Making Ex-Racer My Cruiser . . . Am I Mad ?

[Weyalan]

Thanks for the kind words Joli. It wouldn't be worth my while asking you to sell me your titanium runners; I wouldn't be able to afford them anyway! I am jealous though. Actually, it looks as though I have found some good quality 10,000lb breaking strain runner blocks, new, at about $US88 each, so, provided the deal goes through, I will be pretty happy. They aren't the lightest or the prettiest, but they will keep the stick in the boat (well, if the stick falls over, it will most likely not be because the runner blocks failed, anyway) and the price is right.

If anyone wants to recommend a place to go for cheap hi-spec blocks, I'm "all ears"?!

[David_Old_Jersey]

Enjoyed the update - did you win??

[Weyalan]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Enjoyed the update - did you win??

We have competed in 3 races so far, in a fleet of about 20 in our division (they get about 80 boats racing in 4 divisions on a Wednesday evening). So far we have finished 5th, 3rd and, last night, 6th. Although this is on handicap results... we are finishing midlle of the fleet over the line. It is interesting racing against not just new Farr 40 ODs, but new Northshore 38s, Archimbault 35s, Mumm 36s, Beneteau 40.7s etc. There are also a few IOR racers of similar vintage to Insatiable, so that is good. In fact, we have generally been at the front of the IOR boats, and have been beating some of the newer boats too. But the order of the day on Insatiable is to enjoy ourselves, not take it too seriously and suck back a couple of cold brewskis on the way around the course!

[alienzdive]

I think it is all covered above but from my xperience and re-iterating what others have said.

About 10 years ago I sold a cruising boat that was very forgiving and able to be comfortably cruised single handed, I sold this. Then purchased a smaller racing boat, with the intention of cruising, it had the basics, basically roughed in, loo, cooker etc.

The cruising boat, I could set the sails and not touch the tiller often and off I went.

The racing boat needed constant tuning, of the rudder and sails and every gust and wave action needed constant allowing for. The winches were not by the tiller as for teh racing set up the boat required 3-6 crew, the cruising boat was easy to handle single handed.

To cruise a racing boat requires much more attention, however one of the benefits is much faster passage making, although not as compfortable.

I really enjoyed cruising the racing boat, but would now prefer to stick to cruising a cruising boat as it required far less effort.

[Joli]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

We have competed in 3 races so far, in a fleet of about 20 in our division (they get about 80 boats racing in 4 divisions on a Wednesday evening). So far we have finished 5th, 3rd and, last night, 6th. Although this is on handicap results... we are finishing midlle of the fleet over the line. It is interesting racing against not just new Farr 40 ODs, but new Northshore 38s, Archimbault 35s, Mumm 36s, Beneteau 40.7s etc. There are also a few IOR racers of similar vintage to Insatiable, so that is good. In fact, we have generally been at the front of the IOR boats, and have been beating some of the newer boats too. But the order of the day on Insatiable is to enjoy ourselves, not take it too seriously and suck back a couple of cold brewskis on the way around the course!

Good for you Weyalan. I would crew for you anytime.

Bryan

[Weyalan]

Another quick update on the progress of the Insatiable: Have done little work recently, mostly because we have been sailing at every opportunity. I have stripped & serviced most of the winches (and without losing a pawl spring too!) Apart from the abovementioned twilight races, we have been getting away for 2 or 3 day weekend cruises, which have been great... lots of pleasant sailing, quiet anchorages and good fishing (not to mention abalone & fresh mussels).

We also did our first "proper" racing regatta (one where spinnakers were allowed). There were races on Friday night, Saturday & Sunday and a cruise on Monday. It was great fun. The Friday night race was particularly satisfying - the whole fleet went west, except Insatiable that chose east... and ended up several hours later leading the fleet! Haha! (every dog has it's day).

I have purchased a brand new chart-plotter that will be getting installed in the next couple of weekends. The instrument box for the deck instruments is fitted, with the new instruments ready to go in and be wired in (waiting for the electrician, as usual).

Having spent a good few weekends hanging on the pick, a bow roller and anchor winch has moved right upto the head of the list of improvements!

But anyway, a good time is definitely being had. We should be able to get away for a few days over Easter... I'm looking forward to it already!

[Weyalan]

Another quick update just in case anyone is interested:

There hasn't been an awful lot of progress since I last posted... between actually using the boat and having bought a new house, the schedule has been busy and the funds have been a little tight. However, now that winter is just about upon us, we are doing a bit less sailing and a bit more work on the boat (instead of in the garden). Fortunately, I have been purchasing stuff that we need for the boat as and when I find it at a bargain price, so we have plenty of boxes of geat for the baot that need to be installed, and we don't have to outlay much cash to continue working on the boat.

