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Certainly many of us could offer names wherever we are (I can think of three very good sources in Toronto and they're yours for the asking) but the cost of shipping is likely to be more than the cost of the pulpit itself. If I were you, I'd look locally first - surely there must be lots of decent s/s fabricators in a port city like St John and there's nothing difficult about making a pulpit.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
What you have inside the boom is probably the first of the systems shown on this page - http://www.harken.com/rigtips/outhaul.php . If it doesn't move, it's probably because the sheave(s) inside are corroded and seized or the wire from block A to B in the illustration, being old, has worked its way into some sort of corkscrew tangle.
My boom is different, so I can't give you specific advice, but the simplest way to deal with a problem like this is to take the boom apart and see what's going on in there. This may require removing some screws and pulling the end fittings off. The screws are likely corroded too; if so you should take the boom home and dose them daily with penetrating oil until they come free (a heat gun often helps, too). Pull it all apart, replace the bits that need attention, clean and lubricate sheaves (or replace them) and put it back together. Alternatively, you could upgrade to a more powerful system as shown in Black Arts (http://www.cc27association.com/fixes/outhaul/outhaul.html - an oval boom is described here, and the pictures of the square boom should give you a sense of what's going on inside the boom).
The other option is to take the boom to a sailmaker or rigging shop and ask them to do (approximately) the above for you. Stay away from chain stores; they'll just try to sell you a GPS and some tableware to mask the fact that they don't have a clue what a boom is for.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
This is going to be a bit of a me-too post following on Marcus' admonition about unwarranted trust in a GPS (but with a slightly different slant, so don't give up). First, Doug Hunter earlier pointed out a full report from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (which is their racing organization) at http://www.cyca.com.au/sysfile/downloads/CYCA_Flinders_Islet_Internal_Inquiry_Report.pdf which rewards reading, with its description of the speed with which PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) went from a crack racing yacht to a terrifying "deathtrap", and how all the safety equipment and precautions mandated for racers were effectively nullified by thoughtless stowing (a subject on which safety seminars don't always achieve a good balance).
The heart of the report, however, is the discussion of how PwC's skipper's habitual over-reliance on GPS collided with a brief point in time when the GPS constellation was particularly badly placed in the sky, resulting in a lethally poor position fix. The skipper of PwC could, in an ideal world, have saved his life had he either taken a look round from the other side of the boat, or looked at the alarming DoP value on his receiver (DoP is a measure of GPS' theoretical accuracy at a given receiver, based largely on satellite geometry relative to that receiver); in practice, it's unlikely that he would have, as the information is buried within the setup values.
Having read the Flinders report, I was interested in assessing the difficulty of ascertaining GPS accuracy while sailing and so spent some time fooling around with a Raymarine system while sailing in the Caribbean in March. On the chartplotter on our boat, getting DoP information wasn't hard, but you had to know _why_ to look, then you had to know _where_ to look and delve through a series of screens to get to it; it wasn't something you'd do casually or while otherwise busy rounding a mark or rocky islet.
While fiddling with the plotter, I started noticing inconsistent anomalies; sometimes the plotter seemed to be spot on and other times it was off by a considerable amount. On two successive days, while heading south, the boat was displaced considerably from its plotted position, despite excellent DoP numbers. Accordingly, I recorded a number of GPS positions with a handheld GPS and also with the boat's plotter. Back home, I transferred the values to a chart, confirming what I had informally estimated based on the position of the boat relative to marks and bits of land -- the plotter was (in)consistently about 150 meters out.
This seems outrageous. GPS is supposed to be accurate to single digits of feet and sometimes this unit appeared spot-on. There is a possible explanation. The charter boat's GPS antenna was mounted on the lower rail of a two-rail pushpit, probably to give it a measure of protection from careless charterers. When I took readings with my handheld unit in a similar position, it also yielded wonky values (though not precisely the same ones).
Since the days of Loran-C (now coming to an end, apparently), techs have lectured us not to just stick an antenna any old where. We have no information on where PwC's antenna was, but it seems to have had a known record of inaccuracy. Presumably the boat's fabulous winning record rendered everyone indifferent to the issue.
What can we do as sailors? If you're fitting a GPS, test the location before making in permanent, not once, but for a while. The best locations for GPS antennas, apparently, are outside the lifelines and rigging, with a clear view of the sky -- in other words, not on the lower rung of a pushpit or on top of the coachroof. If you're chartering, check the boat's chartplotter against known landmarks or sea-marks.
