76

(4 replies, posted in Repairs/Modifications/Upgrades)

I have posted several interior modifications in the past. Use the search function and enter seeadler in the author field, then scan down for topics started by me. (left of the topic)

I am in a city marina. You pay a fee in ranges. 25 to 28ft = $1535. (just the slip) Boat length includes all extensions. bow pulpit to self-steering gear.

The float switch lives in a really bad environment and will not last forever. The other cause could be debris jammed under the switch and holding it up. The debris may have floated away when water filled the bilge again so now it works again. The bilge pump is usually hooked in before the master switch so that you can turn all the power off but still have the pumps active when you are away from the boat. Better to risk a flat battery that risk sinking.

My vent line runs up (inside) to the top of the cockpit coaming under the winch mount. It then slopes downhill aft to the transom and through the hull there. I have never had any water get in.

Mine (#161) has the registration number molded into the hull. It is on the stern, top starboard corner. It is hard to see because it is small (~3/8" x 1.5") and the same colour as the hull. I do not know if I have the molded number instead of the plate or if it should have both and the plate is missing.  That also means the date must be the start of construction.

81

(3 replies, posted in Technical)

I borrowed a trailer from a different type of boat and needed to guess at the CG to get the correct tongue weight. I used one of the side view drawings of the Contessa that is found on the web. It is the one that shows the outline of the ballast weight. I guessed at the center of the ballast and guessed at the center of the rest of the boat using side area. Since the ballast is 50% of the overall weight, I put the CG at halfway between those points. After the boat was on the trailer using this method, I measured the tongue weight and it has close to what I wanted.

83

(6 replies, posted in Repairs/Modifications/Upgrades)

I just saw the pics of your motor. I see that there is a floor a few inches below the engine. Is this the bottom of the bilge or a tray that is part of the motor mount? My bilge (hull 161) is 3 ft deep from in front of the engine back to the rudder. Is this a feature of the later boats?

I have jacklines that run along the cabin sides from the side of the winch base to the front of the cabin. (U-bolts) I use webbing rather than cable or rope since it will not roll if you step on it. But I also keep it tight so that would not be a problem anyway. Do not use the Canadian tire type webbing. It does not have the required strength. I do not have a problem with it getting caught on the winow bolts. The webbing gets longer when wet so there is room to slide. I also have jack lines in the cockpit. It is easy to unclip from the cockpit and clip onto the desk lines before leaving the cockpit. If you are sailing singlehanded, keep the line from you to the jack line as short as possible. It is better to be hanging half overboard than being dragged along side or behind the boat at cruising speed. I know of several people that did not survive that experience.

87

(8 replies, posted in Repairs/Modifications/Upgrades)

pletwa,   I sent you a email but not sure if you got it.

You should be able to remove the rudder without hauling out. There is a cotter pin on the pintle. You should be able to get at these with fins and mask.

89

(8 replies, posted in Repairs/Modifications/Upgrades)

I am in Barrie. I have a custom bow roller and did many changes for a 11,000nm trip I took a few years back. If you are interested there are a few pics in the galleries. Go to the gallery index and click on search, check by owner name and enter Seeadler. Some of my mods are documented in the repairs/mod/upgrade section. You can also search forums by author.

90

(1 replies, posted in Repairs/Modifications/Upgrades)

I think there a few pics of my bow roller in the galley. I would link them here, but at the moment none of the pictures will display for me.

91

(5 replies, posted in General Questions/Comments)

When I was hauling the boat out this year, one of the aft crattle pads was leaning upright rather that flat. No one noticed as the boat was lowered. The wooden pad ripped off and the hull rested on the corner of the 1/8" steel plate pad. The corner was bend back a few inches and the gelcoat was scraped, bit there is no fiberglass damage. Do not try this puncture test at home. One year the crane started to pull the boat off the crattle sideways and there was huge pressure on one pad. The hull was pushed in about 3 inches without a crack or delam.

92

(17 replies, posted in Repairs/Modifications/Upgrades)

Mine leaked out the liner as well. Try some masking tape between the hull and deck liner to seal the gap and prevent the drizzles.

93

(6 replies, posted in Repairs/Modifications/Upgrades)

After you fix the mounts, do not forget to check the engine-shaft alignment when the boat is back in the water. It may have been the original cause of the mounts failing. If the new mounts are different, you will also need to re-align.

