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Columbia Basin Knot Co.    www.cbknot.com (509) 291-3024
Samson and New England rope, spools and some types by the foot.

This is a mostly a seed to plant in the back of your mind when you get this unusual symptom with the hot water output at your galley sink or head sink.

Situation: Our first overnight cruise of the season and I'm getting significant alternating of warm and cold water at the galley faucet with only the hot water valve on. Changes to the boat from stock: PEX water line upgrade. Tempering (mixing) valve on the hot water tank output to mitigate the scalding risk of 165 degree engine heated potable water.  Changes over the winter: Accumulator tank on the cold water side to reduce pump cycling.

So, my primary theory was there was something interfering with the tempering valve operation, like scale keeping it from smoothly blending the hot/cold to maintain the desired 120 degrees output because I could feel the brass body of the valve being plenty warm compared to what was coming out of the faucet. I had also changed engine coolant over the winter and was a little suspect of an air bubble. Continuing troubleshooting, I also bypassed the accumulator tank on the off chance that it was affecting things with no resultant change in symptoms. Lastly, when I got back to the slip, I pinched off the short hose (not PEX) between the cold feed and the tempering valve with vice grips to keep cold from reaching the tempering valve, thus only hot water should be flowing. Again, no change in symptoms. Grrr!

My partner then jumps in and starts asking me about how things are plumbed and I'm trying to describe the flow paths to her. She then asks about the water lines going to the cockpit shower and how they connect. I told her that I have valves and tees to isolate and drain them in the winter so they don't freeze. Then was the "Ah Ha!" moment. I'd recently plugged the drain tees and opened the inline valves to the stern, but when draining in the fall, I'd left the cockpit valves on. The shower wand has a "trigger" to allow flow out the wand head, but it was off, so nothing was leaking at the cockpit under pressure to give the clue that the cold was bleeding back into the hot side. She turned off the valves in the cockpit and everything returned to normal.

Palm of hand to forehead, Duh!  I'll never forget that again. 

Craig

Before I put it on EBay:

Used, two years old. Replaced with a 40A charger of the same model.  $120 plus shipping. Original shipping box from the 40A unit I installed this morning, manual and temperature sensor. Can send a picture.



SOLD!

Broomfields in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Quality work at a reasonable cost repairing my exhaust riser, replacing the elbow at the water injection port.

http://broomfields.com

Ok, I found it, and found one in the bottom of my very deep port lazarette on my C30. I can't validate how well it works, but the YouTube video makes it look like just the ticket. Oh yeah, of course it's not cheap, it's for a boat!

http://www.alumafabinc.com/product/ez-docker/

We had a little excitement as we returned from Desolation Sound last week. As we were motoring down Thulin Passage, north of Lund, B.C., the engine stumbled for a couple beats. I turned the helm over to my G.F. and dashed down below to check my M3-20, under the galley in my C30. I saw a small stream of bubbles coming in the bottom of my Racor and when I reached down to check if something was loose, the "head" of the plug pictured below fell off and introduced a big leak. The engine obviously stopped immediately. Luckily, close at hand, I had a partial roll of butyl rubber (from Mainsail) and some duct tape. I made a "chewing gum" wad of the butyl rubber to plug the hole and secured it to the filter bowl with the duct tape. A few seconds of fuel pump refilled the bowl, purged the air, and the engine started. Needless to say, we were a bit nervous for a few hours while we continued on to Powell River where there was a chance of getting spare parts. The patch worked fine for the remainder of our journey home, about 25 more hours of engine use.

It's a mystery to me, why this plug for the optional water detector probe failed. I have a replacement bowl on order and will check locally for maybe just the plug.

Craig 

We attended the C42 Fleet 12 spring rendezvous this past weekend at Roche Harbor Resort in the San Juan Islands. The past few years, due to dwindling participation, they've expanded their invitation to all Catalina owners in Washington and British Columbia.

Besides the usual potlucks and happy hours, there had been arranged talks by fleet members on winch maintenance, provisioning, plumbing, and a presentation on clearing US Customs by the local CBP agent. Fun things included a dinghy parade, disk golf (ashore) and a treasure hunt. The best part was meeting new friends and seeing how people organize and outfit their boats.

