I know there are only a few people that read this blog. And you know who you are… (Hi Marlene, Andre, Elie and Dan D.). I thought you should know that I am in the process of switching this to a locally installed version of WordPress on my server. I just wanted to customize the look a little more for my blog and wordpress.com just isnt flexible enough. Please update your bookmarks and RSS Feeds to the following:

New Site Location: http://www.oday22.com/

New RSS Feed: http://www.oday22.com/feed/

See you guys there!

For those of you interested in hearing what my motor sounds like. Here is a littl clip. 

It seems every step I take forward with this boat project thereare things there pushing me back 2 steps. This motor has been an ordeal starting with the idiots from Utica NY. Now that Chris from Onlineoutboards.com finally came through and got me a motor in the mail, out comes another problem…

In my last post I talked about the motor not responding to the throttle and idling rather rough. Since then I've been making phone calls and writing Emails to everyone in the boating business to try to help me out. My local Tohatsu dealer was pretty much against working on anything he didn't sell. They did not even offer to take the motor in or spend 5 minutes to take a look at it. On the other hand, he said they would have gladly taken it in if I had bought from him. I sort of understand that attitude. I would like for everyone to buy from me too! But it seems that repairs are just as big of business and anything under warranty would be paid by the manufacturer, why not take them in?

There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the marine warranty repair business. The manufacture doesn't take an active approach in making sure people who buy their products have a pleasant experience when it comes to servicing it. All of the discretion is taken by the service center and they are obviously taking their own liberties in whom they service and whom they do not. It may appear to them that I would purchase products directly from them next time the opportunity came up to avoid these servicing issues, but to the contrary, their attitudes are completely turning me off from letting them profit from anything I do. It seems masochistic but I just don't believe in supporting their way of running their busines in principle.

I took my motor to the next closest service center which is in Goleta, CA. Right off the bat the guy on the phone was copping attitude. his name was Dan. "Well, I'm going on vacation for a month and a half starting tomorrow. I get these all the time and I just don't have the time to do it." He ranted. "I guess if you can bring it in today I'll take a look at it." Well, I did. Took it 3o miles north to some guy who clearly did not want the business. I was not in a position to choose. I wanted someone who knew what the fuck they were doing to see it. When I got there, this old grumpy guy did not seem like he was liking his job. He pissed and moaned like a middle-aged woman getting her hot flashes for the first time. No more than a couple minutes of him sticking my motor in his water tank, he walks away and says "I'm gonna go eat my lunch." "Okay……. I'll just… come back in a little bit…" What else does he want me to say? This guy is out of control.

Anyways, long story short, I came back in an hour or so to take some more of this abuse. He agreed to take it in over night to see it tomorrow and let me know if this is someting he can fix. Meanwhile I've been talking to Chris from OnlineOutboards.com and he apparently has heard it all from these local guys who have little joy in working on motors ordered from him. They are all grumpy that they lost a sale to someone over the Internet. It is not Chris' fault that they don't see the value in putting up an ecommerce site and sell motors themselves. Even when some of them do, they end up doing business like these idiots from Utica, NY.

I am making another trip to Goleta tomorrow to see what abouts with my motor. Chris said that worst case scenario, he will send me a replacement and take mine back. They will even pay for the freight both ways. That is amazing customer service. OnlineOutboards definitely has my business for as long as I'm buying boat motors. More to come…..

I took the boat to the launch ramp yesterday since I just received my motor. The plan is to learn how to launch and retrieve it using my home made tongue extension as well as break the motor in by motoring around the harbor. Since I am still waiting for the mast issue to be resolve and the mainsail to arrive, I launched her sans the rig.

It was fairly straight forward. The extension was made so that it connects to the hitch of the car and the tongue of the trailer. The problem with that is it adds another hinge between the car and the boat. It becomes extremely difficult to maneuver. I basically backed the trailer up as close to the ramp as possible before I attached on the extension. Hoping the slope of the ramp will bring the boat and trailer back straight enough to avoid hitting something. That went fairly well. I had to back the car almost all the way to the water edge for the boat to float off. The extension is 10 ft long and I needed every inch of it. once she floated off I just tossed some docklines for Marlene to grab on to so she can pull the boat to the docks at the ramp. That part I didnt plan so well. I wanted to be sure that I didnt hit the docks while backing the boat in so I position the trailer too far away from it. That made my docklines too short to reach the dock.

