Winward Sheeting Car Upgrade

I took advantage of Cyber Monday and ordered a windward sheeting car kit from Layline.  They had great prices with free shipping, no sales tax, and when I called Henry Mallard a former J/30 owner answered the phone.  I like giving business to those who support the J/30 class.  Layline contributed stuff for the 2008 J/30 North Americans.  Before ordering, I went to the Harken service place in Newport and met with Mike Lee who helped me determine exactly the parts I needed.  He was able to give me the part numbers based on the car and end caps I brought in.  I ordered the following parts to upgrade my ancient Harken traveller:

• Harken 1637 CB Windward Sheeting Adapter Kit
• Harken 1561 Midrange Car standup kit 
• (3) Harken 1526 5/16" Torlon Balls (qty 25 per pack - 60 balls needed)
• Harken 7875 One Drop Ball Oil

There were two sets of double cheek blocks screwed to the original car.  The screws were Loctite in place so required an impact wrench to break them free.  The car kit comes with a tube of Loctite.  Below is a picture of the assembled windward sheeting car - forward edge shown.

 

Note the blocks on the forward edge allow running 3:1 or 4:1 purchase for traveler control.  The view below shows the aft side of the car.  You'll see a black rubber shape in the middle.  This is the standup kit.  It keeps the block with the mainsheet upright and prevents any potential interference with the sliding plate on the car.  Henry Mallard recommended it because some people had problems with the  mainsheet block stopping the plate from sliding, thus preventing the release of the leeward cam.

 

The bearings in the old car were probably original. I figured since the money was spend on upgrading the car, I might as well make sure it slides well on the track.  Harken sells a plastic ball loader that keeps the bearings in place until the car is slid onto the track.  Note that the new series car has captive balls.  The track is interchangeable, but you cant switch the captive versus non-captive balls between the old style and new style car.   The picture shows the path that the ball bearings follow as the car is slid across the track.

This will be installed on the boat in the spring, after I remount the track.

Day 2 - Recore Stbd Cockpit

Continuing from where I left off yesterday, the weather was warm again and supported more core work.  The first thing accomplished was removing the plastic used to squeegee the epoxy, then sanding with 60 grit paper to roughen the surface for a good mechanical bond.  The areas that were punched through on the bottom skin are now fully sealed inside the cockpit locker.

New Fiberglass sanded

 After sanding, I mixed up some Corebond (remaining from the transom recore) and used it to fill in the voids where core was removed around the lip that was cut using the Fein tool.  Corebond was then spread on  the new fiberglass using a disposable notched spreader.  This provides just enough filler to bond the balsa without causing lumps and voids.  Below is a photo with new core bonded.  It was worked in place by hand, and Corebond inserted around the edges with a spreader.

New core bonded

After the new balsa was positioned on the core bond, it was covered with plastic sheet and weights applied with constant pressure for the Corebond to catalyze.  The cure time at 55 degrees was about 40 minutes.  While this was curing, I over drilled and epoxy filled the holes for the hand rails, since these are being replaced over the winter with new Teak - thanks to Charlie Stoddard - Falcon.

Applying pressure during core bonding

Subsequent to curing, the weights were removed and the balsa sanded to make sure the final surface would be level with the surrounding area, since I planned on reusing the skin that was peeled off.

Core sanded / leveled for skin

 To bond the old skin to the balsa, I used thickened epoxy rather than the Corebond.  The Balsa was wet out with neat epoxy using a chip brush, as was the back of the old skin.  Epoxy was mixed and thickened with Colloidal Silica and Adhesive Filler to a mayonnaise consistency.  This was poured in the area and spread with a chip brush.  The old skin was beveled on both the top and bottom edges to allow the epoxy to flow, and permit fairing on the top surface.  The skin was put on top of the new balsa and pressure applied to make sure that voids were forced out.  A plastic sheet was put on the surface and weights applied similar to the method used with the balsa core.  Below is a photo after the old skin was bonded and the masking removed.  That will complete the work until the spring when final fairing, sanding and gelcoat will be applied.

