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The boat is finally starting to look like a boat again; it's got a rudder. All of the steering stuff is hooked back up, the bilge is painted, our new dodger is on, some more sponsors have come on board, we've made arrangements to launch and store the boat, and we *should* be leaving for California next week. Things are really starting to come together...
We've finally got the rudder back on. Sanded, faired, epoxy painted, and with a brand new Jefa rudder bearing...
Here's a file photo of the Jefa self-aligning roller type rudder bearing. Our bearing looks just like this, but there's only one row of rollers, and they're black Delrin rollers, not metal ones. This is a file photo from PYI's website, because I forgot to take a photo of the thing before installing it.
Picture of the rudder bearing from the bottom. We epoxied in a stainless steel, teflon lined seal under the bearing to reduce turbulence from water rushing through the system.
The Jefa bearing is self-aligning for easier installation. I rotated the inside of the bearing to show how it self aligns.
Stainless steel sleeve on the carbon fiber rudder post. Jefa supplies a stainless steel sleeve to use with the bearing, unless your rudder is made of stainless. We epoxied the thing on with epoxy resin, hardener and graphite powder, just to make a better seal with the post, but the sleeve is primarily held onto the rudder with 3 set screws. You can see 2 of them in this pic. The sleeve is the only downside to this bearing system, compared with the original Harken bearing. That sleeve weighs more than 2 pounds, making the bearing 1.4 pounds heavier than the Harken unit. (3.6 lbs vs. 2.2 lbs.)
We backed the boat back up onto the edge of the hill to re-install the rudder. Only this time it wasn't raining, and we didn't get it stuck... Smooth sailing this time.
With the rudder back in the boat, I could hook the autopilot's hydraulic cylinder and rudder position sensor back onto the rudder. I could also screw in the set screws on the upper Harken rudder bearing, through the small inspection hole on top.
I re-installed the tiller this afternoon as well. There is a tiller extension that hooks on to the front, as well as a bracket that we are repairing (seized up bolt) that mounts on the middle of the tiller for our back-up above-decks electronic autopilot.
I finished up or custom fiberglass dodger and then installed it. I created a rubber water-tight (hopefully) gasket for the bottom and then bolted the whole thing down. The thing actually feels suuuuper solid, and it's still easy to get in and out of the cabin.
Dodger rear view
This is the fiberglass tray that goes underneath the boat's companionway hatch. I put gore-tex tape around it, and am going to put another layer of a different kind of water-tight gasket around the outside of that. This was one of Don's biggest problem areas on the boat. Thing always leaked water everywhere, so i'm trying really hard to make it ultra dry. Notice the shiny new grey Interlux bilge paint. I painted the bilge during the first half of the week but forgot to take a good pic.
Lake Norman Yacht Club, near Mooresville. A reader of the site named Trey e-mailed me and said that he was in Mooresville and wanted to see the boat. So we had lunch, went to the Yacht Club, checked out some boats and talked about the upcoming America's Cup. Cool guy. Used to have a Kiwi 35 and now races Catamarans on Lake Norman. Even has a remote control catamaran sailboat for the lake!
Things are coming along really nicely as of this writing, and we are hoping to leave for San Francisco in about 10 days. Thanks to a friend, Marine and fellow sailor in Richmond, named Gary, it looks like we have lined up a slip for the boat and a yard to launch it from. Also, i've gotta thank PYI for hooking us up with a great deal on our Jefa rudder bearing. The install went great and Don and I both feel that the bearing will be a great addition to the boat. ICOM has also stepped on board this week, to help us out with our Single Sideband communication needs, as well as Interlux, who is hooking us up with a gallon of their Baltoplate bottom paint when we get to San Francisco. Thanks to everyone who has been helping out the program!
end- January 10, 2010
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January 11, 2010
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