Clean hole.

CB 2 November, 2012
[3] comments

The following picture is a “cleaned up” version of what the little cubby hole next to the Nav station used to look like.

I say “cleaned up” because I realize the pile of wiring does not really look all that clean. But 15 minutes before that picture was taken that space was stuffed with a huge selection of useful, not so useful and just plain odd stuff. There was an old Radar display, an SSB radio, two old VHF radios, a ridiculous number of hats; a bull horn (not a bullhorn), but an actual bull’s horn; a pair of Gortex socks, a spot light, a plastic tube thingy; it looks like it should be used for something important but I don’t know what…..the list goes on and on….and seriously on.

So after 6+ years of living on the boat and stuffing things in that little cubby hole, I decided to properly mount the SSB, our new stereo and VHF radio. Also left room for additional instruments, and a spot for some books and other things.

Here be the “almost” finished product.

I say “almost”, because I have a little fine tuning/finish work I wanna do. But as far as I’m concerned, this one is crossed off “THE LIST”.

Oh and most of the crap pulled out of there has moved to the port side of the boat in the little shelf in the aft cabin; along with all my tool bags. My apologies for any nightmares this may cause anyone that crashes in the aft cabin.

Posted in Installations, Palarran | 3 Comments

Kite surfing

Tawn 25 October, 2012
[0] comments

I have been watching kite surfers at Golden Gardens for years now and have always wanted to try it myself. I looked into lessons this fall at Urban Surf, near Fisheries (the marine supply store near us that we now surely partially own). They suggested taking a ground school first to learn how to fly a trainer kite before taking a water lesson. So I paid my $95 and took a ridiculously simple class that basically told you how to set up a trainer kite and how the wind works. On the one hand, they did lend the trainer kite to each class participant for 1 week, on the other hand, the trainer kites are so much fun that I am going to buy one myself. If I had known this, I think I would have just bought a trainer kite and taught myself.

The trainer kite is only 2.5 meters compared to an average kite for boarding that is about 13 meters. Anywho, the trainer kite teaches you how to fly the kite so you got that skill under control before going out onto the water where you are worried about being dragged down the beach by a huge kite mixed with learning how to body drag or “efficiently” drowned yourself on purpose.

So this past weekend I was doing a lot of trainer kite flying. CB tried it out too and is now addicted as well. He has hatched an idea of launching the kite from the dinghy and using it to pull the dinghy through the water. I’m sure nothing can go wrong there :-) I have attached a video of me flying the trainer kite. Hopefully I can take a water lesson soon and will post hysterical videos of my intentional drowning/body dragging and then (cross my fingers) successfully kite boarding.

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Don’t you just hate when your friends are right.

CB 15 September, 2012
[4] comments

A couple years ago, a friend of mine (Aaron on Bella Star) was giving me some bullshit sob story of how hard(expensive) it was for him to find a replacement fresh water coolant pump for his Yanmar engine.

As he was telling me his story, I remember thinking, “What is this dickhead going on about”? I just went down to Hatton and got a brand new mixing elbow for my Yanmar (3QM30Y) engine. And had no problems getting parts at all. I was also thinking about a sandwich I had eaten the day before…..so delicious, so god damn delicious! So I may or may not have heard how he ended up getting his replaced.

Fast forward to this Labor day weekend. I had just started the engine on my boat, and was untying the dock lines to take off for the weekend. Just as I was about to put it reverse, the engine starts running a little rough and vibrating oddly. I retied the lines and checked the engine compartment.

Smoke!

SHIT!

I shut everything down and started troubleshooting. I noticed the fresh water pump was not spinning and was burning up the alternator belt. My first thought was that this would be an easy fix. Just pull off the old pump, go buy a new pump and bolt it back on. Easy Cheesy, right??

Nope, turns out Aaron was right. Yanmar has discontinued making water pumps for that engine. You can still get the parts to rebuild them, but not the pump housing. And hey, guess what! My pump housing was fucked up!! So I get the old, “you can always check craigslist or ebay”

If Yanmar still made this pump, the price for a replacement is around $800! I dug around the internet but could not find anything for sale that I could use.

What I did dig up is a website: www.rebuilt-water-pumps.com

It’s a small company down in Oregon. All they do is rebuild water pumps. So I call them up on a Thursday and describe my problem. The guy on the phone says: “Send me your pump, I’ll have it fixed and back to you by next Friday”. I was happy as shit, but was afraid to ask the price for that kind of service. He said it would probably be around $95 dollars. Maybe as high as $125 if the housing was really messed up.

True to his word, he calls me the following Wednesday and says the pump is ready and already in the mail back to me. Please send him a check for $135. The extra ten dollars is to cover the cost of shipping.

Oh and he includes a 3 year warranty on his rebuilds! WHAT!?

I got pump back, and it looks as good as new. He even included a gasket and two tootsie pops. I ate those, before I took the picture, sorry. They were watermelon flavor.

Posted in Installations | 4 Comments

Don’t sweat the petty things….

CB 23 August, 2012
[3] comments

When we first got our boat 6.5 years ago, one of the very first “projects” I did was to install six little brass pad eyes. Three on each side of the boat, on the outside of the gunwales. We use them for clipping our fenders to. Each one is screwed in with two 1 inch brass screws.

I bring up this stupid little fact to point out that I used to STRESS the fuck out about those six little brass pad eyes. For some reason I had it in my head that water would seep in, rot the boat to the core, then catch fire and those flames only extinguished when the boat finally sank to the bottom.

This little bastard and his brothers used to freak me out.

Back in June we pulled the mast, replaced just about every thing that even remotely touched the it. This list includes, but not limited to the standing rigging, running rigging, lights, nav. equipment. compression post,…….the list goes on.

Last weekend we took the boat out for the first sail since we did all that work. And I would like to emphasize, that WE (Me and Tawn) did 90% of the work ourselves. Every bolt, screw, cotter key, you name it. We did it, undid it, redid it, painted it or rewired it.

So to say the pucker factor was a little high when we started putting up sails for the first time is not an exaggeration at all. But honestly, and I am not kidding about this. I worried more about those six little pad eyes I screwed into the sides of the boat way back when, then I did about any part of this mast project.

Other than a little weather helm on a starboard tack (a rig tune will take care of that), everything worked as it should.

Here we GOOOO!!!

Posted in Installations | 3 Comments