Sacrilege?

Sailing on a beautiful summer's day, with the warm wind blowing through the cockpit...there is nothing on earth as wonderful.

Sailing on a wintery day, with ice-cold rain and sea spray running through your hair, down your back and into the waistband of your shorts...not so good.

I am also faced with the reality that my young family need to be protected from the extreme NZ sun, as we sit pretty much directly under "that hole in the ozone" that we have all known about for years.

As a result, I have been investigating the installation of a bimini to compliment my dodger.

But...will a bimini protect me from a cold wind off the beam?  Will a bimini allow me to mount my instruments overhead and allow me to mount solar panels on top?  I believe from my research that the answer is no.

So then some sort of hardtop is required.  There are certainly a few examples of hard-top bimini installations out there, most of them being the products of Genco Marine.

I very much like what was done here:

Unfortunately, the cost of importing something as unweildy as this from Canada to New Zealand makes it a bit of a non-starter.

I began to wonder if I couldn't come up with a home-grown solution.  I have been playing with some photographs to come up with a possible concept.

I have always admired the lines of the Fisher motorsailers, with their enclosed wheelhouses:

I try to imagine that wheelhouse extending back to the stern, as would be required on a Nonsuch. 

I have also found inspiration in the design of the Chesapeake Marine Design Oysta 28:

There is a Nonsuch owner out there who has built this timber dodger on his boat:



Thank you to the owner in advance...



...and I've been playing with those lines, brought back to the stern:



A bodge-job with Microsoft Paint, and way too long...but you get the idea. The entire thing could be white, instead of varnished timber, for a very contemporary-look



Now imagine this overall profile, but with the forward sloping forward section or "Portugese Bridge".  There are clearly issues of access and sight lines, which could be resolved before final dimensions are set, but in concept, imagine having a warm dry cockpit with windows that could be opened in the summer, a couple of hatches on the roof, solar panels, and fitting on the ceiling for a remote VHF, plotter and instruments?

I'm actually convinced that the cockpit could then be far more useable year round, be it in the blinding sun or the cold and wet.  It would add tremendous safety for the kids as well.

Of course you either love it or absolutely hate it, and it would be criminal to ruin the lines of the Nonsuch, but perhaps if the wheelhouse roof curvature matched that of the cabin exactly, it might actually really work?

Cabin sole re-finishing

From the start, I began to suspect that the very clever and beautiful cabin dining table would prove more of an obstacle than anything else, and I was right.  

The table is large enough to serve everyone seated on the starboard side, and when unfolded it does the same for the port side diners...the problem is when you add up the number of times you eat with a large group of people, and compare that to the number of times you wrench your back trying to access the lockers behind this bloody table, or wish that you had still more floor space for the kids to play...you realize the table must go.

So...a couple of weeks ago I did just this, I pulled the table off the boat.  No real drama, it's not as heavy as it looks.

But like all small projects, it grew in size and complexity.  I noticed that the teak & holly cabin sole was discolored where the table legs sat for 26 years, and that the cabin sole in general was rather dull.

I knew that I wanted to make some changes to the plumbing and clean up the under-floor wiring, so I removed all of the sole panels.

I took the panels home and washed them.  I then sanded them lightly and carefully with 180 and then 240 grit with a random orbital sander.

I applied 3 coats of Cabots CFP Water-Based Flooring Polyurethane (formulated for skid-resistance when dry),

and was extremely-happy with the end result.

The space down below now is remarkable, the measurement between the base of the port and starboard settees is actually just over 1.5m, which can be better appreciated if you pull it on a tape measure...this on a 30' boat!

Tank Monitor Installation

Hello again,

Kiss Kiss has three water tanks (port and starboard cabin, and bow), a small holding tank above the head, and a factory fuel tank (modified and renovated in an earlier post).

I wanted to know the fuel level, and the water level in the two cabin water tanks.  The bow tank, due to my insecurities over having that much mass at the bow, has been taken offline.

The port water tank is factory original, with an electronic level sender installed.  The starboard tank is a poly replacement for the original holding tank, and does not have a sender.  Because the two tanks are linked when both valves are opened midships, they will self-level...therefore only one sender is required (and some math during calibration).

The fuel tank also has an electronic sender.

I have a BEP multi-tank monitor which will keep track of 3 tanks simultaneously once properly calibrated.

Installation required running 12v to the extremely low-draw senders, fusing and grounding them, then running the sender leads to the control unit, which I switched and fused and installed adjacent my chartplotter at the navigation table.  I have not calibrated the units yet, because the instructions insist that you calculate the fuel/water volume, divide into 5 parts, then empty the tank, fill in 5 equal amounts while calibrating (a bit of a pain).

I am thinking whether the same couldn't be acheived by pulling the sender out of the tank, measuring the long sensor rod and dividing it into 5 parts with a marker, then dipping it down into the full tank mark-mark...not sure this makes sense with a non-rectangular/non-flat tank...geometry....