Newly Installed Electrical Panels...Update

I love having a few minutes to myself!......Two updates today!

In a previous post I showed the two electrical panels that I purchased. Now comes the time to unveil them to you as promised.

The two panels were purchased through Boater Bits in Canada via E-Bay. I've been very happy with Boater Bits and I would recommend them without hesitation. I'm a lot late with these updates, but being late gave me a chance to "test" everything over the summer. I'm happy to report that everything works well.

The reason for having two panels is simply two fold; it looks cool! Need 'em. No. Want 'em. Yes. And the other reason is that I wanted a duel battery check, and another 12 volt outlet, which the main panel offered. It bolted up in the same footprint as the original panel from Catalina, which was great. But it only has three switches, and I needed six. Thus the smaller panel, with three more switches. The large panel controls my cabin lights, running lights, and compass light. The three switches on the smaller panel control my anchor light, steaming light, and deck light. I rewired the mast to allow me to control each light separately, which I will update with a photo and info on my mast rewiring and my duel deck connectors as soon as the shrink wrap comes off this spring!

The location of the smaller panel was by choice, not that I had any room near the main panel, 'cause I didn't, I still would have chosen this spot regardless, just for the convenience and aesthetics of it's location. I cleaned up most of the old wiring by ripping it out and starting with all new wiring. I've added two terminal blocks, one on the back side of the main panel, and the other to the inside of the garbage can cubby, (backside of the port bulkhead) for the smaller panel. That really helped in clearing up the rat's nest of wiring. I still have a wee bit more wiring to replace such as the wire to the running lights and to the cabin lights, but hell, I love little projects!

I'll throw in a teaser photo of my duel battery switch, which I'll show, and talk, more of in a later post. 'till then, thanks for looking, Jay

New Bulkhead Replacement Update

Ah, at last! The newly awaited photos of my brand new, home made, bulkheads are finely posted! This is a follow up of an earlier post. Enjoy, and thank you for looking, Jay. PS, I do have the old bulkheads that I can trace out and send to anyone that is in need of new ones and would like to make them yourself.

Mainsail Headboard Repair

As usual, I'm ass backwards! The very top photo is of course the last photo sorry! Jay

At the end of sailing season '08, I flaked my mainsail, tucked in the sheets, and zippered the cover that would cocoon my boom and sail in my basement until the spring. Everything works out with reason. In early December, while hiding Christmas presents in my basement, I happened to notice that the headboard and upper part of the sail had dropped out from it's cocoon. As I unzipped the bag to tuck the sail back in, I took a good look at the headboard with my thoughts of maybe going to a aluminium headboard, when I noticed that I was missing a lot of little brass rivets that sandwich the sail in between the two pieces of the headboard to hold it together. Man I'm glad my sailing season was short last year, because if it were any longer, and being blind to the fact that these rivets were dropping out all over me as I sailed, I'm sure I would of have done some nasty things to my sail,....like rip the hell out of it. Fate.

Next was the dilemma of finding rivets. I checked the web, searched stores, and even called Ullman Sails, which their answer was to use stainless steel bolts. I didn't want regular rivets that leave a big wad of metal on the one side, 'cause that looks like hell, and I didn't want the rivets to catch on anything. So what I did find are these things called a binding post, or threaded post with screws. Perfect. Thin flat heads and a flat back. They are made out of aluminium, so please don't run out and replace your rivets yet! This is untested, and let me be the first to see if they work. I will let you know through out the '09 sailing season.

The first thing I did was to punch out the old rivets, except for two or three, which held everything in place. I then used a butane lighter to heat the tip of a 13/64" drill, so as I drilled it melted the plastic and sail material, just because! I then inserted the post and a #10 stainless steel washer into the hole. If the material allowed,( less layers of material), I placed another #10 washer on the top side. Next, I placed one drop of loc tite on the screw threads and screwed it tight. I repeated these steps until I was done.

I'm happy with the way it turned out, it looks good, and I'm hoping that it doesn't rain down on me in a hard blow! I promise to keep you posted. Thanks, Jay

Novus Lexan Scratch Removal

In the summer of '08, during the annual Boy Scout trip to Scout Island, an island in the southern portion of the Great Sacandaga Lake, my forward hatch became home to some Scout butt. Not firmly planted butts, but butts of the "I can't sit still butts". Butts that adorned wet, gritty, sandy shorts sat upon my brand new, newly installed forward hatch window. My crystal clear Lexan now had a series of butt sliding scratches from top to bottom. Being the kind of guy that can take a lot, and don't get mad at to much, my heart just sank. Kids are kids, and "new" rules were made. "Nobody sits their ass on my window anymore"! OK, maybe I was mad a tad, but man, all of that work redoing my hatch! It was brand new!

Well it took some time to research a product that I could use to get rid of those nasty scratches, and I decided on a product line called Novus. It comes in individual bottles, or as kits. I bought the 8oz. kit, which included #3, course grit, #2 medium grit, #1 fine. After seeing some guy take some serious scratches out of a clear Lexan motorcycle wind shield on the web, I was convinced that this was the product for me. I just hoped that it would work on smoked lexan.

