Titanium chain plates Archives

Re-Rigging a sailboat? Don’t forget the chainplates and the tangs…but wait..there is more…

3 December 2019December 3, 2019rebecca.childress@yahoo.comLeave a comment

Are you re-rigging your sailboat? I always smile when someone says they have recently redone all their rigging. That means the wire rigging, maybe even the staylock or Norseman fittings and swages, right? Maybe they even had a world renown and/or highly recommended professional rigger do it all, for complete piece of mind…I once felt that way when we did all of our rigging in New Zealand a few years ago while sailing around the world.

After we lost our mast in the Pacific (2011), just 3 years after replacing the rigging in New Zealand (2008) I learned that re-rigging a sailboat is much more than replacing the wires, and the fittings. Possibly more important than the critical wire and fittings, is what they are attached to at the bottom: the chainplates…and at the top of the rigging…the tangs that secure it all to the mast. Since our dismasting Patrick and I have worked hard to inform other sailors that chainplates can break, and not just where they pass through the deck with no oxygen. When one “rerigs” their boat, they need to be thinking from the condition of the mast and the tangs, right down to the chainplates.

Recently after some other dismastings of sailboats, I now realize that its equally important to consider WHAT those chain plates are attached to! If your new rigging is all attached to rotten or slowly rotting bulkheads because the chainplates leak on occasion, well, why bother with the expense of new rigging, and new titanium chainplates? This would be like tying a rope swing to a twig. Eventually, the twig will crack, and the best titanium ropes will just fall down, bringing everything else down that’s attached, with your life in its branches.

This is part 2 of this video series. In part 1, Patrick shows how he repairs the bulkhead, rebuilds everything, and makes sure that is very strong, so it can continue to support the chainplates that hold up the rigging, that hold up the mast. He also tells you about using titanium on a sailboat, and why we used titanium rather than stainless steel chainplates. It’s been 8 years with those chainplates. It seems like yesterday. I’m so glad we don’t have to start worrying about them again in a few years!

Then in Part 2, Patrick shows how he modifies the hole that the titanium Chainplate passes through the deck through. He puts down plastic laminate to redirect any water that may ever find its way through that hole, to run on top of the Formica rather than under, and in to the wood.

And the Formica serves another purpose…to make our 43 year old Valiant 40 look young and beautiful again!

Be sure to watch both videos if you want to see the entire project.

Part 1 -Fixing the Rotting Bulkhead, and Why we Used Titanium Chainplates

https://youtu.be/nvhBiWiPaw0

Part 2: Putting it all back together again, and making it Beautiful!

https://youtu.be/JHBvkCa6lzI

Please leave any comments on the video itself since this helps our ratings much more than leaving it on this blog. Plus I hardly ever check this blog for comments.

Thanks for watching, and liking, and subscribing to our channel!

Titanium Chainplates on Sailboats…

25 October 2019October 25, 2019rebecca.childress@yahoo.comLeave a comment

Titanium Chainplates on Sailboats started to be installed on sailboats, before Brick House was dismasted in 2011, because that’s when we replaced our stainless steel chain plates with titanium chainplates, titanium Clevis pins, titanium tangs, and although we were semi early adopters, we were not the first to do this. We were so impressed and the prices of titanium came down so much, 7 years later we replaced our bow roller-Stemplate with titanium too. If we could install titanium rigging, I think we would. Our Titanium components, 8 years later, look like its all brand new. There have been no issues at all with corrosion. They are the shiny jewels on this old sailboat, the part sure to never fail. But there is one problem with thinking that our mast should now stay up forever. One more thing a sailor must think about if sailing around the world, and has replaced he standing rigging, right down to the chainplates.

In a few minutes, we will be posting Another DIY Sailing/sailboat video about something else that affects the integrity of your rig, that could result in a dismasting even if you DO have titanium chainplates, or all new rigging. It will be a 2 part series. So be sure you are subscribed on YouTube to Patrick Childress Sailing to find out all about it, and be notified. It’s not that difficult to guess perhaps, but something many many of us forget to examine on a regular basis.

Patrick wrote an excellent article for Practical Sailor, and it is on the Allied Titanium Website since this is who we worked with to make the chainplates out of Grade 5 Titanium, the only grade of titanium Patrick can recommend for these high load components.

Click Here for the entire article in PDF format, or if you prefer, here are photos of each page.

