Retirement and sailing.

[geem]

Yep quite so Mr G but this post has as its basis a change of Life Style , thinking of sailng into the blue yonder , considering the necessities of doing so and becomming self sufficient , up to a point ; but at a Senior age one is perhaps not best to deal with the happenings that life can spring upon one , eh ? Yep Young Age , good health , and a willinness to go anywhere , a 'gun ho' attitude , do anything , invinciple , seems all possible ; yep we do have boats them that post upon these pages , but not all of us will aspire to embark on such a Journey , Voyage , as this Author has ? So doing this voyage in Safety , Comfort , with on board medical assistance , good food and drink , a experienced Skipper and Crew , good company of others on voyage , would I thought be something that any Boat Owner should consider as an alternative to 'doing it the hard risky way' ?

Mostly it's mental attitude. We know of several liveaboards in their later years. One guy is 83. He had health issues but still sails a 57ft boat with his wife, no electric winches. He also kitesurfs. The bottom line is you have to want to do it. It's far easier to think of reasons why you can't do it than you can, but if you really don't want to do it, you never will.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Speed reading this thread as having first coffee of the day aboard my Sealord which is in the 32nd year of her circumnavigation - 28 of them in my ownership.
Currently in Puerto Lucia, Ecuador, with the alternator ashore being 'sorted'.
Some quick thoughts - if you don't bring it you wont have it. Skills are easy to find, parts are not.
That said parts are said to be easy in Panama but workmanship is iffy.
Here in Puerto Lucia in the last little bit of 'recent' - the last month - a 49 foot Southerly has been in having major work done on lifting keel mechanism, a Lagoon about 45 foot lifted out for saildrive work, an Oyster with two blown out sails, something from the US having major steel work done on her hull, , me with my alternator and also a cooling issue tracked down to 38 years of sludge in the heat exchanger FW side - oh and a genoa to go ashore for a bit of TLS. Everyone very happy with the standard and all except me had come back out of the Pacific when on way from Panama to Galapagos or further west.
And yesterday a 30 foot 'Maxi' turned up having been using their emergency tiller for a bit.

Back on track - do not leave home without sorting those horrible deck fittings on your chain plates, and replace the Tball fittings at the top of your lowers with through bolted tangs.

Pics to follow later today - after breakfast,etc etc.

Frank, all noted. We met up with Camomile in Treguier a couple of years ago. As a result our chain plates are currently being removed and beefier ones fitted. The lowers are done and the plates have been cut and the fabricator is making up the main shroud rigging U bolts with the correct bend on even as I type this.

 

[john_morris_uk]

John ,
have you read the technical bits of the Camomile Blog? Not just this first page but there is lots of wisdom throughout the blog.
Blue water preparation

Oh and how is your baby stay secured? Have the bulkheads outside the frd head started to lift yetfrom the cabin sole yet?

Re alternators and starter motor. I have the original MD17D with a left handed starter motor so for me that is essential spare.
There was a boat - a jenny - re-engined in Panama 3 years earlier that had her starter motor fail when up a caleta in southern Patagonia about 12 years ago. They were really up 'caleta de mierda sin remo'
Original Volvo 50 amp 'dumb' alternator was replaced with a 12/80 battery sensed alternator so old one is the spare.
I carry complete spare pump plus spares. That way its a straight change out in an emergency and I can sort old one in my own time. Important spare parts seem to be jokers and the top seal fitting if a newish Jabsco.

Photos of the deck staple - replaced in BA only 4 years earlier - that failed on the way from Tonga to NZ and how we fixed it and saved the rig. New ones are heavier diameter.

When we bought Serendipity 18 years ago, the inner forestay or ‘baby stay’ had lifted the deck and forepeak/heads bulkhead. I had a tie bar made up with left and right threads at either end and with a suitable fitting fabricated to go on the reverse side of the deck fitting under the deckhead, and with another fitting through bolted to the keel stringer, I’ve pulled the deck back down and into shape and effectively tied the baby stay to the hull of the boat.

 

[[2574]]

I’ve just added a torque wrench and a set of 3/8 drive Allen bolt drivers to the inventory. The bolts that hold the Aquadrive together have to be torqued to 50ft lb, that needs more than an Allen key.

 

[john_morris_uk]

I’ve just added a torque wrench and a set of 3/8 drive Allen bolt drivers to the inventory. The bolts that hold the Aquadrive together have to be torqued to 50ft lb, that needs more than an Allen key.

