[Aswayze]

One last trip for the season!

We decided to make use of the Thanksgiving Holiday in concert with the remainder of our vacation days to haul both East Wind and Sunflower down to Kentucky Lake for a 10 day trip.

East Wind at anchor one cold and frosty morning.

Sunflower tacking down the lake

Previous owner hillbilly repair found! Sunflowers rudder snapped in half on the only day we had decent winds to work with. We rigged a jury rudder that did fine for the remainder of the trip but it looks like we have a project for the winter making a proper rudder for this guy!

It was an OK trip, a little cold which was a bummer given that the week before the weather had been perfect. Lake levels were annoyingly low and Kentucky Lake is already a pretty shallow lake which really limited our maneuver room but we made the best of it none the less. We mostly wanted this trip as a dry run for the recently overhauled trailers and a first trip for Sunflower which is only recently out of derelict status.

 

[Aswayze]

Getting this guy ready for the next season.

Plans for this year are to visit Isle Royale in the early Summer then the Dry Tortugas in the fall/winter again around Thanksgiving time frame.

Many of the usual boat maintenance items as well as some improves learned from past trips.

I installed this Raymarine A78 last year and it did sterling service at both Lake Superior as well as Kentucky Lake. But... I really wanted to have wind data as well and the Raymarine path forward to that involved more displays and doo dads.

Which means HI YA! B&G time... Switched to a Vulcan 7 since it's a good bit more sailboat oriented than the Raymarine and allows me to display useful wind data on the same display

Obviously that means a wind transducer and while we are playing the wires up the mast game I went ahead and added a Masthead Smart LED light by Marine Beam and replaced my VHF cable.

Having to scamper down into the cabin to play 20 questions with the Coast Guard when sending the Pan Pan about SV Sunflowers rudder failure at Kentucky Lake while trying to take them in tow while single handing in a storm convinced me it was time to add a RAM mic up in the cockpit.

Aside from that, many a day and hour has been consumed running down and removing ghost wiring and generally bringing all the wiring to standard.

Keel winch assembly is out, it's quite a substantial thing! I have pulled the gearbox apart and am replacing all the seals and changing the gearbox grease. The crane is out as well, it was damaged during the Apostle Islands trip and will be rebuilt prior to installation also. I cannot change the cable sitting on the trailer so I plan to wait till the water is warm enough to dive under and get to it in the water.

 

[cw3hogan]

Hi Allen! Tough luck with the rudder. Some how I think you will make a new improved one.

It has been a while. Made it through a heavy winter. Hope you and yours are well.

For my Midship 25 I am going electric propulsion. Thunder Struck Motors has a great 5 Kw motor kit that should be enough for the boat. Looks like I'll be able to hook up the motor direct drive too. I'm still shopping for a used (to be rebuilt) sail drive (SD) leg. My concern is the length of the SD. What are the dimensions of Skaggs SD? I cannot find any specs on the Baldwin SD. I guess I'm just not using the right search criteria.
I will be setting up PV panels over the stern deck. Fo! passage making I'll probably include a small gen set. I'll be using a folding prop.
I keep learning new things from you guys! I hope to post my efforts in photos soon on my own thread. Refinishing and making new woodwork first.
Thanks!
Shannon

 

[Aswayze]

Stagg is working on a page for saildrive stuff here:

Balwin Saildrive information - Operation East Wind

You can also see the album of pictures here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/72157681216452735

Stagg has much more to add as well so there will be more info coming up soon. We'll be out there today and will see of we can get a measurement.

For what it's worth, I would not look for a rebuilt saildrive unit, I would look for any suitable outboard motor lower end and just build what you need off of it exactly like what they did with these. If you don't have access to an AC TIG welder yourself, I am still quite sure that paying someone to do the work would be a far site cheaper than anything involving an original saildrive unit.

I am adding solar to my aft cabin top. I had planned to do panels on an arch but the semi flexible panels allow me to just use the coach roof and hatches instead leaving me a lower profile for around the same power input.

 

[cw3hogan]

Thanks for the timely reply Allen! Apologies about misspelling Staggs name.
More later!
Shannon

 

[cw3hogan]

Hey Allen, what brand of marine varnish do you recommend? I'm ready to pull the woody parts off top deck and in the cabins and refinish, rebuild, and or replace. I like the book cubbies you mentioned and will build them. Also I think I'll replace the stern cabin hatch and forward cabin washboards. Weather is fine now. I'll be doing my natural wood cabinets in my home bathroom at the same time. I figure the marine varnish would be great for the bathroom too.
Shannon

 

[Aswayze]

I am quite certain that there are better qualified people than me to answer that question. I just use the Minwax Helmsman spar varnish since it’s really the only thing available in my area and I am not the sort to bother mail ordering varnish.