The servicing of winches is finally complete. All 8 winches have been stripped, cleaned in kerosene and rebuilt / regreased. It sounds like a small thing, I know, but it is actually quite a lot of work. The winches had been sadly neglected by previous owners; I had to use an impact-driver on at least 1 bolt on every winch. It looked as though they had only greased what could be seen without removing the bell-shaped housing for the last 10 years or so. It was amazing that no irreparable damage had been incurred. Anyway, now they are all running smoothly and sweetly.

he exciting news is that we have lots of new instrumentation. I removed all the old (25 year old) instruments last winter and had purchased a set of new instruments and also a chart plotter. We made a new instrument box to replace the old one (the new instruments would not fit) which is located above/ forward of the companion way. The new box is just marine ply that is glued together, but it has been sprayed with gel-coat and looks quite professional. I will post a photo later.

the new instruments are NASA Clipper. I have speed/log, depth sounder, GPS repeater, wind speed/direction, close-hauled wind repeater. The wind instruments will not be up and running until I pull out the mast and replace fit the mast-head unit. I could do this now, but I want to replace all the wiring (wind instruments, lights, VHF aerial) in the mast, so I will leave it for now.

We also have a nice new Navman T5507 chartplotter. We have installed this at the nav station, but it links to the GPS repeater so we get quite course / heading / speed / waypoint information in the cockpit. Anyway, we finally got the whole thing wired up last night (our electrician has been AWOL for about 2 months and with expensive equipment like that, I just don't trust myself to do the wiring).

So now we have fully functioning speed/log, depth sounder, chartplotter and GPS repeater! I am so pleased! The instruments are great... I particularly like the fact that the back-lighting for night use is red and the brightness can be varied.

The other exciting stuff that is going on is up at the bow of the boat. I have mentioned before that we currently have no bow roller or anchor winch. Hauling up a 40lb anchor and 1/2" chain by hand with no bow roller is no picnic, especially for the last few feet when one has to hold the anchor out away from the hull! We decided that we had to get a bow roller and a.s.a.p. I didn't want to go through the expense of removing/replacing the existing stainless steel stem fitting pictured below

So I decided to design one to fit onto it

I have drawn up the design using a CAD program on my PC. The CAD program allwed me to output the individual plate profiles in a format that I could e-mail directly to the local plate-cutting shop, so they are going to cut out all the plates (5mm & 6mm 316 stainless). Another local engineering shop is going to weld and polish, and fit it onto the boat. I am pretty excited about this too.

Incidentally, does anyone have a good source for the actual roller? I have designed around using an off-the-shelf marinthane roller that is 2.75" diameter x 2.875" long with a 0.5" pin...

Finally, my boss happens to be good mates with a couple of the owners/directors of Muir Winches, so he sweet-talked them into giving me a really good price for a neat little vertical winch (Storm VR1250, for what it is worth). So I am just about to order it. It will probably take me a couple of months to get it fitted - I think we will have to put a couple of new frames or stringers under the deck in the vicinity of the winch. I also need to work out where to build the chain locker and how to route the hawsepipe... all good fun though!

Anyway, watch this space for more news and, hopefully, some glossy photos, soon!

[Weyalan]

Jeepers; It has been a while since I last gave a progress report. 6 months or more!

Things have progressed, albeit more slowly than intended (ain't that always the way). We have probably been sailing more and working less, which is a good thing, but we do need to keep our eye on the longer term goal and remain focussed on the refit work too.

Since I last reported, the bow roller has been fitted, and it is a beauty! Even though the anchor winch is not yet in, pulling up the anchor is so much easier now. I also bought a new 45lb plough to replace the 40lb danforth that was our anchor before. We get much, much better holding with the plough.

The leaky port side water tank has been repaired and re-hosed into the system, so we are back to full water capacity.

We have fitted new Harken genoa cars that are on a 5:1 purchase system so that they can be moved fore 7 aft from the cockpit.

The old vinyl boomcover has been replaced with a new "masacryl" canvas cover which looks heaps better. We are slowly replacing old rope bags with new ones made from the leftover material.

I have just upgraded the battery system from 1 x engine + 1 x 75 amp-hr house battery to 1 x engine + 2 x 105 amp-hr house batteries.

We are having 2 x 2000gph Rule bilge pumps fitted this weekend.

So, we haven'r been entirely goofing off.

