I have been having ongoing problems with the raw water pump leaking on my Westerbeke 42B. The engine has about 450 total hours, which is pretty low considering the age of the boat. The raw water pump started leaking two years ago during the 2008 season. On the Westerbeke, the pump housing has a set of weep holes which will theoretically drain any water that gets past the internal shaft water seal. This serves two purposes. First is to give you a visual indication of a leak, although the pump is unfortunately located directly over the forward port engine mount which will start to rust from the salt water dripping out of the pump. Second, the weep holes should keep salt water out of the pump bearings, which are protected by an oil seal on the other side of the weep holes.
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When we moved up from our Catalina 30 to a 380, the extra room and ease of boarding certainly made life easier for us, especially given our crew includes a 50lb Portuguese water dog. The two nice state rooms and ample salon means there’s even room for friends. This allowed me to justify a larger more stable RIB to carry all the people, pets, and supplies. While the 11’ RIB tows well, its bottom quickly fouls with growth if left in the water. I also don’t like hoisting a 120 lb. RIB on and off foredeck, squeeze around it, or trying to spot objects in the water over it. Towing the dinghy also overly complicates arrivals and departures, or docking, since we must reposition the dinghy often. My initial inclination that davits weren’t in our future dissipated quickly, and it
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Well, old man winter is rearing his ugly head again – at least for those of us in the northern climates. I finally broke down today and winterized Blue Heron. And she put up a good fight as I found a couple maintenance items that needed attention. So it was a long day.
This winter’s project list isn’t too long. Primary focus will be on solving the engine raw water pump seal leakage. This is the second year in a row that the pump started leaking after a rebuild with a new shaft, bearing and seals ($$). So that will require some discussions with Westerbeke. Then I have decided to go for a Stack-Pac mainsail cover. I got a very good price through Sail Care of Ford City, PA for the Doyle version. I will also get the main cleaned and re-coated while
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John Welch, Dragon’s Lair Hull #7, League City, Texas
My wife and I are preparing our boat for cruising once we retire. One of the modifications we felt we needed was a wash down pump which, when we have chartered, we have found a useful tool.
I purchased a Jabsco Washdown Par Max 4.0 Washdown kit model 32900-0092 from West Marine. The current price at West Marine is $199. The pump produces 4.0 GPM. When I purchased the boat, I had a ¾” bronze full flow safety seacock/thru-hull installed just forward of the keel which provided a water source for the system. If hauling the boat to install a thru-hull is not an option, another approach would be to place a “T” and a shutoff valve in the water intake for the AC unit. You will need hose, stainless steel nuts, washers and bolts, clamps, sealant, and electrical wire to
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The list below provides links to owner websites and their descriptions of improvements they have made to various aspects of the Catalina 380 series. I include them in this post so that they will be available to the search routines of this site.
Well, we are starting to see some signs of spring in the boat yard. You know, the sounds of sanding, scraping and polishing! I normally like to be ready to sail by around April 1 here in Virginia, even though nice warm sailing days still are still elusive early in the month. So I need to get started myself.
This quarter we have an article on replacing the bearings in the Shaeffer furlers that were standard on many of our boats. Second, I will share my findings and a response I received from Westerbeke on my raw water pump seal failure. Lastly, I also will provide the quarterly summary of Yahoo discussions that I started in last quarter’s edition.
I hope that you have a great sailing season in 2011 and I look forward to receiving many future helpful and informative technical articles to publish here in Mainsheet.
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Recent discussions on the C380 forum have discussed actually removing the cockpit table but here is a project that goes in just the opposite direction – it makes it bigger!
Cockpit Table Extension
My wife and daughter and I often sail with our friends, the Corey’s, who own a C34 they purchased new over 20 years ago. When we throw the hook, we have happy hour and then dinner on one boat or the other. The cockpit table in the 387 seats four people comfortably but we typically have at least 5 – thus the project to add a portable extension to the table.
The project is fairly simple but has some interesting aspects that are worth discussing.
The first thing I did was to create a template of the shape I needed to butt against the existing cockpit table. One could just use a straight
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Boat repairs are like war; the plan only lasts until the first battle starts!
It all started when the boat was pulled at the end of last season. I noticed that the lower rudder bearing was loose – something new since the boat was last pulled. From there, I noticed a crack in the forward portion of the rudder so drilled a small hole in the bottom of the rudder and found that a small amount of water drained out. As with many projects, had I known at the beginning what I knew in the end, I would have done a different project. It was just one of those things that kept getting bigger as you went along.
Important to this discussion is that I have a C387 and not a C380. Evidently the length of the rudder post is different
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Reinforcing the Anchor Roller for a Spinnaker Tack Point;
Spinnaker Running Gear Ideas
By Tim Porter, C380 #199 Serendipity
Mainsheet, December 2011
The forward end of the C380 anchor roller is 20 inches ahead of the forestay attach plate, 10 inches ahead and clear of the bow pulpit, and on Serendipity was just begging to be used as the tack point for an asymmetrical spinnaker! The only issue was the upward load put on the anchor roller attachment in anything more than a light breeze. I solved this problem by having a “bobstay strap” made which attaches to the bottom of the anchor roller and the existing chainplate for the forestay located on the stem (photo 1). The strap has the additional benefit of strengthening the anchor roller in the downward direction, making it less likely you’ll damage it with excessive loading while weighing anchor (stuck anchor, pulling up a
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Hard to believe that summer is almost over. Hopefully you had a good sailing season. Mine was limited due to travel, hot weather, and no wind. Next we had the Virginia earthquake – didn’t impact sailing but my dockmates said the docks and pilings were shaking. And finally in came Hurricane Irene. So far I have only received one report of damage to boats in our fleet. That was the result of an anchored Peterson 42 dragging down on the C380 Oceania. It appears that the C380 won that battle with the Peterson being “T-boned” by Oceania. Oceania suffered some bow damage, but the Peterson was worse off. It is interesting that marinas on the Chesapeake generally allowed boats to stay at their slips, while Northeastern marinas seemed to require boats to vacate. Oceania was damaged as a result of that policy. On the other hand,
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