In addition to the eight to ten Catalina 42's, there were a couple 47's, a 40, two 34's, two 32's, three of us 30's and a 29. Not sure where the 36'ers were? At least eight boats came from B.C.

For all of you sailors on the Salish Sea, you should mark this on your calendar for next year. You won't be disappointed. 

Craig Illman
S/V Mocha 1990 #5898 SRFK

Anyone installed one of these? I stumbled across it on Sure Marine's website. http://www.indelwebastomarine.com/int/products/cooling-technology/isotherm-smart-energy-control/

I was told it would install on any Danfoss compressor module.

Anyone have their ancient ST4000 connected to a NMEA 0183 device? Would I see any advantage feeding it GPS sentences for heading information in addition to it's fluxgate compass?  I still seem to need to tune it a bit, it wanders quite a bit compared to my Simrad wheelpilot I used to have on my C34. There's not really any room on my C30 to install a rudder position sensor.

Craig

Anyone tried something like this to augment battery capacity while at anchor or on a mooring?

http://www.renogy-store.com/Renogy-100W-12V-Mono-Portable-Solar-Suitcase-p/kit-stcs100d.htm

Craig

The PO upsized all the running rigging and I'm in the process of getting everything replaced with correct sizes to run better through all the blocks. I was planning on replacing the pair of genoa sheets with a single line. For people that have done this, what knot have they used to attach the clew in the middle of this long sheet? I have a couple ideas, but would prefer leveraging the expertise of more skilled sailors.

Craig

When I bought my C30 a little less than two months ago, I assumed the solenoid in the engine compartment was the glow plug modification, but I didn't actually trace the wiring to confirm it. I was removing the engine side "trailer plugs" yesterday and discovered that the solenoid was actually "upstream" of the solenoid on the starter motor itself. So that the start button on the engine panel energized the added solenoid which sent current to the starter solenoid. I can only guess that there wasn't adequate current up through the panel to energize the starter solenoid directly? I'm open to any other theories.

I've removed the trailer plugs at both ends, ran 8 gauge to the positive side of the panel (fused with an inline Maxi-fuse at the starter end) and 8 gauge back to the starter solenoid. I've repurposed this additional solenoid as the glow plug modification. It started right up this morning with twenty seconds of glow plug with a forty degree engine block. Mission accomplished.

I'm sure the person that bought my C34 had some "questions" about some of the "enhancements" I had done. Older boats certainly get to be a archeological endeavor.

Craig

I'm finishing the purchase of a C30 today. I missed my C34 a lot the past four years, but I had to downsize to fit my budget and retire before I'm 70. Anyway, it's a 1990, hull #5898. I'll still be lurking these parts because this forum (and group) are the best resources on the Internet for these boats. I have a list already of things I want to fix and improve, so I'm going to have a busy winter. I already have Jack H. drafted on Monday to run us up to Blaine from Anacortes for the move to new moorage. 

Just saw this on craigslist. http://bellingham.craigslist.org/bod/4462656151.html       they're asking $5K

Alternator bracket. Make me an offer? Send me an email.
Craig

End Caps for the Mark 1 and 1.5 boom including the gooseneck. Make me an offer? Send me an email.
Craig

I'm pretty sure I saw a Mark 1 C-34 heading east on I-10 in Tucson yesterday. (Yes, on a truck! Although it was raining pretty hard) Someone's in for a lot of pleasure real soon. 

Disclaimer: Not something specifically on the boat, but I know there are a bunch of woodworking experts lurking here.

My twenty-five year old condo is filled with color stained solid oak trim, doors and cabinets. It doesn't have a hard, impermeable finish. Some of the doors and cabinet fronts have dirt stained areas. What would be the best way to clean those dirty areas up without sanding that will remove the color stain?

After I get the doors cleaned up, I plan on putting better protection using something like Daly's Satin Profin that has some polyurethane with tung oil base.