And, as Marcus advises, never forget your traditional means of navigation. Eyes, ears, compass and binoculars are the best line of defence against navigational surprises.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I wouldn't use tape, as I don't think it would last. Metal of pop-can thickness is probably what you need, but if your stanchions are stainless, I'd try to get thin stainless. Alternatively, something like nylon sheet would be good as it's both hard and durable.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Is your impeller forward of the keel? It may be that the blade was broken off by pressure from a sling (or some other accident of the launch/haulout process), in which case the wheel's axle may have been damaged. Make sure it not only spins but spins freely before investing too much energy in searching for the wheel alone.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Contact the manufacturer /service agent for the knotmeter you have on board. Companies are reluctant to provide minor parts like this, but you might get lucky if they have something lying around.
Your broken wheel probably had six blades so if you can't find a replacement wheel, just multiply the indicated speed by 6/5ths.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
For myself (and myself alone) I take the Occam's Razor approach aka KISS, with one halyard tied to the chair. Tools have lanyards if possible.
I do this because I nearly was tipped out of the chair in a two-halyard setup that went awry. I'd rather have the people on deck tend to one line and tend to it well than have lots of scurrying, tangling and disentangling going on, distracting everyone, all of it leading to a repetition of the previous problem or something worse. As to reliance on one halyard - I can see the points of any possible chafe when the halyard is in use and I know it's more than strong enough to bear my weight (even now). The chair, which has a high back and leg straps, is inspected before use. I feel the residual risk is acceptable.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The Black Arts article on cradle and jackstand safety was based on an article in Seaworthy, a magazine for boat insurers. That article, in turn, was based on the results of a recent hurricane on the US east coast and in specific marinas that were hard-hit. Boats were on cradles or jackstands (mostly jackstands) and some were tied down to screw-anchors set in the ground around them. I cannot find the magazine just now, but if my memory is correct, most power vessels were fine (tied down or not), tied-down sailboats with mast down were fine, most sailboats not tied down with masts down were fine, but _all_ sailboats with masts up were upset, tied down or not.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
I wouldn't do it that way if I were you. Neither battery is going to be fully recharged by the process of entering or leaving harbour unless you've got some distance to go and you're able to go at a speed that lets the alternator put out its rated amperage. With your scheme, what you'll probably end up (when least convenient, naturally) is two rather depleted batteries.
The advice I've always read is to have a starting battery for starting and a house battery for (housing?) and don't mix the two unless the starting battery fails you. Test them from time to time through the season to monitor their charge state and top them up when necessary.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
A lot of boat electronics info is changing, so take this with a grain of salt. Ont. Sailor's writer advises switching to battery 1, a cranking battery, to get the engine going and leaving it there as long as you are under way. This battery is recharged by running the engine. At the mooring, you cut over to 2, the house bank of deep-cycle batteries, used only for lights, etc. This bank is only recharged by plugging in to shore power (which is fine if you spend a lot of time hooked up on shore, questionable otherwise).
Why the rigid separation? As I understand it, when a discharged battery is connected directly to a charged battery, the two will equalize, leaving you with two half-discharged batteries. Ideally, the battery banks should be separated not only by a switch, but also by a battery isolator, which prevents current flowing between them if you should switch to "both", deliberately or inadvertently.
It's not clear what the writer means by "isolator", but there are options. The traditional, simple diode ones unfortunately reduce the alternator voltage to the battery by a small but significant percentage, so your batteries re-charge at a glacial rate unless you fit additional voltage controllers to your alternator. New, more sophisticated isolators sense the voltage from the alternator and on both batteries, diverting power where it's needed while preventing unseemly dumping of the charge from one battery to another. They are surprisingly reasonably priced.
I have an inexpensive battery combiner that performs part of this task admirably, but I've written about this elsewhere (search "combiner" in the Message box on the search page).
There's interesting information about batteries on the West Marine site, but you may find that some of their advice is overkill for the way many of us use our boats.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/westadvisor/10001/-1/10001/Battery-Combiners-Relays.htm
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
The YSM12 hasn't been made for 30 years. Are you confident that you will be able to get parts down the road?
