Messages

Toward the end of my New England season this year, I was getting a pretty bad twanging sound from the prop shaft. In August it started as intermittent, by September it had got much worse. When I pulled the boat in late September I did have about 3 inches of growth on the shaft which could obviously be adding to the issue.
After I cleaned the shaft, I started looking for play. It is tight at the cutlass bearing/strut but the play where it goes into the hull is greater than another C34 and C30 in my yard. I seem to have a good tight bolt up at the transmission flange. So my question is: Does the stuffing box/shaft log give the shaft bearing support?

Hello,
I am looking to purchase a flex solar panel system (panel, controller and cables) mainly as a battery charger. I would put this on top of my dodger and I will pull the boom over to the opposite side.
Has anyone bought one recently that they would recommend?
I am on a mooring and you all know that charging situ!

Thank you

Thank you Jon, that's what I was looking for!

I would like to add an opening port to fixed port lens in head. I have seen this done, anybody out there done this and know what opening port to go with?

Has anyone relocated the engine stop cable from the instrument panel?
I find the kill cable being attached to the in instrument panel a PIA when I need to get the the back of the instrument panel.

The rabbit flange is glassed plywood that is epoxied and screwed from top with countersunk screws. I drove the screw heads far enough down in vee birth top surface to epoxy fill over.

One more picture

I was finding the storage under the vee-birth somewhat a PIA to get to with having to lift; or remove cushions all together to access. Certainly not stowage of anything you would want to get to quickly.
So I decided to add a locker on the starboard side just forward of the hanging locker where I could just lift up the end of the bed cushion on that side, pull up a hatch board and access pretty easily.
I added a glassed in bulkhead forward to contain everything. I added a top access panel as well as a louver door for front access. This ended up being a great place to put my tool bag, spares, hardware containers and other repair odds and ends. Before this, when we were loaded up with food and beverage, my tool bag was usually left out on the floor somewhere.
I also added a matching louver door on the port side which is a great place to store fishing poles or anything else long that you can reach in and pull out.)

It really taps into space that was previously pretty much unusable.
For the top hatch board, I epoxy coated plain old plywood but I would like to find the plywood that Catalina used for hatch boards. Does anyone know what that material is called and know if it is available?

BuddyB's home port is Salem, Mass, I kept my first cruising sailboat in Kittery, I worked in NBPT for 5 years.
Of course sailing north from NBPT is sailing nirvana but don't discount the cruising grounds south of NBPT, they are a real gem!
Let me know if you need some info.

Thanks very much Mas Tequila

Thanks for the replies.
To be perfectly honest, I am not crazy about putting the bar mounts on the hull. I wouldn't mind so much having the aft mounts on the transom.
Where do the aft tubes land (can't see in your picture).
Did you explore trying to locate front tubes on side decks.
I think the ultimate for me would be integrating into the stern rail, obviously it's custom fabrication and not aluminum. I don't think you would get the strength out of the stern rail if you bolted to it.
Having said that, what I want and what I may be willing two spend could quickly become two different things.
I like the lower weight of aluminum. I like getting davits and solar mounts in one. Of course I like Atlantic's pricing.

I have seen solar panels set up off of bimini bars on a C34, aside from that, has anyone put a true solar arch on a Mark 1 C34?

Paul : You aren't going to like my answer, but YES there have been incidences of the steel grid breaking away from the stainless rudder tube.  However, in the cases I know of there was a more than gentle grounding involved.

A thought

Thank Ron

Hello All,
I thought I fixed the water in Rudder issue.
As detailed here, I filled the rudder tube with epoxy and gouged out top of rudder where rudder tube goes into rudder and filled with 5200.
For the first year or two the rust streaks down the rudder stopped on the hard, over the course of winter, but this year they have returned - Rust coming out from tube fiberglass interface (where I put the 5200).
Understanding that it is the steel frame inside the rudder that is rusting, my question is: Have there been rudder failures due to this situation? Where the frame loses it connection to Rudder tube?
Thanks

Paul : There have been a number of Vberth storage ideas in the Mainsheet tech notes.  One foot square teak hatch doors on either side, a rectangle hatch in the center near the flooring and I installed a second "level" shelf above the OEM shelf at the bow end of the Vberth.

A few thoughts

Thank guys. Ron, I reviewed the v-birth posts you referred to. I was thinking more of cutting a hole in the top surface, under cushion on starboard side. I want to store bulky items, maybe tools. I would rather pull things like that out from the top rather than reach in from the front. I think I would be able to load it up more as well.
I do have a concern that I will have a weak point as my new cutout will come somewhat close to the large existing cutout. I will have to stiffen that with my partition. I will also need to have a rabbited edge for a new hatch board to be flush. This is obviously more work than cutting a door in the vertical surface. If this hasn't been done yet, maybe I will document and post.