Craig

I signed the papers at the title company this afternoon. Espresso is going to a new captain. Contrary to popular wisdom, it's not one of the happiest days. But no regrets, I enjoyed all the time I was able to spend sailing, cruising and yes, maintaining my C34. It certainly isn't the wisest financial choice to buy a boat, but the mental health benefits are incalcuable.

I can't express properly the thanks I owe to all the participants on this forum. Stu, Ron, David Sanner, the late Jon Schneider, the two Kens, and my good friend Jack Hutteball, wow, I'm almost having tears. I garnered a lot of friends I never met face to face. It will be hard to break the habit of checking the daily threads.

To our very informal Fleet 5:  Sorry, I'm not going to be "Commodore for life", but I expect to be invited sailing. I'm also, very publically, passing the wheel to Tom Clay of Olympia to assume duties. Tom, tag, you're it! Jack has his plate full being Mainsheet Editor.

I'm on the beach for awhile, save for my Zodiac, back to chartering and such. On to new adventures.....

Craig

Spring - Memorial Day weekend Friday May 28th - Monday May 31st Port Townsend with CAPS
Fall - September 10th - 12th Raft-up at Penrose Point State Park

Tentatively, Saturday Feb 20th 4-6 pm at Julia & Ray Meek's office in Redmond. 16541 Redmond Way Suite J.  Please RSVP so we can think about ordering pizza, beverages and other snacks.

Craig

Fleet 5 - Our apologies to Braxton and his daughter for a mis-captioned photo in November's Mainsheet. Someone maybe needs to edit the editor? 

Craig

Lifted from the C36 Maillist

From: David Power <dpower4227@gmail.com>
To: Catalina 36 Association Mailing List <c36list@c36ia.com>
Sent: Sat, Jun 27, 2009 10:53 am
Subject: Re: [C36IA] Hull Stripes


I replaced ours a year ago.  I got them from the original supplier.  Excellent to deal with and shipped immediately.

Boat Stripes - Keg Graphics - Greg
714-841-1131
teal #7187 saphire blue #7084

Daivid S. Power
Two If By Sea #1687

Unfortunately, mine are the maroon.

For those who missed it, we had our third consecutive rendezvous with sunny weather in the mid-seventies. Eight boats were represented for the Saturday evening potluck. Looking forward to summer cruising and September's meet up at Dockton Park in Quartermaster Harbor at Vashon.

Craig

Ok, this one certainly isn't for everyone, so I don't expect suggestions about ball bearing sheaves, etc.

I get out often single handed or short handed with my spouse and even with all the blocks and sheaves upgraded, getting my full batten mainsail up from the cockpit is an effort. I tried the Milwaukee right angle drill with the "winch bit", but I don't want to carry it along.

Consequently, I put a second Spinlock XAS clutch on the mast just below the exit. Yes, it adds more friction from the cockpit, but it seems to be a good compromise for me. A secondary benefit is when dropping your main, it's easy to stop and get things straightened and flaked.

Excuse the dim pictures taken into the sun. I'm on a mooring buoy and I don't want to try and scull the boat 180 degrees.

The outside track on my 1991 C34 only extends to the bow end of my gate stanchion. I've had track mounted cleats since I've owned my boat, but they're a bit too far aft to be completly effective for docking. They're ok for spring lines, albeit a little short.

I found some attractive Accon 8" folding cleats online and made the investment in hardware and tools to install them properly. The weather finally cooperated the last two weekends and I was able to get the holes drilled, potted with epoxy and re-drilled. With help from my local trustworthy C34 officer, J.H., we got them mounted on Friday. The location just forward of the deck fill and pumpout fittings isn't perfect, but it should work much better than my track mounted location.

   

I wish I would have had my camera for before and after pictures. I was polishing my stanchions and  pulpits with Prism Polish and decided to try it on my splotchey dorade cowls. After less than five minutes they look like new. I've seen threads on re-painting them, but this seems like a better alternative.

You can get Prism Polish directly http://www.mppros.com/metal01.htm or it's carried by many marine outlets.