Apparently it's also rather heavy, but I have no idea how it compares with an A4.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
As a bad name, "Lemon" isn't even in the running. Truly bad names range from the simply vulgar ("Wet Dream" is apparently wildly popular, presumably primarily among boats with metal-flake paint jobs) to the mindlessly aggressive. I saw a boat in the eastern end of the lake with a sort of airport-thriller-ish name like "Counterstrike' (or something of that ilk) with a picture of a nuclear mushroom cloud on the stern. People like that should stick to activities like self-abuse and reading Tom Clancy books. Sailing is wasted on them.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Disaster rooted in equipment that allows people to venture outside their capability envelope is a recurrent problem in a lot of activities these days, not just in sailing. It was argued that Michel Trudeau, Pierre's youngest was where he was - in the path of an avalanche - because the superb quality of his and his friends' back-country gear allowed their ambition to exceed their negligible experience. Mountain-climbing suffered an explosion of deaths with the introduction of lightweight equipment (the Matterhorn region tumbled from relative safety to a death a day during one climbing season as it was invaded by the inexperienced).
That said, the Flinders Islet Inquiry is an important contribution, as it highlights an aspect of GPS behaviour that isn't really well understood. I sorta-kinda knew how GPS position information could be degraded, but the error presumed from this incident, around 500 meters, is _ten_ times what I assumed to be the worst-case scenario. Moreover, the usual over-reliance-on-GPS warning/nag is couched in terms of power failure; this was worse, because everything seemed to be working fine.
There are a lot of lessons there for everyone, racers and cruisers - everything from the misleading tendencies of miracle equipment to the way that seemingly minor decisions about safety equipment can have life-threatening consequences. A worthy read. Thanks Doug, for bringing it to our attention.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Yes Towser has a Harken car in there (it does say "Harken" on the car). It even worked with the windward sheeting car, though we decided we didn't like that and took it off. Note that this is a pre-captive-ball car. The sizes may be different so you'd probably do well to ask Harken if the size has changed much.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Are you confident that you can live up to the image conveyed by this "ProMariner ProSport 2 battery charger"? It sounds like you are going to have to grow a mane of chest hair, along with affecting a pipe and sou'wester at all times (I believe the ProMariners' Code allows the pipe to be put aside during the hours of sleep, as long as the jaw is kept clenched in manly fashion and directed into the prevailing gale at all times).
There's a fair bit of useful general information on battery charging in West Marine's Product Advisors section. It's general knowledge, rather than products-to-buy, so broadly useful.
Based on something I read on one of West's pages, I bought a battery combiner. This has kept Towser's batteries topped up with no thought or effort on my part. I bought mine from West, the predecessor to this model made by a small specialist company.
I used to buy Surrette premium batteries but an electronics expert told me they're overkill in our typical 6-months-on, 6-months-off pattern of use. Cdn Tire, he said, has reasonable batteries and their guarantee is as good as if not better than anyone else's. I've had no reason to regret the switch.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Towser made the switch, because two years after a rebuild we found water in the oil and I couldn't face spending thousands diagnosing what was wrong. Now we have a Yanmar 2YM15. So far, it's been bulletproof (my understanding is that these engines tend to be so, until they break in some way, when you throw them out and get a new one). The big upside, if you tend to motor any distance, is that fuel consumption is barely detectable. The downside is increased vibration.
If you do get someone to install a new engine for you (but seriously, consider doing it yourself -- it's a _lot_ of little things, but none of them are hard), make sure you get a _firm_ quote on the job. I knew a fellow who bought a replacement engine from thieves who, mid-job, "discovered" all sorts of things that most of us would have discovered with a tape measure, so his engine came with a $6K installation bill, plus a lost summer. Get a quote and a completion date and stay on top of them.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Twenty-odd years ago I was sailing with the VP of a Canadian manufacturing firm and we got to discussing offshore manufacture, relatively new then. "We don't want to do it," he said, "because we'll be paying the Chinese to learn everything they need to take over our business." Today, _nothing_ is made in Canada and production is in China; that company exists only as a marketing organization and its name is less and less prominent every year. When people started this process of off-shoring, the model that was posited was that North America would happily off-load the grimy business of manufacturing to places like China, retaining the high-value work of design, marketing, etc. for itself. Except the Chinese don't see it that way and they're absorbing more and more of the high-value work. No one can compete with Taiwan in laptop manufacture because they've devoted themselves to mastering that art. Apple in California puts a nice shine on Macbooks, but they are simply exploiting manufacturing technology only understood in Taipei. Now the mainland, not content with making $37 DVD players and iPods, is in the game from design to manufacture with Lenovo. The rumoured purchase of Volvo by a Chinese car manufacturer not only means that they have access to Volvo technology, but to everything that Volvo learned from Ford.
