Hi Dkd,
Your stuck at work earning the dollars, I reckon that counts. Nice looking boat, what is she? The bulb looks new?

What did I do to my sailing boat today?? One thing that I hate doing to it which is drilling holes in it. Three holes 3/8" to be exact for the purpose of filling them with stainless steel.

My yacht has a very uncluttered fore deck which is a thing to be desired on most any yacht.









She also has a very good anchor locker.








With lovely lids like that, you really would not want to lose them. With the silly spring loaded hinge pins holding them in place it is surprising neither of them got lost to date. If unlocked from the hinge position a good gust of wind could take them away in half a second and it would be bye bye anchor locker lid.







So the first job of the day was to rectify that situation. Cut the old pin stop off, drill the fixed part of the hinge to 5/16" and put bolts in with washers and nyloc nuts.







Now this yacht is not quite 4 tonnes and she holds well with a 30 lb Manson Plough so when it is time to weigh anchor it is not difficult if you open the anchor locker lids, sit on the deck just behind with your feet in the locker and haul the anchor in by hand without too much strain. If you need a bit more purchase you put your feet on the front edge of the locker and haul away.

I am sure Alan Wright designed it purposely like this. The ergonomics on a Lotus 9.2 are quite amazing overall.

This is all well and good if you are in the duck pond and there is little wind but we all know that when we go cruising, any sort of conditions may be encountered such as 30 knots of wind and 4 knots of tide, both right on the nose. If you are not dragging your anchor yet it is probably a good idea to stay put but that is not always possible.

So I have had this little Muir VMH 500 in my garage for the last 7 or 8 years since I found it on Ebay for $240 and the thought crossed my mind more than once that it would be ideal for my little jigger.













Now instead of a beautiful clear foredeck, I have a toe stubber right in the middle of it.












It is very handy to be able to stash the anchor below deck if you are going to be doing a fair bit of head sail changing as I will be.










This is the high speed position for the handle. When the gypsy is unlocked by anti-clockwise turning, the chain runs very free. I may have to put some anti chafe mat under the run of the chain.









This is the high power position of the handle. Unfortunately there is no ratchet action in the mechanism of the winch. There is plenty of room to get at the chain in the locker when it stacks up or bunches up on run out.


Muir still sell hand winches like these but I believe they are all stainless now, not chrome plated bronze like this one. Also they have gypsies that handle rope and chain together.

That was my day. I hope you enjoyed yours as much as I did mine.

Hi Guys,
I am repainting downstairs, and it transpires that it was painted previously using International Brightside. It has been discontinued apparently, and as I am only sanding back to allow the new coat and not remove it entirely, I was wondering if anybody had any experience with this paint, and if anyone had recommendations on painting over it with something else?
Brightside is a polyurethane gloss enamel paint. Super shiny, and the world's easiest surface to clean, so even though I don't think it was designed for internal applications it did have some benefit!
Thanks in advance!
SB

Toplac is now used instead of Brightside - great paint but not cheap!!

Thanks Cisco/Lazzarae, appreciate the advice. Will post pics of outcome!

manitulak said..

About Tulak's prop, ahead is not afected but astern is greatly complicated, I'm afraid Ill never master it.

I had not thought about astern. Hard to imagine.

Your prop is offset to port as well. Why is that??

Ahh yes, propeller shaft and rudder shaft cannot cross axis. Like you say, there is always a compromise somewhere. If there was the ideal yacht, we would all be sailing the same thing.

Lazzarae said..
Toplac is now used instead of Brightside - great paint but not cheap!!

Toplac is a good paint ... good for interior or area not usually immersed.

Guess my logic with paint is you get what you pay for ...... my boat painted entirely with Awlcraft 2000 and hoping I don't need to do anything with it (other than polish it) for years to come.

Actually is Awlcraft and 4 coats of clear over that, I hate sanding and painting is not far behind that as fun goes

Second coat done Ill let it harden and a sand before the next coat next weekend
This is what I used have to see how it works out but touch up will be easy either roller brush or a pressure pack

DrRog said..
Went to the boat with new dodger; cut the strut down to size and found that I had to take it home again to adjust some things. Came home, unpicked, restitched, expanded edges where I'd fallen short.

Beautiful sunny day outside which I spent inside.

Tomorrow should get it installed and maybe even go for a sail.

its a real pain when you have to take it back . Yesterday I measured some stuff on the boat and forgot to bring it home

cisco said..

aus005 said..

hey cisco
does the chain bunch up under your windlass when bringing up the anchor and jam it up mine does even with a chain locker with a big drop below deck also do you have to take the anchor off the chain to stow it is there room to bring anchor in past the furler.

I have only just fitted the winch and not used it yet. I am sure it will pile up when bringing it in and I will get jams when letting it out. I think I will have plenty of room to get at it though with the stbd lid open.

The anchor clears the furler if I lift it right up to bow rail level.

My winch is in my room waiting to be fitted it will be a slowly slowly job deck first and then down below hopefully it will all work out

Relieving oneself over the side is gross and has drawn a lot of negative comments from everybody who saw it. It really looks terrible from the shore!
May be out there on the ocean but even there...

What is wrong with using the heads once you got it?
Or using a piss-bottle?

This topic made me smile (and maybe blush a little) , as a member of the fairer sex I have sailed on several yachts with less then plush facilities, a bucket was bearable, a pump out head was virtual luxury, an electric head ....OMG!!!

manitulak said..
Piss-bottle is fine with me, litle of bleach inside keeps odour down. Im not a "noble person" so the "perfume" needed to be controled.

Do not get me wrong, "piss bottle" is only for those unfortunate times Im "required" in the cokpit, or to lazy at berth in the marina. Tulak is equiped with satisfactionary sanitary equipement: porta-potty top, over moulded holding tank (120 l ) with macerator pump out. Reading all pros and cons about flushing (sea, fresh water) options. I did chosen fresh water for elimmination of the "boaty/natural" scient. Portapotty top serves as toilet seat and as a fresh water storage and makes passible to controll each flush volume. From experence contence of holding tank in Tulak case,even after fiew weeks storage did not produce "flavour" present on much recent vintage boats. For a friend of me I did inbuild glass holding tank and he used his electric flush toilet with sea water flush, I was able to tell him that he need to pour some chemicals or bleach (all v/s beeing plasick not affected) and "air clears" soon.

Nice work Dr Rog