Have you got a 3/8 torque wrench or do you do what I do and use a 3/8 to 1/2 adapter?
And doing those Alan bolts up to 50 lb/feet is a pain in the backside because if you go round once you go round a dozen times and they still seem to do up a little bit more each time.
How do you hold the shaft still? I end up tying a length of timber under one of the blades of the propeller to stop the thing turning round as you lean on the torque wrench.

 

[dslittle]

I wasn’t sure what you meant by BCD so I looked it up. Google lead me to urban dictionary. I’m just wondering which of the definitions you were referring to? (Visit Urban Dictionary and look it up if you’ve got a reasonably strong stomach and a youthful sense of humour)
I’m hoping you were really referring to a scuba divers buoyancy control device?

I was referring to a BCD (Size L not XL) that is still for sale because it’s too small for somebody!!!

 

[Blueboatman]

Thinking about this a bit more.

I wonder how the liveaboards all fared during lockdowns and zero supply chains..

What happened when stuff on board went wrong or they got thumped by another empty boat dragging down in an anchorage ?
Were they stuffed ??

So I’m afraid I come back to self sufficiency.

Try putting aboard every tool needed to build the boat and it’s systems .. and then only then remove a few if necessary , to make space for the gourmet galley and swimbo wardrobe ?

Ps Next time I want a short lathe on board …? as well

 

[[2574]]

Have you got a 3/8 torque wrench or do you do what I do and use a 3/8 to 1/2 adapter?
And doing those Alan bolts up to 50 lb/feet is a pain in the backside because if you go round once you go round a dozen times and they still seem to do up a little bit more each time.
How do you hold the shaft still? I end up tying a length of timber under one of the blades of the propeller to stop the thing turning round as you lean on the torque wrench.

I bought a 3/8 torque wrench because it is physically smaller than the 1/2 and therefore fits in between the Aquadrive heads and therefore allows a linear drive effort in to the Allen bolt. Otherwise, with a 1/2 drive, an articulated joint has to be added and the torque wrench held at about 20deg to the centreline - a real PITA.

I use a big screwdriver jambed in the gearbox flange bolts to hold the shaft stationary whilst torquing the Aquadrive Allen bolts. It’s handy if one has four arms and two heads to do this …….

 

[geem]

Thinking about this a bit more.

I wonder how the liveaboards all fared during lockdowns and zero supply chains..

What happened when stuff on board went wrong or they got thumped by another empty boat dragging down in an anchorage ?
Were they stuffed ??

So I’m afraid I come back to self sufficiency.

Try putting aboard every tool needed to build the boat and it’s systems .. and then only then remove a few if necessary , to make space for the gourmet galley and swimbo wardrobe ?

Ps Next time I want a short lathe on board …? as well

Being hit by a dragging boat is usually a cosmetic issue. That kind of repair can wait. Torque wrenches can be borrowed. The liveaboard community are very helpful to each other in my experience. If you are heading off around the world you may want to carry everything you can but a trip across the Atlantic doesn't need that kind of self sufficiency in my experience. We do carry a lot of tools but I still have tools I chose to leave at home

 

[mjcoon]

... Torque wrenches can be borrowed. ..

Not if everyone thinks that!

 

[Frank Holden]

When we bought Serendipity 18 years ago, the inner forestay or ‘baby stay’ had lifted the deck and forepeak/heads bulkhead. I had a tie bar made up with left and right threads at either end and with a suitable fitting fabricated to go on the reverse side of the deck fitting under the deckhead, and with another fitting through bolted to the keel stringer, I’ve pulled the deck back down and into shape and effectively tied the baby stay to the hull of the boat.

'Morning John,
you seem to have most of your rig issues sorted but there are a few other points.
I just had a quick read of Bill's bit on re-rigging Blue Water Re-rig and not sure if he replaced the terminations at the mast or not.
'Serenade' was 8 years old when I bought her and had some serious usage in those 8 years. What the PO didn't tell me until some time later when I bumped into him in Perth, WA, was that just before they arrived in Thailand the stbd lower had failed somewhere down near deck level - not sure what bit . They nearly lost the rig but then instead of taking the hint they only replaced that shroud and its associated bits.
So three weeks after I bought her the port lower failed and the mast fell down.
It had failed, in very light conditions, when the Tball fitting failed just inside the mast. It had been hanging by a thread for a while.
Anyway I now have a double spreader mast.
I did a rolling refit in 2013-15 of all the rigging. Lowers were new - along with all turnbuckles etc in NZ in 2015.
Less than 6000 miles later when we arrived back in Chile we found broken strands at one of the swages.
Rather than stuff about with more Tballs we sourced some kit from the Rig Shop in I think Fareham. You can see it in the pics.
'Long legs' let us use the same two year old wire. The fittings on the mast were removed and a 'slug' machined to the same profile as the holes in the mast and of the same length as the outer diameter of the mast so it stayed put. A hole was drilled through it and everything reassembled. All while the mast was up. I sleep better now.

