Fuel cork / whisker pole

[Victor Schreffler]

Greetings all! The ice is finally gone from the marina-hoping to
laucn soon. (but it's snowing now; arghh)

Regarding the cork in the fuel tank. I've been told that if you take
it out and let it dry for awhile, then coat with varnish it will work
fine--i'm not so sure about the varnish--would epoxy be better?

Whisker pole--regarding Don's description of a home made
whisker/spinnaker pole--are there any pictures? What did you use for
the ends; how did you set up locking points for various lengths?

Thanks,

Victor
Blue Fin
V1553

 

[shanachie70]

Hello Victor and other site members,
In regard to the whisker pole; I used two phenolic plugs, one epoxied in the end of the small tube; the other larger plug is very slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the large tube. This larger plug is bored 3mm off center for a 6mm bolt, which is secured to the plug in the smaller tube. When the tubes are turned in opposite directions, the large plug swages against the inside of the tube. As I stated in my e-mail to you, Victor, I will post details of the pole detailing it's construction and features, when the weather permits taking the cover off the boat.

I too, experienced a fuel-logging problem, with the original fuel gauge in my Vega. I couldn't get an accurate reading, as the float was partially logged; had one spill to the bilge because of an erronous reading.

I discontinued this manual gauge and installed an electric unit, which cost me $ 42.00CDN. I bored the forward end of the tank ( 30mm ) to accomodate the float mechanism. The sender plate is approximately 50mm in diameter, which I attached to the tank top using a cork joint and four self tapping stainless screws. Not being able to pull the screws up too tightly in the plastic tank, I used Form-a Gasket on both faces of the cork joint.

The receiver ( gauge ) has a 270 degree swing. It is mounted where the VDO Speedlog once lived. The log was discontinued with the purchase of the Furuno GPS, which is mounted outside on the starboard bulkhead of the cabin. The GPS is interfaced with the tiller pilot (Simrad) and with the laptop on the forward cabin bulkhead. I run Nobelec Suite 6.0 as a chart software program.

I find the above works well for me, as I do a bit of single handing, and find the tiller pilot a great help, with it's tacking feature, is like having another hand on board.
Best regards to all,
Don