Mahe 36: Original FP Mahe 36 Thread

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

Since I was working on the Anchor Locker improvements and the First Mate was tired of holding the hatch open. I decided to add an Anchor locker Gas Spring to hold the hatch open. Purchased it from www.spdhardware.com it’s an All Stainless Steel Gas Spring
# SPD-GSSX-2300-60 which has a 60 lb force for $58.
It works perfect and has just the right amount of force. Added it to the back of the locker so it would not get in the way.

Mark

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

Added a 2 inch wide tufboard boarder to both Bow Lockers for a Dock Line Hook upgrade. Cut the tufboard to size and bonded it in with DAP white silicon (holds like iron) and then screwed in four Dock Line Hooks and the project was complete. The hooks even fold out of the way when not in use.

Mark

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

Removed the 3 almond plastic shelves from the galley cabinet and moved them to other cabinets.

Added a larger and deeper 3 shelf Spice Rack to the galley cabinet.
I was told by the First Mate that the almond plastic shelves would not hold the larger size spices and that the smaller size spices cost much more than the larger size.

Who am I to judge, as long as good food keeps coming out of that Galley, this was the least I could do .

Mark

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

Purchased two 5 lbs propane tanks a regulator and gage.
It all has been working flawlessly for the last two months with a lot of use and we are still on the first 5 lb tank.

Has anyone came up with a better setup with larger tanks ?
Just looking into the future for much longer cruising times.

Mark

[Scott730]

Mark
Boy have you been busy. The problem you have with the gas is, if you move from the lockers, you will have to build new locker to meet code. We cruised for 2 months last year and had more than enough propane (didn't even touch the 2nd bottle).So with all these changes, when are you heading south?

[Cotemar]

Scott,

Will post a bunch more upgrades tonight if time allows. We have a mother in the nursing home, so we will not be heading south this year. Will hook up with you when we can make the trip and gunk hole with you guys.

That is good news on the low propane use while cruising, so that will be one less thing on my honey do list.

Want to add 3 more 100 amp hour batteries under the Port state room bunk and tie right into the 12 volt panel in that location. What are your thoughts on this?

Mark

[Scott730]

I'm adding one extra group 31 to the 3 house batteries to go to 420 amphours. We added a freezer so the 3 group 31's were pushed to the limits and had to run the generator about 3 hours per day to charge the batteries and make water (that amounted to about 3/4 gallon of fuel/day, not a big deal, but the noise bothers the wife). Don't think you need 300 amphours more, the extra wieght and lose of storage space off sets the need, IMHO.
Also note that under the bed is a sealed flotation compartment, don't mess with that. I also don't like the idea of lead acid batteries gassing off in a sleeping space. I guess sealed AGM would be best in that environment.

Scott

[Cotemar]

Scott,

Did you say FREEZER. Nice upgrade !!! Can you give me more details on the model and maybe a pic. of it installed. First Mate would love one of those.

We charge with the Honda 2000 watt generator for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour before bed which works well.

My plan would be to install only sealed batteries in the back of the port bunk storage compartment and only use the existing conduit raceways or tie into that 12 volt high amp fuse box under there already.

Solar panels on the davits is one of my winter projects, so we can get rid of the generator noise all together, but we will need more battery capacity to hold all that juice.

Mark

[Scott730]

Mark
The Freezer is a portable 35 quart unit. It can be operated on 12 DC or 110 VAC. It is made by Waeco. You can find them at Defender.com. It worked great. We placed it at the foot of the Nav station and added a 12 Volt outlet to accomodate it. Uses around 3 amps when it is running, which is a function of ambient temp., On average it was on 35% of the time when cruising the Bahamas last winter. I'm also looking at adding a solar panel on the davits, we should compare notes.

Scott

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

My Davit upgrade consisted of:

1) Purchasing two Lewmar Double 60mm Syncro Blocks
Model #: 29926002 from Defender.com for $39 each.
Installing them to give a 4 to1 ratio up from a 3 to 1.


2) With a course 3/8 round file, I filed the lower rear side of the davit pulley slot to lower the line friction happening there. See picture

3) Removed the SpinLocks from the lower section of both davits
These were mounted to low for the pull angle needed.

4) Using a 13/64 drill and a 6MM X 1.0 Thread pitch plug tap.
I drilled and taped two holes higher up on the davit and remounted the spinlocks

5 ) Using the same drill and tap. I drilled one more hole in the lower area where the spinlock was and mounted a cleat.

Now with the better pulley ratio and lower friction the dink goes up and down without slipping out of my hands. The cleat was just added as a safety backup for offshore.

Mark

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

Added two 1/2 “ cam cleats to take care of the lazy port & Stb. Gib sheets when not in use

Now we just slide the un-used Gib sheet in a cleat instead of it just bouncing around the cabin top.

Mark

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

This was a simple 5 minute Stern Ladder bumper upgrade:

1) Removed last step from ladder with an allen wrench

2) Put dish soap on the SS pipes and added two 2“ long pieces of 1” inside diameter clear hose to the stern ladder to protect the gel coat from damage.

3) Re-install last step and you are done

Mark

[jean1146]

Very nice Cotemar! thanks for showing us all the improuvements you made on your Mahe. Our next thing will be to buy a portable freezer for our extended trips,Scott I looked at the same one you have but the larger model,also I think we want to buy a portable ice maker,the only drawback is that they are 110 volts,but I think this is when our little Honda 2000 comes in handy so we don,t have to run the big noisy generator.We just had the bottom done and a waxing job on the hulls so the boat looks great....
Good sailing to you all.
JC.

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

I labeled the 12 volt switch panel, because the first mate and I do not understand the symbols.

See attached word document, so fellow Mahe’s can print the label out and tape or laminate it up on their switch panel also.

Mark

[Cotemar]

Mahe's,

1) We installed Shower Curtains with a wall to wall shower rod.

The rods are just attached with some .062” SS wire from the Stanton bolt on one side and a loop of SS wire up over the top ridge on the other side. It was an easy job that took about 10 minutes

2) Installed two Towel Racks in each head.

Makes for less cleaning now that all the shower water stays just in the back shower area.

Mark