1A) Pull the rig out of the boat and get to the shop (100% Complete)
1B) Remove the mast step and deck collar and send to the shop for stripping and painting (100% Complete)
The step bolts have been broken loose and the step itself is loose. Need to understand the material that the threaded bolts are going into to ensure that when I rebed them I do not cause galvanic problems. The stainless bolts which were in contact with the aluminum step and have been damp (mostly with rainwater though) show no signs of corrosion. Down in the machine threaded holes it appears to be that below the fiberglass there is a tan colored substance (steel? Bakalite? Mahogany?) into which the step bolts are threaded. The threads of the bolts are extremely clean although the "stickyness" of the threading of the bolts suggests something other than metal as the bolts required significant torque to back them out even after they had been initially broken loose. There appeared to be no indication of moisture down the holes and they are definitely blind holes. I will sent e-mail to Oyster to find out how the step was built up originally.
Response from Oyster is that the support for the step is a piece of steel encapsulated by fiberglass. Recommended bedding material is SikaFlex on the bolts to keep moisture out. With regard to torque on the bolts they should be "Nipped Up Snug" and new washer should be installed to ensure they can be pulled easily in the future. I do need to put a bit of sealant on some threads to keep moisture from getting down into the holes before the mast step comes back.
As for the tradition of a coin under the mast, none was observed... There was a small spanish coin beside the mast of a 1991 vintage which may have been dropped at some point in time. If I remember correctly there is a gold coin which was minted a long time ago in Botany Bay Austrailia which I will have to try to procure prior to the mast getting stepped...
Allan plans to blast and paint both the mast step and the deck collar which I handed off 11/2/2010
1C) Determine which type of mechanical end fittings to use on the wire. I have been a strong advocate for mechanical wire terminations on the prior vessel as well as re-rigging several friends vessels. I have not had any experience with these terminations on wire this large however. There is definitely an increased cost of using these fittings (Sta-lok, Norseman, and HiMod), however, the ability to replace a piece of wire anywhere wire is available is definitely attractive for extended cruising. Additionally, while I have seen failed swages on many vessels, broken wires have not been common. Thus I personally feel more comfortable with the long term stability of these types of fitting. The question is now a matter of which of the three fitting type to use. The backstay insulators already installed are the Norseman variety and if re-useable might have swayed the choice. However, at first look there may be some cracks in the Norseman backstay insulators. An interesting alternative is to use the newer HiMod fittings, while the HiMod backstay insulators are significantly more expensive they do not hae the failure mode of cracked insulator material resulting in a broken stay. Probably in the end the choice will be driven by which fittings more cleanly work with the connections to the mast.
Decision made, based upon Oyster currently using Sta-Lok fittings on all Oysters from the 575 down I felt that this was a strong endorsement of that particular fitting. Allan at SeaTek made sure that the fitting boxes in the mast can accomodate the Sta-Lok fitting and they do so even though the cost will be the highest of any of the three fittings I have decided to go this way. I did decide to delay installing backstay insulators until I have worked with the HF radio using a loose piece of wire for test purposes to determine what length will work well.
1D) Determine if the original Hood headsail furling gear can be salvaged, these units are in fact quite large. The systems appear to be working quite well and operate smoothly. However, to get them apart and replace the stay is always a risk. If not reuseable I will have to make a determination about which furling gear to use, most likely either the newest Harken products or the Profurl products.
Decision made: The furlers have Sta-Loc fittings inside which were able to be pulled apart. The furlers appear to be in very good condition considering their age and so will be able to be re-used.
1E) All three sails have been sent to the Costa Mesa North Sails loft for evaluation. All of the sails appear to be "Hood" sails of unknown vintage, the Yankee and Staysail are both "Bi-Radial" cut and the headsail has a padded foam luff. I am not sure if these observations can date the sail. The mainsail has three vertical battens which ar about 36 inches long. The top batten has a significant amount of twist around the axis. Perhaps a new batten would help things to furl a bit easier.
