@rhapsode
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Hi Duncan, tying the shaft might mean losing time if you need the engine in a hurry. Have you been able to discover why the shaft still rotates when in reverse gear?
I sometimes put mine in reverse to stop the shaft rotating when I get tired of the noise. Often I find that it can be a struggle to get it out of reverse gear when I want it back in neutral.
Mostly I leave it to rotate. The shaft has been in position for many years and it doesn’t appear to have suffered any ill health from being left to rotate. I guess that there’s less drag from a turning prop.
Peter
Following on from my original post – can anyone with davits tell me the external dimensions of their dinghy please? The dinghy I have in mind is 2.76 metres x 1.5 metres. The beam at the boat’s stern is 1.6 metres which means that the dinghy will protrude by 29 cm each side. Is this feasible?
We had one of these which we put on the side of the boat by the “gates” in the guard wires. Very solid and easy to use.
http://www.boardingladders.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/05/3-step-2.jpg
It fits in the lazarette when not in use
When we took up cruising I removed the heads in the aft cabin and put in easily dismantled shelves throughout and I fitted a box construction across the the locker where the WC had been but only about ten inches wide in the fore and aft direction. Essentially just big enough to hold the water maker. The construction of the box allows it to be completely dismantled for servicing the watermaker.
Abaft the box I had space for three jerry cans. The FW output could be directed into each of these tanks. After testing the newly made water I use a small pump which I lower into each jerry can and pump the water across to the wing tank along a permanently fitted pipe.
It is probably simpler than I’ve made it sound.My “error” was to fit too small a watermaker: Katadyn power survivor 40E. This only takes 4 amps and we had the capacity to generate a spare 4 amps when it was fitted. It on,y produces 5.5 litres per hour. This was sufficient for three men sailing from Europe to Brazil with daily showers, etc. but we did run it for ten hours a day. With hindsight I should have got one that consumed 8 amps. I would have got very much more water per amp hour.
From your experience Orion the hook arrangement sounds best – divert the strike before it gets to the bottom of the boat!
I did wonder whether it would be sensible to fit a dedicated grounding plate akin to an SSB grounding plate – but on the other hand would a nicely grounded mast prove attractive to lightning bolts? Hard to know.
Peter,
I’m struggling to get wifi at the moment so pls forgive me for coming in on the wrong post. I saw on one of your previouz posts a rain catcher on your boat. Do you think you could post more pics? I’m now up in Trinidad which is a good place to get one made uo but for the life of me I can’t see how to fit one.
Cheers,
Peter
Hi Marilyn,
Thanks for the pic – that’s the same control as mine. The cables are held in place at the bottom as per your last pics. What I need to buy are the fittings that screw into the end of the cables and then attach to the gear and throttle levers with a small stud which is an integral part of the fitting at the top.
Not to worry tho’ – Nothing has broken. I just want to have them on board as spares just in case of! The existing ones must have been in place for at least thirty years so it seems a wise precaution. All I need them to do is another nine months which is the length of my next trip. Then I can strip it down and take one of them home with me.
A million thanks,
Peter
Thanks Marilyn, that’s very helpful.
The small parts I’m trying to identify are the trunnions at the top which connect the cables to the levers. I gather they come in various forms but I don’t know which one to get for the Nic 38 control levers.
Peter
Many thanks Peter – I’ll be sure to be shipshape and Bristol fashion (tho’ many years ago when I was an apprentice at sea the ship’s bosun told me that shipshape and Bristol fashion meant ‘everything on top and f… all to hand!).
Peter,
I’m planning on sailing up to the Caribbean next year and after the relaxed way of doing things in Brazil I got to thinking about your encounter with the officials in Sint Marten. For flares (and presumably other safety equipment) is it simply a matter of – if they’re on board they have to be in date – or is there a requirement to have a specific number of flares, smoke floats and other bits of safety equipment?
Would I be likely to need a paper list of all my equipment and expiry dates?
Peter
Thanks Trevor & Marilyn,
If I feel brave enough to give it a go when I next go out to Brazil I’ll let you know how I get on.
Peter
Adrian,
I first discovered the problem when the heater switch in the main cabin started to smoke! I traced the short circuit back to the engine compartment where Rhapsode’s heater is located (where your batteries live). This suggests that water was running off before I opened up the hatches so I need to follow your advice and seal the lids down more effectively. We were in bouncy weather at the time.
Before I read of the fire risk to plastic hoses I had bought two plastic non-return valves to fit to the bigger drains. The underneath ones won’t need them now that I intend redirecting them to the bilge. I will now have to now source metal replacements but I am also now wondering whether they will be affected by the heat when the engine is running and start to stick. Any thoughts on this would be most welcome.
The other related issue is that the bilge pump hoses run up from the bilge and across the engine compartment. I’ll have to make some arrangement to make these fire proof as well – probably exhaust cladding from the local garage would do.
Peter
I’m having the usual Nic 38 problem of water coming in through the cockpit drains. I find that the main drains from the top of the cockpit floor are not as troublesome as the water bubbling up into the channels around the edge of the engine space under the cockpit floor since they are a little lower. The original owner of the boat put ping pong balls in the main drains themselves which may contribute something to dampening down the water ingress from them but I still get wet feet! More importantly, I lost the heater when the water from the underside channels bubbled up and over on to the heater electrics. I opened up the cockpit floor and saw a “curtain” of water flooding over and into the engine space and onto the electrics.