This coming winter, we plan to remove the mast and rewire / repaint & replace the lights. Also on the agenda for this winter is fitting the anchor winch and building a nice neat anchor locker and chain locker. I alos hope to get a holding tank fitted, but we will see how we go. Lisa want a new toilet in the head, too. Fun times ahead! But before we get stuck into the hard work, we have a two and a half week leisurely cruise planned for later this month, not to mention the Port Cygnet and Port Esperance regattas next month.

[Weyalan]

Oh, and just for the sake of interest, I keep a fairly good record of the money I spend on the boat. Since I purchased the boat in early December of 2005, I have spent approximately $AUD 18,000 on refit and upgrades

[George P]

Did you take a look at mid eighties vintage beneteau first 38, it's actually a proven world cruiser and a 40 foot cruiser/racer for same $$$$.
My two cents
George

[Morgan Paul]

Hey Weylan, she is a sexy looking boat. I have an old 1973 IOR Morgan 36 One Ton. I hope you can handle her . Good luck and have fun with her.

[Charlie]

Weylan:
Thanks for the update. You've gooten alot done since your last report. Keep working towards your goal. The way you've laid it out I'm sure you'll accomplish it.

[Joli]

Sounds good Weyalan. Enjoy the cruise and keep up the good work.

[Weyalan]

Well, time for another update. I guess I should keep a livejournal or something like that.

The last few weekends have been messy! Wehave been tackling the area forward of the main bulkhead in front of the mast. There is an area about 4' between that bulkhead and the next transverse bulkhead, with a fore aft dividing bulkhead that separated the head and the companionway and wet locker. We decided to remove the fore aft bulkhead and make that whole area a head / shower area with a decent sized sink & vanity.

This is the head area as it looked before we started:


As you can see it is pretty grotty and basic

The old toilet was pretty stuffed; being cobbled together from two broken ones, so that has been consigned to the tip. We cut out the fore-aft bulkhead, ripped out the floor and have ground back everything else, pretty much, to the hull. I am going to replace the toilet though-hulls, plus probably put in another for a sink drain (the sink & vanity will be located about where the photo is taken from). The bulkhead and coaming in the foreground is the one that has been completely removed.

The floor will be replaced by teak and ash strip veneered ply (as fitted through the saloon). I am leaning towards a Jabsco 12v toilet, but am still prevaricating.

I have also ordered 3 new hatches: 2 of which will replace the 2 forward hatches, pictured below. The 3rd hatch will be located behind the mast, replacing the rather scabby piece of polycarbonate (crazed) in the ceiling of the saloon (it will be great to be able to get additonal air-flow through the saloon)



After much web-searching and soul searching, and a fair amount of hatch envy, I have decided to go with Maxwell/Weaver Ocean hatches. I would have loved to go with the Lewmar Offshore hatches, but they were $250 more, each, and I just cant justify an extra $750 for a hatch that has the same offshore ratings as the Maxwell/Weaver, just looks a bit nicer.

This is the ones I am getting.

I must admit I like the 4 locking dogs.

The existing hatches were 25 year old Plastimos - fibre impregnated plastic. We basically had to destroy them to get them out - that much sealant had been used to put them in it just wasn't funny. I am thinking of putting a timber trim (teak, maybe?) on the inside of each.

This weekend we will probably have to sand (orbital & hand) everything we have done, prior to commencing fibreglassing. I am going to lay some glass & epoxy on pretty much all the hull, bulkheads and underneath the deck on everything that we have exposed. I probably don't actually need to, structurally speaking, but
(1) It gives a good clean surface to work with,
(2) Having removed a bulkhead, stiffening everything else is probably not a bad idea
(3) Since the whhole area is becoming a wet area, having glass & epoxy over the plywood bulkheads is probably not a bad idea anyway
(4) Since when did making the boat stronger need any justification?

So, week after next, it is going to be fibreglassing. Epoxy and biaxial woven roving on all the flat surfaces, chopped strand around the corners. then filling & fairing, sanding, sealing and painting. Plus, somewhere in amongst that, fitting new hatches (the one in the saloon can wait, but since I have 2 holes 500 x 500 (20" x 20") in my foredeck, this can't really wait).

Apart from this, I had to replace my forestay feeder


but they stopped making that system in the early '90s, so rather than buying a new foil, fitting and new bolt ropes for all my headsails, I designed and got this made:



It is 316 stainless steel, so will last forever, and was about 16% of the cost of the alternative.

More pictures of work in progess to come over the next few weeks.

[Weyalan]

I (& Lisa) spent the weekend laying fibreglass. Not the most glamourous job in the world, but after 3 or 4 weekends of pushing a 4" grinder or orbital sander, it seemed like a stroll in the park. New hatches will be arriving this week, fo fitting next weekend. Wheee!