Response from Loft: All of the sails are in excellent shape and worth performing some basic maintance on them to get additional life out of them. They have sent a quote via e-mail with the costs associated with changing out the worn sunbrella sailcovers with a UV stable dacron cover, replace one batten in the mainsail which has a significant twist, and wash the sails. Plan to make sure that any replacement furler would have the same luff tape prior to going forward. If so, I will let them get started with the sail refurbishment project after I see the quote.
1F) Mast Light Replacement
Plan to use a Lopolight LED masthead trycolor/anchor light.
- Confirmed, SeaTek will procure - Need to specify the larger light fitting! Interesting note, Lopolight notes that Oyster currently fits these lights on their new builds
- Decided at the last minute to switch to the LED masthead light from AquaSignal due to some indications of premature failure of the Lopolight units
Not sure what to do with the steaming light and foredeck light yet as these are in a fixture on the front of the mast, Lopalight does make a nice one but it makes the tricolor look inexpensive!
- Existing fixture has a seperate steaming light and deck light. Will replace the steaming light fitting if it needs with the same, fordeck light looks like a sealed beam and works well
- Turned out that the existing fixture is in excellent shape and can be easily replaced with the current unit from AquaSignal if I need to
Had planned to replace the spreader light bulbs keeping the aerodynamic fixtures but the bulbs are sealed beams so I will use them as is. Note that the starboard side light is not currently working
- Consider putting high output broad beam LED bulbs on the second spreaders downward and on the tops of the first and second spreaders to illuminate the mast.
Would like to add "accent lights" to the rig to light up the mast from the top of the spreaders if it can be done cleanly
- Use the same fittings as plan to use on the upper spreaders looking downward? Definitely need to have seperate wiring coming down for the various pairs.
- Decided to keep it all simple and did not add additional lighting for the rig, perhaps lights from deck level?
Planning on a light on the aft end of the boom and a light for the cockpit on the boom.
- Use the same fittings as above?
- Decided to avoid having to run electrical wiring into the boom, will add accent lights to the swim step to provide light for boarding
1G) The original wire in the mast is not tinned, however, it appears to be in very good condition and has a double jacket coating. With the navigation lights being 24V and going to be LED based the size of the wire will not be an issue
Decision: Replace all of the wiring in the mast, it is out at this point already. Replace with tinned wire.
Used all Anchor wire as that is the wire I use on the rest of the boat.
Plan on using RG8U (now RG213) for VHF to reduce loss
Did make sure one of the runs is easy to replace if I need to use LMR400 for a high frequency antenna.
Talked with Shakespeare about antennas. Unfortunately the 5215-AIS is specifically tuned for the AIS frequencies and is not sufficiently broadband to also be used as a marine VHF antenna.
The only antenna they can recommend for use with AIS TRANSMIT and VHF TRANSMIT is the 396-1-AIS which is a folded dipole antenna and intrinsically broadband enough to to be useful across the entire band.
The only downside is this is a 4' fiberglass whip antenna which uses U-bolts for mounting which will take up some space and probably not last as long as the other style antenna
SeaTek did a wonderful job getting this antenna
For the AIS/VHF the length of the antenna run this should be R213 coax or better (LMR400/LRM350 would work but connectors are an issue, don't try the special cable unless have the connector issues worked out)
For the cell phone the plan is to use a 5412-S dual band cell antenna. While it is desireable to keep them relatively far apart they are in sufficiently different bands to not interact on antenna patterns appreciablly
For the length of the Cell antenna run shakespeare recommended again R213 or the LMR cables as good choices
For the TV antenna a model 2025 with gain control would work well or the 2020 if gain control is not needed (gain control is attenuation to keep from overdriving the signal)
In the end, the Shakespeare 2030 (the large one) fit nicely under the radar rotodome
For the TV antenna use RG59 rather than smaller cable due to the run length.
