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

[walt]

Yep, that is the low profile box I used last year. It overall worked just fine. The boat will go in a slip mostly day sailed so the anchor only gets used a handful of times during the season. With the locker, everything will be easy to get at but I wont have all that junk on the deck. I like having both the anchor and rode quickly available "just in case". This is a habit from sailing this boat at a high mountain lake. When a quick storm would come through I would just drop the anchor and wait out the storm instead of trying to compete with about a million power boats for the boat ramp.

Russ.. I will read that shortly. I want the box to have a little more room than dictated by just dropping it thought the hole so at the moment that is not an option. Im thinking I can assemble it inside that area and use AL angle screwed to the wood plus epoxy to hold it together. Then water proof it with glass cloth and epoxy. I want to put the "hooks" in for a drain but may worry about that later (boat lives in the desert - not much rain).

I had to think about cutting that hole for a while as there isnt any going back. But so far I am not regretting anything.

 

[BudGates]

Looks nice Walt. I've considered adding a locker for my anchor rode. (Currently it sits in a bag on the deck.) I might have to revisit that notion.

 

[vizwhiz]

You are a very brave man.

 

[walt]

Well.. it ONLY took me about a year of thinking about this before I cut lol. I also met someone this summer who had done something similar with a 26D and really liked it.

This project is not done as I only have the "hook" in for the drain but just a little over one week to putting the boat in the water so Im temporarily done. The pictures show what I did and at this point I can still dis-assemble all of it. The drain will be a winter project but likely will involve a polyester glass removable tub that has a barb for the 5/8 drain hose that goes to a bilge pump above water through hole. The rode in the box is 15 foot of 5/16 chain plus 120 ft of 3/8 line. The inside of the box is coated with epoxy and the box is very sturdy. I probably came close to breaking even weight wise over the low profile box I was using last year.. Maybe I added a couple pounds.

FYI, the plastic cover is available at SBO (this web site) for a much better price than I paid at WM, just search for Tempress 1115. One of the pictures shows the spec. Inside box dimensions are 13 x 9 x 7.75 inch. Depth was dictated by the structure of the 1990 26S forward flotation foam storage area. I did not mess with that area inside the boat at all but I still have to remove the inside access cover and stuff as much foam back in there as possible.

 

[Sumner]

Looks nice Walt, are you going to slot the edge of the lid for the chain?

Sumner

 

[walt]

I dont think so.. but I also havent used it yet. My anchor is on a bow roller so when Im getting ready to drop the anchor, I will pull the chain out and attach it to the anchor. The chain may be all the way out of the box or still partly inside the box but there is no load on it at that point. When the anchor is deployed, all the chain is underwater so its only the line that is coming out of the box and will be cleated outside the box. So again, there is no load on the line when the anchor is deployed. In one of the pictures you can see the lid closed over the line and this is how I will leave it overnight. If it rains, some water will splash in but the lid still will deflect most of the rain. I will still add the drain later.

So.. at the moment the only thing Im thinking of doing is just adding the drain. But.. that could change after I use it a few times and some new "problem" crops up. This is also partly based on how I will use this. In four or five months of sailing the boat twice per week, I will likely only anchor a handful of times. So most of the time that lid will just be closed and water tight. It could be that with the drain, a small opening would be a good thing so that the box has some venting???

 

[justsomeguy]

Today I put the last coat of "Safety Yellow" oil-based paint on my epoxy filled and faired swing keel. Ya can't be too safe.
I'll cut up an old tire to stick between it and the trailer.

Took the outboard out of mothballs, tended to the O rings in the fuel hose and fired her up.
Noticed that the choke wasn't closing completely after warm-up, so I shortened the choke cable housing not quite an eighth of an inch, allowing full closure and a more consistant idle.
Soon, Mexico...

 

[Sumner]

Looks nice Walt, are you going to slot the edge of the lid for the chain?

Sumner

I dont think so.. but I also havent used it yet. ...

I like to have my anchors attached to the rodes all the time. If that was important to someone else and they wanted to follow your project they could slot the lid and cover the slot with some rubber. There would probably be very little water get into the locker and that that did would drain via your drain hose. It is needed anyway for any water or mud coming off the rode.