Craig

Stu - I was happy with my Link 20 until I found it read .15 -> .2V lower that what two different portable multi-meters displayed for my batteries. To make matters worse, my XC3012 reads about .3V higher than the house battery bank, so it goes into Float mode too early and the Link doesn't think things are fully charged. I opened an online Tech support question with Xantrex a week ago, but still haven't heard anything from them. Replacing either of them isn't a very attractive option. I was quite surprised by this big variance!

What's a sailor to do?

I don't know how many people follow the Panbo Marine Electronics site, but here was a topic of interest on using LED strip lighting from IKEA in the galley.

http://www.panbo.com/archives/2009/01/led_cabin_lighting_from_ikea.html

Craig

Mark your calendars! The Fleet 5 winter meeting is scheduled for 4pm, Saturday February 7th at Judy & Bruce Waddell's on Mercer Island. I'll email out directions sometime in January. We're planning the typical potluck. Lastly, send me ideas for the meeting agenda.

Craig

I have a drip coming through the emergency tiller cover plate. I expect that after 18 years that the o-ring has lost its effectiveness. Has anyone replaced theirs? Suggested sources other than Catalina? I might drop a note to Catalina Direct.

Craig

Ok, finally a sailing question....  How do people transition from the inner to outer tracks and back? We can have the wind shift ninety degrees or more around the islands, so setting up before a tack isn't always available. Secondarily, at what point of sail do you shift? I have a 135 genoa, moveable cars on the inside and my old fixed cars on the outside.

Craig

Pan, Pan, Pan - All stations......

Fall 2008 Fleet 5 Rendezvous at Penrose Point State Park in the South Puget Sound, Carr Inlet.  September 12-14.

http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Penrose+Point

Be looking for Tom & Lynn Clay's Somewhere, anchored on the west side of the point, ready for rafting up.

Craig

Linda & I are going over to Friday Harbor on Friday the 29th for the evening. Returning to Anacortes on Saturday. Wave hello if you pass us.

Craig

I'm posting this to see if our peers in the Vancouver area are interested in an informal rendezvous next summer somewhere in the Gulf Islands. I suppose a dock facilitates things, but requires reservations and commitments. Places that come to mind are: Ganges, Telegraph Harbor on Thetis, Montague Harbor, or Silva Bay. Then, there are dates to consider. Do we try for early July to take advantage of Canada Day & US Independence Day or wait for possibly better weather later?

I saw a lot of C34's this year on our trip to Princess Louisa and there's fairly good participation on the forum from members in B.C. It seems like a natural to me.

Any interest?

Craig

I want to replace my fuel fill hose when I replace my filler cap. I just got home from a two week cruise and didn't want to tear open the fuel tank access to measure when I got back this afternoon. At about $7/ft, I don't want to go much over or worse yet, under length. Does anyone have that length offhand? Seems like it shouldn't be more than three feet.

Craig

I had an unexpected maintenance event yesterday morning. The cotter pin that contains the gooseneck "pin" inside the fore end of the boom casting failed. Luckily, it happened just as we raised the main and the boom looked a bit funny. So, dropped the sail, boom supported by lazy jacks and fixed vang, then motored back to the slip. I've had a cap off a couple times, upgrading the outhaul, so it came apart easily and was back together in about an hour without a trip to WM. In hindsight, I should have replaced that cotter pin when I had the boom apart originally.

I'm glad it didn't happen in the middle of a hard blow and I'm glad I've had the boom apart and didn't have to deal with siezed screws and a tight casting.

Craig

Gosh - Could we have had better weather? Well, maybe a little westerly would have been nice for the trip back, but us Seattlites missed the 90 degree heat on Saturday and enjoyed a light breeze and high seventies while lined up at the dock at Cornet Bay at the north end of Whidbey Island. We had people attend from as far as Bozeman Montana! We have five C34's, a former C34 owner with his Fraisure 41 and a drive up couple from Olympia. I hope to get all our digital pictures collected and the best posted to the Flickr pages in the next couple days. Thanks to Randy Davison, Jack Hutteball and Ray Erps for getting me pictures. We have some great fodder for the next Mainsheet. I can't wait to do it again next year.