I have left the tballs at the uppers and masthead as they don't experience the same loads.

Do you have an inner forestay ? Not the baby stay but one you can set storm jibs on?

 

[Frank Holden]

Not if everyone thinks that!

I have always had a 'borrow once ' policy. If I need to borrow a tool I will then go out and buy one.
I think the tools on my boat are now worth more than the boat itself.

 

[mjcoon]

I have always had a 'borrow once ' policy. If I need to borrow a tool I will then go out and buy one.
I think the tools on my boat are now worth more than the boat itself.

It just so happens that I recently raised the question of sharing tools at a local "Repair Café" regular event. Lately there was some negativity because of Covid-19, but perhaps we can find ways around that...

 

[john_morris_uk]

Do you have an inner forestay ? Not the baby stay but one you can set storm jibs on?

Yes we have a removable inner forestay. I designed and had fabricated a substantial plate with a tang with a matching plate underneath that bolts onto the bulkhead dividing the anchor chain locker from the forepeak

I’m currently playing with the storage of the removable inner forestay as obviously by the time it’s brought back to the shrouds it’s too long to be braced down by the fancy tensioning device. I know some people make them intentionally short and have a short wire strop at the bow to fix them too and I may go that way myself? However I’m putting a hook on the spreaders and I’m going to add some ‘U’ bolts that it can be lashed down to hoping that will be satisfactory. We have two Spinnaker poles and I’m still wincing slightly at the cost of the extra Selden Spinnaker slider to go on the track on the front of the mast. I’m inclined to play with a twizzle rig but Pete Sanders isn’t enthusiastic and he usually knows what he’s talking about.

 

[Gerry]

Yours was very upmarket, I'd never heard of stainless steel. Ours was aluminium, an inverted half dome with the base closed off. Perforated with holes - a bit line an inverted colander with a lid (on the underside). Ours was called a 'posser'.

Jonathan

Lakeland! Sadly they no longer stock it but ours has been going strong for 25 years now!

 

[Frank Holden]

Yes we have a removable inner forestay. I designed and had fabricated a substantial plate with a tang with a matching plate underneath that bolts onto the bulkhead dividing the anchor chain locker from the forepeak

I’m currently playing with the storage of thr removable inner forestay as obviously by the time it’s brought back to the shrouds it’s too long to be braced down by the fancy tensioning device. I know some people make them intentionally short and have a short wire strop at the bow to fix them too and I may go that way myself? However I’m putting a hook on the spreaders and I’m going to add some ‘U’ bolts that it can be lashed down to hoping that will be satisfactory. We have two Spinnaker poles and I’m still wincing slightly at the cost of the extra Selden Spinnaker slider to go on the track on the front of the mast. I’m inclined to play with a twizzle rig but Pete Sanders isn’t enthusiastic and he usually knows what he’s talking about.

What I used to do is as shown. A bit of a lashing a few feet above the deck on the baby stay and then back to the foot of the mast but I must admit its a long time since I did that. On passage I invariably have a storm jib hanked on ready to go and day sailing I just try and avoid tacking, I guess its an age thing.

 

[john_morris_uk]

I’ve just realised I really should be posting this in PBO. I’ll try and move the posts.
Edit. I’ve just moved the practical posts to a new thread in PBO.

 

[Graham376]

Being hit by a dragging boat is usually a cosmetic issue. That kind of repair can wait. Torque wrenches can be borrowed. The liveaboard community are very helpful to each other in my experience. If you are heading off around the world you may want to carry everything you can but a trip across the Atlantic doesn't need that kind of self sufficiency in my experience. We do carry a lot of tools but I still have tools I chose to leave at home

I had the torque wrench on board but no valve spring compressor, no piston ring compressor or bore honer. No hire shops around but fortunately, a local engineering workshop was able to assist. There will always be something extra needed and quite a few tools and spares which are never used.

 

[mjcoon]

I had the torque wrench on board but no valve spring compressor, no piston ring compressor or bore honer. No hire shops around but fortunately, a local engineering workshop was able to assist. There will always be something extra needed and quite a few tools and spares which are never used.

It used to be possible to get a kit for making up jubilee clips consisting of a long band with the rack cut into it and several worm gear units. Just the thing for making up a piston ring compressor...

 

[mattonthesea]

I found the cruising community to be amazingly supportive. Within minutes of putting out a call for a replacement for an Aerogen blade I had one, plus a spare!

And I could offer first aid and health support.

I did have to buy a second wrench though ?