Here is most of the article in text, without photos, in case your internet doesn’t allow the photos above, or if the link doesn’t work.

Through the commotion of a 30- knot squall, I heard the chainplate pop. It was not an unusually loud pop. The result was impressive, nonetheless. What once was, just a few moments earlier, the tallest part of the mast on our Valiant 40 Brick House was now the lowest, scraping the tops of waves in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. The dispirited look on my wife Rebecca’s face made the terrible situation even more depressing. I swore, in rebuilding our rig, we would never again be the victim of the weaknesses stainless steel can hide. We would replace our chain plates, toggle pins, and mast tangs with titanium.
In name alone, the word titanium evokes images of superhuman strength. The metal is aptly named after the Titans, the race of powerful Greek gods, descendants from Gaia and Uranus.
Titanium is whitish in color and the fourth most abundant metallic element in the Earth’s crust. Ninety-five percent of mined titanium becomes titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is the white pigment added to all types of paints. Titanium dioxide makes paper bright
mined titanium is used to make metal components that must be light, strong, and resistant to heat and corrosion. This five percent, though small, represents a rapidly growing market.
Landing gear of large commercial aircraft, like the 747 and 777, are made of titanium. No other metal has the resiliency to repetitive shock loading and offers the weight savings of titanium. Nearly 80 percent of the structure of the Lockheed SR 71 reconnaissance plane, the highest fly- ing, fastest plane ever built, is made of titanium. From drill bits to eyeglass frames to tennis rackets to artificial heart valves, titanium metal is in our lives every day.
Of particular interest to sailors is titanium’s resistance to galvanic corrosion. Only silver, gold, and graph- ite are more noble than titanium. For titanium to be even slightly affected by sea water, the water must first be heated to over 230 degrees. Cryogenic temperatures will not affect the perfor- mance of titanium. It has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal and is non-magnetic. Titanium is up to 20 times more scratch resistant than
The new titanium chainplate shines brilliantly among the stainless steel ones it replaced, including the one that broke.
white and is the white paste that some sailors like to smear on their nose on a sunny day to provide a physical barrier against UV radiation. Our white homes and sailboats are resplendent in white titanium.

stainless steels.

The more one considers the physical
characteristics of titanium, and how perfectly suited it seems for marine ap- plications, the more one might wonder why we don’t see more of it in our boats. Part of the problem is the relative cost of titanium alloys, but a second factor is probably more to blame for titanium’s scarcity in the marine market. Titanium fabrication is a highly specialized field that requires specialized equipment. You can’t just hire your local welder to go out and build you a titanium arch.
Marine-grade titaniuM
The performance characteristics of ti- tanium will change greatly with its al- loying of other metals for customized work. Commercially pure titanium is typically rated from Grade 1 to Grade 4, with each higher grade correspond- ing to increasing strength levels. Some of these grades are used to withstand boiling acids; some are used for heat and corrosion-resistant applications such as heat exchangers and chemical process- ing tanks.
The marine industry standard is Grade 5, Ti-6Al-4V. This alloy is 90 percent titanium, 6 percent aluminum, and 4 percent vanadium. The alloy is so widely used that it represents 75 percent of all titanium alloys produced. Grade 5 has a yield strength over 31⁄2 times greater than 316 stainless steel, yet weighs only 56 percent as much. Yield strength, sometimes called engineering strength, is the amount of pressure or force a material can take before chang- ing shape without returning to its origi- nal shape. But titanium is also nearly twice as resilient as steel, so it will flex and return to its original shape under the same loads that might permanently bend a comparable piece of stainless.
Not only is titanium strong, it is high- ly resistant to chemicals. Being a reactive metal, it spontaneously forms an oxide film whenever there is any amount of water or air in the environment. That oxide film eliminates the possibility of crevice corrosion or stress-corrosion cracking. Titanium is immune to gal- vanic corrosion when immersed in seawater, but like stainless steel, tita-
nium may encourage electrolysis of a less noble metal it is in contact with. Profurl roller-furling uses ti- tanium screws that pass through the alu- minum body of their housings to mini- mize galvanic corro- sion. Still, an isolator like LanoCote (www. lanacote.com) or Tef- Gel (www.tefgel.com) needs to be applied to the threads of the titanium screws, the same as one would do if stainless-steel screws were used. Above the waterline, Titanium in contact with 316 stainless is of no greater concern than where stainless- steel threaded studs screw into bronze turnbuckles. Working sheets of titanium into yacht parts requires the same tools that are used for forming stainless steel. Drilling requires sharp cobalt drill bits turning at similar speeds used for stainless steel and plenty of lubricant (olive oil works) for cooling.

