Hi, thanks for the add. My name is David, I am 45 years old, and live in San Carlos Mexico. I am 1.5 years into a 5 year plan to turn my condo into a rental, and cruise full time. To this end, I bought the Irwin to learn to sail with. I have not previous sailing experience. The boats name is Perla. She is anchored in the Bahia outside my balcony. I sleep on her every night, and kayak back and forth to the condo where my office is still set up. I work remotely as a project manager for an Architect in Massachusetts. I have owned the boat for just under a month, and been sailing on her one time. I have a sailing instructor lined up to give me lessons on my boat as soon as his schedule clears. In the mean time I am reading books (ASA course books for now), forums, and talking to anyone who will talk to me. I am taking this time to get to know the boat.
I came to this site on a recommendation from another forum that I find a boat specific forum to ask questions in. I have not researched the questions yet, but wanted to say hello now that I have registered. I'll post the questions I am researching below, but I know how annoying it is to have the new person ask the same tired questions all the time, so please don't feel the need to read further. (can I search specifically in the Irwin sub forum, or does the search feature search the entire site?)
If you did, and want to point me to past threads to read on, or want to share input on the questions, thank you very much for your time.
1. I want to start a.... maintenance schedule? Things I should be doing daily, weekly, monthly and annually. It would be amazing if someone already has one and would be willing to share.
2. An item that came up during my boat inspection, is the standing water in the bilge, that the bilge pump does not remove. The inspector was worried about the keel nuts and bolts being exposed to water constantly, and the risk of rot. I asked the seller, he shrugged and said it's always been that way. It seems to me that it was engineered that way. Should I find a better bilge pump that will lower the water level more? ( I hit the manual pump button every day). Should I be treating the bolts regularly with a product to protect from rot? These seems hard, but not impossible at constant anchor.
3. This is the question I posted on another forum that drove me to come find this one. Please excuse the weak humor attempts, I was exhausted from lack of sleep:
"My boat has developed a fun new noise (or I am newly experiencing the conditions that cause it). The conditions are very specific:
There has to be no wind, on a relatively calm night. Whatever forces point my boat perpendicular to the mouth of the Bahia as if I was sailing beam reach to it. Then the Sea of Cortez sends in about 6 little swells through to mouth of the bay, they have to hit perfectly straight on the beam, causing the boat to rock side to side 30 degrees or so. Doesn't work if the boat is off angle a bit.
When all of these conditions are met, the bulkhead that abuts the lower mast portion (or maybe it is the mast itself), make an interesting sound.
It sounds like Ghost Rider is doing a bad job of sneaking his bike on deck with a rusty come along. Couple of test ratchets at the first swell to see if I am paying attention (I am), then 3 quick ratchets as the boat leans in one direction, 3 quick more on the return lean. Repeat about 6 times, then pause until I almost fall asleep again. Repeat. All night. Really loud, about 3 feet from my head.
I'm scared to find out what I did to piss off Ghost Rider.
The port standing rigging that goes from the mast head to the end of the spreader is a little loose, I know because I went out at midnight and stared at it as the boat rocked back and forth. I am wondering if this is allowing just a tiny bit more of flex in the mast beam to beam than normal, and putting tension on the bulkhead wall were it connects to the lower mast. Some nail is stretching in and out of a hole, or maybe it is something on the mast connection.
I don't know enough to be worried or complacent, so I am going to just be anxious until the rigger comes."
I came to this site on a recommendation from another forum that I find a boat specific forum to ask questions in. I have not researched the questions yet, but wanted to say hello now that I have registered. I'll post the questions I am researching below, but I know how annoying it is to have the new person ask the same tired questions all the time, so please don't feel the need to read further. (can I search specifically in the Irwin sub forum, or does the search feature search the entire site?)
If you did, and want to point me to past threads to read on, or want to share input on the questions, thank you very much for your time.
1. I want to start a.... maintenance schedule? Things I should be doing daily, weekly, monthly and annually. It would be amazing if someone already has one and would be willing to share.
2. An item that came up during my boat inspection, is the standing water in the bilge, that the bilge pump does not remove. The inspector was worried about the keel nuts and bolts being exposed to water constantly, and the risk of rot. I asked the seller, he shrugged and said it's always been that way. It seems to me that it was engineered that way. Should I find a better bilge pump that will lower the water level more? ( I hit the manual pump button every day). Should I be treating the bolts regularly with a product to protect from rot? These seems hard, but not impossible at constant anchor.
3. This is the question I posted on another forum that drove me to come find this one. Please excuse the weak humor attempts, I was exhausted from lack of sleep:
"My boat has developed a fun new noise (or I am newly experiencing the conditions that cause it). The conditions are very specific:
There has to be no wind, on a relatively calm night. Whatever forces point my boat perpendicular to the mouth of the Bahia as if I was sailing beam reach to it. Then the Sea of Cortez sends in about 6 little swells through to mouth of the bay, they have to hit perfectly straight on the beam, causing the boat to rock side to side 30 degrees or so. Doesn't work if the boat is off angle a bit.
When all of these conditions are met, the bulkhead that abuts the lower mast portion (or maybe it is the mast itself), make an interesting sound.
It sounds like Ghost Rider is doing a bad job of sneaking his bike on deck with a rusty come along. Couple of test ratchets at the first swell to see if I am paying attention (I am), then 3 quick ratchets as the boat leans in one direction, 3 quick more on the return lean. Repeat about 6 times, then pause until I almost fall asleep again. Repeat. All night. Really loud, about 3 feet from my head.
I'm scared to find out what I did to piss off Ghost Rider.
The port standing rigging that goes from the mast head to the end of the spreader is a little loose, I know because I went out at midnight and stared at it as the boat rocked back and forth. I am wondering if this is allowing just a tiny bit more of flex in the mast beam to beam than normal, and putting tension on the bulkhead wall were it connects to the lower mast. Some nail is stretching in and out of a hole, or maybe it is something on the mast connection.
I don't know enough to be worried or complacent, so I am going to just be anxious until the rigger comes."