I ordered the kit from a company called Plastic-Craft Products .com, 744 West Nyack Road, West Nyack, NY 10994 Their phone number is 845-358-3010 The 8oz. kit was around $16.00. I ordered it online one day and it came the next, very fast indeed. To find the nearest distributor near you, call 1-800-548-6872, or check out http://www.novuspolish.com/

I laid down a nice soft cotton towel on the kitchen table and laid my piece of Lexan down on it. I first cleaned the Lexan with water only using a soft clean cotton rag, and dried it well. I then took another soft cotton rag and squeezed out a dab of #3 and started the "across the grain" movement on the worse scratches. I worked each dab of #3 at 90 degree angles to the scratches till it dried, and then wiped it clean with still another clean cotton rag and repeated the process again and again. I hate scratches in anything, so I worked using #3 for about three hours, (they were deep), until those deep scratches were completely out, as well as the other scratches that were embedded in the Lexan. I simply could not believe how well this product worked. I was happy and amazed. I then went to using #2, which removed the fine scratches left from #3. That went a lot quicker, and with each application, I could see the luster of my Lexan come back to life. I finished with #1 and the results were like new. I'm very happy now.

So with the '09 sailing season coming soon, I will sail again, proud, with a new sparkling forward hatch.

Jay

The Gudgeon Replacement; Can you say, @#&%

"OK, easy enough", I thought, when I first started to think about replacing my old, bent, weak upper and lower gudgeon's on CjAndeai. Oh, how wrong I was in thinking a silly notion like that! It was,(for me), a royal pain in the ass. It was something that needed to be done, and like most of us out there, I tend to like to do things on my own. It's good for the soul,...but in this case, my soul almost left my body. I think that I came very close in popping a huge vein in my skull, during the time that this project went south. OH, I'm better now,...the redness has left my face, and I am body and soul once more, and, I almost can crack a smile, on what was, a miserable face.

I ordered the new, big and beefy set of Gudgeon's from Catalina Direct last year, after noticing that the original Gudgeons had bent up on me during the Sailing season. The new ones are a great deal better than the old ones, with much more support. I feel that this will be the last set that I will need to replace on CjAndeai. As Summer turned to Fall, and Fall into Winter, time ran out on me to do the replacement. I did however manage to attempt to remove the Gudgeon's from the boat during a nice day in the winter. Kinda like getting a head start on the up and coming Sailing season. That day I managed to break off all six bolts that hold the upper and lower Gudgeons. But Hay, they were off!

With the time just whipping past this season, I knew that I needed to do certain things to get my boat ready for launch, (which still hasn't happened). I played hooky from work, only for a few hours, one day, and set my sights on getting this project done. "Easy enough". I gathered up my drill, drill bits, pliers, chisel, hammer, new Gudgeons, 4200, sand paper, paper towels, latex gloves, razor blades, EZ outs, and a cold Mike's hard Lemonade. I was ready, let's do it!

I scraped off, and dug out, the 4200 sealant that I had placed in the holes after I broke the bolts off during the winter. I just didn't want any water getting in there. At that time, it dawned on me that the lower Gudgeon brass plates was exposed on the inside of my boat. Hell of a time to remember that! I just didn't think of that brass plate being exposed when I attempted to take them off. Sure enough, after crawling into and under the cockpit seats, there it was. A brass plate, drilled and tapped, with three 1/4" bolts, screwed into it, along with three lock nuts on the back side. That's why they broke off! Turning the bolts out from the front did nothing, due to the fact that the lock nuts held the bolt in place, thus snapping the bolts. So I removed the nuts, turned out the broken bolts, and removed the plate. I then re drilled, and re tapped the holes in the plate to except a 5/16" stainless steel hex head bolt. The hex head bolt idea came from Bayard Gross, a Chip Ford Listee. It makes so much sense to use something with meat on it, just in case, this needs to be done again. The new CD Gudgeon's will except the 5/!6" bolt easily. After drilling and tapping that plate, I drew a big smile on my face, and moved on to the upper Gudgeon.