Old skin bonded to new core

Deck Recore Fall 2011

Hey - it's the week before Thanksgiving and we have a gift of weather in the low 50s.  Today I started with work that I've procrastinated on accomplishing.  The stbd side cockpit has spider cracks on the topside, and inside the locker, the inner layer of fiberglass is split.  All this is due to the wet core freezing and expanding.  Today I cut out a section of the top skin approximately 12" x 15".  I was able to remove skin section in one piece so hopefully I will be able to rebond this to the new core and minimize the amount of non-skid matching to restore the surface.

Below is a photo of the skin section removed.  The area where the toe rail was bolted through the deck was the water source.  The holes were not isolated.

Skin Section Removed - Topside view

 The underside of the skin section shows wet and rotted core. 
 

Skin Section Removed - Underside view

The deck area is shown below.  I used a Fein Multimaster both to cut the fiberglass for removing the skin, and to chisel in between the old core and the fiberglass skin.  A claw hammer was used to remove large areas of balsa once the area had been chiseled with the Fein tool.

Deck Area - wet core shown

The picture below shows the area with the core removed.  The dark area on the fiberglass is moisture from the wet core.  This will be dried with a heat gun and wipe down with acetone to get rid of any moisture.  

Core removed - wet fiberglass remains

After the wet core was removed, the inside skin was sanded using an orbital sander with 60 grit paper.  The area was vacuumed, and wiped down with acetone.   The edge was beveled to facilitate fairing the edges when the skin is replaced.  After cleaning, a plastic sheet was used to mask the area in preparation for epoxy work.  Note the area where the skin cracked due to frozen core.  That's part of the problem with wet core in a cold climate.  I put duct tape on the underside of the cracks and holes to prevent epoxy from draining through when the area is reglassed.

Deck area prepared and masked

The area was measured and new balsa on scrim cut to shape.  The balsa will be applied with the scrim facing upward.  It really doesn't matter in this section since the surface is flat, but I find it easier to handle that way.

Balsa trimmed to shape

Glass mat was cut to shape.  Additional pieces will be used to strengthen the area that is cracked.  The  plan is to spread the area with neat epoxy , filling in the voids, then building up the low spots with mat.  I ended up putting a piece of plastic over the mat and used a squeegee to work the epoxy fully into the mat.  Once this cures, the plastic with be peeled off.  This has an added benefit of preventing amine blush from forming on the surface of the cured epoxy.  Unfortunately, the epoxy work was performed as it was getting dark.  I didn't want to stop for pictures, so this will be continued tomorrow.  Temps are supposed to be in the 40s overnight and mid 50s during the day.

2010 Maiden Voyage with New Mainsail

Well after a long winter and lots of work getting Rhapsody ready in the spring, we were rewarded with a great day to cruise from Borden Light Marina and Fall River to our slip at the Coasters Harbor the Newport Navy Marina.  First I needed to mount a new Windex to replace the one that got damaged when the mast was stepped the week before.  You can also see the new black Harken Carbofoil contracts sharply against the white mast.  The Carbo foil was significantly "smoother" than the old Tuff Luff for raising and lowering the #1 genoa.  This should be a real benefit for the foredeck crew.

There are some pictures of Warren standing next to the new Hood Vektron main.  Below is a picture of the main flaked across the boom.  The folds are setup to alternate between the slugs in the mast track.

 Since we had a breeze that reached 18-20kts apparent while underway, there was an opportunity to "walk up the mast". 

The picture below isn't taken from an ideal location or calibrated, but does give a pretty good indication of the new Hood mainsail shape.  Note the "speed bubble" just like my North Sails race main.

Overall, this was a very successful maiden voyage.

Mast Work & Rebed Bow Pulpit

I pulled the mast for some work that included replacing the main halyard sheaves, lubricating sheaves for the jib and spinnaker, replace the headstay, and some cosmetic painting.  Below is where the sheave box is attached.  This was removed, then the area cleaned up and sanded due to some oxidation.  The area was primed with Zinc Chromate paint, then sprayed with Gloss White Krylon.

The sheave box is designed to maintain separation for up to 4 halyards.In the picture below, you can see how the sheaves are on a diagonal to maintain seperation where the halyards turn inside the mast.  Note I have one regular halyard and two messenger halyards installed.

Similary, The external portion has 2 jib halyards below the headstay and, the potential for 2 spinnaker halyards above the headstay, although we just use 1 on Rhapsody.

Finally, someone took a picture of me trying to squeeze out of the bow compartment where I was reaching to turn bolts on the bow pulpit to rebed them.

Misc Spring Projects

It's been a while since I posted work on the blog.  Here are some of the ongoing projects this off-season.  Thanks to Charlie Stoddard of Falcon, I now have a new set of hatch boards fabricated from Lexan and Teak. Charlie turned me on to a local plastic supply house and I was able to buy the Lexan for $60 out of their "seconds" bin.  If I ordered it new, I would have paid over $150.  The protective coating was left on to keep the surface free from getting marked up while the Teak was coated with Epifanes.

 This is the reverse side, still with protective coating.  There are a total of 6 coat of Epifanes "Wood Finish Gloss".

Once the boards were done, they were taken to the boat for fit.  It required a rasp to shave the Lexan edges so the boards fit easily in the opening.  I'm leaving the plastic coating on until the boat is ready to launch.  I made Starboard winter hatch boards that I leave in place.

The next project is to clean up the boom.  There are areas where the paint has bubbled and chipped off due to oxidation of the aluminum.  I stripped all the hardware off, the sanded the boom with 150 grit paper.  The boom was suspended in my garage so all surfaces could be easily accessed.   Areas that were bubbled were sanded aggressively to bare metal.  Once the boom was sanded, vacuumed and wiped down with alcohol, I spot primed all bare metal areas using the green looking zinc chromate etching primer.

After spot priming, I mixed a two part epoxy etching primer, thinned so I could spray using Preval disposable sprayers.  This was allowed to cure for 24 hours, then I light sanded and applied 2 coats of gloss white Rustoleum appliance paint.

The end fittings were removed, cleaned and painted with black Rustoleum.  I also ordered a set of boom bail bearing plates from Rig-Rite to strengthen the area where the through bolt attaches the main sheet bail.  This is shown below.  When this arrives, I'll attach it with 10-24 screws by drilling and tapping the holes in the boom.

I decided that I would try and remove moisture from the hidden bilge without cutting into the boat.  A friend is in the ceramic heater business and let me borrow a propane powered one to heat the hull.  The heater is shown below.  This easily heats the boat surface to 150 degrees (hotter if you aren't careful). 

I drilled a hole 1" behind the keel and attached a shop vac to draw any moisture and water vapor out that was generated by heating the core.  There is also a tarp erected and held in place with duct tape to keep breezes off the heated area and allow the heat to be focused.

Here is a view of the "hidden bilge" area being heated.  After about 6 hours, you could feel the teak cabin sole in the boat start to get warm, which means the hidden bilge was definitely getting heat to force out moisture.  I let this rune for a total of about 20 hours.

More pictures to come with the other projects that are being worked.

Transmission Reassembly - Done!

Below are all the drive components cleaned after lapping the drive cone and the gears.  They are ready for reassembly.

The assembly of drive components was done restoring the assembly in the same order they were removed.  The pieces that were press fit were driven on using an over-sized socket around the shaft and a rubber mallet.  Below the assembly is held using the drive flange in a vice, and the end bolt torqued to 70 ft-lbs.

Once all the pieces were fit back together, they were coated with SAE 30 oil and inserted into the transmission case.  The shaft on the right side has an o-ring on the far side and is pressed into the transmission case.  This has to be assembled with all the shafts at the same time, or the gears interfere with each other if done one at a time.  There is soft setting gasket sealer applied to the flange that mates with the bell housing.  This joint must seal the oil inside the case.

The external parts that were rusted have been cleaned and primed with Rustoleum primer.  These include the transmission input and output flanges, shift lever, and I decided to paint the flexible coupling just so it matches the other stuff.  The flexible coupling is not stock on the J/30.  It was added to help reduce vibration transmitted through the shaft.

Here is the finished transmission with fresh Yanmar Gray paint on the aft end.  I also replaced the label by the shift lever to mark forward and reverse directions.  The transmission will be filled with 0.25 liters of SAE 30 oil and put on the shelf until spring, or at least a warm day when I don't need to shovel snow to get into the boat.