Power, Outlet: U-Socket, Dual Socket/ Dual USB, 110V, White, TruePower

This looks like an idea worth incorporating on a sailboat;

Santa came through........

First batch of Mastervolt units arrived. So far so good.

Happy Christmas everyone... Best Christmas song ever..

The myth of a "dry boat"..........

No I'm not talking about booze. All boats will have deck leaks from time to time and at some time there will be condensation. The first task is to minimize these leaks and reduce the opportunity for condensation. The second task is to design all lockers etc. to maximize drainage and ventilation. Two simple solutions are lining all lockers with "Dri-Dek" or similar and installing drain (limber) holes.



p.s. I have no connection with Dri-Dek etc.

His and Her storage........

Picture the scene. Anchored in the Tobago Keys, late evening, you are down below laying on the Port settee (or "Horizontal II" as my wife calls it)., single malt in hand reading a good book. Admiral is banging about making jam or something. She needs to access the drawer under your settee, bookshelf over your head, etc.. Moment ruined!!!!!

On TIH we will have His and Her storage in the Saloon, at the very least. The Port side is mine and the Starboard side is hers. Keep in mind that I have a full Perkins M65 engine as a spare (minus the flywheel and block) I need all the space possible.

Drawers v. drop in storage

The picture shows the existing drawers on the port side of the saloon. The drawer dimensions are 14" x 13" x 4" = .42 cu ft. Without the drawer the dimensions of the space are 17" x 18" x 9" = 1.59 cu ft. That's a a lot of wasted space. I intend to remove the drawers (using the front as a blank) and access the space from the top.

Finally back on the boat.......

The boat looks like a bomb hit it. I have about 12 half finished projects on the go. I think I had ADHD when it was called "not paying bloody attention". The problem with boats is that they are "layered". You pull something out and then realize that if you put it back you will have to pull it out again at a later stage to get at something else. At least that's my excuse. I did manage to finish painting the port side of the saloon and got some paint/varnish on the shelving/partitions.

Cruising Friends......

We caught up with some of our old cruising friend in Salinas on the South Coast of Puerto Rico and were happy to find most of them doing well and the rest were out on bail. This is what passes for entertainment on a slow day in Marianne's (Tradewinds) sail loft.

Boat work.....

Not much work on TIH at the moment, I'm busy driving a 47ft powerboat (not a bad gig). Took the boat to Fort Lauderdale yesterday for some maintenance. Its always nice to see the big toys in F.L.





I still would prefer to be on the boat pictured below (Whitby42 Zig Zag, anchored off the ICW, looking good).

Storage Plan

I am convinced that, when it comes to neatness, the world is divided into two types of people, Stackers and Spreaders. I am firmly in the spreader camp. Half of my time is spent looking for stuff. The W42 has LOTS of lockers. As I am tied up with other peoples boats at the moment I spent a few moments numbering the locations (using the standard odd numbers on the Stbd. side, even numbers on the Port side) on the attached plan. Time will tell how that works.

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam;

Well, I'm actually just back. Amazing two weeks in an amazing country. Go now before there is a Mickey d's on every corner. (Only one KFC in Hanoi, we did not indulge).

Boat is still floating, looks like we might survive hurricane season 2010 (touch wood etc.)

Boat Service Log..........

The holy grail of most Cruiser /Sailors is the complete maintenance logbook, filled with details of all the systems on board, schedules for overhaul etc. etc.. I have been on very few boats who have achieved this holy grail. Most of us have a few binders containing the original manuals, a few hand written notes and the occasional half finished out of date spreadsheet. The PC should be the ideal solution, but to date I have not found any software to FORCE some sort of discipline on me. Enter "Marine Boat Solutions" . I have just bought the software so its early days yet..but it looks promising. The people at this company seem pretty responsive (I have a small delivery hiccup due to an overactive spam filter) and I look forward to future updates. You can check them out on You Tube and hopefully they will have a demo version out soon.

A Ships Logbook would be a nice addition even if it came out as a separate package.

I have no connection with this company etc.

Back from the Chesapeake......

Some great sails on my friends Patrick and Lisa's W42 and an excellent rendezvous with other Whitby/Brewer owners. Lots of ideas and a need to get TIH moving soon...

Cutting holes........

The previous engine control panel was located on the binnacle. I won't have that option. I have spent some time trying to decide where to put the new one. Many boats have the panel low down in the cockpit well. I don't like that for a few reasons (water damage and having to bend down to read etc.).



Nice to cut in and find good adhesion between the outer layer and the balsa core.



Bigger gap between the cabin top and the liner than I expected. Good for running lighting electrical cables etc.



Good fiberglass



Red background is temporary, will eventually be black starboard.

Jack Tar Magazine and the Women of Maritime Calendar

Women of Maritime Calendar

This is a good cause, plus you can never have too many sailing women. Buy a calendar!!!!

Steering mock up.....

Time to bite the bullet on the steering quadrant setup. I have been flapping around trying to make the system accessible for maintenance etc. but unless I cut a ridiculously large access hatch (the existing one is already pretty big) I am still going to end up working upside down.

I was also trying to ensure that the bed platform (part of the hull liner) and mini bulkhead that all the stuff will be attached to will be strong enough. The original hydraulic ram was just bolted to the underside of the bed platform and I have heard of no cases of failure.

I will install an 5/16 aluminum plate 36" long by 12 high and bolt the various fittings to this. The white/red cardboard in the sad composite photo, above, is the plate.

Getting things bolted down and boxes up....

