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Topics - rmjohns

#1
Main Message Board / Rebedding outboard genoa track
February 01, 2024, 09:47:52 AM
Has anyone rebedded the outboard genoa track on a Mkii?  Words of advice? This looks to be a challenging project as that track on the port side runs from inside the locker, through the head and behind the electrical panel as well.

I had water coming out from under the Corian counter above the toilet paper door after sailing last week.  I've pulled the mirror cabinet off and it does look like the a number of the nuts behind the hull liner flange have leaked.  I assume those bolts go up through the genoa track.

Looking up at the nuts, it looks like they are pushed tight against the hull liner flange, so I couldn't get a socket on them. I could maybe get a pair of vice gripes on them and back the bolts out from the top.

The track sits on top of a hump that runs all along the gunnel. Does anyone know what is inside that hump? Is it a wood block? Hollow? Filled with epoxy?

Thanks
Rob
#2
Main Message Board / chainplate source?
July 10, 2023, 08:13:47 AM
Anyone bought Chainplates from Catalina Direct lately?  Are they fairly decent quality?  I notice on the Catalina Yacht site they state they only have parts for current production models, not sure if that is a new policy?

Anywhere else that might sell these chainplates?

I pulled one of my chainplates to seal a leak I was having and noticed a little crevice corrosion at the top of where the old sealant was. It doesn't look horrible, but enough to grab your fingernail if you scrape across it. So I figure it's probably worth replacing.

Thanks
Rob.
#3
Main Message Board / Tethered to the ground
May 08, 2023, 05:50:38 AM
We had kind of an interesting experience this past weekend. We were sailing in the North Carolina Sounds, and had a big family group (11 people are a little tight on a C34). We sailed for about an hour out from the marina, hove to for lunch and then were sailing back. As we were getting close to the marina, we turned into the wind to roll in the headsail with the intent to sail for a while just under main. Once the headsail was in we bore back off the wind and surprising did not really start moving, according to the GPS we were making around a knot. At this point the wind was 15-20 so even just drifting we should have been making a couple knots. We had enough speed to tack around and on the new tack, our speed was still less than a knot. We were like that for maybe 10 minutes.  The water depth was just over 9 feet, so we weren't on the bottom, plus we were moving, albeit slowly.  Finally we pulled back out a good bit of head sail which heeled us over a bit, and we slowly started picking speed up until we back into the 5+ knot normal range.   I saw nothing being dragged behind us. I walked around the boat a couple times and never saw any indication of a crab pot buoy, though the crab pots are out now. Once we had sailed for a while, I took the tranny out of reverse (we try to always sail in reverse) and checked that the prop was spinning OK. We motored back in and all was fine.

The only thing I can figure is we picked up a crab pot and didn't notice it. Some of the buoys they put out are dark so they're hard to pick out in the water. I was surprised though that a crab pot could slow us down that significantly unless it was stuck in the mud and had a really long line attached that we snagged on the wing keel. 

So I guess I'll bring my wet suit down next weekend and dive under it to see if there's rope attached anywhere.

Ultimately we did fine, but I've been looking back trying to think what I could have done better.
1) I should have done a better job looking for pot buoys, assuming that's what we caught. We were doing sail handling at the time so the focus was up, not down.
2) We do have a sonar option on the depth sounder. In all the ruckus, I didn't think to switch to that view to see if there was anything untoward below us. The depth sounder showed 9feet, so again, we had water.
3) We ended up going back the way we came. That was not on purpose but looking back, I think probably helped. 
4) I could have dropped all sail, dropped anchor and dove on the boat. That seemed like a later resort. (maybe not last resort, but later)
5) The rudder turned fine, so didn't seem to be impacted.

Anyone been in a similar situation? Thoughts?

Thanks
Rob.

#4
Main Message Board / stuffing box hose
August 28, 2022, 04:07:28 AM
I'm in the process of replacing the prop shaft and am replacing the original stuffing box hose. I ordered some of the Buck Algonguin 1 5/8 stuffing box hose, which is very thick walled compared to the old hose. I have a couple questions for you guys that have done this.
1) In taking off the old hose, there wasn't any room between the hose and the hull at the end.  The new hose has walls that are twice as thick so I can't imagine it's going to be able to slide all the way down the shaft log to the hull. Did others trim the hose? That seems like a bad idea, but I'm not sure how to clean out some fiberglass under there without damaging the fiberglass shaft log.
2) One of the jobs of the hose is to accommodate movement/vibration in the engine/drive train. Given the tight space in there, the old hose probably only had an inch or two that wasn't either around the stuffing box or around the fiberglass shaft log. I can't imagine the new hose is going to flex much at all, which would have to put stress on the fiberglass shaft log.  I could maybe make the hose a little longer, but not enough to make much difference.  Maybe the new hose is more flexible than it seems, but it seems pretty stiff.