So, we end up buying our laptops, our iPods and our cars from an economy that participates in a very one-way trade -- we ship them wood and ore, they ship us everything from knick-knacks to sophisticated consumer electronics, then cars. Is this trade sustainable? We of the yacht-owning class (even if it's the second-hand-yacht-owning-class) live well up the sunny side of an economic pyramid, but I suspect that those sunny slopes are going to become much less so as the lower reaches of the pyramid collapse as people who once had manufacturing jobs now take up service jobs.
The Flying Tiger was originally designed as a boat cheap enough to sell _within_ China, but the cat got out of the bag because it's built in China with labour that made the tooling and now makes the boats for pennies per hour and it also fits in a shipping container (surprise!). The only content from the West is 1) the design; 2) the deck hardware and 3) the mast. Items 2 and 3 will be knocked off in short order unless there are compelling marketing reasons for not doing so. Meanwhile, the knowledge of how to make boats will spread until they're not only banging out cheap-and-cheerful sportboats, but stuff that keeps the boys at Swan awake nights.
Perry and the sales org (and their ilk) will do well in the short term, because we'll have lots of absolutely cheaper boats to buy. But in the longer term, those boats will become relatively more expensive as the North American economic pyramid shrinks downward and the Chinese pyramid expands. The only remedy I can see for this dismal picture is the prescription that Jeffrey Simpson harps on in the Globe: greater productivity in North America through deployment of better tools and above all, dramatically better education at every level of society.
This is getting too far from talking about boats for this Forum (don't want to attract a rebuke from the Admin), so I'll end by saying that we're going to see cheaper boats in the near term, but we're not going to like the package they come in if we don't change our ways.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
You've put your finger on one part of the problem for any new-boat builders - they have to compete with 15-thousand-dollar 27's and forty-K 29's. But think of how little manoeuvring room they have in doing so - $8-9K for the engine and its gear, $6-7K for the spar and standing rigging, $2-3 thousand for deck gear, $3-4K for the keel with lead at around $1/lb plus cost of moulding. That's $19,000 just using the first number I conjured up (and I think those are _very_ conservative). Then add the value of a quarter-million for tooling a simple boat, someplace to do the work, people to do the work...
And we're spoiled - the market doesn't want something part-finished like the rough little boats that made George Hinterhoeller a star - we want fully lined, nicely cabinetted boats that our friends will admire. If someone built a Shark today, everyone would sneer. Hunters and many Beneteaus are sheep in wolf's clothing, but the fit and finish makes many people's wallets itch (never mind that they've been around long enough to turn themselves into expert marketing organizations that happen to build boats). Achieving that fit and finish, plus delivering exciting performance... have you priced a new C&C lately?
As to the Tata analogy - Tata may be able to build a cheap car, but will you buy one? I drove around for a week in a Yugo and while it met the safety spec, the on-the-road results confirmed my impression: death-trap. My dollar's on Tata as a re-run (but without luxuries like gas gauges). Returning to what I said about being spoiled, I don't think many of us would want a boat from Tata Marine.
There may be a way to make less expensive boats that we'd be willing to buy, but given the constraints that you're working with plus the expectations of the market, it's going to be a stretch.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
A jumble of thoughts about economics. (I'm not going to try to develop a coherent argument here, a) because many of these factors are important or irrelevant depending on personal circs and inclination and b) as Deep Thought said in Hitchhiker's Guide, "It's going to take some time.")
Keep in mind as you look at the price of Smoke that this was C&C's attempt to be affordable (less complex interior, outboard rudder and other simplifications). There were cheaper boats, but not at that quality level. If I recall correctly, prices spiked dramatically in that period, as they had in the mid-seventies, from rapidly climbing prices for resin and various components (builders also had to contend with rigorous new safety regulations, which virtually doomed the gas engine and required the much more expensive diesel).
While reeling from boat sticker-shock, think of what's happened to the price of a cottage within 3 hours drive of any metropolitan area. Prices just go from one leap to the other. The only thing that's likely to change that is the glut on the market that will come when the present generation of owners pops its clogs and their children will have to sell to pay death duties. (I also think there are going to be issues around the cost of fuel that will render cottages less desirable, but that's another story.)
Who will sail the J's in 10 or 20 years time? Probably lots of people. But there are many factors to consider. J/105's are strong twenty years after introduction because there's a strong one-design fleet. They're also very well designed boats (as is the 109, the only other J I'm really familiar with). The asymmetric makes them fun to sail, too, without the hassle of a pole. They'll be in demand, too, because many of the boats we sail will simply be worn out (not all, but many).