Once the boat started to float away from the trailer, I had to get it to the dock so I can secure it. Being too far to use the docklines I decided I just use the new motor I had just received. Thats when I noticed the problem with the motor. The engine does not seem to respond to the throttle. After checking and made sure all the linkages are working under the cover, It still does not seem to want to behave. I can start the engine up with one pull and get her to idle but the second I shift it into gear it will putt for a few seconds and dies after that. Any attempt to throttle up did not bring any response from the motor. That was aggravating. On top of that I was starting to float away from the trailer and towards the rocks. My only way to get back towards the dock was to repeatedly start the motor and shift into gear as the boat moves little by little each time the motor starts, shifts, propels and dies. Finally I was able to make it to the dock and secure the boat.

But now what? My plan was to motor around the harbor and break the motor in. Now it won't repond to the throttle so It is basically worthless. I sat there and tinkered a little with the motor and read the owners manual cover to cover looking for some clues of why this is happening but nothing came to me. Well, at least she floats. That is a pretty good accomplishment. The tongue extension works and I was able to launch and retrieve the boat. I just have no way of moving the boat around. I guess I will take it to my local service shop and see if they have any ideas of why this is happening. Hopefully it is not defective or damaged. I can't wait anymore just to go sailing!

Floating at the launch ramp dock with the motor idling and peeing water… 

I just received my new 6hp 4-stroke tohastu motor. I setup the engine to be ready to get broken in with the external gas tank and motor oil. I realize it is suppose to vibrate a bit as it is getting broken in so When it started and was vibrating like a 2-stroke I paid little attention to it. After 10 minutes in idle, I attempted to increase the throttle but it did not respond. I could not get the engine to rev up by throttling up with the handle. When I throttle down the engine promptly shuts off. I checked under the cover and made sure the carb, choke and gear linkages are all working correctly. When I attempted to shift into gear it will go and push the boat for a couple of seconds and dies immediately after. It has no problem starting back up but the throttle persistantly refuse to rev the engine up. I can't seem to find out what the problem is and I am pretty sure it is not normal for a brand new. out of the box motor. I guess I will need to bring this bad boy for a service already. I hope it is not defective or broken somehow. That would really suck.

After dealing with the idiots at you-know-where in Utica, New York, my motor has shipped from OnlineOutboards! I can’t believe it. I’m actually going to have a motor for the boat this week! By tracking it on FedEx, I’m looking to be receiving it on Friday. If the weather holds up, I will be launching this boat probably Saturday to test the motor and hull. It is pretty cool. I just need a solution for the mast now. I called Dwyer Mast from Connecticut and they have my mast section in stock but the shipping person is out sick. Just my luck. No telling when she will be in and apparently no one else at that company knows how to ship stuff. The other option is to order one through Rig-Rite. Just called them and they are looking into their inventory and will have to call me back. It would just be so much easier to stick the old pieces of wood back in the old mast sections and call it a day. But I am not brave enough to test my seafaring/survival skills if that thing comes falling down… The saga continues….

This week I talked to a few people about what they think I should do with the mast. The consensus is that I should not weld it. Aluminum gets soft and weak after being welded and never really regains its strength apparently. If I insist on repairing it, the only solutions seems to be to build a slug/sleeve that goes inside and rosetta spot weld or pop rivet the sections together. Since the extrusion is fairly unique, no one really has the shape I need for the sleeve. It is also recommended that I try to use similar aluminum alloy to prevent galvanic corrosion down the line. What an ordeal. Looks like I'm going to have to bite another bullet and buy a new mast. The rig will be pretty much brand new once it is said and done. At least that will be a relieve. Like Marlene said the other day, "Why don't you just buy another boat!?!?". Well, I pretty much am.

I started installing the electrical system today. I'll have some photos to share later but I am still behind in posting photos from the work I did last week. I hope I will get to it tomorrow night. Long story short, it is going well. Probably the first time ever working on an electrical project without seeing any sparks. (Yet) I officially have a cabin light. By tomorrow, I should have running lights and some 12v outlets. I've been using my flexible solar panels to charge the battery. The system is set up to run 2 batteries and West Marine has a dual purpose Group 24 battery on sale for 50 bucks. I may pick one up but I really want one of those AGM or Gel batteries. I doubt I will have the money knowing that my mast problems will cost me more before its all over. More to come before the weekend is over…

This is one of the solar panels I'm using to charge the battery. I have 2 x 5 watters and 1 x 20 watter. Luckly these were already owned so I won't have to add to my ballooning cost tally  