Since I am finally getting round to fitting an automatic bilge pump switch I am considering changing the under cockpit floor channels so that they drain into the bilge and closing off their seacocks permanently. We’ve had a few lumps of sea in the cockpit and it seems to drain away reasonably quickly. I don’t think that the underfloor drains contributed a great deal to the draining so I am not so concerned about their loss as much as I am about causing a fire due to shorting electrics.
The end result will be that the main drains go into the sea as usual with the lower ones going into the bilge. This means that when the boat is unattended (with the seacocks closed) rain water will find its way into the bilge where it will be taken care of by the pump. When we’re at sea the main drains will take the lion’s share of draining the cockpit.
Slightly off message – I was reading an earlier post about drains and picked up on the point that the drain hoses should not be of plastic since they will melt in the event of a fire in the engine space. That job is now on the the top of my list for the very next dry dock.
Peter
Hi Van,
I only need to put the end (bell?) of the pressure switch in the bilge. The switch itself will mounted high and dry at the top of the bilge. I am thinking of using a plastic tube (20 mm dia) normally used for plumbing purposes to hold the bell in place in the bilge. The tube is slightly flexible so I hope to be able to bend it to shape the curvature of the bilge and then epoxy a clip as far down the bilge as I can reach and another closer to the top to fit in place. I can run the smaller pressure switch tube up inside the 20 mm tube to the switch. Possibly I will attach the ‘bell’ to a small plastic chopping board first if it looks as though I need a bit of weight at the bottom to hold the it firm.
I’m not on the boat at the moment so can’t be certain how will go. Fingers crossed.
Thanks Marilyn,
I am now inspired. I think I could do the same job with a small plastic food chopping board which I could lower into the depths…
Peter
Hi Marilyn,
I’m thinking of fitting a pressure switch to my bilge pump (one of these: http://www.jabscoshop.com/marine/pumps/bilge-pumps/bilge-pump-accessories/39-eco-switch-12-volt-dc.htm ) but for life of me I can’t get to the bottom or even near the bottom of the bilge to epoxy the lower bit into place (if you enlarge the pic on the web page you’ll see the bit I mean). How on earth did you manage it?
(And by the way, congratulations on having a lovely clean and dry bilge! Wish I could say the same)Peter
My very limited experience of using the Hydrovane under power:
I tried with the Hydrovane rudder both locked and unlocked. Locked proved better but produced larger turning circles than normal. I have berthed the boat without drama in marinas with the rudder shipped and locked when(a) when the berth is directly upwind and (b)when there is no wind… and there is sufficient room to get the boat nicely lined up for the approach.
I tried the rudder unlocked in the hope that it would align itself with the main rudder and aid rather than hinder the manoeuvre. Going ahead with an unlocked rudder made the boat fishtail whenever I applied more than gentle power – the ‘aid’ effect was too pronounced.
I haven’t attempted to go astern with the Hydrovane rudder shipped (and hope I never have to!)
Peter – Hydrovanes do, occasionally, come up for sale. I was offered one a few years back from a boat returning from one of the RTW rallies. I found it by contacting the rally organiser and asking them to ask the participants if any were interested in selling any of their equipment (charts and sat. phones were also up for disposal) Unfortunately for me at the time I was dispatched overseas for a year so couldn’t follow it up.
Peter
Hi Trevor,
I thought I should start a new thread for the Hydrovane. Please let me know if you would like more info. I found mine to be very useful and, of course, it doesn’t use up any precious amps.
Peter
The rudder on Rhapsode was removed by a boatyard in 2004 (in the south of France) when the boat was undergoing treatment for osmosis.I was not present at the time but the yard made no mention of any particular difficulties except that they lost the lower bronze bearing(The yard went bust and a year later the bearing was found tucked away in the lazarette). I am quite certain that the rudder stock was not cut. Before the new yard reattached the rudder they added a layer or so of grp matting and expoxied the whole thing. No problems since.
Many thanks Trevor and Marilyn,
That looks to be a very sensible and practical solution – I should be able to adapt the idea to fit on the side of the pushpit. The back of my pushpit is a bit cluttered with the Hydrovane, the towing generator (wonderful bit of kit)and other odds and ends.
I return to the boat (still in Brazil) in September so I will let you know how I get on.
Peter
These new 4 stroke engines really are brutes to handle when single-handed. Mine is a modest 4HP but still weighs in at 22Kg.
Perhaps the lazarette is the way to go when out sailing and then using the bracket for temporary stowage if we spend time at anchor.
Peter
Peter,
Did you fit non-returns to the smaller drains – the ones taking away the water from the channel round the top of the engine compartment or just the two main drains in the cockpit? I found that if I left the sea cocks to the smaller drains open that the water would come in and drop down into the engine compartment necessitating the use of the bilge pump every watch or so. So I closed them and just left the main cockpit drains open.
I’ve been think of fitting non-returns to both sets of drains but wasn’t sure whether it would slow down the water draining away. Your experience says that it works fine which is a comfort.
May I ask which non-return v/vs you fitted?
Cockpit doors: The doors to the main cabin of Rhapsode are not full length – they stop short by about six inches. There is an insert that can be put in place when leaving the boat for any length of time. Is this standard?
The attraction of this arrangement is that the doors can be locked leaving a gap for ventilation when leaving the boat for short periods.
For sea passages I have a washboard and a step fitted inside the cabin so can sail with the cabin door open unless it is very wavy. If necessary I can shut the doors with the washboard in place.
Happy sailing.
Peter
