Look here...a steamer!

This just appeared overnight at our marina. As a certified steam man this excites me at many levels. It reminds me of the African Queen. Very similar boiler. Wood fired with what looks like a single cylinder reciprocating engine. All day I was hearing its steam whistle. Mark my words, I will make friends with these people AND I will get up and personal with this boat.

Great sail today. Started off bad, I forgot my sunglasses and had to go back in to get them. I was so un-used to the sun the glare off the deck was killing me. When we set out again the wind caught us and we ended up in a narrow part of the marina. I deliberately ran our boat in the end of a finger dock to regain control. Honest. We buried the toe rail a couple of times and the wife had a blast as did I.

Kicker installed, went to a winery

Today we picked up our 9.9 outboard for the boat and walked away $475 lighter though. Damn.

When we went to pick up the motor, we drove past a winery and stopped in for a look-see. We walked out $43 lighter but with 5 bottles of wine. TWO OF THEM EVEN HAD CORKS! Yes, we are classing ourselves up for sure...lol

Chainplate repairs

The above photos are of our chain plate.Note the cracking and crazing of the gel coat. Not very nice nor safe. The plan is to use the jib halyard to support the forward part of the mast as the forstay has to be removed to facilitate the removal of the actual chain plate. Then I'll do some grinding, lay some new fiberglass, manufacture a way better backing plate than what's there too.

Installed our new VHF radio and antenae, and a three way battery charger, plus two new bilge pumps.

Our motor has been three weeks in the shop, wrong parts came in, should pick it up tomorrow $$$.

Kills us to watch other boats go sailing, yes, I am immature that way...lol

Lost all the blogs I was following

All 40 of the blogs I was following have dissapeared. If you are reading this, drop me a quick not so I can re add you...Allan

Garbage at sea....

This was when I was in the navy, procedure has changed by now, trust me.

All the ships departments would bring their garbage to the quarterdeck at dusk, hold the bags over the side and rip them open and then just drop everything (This was in the early eighties). Then we got green. We installed a couple of trash compactors. Then each department would for a week at a time, supply crew members to sort the garbage, paper/cardboard in one pile, organics in another. Wood would get tossed and glass would be smashed on the ships side and dumped overboard.

Well, the remaniing sorted trash would then be compacted...........then thrown over the side.

I am the king of weak stomachs, so most of my duty time there was spent with my head hanging over the side puking while the remains of feminine hygiene products lay at my feet and yes on one miserable occasion, draped across my forearm. (I lost it there and it almost cost me my career).

Now it is all sorted, compacted and stored. Nothing goes over the side, nothing. The ass end of the ship stinks.....Allan

Diesels

What I have learned so far about diesel engines is that a twenty year old engine is better by far than a brand new one.

This is due to the fact that the older engine is beefier and and has more meat (mass) than the newer engines. It can be rebuilt ie: cylinder liners replaced. The newer models don't have cylinder liners.

The newer engines run at a higher speed (rpm) than their older cousins. Here is a not so well kept secret; the slower any mechanical system moves, the longer that mechanical system will last.

Think of an old one lung (a single cylinder) diesel, it chugs away at around 800 rpm, compare it to today's engines which run well over a thousand rpm. I can't give an exact figure here as different brands have different speeds. The slower engine has less stress therefore less wear than the faster running engines.

This trend for 'disposable' diesels comes from the desire for lighter engines. The older diesel is heavy, very heavy due to its thick, cast iron chassis, necessary for the high compression pressures required, the slower diesel need a heavy flywheel to allow the engine to continue rotating through three unpowered strokes until it gets to its power stroke. The newer engines have a very small flywheel due to the higher speeds carry the engine through the unpowered strokes.

The most important factor in a diesel is the fuel. The fact that the fuel injector ports are so small the can be clogged by the smallest particle. Clean fuel is paramount.

The first line of defense is your primary filter. This filter should have a glass bowl so you can see if there is water in the fuel, this filter should take the water out of the fuel. The bowl should have a drain cock on it to bleed out the water as per the black and white drawing.

I just previewed this and I don't like where Blogger has put the image. Does anyone know how to get Blogger to put the images where you want them?

I will publish more as I learn more.....Allan

Toronto Boat Show 2011 purchases

Here are my purchases in no particular order: A vest with lots of pocket, it also has two waterproof pockets. Nerdy but handy I think.

A wind indicator. I dropped mine over the side when we took the mast down for winter storage and I took it off for safety.....it sure is safe at the bottom of the harbour.

Marine Diesel Maintenance book, not a boat show purchase, just my text book from my night school course.

My daughter bought me the Cost Conscious cruiser by the Pardays.

Chapmans Piloting & Seamanship, every boaters bible, or should be. Regularly $70, but the West Marine booth was selling them for $30.

The boat show itself was kind of disappointing, there was only a dozen or so sailboats with huge line ups to get on them. I don't do crowds or line ups well. I am not sure if I will go to the next one. I much prefer the In the Water Boat Show they hold in the spring.