The Official "What Did You Do To Your Mac Today" Thread!

[walt]

I tried something yesterday I had been wanting to try for a long time.. I was single handed and it was fairly windy. To set the sails up, normally I will set the main up first - with the motor running and the boat heading into the wind - tiller locked. This works OK especially in lighter winds but yesterday I also would have had to put the reef in the main while setting it up.

Instead, I first unfurled the jib (which was almost all I needed). I then got the boat in "heave to" with just the jib up. I was able to set the main up with the reef and it was a fairly relaxed process. I have discussed this before on forums and apparently it doesn't work on all sailboats (they need some involvement from the main to stay in heave to) but I thought it worked fairly well on the 26S. New trick for solo setup when its higher winds. The motor was not at all needed (it was off and out of the water).

All would have been well after.. except that when I set the main halyard up, I wasn't careful and had it around one of the jib sheets.. DOH! Getting that fixed was definitely NOT RELAXED. Picture below with a reef in both the main and jib.

 

[walt]

I have now had this boat in the marina for 3 months - no AC power at the slip. Except for about 4 days total, I have had just a 10 watt solar panel on the boat plus the outboard charger. The outboard charger USED to really work well as it has a "rectifier/regulator" and would often put out near the full rated current over a wide range of RPM. But.. something broke in it and now I only get about 2 amps out of it. I have never disconnected the outboard from the battery while its running so dont know how it was damaged.. but I now get less than half the current I used to. Its about the same output now as the old Honda BF8 I used to own however. I suspect the damage may have something to do with leaving the battery hooked up to the outboard and heat during one summer here in Lake Havasu but this is just a guess. Outboard was not shaded (which Im hoping to fix soon with a car port).

Even with the reduced output from the outboard, I can almost get by with just that 10 watt panel. I have a battery monitor which does a good job of "integrating current use" and this one likely samples the current many tens of thousands of times per second and adds up what goes in or out of the battery. So I have an accurate indicator at any time of what my net current use is. In the last three months I have sailed the boat at least a couple times per week and have also spent a fair amount of time at the boat in the marina listening to the stereo. When sailing, Im almost always listening to the stereo plus GPS depth finder plus sometime the VHF radio. Sometimes using LED cabin lights, sometimes LED Nav lights, sometimes charging an Ipad, once had the TV on for a football game while sailing. The stereo is my big load as its often using over 1 amp.. maybe about 15 watts or so on average and it gets used a LOT.

So twice during the three month period, I have had the battery down by about 20 amp*hour. Now this is only about 10% of the battery capacity so I probably could have never even worried about this but when the battery got down about 10%, I have a 40 watt panel on a pole where I can adjust both angle and azimuth and I temporarily mount this on the boat. Even this time of year (middle of winter), the 40 watt panel gets me back to zero amp hours within about a day. I then remove the 40 watt panel next time I go sailing as I only want the minimum panel area back there that I need.

So now I know that for my typical use I can almost get by with just the 10 watt panel - but not completely sustainable. So Im planning to change to a 20 watt panel that will just stay on the boat all the time. Next winter it should be all I will need. I will keep that 40 watt panel at home for when I take a week long trip with the boat and even then it appears it will be overkill for how I use the boat.

A few picture back you can see the removable 40 watt panel on the back. The picture below is from yesterday. The 40 watt panel is stashed in the Vberth area now. That is a 10 watt panel shown, when I go to 20 watt it will be in the same position.

 

[My Mistress]

I dug out my old bino's and the teak bino box that has been sitting around since the 90's. The teak was lightly sanded and finished in a clear satin polyurethane.

A new oak galley table is under construction also. This is the top:

I cut an access point in the hull liner and installed a cover plate. I think this was one of Sumner's mod's. Whoever I got it from must be a lot slimmer than I. Cutting and trimming the hole, then installing the cover plate in a tight area, in 80°F temps was not comfortable, to say the least.

I pulled out this old automotive speaker. Besides being in a bad place, the cone is shot and the backside is corroded. That hole will be opened up and a hatch added so I'll have access to the area underneath.

 

[Sumner]

I cut an access point in the hull liner and installed a cover plate. I think this was one of Sumner's mod's. Whoever I got it from must be a lot slimmer than I. .....

Not me although I have a couple of those in the cockpit to get to the bolts for the bottoms of the solar panel mounts.

..... I cut a much bigger hole and...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor2/rigging-17.html
..... covered it with plywood since....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor2/rigging-17.html
..... I needed to get way up in there to put backing plates on for the 2 anchor bow rollers.

The other work you did/are doing looks great!!

Off topic some but on my trip to the Bahamas ....

