Great Day Sailing with Friends

Saturday was a perfect day to get out on the water. We were suppose to have a race for the Kampeska Yacht Club but the interest was just not there.  That did not stop some of us from getting out on the water and enjoying the day. Myself, Chuck Sherman and Brad Johnson and Barry Tietz can be seen below enjoying the day. Thanks Barry for shooting the pictures. Great Sail guys!

Kampeska Cup Regatta

Saturday, July 16 we had our local regatta here on Lake Kampeska. Temperatures were extremely hot and humid and many sailors stayed away.  We did have 10 boat compete in the monohull and multihull divisions. 

I was fortunate enough to have my two kids sail with me along with their cousin Spencer Prefling.  My kids, Parker 16 and Lauren 20 are seasoned sailors.  They have both raced with me on my M20 scow for years while growing up on Lake Kampeska.  Spencer has spent most of his summers here in South Dakota.

Winds were 10-18 so it was a great sailing day. Catch all the action, results and more photos of the Kampeska Cup on our website.  http://kampeskayachtclub.com/

 JollyMon third from the right at start 

 Ready to tack

 Coming by the committee boat

 Beating to weather

 Cruising to victory

 Rail down

 Holding on to win!

The Winners

Mariner 5hp outboard Impeller Replacement

Finally got the boat in the water after a long cold winter.  As I was motoring from the boat lift to home. I noticed that my little outboard motor quit pumping water.  Usually there is a nice little stream coming out of the back end of the motor.  I still had about a mile to go so I idled it back and pulled the cover off. I took off my shoe and scooped up some water and dumped it on the cylinder head to keep it cool until I made it home. 

I made it home and got the boat on the lift.  The pictures below show the process of taking the lower end off of the Mariner to get at the impeller.  The first picture is the bolt you have to loosen to disconnect the shift linkage. I lies under the rubber grommet that has to be removed first.

There are two bolts holding the lover unit on. Remove these from the bottom of the lower unit and it slides out.  The main drive shaft slides out also with no problem.

Lower unit removed

 Four bolts hold the impeller hosing down over the drive shaft.

Impeller hosing removed

Here is a good video showing the whole process



Interior of the S2 6.9

The interior of the boat is all original and in great shape.  I don't plan on doing any modifications to it at this time.  The layout has the standard V berth up front and two quarter berths on each side port and starboard.  A small area to the right of the keel enclosure has room for a porta-pottie. Beneath the companion way steps is an opening cabinet with tons of storage for life jackets and other gear.

The walls and ceiling are covered in a gray nylon carpet that is easy to clean. The cushions are tan with a maroon pattern.  The windows are trimmed out with teak and the wood covering the keel enclosure center is also teak.  The floors are all fiberglass with one main floor hatch center.

It has interior lights, one in the V berth, one in the head area and one in the main salon. The fuse panel is located in a small cabinet in the head area.

 Salon looking forward

 Main Salon

 Port side

Starboard side berth to the right

New Lemar Deck Hatch

It is Memorial Day weekend and I am sitting hear looking out at the lake while it rains.  It is almost June 1st and I have not had the boats in yet.  The flood on the lake and the crummy spring weather have put me a month behind.  This weekend I plan to put the power boat in.  I have a little touch up on the keel  of the sailboat and that will go in too.

The old Gray Enterprises (Bomar) deck hatch had seen it's better days. The Plexiglas was cracked and someone rather poorly tried to re-glue it into the frame.  One of the dogs that holds the hatch down was broken off.  It was time for a replacement.  I searched the web looking for a suitable hatch that would be a step up in quality from the Bomar.  I still have the old hatch if anyone needs replacement parts.

The Lewmar 40 low profile hatched  looked like a possible replacement.  The rough opening for the Lewmar is 16 9/16 which is close to the Bomars opening of 17 1/2.  I purchased the new hatch for $286.00 at Hodges Marine.

The problem is how to make the opening a little smaller.  I thought of using strips of wood to trim out the inside of the hatch but decided to use epoxy to make it strong and permanent.

I had to build a mold that I could poor the liquid epoxy into to form the new hatch opening.  After many hours of thinking about this I had it figured out!  I used a piece of foam insulation with the tinfoil backing as the base of the mold.

I then used flexible weather stripping 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch to make the curved corners and outline of the hatch.  I sanded the edges of the old opening and wiped it down with acetone.  I placed the mold in the opening of the hatch, centered it and braced it from below with a piece of wood to keep it in place.  I then seal the foam insulation mold to the opening with some caulk so the epoxy would not run into the cabin.  I mixed up 16 ounces of resin and poured it into the mold creating the new opening.

Close up shot of weather stripping with resin poured



Full shot of mold and resin

 New hatch rough fit

Paint touch up

 Installed the hatch today!

New hatch

Rudder and Keel Rehab

Rudder Work

I am getting close to putting the boat in the water for the season.  Memorial Day usually is the official start of our summer season here in the Midwest.  Like other parts of the country we have had an unusually wet and cool spring.

Last weekend I put both boat lifts in the water along with the dock.  The water level is still a little high so I have not put all sections of the dock in yet.