The windvane is 95 lbs and the solar panel about 25. Then there is the extra anchor, chain, line and lots of spare line. Now that you remind me I did move up the boot stripe and bottom paint, but I probably moved it equally front and aft. But I was just judging from the visibility of the bottom paint. I should pay more attention to the other details like deck angle.  Maybe I will put a level on the cabin and cockpit soles.

I have the holding tank forward under the V-berth, with a 15 gallon water bladder above it. I have another 15 gallons of water in the side storage area at the aft end of the V-berth. Right now they are empty. There are 5 sails and a zodiac in the v-berth. The rest of the boat is empty of the usual extended cruising gear and supplies. In the aft I have a Yanmar 1GM10, 45 liters of fuel, 75W solar panel and a monitor windvane. In this state she sits well down is the back with 5 inches of the bottom paint at the bow above the water. When she has a full cruise load, she sits almost level, but well down of coarse.

96

(17 replies, posted in General Questions/Comments)

John - You are correct about my tack reef lines. Since my halyards go aft to the cockpit, the two original cleats on the mast are not used. One end of all three lines are permanently tied to one of the cleats. The line goes up and through the reefing point cringle in the sail and down to the cleat on the other side of the mast. Each reef line just gets tied on top of the previous one.

97

(17 replies, posted in General Questions/Comments)

John - When I first started, I had the reefing lines start near the aft end of the boom, up to the reefing clew point, down to a block on the boom, forward along the boom, through a block, up to the reefing tack point, down to the goose neck, through a ring, down to the deck, through a pulley and back to the cockpit. This created a lot of friction. Later I met Derrick Hatfield in the Azores and he showed me his setup on his Open 40. Thats what I use now. There are 3 short lengths of rope (one for each reef) attached to the mast below the goose neck. The problem with the tack hooks is that only one reef can fit on them at a time and they fall off the hook before you can get the halyard tight. The tack line is hand feed through the reefing tack point and tied to a cleat on the mast below the goose neck. The clew reefing line now starts near the aft end of the boom, up to the reefing clew point, down to a block on the boom, forward along the boom, through a block at the goose neck, down to the deck, through a pulley and back to the cockpit. To reef, you pull up the topping lift, let the halyard down the correct amount, go forward and attach the short reefing line at the tack, back to the cockpit, pull in the clew reefing line and tighten the halyard, release the topping lift. I do not use any of those foot long ties in the sail between the tack and clew. When putting in a second reef, do the same without touching the first one. So when you take out the second reef, the first one is still in place. Since the reefs add on top of each other, it also means that even with 3 reefs all the loose sail is held in by the earlier reefing lines and does not flop around. I noticed that Derrick's new open 60 has the tack reefing lines always through the tack reefing point and the lines lead aft. This is even better since you do not need to go forward at all. My lines are quarter inch which is just enough, but I have ripped the blocks off the boom on several occasions. They are on with 2 one-eighth rivets.

Unfortunately I have been working and only sailing locally. I am still looking forward to a trip to Australia, but it is a few years off. I bought the latest edition of "World Cruising Routes" to help keep the plan alive.

rbporter - I love the monitor. I have 11,000nm on it without any real problems. The cape horn looks a bit flimsy. The main problem I had with the other brands is that they could not be mounted on the center line due to the outboard rudder. I when to the San Fran boat show and talked with all the manufacturers. Some said "No problem, we just put a longer blade on it". Others said, " no you can not use ours. it must be on the center so it is set up the same on each tack."  I did like one that was manufactured here in Ontario, but it was just coming out as I was buying and it had no track record. I knew that the monitor worked on the Contessa.

98

(17 replies, posted in General Questions/Comments)

I have a V holding tank molded into the bow below the berth. The fill or pump-out line attachs to the top in the aft starboard corner near the inspection port. The vent goes into the tank on the top just forward of the fill line. The vent line runs to the bow and exists overboard near the rail in the center of the O in the CO logo.

100

(9 replies, posted in Technical)

I think my mast foot had rivets and the head had bolts. I drilled out the rivets, but the corrosion was so bad that it was impossible to get the foot off. I had to cut one inch off the bottom of the mast. But that was not a problem since there was a crack in the bootom of the mast so it had to be shorten anyway. Removing the ends gave much better access. I bundled my wires  to a supporting cable and encased them in foam to prevent abrasion.