Sawing and grinding also require sharp tools with good chip removal. Cutting with waterjet and laser is the most effective. But shears that slice through thick 316 stain- less steel will stop when forced against equally thick plates of titanium.
When bending titanium, the bend area must first be heated to around 800 degrees, as the yield strength drops to about 40 percent at that temperature. If titanium is overheated to the point where it glows, it can react with air and become oxygen embrittled. For this same reason, cutting titanium with oxyacetylene flame is not recommended.

The crew of Brick House waited until morning to begin the tricky process of removing the mainsail after a stainless steel chaiplate failed, causing the mast to snap.
experienced. Air will contaminate the weld causing discoloration and brittle- ness. An inert gas like 99.99 percent pure argon must shield the area on both sides of the weld till the material cools below 800 degrees.
The physical properties of titanium are exactly those that are needed in sail- boat rigging as it pounds through ocean waves. Unlike stainless steel, titanium will not deteriorate, or crack, or rust, or have an unexpected catastrophic failure. Once installed on a sailboat with titanium fasteners, a properly sized titanium chainplate will never need polishing, although welds should be checked.
So why has the leisure marine industry been slow to use titanium?

For years, the high cost of titanium made it an aerospace metal for govern- ment projects and commercial airplane parts where there was no alternative metal to use. That high cost was an unforeseen result of the protectionist Berry Amendment. The 1941 legislation made it mandatory for the U.S. govern- ment to purchase only 100 percent U.S. manufactured goods intended for mili- tary use. Titanium was soon added to the list of specialty metals covered un-
der the Berry Amendment. This gave the few largest U.S. titanium makers a lock on the world’s largest titanium customer, the U.S. military. This elimi- nated competition and kept the price of titanium flying high.
This grip on the U.S. titanium market also eliminated any need to streamline the smelting process. But when the U.S. military shifted from a strategic bomber defense to a missile defense, the use of expensive titanium plummeted and some U.S. producers went out of business. The few that remained could only survive by keeping the price of titanium high for their government customers.
According to Christopher Greimes, chief executive officer of Allied Titanium, with the current economic downturn, the U.S. military would like to remove titanium from the specialty metals list as they need more and cheaper titanium, not just for use in aircraft, but for use in armor plating for ground troops. The U.S. titanium producers are strongly lob- bying to keep titanium on the specialty metals list. President Barack Obama is allowing an unsigned repeal of titanium from that list to collect dust on his desk. Meanwhile, other countries like China, Japan, and Russia have been ramping up their refined smelting technologies and producing less costly titanium for the world market.
As world production and use in the leisure marine market increases, the price of titanium should continue to fall. One day, titanium will replace stainless steels. The savings to insurance compa- nies that will no longer have to pay for expensive boat losses and the increased safety to sailors will be enormous.

Practical Matters

The problem for an individual boat owner is that the local welding shops do not carry a stock of titanium sheets and to order small lots and fabricate a few parts can be time consuming and ultimately not the price one would hope to pay. There are large outlets for titanium um fabrication that solve the problem. A company such as Allied Titanium has fabricating outlets in Europe, U.S., and China. A boat owner can log onto the Allied website to view thousands of items such as nuts, bolts and chain- plates. If a particular boat part is not listed, it can be fabricated.
We needed 10 new chainplates, all of the same design, and a combination bow roller/chainplate assembly. Since there had been no previous purchase for these items for a Valiant 40, we had options on how to enter the information into the Allied database.
First we logged in and became a customer, creating a user name, and pass- word. We could trace the chainplate outline and bolthole placement onto stiff paper, noting the thickness of the original plate and the desired finish such as sandblasted or polished. However,
we thought sending an actual chainplate would be better. Allied then hand drafted our chainplate into its 3D system. We could watch online as the chainplate was received at Allied and made its way through the design process. If a customer supplies design in a 3D CAD file in SolidWorks, Rhino, or 3D Auto CAD, there is no drafting charge at all. If the customer supplies a two-dimensional drawing that is properly dimensioned, with tolerances, finish, etc. and they al- low Allied to add their part to the Unique Product Database (UPD), then there is no charge for conversion to a SolidWorks 3D CAD file.
At Allied, the part name, tolerances, finish, titanium grade, etc., are entered into the UPD, creating both an item number and a temporary UPD number. The customer then approves the drawings. When the design process is completed and the customer approves the price, the part design is then transmitted to one of Allied Titanium’s factories, some of which are in China.
The immediate hesitation of many boat owners is the idea of having anything made in China. Japan produced a lot of junk after World War II, then learned to do it right and has equaled or outdistanced America in many manufacturing fields. So too, China is refining the quality of its products.
As Practical Sailor pointed out in the August 2011 look at mainsails, sails made in China are often rebranded and sold by the top sailmakers in America. Nearly all stainless steel wire rigging used on yachts now comes from China or Taiwan. When it comes to Chinese titanium, that metal has been strategic in the past, requiring strict quality control by the Chinese military. This means that Chinese factories and workers know how to make titanium products properly. The Chinese are now cashing in on the world demand for titanium faster than Obama can sign his name.
According to Allied, “Each time titanium is smelted, resmelted, or milled, it must have mechanical and chemical tests done on the lot. When a customer requests a ‘certs,’ the results from the last certification is pro- vided. In most cases, this is the mill
certification.” However, some U.S. customers of Allied send a sample of their purchase to an independent lab for backup testing. “In all cases, our 6-4 titanium parts have tested above 128,000 psi yield strength. If a customer has an issue with a certain country, we can manufacture their parts in another country (at a different price, of course),” Greimes said.
When the part is complete, it is sent directly from the manufacturing plant
to the Allied Titanium Quality Assur- ance Department in the United States via Fedex, UPS, or DHL. After passing quality assurance, it is shipped directly to the customer The street price for one of our chain- plates was $260 at the time of this writing. We saved considerably by negotiat- ing a price for all ten to be made at the same time. From the day we mailed our old chainplate to Allied Titanium to the day 10 titanium chainplates arrived in our hands, took 65 days.
We installed all new chainplates,
bolts and nuts, clevis pins, mast tangs, and bow roller assembly made of tita- nium. One immediate problem was the brilliant shine of the chainplates sticking up from the deck. They sud- denly made the paint job on our boat look terrible. A sandblasted finish for the chainplates is available, and this might be a good option for the owner of an older boat. Over the past 6 years,
the money we have not paid to insurance companies has been reinvested in continually upgrading electronics and safety equipment on our floating home. A new rig with a foundation in titanium will certainly keep us safer and stronger than ever before. I only wish we were wiser and made the titanium upgrades before our rig came down.
Patrick Childress completed his first circumnavigation in 1982 in a souped-up 27-foot Catalina. He and his wife, Rebecca Childress are currently sailing in the Pacific, continuing on their west-about circumnavigation contact Allied Titanium, 800/725-8143, http://www.alliedtitanium.com

Maggi Chain USA, New Electronic Charts, AMT Composites for Fiberglass

Indian Ocean Crossing, The Preparation

Indian Ocean Crossing, The Preparation

19 March 2018April 8, 2020rebecca.childress@yahoo.comLeave a comment

This is an article which appears in the March 2018 issue of Ocean Voyager magazine. Ocean Voyager is a special, annual, publication of Ocean Navigator. But what you read below is the full, unedited version.

Cruising for over three years in the tropics of South East Asia has wilted our sea-legs. We have experienced nothing more adventurous than an occasional sudden thunder shower as we ghosted the coast of Borneo and all the shores of Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Now it is time to get back to serious passage making and prepare to zig zag our way cross the Indian Ocean, from Malaysia to South Africa via Madagascar and many remote islands in between. Thousand mile long passages and longer abound. Once again, we will be in belts of strong weather. In the Indian, yachting facilities are few. The boat must be in solid, long haul condition. When we depart Malaysia, we will be ready for real sailing yet the preparations have been a year in the fixing.

