After another great weekend of sailing, snorkeling, barbequing, and general partying at Emerald Bay at Catalina Island, getting ready to go home is a drag. We start the routine around 11:30, to wait for the predictable San Pedro Channel trade winds to fill in. First, we retrieve and put away the flopper stopper, then I stow the Honda generator, and the eight horse Yamaha, haul the kayaks aboard, and uncover the main. Last but not least is the dinghy.
I used to tow my 10 foot inflatable Quicksilver and take care of it when I got to home port. But I didn’t like the effect it had on my sailing performance. I hauled it aboard and laid it on the foredeck a few times, but up there it gets in the way and is a
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Our Commodore, Earle Ellefsen [C380 #271, Valkyrie], discovered chafe near one end of his mainsail furling line. He decided to turn the line end-for-end, and remove the chafed area as there was excess line length. The key step in accomplishing this was to remove the bolt, which locks-in the furling line, near the bottom of the furler. Of course, an “opportunity” soon arose when Earle realized that the bolt was Stainless Steel in an aluminum furler and, with a few years of salt-water environment, was thoroughly corroded in-place. Many shots of WD-40 later, nothing had changed! Early attempts at removal quickly resulted in losing the slot– or, as Earle put it: “it torqued open”. Obviously the bolt should have had a more substantial gripping head.
Once the slot was destroyed, heavy locking pliers are the obvious choice, right? Wrong– their
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At the August east coast Catalina Rendezvous, Richard Mastry of Mastry Engine Center spoke on related topics. Mastry is the Yanmar engine supplier to Catalina for our later C380s, C387s and C390s. I spoke with him after his talk. and again, at some length, on the phone a few weeks later. I concentrated my queries on props and RPM’s, as our Sailnet list discussions have been pretty heavy on this subject. Here’s his comments.
New Engine
First, Mr. Mastry spoke about the new Yanmar 3JH4xx engine, delivered for C387’s beginning about hull # 60. The major changes include larger diameter cylinders, lower working RPMs and some user-friendly upgrades including rearranging the salt water pump for ease of impeller and/or pump change. The transmission reduction gear has also been changed to 2.33 ratio, so that the shaft RPM’s will be closer to that of
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Engine Transmission While Sailing- Fixed and Special Props Warren Elliott Mainsheet Date: 2/1/2005 Hull #: 44
There had been a lot of discussion, and some confusion, on this topic occurring on our Sailnet email group a couple of years ago. The major issue was what gear should be used while sailing, in order to minimize wear on transmission parts, particularly with an Autoprop. This is an unusual prop, so different rules may apply. A secondary problem is the special transmission clutch used on our Yanmar engines, which are found on the newer C380’s and on all C387’s and C390’s. With additional knowledge and experience gathered over time, a report on this subject seems appropriate.
To start things off on the engine side of the issue, I contacted Joe Joyce at Westerbeke for info on this issue with regard to their 42B engine. Those of us with older 380’s [up to
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The diagrams below show the method for installing the screens for the portlights on hulls somewhere around C380 hull #200. The screens are probably the same for all 387’s and 390’s.
Note that the shape of the portlights on the drawing look remarkably like the ones used on hulls less than 200. I suspect that Lewmar used whatever sketches were handy and adapted them. Bottom line is that the newer portlights should appear much more rounded at the ends, hence oval [you can see the true shape on their website]. Distinguishing features shown are “push-type” window latches [a bit difficult to tell, unless you’ve seen them first hand] and the bar or strap across the top of the screens [oval shape should have also been a distinguishing feature].
These drawings show the process that should be used when installing
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Affordable Cordless Drill as Winch Driver Roger Cheney 2/1/2005 Hull #: 132
Faithful readers of this column [others are to be pitied!] may recall an earlier brief article [May ’03] in which Wallace Shakun [Morning Star, C380 #12] proposed using a heavy-duty cordless drill to drive winches. He put the idea into practice using a straight-drive 1/2″ Bosch drill together with an adapter “bit”, which he developed, that mates a standard 1/2″ chuck with our winch drive socket.
The idea sounded good to me, except that I felt a right-angle drill would provide an easier way to resist the high torques developed [about 500 inch-pounds]. Wallace indicated that the straight-drive version worked well, but that he was also considering the right-angle approach.
Milwaukee now has a hefty right-angle drill, which develops a “bit” more torque, and which costs somewhat more [$300 vs $200]. Roger Cheney [C380 #132, “2nd Wind”] has
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Cracked Mast Step-Version II Ted Sholl 2/1/2005 Hull #: 257
Cracked Mast Step – Version II This is a summary of Ted Sholl’s experience with his C380. His article was submitted for publication several issues back, but was removed due to lack of space. Subsequently it somehow “slipped through the crack” [pardon the pun]. With the passage of time, boats with this problem probably have all been discovered and repaired. However, just in case, here’s some “food for thought”. My apologies to Ted, whose full article is on our website.
Shortly after taking delivery of “Sound of Silence” hull #257 in July 2000, we noticed some cracks and apparent corrosion around the circumference of the mast step [collar] that sits at the base of the mast and is attached to the cabin roof [and compression post below]. The mast fits into the collar and is held in place by a
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How to control my headsail’s furling line? This was one of my first challenges with our new C380. It was obvious that some sort of block and cleat arrangement was needed in that port cockpit area; but then a secondary question arose: how to accomplish this without drilling any holes in that beautiful fiberglass, and still keeping the furling line out from underfoot?
Without the ability to simply ask our great Sailnet email group [Sailnet didn’t exist and I didn’t even have a PC “back then”], I set about scrounging through my voluminous “junk box”. [Much to the Admiral’s chagrin, I save all sorts of “stuff”]. I decided to concentrate on attaching “something” to the genny foot block, as it seemed to be in a good location. After quite a few visualizing exercises, a plan developed: use a
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Dutchman Boom Brake Installation and Use Kevin Murray Mainsheet Date: 5/1/2005 Hull #: 88
The Dutchman Boom Brake is designed to control the speed of the boom as it crosses the boat during jibing. This can be a dangerous situation in moderate or higher winds. It also makes a great preventer for use when running downwind. As shown in Figure 1, this brake consists of three sheaves mounted between two plates in a triangular configuration; a line wraps around these in a serpentine fashion. The two upper sheaves are fixed and do not rotate; the lower sheave either rotates or is fixed depending on the setting of the control knob on the front of the device.
When the line running through the brake is tensioned, it grips the line with greater tension yielding more grip. By adjusting the knob and/or tension, more or less braking friction is in winds below
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Title:Boat Speed Under Power Author:Jim Jaeschke Date: 5/1/2005 Hull #: 73
Boat Speed Under Power – Engine/Transmission/Propeller Performance There has been a few lively discussions on the Sailnet C380+ list about how fast and at what RPM our boats will move under engine power. The bottom line is that your boat should cruise at 7+ knots at engine rev’s that promote long life. I’ll try to help you get there by discussing prop characteristics, tying in engine performance and, for the practical side: tachometer and boat speed instrumentation.
Instrumentation In order to know our boat’s motoring performance, we need reasonably accurate instrumentation. It has been reported that the tachometer on some boats has not been calibrated, resulting in erroneous RPM readings. It is important, not only for this discussion but also for engine life, that the tach indicate engine RPM correctly. If you suspect a problem, have your boat yard
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