There are many swear words, and some are brand new, I know, because I made some up! I think they all passed my lips after the first two minutes of attempting to remove the upper Gudgeon broken bolts. This was not fun, and my smile left my face. I tried to drill pilot holes into the bolts so I could use my EZ outs, but no matter what I did, I could not center the bit on the bolt. I tried slipping a steel tube over the bolts to use as a guide, it still didn't work. The plate moved easily, and it was a moving target. I heard that the brass plates were embedded into fiberglass. Not true on CjAndeai, and I would like to hear from others if this is the case on other similar year boats. After burning up my hooky hours from work on this stupid plan of mine to EZ out the bolts, I gave up the drilling and smacked the bolt/plate with a good blow from my hammer and chisel. There you @#^&*%. All that did was wedge it into the fiberglass. I then went to plan "B", hoping that this wasn't a bad plan. I went to my local West Marine and bought a 6" deck plate, screw in cap style. I then stopped at my local Home Depot, and bought a 4 1/2" hole saw, to cut a very clean hole in my transom. This is a scary thing to think about doing to the boat you love so much, kinda like a loved one going under the knife. Let's hope for a speedy recovery! It took about three days to grow the nads to do this, and then one day, I just did it, with no thought, or fear. I used the pilot bit on the hole saw only to get to the point where I could remove it, and use the hole saw alone, I just didn't want the long pilot bit to come out from the other side. I drilled about 3/8" into the cockpit side of the transom, and I could feel the fiberglass circle let loose. Sure enough, out popped a 4 1/2" fiberglass disk. The hole exposed a void in between the layers of the transom, but also it reveled a wood strip that was embedded into the fiberglass. It is 1/2" thick and must act as a horizontal support, or maybe it's there just to keep the brass plate from falling down into the void. The other interesting thing I found was that the bolts that were into the brass plate, also had lock nuts on them. Again, the very same reason that they broke off, just like the lower Gudgeon bolts. I proceeded to remove the plate, and the nuts, and the bolts. I then drilled and tapped the holes to except the 5/16" hex head bolts. I used 4200 on the deck plate and screwed it into the transom. I screwed in the cover, and it looked good. I used 5200 behind my Gudgeons,(I hope that this wasn't a mistake, but I have no plans on replacing these again), and bolted them down with the new hex head bolts.

Another project done! Thank God! Looking back, I wish that I wasn't feeling rushed when I started this job. Maybe I would of have thought about looking and feeling first. If you have a same vintage boat as mine, and you want to replace the Gudgeon's, see if you could slip a long open end 7/16" wrench into that void to get at the nuts. If you could get those off, the bolts should turn out easy, without that feared snapping sound! Good Luck! Jay

Garhauer Marine's EZ Glide System

With a lot of talk about sail shape, and the ability to control it, led me to install the Garhauer Marine EZ Glide System on CjAndeai. Granted, these system's are found on large sailboats, but I was attracted to the fact that they would allow me to trim my headsail easily when sailing solo, or when sailing with inexperienced crew members. I could of have bought a "of the shelf" EZ Glide system from Garhauer, but the lead car blocks, I felt, were just to big for my little boat that I love. So I placed a call to Garhauer, and spoke with Mark, whom is a really nice fellow, and we talk about the EZ Glide system. After about an hour, Mark told me the he would be willing, and able to, make up a EZ Glide system consisting of a smaller lead car block, which would require some modifications to it's mounting on the car itself. Mark kept his word, and in about a week I received the special adjustable lead car system, dubbed the "Half Breed", by both by Mark and I. The workmanship is very, very good. And it's ability to move the lead car along the one inch track, works smooth, with, or, without tension on the headsail.

If you are considering a system such as this, consider Garhauer Marine, great products for a very reasonable price. Just ask for Mark, and say that you want a "Half Breed" EZ Glide system for a C22, like the one he made for Jay. I am super happy with the system, and with the ease of controlling the shape of my headsail. Jay

SPANKING NEW ELECTRICAL PANELS

One of the first things that I wanted to change on CjAndeai when I first bought her, was the electrical panel. Oh, it works ok, but it's nineteen years old, and the the wiring behind it was pretty brittle, and it had one rocker switch that was re-glued by the PO that kinda stuck out from the face plate, and it always bugged me! Every time I flipped that switch, I made a mental note to change it, but never did.

Over the course of two years, I kept my eyes open for a panel that I would like, but not really sure of my future electrical needs were going to be, I just pushed it off, to go on to my other projects. Well this year I decided, as others have, to go with a two battery setup. I collected the duel battery switch first, then the wire, and then got serious about finding a panel. I knew that I wanted a voltmeter that would check the voltage of two batteries, and I also wanted another 12volt outlet. When your away from your boat, and you try to plan things out, many ideas come to you. You think that you have all the room in the world in these small boats, to put this here and that there, but you really don't have a lot of room to add a whole bunch of stuff, including electrical components. I was going to use a separate voltmeter here, a separate 12 volt outlet there, plus a new six gang fused panel. Then I went to my boat! OK,...I can't put that there, and I can't stick this thing here. So back to square one! I still wanted all of those electrical goodies onboard, and I looked a little harder, knowing now the actual space that I had to work with.

While looking over items on Ebay, I came across Boater Bits, out of Canada. They had the almost perfect panel for me, and, as it turned out it was the perfect panel. The panel from Boater Bits would fit the original area perfectly, but it had only three fused switches, they are lighted as well, and it also had a duel battery voltmeter, plus a 12 volt outlet. I scrolled further down their list of panels and found a three gang panel that complemented the bigger panel. That was perfect.

The larger panel will operate the cabin lights, running lights, and one more thing, once I remember what it is! The smaller panel is going to be mounted in the cabin as well, but midship. That panel will operate the anchor light, deck light, and the mast light. Once I get this project completed, I'll post photos, and of course, a little color commentary to go along with it. So, please check back from time to time to see how it turned out.

Jay