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Welcome to the group! We are home berthed in Ft Walton Beach, FL, in the panhandle. Curious if ya’ll will be close…
David
Blue Moon, #189Ours were done by the previous owner. Looking through receipts, it appears he used ‘Howdy Bailey’, out of Norfolk, VA, in 2013. The office number there is listed as 757.480.0058. I see that the PO paid $1,573 for main and mizzen ‘escution plates’. As I recall, he did all the chain plates except the forestay chain plate. His reasoning being that it is easily inspectable.
David
Blue Moon1 user thanked author for this post.
I was hoping someone would have a knowledgeable response for you, John. I’m afraid I don’t either. This is very interesting though, and good to know. All I can think of is to apply some mold release to the portion of the strut that is normally not in view, then thickened epoxy filler or similar to fill up the shoe box. Presumably the filler would adhere to the sides of the shoe box so it would stay put when you are done. I have worked with the mold release material in a past life, and it is, or was, green in color and can be brushed on. Could do a couple of coats to ensure coverage, being careful to keep it off the sides of the shoe box (?). My only thoughts… Please let us know what you do and how it turns out!
David
Blue MoonWell, it appears that there is a miniscule crack in a swage on the high pressure side. The discrepant piece is one of the brass end fittings on one of the fairly new rubber hoses that goes from one of the tanks to the pressure regulator. I asked a friend, who is a licensed gas man, to help me troubleshoot this problem, and he brought over some “mega-bubble” liquid. Basically a form of dishwashing soap for locating gas leaks. Shot it over all the fittings, and found some minor ‘fuzz’ develop on the discrepant fitting after about five minutes. Repeated the exercise several times to verify. I removed the hose and used the other one on the bottle in question, and it appears that so far the odor is no more. Checking again this morning and hope there is no smell of propane!
David
Thanks for the responses, guys. Yes, I did check the vent/drain. I thoroughly cleaned the locker a few months back, and the vent was fine. For the surveyor, I poured water in the top of the locker and it drained out fine at the bottom and through the transom. I have no vent at the top, but as the lid is not sealed I believe that there is plenty of opportunity for air to get to the top of the locker. All I can figure is that there was a leak at some point, and the stuff they add to propane to make it smell soaked into the rather porous gel coat of the locker. I think the chemical they use is rather pernicious.
David
Hello Alan. Though I have the Ocean Series hatches on my vessel, I did not install them. Cosmetically they look great. Can’t speak to what is beyond the flange of the hatch.
I did have a similar problem on my Caliber. Hatch leaks which were caused by the opening for the hatch being cut ‘square’ in the corners, while the hatches themselves had a radius in the corners. Insufficient ‘meat’ for the hatches to seal against at the corners, though cosmetically you could not see the problem with the hatches installed. The solution was fairly simple. Thoroughly removed the existing silicone sealant (I hate that stuff and rarely use it), ground the lip of the existing edge to produce a bit of taper (at the square corners), then taped something plastic with a light coat of wax under the existing lip, laid in glass and epoxy resin where the new material was needed, let cure, then cut the new material to the required contour. Of course then the lip needed to be ground/sanded/filled etc.. Sounds like in your case you might have a finishing challenge as well as I believe your work will show outside the flange.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject. Good luck with the project! I think you will enjoy the new hatches.
David
Blue Moon, #189The published mast height for the ketch is 48’10”. You should not have a problem with 55′ as long as nothing protrudes that high. We routinely go under bridges of 50′ published height. We often drag the VHF antenna, but not a problem for us. Bear in mind the VHF antenna is normally 3 feet. Probably not smart to drag that into an active power line! But with 55′, unless there are factors we are not aware of, should not present a problem.
A bit off topic, but we designed and built a heeling (ballast) bag. When the water level is up, we lean our boat up to 15 degrees with the bag, giving us an extra two feet or so. A pain in the you know what to dig out the equipment, get it rigged, and fill the bag. But it works.
David
Hello Keith and welcome to the group. If you haven’t already, you may want to read my post from May 3 entitled ‘Cabin Sole Material’. This post discusses our recent install of NautikFlor on our 424. If you have any questions after reading this I’ll be happy to address….
David
Blue MoonThanks for the clarification, Warren.
I think I have resolved the problem. I took four actions, and any one or combination of actions may have fixed it. Don’t know. In any case, I went out today in 15 knot winds, set the genoa alone, and ran the motor, in gear, at various RPMs, down to idle and up to 1800 or so (motor sailing). The racket from the V-drive area that I experienced previously was not present at any combination of sail or motor power settings.
Here’s what I did:
1. Aligned the prop shaft to the V drive (at the mating flanges). Standard process, worked it until I could not fit any feeler gauge of over .003 inch between the flanges at any point of the circumference.
