Monday, July 14th, 2008
One thing that Tartan did that was really, really smart on the T30 was putting a built up ‘glass plinth under things that were through bolted. This had the effect of making a little island above the deck when there was water on it. As a result the toe rail rarely leaked from passive moisture like rain (driving rain and spray may have been a different story though). I think its a good design and it’s only failing is that it wasn’t continued everywhere on the boat; the bow pulpit and the aft pulpit are a mess of star cracks, stained (wet) gel coat, and only locally wet core (thankfully). So step on with the toe rail is to rebuild the shattered plinth that I cut away a year ago.
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Saturday, July 12th, 2008
Jack has really been pushing his idea of flying an asymetrical spinnaker off of the new anchoring sprit. I did the research and found a really decently priced asym furler from CDI but I wasn’t sure about the geometry. So as usual I played.
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Thursday, July 10th, 2008
I’ve been helping Jack for the past few days getting Circuit Breaker in the water. We cleaned her out, repainted the interior and gave all the teak a new coat of cetol. Looking good.
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
I was going to title this post “A PROP-er Solution” but I decided not to. But it’s true, I finally found a good solution to my prop size dilema. The problem is a simple one. Hobyn came with an Atomic 4, 30 hp (wishfully) gas engine with a 1:1 transmission driving a tiny 12″ prop. This was fine because the engine ran at high revs so the prop could be small. But, now the A-4 is out and the M4-30 is moving in. Unlike the A-4, the M4-30 is a 24 hp (actual) diesel engine with a 2:1 reduction gear transmission ideally driving a 15″ prop. Ok, so I get bigger prop right? Sure, if I had one of the other “normal” boats, but I don’t, see.
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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Ok, it’s not a very good mock up, but after staring at my engine for a while I was suddenly panicked by the thought that maybe my engine was too big! Forget that on paper it is narrower and shorter than almost all of the diesels out there, forget that it weighs in at 60#’s less than the Atomic 4 it’s replacing, forget that it has the same bolting pattern as the Atomic 4. Forget it! This thing looks big when its on an engine stand. So I made this *lovely* cardboard mock up to relative scale (actually I made it a tiny bit over-sized).
Well, it fits, its big but not crazy big. I’m satisfied, the monster is quiet in my brain. That slab next to the box is the floor that was cut up. I’m still debating if I should ditch the current bronze shaft in favor of a Stainless one. Also, sorry about the crappy pictures, my trusty old digital camera died (Canon G3… yeah, ancient), my old phone died over the holiday (it went for a swim in my evidently leaky tent…) so all I have right now short of bringing my D-SLR to the worksite (not happening) is a camera phone on my new cell. Kind of crappy but I’m working on a replacement.
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
I’ve been a Mac user since I was 9, I cut my graphic design teeth on Adobe Illustrator 5.5 and Photoshop 4 on a PowerMac 7100/66. I think that Apple makes damn good software and wouldn’t want to work with any other OS. I used to think that they make the best hardware too but it looks like I might be totally wrong. Remember the old computer saga? Well, the replacement for that problem (my current iMac intel 2.4 Ghz 20″) is in the shop. For what? Busted power supply! Sounds familiar?
The super annoying thing is that I have a rush job this week. 8 days to put up a site and no computer… Luckily Apple has a 14 day return policy, I think i’ll just try out their newest iMac in the mean time….
*update* they can’t seem to reproduce my problem! I can sort of see why, it only happens when the computer is put under load (like during a rush job), the back of the machine heats up and then it shuts down… The rep mentioned the possibility of a complete replacement?!?!
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
With the outside pretty much ready for final fairing, priming, and painting, I decided to do the rest of the truly dirty work. What’s so dirty? Simple, the engine. Why is it dirty? Because the entire cabin sole needs (ok *needs* is a bit strong, its more like a 50/50 split between ‘need’ and ‘want’) to be ripped out proper stringer put in, new engine beds laid, and finally, a new sole that actually lets to get to the bilge. How’s this for bad bilge access, 3 cut outs in various parts of the sole 1 of which is directly over the hull and I can’t even get a hand into…
Right now, when someone walks on the sole, it’s not squishy per say, but it does flex. I don’t know about you, but I like my floors solid. This sole could have easily been stronger, all it needed were some floor beams, but since it was created with pan construction, beams would have been pretty damn hard to put in. So the solution is to take it out.
I’ve been wanting to do this since I got the boat. First day one Hobyn I had tried to clean the bilge but found that no matter how hard I tried, I could only get to about 25% of it. The openings were pretty badly placed and the area by the engine was completely inaccesable. That one little opening on the side is the one that looks right at the hull. I could probably snake a tube down it but that was it.
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Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
“Hi folks! Ever get tired from constantly having to sand your hull fair? Tired of those aching arms and blistered hands? What about that annoyingly constant ’swish-swish’ sound of that long board? Well not to worry, its days are numbered! Introducing the FairMaster®! Don’t be fooled by its ghetto construction and obvious use of second hand parts and recycled materials, the FairMaster® is a precision piece of fairing technology home-grown right here in the USA.”
“The FairMaster® is like someone else making 10 passes with a longboard for your every one! It’s orbital action also makes sure that you never sand out a gouge and feathering is a snap! With its small, old, rebuilt 1/3 sheet sander power source the only thing to tire out are the old-school felt and brass bushings! Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Ok now I have an even better reason to get my TIG setup. My parents have a pop-up camper that they use pretty regularly to go camping. This thing and I have never ever, ever gotten along (the design is kind of on the chinzy side which matches the finishing) but my parents love it. Sadly (for them) the beast has a pretty nasty case of rot in the undercarriage and hitch set up. The bright minds at StarCraft decided that they would put the battery in a frame that is directly welded to the chassis and then have the ground lead to another part of the chassis. Naturally where the ground was located is pretty much just rusty pieces of paper and the battery box is in slightly better shape.
The “professional” estimate for the whole repair is something like $1,500 and that doesn’t include repainting or repairing the other rusted out areas like the leveling legs, lie downs, bumper supports… oh did I mention that the entire frame is just painted steel, no hot dip galvanizing here.
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