The sixties to (arguably) the 90's should be understood as the halcyon days for the middle class family. Historically, everything got more affordable from 1945 until the oil shock of the seventies. Since then we've been on a roller coaster in which some things have become more attainable, some less. But the overall trend has not been good for the middle or lower class.
Making predictions is a mug's game, but I think I've got history on my side here (regrettably). Barring some unforeseen change (which I think more likely to be to our disadvantage than to our advantage) there may not be a time again when a member of the middle class can afford a new boat around 30 feet without sacrifices elsewhere.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
For what it's worth, Kat's Paw uses Lewmar plastic clips (that are sold as a pair in red and green) in all winds. The time I sailed with them I expected them to blow up at any moment, but they didn't. They're very light.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
My A4 had a CAV (Lucas - I've only seen one model in yacht suppliers) filter/separator that had relatively inexpensive large-diameter cartridges that I changed only every two years. It worked fine. Because I was confident of its effect, I removed the filter in the base of the fuel pump; this had clogged with gum on two occasions despite being replaced annually. No problem after that.
My diesel has a Racor (200 series - don't remember exact model), which works well (no issues, anyway) and is nice for having a built-in primer pump, which means you don't have to prime the engine's fuel pump when changing the filter. Filter cartridges are $50, which is a fair markup on porous paper.
When buying a separator/filter for a gas engine, make sure you buy one with a metal bowl and plug, not plastic. Being able to see if there is water in the bowl is nice, but plastic is not fire-rated for a gas engine and it could void your insurance.
As to the reddish metallic deposits -- have a look inside your gas tank. Is the tank aluminum or steel? If the latter, get rid of it asap. Also pull the fuel sender -- you may have rust like that shown in Black Arts >> Gas tank warning. Drain and clean the tank thoroughly. If those little bits of crud get in your carburetor, you'll have all sorts of problems and in my experience, the only remedy is a new carb.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Addendum - Location of my filter has always been on the bulkhead at the forward end of the lazarette hatch. The only thing to watch on the Racor is that you must have clearance above to work the priming pump, which is a vertical piston.
Concise, but not to the point. Engine? Boat type? You know. We don't. Makes a difference. Give info. Get answer.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Can't be ours. Weather doesn't have a passport and it wouldn't pass the background check, so it couldn't get across the border these days. Blame Minnesota.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Actually, I think my comment broadly, if somewhat indirectly, supports your message - "Don Moyer is a good person to deal with for A4 add-ons," while adding the caveat that "Speed Seal is not a good company to deal with."
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
As the discussion has moved to add-ons, I hope I can be excused for repeating a warning about dealing with people who stand by their products. I wrote the following a few years ago as part of another thread on impellers.
"Towser used to have an A4 that had been retrofitted with a fresh-water cooling system that included a belt-driven pump for the sea water on the forward end of the block. This pump ate impellers and it was a real hassle to replace them. Accordingly, when I heard about the Speed Seal, I bought one for this pump (I think it was about $70). If you're not familiar with Speed Seals, they are a heavy brass plate with a groove for an o-ring machined in the face. Because the plate is so rigid, they can be held securely with just 4 knurled nuts that you can run up with your finger-tips. Now, instead of a major hassle, it was something I could do without looking at the pump.
So I bought one for the pump on the body of the A4 that pumps the internal coolant. Unfortunately, this one leaked enough to visibly lower the coolant level over 20 minutes running. I tried everything suggested by Speed Seal's owner to remedy the problem. He sent me a second plate to try. Same problem. Same diagnostics, no luck. Then the A4 died.
Well, the new engine has a pump too, so I thought a Speed Seal might be a good idea here. I called the Speed Seal guy and asked him, since the A4 plate never worked despite our best efforts, would he consider replacing it with one for my diesel? The answer: 'No.'
Since I had installed it, he wouldn't be able to sell it to someone else.
But it was only by installing it that I was able to find out that it didn't work.
Didn't matter - how could he run a company that kept delivering bits to people over and over again without getting paid? Forget it. End of discussion.
So if the discussion of impellers now ongoing moves you to consider a fast-change solution, consider this: Speed Seal scored one out of three overall, zero out of two for the A4. And Don Moyer of Moyer Marine, who has always been a friend to A4 owners (when I had a little issue with his A4 alarm kit, he worked on the issue and he solved it), has a similar product. His almost certainly works."
And if it doesn't, he stands behind it until it does work. What better can you ask?
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV