LooseChange said..
...not the 75 ohm Dick Smith rubbish you had.

Thanks, I'm Really struggling to ubderstand how this could be a reasinable thing to install.... and it not even tinned ! It's amazing to think that previous owners toured Bass Strait many times with this cable. Reception could be quite good at times, but transmission was dodgy.

A

The next thing I have been working on is a weeping diesel fuel line. I drained the tank 4 times before I found that the problem was in fact a cracked connector fitting. First I glassed up a suspect weld in the tank sump, then re-did the all the joints twice with two different thread sealant before I found the crack. As I have said before it feels like I am doomed to replace everything metal of this boat that is over 20 years old. This connector is between the cut of valve and the tank, so if it let go on passage I would have lost 60 L into the bilge with no easy way to repair it.

Here it is after I opened it up a bit.

Stockie said..



Okay you may need some imagination, can anyone guess what I am home building here?
I have always hankered for one of those Slick headsail pre-feeders, but I just can't bring myself to handing over $125
no no I would much rather spend two hours in the shed with the lathe and latter on the TIG.
i need to work on a neat solution for the lanyard tie off, any ideas?
cheers Richard

I would just weld a ring on the end of the small T and splice on a lanyard.

I worked on removing the previous owners "improvement" of bog at the bottom of the sail track.

Finally got enough out and was able to raise some purdy new sails!

I had just finished repairing the exhaust manidfold and elbow on the Volvo Penta, and the very first outing the crew reported a weird sucking noise coming from the rear technical area under the cockpit. Preliminary investigation found a pinhole in the muffler squirting salt water on any revs above 1500rpm.
After sweating and swearing an awful lot, I finally managed to get it out, hopefully effect repairs tonight and back in tomorrow.
Considering it is only 3yrs old, I'm not overly impressed with Volvo's alleged reliability, as that's now the manifold, exhaust elbow and the muffler.
We'll have a good look for any other weak spots after sand blasting it, I'm hoping we can find any other issues before re-installing, the space to work in is nowhere near as bad a some boats I've worked on ,but it's still a bitch fiddling with stiff exhaust hoses in a cramped space.



This was the exhaust elbow, you can see how badly it was blocked due to carbon buildup.



Seems pretty ordinary considering it's only just turned 3 and has been serviced at the regular intervals!
Remind me why do we have boats again ?

Stainless steel, salt water and diesel exhaust gases don't like each other especially the welds. Fibreglass waterlock muffler is the go.

We only discovered the problem with stainless wetlocks when a sistership with which we were friends nearly sank on a coastal passage.
We stuck an IPhone down and took a photo of the bottom of ours and found the same thing about to happen.

About 10 years old. An easy fix, but not a cheap one.

But we'd never heard of the issue before.

...aand I am now glad I went through the effort to get it out and have a good look. After a quick bead blast, what I thought was one wee hole turned out to have lots of mates.
I could easily imagine the little dots all connecting together one day and becoming a much more problematic ..err...big dot.
Rather sobering. Reminds me of electrolysis. Ended up brazing the whole area, put it all back together tomorrow!

Not my boat but spliced this up today.
Halyard with integrated soft shackle.
Means no shackle to fail or fall out of the splice and go 'splash '.
Also ideal for a Genoa halyard onto a furler swivel as there is no wear on the swivel from an I'll fitting shackle

valo said..

rumblefish said..
Not my boat but spliced this up today.
Halyard with integrated soft shackle.
Means no shackle to fail or fall out of the splice and go 'splash '.
Also ideal for a Genoa halyard onto a furler swivel as there is no wear on the swivel from an I'll fitting shackle

I have a soft in the middle of my continuous jig sheet.
Loved it at first. Now it is getting hard to slide the plastic ring up and down. Thinking of ditching it.
Is there a way of lubricanting it without doing harm to the shackle?
Also noticed Rumblefish, that you dont have one on yours.
Could I remove the one on mine. Yours is a lot thicker than mine.