These guys that work at this boat store really do not have their act together. I had to call the unlisted number for the retail store again because no one answers or responds to the number listed on the site. The idiot I talked to on the phone seems to selectively remember that I wanted to cancel my order last time I called. He seems to think the he had an option to either ship the order or cancel and refund my money. I suggest NO ONE ever does business with these idiots. I asked him why the online/mail order guys don't answer calls and he pretty much just gave me the run around… "Well, there is only one guy there and you must have called when he was on the phone with someone else…", or "If you leave him a message he will call you back.." Well, neither of which is true. I called and called about 30 times in the same day. Either I'm really unlucky, or he doesn't answer calls. I also left 3 voicemails and none of which was returned. So while I had the retail guy on the phone, I told him. "Tell your guy to call me. Here is my phone number.." Guess what? No calls. At this point I just wanted to make his life miserable. I basically knew that I was going through my credit card company for a charge back and anything they did would not rectify the situation. I proceeded to rip him a new one on the phone. I also called the listed Website number just another time to make sure I was in the clear when I called my credit card company. I hope no one ever orders from these idiots. I hope no one ever buys anything from their retail store either. I hope people searching for them online finds this post and it deters them from wasting their time and money with these idiots at Boats Unlimited NY. By the way, this is the information of the company I've been ranting about. Feel free to give them an ear full if you so incline…

Boats Unlimited
408 First Street
Utica, NY 13501

Phone: 866-868-7151
Phone: 315-798-9817
Fax: 315-735-2167
sales@boatsunlimitedny.com

Oh yeah, you won't get through with the number above. Try calling the retail store…

Phone: 315-735-1777

DO NOT ORDER FROM THESE FRAUDS! BUYERS BEWARE!

I ordered a motor from them on the 14th of last month and til this day still have not received any information about the status of the order. In the last week I've been trying to contact them to see what is going on and their toll-free number is constantly going to voicemail. It got really ridiculous leaving them messages without an answer so I finally had to do a search on the net to find another number to call. I mean the numbers they list on their website is a virtual blackhole. So 3 voicemails and a few Emails later I was fed up. Finally found another number unlisted from their Website and got someone to answer the phone. He put me on hold for about 10 minutes and came back and told me It was drop shipped from the manufacturer and I would get another Email soon. I just told them to go ahead and cancel the order. I have had enough of them.

So I went over to onlineoutboards.com and Emailed them about getting one from them. Their sales manager Chris Collins wrote back promptly and agreed that they would match the price and they had it in stock. He also quoted me a shipping timeframe of 5-7 days. So I ordered one today from them after cancelling the old one. I'm keeping my fingers crossed to see how this goes. Maybe by sometime next week I will have a boat with some kinda powerplant. Stay tuned.

I've mention in previous posts that my mast is grafted together using oak inserts from 3 pieces of aluminum extrusion. I worry about the strength issues and the mast failing while at sea. So I derigged my mast and took it apart. Now I need to find a better and more permenant way to fix this. I basically have 2 options:

1. Find a heliarc welder who can weld the pieces together as well as adding aluminum sleeves to the outside to regain the strength lost from the repair. I don't know how easy it will be to find a suitable extrusion for the sleeve but this is probably the cheaper solution.

2. Buy a new mast. Dwyer Spars has my mast extrusion and they will sell me one for $530 bucks sans the hardware. The killer is shipping will cost me another $200 or so.

I posted a message on the ODay forum to see if anyone there had experiences with this issue. I would hate to have to buy a new one since the old one, although in pieces, is not in too bad of shape. This hopefully will be the last big problems I will have to deal with before launching the boat in May.

I did some more work to it this weekend but I will have to take some photos before I make another post about the upgrades. I am waiting for my motor to get here but I have not heard from them. Time to make another call to BoatsUnlimitedNY.com to see what the hell is going on. they charged my credit card long ago but have not told me anything about when to expect it. Once I do receive the motor though, I think I'm going to launch the boat to make sure the hull is sound by motoring around. It will give the new motor a little time to break in as well.

Looks as though my mainsail won't ship until the end of April, I'm estimating the launch date to be about 5 weeks from this Saturday. I may be able to launch sans the mast and sails just to test out the motor and make sure the hull has no leaks in the next couple of weeks but the first sail is going to be tentatively Saturday, May 6th, 2006. Can't wait….

The interior of the O'Day is in OK condition. One of the major problems is the plywood under the cushions are mildewed and mold-ridden beyond repair. It is amazing what the last owners did with it. Someone definitely went through the trouble of replacing the plywood because it certainly is not stock. What amazes me is they did not use anything to protect the wood from moisture.

Teak is the hardwood of choice when it comes to marine projects. But teak is pretty expensive. I understand if they chose to use another type of wood thats cheaper but at they at least should have covered it with something to repel moisture. Since they fail to do that, condensation and moisture naturally found its way into the cabin and eventually destroyed the plywood. The vinyl layer against the interior of the hull began to peel back and that helped trapping moisture behind and it dripped down to the edges of the plywood bunks.

Here are some photos of what it looked like:

Note the black mold in the corner of the starboard quarter berth against the bulkhead.

The old rotted wood removed and vinyl side covering peeled off. I will probably just paint the interior walls instead of replacing the vinyl. 

Port side of the v-berth where the vinyl hull interior collected water to cause more mold and mildew build up.

The same port side v-berth with the old wood removed. The space underneath is full of positive flotation foam. There are also stacks of this stuff under the cockpit sole. I will need to somehow add more if I want to install the additiona lead ballast in the bilge. 

My low-cost replacement:

Well, I can't afford teak. So I went shopping at my local hardware/lumber yard. I got some standard structural fir plywood that was more in my price range. After removing the old wood from the cabin and traced the outlines to the new plywood, I cut them out with a saber saw. I also decided to seal it with Thompson's water seal which I bought at the store for about $15. After more of less soaking the new wood in as much of this stuff, the results were pretty satisfactory. I shot a little video clip of some of the wood under my faucet to show the water repelling abilities of this combination:

This is the stuff I bought to seal the wood:

The next step will be to cut storage hatches and mount them inside the boat. I may be able to do that this weekend but looks like the weather may turn on me again.

I also bought a 4 ft x 2 ft piece of birch plywood, apply a similar liberal portion of the sealer and made new companionway hatch boards. I will take some photos of that next time I go to the boat yard to post here. They will give me a good test of how this sealer holds up especially if it rains this weekend.

From an auction on eBay. $77.20 for 100 lbs of lead shot shipped to my door. Not a bad deal. Probably won't install it right away. I will wait until I test sail the boat as is and see if it needs it. I may have more weight aloft with the multiple sectioned mast so more ballast maybe the ticket to keep the boat stable.

Current total: $5696.67

I did some searching online to see about my mast extrusion and I came across a site called RigRite.com. They have the extrusion's specs on their website:

Rig-Rite #5 (3723) Mast Section
Measurements: (OD) 3.75" x 2.25" (95mm x 57mm)
Wall Thickness: .100"
Weight/ft.: 1.3 lbs.
Moments of inertia: Ixx = 1.5", Iyy = .63"
Circumference: 9 5/8"
Alloy: 6063-T6
Sail slides: 1/2" round slugs (A018, A118) or 1/2" boltrope
Standard Mast Lengths: 22'7", 25'4", 30'
Common Mast usage: Bristol Corinthian 19; Cape Dory Typhoon; N&W Fisherman; O'Day 22;

This will help a little in knowing the dimensions of my mast. What I'm going to do with it is still an unknown for now.

I'm considering adding some more lead ballast to the boat. There is a bilge pump out port on the cabin sole with access to the bilge. I just read in the original owners manual that O'Day says it is possible to add your own lead shot into that space as additional ballast. Since my boat is a 1974 that only came with 600 lbs of ballast, I'm considering adding more. Some of the later models came with 700 lbs or even 800 lbs from the factory. this shouldnt be that big of a deal. I found some lead shots on eBay for pretty cheap. All I need to go is pour in the lead shots and then follow with some curing resin to permenantly lock them in place. If anyone has experience with this please feel free to let me know how it went.

50 lbs of Lead shot from ebay: About 40 bucks shipped. I'll probably get 2 of them.

The hole on next to the panel is where I can pour the lead shots and resin thru. This is on the cabin sole.

