Mahe 36: Original FP Mahe 36 Thread

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi Jean,
I would suggest you remove your main sail together with the sail maker who is going to make an improvement on the main sail top eye, he can show you what to do next time, and how much tension to put on the battens. I take about one hour to remove or mount the mainsail, which with the Dutch climate you have to do every winter anyhow.
It involves:
- Detaching halyard from the top eye
- Removing the reefing lines. Make a knot to prevent pulling them in the boom.
- Detach the line that pulls the bottom of the sail backwards along the boom, whatever that is called in English. Make a knot ....
- On the port side: slacken the lazy jacks so that the mainsail can land on the roof.
- Starting from the top: Detach the main sail battens from the travelers with a very good quality 4 mm inner hexagon key and a 10 mm socket wrench. You might have to replace a few of these A4 SS bolts due to damage to the hexagon. Put the detached part of the sail on the roof.
- Detach the front bottom of the sail from the boom
You can now (2 people) lift the mainsail from the boat
- If you want to be able to fold the mainsail you will have to remove the battens. This goes from the front. First you have to slacken a small (around 2.5 or 3 mm) inner hex bolt that secures the large aluminium bolt. This is mounted in the white plastic part under 45 degrees. Then remove the big aluminium bolt with a spanner. Then using a 6 or 8 mm inner hex key remove the batten tensioner, then the batten.
- Now that the mainsail is removed, it is simple to remove the lazy bag for maintenance. (due to the standard construction of the reefing lines, the lazy bag stitches have probably suffered. I changed the standard construction....)

Note that if you mount a larger top eye, you might have to shorten the top of the sail a bit. The top eye I used is higher than the original one, so about 3 cm of the top of the sail was removed, and new straps mounted.
Reason to shorten the sail is for having enough space between the top eye block and the top of the mast.

Hope this helps. Kind regards,
Jef

[jean1146]

Jef. Thanks for the very detailed instructions. It looks like it will be a Job. I really need to do it.
Best regards.
JC.

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Jean,
A few extra remarks I forgot on removing the mainsail:
When you mount the battens in the sail:
- You have to tension the battens a bit. A bit tighter than just touching, there should be a bit of tension on the sail. Folds should not completely go out of the batten pockets, if you do that it is too much tension and your battens will bend the sail in a curve or S curve. (in weak wind)
- When you re-mount the aluminium parts these have to be secured by the 45 degrees inner hexagon bolts. Note that these 45 degrees bolts must touch the flat sides of the aluminium "bolts", in order not to damage the thread.

Tomorrow we hope to sail from the north of the Netherlands to Denmark, across the German Bight. Probably a day plus night plus day trip. In which harbour we will arrive depends on progress and wind direction. Wind is now NNW 5-6, sometimes 7. Tomorrow it should become 4-5. There will still be 2.5 meters of swell; there have been strong northerlies for nearly a week. We will have to sail close-hauled all the way, probably.
Kind regards, good luck,
Jef

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi all, we had a thunderstorm last week with 50 knots max wind. No damage. About one flash every 2 seconds! Got a picture of one, see attached
Jef

[jean1146]

Jef. Thanks for telling me what to do. We will be sailing this week end localy,the winds are light right now and the thunderstorms are starting to be pretty nasty,this is the time of the year and we are entering in the hurricane season......Lightning is always a concern,is your boat protected? ours is not!
Enjoy your trip.
JC.

[RoadRacer]

Hello fellow FP cat lovers! Found this forum and Mahe thread a few days ago and read every post........man, has the work piled up!
Great information on specific systems, fixes, installations, etc. I appreciate the details on d-w sail options and rigging tips!
We're taking delivery of our Mahe, Normandie, in September in Annapolis as it will be part of the FP contingent for the 10/8 -10/12 boat show. Plan on sending her to the Bahamas for next season....can't wait!

Not sure if Scott (MaheMahe) checks this forum but would like to thank him for the use of his beautiful Mahe, Mistina, last Thanksgiving in the BVI....we took care of her like she was our own!

Regards,
Chuck

[Scott730]

Chuck
Welcome aboard.
We will be doing the Bahamas this winter as well, currently planning on leaving late December, early January. If you want to make the crossing with us your welcome to.

Scott

[Cotemar]

Chuck,
Congradulations on your new ride "Normandie". As you will see FP made a few suttle changes to the 2009 model.
1) Now has three forward salon opening windows. 2007 had one, 2008 had two. Many had asked for more ventilation
2) The saloon cushions are a tan plether instead of white
3) Center Salon window is now surrounded with tan plether instead of wood.
4) Came with a 35lb CQR ancor
5) Not sure, but I think the Hot Water Heater is different also. I will post a picture to see what everone else has compared to mine, but they have had a problem of the hot water exit hose bursting sometimes.
Mark

[Scott730]

Mark
The hot water heater is the same as my 2007. Would love to have the 3 opening hatches on my boat.

[Cotemar]

Has anyone purchased any of these Hagar Circuit Breakers.
I am looking for some MFN710 which I believe are 10 Amp.
Mark

[Cotemar]

Scott,
Did you turn down the temp on your hot water heater to prevent the problem?
Mark

[Scott730]

Mark
Yes I adjusted the thermostat, it is very difficult to get at and is very sensitive to adjust. I have the temp of the water around 136 degree F. Before adjusting the temp was over 160 degrees, that is why the line was bursting on some boats.
I also was looking for 10 amp breakers and was unable to find them in the U.S., I added a sub panel that is U.S. standard when I put AC on the boat and I'm using one of the extra breakers in the sub panel to replace one of the 6 amp hager breakers so I can run a Microwave. If you do find them I would like to have one as a spare, let us know what you come up with.

Scott

[Cotemar]

Scott,
I will let you know when I find the Hagar 10 amp circuit breakers.
On another question. When I bought Catatude I purchased one 71 gal water tank.
Now that I have her I noticed 2 tanks on both sides of the chain locker.
Does this mean I have two 35 gal tanks connected to make 71 gal ?
Mark

[DtM]

Scott,

are the Hagar circuit breakers the same style as the ones originally in the boat? OOps, having looked at the photo above it seems your circuit breakers are different to the ones installed on 2gether.

We have them here in Australia I am sure. i will let you know and send you some. Even though they are different to those I thought youhad I will nonetheless have a look for you


daniel

[DtM]

Cotemar,

We have two water tanks where you describe them.

They are each 210 litres.

Using a conversion of 1 US gallon = 3.79 litres you get 270 litres total so it seems like your tanks might be smaller than ours.