Jerr’s Boating Blog
Here’s where I’ll muse about my life afloat. It’s personal and philosophical and I welcome discussion, silliness and comments.
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November 25th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Sunday, I raced with a couple of close friends and two others. We weren’t a superstar crew but lost largely through the misguided efforts of an overbearing know-it-all who was in the crew. Besides disconnecting our chartplotter, doing all he could to dissuade using it (To bolster his inaccurate courses) and tangling lines three times (blaming others each time), his tactical decisions were universally and ludicrously wrong. He constantly harassed everyone on board and (in his eyes), no one could do anything right. He is a prime example of what I call Captain Bligh Syndrome. He’s actually a very nice guy on land but something snaps and his inner Napoleon is released in a boat race. I’ll never sail with him again. Well, maybe if he comes to his senses & seriously mellows out and learns how to listen, but not until then. In this case, because I’m close friends with the captain, I’ll talk with him and gently tell him what was going on and how the rest of the crew felt.
Captain Bligh is invariably the worst sailor onboard and this one is no exception. Often the unassuming sailors are stunningly talented and there is a lot of wisdom in humble listening onboard. I learn every time I sail with someone else and sometimes gain deep insights through talking, building friendships and asking relevant questions. There is so much I am weak in and share that state of mind with almost all serious sailors. It’s also one of the most attractive aspects of sailing, which is a sport of lifelong learning and discovery, on so many levels.
I bring this up because there is an etiquette in accepting the captain’s leadership onboard – Having two captains simply doesn’t work. He should have simply shut up. No one wanted to cause a ruckus in telling him to because it was the captain’s job to do that but it’s not really his personality or leadership style. If you really don’t agree with a captain’s running of his boat, cheerfully do what you’re told, show your appreciation of the spirit of the invitation and sail on another boat. Be nice. Share with others. Look for the dirtiest jobs and pitch in. Don’t brag. Support others. You know the drill – It’s the Corinthian Spirit, at the core of boating and the uncommonly strong and beautiful relationships we have with each other, making our community, by and large, what it is: A ton of fun actively participating in nature’s beauty and sharing it with those we care for.
November 28th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
One of the things I like best about the holiday season is catching up with old friends. It’s been wonderful giving and receiving thanks for such wonderful friendships over Thanksgiving: We have much to be grateful for. Thank you for being a part of my blog! I’m looking forward to getting to know each of you and helping as others have helped me in our boating community, with forthright, meaningful and easily understood insights.
December 5th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I’m amazed with machinists’ work and having a customer who is a machinist is really a treat: His boat had a huge engine vibration. After replacing the crumbling aft engine mounting blocks and aligning the shaft coupler, the vibration was a little less but still awful at speed. The shaft showed it was out of alignment and the assumption was that it was bent, under the old, wrong engine position. So out came the shaft and off to the customer’s shop with the sloppy folding prop and the coupler. The shaft was .004″ out of alignment but the big news was the coupler, which was .014″ out of square, over the six inches of its face. That was then milled flat on the shaft, with a lathe. The prop’s tangs had warped out, like spreading the tines of a fork. With the blades removed, they were repeatedly, very carefully squished closed in a standard bench vise, little by little, until they sprung back to exactly square. The blades don’t wiggle at all, now! Amazing how useful a machinist is, isn’t it?
How could the coupler be so far out of square? I don’t really know but my guess is that the engine, far out of alignment, hung on the shaft, bending it a little and that little bend, combined with the unaligned engine threw the shaft increasingly as rotations increased. The engine was sitting on completely loose nuts on the engine mounts and the aft mounts were trashed. The engine was rattling around, exerting a tremendous lateral torque on the coupler and as the shaft was spun out of line, this would only multiply the destructive forces on the coupler. Remember physics? “Equal and opposite force” sound familiar? Diesels are noisy and do bang but really shouldn’t shiver the whole boat. Thump, yes, but not shiver – that’s caused by twisting not in alignment with the shaft.
