Messages

The windlass breaker would typically be pretty big, and at least on my Mkii, it's not on the panel, it's under the desk in the footwell there. The light is typically just wired to the windlass side of that breaker. If you in fact have a breaker under the desk, it might just have gotten pulled on or switched depending on the design.

Rob

I actually epoxied it to the back of the anchor well. Now that I look at it, I probably should have put a layer of glass over that plywood.

I just did the two foot switches, though I think a remote would be a good idea. I find the chain stacks up in the anchor well and I have to knock it over, so I end up using my knee on the foot switch.   I also screwed a thin piece of HDPE behind the capstan to absorb some of the beating the chain was giving the fiberglass.

Steve,
    If it's like my 1998, there wasn't a solenoid from the factory. Catalina ran the 4gauge positive to the foot switch and then from the foot switch to the windlass. That worked since it was only 1 direction.  I ended up epoxying a piece of plywood behind the forward bulk head and then mounting the new solenoid to that.

Rob

Not a Garhauer but it might give you some ideas. I will say that side was a bit more difficult to get to the underside since the refrigerator compressor is under there, it would have been much easier to do the port side.  Other than that it wasn't hard to put on. My only issue was to get the hoist to sit mostly vertical, I had to put it down the scoop a little which made the pulley come out too low to be a straight shot to the starboard winch. I ended up with the block under the seat which leads it straight to the winch if my wife is helping or back to the dingy if I'm on my own.  That may not be an issue with the Garhauer model.

That's a 6hp Mercury by the way, which I bought before the lift. I was hoping the 6 would be light enough to not need a hoist but not quite. Now that I have the hoist, I would have liked the 9.9hp. The 6 is a little whimpy.

Rob. 

What other lines do you have coming back to the cockpit? When I added the 2nd reef last year I cleated the topping lift at the mast and used that clutch. You could also potentially cleat the jib halyard off and use that, assuming you have roller furling.  The owners manual has a couple diagrams on how to use the clutches depending on your arrangements.  Having said that, having the outhaul led to the cockpit does not seem to be a stock arrangement unless you have a furling main, at least according to the manual. My outhaul is cleated on the boom but my boat is a 1998, so a couple years older. 

MY biggest complaint with the EV100 wheel pilot is it squeaks like crazy. I read it helps to rinse it with fresh water but that doesn't seem to help me much. I guess I need to bring it home and clean it up.  Hard to enjoy a nice peaceful sail with it making all that noise. 

And I will say that for as much as I use the autopilot, which is every time I go out, I wish now that I had taken the time and expense to look more at a below deck install.

I would guess what was included from the factory varied by year, but the 1998 specification http://www.c34.org/images/c34_98_specs.jpg shows a full batten main with the dutchman flaking system. It also had a single reef point. My boat had that full batten main when I bought it a few years ago.  I stayed with full battens on my new sail, but I went with a couple more reefs. 

Very nice Antoni..  What did you use to do the scan?

Thanks
Rob

On the PYI website, they ask for:

Engine: Make, model, max horsepower and max RPM?
Transmission: Make, model and number of teeth on input spline?
Backing Plate: Diameter, number of holes, pitch circle diameter? (PCD / 12:00 to 6:00, center of hole to center of hole)

Did you guys have that information prior to ordering a damper plate? Not sure how much that changed year to year. Or is the "22AM4" all I need to know?  I was thinking of having one in hand prior to taking off the tranny.

Rob

On the mkii, you turn the key all the way and hold it for a few seconds to light the glowplugs. You'll notice when you release it, it springs back a quarter turn to the run position. Mine normally only takes a couple seconds for the glowplugs to work. Then push the start button and you should be good.

You did mention that the batteries test well at 13 volts? These are lead acid / AGM type batteries? Is there a battery charging running when you're testing them? 13V is a little higher than I would expect unless there is a charger on them.  If so, you should take the chargers off and wait an hour or so and test again.

Rob

I had the mast down this year to replace the standing rigging. One comment my rigger made was to not get a photoled for the anchor light to automatically shut off during daylight. Apparently that's another thing to break.

And I did replace all the wiring in the mast. I had switched to an LED stream/deck light and the thick wires they used for the deck light wouldn't fit in the new fixture. Catalina had used a 4 wire in a sheath cable called something like duraflex and so far as I could tell, it wasn't tinned. The other thing that allowed me to do was remove the plug in the mast step, the wires now come unbroken down to a junction box in the bilge.

Rob. 

There's a pretty good drawing in the owners manual. At least on my stock mkii, there are 4 pvc ball valves under the sink plus the 2 thru-hulls. I've marked the PVC ball valves in red and the thru-hulls in blue.

On the port side under the sink are ball valves that turn on the show sump (Aft) or the ice box sump (Forward), and on the starboard side is the fresh water with the aft valve being for the aft tank, forward for the forward. These valves are right next to the thru-hulls.
And in case you are not familiar with those ball valves, the valve is open if the handle is in line with the pipe, closed if the handle is perpendicular to the pipe.

Sounds like a fun project!. I can't speak to whether or not there is a cavity under the tank, but I am curious on the project. Do you have this running on the aft tank?

Have you found sample code for the Raspberry pi with that sensor? And a wiring schematic? I have raspberry pi on the boat right now that runs all the time and sends me daily emails with environmental and battery voltages. I'm always looking for new things to attach up. 

Rob

My 1998 Mkii has a water fill in the anchor locker and then one on the aft starboard just behind the propane locker.

You can open the starboard aft locker and look down on to the water tank to see how full it is. I typically set a flashlight on top of the tank while I'm filling to see the water level.

I put on a 14x7.5 about 2 years ago. It's good, but I think it's slightly over pitched as I don't reach 3000 underway. That's on my 1998 Mkii with the M35BC. As I recall the guy at West by North suggested more pitch, so they do tend to be aggressive with it.

One thing I notice, and this is just my experience, is that there is significantly less surface area on the prop, it's a smaller diameter and the blades are thinner. It relies on the shape to really get the push. Nice when you're sailing, but it seems much more impacted by barnacle growth than my old 2 blade.

Rob