 

[stagg]

Boats are in the water this weekend. Neither one sank yet.

Swayze tested out his new dinghy, which we have decided rows very well considering its fellow inflatable rows like a barge.

 

[cw3hogan]

Hey Allen, I need to do one more public message to be able to PM. I'm pretty sure the fuel tank was pulled along with the power head and sail drive. I assume the fuel tank was secured in the compartment under the seat hatch along with the battery. If I had it I would have given it to Staggs! Anything else I can be of help please PM me!
Thanks again for all the great advice and information you both have posted!!
Shannon

 

[Aswayze]

Updated pics of the new panels installed. The idea was to integrate some solar in a manner that would be low profile and not a burden to stepping/unstepping the mast as well as trailering since I do trailer this guy quite a lot.

Panels on the aft cabin roof. Front one is 80 watts 18V aft one is 40watts 18V. If I had taken the time to have the aft one constructed to spec, I could have eeked out another 20 watts and not ran out of space. All the panels are stood off of the deck by about 3/4 inch to help them cool as well as obviously help them not turn the cabins into ovens.

Single 100 watt semi flexible on the front hatch. This is likely to be a fairly shady spot so it'll most likely not pump out crazy power but it's also space that's not really being used for anything else so there's really nothing lost by having it there. There's room forward of the mast as well where you can see the previous 100watt rigid panel propped up out of the way but for now I am leaving that space alone.

Now what to do with that power? Well, I have long wanted one of these and it just so happens to fit perfectly in the same spot I had been stashing my Engel Deep Blue 35 cooler up front.

Off to Isle Royale at the end of the week!

Unless I decide not to be cold then I will be off to Florida!

Either way, I will be off.

 

[CrusPD26]

Gentleman,

I got a great running YSE8 I just remove from my PD 26.
$1000.00 if anybody is interested.

 

[Aswayze]

Just out of curiosity, what did you replace the YSE with?



Where are you located at?

 

[CrusPD26]

I sail on Lake Powell. Super strong winds in narrow canyons. I needed more power. I got a deal on a new Honda Power Thrust I could not refuse. Had to fabricate a custom stern mount for everything to be in right alignment. My PD26 now has 15HP.
We are in St George UT.

 

[stagg]

That ought to leave plenty of new interior storage space.

 

[CrusPD26]

Yes. Plenty of room and easy service. Now, I just have to replace my swing keel cable.

 

[Aswayze]

That's on my list too. It would be much easier to do in an area with marine service providers...

I am likely to trailer mine off to the nearest yard that has a lift (hundreds of miles away) and just get the swing keel assembly yoinked out for the winter and plunked onto a flatbed trailer so I can fair the keel, replace the pivot pin, and change the cable before next season. Right now I am most certainly dragging a slab of iron through the water rather than a nice smooth foil shape.

Got any pics of yours?

 

[CrusPD26]

Living in South UT Mountains is challenging as far as marine services go. After weeks of planning I have decided to purchase my own boat hoist from gohoist. In addition I made my own boat stands .
Here are few pics of few modifications and my boat stand:

 

[CrusPD26]

One more pic.

 

[Aswayze]

Ha, my boat's newer than yours by 4 boats!

Also seen that keel cable thing before too:

In my case I caused it by neglecting to lower the keel onto the trailer before trailering up to the Apostles. It collapsed the keel crane that the cable runs over and sproinged one strand. Not fun!

Make sure to take a look at your keel crane and specifically the sheave the cable runs over. I replaced mine with a stainless sheave with a solid bronze bushing after straightening the crane back out slowly and carefully. I plan to make a new one out of stainless at some point but so far the old one is doing ok:

Bent over crane

Old explodiated sheave and new replacement. It was a commercially available sheave that I shaved down on the lathe to fit in the crane.

Also, the crane was not particularly impressively bedded so while I had it out I filled this void in and leveled everything up so it now has a much better base to sit on.

 

[Aswayze]

Worth pointing a few things out about the gearbox as well.

Firstly, it's still commercially available from Boston Gear if you ever seriously goof it up. Otherwise, it comes apart pretty easily and all the seals were fairly common off the shelf parts as well. I pulled mine out and went through it while I had the keel crane out and it was well in need of a good cleaning out and seal change.

If you get yours out and the keel assembly dropped, post up some pics to guide the way for the rest of us!