Soemtimes you just have to finish a project and put the panel back on. Photo of the engine exhaust secured on the port side of the after cabin.

Electrical conduit.....

I have decided to place PVC conduit along the top of the hull liner to take electrical and other cables. Those are the gray piped on the bottom left of the picture.

Lowes Marine wins again.....

Dry fit of Lowes; Rev-A-Shelf Medium 2-Tier Chrome Basket installed in the hanging locker, on the starboard forward part of the main salon.





At $85 it works for me.

Campbell Sailer propeller arrives....

18" X 10". Big and shiny.

Hatch openings - different sizes...

Interestingly, even though the actual hatches in the saloon and v-berth were exactly the same models the deck openings were different sizes. I trimmed off about .5 all round the V-berth opening.





Some fairing up, sanding and sealant tomorrow.

The one hour boat project.....

We all know about those, "it'll just take an hour or so" and three days later the boat is torn apart. I have been stewing over the deck hatches since I bought the boat (two year now). I had discounted the Hood hatches and considered refurbishing the Atkins Hoyle ones. I later discounted AH based on cost and future availability of parts. I then bought a Lewmar size 60 Ocean hatch with a flange base. I still deferred the job as I dreaded tackling the goop that held the old hatch to the deck.

While waiting for the paint to dry in the saloon and to escape the fumes I decided to give the hatches another go. More poking at the sealant and a brief attack with the Fein cutting blade proved inconclusive. I decided to try a small chisel as a wedge, with no great expectations. A few half hearted sucking sounds (from the silicon, not me) the damn thing popped off. 30 mins later the second hatch was off.

The Lewmar 60 fitted right in to the Saloon opening. The V-Berth opening will need about a .5 inch increase all round. Bloody boats.

Saloon starboard storage

There are a variety of storage layouts on the W42's/Brewer42's. Mine is as shown below. I will be leaving the lower part as is, but the top consists of, two book shelves on the left, the famous bar and drop down table in the center and a drawer, pull hatch, drawer on the right.


(photo borrowed from the web, if its your and you want it removed, e-mail me)

My issues/plans are as follows;

1. As I am messy and my wife is a neat-nick the library will have to have a louvered door.

2. The original bar only had space for 18 bottles (the boat was obviously not aimed at the Irish market). This area will be converted to shelving with possibly a flat screen TV in front.

3. I tend to jam stuff in drawers causing them to jam and not open. This area will be shelved will also have a louvered door. This is what I would like to end up with, except that I would prefer one door instead to the double opening (easier to clip open / lock at sea.;


(photo borrowed from the web, if its your and you want it removed, e-mail me)


While everything was ripped out I took the opportunity to do some painting.

Engine running.....

Cooling down......

Believe me, 90 deg is cooler than it was. It later got down to an invigorating 86 deg and this is without any ducting installed. Should have done this in March.



Located under chart table.

Very good Air Con info here.

Fuel is flowing.....

Something that has not happened on-board TIH for over 17 years.

I love paper charts and will not sail without them....

However, I don't really like chart tables. They tend to get cluttered with "stuff"; laptops, radios books etc. and then you can't lift the lid, which is the main purpose of a chart table.

I also love the idea that Beth and Evan Starzinger have about using a "rally" type chair when underway. This requires me to remove the existing chart table on TIH. I will flip it vertically and use it as a bulkhead to hold GPS, instruments etc. The instruments will be cut into/mounted on the existing lid.




Chair idea.

Engine installation almost completed.....

Dry riser solution, finally.



Water lift.



Shooting aft from the engine room door.




Exhaust hose.



Anti syphon.



Transmission access, not too horrible.



Hose run down port side of hull, to exit at stern. I will secure it in place to give a gentle downward slope.

Fresh water from deck....test

While waiting for the torrential downpour to stop so that I could finish installing the last NFM port I took the opportunity to test the water output form the deck drain diverter valve. One drain filled a 5gal bucket in 40 seconds. Admittedly it was a typical Miami summer downpour but that's a whopping 100 gals in less that 7 minutes if I have both deck drains switched to water catching.

Water Tanks tops removed....

What can I say, I was always good at breaking things.

Bloody Air Conditioning...........

Marine Air Con is contrary to all my principles of sensible cruising (Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach). Then again so is heat stroke and divorce. So I see an AC unit in my immediate future. OD and I have have some conversation on the subject so I may as well post my thoughts here.

1. If I have to have a built in AC, I only want to deal with one.
2. It must produce sufficient BTU to cool the boat on a HOT day, in a hot place.
3. Its primary task is to cool the saloon and galley but if I can duct some air to the aft cabin I will.
4. I am prepared to carry a small window unit which can be used in the after hatch to cool the aft cabin if I cannot use the main a/c. (e.g. On the hard, when the main system in down).

This Site has a formula that seems to agree with the the opinion of my fellow boaters in Miami. (This does not mean that they are all not wrong).

Area of saloon and galley (12ft x 12ft x 6.5ft x Factor 12.31) gives 11.5K btu. If you add the V-Berth and have any hope of getting some cool air to the aft cabin you are looking at a 16K unit.

At the moment I am looking at the;

Dometic Turbo vector series 16K unit

Sea Chest installed.....

The sea chest is installed with fractions of an inch to spare. Almost looks like it was planned. The handle of the emergence shut of valve (upper left) will normally be removed but secured nearby. If and when the sea-chest leaks and causes reduced cooling water flow to the engine it can be use to isolate the supply.