Since the mainsail on the boat is pretty shot, I went ahead and ordered one from D & R awhile back. Rudy told me it was backordered til the middle of May so I went hunting around else where. Porpoise Sailing in Florida came through and is able to deliver one to me in about a month. That's good enough for me. Hopefully it works since my order with Rudy was cancelled. If I wanted it back, Rudy said it will be another 8 weeks. Toes and fingers are crossed. This does mean that I'm saving a little on the order. Porpoise is selling me this sail for $385 instead of Rudy's $510. I did however opt for a Coastal Cruiser Reinforcement for 10% more. That brings it up to $423.5. Shipping being about the same from either place and I won't know until they place it on the truck, I'm going to assume its about 15 bucks. That means my ongoing tally is going down a tad. Take $510 off of the current total gives me $5180.97 add on $423.5 for the new sail brings it up to $5604.47. Plus another $15 in shipping, my new tally is $5619.47. What this sail will be missing is the O'Day 22 Insignia. I guess I won't miss it that badly.

Today I test fitted the standing rigging on the boat and it went fairly well. It is right now a 2-person job to rigg the boat until I come up with a better method. One of the things that came up is the headstay and/or backstay. It does not get tight enough to take all the slack out of the stays. i wonder if D&R Marine just cut them too long while making them or if they actually intended on them to be loose. It is functional as it but I would worry about it if I took it out and hoisted sails on it. I don't have that many experiences with rigging a boat so I posted on some messageboards including mine although only 1 other use is on it. Here are the 2 posts if you have anything to contribute:

O'Day Owners Forum Post

My Message Board Post

This may be a smaller issue once the boom, sails and mainsheet are on since the mainsheet will put some tension of the backstay and the jib sail will tension the headstay. If you look at the photo below, you will notice a slight bend to the mast. Thats from the mast being rested horizontally on the cabin top for too long and its own weight has made a temporary bend to be noticeable without the tensions of the stays.

The other problem which I don't know if there is an inexpensive solution to is my mast is in 2 sections joint together using a wooden insert and bolts. Maybe this is the same issue as the rigging. Maybe one of the previous onwners had to cut the mast and rejoint it. That could explain the rigging being too long for its current length. It is not significant but is noticeable. The wooden insert in the mast makes running lines and wires internally impossible. That is a problem I will need to deal with later…

For $48, I am upgrading the currently-broken trailer lights on the trailer to submersible LED lights…

New total: $5690.97

After my shopping binge on and offline, I decided to drag the boat to the house to work on it this weekend. The lot does not have a water hose or an AC outlet. Both of which I will need for many of the projects. I risked getting pulled over by trailering the boat home from the lot about 1 mile away using my Toyota Tacoma. It does not have trailer wiring harness installed yet and it is under powered to do any serious trailering. I did make it home however without any incidents. i will post a more indepth story on what I did while it was at home but for now, here is a photo of her next to the sidewalk:

(Notice the upright mast? That's right. I rigged it for a test fit. Worked decent. fore and back stay seems a bit lose and I don't really know if its suppose to be tighter…)

So after I brought home my new battery and electrical system parts, I was eager to test and see what works and what doesn't. I didn't even really know how the Perko battery switch wires up since I bought it used from eBay sans instructions. I am only using one battery so that simplfy things a bit. When I am ready to upgrade, I need to make sure I know how to hook the batteries up so they are parallel when the Perko switch in on both of them. That's a future post. Back to this story. So I used some existing wires I stripped out of the boat to test the circuit. I hooked up the battery to the swithc and panel and connected the 22 year old dome light to one of the switches on the panel. It looked something like this:

I timidly switch the perko on battery one and after flipping the toggle on the panel, I saw this:

Halleluja! It worked. And on first try at that. I don't pretend to be an expert on electrical systems and flares and sparks are a common sight when I'm near a project. This however fell into place perfected. I just used a little common sense in figuring out where the wires need to go and without much effort, I have a circuit lighting a 12-volt light bolt. I know this is a simple test but it means I saved about $30 in not having to buy a new panel. I proceeded to test each connection using the light and all seems to be working perfectly. The next job will be to install the system into the boat. Stay tuned.

So this is official. I didn't think I can make it after buying the new outboard that cost 1300 bucks. I have been trying to cut corners on the spending to make my goal of $5500 but I think I will regret it later. So here is what I did over the weekend…

As of the last purchase which is the parts for the square tubing for the tongue extension I was at $5293.37. The following purchases where made towards the tally since:

1. $27.28 – Straight 2×2 trailer tongue coupler: This is the end of the tongue extension that will connect to the hitch on the car. The other end will either u-bolt to the trailer itself or I will weld/bolt on a 2 inch ball to connect the trailer to the car.

