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Tackled this today with what I can only call partial success. Inspection of the rivets above deck revealed one at the middle halyard exit, one at the steaming light and one a few feet from the top. Not a surprise that it would pull loose. Started by removing the halyard exit plates to reveal large"ish" slots on the port and starboard sides. These were easily removed by drilling out the 3/16" rivets. With these removed it one can see what was going on. The conduit at this point of the mast was resting on the starboard side.  Drilled two new holes, one over the other, a foot apart, a foot below the lowest OEM rivet, on the port-side, front, inline with the old rivets. Used a long screwdriver in the port-side halyard hole to nudge the conduit to its home position, then used another long screwdriver on the starboard side to press the conduit against the mast. Then CAREFULLY drilled through the conduit. Riveted the conduit to the mast using the screwdriver on the starboard side to provide the necessary pressure. 3/16"x 1/4" rivets were long enough. Reinstalled the halyard plates and went to check on my work. Using a halyard I was able to seriously rock the boat. The difference was remarkable, but on the really big swings- noise could be heard from the upper part of the mast. Climbed back up, this time to the spreaders. There is no access there, but there is a pad-eye fitting for a spinnaker pole halyard. Removed the fitting and used a flashlight to try to get some view. The only thing visible was the jib halyard. Using a stiff wire, found the conduit on the port side in a forest of halyards. Tried to pull it snug, but it really resisted. I didn't feel comfortable riveting it since it seemed possible to foul a halyard. I assume the next higher rivet is also loose and that's  how it found its new position. The mast is much quieter and we can finish the season this way, but it will require dropping the mast to properly repair- next winter. Good time to paint the mast, change the sheaves, replace the wiring and the VHF antenna, anchor light, steaming light .....

Is your bleed valve closed?

Sorry to dredge up an old topic, but we too have this problem and would like to tackle it with the mast up. Paul- Did you ever have success with your technique?

Let's not overlook the most important aspect of the photo . You have a son with a wicked sense of humor. Happy Birthday!

On our '87, the quadrant prevents the rudder from falling out. It will drop a couple of inches though, so we jam something under the quadrant just to take the load off the steering cable when messing with the cap.

I think you are saying the water is getting in between the rudder post cap and the bearing (part of the deck really). If so, we have the same issue and never bothered to deal with it since we get so little rain. There should be one or two plastic washers between the cap and the hull. I think the recommended cure is to secure the lower washer to the deck with sealant. I'd be tempted to use butyl tape for this, but it might require adhesive properties as well. The seal is needed on the outer rim of the washer only. The water will then drain into the cockpit instead of the lazarette. 

Our 87 had the green DC indicator light and no voltmeter. It burned out several times and since we found it to be fairly useless, we replaced it with a small LCD panel meter (slightly bigger hole). Three years later, still works and now instead of trying to guess what an unlit light means, I can get a quick idea of the battery state by knowing the voltage. The panel meter was cheaper than the replacement light (which is actually a bulb) from Seaward.

We try very hard to keep our bilge dry and are usually successful. Yesterday I was cleaning the interior of the boat (yes spring comes early in SoCal) , stem to stern. When I got to the galley I noticed the water tank valves. Remembering that we had been operating on the rear tank, thought it might be time to drain down the forward tank and opened that valve. Later in the afternoon, I went to a friend's boat for glass of wine, came back and there was 3 inches of water in the bilge, in fact the pump came on. Grabbed a flashlight and quickly determined there was a steady stream of water coming from the forward water tank.

We had known that the cap on the top of the forward tank (1987 model) was prone to leaking. We usually underfill a little bit accordingly. What happened yesterday was that with both valves opened, the rear tank was filling the forward tank- all the way to the top and a little more. This was discussed in a previous thread..
http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,2909.0.html

So if you have a mysterious leak and both valves are opened, it is worth a look. It is also a good reason to operate on one tank at a time. Now to fix that cap...

Using Ron's information, it is likely that there are two separate wires on the output of the breaker- one for the bow and one for the stern. If you disconnect the wires first, you can use a voltmeter to measure the resistance between each of these wires and ground. Make sure you are looking at the wires on "light" side of the breaker, not the battery side. One wire will read ~30x lower resistance than the other. That's the one with the short. You can verify it by taking out the bulb and the resistance will not change. Won't tell you where the short is, but at least it narrows it down. You sound pretty handy so you've probably thought of this already.

Unnerving about the breaker. I seem to recall a comment somewhere on this board that blasted the use of breaker/switches for this reason.

Really surprised that someone can get a shock from a 12V battery- maybe with wet bare skin on the back of your arm? Like a 9V battery on your tongue. On the other hand you can get a pretty good shock if the pulpit is grounded to the house ground and there is a ground fault from the shore power- different problem though

At 32A you are dumping some 360W somewhere, so something is getting pretty hot. Are the lights working? Assuming the current read is correct, you would see other lights visibly dim when the running lights are switched on. If the read is correct, you have both a bad breaker and a short somewhere. 360 W is enough power to get something very hot in a confined space so be very careful with this!