Craig

Another reminder on our Fleet 5 rendezvous at Cornet Bay, just east of Deception Pass on May 16-18th. I hope to see more than three boats!

Anyone have plans for the following weekend? Linda & I were thinking of checking out one of Jack & Ruthie's favorite spots, Parks Bay on Shaw Island. I expect the favorites, like Sucia, will be pretty busy as people work off a bit of pent up cruising demand after such a cold, wet spring.

Craig

I tried to remove my quadrant over the weekend and couldn't remove the stainless 3/8" bolts that secured the two halves together or the 3/8" bolt that passes through the rudder shaft. It can wait until fall, but I'm looking for options. I must have been last apart three years ago when the rudder was out and skeg/shaft replaced by the PO just before I bought it. Obviously, someone didn't use Lanacote or the equivalent when it was re-assembled. I didn't have large wrenches, only about a 9" 9/16" box end, but nothing budged. 

The bolts are all horizontal, I'm not confident that something like PB Blaster is going to work it's way to where it's needed. I'm small enough to go down into my aft lazerette. Would applying heat from my propane torch likely break things loose? Any other suggestions?

Puget Sound Fleet 5 C34 Owners –

A couple years ago, I had to replace my VHF radio after accidentally hitting the 12V DC power with 120V shore power. (Yes, turn things off when messing behind the panel). The new radio I bought, the cheapest at WM at the time, had a feature called "DSC". After reading the manual, I discovered DSC, among other features, provided unique identification of my vessel when the distress button was pressed. All that was required was to enter a MMSI number into the VHF radio's static memory. I also found I already had a MMSI number on my FCC station license. You can also be assigned a MMSI number from an organization such as BoatUS. Step one was complete, they'll know Craig on Espresso was sinking, but where? The VHF also had a NMEA 0183 input that would allow Lat/Lon data from a GPS to be included with the distress call, but I rarely used the old black & white Garmin unit at my Nav table, so I didn't pursue getting them interconnected.

Last spring, I got real serious about interconnecting all the NMEA capable equipment on my boat and invested in a new chartplotter and more capable VHF. I'll focus on just my chartplotter and VHF interfacing.

I picked up a Garmin 492 on closeout, it being superseded by a unit that supported XM satellite weather. I also purchased a Uniden UM525 Loud Hailer. There's a plethora of chartplotters on the market and many VHF options, I just want to share the opportunities when you can connect them together. Both devices both input and output NMEA data. I'll list a bunch of web links at the end of this.

Among its many features, the Uniden UM525 will not only use DSC for distress transmit and receive signaling, but will allow directed calling of other VHF stations to their MMSI number.  You can build a directory of friends' boats MMSI numbers and save them by boat name. If the radio receives a DSC call, it will automatically switch channels, if desired. Lastly, when a DSC call is received, it will put an alert on the NMEA data bus. The Uniden also uses GPS information for more than distress Lat/Lon. It's capable of automatically picking US or Canadian channels and displaying the appropriate local time. It will also repeat from the GPS, course and speed information.

The Garmin 492's DSC features allow an alarm to display on the screen and emit an alarm tone. It will log and display the calling vessel's position. You can then display the caller on your chart and/or create a waypoint.

DSC need not be only used in an emergency. It's limited only by the range of your VHF. You can use it to directly contact another vessel without trying to hail it on channel 16 or the VTS channels. If you have AIS installed and integrated to your chartplotter, the MMSI number is included in the AIS data stream. You could contact that approaching tug and verify its course.

Rescue 21 is an initiative by the Coast Guard to upgrade their facilities to more quickly and accurately respond to emergencies. For more information, see:

http://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/21/141255/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003725556_coastguard29m.html

I don't intend to endorse any specific product, just encourage you to take advantage of existing capabilities on your equipment and consider these features when you need to replace or upgrade your gear. Of course, I'm open to share my experiences with other boat networking topics.