2. $24.04 – Red and Green side navigation lights: Now this is a good deal. I went to West Marine friday to see how much the replacement perko lights were. I had these 2.5 inch diameter side-mounted round lights with holes already drilled on the boat. I didnt want to have to drill new holes. They were $90!!! So this is a steal from eBay.

3. $50.40 – Deep Cycle battery: I looked all around for batteries for a good price and I suddenly remember Costco. I really wanted to get AGM or Gel batteries but that was going to be 3 to 4 times as much as I spent. I have capacity for 2 batteries with my eBay Perko switch so maybe later I will splurge….

4. $92.46 – Miscellaneous electrical parts from Fry's: So this includes a diet coke and a couple of small things I needed but I was too lazy to substract that from the total on the receipt. It is a necessary purchase as I will need lights for this vessel to be legal and I will need wires and switches to enable the battery i bought.

5. $76.75 – 30 ft of high-tensile chain and 2 stainless steel shackles: This completes my heavy duty anchor and rode. This thing all put together is heavy! I mean now I'm thinking I need to spend more money getting an anchor bow roller and chain deck plate just to be able to use this. I am not going to like to have to drag this thing out of anchor without it. I bought a 50 ft piece of yellow nylon line to use as a trip line with an old fender tied to the end. I will really need that in place to be able to be able to unset the anchor this size. I think I will just use the smaller fluke anchor that I already have as a primary and use this on overnight trips as needed. The bow roller will have to wait.

6. $129.99 – Garelick outboard motor mount: I have been looking for a way to fix my current motor mount and also just looking to see if I can find one on eBay. People are really retarded there. It is unbelievable how many people have the I-will-over-pay-just-to-win attitude. It is a buyers market when it comes to things like this. As I was watching some guy pay up to $115 on a used Garelick I went shopping elsewhere. Amazon had the exact same one, brand new for $129.99 shipped and no tax. This will come in handy with the new motor. I really didn't want to half-ass the mount and as I was looking at it today, it just needs to go.

That pretty much brings me up to date with my weekend spending spree. the total is now $5642.97. There is one saving grace so far. The mainsail order from D&R Marine is still on backorder. That is priced at $510 with is figured into this total. I called Porpoise sailing in Florida and they told me that they can have one made for me from Thailand for as little as $375. If we figure the difference of $135, My total would actually be at $5507.97. That is still over my budget and god knows I have a long ways to go before this is all over. I am just going to keep it as is until further notice. I am keeping my toes crossed that nothing else turns up needing major repairs….. Ciao.

To launch my boat without getting the car wet, I need a tongue extension for my trailer. I looked around and it doesnt seem like anyone has one for a reasonable price. That's why I'm making my own. As a start, I'm ording 2 of these 2×2x72 pieces of steel tubing as the main structural pieces of my extension. It only costs me $56.46 with shipping. I will update with more information about the extension as I have the plans and the parts ready. Ongoing tally: $5293.37. It's getting dangerously close to $5500. Maybe I shouldn't count these none-sailing related parts….

For $24.99 I ordered this anchor light. Low amp draw for my small boat. Updated total: $5236.91

For $29.85 I ordered this antenna for my VHF radio that I have not purchased yet. I already have the Uniden Mystic GPS/VHF Handheld which is one of the best things I’ve ever gotten for boating, but this will allow me to communicate long range or use the handheld on the dinghy while we are on a trip.

Total onging tally update: $5211.92

Bought a ‘used’ battery switch for the ‘new’ electrical system. Total so far: $5182.07

I went to the boat today to do some work. One of the things I did was to see what was left of the electrical system. The last owner did not have a battery in the boat so he pretty much told me that it had no electrical system to speak of. When I took over ownership, I noticed that there are a few parts that maybe salvageable to build my new electrical system. So today I went and stripped everything that was still on there including all of the wiring so I can start fresh.this is a picture of what I was able to salvage.

1. Breaker Panel
2. Distribution Panel
3. 12-volt Cabin light
4. Toggle Switch
5. 2-way pull switch
6. Misc. wiring

Looks like I will be reusing the breaker panel and the distribution panel. Everything else is either too old, broken or inexpensive to buy new.