Stu- When I saw your response to this post, I was sure this was about Matt Kemp dating a Kardashian- Good news for your Giants.

How has it been determined the battery charge is fine?

How long had the batteries been on-charge before hitting Wal*Mart?

What is the absorption charging voltage?

Thanks for the quick replies.

The batteries had been on the charger (for a week) when I pulled them. Charge current was 0 A at set point 13.7 V. When I got them to Walmart, they put them on a rapid charger. I got them back to the boat 1-2 hours later and measured the 12.4 V for the resting (for the 1-2 hours) unloaded battery. By the same token, the starting battery, also a Group 27 lead acid which had been on the boat charger (separate output) and resting for 3 hours was 13.1 V. I put the batteries back on the boat charger and they drew 0A at 13.7 V which told me they were charged to their capacity whatever that might be. Our charger is a single stage charger (lewco). It current limits at 5 A and max voltage is 13.7V. It is certainly possible that the batteries are not broken in, but the surprising thing is the low "resting" voltage, which is not fully accurate since it didn't sit 24 hours. This weekend I'll let them sit for 24 hours and check again. If they remain low, I'll deep discharge them and recharge and see what happens.

We purchased a pair of Group 27 Lead Acids ( Ever Start Marine)from Walmart over the summer. The batteries are rated to 105 AH and 750 MCA. For a house bank we don't really care about MCA. About a month ago we were out for a daysail, switched the fridge on and two hours later the batteries were reading 12.3 V. I had not had the AH meter set up, ut even with 5 A for 2 hours, we should have used 10 AH on a 210 AH bank...hard to imagine them getting drawn down to 12.3 V.

I suspected the charger, but checked back at the dock and our charger is fine. Pulled the batteries and took them back to Walmart expecting to get a replacement under the 1 year warranty. They put the batteries on their (Midtronics?) tester which showed 700 MCA still on the battery. MCA or CCA is apparently their criterion for "good" or "bad". They then put them on a rapid charger and retested on a different machine. This time they got 850 MCA, but I noticed on the printout, the fully charged battery was only at 12.4 V (the second was at 12.48). I tried to explain to them that 12.4 V is very low for a fully charged battery and they would have none of it . I left rather annoyed and returned to the boat.

I checked the batteries back at the boat with my voltmeter and they were 12.4 V as the printout said. I also checked my starting battery which is charged off of the same charger and it was sitting (after being off for several hours) at 13.1 V. Reinstalled the batteries and the ammeter confirmed that they were indeed fully charged. Assuming that the batteries were bad and had little remaining capacity, I set out to prove it. Reset the AH meter and left the boat on house bank for 24 hours running the fridge and some other things . Within a few minutes the voltage dropped to 12.3. The next morning 12.2V (28 AH used) and 24 hours 12.18 (55 AH used). If I were to extend this curve, I believe the available AH might be about 105 per battery (assuming 11.7 V is >50% drawn down).

I have not heard of a battery which sits low like that. It might be consistent with a bad cell, but it seems unlikely (but not impossible) that both batteries in the bank have a bad cell (both topped out at <12.5V when independently charged). Also, the behavior seems different than when we installed the batteries. During a cruise over summer, they never dropped below 12.3 V with much more usage. Could temperature be a factor? Also, if they are bad, how does one get the vendor to accept they are bad when the symptom does not cause a failing grade in MCA, which is what they evaluate (this is really a problem for boaters since deep cycle batteries are not particularly concerned with cranking amps.)? 

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I can't stand an unsolved mystery.     

Ken's comment is right on. The Garmin unit uses 200KHz or 50 KHz transducers. It is possibly compatible with what is already there, but without knowing what unit is installed, it is hard to say for sure. Datamarine used 120KHz and 200 KHz. Do a little web-based homework and you may save yourself trouble and expense. Last year our venerable  old Signet depth sounder readout unit bit the dust. I happened to have an ST-60 which was a near drop-in replacement using the same transducer. The wiring was very simple and is detailed on mainesail's web page. While it is described as a temporary fix, I couldn't see a reason to change it.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/new_depth_old_transducer_ducer

While you're there buy some butyl tape!

I was concerned about that problem when we replaced our head two years ago. I couldn't find any way to verify the distance from the head platform to the hull. Got enough of a look in there to see that the platform was touching the hull and decided not to drill that fourth hole. The question for Lance: if the hull and platform (liner) do not make a water tight seal between them, won't the leak continue unless the dowel goes all the way to the hull? Conversely, if there is no additional water coming in the dowel must be a pretty secure plug. Most importantly for the rest of us, when you complete the repair, let us know how thick the hull is there- useful information for anyone replacing the head!