Plastic ring? You mean to help keep the shackle together?
Yeah get rid of it.
Boat I race on uses soft shackles on the sheets with no keeper ring, never had one come open.
If you're worried, replace with some double sided velcro

valo said..

rumblefish said..
Not my boat but spliced this up today.
Halyard with integrated soft shackle.
Means no shackle to fail or fall out of the splice and go 'splash '.
Also ideal for a Genoa halyard onto a furler swivel as there is no wear on the swivel from an I'll fitting shackle

I have a soft in the middle of my continuous jig sheet.
Loved it at first. Now it is getting hard to slide the plastic ring up and down. Thinking of ditching it.
Is there a way of lubricanting it without doing harm to the shackle?
Also noticed Rumblefish, that you dont have one on yours.
Could I remove the one on mine. Yours is a lot thicker than mine.

I like to put a bit of whipping twine to help open the loop. We are also starting to use soft shackles in caving explorations because its so light and cheap. At first it was a bit strange to suspend on these things instead of a carabiner...

rumblefish said..

cazou34 said..

valo said..

rumblefish said..
Not my boat but spliced this up today.
Halyard with integrated soft shackle.
Means no shackle to fail or fall out of the splice and go 'splash '.
Also ideal for a Genoa halyard onto a furler swivel as there is no wear on the swivel from an I'll fitting shackle

I have a soft in the middle of my continuous jig sheet.
Loved it at first. Now it is getting hard to slide the plastic ring up and down. Thinking of ditching it.
Is there a way of lubricanting it without doing harm to the shackle?
Also noticed Rumblefish, that you dont have one on yours.
Could I remove the one on mine. Yours is a lot thicker than mine.

I like to put a bit of whipping twine to help open the loop. We are also starting to use soft shackles in caving explorations because its so light and cheap. At first it was a bit strange to suspend on these things instead of a carabiner...

I've actually been doing them without tucking one inside the other.
A single tuck for the end loop then 2 separate lines into the diamond knot.
I like this method for 3 reasons;
- it's easier to get a spot on length as it doesn't shorten when spliced
- it handles chafe better as both lines are tight. With the above method I find the outer is a bit loose and can chafe and catch
- finally, after many uses with the above method, I find the tuck point gets messy

Is there a video for dummies on how to do this?

rumblefish said..

valo said..

rumblefish said..

cazou34 said..

valo said..

rumblefish said..
Not my boat but spliced this up today.
Halyard with integrated soft shackle.
Means no shackle to fail or fall out of the splice and go 'splash '.
Also ideal for a Genoa halyard onto a furler swivel as there is no wear on the swivel from an I'll fitting shackle

I have a soft in the middle of my continuous jig sheet.
Loved it at first. Now it is getting hard to slide the plastic ring up and down. Thinking of ditching it.
Is there a way of lubricanting it without doing harm to the shackle?
Also noticed Rumblefish, that you dont have one on yours.
Could I remove the one on mine. Yours is a lot thicker than mine.

I like to put a bit of whipping twine to help open the loop. We are also starting to use soft shackles in caving explorations because its so light and cheap. At first it was a bit strange to suspend on these things instead of a carabiner...

I've actually been doing them without tucking one inside the other.
A single tuck for the end loop then 2 separate lines into the diamond knot.
I like this method for 3 reasons;
- it's easier to get a spot on length as it doesn't shorten when spliced
- it handles chafe better as both lines are tight. With the above method I find the outer is a bit loose and can chafe and catch
- finally, after many uses with the above method, I find the tuck point gets messy

Is there a video for dummies on how to do this?

Google soft shackle, there is a million videos!!

I know. I actually meant the specific way you do it.
But any way

rumblefish said..
Not my boat but spliced this up today.
Halyard with integrated soft shackle.
Means no shackle to fail or fall out of the splice and go 'splash '.
Also ideal for a Genoa halyard onto a furler swivel as there is no wear on the swivel from an I'll fitting shackle

Hey Rumblefish, is that a button hole knot on the end (looks like it), I found an interesting u tube video which uses 2 eyesplices & an overhand knot instead

thanks

Geoff

Put on my new dodger today. Got a second hand stainless frame, bought a $35 sewing machine, some canvas, plastic and leather and had a go at sewing my own. Sewing looks very "dodgey" up close, but it almost like a bought one from a few metres away.
Prepare to repel all boarders