2. Replaced the U joint on the jack shaft with a new one.
3. Checked the alignment of the engine/transmission to the jack shaft. I used the process from the Walter V drive owners manual. Basically, measure from the spool adapter face to some point on the U joint bores, and compare four measurements taken after rotating the assembly through 360 degrees, 90 degrees of rotation per measurement. They must not vary by more than .125 inches. I didn’t have to move the engine, as mine came in at .090 inches.
4. Adjusted the ‘AH’ distance. This is the dimension that the splined end of the jack shaft inserts into the V drive. It should be 3 3/16″ for the RV26. Mine was closer to 3 11/16″, way out of spec. Easy to check this. With the jack shaft uninstalled, measure the proper insertion depth with a ruler, and mark the splined end of the shaft accordingly or wrap it with tape. Then assemble the jack shaft to the transmission and V drive, and the tape (or mark) should be aligned right there at the edge of the insertion point. If it’s inserted to far, your tape or mark will be buried in the V drive. Its easy to adjust the jackshaft length…couple of clamp fasteners.Anyway, thanks for the comments and advice, and I’m hopeful this is a lasting fix.
David
Blue MoonThe Gori overdrive concept sounds like a winner for motorsailing. Lower RPM for a given speed when sail is assisting power. Theoretically you won’t overload the engine since the sail is providing some motive force. And likewise, maybe you won’t drive the prop since each turn of the prop is taking a bigger bite of water. But if I’m reading Warren’s description of the process right, it doesn’t sound very practical in a lot of scenarios. If I’m sailing along, the wind drops, and I elect to motorsail, it sounds like I would need to drop sail, motor backwards to get the prop in overdrive, raise sails again, and proceed. Am I interpreting this right?
David
Thanks for the tips. I have instructions from Walter V drives on alignment. I think it references the bronze alignment tool, but also describes a process to do the job without the tool. Supposed to rain this week, so looks like that is what I will be working on.
Had never heard about the importance of the U joint axis’ being parallel. I guess in an automotive application that is engineered into the design.
Encouraging to hear that Rich is able to motor sail with his folder without problems
David
Thanks for the responses, John and Fred. Confirms my thoughts thus far. I plan to change out the U-joints on the shaft leading to the V Drive as step one. Cheap and easy. Step two is to check alignment of the V drive, then the transmission to the drive shaft flange. A fellow I met with a P-365 while we were cruising in the Bahamas said he changed out his U joints, even though they seemed fine, and it made a measurable difference in overall smoothness. Didn’t address the motor sailing issue specifically, but perhaps it would help. I also didn’t mention that I changed out the engine some months ago, and didn’t really do any specific alignment, except visually. My thinking being, the U joints really should accommodate any partial mis-alignment. Possibly faulty reasoning. Adapter plate? Maybe. I changed out the plate on the old engine, but I don’t think I transferred it over to the new one. Bad on me if I didn’t.
Regarding the prop greasing, mine is a folder, not a featherer. No greasing on the folder. And the blades are geared to one another, so they should be at an equal state of deployment at all times.
Interestingly, Gori makes a two speed folder, so you can increase pitch on the blades when motor sailing. A nice feature if it works, which I presume it does.
David
I’m wondering about a product from Awlcraft called Awlwood. They say its the cats meow and last many years. A buddy of mine saw it on a boat and said it looked great. Don’t know how long it had been on. I hate the Cetol as well. Took forever to get it off. I now have Epiphanes natural varnish, which looks great. But if I go longer than about seven months before scuff and varnish I can see it is deteriorating in the NW Florida sun. Stuff like Awlwood scares me as I don’t know how hard it would be to remove once it inevitably goes bad. Varnish comes off pretty easily with a heat gun.
David
Blue MoonAnd one other thing… When I ordered mine I failed to ask Whitewater to provide the backing plates. So you may want to specify that.
David
Blue MoonI got mine from Whitewater Marine. Cost was $715 plus $72.60 to ship to the panhandle of Florida. I did not order any extra geegaws such as steps, but do have the bails on at least two of the feet.
As I cautioned on a separate post, be advised that the drawings we have been using are not fully accurate. In fact, the angle for the outboard foot is completely wrong. The drawing specifies 15 degrees (see bottom of drawing), but I estimate the actual angle to be 7 to 10 degrees. Whitewater made mine per the drawing, and I had to make spacers with a wedge shape to make them work. Not Whitewater’s fault. I checked their work and they were spot on to the drawing. Also, be sure to emphasize that the outboard leg length is 37 1/8 inches. Also specified on the bottom of the drawing. He nearly missed that one till I said something.
Good quality work…you won’t be dissappointed.
David
Blue Moon