I appreciate it's bad to have a thin wall hose tear away but it seems like it would be worse to have the shaft log tear away. 

#5
Main Message Board / Prop shaft runout
August 11, 2022, 12:07:08 PM
I've been looking through here on how to determine if there is too much runout out in the propshaft. I've seen reference to removing the shaft from the boat, which I think in my case is going to mean cutting the shaft at the coupling which somewhat removes the concern on runout.

With the boat on the hard with an inexpensive runout gauge, I can measure about .008 just mounting the gauge against the middle of the shaft where it exits the boat and rotating the shaft by hand. Not sure how valid a measurement that is though.

Prop shaft runout

It did have a little shake, but I can't tell if that's normal diesel shake or shaft wobble.
Running Diesel

Thought I'd query the collective.

Rob.
#6
In an effort to improve my EVO 100 performance, I picked up a rudder reference transducer.  I've been reading through the forum, and saw a good write up on installing a below deck autopilot that talked about installing the reference hanging from the cockpit floor. 

What I haven't found is how have people been attaching the pivot to the stock steering quadrant? I'm guessing I'll have to drill a couple of mounting holes? Is it enough to remove the water tank? Or other suggestions.

The other question is the document says the limits of the reference is 60 degrees.  Does that mean the steering should be limited to 60 degrees? I'm not sure how far the steering goes, but it feels further than 60 degrees, but that's just a gut feel. Have people restricted their steering? I do take it to the stops now getting out of the slip.

Heading down to tomorrow to start digging into it. Just curious if there's any advice.

Thanks
Rob.
#7
Main Message Board / Air Conditioner Duct Work.
July 28, 2021, 12:41:41 PM
Curious for you folks with AC Units under the VBerth ( or other areas exposed to the bilge) if you have run duct work to pull in air from the cabin instead of from under the VBerth?  We get an odor from the AC when it's running and I have to imagine at least part of that is due to the fact it's pulling bilgey air from under the VBerth.  We do have a 12x12 grate that allows air into the VBerth bilge area, but it's just an hole with a screen over it. 

Or for that matter has anyone cleaned the evaporator core?  I'm in the process of replacing the duct work from the unit to the cabin, so that might help a bit.

Thanks
#8
Main Message Board / Axiom+ RV
June 09, 2021, 02:42:41 PM
Has anyone installed the Raymarine Axiom RV / Axiom+ RV?  I'm looking to replace the C80 I currently have. However, looking at the Axiom doc, the connector for the transducer is a big 25 pin connector. It's hard to tell from the doc just how big it is, but I suspect it would be trouble getting up the 1" binnacle tubing. 

Thanks
Rob.
#9
Has anyone replaced the freshwater pipes from the galley sink back to the head and stern shower on a Mkii?  I have a 1998 and the current clear tubing has gotten sticky so time for replacement.  In my work to pull the shower sump hose, it would appear that the fresh water pipes were fiberglassed to the bottom of the floorboard in the galley prior to construction.  Do people just abandon those tubes and pull new ones?  I haven't tried yet, so maybe they just pull through?

Any tips on pulling new hose through the boat? Start under the sink and feed back to the head or vice versa?


Thanks
Rob.
#10
Main Message Board / Galley Sink Cabinet Floorboard
August 19, 2020, 02:25:07 PM
I've recently purchased a 1998 model and one of my first tasks has been tackling fouls smells in the cabin. I've completely taken out the head, holding tank and all associated hoses. That has helped.  I still get a strong odor when I open the sink cabinet.  If I look down under the floorboard that holds the pumps, I can see a little bilge created by a stringer and there is a lot of standing water behind that stringer. It looks like there is a weep hole in the stringer, but due to the angle of the hole, it can hold a good bit of water before it gets to the weep hole.

Is that floorboard removable if I disconnect all the pumps? It looks like it goes up under the icebox and then forward to the battery box? I want to be able to get in there and scrub it clean.  I imagine I can't redrill the weep hole to be lower without exposing the stringer internals to water but I'm considering adding a third leg to the sump pump to drain that little bilge on demand.

Thanks
Rob,
1998 Catalina 34 MKii