Messages

Kerk, I guess I'm showing my ignorance, but what is a keel cooler?

Ken,
I just had my boat hauled out today. The yard that hauled it had a smaller travel lift than where I had been hauled before and the operator told me that I would have to disconnect either the head stay or the two back stays. This is the first time I ran into this situation. I opted to disconnect the two back stays since I didn't want to tackle the furler. It was no big deal. I backed off the turn buckles until I had enough slack to pull the clevis pins. I used my main halyard as a temporary stay until I was blocked up, then I reconnected the stays and clevis pins but I didn't tighten the turnbuckles. This will take some of the load off of the rigging for the storage season and will allow me to reverse the process without too much trouble in the Spring.
I do agree with Mark that you shouldn't let the forestay off for the Winter. There will be a lot of wind load and possibly ice too. The use of the halyard and/or the topping lift wouldn't let me sleep all Winter long.

My winterizing process is basically the same as Brad describes. My question is about the specs for the hose. I just got rid of a car with more than 100,000 miles in 8 years and had no problem with the heater hoses and they carry water at about 180 degrees. The sea water coming in to cool the engine coolant is only 75 or 80 degrees.

I am in the process of winterizing my boat and something came up in regards to the intake hose for the engine cooling water. My boat was re-powered 3 years ago by the PO just before I bought it so the hose in question is only 3 years old. The hose is very inflexible, heavy wall and probably wire reinforced, and is difficult to work with when removing it from the sea cock and maneuvering the end of it into a bottle or bucket of anti-freeze to winterize the engine. Is there any reason that this intake hose couldn't be of the same variety as the heater hoses used in automotive applications? They are more flexible and probably less expensive than the heavy stiff kind used in so many places on boats. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with "hose sense".

Here is my opinion, FWIW: If you contacted the broker yourself and he directed you to the listing then you owe it to him to deal thru him. If you found the listing yourself then you don't owe anything to the broker especially since the listing probably didn't give you any information as to who the owner is. The owner's own listing may have been posted before he turned it over to a broker and therefore the owner may refer you to the broker anyway. If the owner has an "exclusive" contract with the broker, he will have to pay the commission no matter who sells the boat. Contact the owner and see what he says, then make your decision. Your quandary may be all for nothing.

It is possible to attach two VHF radios to a single antenna, however, a switch must be installed in the antenna line so that only one of them is connected at a time. This is so that the transmitting radio doesn't apply full output power to the other radio on the line. An automatic switch is made for this purpose so that one doesn't have to remember to throw the switch to the intended radio. (One moment of forgetfullness and at least one of the radios is finished.) The switch senses the RF energy and instantly switches over. I don't know if WM would have these switches or perhaps they would be available at a Radio Shack store.

Ron

It appears to me that the appearence of the message board has changed a few days ago. I'm surprised that no one mentioned it. What's up with that? FWIW I liked the old look better.

Dick,
I have a device at home which I use to check the balance of my lawn mower blade when I sharpen it. It is a cone shaped device made from plastic. The cone is stepped to various diameters to fit any hole size that might be in the blade.The blade is placed on the cone on the appropriate diameter shoulder and both are placed on the pivot point. The whole thing  balances on the pivot point and the blade balance is checked by "eyeballing" the way the blade may or may not tilt. Since it is accurate enough for a high speed lawn mower blade, there is no reason that it shouldn't be accurate enough for a prop. At least for a rough check.

Thanks Stu,
Your last post has cleared up a lot of questions for me. That isn't to say that I won't be back with more; for now I have it pretty straight in my mind. Al's wiring diagram is just about what I diagramed for myself previously but it helps my confidence to hear it from someone who has been down the path before me.

Thanks Stu and TD and Ted. I am beginning to piece everything together to come up with a plan. Stu, I have Calder's book and it has given me some info but not all I wanted. For instance, he discusses charging with a single alternater output and even two alternaters but he doesn't cover much about how to add an AC charger in the circuit. With a little more digging I'll figure it out. To me, and I'm sure to many others, this is the most challanging aspect of boat maintenance.

Hi Ted,
Thanks for the reply but now I have more questions. A battery combiner is recommended between battery banks (house bank and starting bank) so that they are isolated during use but they will all charge from the same source. Are you suggesting the use of a battery combiner between batteries in the same bank? If two batteries are wired in parallel for a house bank are you saying that each one should have a seperate charging source (charger output)? I thought that batteries in parallel are treated as one larger capacity battery. Rephrasing my original question, if one alternater output can charge all of a boats batteries thru the use of a combiner, can't one charger output do likewise? If two seperate charger outputs are used how is the circuit effected, given that there is a combiner in it? One other thing, a charger with a single output is less expensive than one with multiple outputs.

I've been following this discussion with much interest since I would like to upgrade my electrical system. I've looked at the information here and also in the WM catalog section on batteries. A diagram in the WM catalog shows two battery banks connected with a battery combiner so that one alt. output charges both banks. I can't find any info regarding a battery charger. How would that be wired into the circuit? Would one use a charger with a single output or would it take a charger with two outputs each tied to one of the battery banks? Would it make a difference if the ah rating of each bank is significantly different? My house bank consists of two 12v batteries in parallel for an ah rating of approx. 200ah.

John,
I asked the same question when I first joined the sailnet C34 list and I was steered to this site. Some very talented people have established this site for C34 owners to get together and discuss topics of mutual interest. It is a great place to find more information than you might have known existed because of the method of searching the archives for discussions that occured before you were born (unto the C34 world). Welcome and enjoy.

That's 30 degrees outside temperature.

Frank,
I use a portable ceramic heater that I bought at a hardware store (Ace or True Value). It is small, about the size of a large book, and has two heating levels and a safety switch that will shut off if knocked over. It's a 1500 watt unit. I think that is the maximum for a portable unit. It has kept my boat cozy to below 30 degrees.