I chose to replace my leaking fixed port lights with cell cast acrylic instead of repairing the factory aluminum framed glass ones. Mostly I decided on the change for the issue of strength, I saw the possibility of breakage both in the event of a boarding wave or the possibility of a wild...
When your wife demands that you spend $3,300 on the boat you don't argue. (at least not for long)
Yup I was a bit reluctant to drop the coin on this one, but she was very persuasive, she kept reminding me of how we only have 18 gallons of water in the tank and the scepter Jerry cans are not...
Now that I had my grounding plate installed I went to work on the mast top rod/aeriel and all the bits between them.
The rod its self I made from a 2.5' length of 1/2" aluminum rod that I Rounded at the tip and polished. There are two schools of thought for tip shapes, one being pointy is...
I know what your thinking... There is no lightening risk in Oregon right? Yes, Yes that's true, But I just gave notice at work and I'll be leaving at the end of the year for sunny Florida! We're still figuring out where to launch but a 3 month sabbatical is in our future. :egrin:
Aaaanyhow...
Well I finally got to go sailing yesterday afternoon with the new EV-100 (Raymarine tiller autopilot) and compare it to the TP-22 (Simrad tiller pilot) and man what a difference there is between those two autopilots! Its like night and day. I thought the old tiller pilot did pretty well, but...
My Simrad TP-22 steers the boat alright under most circumstances, but it struggles in a following or quartering sea, and doesn't react fast enough to keep the boat on course in those conditions. I am also on my third one in three years, Simrad was very good to work with for warranty repair and I...
As my future plans include some time away from the dock I had to chose between solar, wind, or additional alternator power.
Solar won out fairly quickly as the best option, but I didn't want to add an ugly porch roof over the cockpit to hold them so the best way to get the solar area I needed...
This has been one of my biggest and also most enjoyable projects to date. I spent a lot of time debating on boarding options, starting with the stock transom ladder, and the possibility of a teak ski boat style step...
I added a new inverter to the boat this past weekend. I had a cheep cobra inverter but I didn't trust it to not catch on fire and also to not ruin the mackbook pro. I chose the Xantrex 600 watt pure sine wave inverter because it seemed like a quality but inexpensive unit that had enough...
Here is a few pictures of the strut all finished up with the new cutlass bearing, the two different primer layers, 1st: Dimetcote 302H to provide good adhesion and 2nd: Amercoat 235 for a firm foundation for the 3rd...
Neither the factory or single previous owner ever installed a sacrificial anode on the prop shaft strut. I always wondered if it really needed one because it is not in contact with any dissimilar metals except for...
Once again I am upgrading the lighting aboard my E-26:
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The lights are available through marinebeam.com and are a nice upgrade over the original. I made the blocks from teak myself to fit the new strip lights which snap into brackets screwed into the teak blocks. The lights have three output...
I wasn't really going to include this one but since Dugan mentioned it I thought I'd add a picture. I am actually very proud of how it turned out. I gave a lot of thought to where to put it and in the end my little E-26 had just one perfect place for it.
I recently replaced the starter key switch and push buttons on the engine control panel. I had always found that after sitting over the winter the contacts on the switches would be a little corroded and sometimes needed to be switched a few times back and forth to get them functioning. The...
I don't hide the fact that I think companionway drop boards are awful! I won't go into all the details and reasons they are terrible because you all live with them too. I will just say that they are kin to the log a caveman pushes into the entrance of the cave he hides in for shelter. (that is...
I'm trying something a little different to keep my new anchor securely in place on the bow. The unique sloping shape of the curved shank on the vulcan along with the weighted tip makes for some nice stout, increasing tension on the rode just as it is brought fully home. As you can see in the...