Heavy Weight Supplies

Owning ones own long range cruising boat is the only way to access some of the most remote specks of land in the world like in the Pacific, Holmes Reef, Minerva Reef, Bikini, Suwarrow, Fatu Hiva. Now, heading out to the Indian Ocean, we cannot miss the chance to visit the fabled Chagos, where no one lives but the largest coconut crabs and seabirds on tropical islands with countless fish on the clear reefs. Departing Malaysia, our water and fuel tanks will be full, including all our deck stowed jerry jugs. Since there will be no cheaper fuel on our horizon, some of the 5 gallon jerry jugs are one time use disposables. The waterline of Brick House will be further depressed by months of food stores. Food throughout the Indian Ocean is expensive so we are stocking up in Malaysia. As we move south in latitude and into known windy areas, our load of supplies will lighten so we will become more buoyant, agile and seaworthy. As we work our way to Madagascar, where aggressive storms are a near certainty, we want to be as unencumbered and nimble as possible; to lift and move on top of the waves, not be washed over and beaten by them. At that point, we want on our boat no more than 50 gallons of water and no more than 40 gallons of diesel in the main tanks with the remaining deck stored jerry-jugs to be empty.

General Preparation

We have worked hard removing the hatches and portlights, resealing them to stop present leaks and to insure there will be no new leaks. Cracks in the side decks were ground out and repaired. The not so clear plastic of the dodger windows was renewed. A new mainsail cover is now in place. All the rigging has been inspected. The hull has been cleaned with new antifouling applied. These are all parts of the maintenance treadmill any cruising boat owner must endure. But to successfully sail us across the Indian Ocean, we decided to order a new genoa.

Genoa Sail

To move us through the calm weather latitudes to Sri Lanka then southward to Chagos, we have on board a new 125% genoa from Mack Sails, www.macksails.com , located half way around the world from us in Stuart, Florida. We have personally visited some of the lofts in S.E. Asia and have concluded, it is better to buy American. Our new genoa is made of 7.77oz Challenge Marblehead Dacron. “These fabrics are the finest most tightly woven fabrics in the world and rely on the quality of yarn and weave, rather than impregnated resins, to maintain integrity.” To distribute loading more evenly across the fabric on our genoa, and to hold the sail shape for 15 to 20 years, Mack sews their jibs with the more difficult miter panels rather than the easier to sew, long, crosscut panels. As we work into the stronger wind areas, we will replace the new 125% with our 90% jib made of 8.77 oz Marblehead. These sails, along with our tough little cutter sail, made by Mack, gives us the versatility needed for working through known soft and strong wind latitudes.

Anchoring

After the sails, our thoughts turned to anchoring. 10 years ago a 60 lb CQR was our primary anchor till it showed how it could plow a long farmers furrow and still not dig in. That anchor nearly ended our voyage soon after it began. The 30kilo Bruce became our primary anchor which has served us well in all sorts of anchoring conditions for the past 10 years. But the Bruce was not infallible. We want to keep up on the latest anchor technology so we felt an anchor with a more pointed entry would burry quicker and could hold as securely as the Bruce normally would and possibly better. We decided to replace the Bruce with a 27 kg (60 pound) Manson Supreme anchor which is made in New Zealand. Because of their sailing environment dipping into latitudes of the roaring forties, New Zealanders know how to manufacture their yachting products to withstand harsh conditions. I don’t want to risk having gear on our boat made in China. So far, the Manson Supreme is performing as flawlessly as we had expected.

Foul Weather Gear

In the tropics, when a heavy downpour or sea spray breaks over our boat, to stay dry, we have been slipping into a cheap plastic raincoat bought at a hardware store. Our “ocean” designated foul weather gear has always leaked right through the “breathable” fabric. Now we have gotten serious about foul weather gear which will do what it is advertised to do. Our research brought us to the Henri Lloyd Freedom line of foul weather gear, made of Polyamide coated with polyurethane. I recently tested this gear on a yacht delivery from Rhode Island to St. Maarten and it was impressive. It kept me warm and dry and it was not cumbersome to put on or take off. There are plenty of pockets in the right places without overdoing it. An interesting highlight is the hood which gives full wind and spray protection and can do this without ruining peripheral vision. The hood has a clear Optivision hi-vis hood system. No more messing around now, we have the good stuff. Here is Patrick’s Jacket.