As for a second VHF antenna and then AIS one could use the 5215 for the VHF and then a 5215-AIS for the AIS antenna, however, this would require two independent runs AND the two antennas need several feet of horizontal seperation to avoid issues, vertical seperation is possible, i.e. put one of the antennas down on the first spreader. In my case, I am going to make the masthead antenna capable of either as well as an antenna on the back rail and a 2 input 2 output crossover switch to flip the two units if I need more range with the VHF antenna. I might also look at some of the active splitters which have a pre-amp to set the noise figure of the receiver before splitting. These types of splitters have about 1db of insertion loss while a normal splitter has about 4db of insertion loss (3db lost to splitting the signal in half, then another 1db of loss much like the active splitter).
This gives the following wires up to the masthead:
RG213 for AIS/VHF antenna
RG213 for cell phone antenna
RG6 for the TV antenna (also provides AM/FM reception)
Triplex wire for the LED tricolor/Anchor
Instrument wire for the wind point
I will probably also run a single piece of Cat 7e cable to the masthead just in case I put other instrumentation up there which uses ethernet (NMEA 2000 backbone)
I have a run of Cat6e running to the mathead, we had to cut the bottom end off to make it get through the mast.
1H) Looking into using "Spartight" in place of the original wedges at the mast partners. Not clear if this will work cleanly but it definitely would keep the moisture from running down the outside of the mast.
Decision: Use Spartight, looks like it will work well
Based upon discussion with Allan don't need to modify mast partners due to 1/8" smaller at forward end of ring. Should be fine
1I) Note, mainsail track on boom cannot be removed without cutting several welds! Don't want to damage that track! Track is ok so no problem but don't want to hurt it!
1J) Mainsail furler has a piece of #12 rod rigging inside, this will be replaced as part of the rebuild
1K) Many of the shives in the masthead and end of boom are a bit suspect. New shives will be made with oilite bearing materials
1L) SeaTek will work on finding replacement blocks in the boom vang.
1M) Loud hailer, need to replace, Planning to use the shakespear large antenna, however, it is backordered so will need to delay finishing that part.
1N) Interesting observation, it appears that the boom bail has been helicoiled at some time in the past. Most likely it got pulled hard and loosened up a bit. The Helicoils look to be a bit of a mess so they will work at improving the attachment I wonder if they could get a backing plate in there?
1O) Mast and fittings inspected for cracks, some small indications here and there, all will be ground out and re-welded to ensure no further issues.
1P) Note that while the spinnaker/whisker pole is about 5" in diamater it is relatively thin wall (thickness here) and should not be used with a spinnaker in more than 10-12 knts of wind, it is quite adequate for use as a whisker pole for the genoa/yankee and with flopper stoppers.
1Q) Bearing surfaces at the top of the mast appear to be in very good condition. will continue to use clear silicone grease in the future.
1R) SparTek will provide both the pin-to-pin lenghts of the stays as well as the lengths of the wire actually used for the build up. This will make refurbishment later much easier.
1S) Plan to reuse the Firldall Blipper radar reflector which came with the boat.
My Required Actions:
Confirm paint color, Matterhorn White is the common color
Matterhorn white it is from Awlgrip
Provide TV antenna and coax for masthead
Done, all coax except TV are run in Anchor tinned RG213
Provide Cell Phone antenna and coax for masthead? (Plan is to hook up a repeater to this to make cell phones on the boat look like they are at the top of the mast!)
Done, using RG213 from anchor and provided type N connector
WiFi Antenna on Masthead?
Nope, will either do cell or wifi so same run can be used for either
Confirm luff tape on equivilant roller furlers and compare to current, if the same, loft can do sail work, otherwise wait for rig to be ready (i.e. furlers survived)
Turn sail shop on for sail repair and possibly washing
Provide bolt pattern for Furuno 24" and Raymarine 24" Raydomes, if possible SeaTek will pre-drill the holes for future upgrades
Find shop to do vessel name on boom
Need some pictures of the mast boxes, a very nice setup. Easily repaired in remote locations!