Craig Illman
C34 #1150 Espresso
MMSI: 367022920

Uniden UM525

http://www.uniden.com/products/productdetail.cfm?product=UM525

Garmin 492

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=369

DSC – Digital Selective Calling

http://www.boatus.com/husick/c_dsc.asp
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/MARCOMMS/gmdss/dsc.htm
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/gmdss/dscworks.htm
http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/dig0101.htm
http://www.ybw.com/ybw/vhf/dsc.html

MMSI

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/MARCOMMS/GMDSS/mmsi.htm
http://www.boatus.com/mmsi/

NMEA 0183/2000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMEA_0183
http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/nmea.htm
http://www.tronico.fi/OH6NT/docs/NMEA0183.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMEA_2000
http://www.jackrabbitmarine.com/Categories.bok?category=NMEA+0183

AIS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/enav/ais/default.htm
http://www.boatingsf.com/ais_explain.php
http://www.milltechmarine.com/

From our meeting on Saturday, Feb 9th:

North Rendezvous
May 16-18 Coronet Bay Deception Pass Whidbey Island
http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Deception+Pass

South Rendezvous
September 12-14 Penrose Point, Key Peninsula
http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Penrose+Point

2009 Winter Rendezvous
February 14th  Location TBD

Themes to be determined. We could have dinghy races through Deception Pass at max ebb. The fall rendezvous is close to Talk like a Pirate Day. Arrgh!

Craig

For those of you that built a replacement salon table, did you re-use the spider from the original table or did you find an additional one? I measured the column yesterday at 2 3/8". The seat & table spiders I find online list 2 7/8". Fishing for ideas? I'd like to be able to swap the original table back in for use with the cushion insert without moving the spider back and forth.

Craig

http://www.flickr.com/photos/c34fleet5/

Sorry, I didn't remember to take some on Saturday evening. Spent too much time talking!

Thanks to Tom Clay for the few we managed to get.

Craig

Ok, I've got a few updates to our fleet pages waiting to forward to the C34 webmaster. I was hoping, now that summer is waning, that I'd have a few more pictures to post. So, dig out those vacation shots of your lovely boat or favorite anchorage and forward them to me to link into our fleet listing.

Craig

To all Puget Sound C34 members:

Ok, our July event obviously didn't have enough lead time and conflicted with peoples' holiday and summer cruising plans. Let's see if there's interest in a mid-September (15/16) rendezvous at Arabella's Landing in Gig Harbor. I just made a reservation for my boat and it sounds that if we act quickly, it should be no problem to accommodate more of the fleet. If there's enough interest, there's also an indoor area at the head of the dock (for a $50 fee) to facilitate a potluck or general socializing, if the weather is similar to the past few days.

Contact information: Arabella's Landing  253-851-1793
http://www.vici.com/arabella/marina.php

Email myself or Jack Hutteball if you're planning on attending.  Bill, you're welcome to come over with your 42 as well!

Craig Illman

Our worthy webmaster, David Sanner, has posted the Teleflex PDFs in the "manuals" section of the website. They show how to adjust the dip switch settings on your tach if you change alternators. They were a little tricky to find on the Teleflex site and hyperlinks from old forum messages can get stale when a company "rearranges" their tech notes.

Craig

Our C34IA webmaster, David Sanner, has installed my feeble attempts at HTML and integrated them into the main C34 website. Go to the Fleets menu item from the left hand list of the C34.org home page and check out our Fleet 5 pages!

http://www.c34.org/fleet5/Fleet5.htm

Craig Illman

We hope to get out Sunday/Monday if the forecast holds and cruise down to Hunter or Mud Bay on the SE side of Lopez and drop the hook for the night.

Craig

At our meeting the end of April, Jack Hutteball & I suggested the weekend of June 30th for a potential raft-up/rendezvous in the San Juans. Unfortunately, Jack has conflicts and I'm on call for working that weekend. I'm proposing an alternate date, July 7th. I'll be starting our summer vacation and will again suggest Blind Bay on the north side of Shaw Island for a meeting spot. There's a lot of room for anchoring and it's just across the channel from the Orcas ferry dock and Orcas store. If anyone's thinking of coming up, send me a note offline and I'll give you my cell number.

Craig Illman