Paper Charts and Real Books

At our navigation station we have a Raymarine es128 chartplotter with a 12 inch screen. Not only does the large screen have the advantage of being viewable all the way back to the helm, the large screen gives us a much better spatial awareness than any of the smaller screens that preceded it. But there is nothing like having a large scale paper chart to see where a boat has been and where it is going. The distances in the Indian are so great, we ordered a paper chart, from Bluewater Books and Charts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which covers all of the Indian Ocean. That chart will be folded flat and live under the Plexiglas of the chart table. We will be able to quickly plot the location of fellow cruisers and keep track of our own wanderings. Additionally, as we start the second half of our circumnavigation, we find, despite the digital plethora of information, a printed paper cruising guide is still our preferred way to organize routes and anchorages ahead. Bluewater Books and Charts has been in business for more than 30 years, and offer the single greatest selection of paper and electronic charts, cruising guides, marine books and publications, software, flags and instruments available for sailors like us. We stocked up with the Indian Ocean Cruising Guide, theEast Africa Pilot Guide, the South Atlantic Circuit, and the Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego Nautical Guide. Rebecca has also made .kap files(Google earth charts) for every possible stop along the way. We can now go into anchorages with full satellite images. But, at our fingertips will be all the paper books, and information we need, in one central location, without having to turn on a computer.

Weather Information

Getting accurate, economical weather routing reports and communicating with those back home while we are far away from land has always been a challenge. On previous ocean crossings, we relied on our SSB radio and Pactor modem for email and weather. Sadly to say, that trusty equipment is becoming equal to using a cassette player when an IPod is available. Although there is still a use for the SSB radio for communicating on a schedule with other cruisers, its other functions are waning. We have signed up for an “Iridium GO!” Marine Package with PredictWind www.predictwind.com . Iridium Go! is a new generation Iridium satellite wifi hotspot to which all our handheld devices can connect to. PredictWind also offers a myriad of downloadable weather products, including weather routing, with intuitive, feature rich software to retrieve and examine the reports it offers. But better than using this application via a cantankerous SSB, the Iridium GO!, with an external antenna, offers the best value and least complications for downloading weather and email while on a passage, anywhere in the world. It’s not faster than SSB\Pactor but it is available around the clock, when we want it. The Iridium GO! is so completely integrated with the PredictWind software, that one would almost think they were using the application on the internet, albeit more slowly. PredictWind controls all of the connections to the GO! We will be able to receive and send emails as well, as well as utilizing 150 minutes of voice time per month, to be used through our smartphones, for family issues back home, ordering of parts or technical support at sea, or emergencies. We paired this system with another product called Xgate to add more functionality when using our laptops, through both the GO!, and when connected to the internet through other means. With such interoperability and so many advantages, an entire article could be written about the combination. Month to month contracts for service, if purchased through www.

.com , allows shutdown to a minimally priced plan while in port. Predictwind sells through Amazon too, but buying directly from Predictwind is the best way to go…get your SIM cards, external antenna, Iridium GO, weather service, through this one supplier for the best in support and service!

Another great feature of the GO! is the SOS button. This is not a substitute for a stand alone EPIRB, but a great additional tool. Geos Safety Solutions (http://www.geossafetysolutions.com ) provides free coordination of efforts in case of an emergency, as well as affordable (Search And Rescue) and Medevac if the SOS button is pressed during an emergency.

EPIRB Batteries

Recently, we hand carried our ACR brand self deploying 406 GPS, EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) and smaller PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) EPIRB on airplanes from Malaysia back to the U.S.. With the batteries in the equipment, we ran into no concerns by airport inspectors. The batteries have a long shelf life even after their 6 year expiration date but we want to take no chances. In the U.S., we sent the equipment to ACR in Ft. Lauderdale. After changing the batteries, they were mailed to us at our departure address in the U.S. so we could hand carry them back to Malaysia. Monthly, we flip the switch half way on our ACR, EPIRB, to activate the self test mode to be sure it is successfully acquiring satellites and transmitting to the test receiving station properly.More ACR Epirbs

