Belize 43: Warning for Fountain Pajot Owners

[muskoka]

Originally Posted by captjohn360

i get a kick out of all the people that reply to this thread and probably have never been a fountain pajot let alone there construction.jt...

They're built to a budget. You don't need to get on a $250K boat to know it'll be more lightly built than a $400K boat.

I own one but I'd never imply that it's a Merc at a VW price. It is what it is.

[Lucky]

I believe this is purely a maitenance issyue and the thread could be started with : All yacht owners beware..... this is not a FP problem in particular. Lots of yachts have seen the same problem, due to lack of inspection! To replace the Spectra with steel wire would not help, they fray and brake too.

So the morale as far as I'm concerned is: inspect and learn your boat, poke your head into every nook and cranny and carry out as much maintenace yourself. You save maoney and benefit from knowing your boat and in an emergency you most likely know how to juryrig to continue safely.

Happy lead free sailin

[Therapy]

Muskoka,

About using those things on jib sheets??

[muskoka]

Hi Therapy,

I've never tried them on jib sheets - I'm pretty happy with a knot! I don't like the idea of anything like that on the sheets as they may flog about and hit someone in the face. Though, that being said a knot can hurt pretty badly...

I think they're probably better employed in a situation where you'd want an eye splice & thimble.

Cheers

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by muskoka

Hi Therapy,

I've never tried them on jib sheets - I'm pretty happy with a knot! I don't like the idea of anything like that on the sheets as they may flog about and hit someone in the face. Though, that being said a knot can hurt pretty badly...

I think they're probably better employed in a situation where you'd want an eye splice & thimble.

Cheers

Thanks.

[twowheel]

Lucky gets it.

Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance

and then some PM thrown in as often as possible.

[john jeffrey]

Hi MeckDC,
The FP steering uses Vectran which has a 10-12 times better abrasion resistance than Aramid. It will also not creep when it is overloaded until it breaks. I like the idea of the separate blocks to separate them even so.

[Pete Chambliss]

Yes our cable broke and yes we did rig the emergency tiller but still learned a few lessons.
1. The rope has been replaced with Spectra line spliced on thimbles
2. we had previously tested the tiller prior to bringing the boat to Annapolis from the BVI's and found that after 5 years down there,the access ports had solidly corroded shut - so ad that little gem to your regular check about the boat. They can be replaced
3. Obviously one can steer using the engines in close quarters
4 We also used the Raymarine autopilot which is attached to the cross linking rudder bar
Nice to have back up steering systems

[Chat de Mer]

Had to laugh about using the autopilot. The rudder line on our Belize 43 broke when we were under the Golden Gate bridge in fairly strong current, headed straight for the rocks on the Marin side, in the shipping lane with two cargo ships bearing down on us.

We got control with the engines, found the emergency rudder, but managed to insert it backwards, so that one of us had to steer from the scoop step with no forward visibility while the other shouted directions to dodge the hundreds of boats between us and docking.

Don't know why it didn't occur to us to fire up the autopilot! That would have been a whole lot easier!

[dmtparkerLcsk53]

Originally Posted by Vasco

Interesting, what did your surveyor say about the steering gear when you bought the boat?

We had our Belize43 in charter in Belize for 5 years with TMM. Upon removing from charter to live aboard, we had a full survey and he found several significant issues to be addressed. What he didn't find was that someone had replaced the original steering cable with polyester double braid AND they had put a nice little delrin rubbing block where the line contacted the hull in one place - except the block had very sharp 90* edges. Fortunately, just before we left Belize to sail back to US, I was crawling around back there and noticed the steering cable was down to about 3 threads! It surely would have snapped before we made it to the US - probably going out through the reef at San Pedro! Since I couldn't get spectra or dynema in Belize, I too replaced it with polyester double braid and checked it daily until we got to US and bought the proper size dynema. I still check it frequently, but so far no problems.
Moral of the story - don't count on a surveyor to find everything!

[Open-d]

Originally Posted by muskoka

They're built to a budget. You don't need to get on a $250K boat to know it'll be more lightly built than a $400K boat.

I own one but I'd never imply that it's a Merc at a VW price. It is what it is.

What's a "Merc"?

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Open-d

What's a "Merc"?

Mercedes car

[Brickwede]

Hello,
I just had a webinar lasting several hours on the topic of security technology for ARC participants. The seminar is free of charge and you learn a lot about safety equipment and necessary extensions.
The seminar is held by real experts. The tips are very good.