many sloops Pearson made. I’ve never seen another. My guess is that there are but a handful of us.
I could have sworn that they made the cutter with an optional taller rig, but I can’t find specs on it. If someone has such a rig they might speak up.
Rich
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I stand corrected. The cutter didn’t come in a taller rig.
Model I J P E
Pearson 424 Cutter 47.25 18.16 41.00 14.50
Pearson 424 Ketch 44.08 15.75 38.00 14.50
Pearson 424 Ketch TM 47.25 15.75 41.00 14.50
Pearson 424 SLP 1-204 47.25 15.75 41.00 14.50
Pearson 424 SLP 205+ 47.25 18.16 41.00 14.50Rich
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