I was taking a look a the rudder the other day making sure it was ready to go.  I notice that it had a huge crack in the top where it pivots.  I took the bolt out that holds it in and found some major damage.  Further inspection showed that the top portion of the rudder was hollow around the pivot bolt. The torque on the rudder caused it to crack. 

I cleaned out the crack and remove the broken pieces.  I ground down the face of the top portion of the rudder to allow me to add some fiberglass cloth and resin for reinforcement.  I got out my epoxy resin and mixed up about 12 ounces.  I set the rudder on edge and poured in the resin to fill up the void inside the top portion of the rudder.  Once that curred I applied the cloth and resin over the face of the rudder and wrapped it over the edge to reinforce the broken spot.  I put on two layers of cloth and resin.

The trailing edge of the rudder had three spots the size of a quarter that were broken out.  I sanded and taped off these areas and applied a little epoxy resin to fill in the voids.  Once dry I sanded these down to contour with the edge.

The picture below is the finished product. I should have taken some pictures during the glassing to give you a better idea of the damage.  I gave it four coats of the same bottom paint I used on the hull. Interlux VC Offshore Epoxy.

Finished Rudder with epoxy paint, the damage was on the top of the rudder on the right end of the picture

Keel Work

I noticed the previous owner had run into a few object and caused a little damage to the bottom of the keel.  He had made an attempt to apply some bondo fiberglass to fix the problem. I chipped all of that off and ground it down. It appears that the keel in encapsulated in what appears to be foam. 

The repair will involve applying epoxy resin and several layers of fiberglass cloth to seal the keel up and prevent water intrusion. I will attached more pictures as the process progresses. The shot below show the keel prepared for fiberglass.

 Keel front view

Keel bottom view

Keel gelcoat ground off

Keel ready for glass

Finished keel repair

She hits the water tomorrow

Installation of Raymarine ST40 Speed and Depth Transducers

I wanted to add speed and depth indication to my S2.  I looked at several different options and chose the Raymarine ST40 for it's features, size and price.  I found a set of transducers on eBay that matched the display so I was in business.  

I found the Raymarine ST40 display on sale at Overtons for $180.  The bidata display shows two readings at once. The transducers actually pickup depth, speed and water temperature. 

The hull of the S2 6.9 is about 9/16 of an inch thick cored with 3/8 inch balsa.  This construction makes for a extremely solid hull. The outer skin seemed to be about 1/8 inch thick and the inner skin was thinner at about 1/16 of an inch.  This is a shot of the core taken from one of the holes drilled out near the keel.

When cutting in a thru hull it is important to know if your hull is solid fiberglass or if it is cored with wood or foam.  If your hull is solid fiberglass simply cut the hole all the way through and install the thru hull with 3M 4200. 

The picture shows the proper preparation for a thru hull fitting in a cored hull.  The hull of the S2 is cored with basla wood. If a hole was simply cut in the hull it may leak into the core and and delaminate the hull. The proper way to prepare the thru hull is to cut the inside core out a little bigger than the thru hull fitting. 

 In my case the transducers are 2 inches in diameter.  I cut the inside out with a 2 1/2 hole saw.  I then filled the hole with fiberglass resin to seal off the core and then drilled it out with a 2 inch hole saw.  The instructions recommended that the transducers be installed ahead of the keel and on the flattest part of the hull not to exceed 10 degrees.  They also recommended that they should not be place in front of each other because it might cause turbulence and affect the readings.

I am just waiting for a warm day to install the transducers. To power the ST40 display you simply need to run a red wire to the positive lead and a yellow wire to the negative lead. I am still trying to figure out where to install the display.  I am not sure I want to cut more holes in the bulkhead so I am considering alternate locations. Stay tuned.

Fabricating New Hatch Guides

My 6.9 S2 is a 1985 vintage. Like all good things some of the hardware eventually wears out.  The hatch guides are a common thing that eventually breaks or cracks.  The original guides were made out of some type of hard plastic. I am not sure if it is lexan or polycarbonate. 

I searched the Internet for a replacement product and considered using aluminum or wood.  I did  not want to use wood because that would mean staining and varnishing which means I would have to redo it every couple of years. I was looking for the no maintenance option. 

As I was wondering through our local big box home supply store I ran across plastic brickmold that you use to trim around the doors on your house.  This is made out of a vinyl plastic and look about the right size and thickness.  I purchased ten feet for about $13 and thought I would give it a try.

My wife is always telling me to think outside the box, so I saw no reason this stuff might work.

The original guides were one 1 inch wide by 3/4 high.  The groove was set 1/4 inch off the deck and the was 3/8 inch wide.  I got out my trusty table saw and proceeded to rip the brickmold to the proper width.  I left the original thickness as is for added support.

After I cut the piece to the proper length and ripped the 3/8 inch groove. I drilled seven hole with a 3/16 inch bit.  I use 1 1/2 inch stainless steel screws and counter sunk then so they were flush.  I then applied a generous bead of 3M 4200 to the bottom of the guide and screwed it down tight.

 

The final product turned out very nice if I do say so myself.