Propspeed

I have never been able to keep antifouling on any propeller that was installed on Brick House no matter what material the prop was made of. Antifouling far too soon disappeared which meant the beginning again of the biweekly chore to scrub the marine growth from the prop and drive shaft. In the 85 degree tropical water of which we are accustomed, the work was not terribly challenging. However, there are frigid waters in our future of which even layers of wetsuits are no enticement for me to go in for a casual prop cleaning. Cruising friends who have used Propspeed, which is a silicone coating, are very satisfied. The application is a very precise process of sanding, cleaning, etching, primer application then the final application of the clear silicone coating. The clear coating is not antifouling but an ultra smooth surface which marine organisms have a very difficult time attaching to. If organisms do settle, they are easily brushed off. The manufacturer of our Kiwiprop suggest it is not necessary to prime the Zytel blades before applying traditional antifouling or Propspeed. Following those directions, I have never had success with antifouling staying on the Zytel blades for an adequate amount of time. Applying to the Zytel, I followed the Propspeed directions in the same steps as the stainless steel components were treated except for the etching. With a Kiwiprop however, an applicator must be careful not to build up any material in the area of swing of the trailing edge of the blades which could inhibit their forward to reverse function. Propspeed is another great product made in New Zealand. There are imitators but only Oceanmax, makes Propspeed and has a long positive track record.

Nonskid Decks

A major safety item is the disappearance of the nonskid on our side decks. Since painted 9 years ago, our decks have gotten slippery over the years from the wearing away of the sand non-skid imbedded in the deck paint. Where we are going, is not a place for unsure footing. There are 3 grades of non-skid sand, fine, medium and coarse. We used the coarse and applied it to the wet two part paint using a plastic peanut butter jar with a lot of holes drilled in the lid, like a large salt shaker. The large grain is a good gripper like we need but can be a little uncomfortable when kneeling down with bare knees. Cosmetically, I think the medium grain would be nicer and may not retain discoloration and dirt like the coarse does.

Jack Lines

We haven’t seen our yellow jack lines in years. They and the inflatable PFDs have been stuffed somewhere in the back of a hanging locker. This will be the time to dig them out. In our normal mode of cruising, jack lines and harnesses can be a dangerous encumbrance which restricts ones movements on deck and becomes an annoying leg tripper. Normally, we just don’t need them and since entering the Pacific, I don’t recall seeing any cruising friends using them. There comes a time though, in very rough weather, when waves are breaking over the boat and the deck is pitched more like the steep slope of a glacier that it would be ridiculous not to strap into a safety tether and be shackled to the boat, especially if one had to go forward on deck.

Titanium Bow Roller

Years ago we changed all our stainless steel chain plates to grade 5 titanium. The price of titanium parts is slowly falling so we decided this would be the time to replace the 41 year old stainless steel bow roller/chain plate assembly with one made of titanium. We removed the existing assembly and sent it to Allied Titanium, now located in Sequim, Washington www.alliedtitanium.com . Grade 5 titanium weighs a little more than half of 316 stainless steel yet is 3.5 times stronger. It is not affected by salt water or electrolysis. Since we will be keeping Brick House for a very long time, titanium upgrades and the safety margin it brings us make it a good investment.

SONAR

While hauled out of the water to paint the bottom in Malaysia, I installed a new faring block and sonar transducer. This is a new addition to our array of Raymarine, navigational electronics. We now have on our big MFD (multi function display), a sonar that gives a color rendition of what is below our keel down to 900 feet whether it is rocks or alive and swimming. There is another mode called DownVision which uses a sweep of frequencies rather than the standard 200kz or 50 kz.. This gives far greater detail and definition to the targets. With this viewing equipment, we can see what the textures and contours the ocean floor below us is made of. This is especially useful when feeling our way into remote anchorages and knowing if we make a mistake, we will be on rocks or soft mud, and once we are anchored, how many and how big the fish are outside our cockpit.

Solar Panel

Soon we will be away from marinas…we will need to be energy conscious and our alternative energy sources need to be at their best. We took apart our KISS wind generator, and put in new thermostats, and bearings, and rebalanced the blades. It now runs better than it ever has. We also ultimately determined, with help from the “Solar Queen”, Amy, a sailor herself, from altE (http://www.altestore.com), that our 25+ year old solar panels were truly at the end of their life. Her team recommended the Morningstar ProStar MPPT-25 solar controller, along with one new 265 watt solar panel to replace our 4 small 51 watt panels, in the same footprint, on top of our hard dodger. Prior to this installation, we were seeing about 20-30 amp hours per sunny day. Now we are easily seeing 60-70. The team at altE is passionate about solar power, and are able to provide astounding results.

For all the work we have just completed on Brick House, we should do just fine getting to Durban, S. Africa and on around to Cape Town, where we begin again on the revolving list of maintenance and repairs.

For more information or to order, click on any link below.

Advertisements