....a friend loaned me his binoculars and I grew to love them so much that I kept them after the trip and bought him a new pair. They are the nicest I've ever used and what I really liked about them was the built in compass that made it easy for me to take a compass bearing on anything I was looking at and that did come in handy more than once. There are better ones out there but they cost a lot more. Here is a link but maybe not the best current price and maybe they are even on here...

http://www.amazon.com/Fujinon-7107751-Mariner-Individual-Binoculars/dp/B00009XVPA

Sumner
===========================================================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac...
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida, Bahamas

 

[RussC]

I've had this idea rattling around for quite a wile now, and it was to friggen cold today to stay outside long enough to do much else, so I fabricated and screwed down two pieces of oiled 1" dowel, near the transom, to make a place to secure the companion way door wile sailing. simple but effective.

 

[My Mistress]

Before and after images of a couple easy mods to the trailer. These were covered with pool noodle and green tape so they wouldn't mar the hull. I went a step further with some inexpensive PVC tubing.

These lights were found on a clearance shelf at an Academy Sports store. They are specific to this purpose. They slid nicely into a PVC reducer.

 

[walt]

A friend took this picture of me and the dog out sailing today (credit Kiko Oliver)

 

[willsnow]

A new oak galley table is under construction also. This is the top:

That looks familiar! You're going to love all the extra prep and eating space!

 

[walt]

today

 

[justsomeguy]

Over the last two days I've replaced the house battery, the VHF coaxial in the mast and cabin, and the corroding PL259 connectors. So I figured I might as well replace the original lamp cord for the anchor light, too.

You'd think that a fishing/shrimping town like this one would have at least a couple of places to buy marine-grade hardware, but Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) has exactly zero chandleries. I spent some time driving from one hardware store to another in a search for some stranded wire. Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to meet up with a gentleman at the marina who said "I've got all that stuff over at my place".
So I followed him back to his place near the malecon, and yep, the guy's got everything.
I did pay a premium for the wire, good 16 gauge tinned, because it looks like he's the only game in town. He did lend me a heat gun for the day, for free.

 

[My Mistress]

That looks familiar! You're going to love all the extra prep and eating space!

Mine isn't that big! You have a banquet table there
I built mine about half that size. Where do you store it when not in use?


James

 

[RussC]

Over the last two days I've replaced the house battery, the VHF coaxial in the mast and cabin, and the corroding PL259 connectors. So I figured I might as well replace the original lamp cord for the anchor light, too.

Gota love those wiring jobs eh? it's too easy to just ignore the old stuff sometimes.

BTW. how did you get my VOM?

 

[justsomeguy]

how did you get my VOM?

If that means "volt meter", I dunno!

 

[willsnow]

Mine isn't that big! You have a banquet table there
I built mine about half that size. Where do you store it when not in use?

James

It is big, 24"x30" if I remember. Offset to starboard to make it easier to go forward and so we're closer to it when we are preparing and eating meals in the galley. Honestly, it's a rare day that the table isn't in it's "deployed" position. It's often just the 2 of us and when there are guests, they end up staying in the cockpit. Really never feels like it's too much in the way. That being said, I did make the table so it fits between my ice chest and hull down below. Right here:

 

[RussC]

All that was left of my sail markings was a bit of glue residue, so today I changed that. masking was time consuming, but the finished product came out nice using SEM flexible spray. SEM holds up very well for it's intended purpose of recoloring automotive interior, and I have no plans to ever sit on the sail, so I expect it to hold up well here also. + it sure looks better now.

 

[My Mistress]

I added a lighter weight battery mount to Mistress today. The previous contraption was composed of rotting pine 2x4 and a heavy metal brace.

An old piece of treated plywood that was hanging around the garage provided the base material. It was sanded and sealed. 4 strips of pine were glued to and sealed to provided extra depth for the screws. I didn't want to chance them going into the hull. The angle steel holds the battery boxes in place.

Test fitting the new battery boxes:

Bonding to the hull in the forward bilge:

At this point, the battery is only providing weight while the resin sets up. It'll be moved tomorrow and some spray foam will be applied to the spaces under the new battery tray. After all has set up, the boxes and batteries will be installed and I can get started on the next mod...........................


James

 

[THECUSCUS]

Nice setup to hold the boxes. What is the spray foam going to do?

 

[My Mistress]

Nice setup to hold the boxes. What is the spray foam going to do?

The spray foam is used to fill the area between the bottom of the flat piece of plywood and the curve of the hull.


James

 

[Curious Sailor]

Today...nothing...but look at what I have been doing.. Lol

 

[willsnow]

The spray foam is used to fill the area between the bottom of the flat piece of plywood and the curve of the hull.
James

i did the same thing between the hull and marine plywood under my v-berth to help spread out the weight of the batteries. been working well for a few years now