If conditions aren't bad I'll often leave my rode bag tops open to speed drying of the rode and it looks like you could to the same by just leaving the lid open. I like that you have that large lid and aren't trying to drop the rode down through a hawsepipe into a cramped locker that would be required on our smaller boats. It is probably going to work well for you,

Sumner
========================================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac...
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/endeavour-main/endeavour-index.html
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida, Bahamas

 

[My Mistress]

T

Soon, Mexico...

Do you encounter any difficulty crossing the border with your boat? Any special considerations to be applied?
As close as I live to the border, I've never been to Mexico. It may be worth a trip.

 

[Justin_NSA]

Do you encounter any difficulty crossing the border with your boat? Any special considerations to be applied?
As close as I live to the border, I've never been to Mexico. It may be worth a trip.

I grew up in San Antonio. If I ever felt the urge to go to Mexico, I just went downtown.

 

[justsomeguy]

Do you encounter any difficulty crossing the border with your boat? Any special considerations to be applied?
As close as I live to the border, I've never been to Mexico. It may be worth a trip.

Never had any difficulty going into MX. The only caveat WRT personal safety is to travel during daylight hours.
Just have all your titles (boat and trailer) aboard. Cheap Mexican liability insurance on vehicle and boat is also a necessity, especially in marinas.

 

[BudGates]

Walt, I really like your project. I'm anxious to hear how it works out for you.

 

[vizwhiz]

Justsomeguy, your keel looks really nice...good job! Never thought about painting it another color...

 

[justsomeguy]

Justsomeguy, your keel looks really nice...good job! Never thought about painting it another color...

Well, thanks. I did take its most flattering side, however.
I think I can get another season in before needing to tend to the rust starting to peek through the pivot area.

 

[walt]

I went ahead and finished the anchor locker project and took a bit of a short cut for the drain but I think it will be durable. I had an above water through hole installed using a 5/8 ID flexible hose. I epoxy glassed in the entire bottom of that box plus the seams making the whole box water tight. The flexible tube came through an exact fit opening at the lowest spot in the box and I simply glued the tube to the glass using 3M 4000 adhesive sealant. I had tested this before installing it and this does not form a rigid bond with the flexible tube but it does form a very snug fit and if any water does leak, it will be very little. That area of the boat is all glass so a drop or two wont matter and likely I wont have any drip at all. The tube should not move at all and the sealant is somewhat flexible.

The one regret is that I didnt put the through hole low enough so the tube linking the box and the through hole "rises" a little before heading down to the through hole so not all the water will drain from the box. Oh well..

I dont plan any more changes to it. Im not going to put a slot in the lid for the chain as my intention is to get rid of some of the clutter on the deck - chain falls into that category. Also, the time required to connect the chain to the anchor is almost nothing and its something that I just wont do very often..

 

[walt]

sunset today Lake Havasu Az

 

[walt]

Boat goes into the slip tomorrow (Nov 1) and one final thing before... I painted the cooler and beefed up the lid clamps to form a tighter seal. Doing a beer/ice test now and the better seal seems to make a difference. My only regret is that I didnt make a "fixture" to get the height and placement of the new vinyl seal very uniform as that would also aid the seal.

 

[walt]

Put the boat in today, sailed in a T shirt and shorts

 

[Azzarac]

I probably should have been winterizing the boat yesterday but with the temps in the mid 70's still and the weather guy telling me this trend will continue for at least the next 2 weeks I am hoping to get another couple sailing days in before tucking away for a long winter nap. Instead I installed this antique weather vein on the boat house.

 

[walt]

Update.. we camped a few nights ago and my wife dropped the anchor from the bow while I motored. There was of course a bit of drama including losing a tool I had made for taking on/off the shackle between the chain and the anchor. Plus.. we are going to camp in the boat again next week so the chain just ended up staying on the anchor and going back to the rode box with the lid cocked open. So.. its likely that chain will be on the deck fairly often so I got out the saw again and cut a notch in the lid (worst case.. I have to buy a new one and they are not that expensive). Even though the box has a drain, I didnt want that opening in the lid to leak rain water and looked for clam shells on the internet.. didnt really find anything I liked. So.. I prototyped something that if durable will be fairly nice, The "clam shell" I prototyped is made from an ABS pipe fitting. The material is black but I painted it also as I think the black has some UV resistance but not enough. Its going to get stepped on but I think it should be strong enough.. will find out..

These pictures were all taken today