Category Archives: Customizations

Customizations, Fridge

Refrigerator Insulation

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Insulating the box from the hanging locker is actually the easiest part of the project. I did it a while ago to get rid of the condensation on the locker wall. I’m now doing the rest of the box and it is a lot more work.

In the locker figure out where you are going to drill the holes. Put vertical strips of 2″ wide blue tape and drill the holes in the center of the strips. Drill 3/8″ diameter holes into the void. I spaced the holes about 6″ apart. Start the foam at the bottom and work up. The foam will expand out of the holes so be prepared to wipe it away if it looks like it will go beyond the tape. You will learn to get it so that only a small tails comes out, leave it. After it cures, trim it off with a knife,

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Customizations, Rig, Rig

Batten Cars – Discussion

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Does anyone have experience with Ronstan ballslide batten cars on a Charleston mast? Strongly considering getting a set for the full length battens as the batten compression makes the mainsail somewhat difficult to > hoist and requires a trip on deck to pull it down when dropping. Appears to be a great product, not requiring a track, thus much less money than Harken and others. Also allows for addressing the batten slides only vs. replacing all slugs, as would be required with a special track.
Leon
Akula-San Francisco
C380#144

 

Leon,

I installed the Ronstan Battslide Cars 2 years ago, when I bought new sails.You will need more than just the batten cars, there are cars in between the battens as well. It works well for me. I too didn’t like much having to go forward to pull down the sail.
In practice it depends on how quickly and accurately

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Customizations, Electrical/Electronics, Engine, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Raw Water Alarm

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All,

In a sidebar conversation, Warren came up with a really simple way to add the raw water alarm to our boats. The sensor that straps to the exhaust hose can be wired into the existing circuit for the engine overtemp alarm. This way, if either the engine overheats, or the exhaust hose gets too hot from lack of raw water, the alarm will sound. The sensor alone is just $54.

The steps would be:
1. Strap the sensor to the exhaust hose just below the water injection elbow.
2. route both wires to the terminal strip in the engine compartment.
3. connect the black wire from the sensor to the same terminal with the black ground wire.
4. connect the purple wire to the same terminal as the engine overtemp alarm. This wire could be identified by finding the sender on the engine or looking at the back of

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Customizations, Electrical/Electronics

Raw Water Alarm

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Today I installed the raw water alarm.  I purchased this unit, which has a temp sensor which straps onto the exhaust hose after the water injector.  If it gets too hot, it closes and completes a circuit to ground, just like the engine oil and temp alarms.  The idea is to warn me of the loss of cooling water before the uncooled engine exhaust cooks the exhaust hose and/or muffler.  This happened to me on a charter boat in the BVIs in January.  Black smoke billowing out of the engine room is no fun!

http://www.borelmfg.com/products_alarm.htm

There was room in my engine panel to install this, and it is shallow enough that it fit even in the center where the pod is shallowest to fit around the pedestal.  Hopefully the pictures below come through:

Cut  a 1-7/8″ hole in the panel

From the back, wired the + to the power terminal

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Customizations, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Wheel Covers

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I’m planning to get a new padded leather wheel cover. The two venders that I’ve narrowed it down to are Edson Marine, and Boatleather.com. They are both in the same price range. Does anyone have any comparative info about the products of these two companies?

Tom Soko

Juniper C400 #307

Noank, CT

 

I had my wheel covered four years ago by Color Wheelz WWW.COLORWHEELZ.COM . It is an excellent product and reasonable.

Chris Vasilas

KATERINA C380 #291

Greenport, NY

 

 

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Customizations, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Wheel Cover Project

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I made the wheel cover out of 1/8” low stretch braided line.  The first wheel cover I did this way is still in service on my previous boat after 25 years and this one is in excellent shape after 5 years.  How it is done is to tie continuous clove hitches and pull the knots very tight.  The results is a spiral ridge around the wheel.

To mark when the wheel is mid ship I also wrapped the top spoke and put a Turks head on the top of the wheel.  Those two marks also serve as tactile feedback so you can feel how far the wheel is turned.

Similar to a leather wheel the line covered wheel is much warmer and more comfortable on the hand.  We rarely need gloves when on the helm.

I don’t remember the length of material needed, but think it was about 300’.  I

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Customizations, LED

LED Lighting

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I replaced my overhead halogen lights on my 387 with Superbrightleds.com – G4-WHP10-D White LED-Warm White G4-WWHP10-D  $14.95

I have been very happy with them.

Tom Brantigan
C387 #96 Toccata in Sea

 

I replaced my interior saloo, galley, and v-berth lights with led’s M#
MR16-WW48SMD form a company called _www.superbtightleds.com_
(http://www.superbrightleds.com) .
The price per bulb was much cheaper than most @ 14.95 each. I did not like the harsh lighting of the existing bulb and went with a
“warm white” which is less hard on the eyes.

Don
JollyMon C#157

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Customizations, LED

LED Lighting

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Hi I bought all my LED lights MR16 from this company in Calf . Its a
wholesaler. Prices are great.
_http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?searchStr=mr16&act=viewCat_
(http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?searchStr=mr16&act=viewCat)

Regards
Paul
AVID II 380 # 148

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Customizations, LED

LED Lighting

1 Comment

I am in the process of changing out the G4 halogens down below for LEDs.
Someone suggested Sailor’s Solutions, www.sailorssolutions.com and the
Admiral and I are very pleased with the bulbs that you can find at this
link.

http://www.sailorssolutions.com

The Admiral and I both agreed that if one measured the lumens between the
halogen and the ZED01 Miniature Warm White LED Replacement Bulb ZED01 shown on the link above, the halogen might be a bit softer, but it was hard for us
to tell the difference. The really good news is that they are easy to
install and saved us from having to buy new overhead fixtures. They are
also flat enough to be installed behind the “shell” shades on the bulkhead
fixtures.

Regards,
Bruce Overbay
Our Water View, #226

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Electrical/Electronics, LED

Led Lights, T- molding

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Over the winter I replaced the overhead spots with LED spots. The ones I used were purchased from Amazon and are “Torchstar” 4 watt, MR16, 3200K, warm white. I am very happy with them and they cost $7.50 each. The bulbs stuck out about a 1/4″ and I had to make a small mod to the ficture to make them flush when installed but not alot of effort.

It is interesting the fixtures are rated at 10 watts, which is printed on them, and the bulbs that were in them were all 20 watts.

I also replaced the G4 base bulbs in the clamshell bulkhead lights with LED’s available at Bulbs.com. Item 770510, G4 base, 0.6 watt, warm white, at $7.69.

I also needed to replace the “T” molding around the wet locker in the shower. I bought 40 feet of it from “T-molding.com” 9/16″ white, flat, nintendo, for $20.00.

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