Preparations Continue

In preparation for getting a survey, yesterday afternoon I cleaned out the boat. The main sail and the boom was on the cabin floor but now the main sail is sitting in the living room and the boom is sitting on the deck. Much of the loose stuff that was sitting around, like tools, sandpaper sheets, extra bolts, etc., were all put in boxes and taking up space in the truck. I did a little bit of vacuuming  up too.

I thought I would post a few pictures of the inside.

Also yesterday, in the morning, I went up to the Green Turtle Bay Marina where I am expecting to have the boat. There were a few people around. Looked like some were getting their boats ready for the summer. I talked to a guy who has a boat in the slip right across from where mine will be and he talked about water levels and where to get good info for lake conditions. He's been there for at least a few years and seems to be a good source of info.

I wanted to see which side of the dock the slip was in. There is walking space between each boat with three cleats on either side. It was a little cool out and it was rainy through the weekend so not too many people were around. It is pretty quiet and relaxing. I'm expecting to spend as much time as I can at the boat, mostly on the weekends. Who knows, maybe I'll sail out in the lake and spend the night at anchor in a small bay. Before I left the marina, I walked around the shop that has some maintenance supplies along with t-shirts and other items for enjoying time at the lake.

Impeller Installed

I installed the new impeller I bought at West Marine.

 

I used the lubricant that came with the impeller and coated it and the pump housing. I installed the Speedseal cover with the thumb screws but used a pair of needle nose pliers to tighten. At first it wasn't pumping and leaked a lot so I had to keep tightening the screws for the cover. I got it pumping water again. The engine started right up quickly on the first try and the additional times when testing the pump. I'm hoping it will continue to function throughout this sailing season.

 

I put the camera behind the pump to get a shot of it. I wanted to see that I had the fins on the impeller were facing the correct direction. Looks like it will need a good cleaning. At some point, I'll take the pump off of the engine and give it a good scrub. Since it looks like it might take a while to do, I may wait until after this season to work on it. It will definitely be worth cleaning up since new ones are pretty expensive. This is why it's important to do regular maintenance to keep things in working order.

 

 

Bleeding the Engine

Today was a pretty good day. I originally didn't plan on going to the boat but it was such a nice day I went anyway during lunch. Last time I was at the boat, I was working on getting the engine started but it wouldn't work. Last time it ran was when I winterized it. I looked up some info and received lots of advice about needing to learn how to bleed air out of the engine. I read up in the manual and gave it a try.

These are the videos showing what I was doing. Kind of a Part I and Part II. I explain a little what I did to get it working. I'm happy to say that it now seems to be working for now. Since I bought the boat, I haven't looked at the impeller so I decided to go ahead and pull that out. While doing that, I tore a small piece off and now need to replace it. I'll try going to the West Marine that's an hour away and see if they have something I can use.

 

 

Hopefully some of the info can be useful to others. I learned something so it wasn't a wasted day.

Raw Water Seacock, Installed!

Instead of going through several posts for each step along the way, I decided to make a post for the project as a whole. After seeing a loose thru-hull, I went ahead and worked on getting it replaced. Certainly don't want to sink the boat as soon as it gets in the water.

New Gear: Mast Mate

Mast work is one thing I've been looking at with a cautious eye since I started shopping around for a boat.

I used to have an Amateur Radio tower with a height of 77' in my backyard at my last house I had. I'm used to climbing the narrow tower at that height. Of course, being firmly set in the ground with 60, 60lb bags of concrete and guy wires attached to earth anchors, it certainly wasn't moving. It had a nice view from the top too.

 

That concrete base is 3' x 3' for size comparison

Now, the idea of getting to the top of a mast I wasn't sure about. I'm expecting there would be a lot more movement at the top of a boats mast than the top of the radio tower. While reading various things around the net, it seemed the main methods used involved another person hoisting someone up. Since I am likely to be doing a lot of stuff around my boat without much, if any, help, I decided to find something for the solo/shorthanded sailor, a Mast Mate.

I've seen it advertised and seemed to have good reviews on some forums. A recent post of SV Sundowner getting new standing rigging showed it in use and I thought that it looked like it would work out well. I went ahead and ordered one that would accommodate my mast. After ordering online, I received a phone call shortly afterwards to finalize the order and it just arrived today. I still have the climbing belt left over from the tower that I can use with the Mast Mate.

Here are a few pictures I just took to show the package I received.

 

 

I attached one of the shackles temporarily to show how it is done. Once I order the appropriate size slides, I will attached them all.

Joshua Slocum: A Bit of History

Joshua Slocum video showing what he did during his life.

 

You can even find his book "Sailing Alone Around the World" on Amazon. It's a very good book that many have read and enjoyed.

Sewing Machine

On a previous post, I was talking about wanting to do some canvas work. I researched sewing machines that were popular and went ahead and ordered a Sailrite LSZ-1 sewing machine. It came in yesterday. I ordered some other accessories to go along with it and everything came in large boxes. The black transport case and the machine itself came in to individual boxes within a single large box. It was pretty big and heavy. Another box had accessories that I ordered along with it. I ordered a yard of 60" Marine Grade Sunbrella, Linen color. I got only one yard to start off with smaller projects at the moment as I learn the machine. I got a white 1" binding strip to go along with it for the edge to give it a nice finished look. At least, that's the idea. In order to cut Sunbrella, I ordered one of Sailrite's hot knives too.

 

It's a heavy machine. In the accessory kit I ordered included the heavier balance wheel and that is pretty heavy itself. First impressions, it looks like a good solid machine that will last some time.