As the shaft wobbles, its centrifugal force is squared and I think that may have bent the coupler neck over the years the boat’s been operated with this problem. The shaft is only 6′ and 1.5″ diameter, driving a 14″ 2-bladed racing/folding prop, so it’s beefy for the 37′ Beneteau First it’s on and not easily bent. The shaft was .047″ out of alignment, 2′ from the coupler, measured with a feeler gauge. Unfortunately, we’ll not know for sure what else is wrong until the next haulout, as the owner wants to button things up, now. My suspicion is that the cutlass bearing’s either spinning or damaged internally. I’ll know tomorrow if it’s spalled and can check the tightening of the set screws as well, as I’m the diving part of the prop. installation. I’ll let you know how it goes.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Wow – Over a month since I’ve written here! I’ll try to keep up more often. I have, though, posted another seven parts in my anchoring series here, filmed what ended up being the first half of my “How Rigging Works” video, worked on boats and took five days off. The video is much more comprehensive than others and gives a holistic understanding of how sailboats work. I’m shooting the remaining scenes two Saturdays from now and the videos will be for sale in February.
When we pulled the rudder to remove the shaft mentioned in the last post, the trailing edge looked like it had been chewed and the rudder was covered in blisters, most of which had been popped. The trailing edge was beginning to delaminate at the worst of the damaged areas, so we pulled it and I reconstructed the damaged area with Kevlar and silicon-thickened West Systems epoxy. I also sanded the rudder’s bottom paint off entirely and fixed the blisters. While I was at it, I filled three 8″ x 3′ vertical hollow spots in the rudder and long-boarded them flush. While all this was going on, the rudder drained about sixty pounds of water, through a drain hole I drilled in the bottom and later plugged.
Sadly, I’ve not got an interesting sailing tale to tell, lately. I’ve only been out a handful of times since I’ve last written and the weather’s been unusually flat, with weak Santa Ana conditions. Weather conditions have definitely changed since I was a child, here. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a very happy new year.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:16 am
Just a postscript on the rudder/shaft/prop/turbo rebuild/heat exchanger rebuild saga: That Beneteau First 37.5 used to shake like mad to max out at 5.4 knots under power and now goes perfectly smoothly at 7.5! I’m sure it’s all due to the rudder fairing and repair. It’s gotta be that. Just like the speed increase in the rig from the leather spreader boots I made. The heat exchanger was a case of electrolysis gone bonkers and the only thing I’ve got to say about that is “ZINC!”
January 17th, 2010 at 2:07 am
I’ve long thought that race boats ought to be beautiful – That by definition, they attain beauty with their efficiency in design and motion. I cringe at a lot of the light but ugly things racers do to their boats. They miss the picture: An eloquently-appointed boat ought to be beautiful and there ought to be pleasure in appreciating that eloquence. Splicing is one way a boat can be either uglied or prettied. I think a boat that’s beautiful will sail faster because people will enjoy her subtleties more fully and therefore sail to a higher level. In other words, a pretty boat is literally inspiring. Think about it – When your boat’s kept well, it’s a pleasure bringing guests out and you look forward to sailing her more than when her lines are stiff and things seem to be always slightly broken.
I spliced lazy jacks today for a performance cruiser who wanted them in 3/16″ Spectra. I spliced them with two types of splices: A Brummel splice for eyes not currently attached and 12-Strand, six-pair, traditional weave (five tucks) for the eyes with blocks. I tucked the ends inside and whipped the bury. They look beautiful and are really quite strong. I wasn’t trying to sell them when I showed them to another customer (I was just proud and know he appreciates fine craftsmanship.) but when I did, he ordered a set. His lazy jacks are set up oddly, so I’ll redesign them so they work easily.
I also think boats that are set up beautifully have an advantage in that it’s easy to spot something wrong. When everything’s spliced sweetly and led well, it’s easy to spot a kink, lines led wrong, etc. Beauty inspires appreciation and more meaningful involvement.