Mahe 36: Life Lines, Railings and Trampoline

[LarryW]

Hi All

Eileen and I also added rails to the stern, which give an ideal outboard mount.

Larry

[jean1146]

Sea dog I really like the way you got your barbecue mounted.Did you install the railing? Mine is mounted on the rod holders but I really don't like it,especially when I forget to remove it before docking......nice pictures.
JC.

[Wayward Wind]

Jef, the modifications were made by our local FP distributors, EC Marine, here in Australia. They came up with the concept, which I really liked and went along with. I have asked them to give me the technical details which I will post here once I receive them. They have also made some simple but very handy mods, such as putting a hydraulic strut where the anchor storage is, which holds the lid up even with wind and chop. If you like I can take some pics of those mods and post them here as well.

JC, I have attached a broader view of the solid SS rail. It is really useful as it holds the BBQ and solar panels. I can attach my rod holder(s) to it. Also, it seems to provide greater safety astern in that we are holding on to a solid ss rail.

Cheers!

John

[jean1146]

very nice seadog! I think I will be looking at doing something similar.JC.

[Wayward Wind]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

Seadog3315,

Looking at your post #542 of your solar panel mounted on your davits and stern rail.
Can you take a picture of the connection to your davits for me. I would like to use that same connection method.

Cotemar

Cotemar, hope this is what you are looking for.

JohnC

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Seadog, saw your solar panels, looks very nice. Are you happy about the percentag of the day you get sunlight? Or would you advice another location after having your experience, e.g. port side of the bimini?

I am planning to mount solar panels, but do not have your stern rail.
I'll try to feed the power line through the davits, this brings them very nicely inside I think.

[MKB53]

I am chipping in on this as I have pretty much the same configuration as Seadog from the same agent (EC Marine in Aus).

The stern rail/pushpit is really good and I would recommend a "hard" one like these.

I was charged A$2550 including the mounting for the solar panel. The additional barbecue mounting on the corner was an extra I added later.

The photo shows the solar panel mounting reasonably well. The outboard bar is closed on each end and is threaded to take a bolt. The bolt then is inserted through the top (unused) holes in the davit fitting. Very neat and simple. SeaDogs looks slightly different in this detail but either would work well.

I don't have any detail on the panel output but it gets quite a bit of sun. I suspect the cabin/bimini top position would be more prone to shade from the main when on the wrong tack. obviously when you are head to the sun you will have a problem.

[lstyles]

Thanks for the picture! Have you had any issues in rough seas with your solar panel mounted on the davits?
thanks,
Lori

[MKB53]

Hi Lori

No problems yet. I have been out in rough seas (short & steep) without any problem but have not done any real distance with a big following sea. I always seem to have a headwind unfortunately!

I can't see it being an issue as it is pretty high and your dingy would be copping a pounding long before the solar panel became an issue. Are you worried about salt water or actual physical damage?

Cheers
Martin

[MKB53]

Two other items on the solar panel. My cabling does go down inside the port Davit tube as suggested by Jeff/Marin. This is neat, out of the way and takes the cable in near the battery bank. It looks like SeaDogs is rigged with the cable through the stern rail/pushpit.

Also the bright spark who did mine connected the solar charger to the auxiliary terminals on the battery bank which I discovered are wired through the house "services" relay. Hence if you trip this relay when not on the boat the solar charger was disconnected. For a while I was puzzled why the batteries did not seem to be topped up when we were not using the boat for a while.. I have rewired it to the winch terminals on the battery bank which means it is still charging when the service relay is off. I leave the winch relay on but obviously can isolate the charger with this relay if I need to.

[DtM]

John,

Sorry i have been away for a couple of weeks.

The blue roll on the starboard lifelines is a canvass awning that goes from the mast to the end of the boom and out to the lifelines.

we use it when it is really hot to give a layer of shade above the cabin at anchor and it makes an huge difference to the temperature on board.

Who did your antifouljob? RMYC ?

daniel

[Cotemar]

Fellow Mahe's,

Recently Added two mast steps from www.maststep.com to make it easier to get on the saloon top and do the main sail. Was an easy upgrade and makes it real easy for the first mate to go up and down without stepping on the edge of the brow. I purchase these grey composite ones because on my previous boat had the aluminum ones which really pitted up. These work nice and can handle up to 300 lbs.

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

[Cotemar]

Mahe’s

Made a Stern Hand Rail upgrade after watching some of my guest having trouble getting aboard. Seems the quest were always in the wrong place and had to reach to the outside hand rail all the time, so I added the two inside ones. Now the quest just grab onto both hand rails and have an easer time getting aboard.

They were $30 each at Defender. And each one takes about 15 minutes to install.

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?...486&id=1349324

Mark

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi all,
A year ago I changed the swimming stairs from starboard to port. Reason is simple: the swimming stairs are in the way when stepping ashore when on starboard.
It turned out:
1. The holes for the mounting screws do NOT align between SB and port. Means you can change the stairs from SB to port without trouble, however the bar from port will not fit SB.
2. The screws just go through the thin fiberglass, there is nothing behind. And 5 out of the 12 screws were already lame when I unscrewed them.
This is a serious safety issue: imagine somebody falls overboard, you have to save him, and in the wild water the stairs detach from the boat.

Solution was to mount the stairs with bolts i.s.o. screws. These bolts go into compressible tubular nuts. These look like big stainless steel rivets with thread on the inside which are expanded using a bolt.
Care should be taken to re-position the holes slightly to enable exchange between SB and port.

Only disadvantage is that the outside shower is now on the other side than the swimming stairs. Not a big issue in the Baltic and North sea.

Rgds,
Jef
Back in the Netherlands after 3850 nm in the Baltic this summer