This is how the old parts look on the boat before I stripped them out:

Here they are removed and organized in my house:

Here is a close up view of the front of the electrical breaker panel:

And here is the back of it:

Last Thursday I decided to take the day off and go charter a boat for the day. Quite a bit of change of pace from the treachery of boat restoration. I chartered a 32 ft Catalina out of Santa Barbara and went up to coast for the day. Here are some videos we took while sailing:

Close reaching shot from the foredeck

Sailing Wing-On-Wing from the helm in light air

Come around the open water buoy checking out seals

I had about 30 minutes today to go to the boatyard to finish a couple of small projects on the boat. One is simply pumping the water out of the bilge with my newly acquired manual bilge pump. That was pretty uneventful. The pump worked great. It pumps much faster than I expected without much effort. It will come in handy in the future. The second project is a bit more involved. I wanted to strengthen the chainplates before rigging the boat. Especially the port sidestay. This photo will show you the condition it was in prior to the modification:

It was just bolted the the deck and not on the bulkhead whatsoever. I wonder if this was adequate for the previous owners use or if it had come undone since he last sailed this boat. Even the stock chainplate itself seems kind anemic but I’m sure it is strong enough for the job. I wanted to add some more security to it so I started looking for chainplates. What I ended up using is actually metal bracing from Lowes. I know its not marine grade stainless steel but it will be inside the cabin and would not get a lot of moisture and they are significantly cheaper. I got 4 metal strip bracing for about 2 bucks each and 3 inch bolts, washers and nuts for about 15 bucks to secure them. The original holes on the braces were too small so I drilled them out to 3/8 inch to accommodate the bolts. During installation, I had to drill out the original chainplate holes to attach them to the new chainplate extension. You can see from this photo below that it is significantly stronger than below:

I used some silicon sealant in the drilled out holes just in case there was any moisture that may get in to the bulkhead in the future to cause any rot. It is probably a huge overkill but I figured its better to be safe than sorry. Obviously the same treatment was done to the starboard side just be balance out the rig.

Now whats left are the headstay and backstay chainplates. I’m not sure what to do with them. They seem to be ok as they are but the headstay does not have an over the bow stem fitting as larger boats do. It is just bolted to the deck with backing plates. The backstay is the same way. I’m considering a conversion to a split backstay and use the existing backstay chainplate as the mounting point for the mainsheet. We’ll see how these issues get resolve in the weeks to come…

This is the backing plate of the headstay fittings below deck.

This is the backing plate of the backstay (smaller ones on top)

Finally the standing rigging is here and I can begin the work. I took some photos of the old versus the new and will post it up a little later. I am close to having all the necessary parts to get my boat into the water. Yet I still don’t have a name for her. What the heck was that name anyways?

There is about 2 inches of water gathered in the bilge. I could either use a length of tube and try siphoning the water out and risk accidentally drinking stale-old-bacteria-infested water or I can get a manual bilge pump to pump it out and keep it later onboard to possibly save me and the boat from an offshore sinking catastrophe. I opted for the latter. It set me back $31.24 from West Marine but I’d say it was a good investment.

Grand total so far: $ 5153.52

While I’m still waiting on getting the rest of my standing rigging from them, I went ahead and ordered the gooseneck. I showed my boat to my friend Elie the other day and he mentioned that his Aquarius 21 has a similar gooseneck setup. From his description of his gooseneck, the D&R Marine seems to be exactly what I need to connect the boom to the mast. This is what the item looks like:



This item sets me back another $59.99. Makes the ongoing tally to: $5122.28

Saw this on yesterday. An O’Day 22 near the same age as mine. Same rigging setup so I took some photos for visual notes on when I need to rig mine. Looks like the mainsheet is connected to the boat via the triangular plate on the backstay. Makes me want to beef up the stern chainplate just to be safe. I wish he had his sail cover off so I can see the goose neck…

At least until tomorrow:)

Ok, I’m wasting too much of my time designing shirts that make me no money. But here is one last design for this site:

By the way, I am not marking anything up in my store so they are as cheap as they can possibly be from CafePress. I suppose if there was enough demand in the future I can just screen print these for them to be even cheaper yet. Once I have a name for my boat I will also be making some new designs with the name in it.

Check out a new t-shirt design I made for my cafe press store. Let me know what you think in the comments.

CIMG1019

Originally uploaded by udannlin.

I just got the north star claw anchor. This thing is huge! My boat is not going anywhere….

CIMG1017

Originally uploaded by udannlin.

Just got this in the mail today. 2 of my ebay purchases for the boat. It is a new West Marine Safety Harness and a used tether with 2 attachment points.

I set up a new Cafe Press store for this site. Right now there is just one item in it and it is a black t-shirt with ‘Born to Sail’ printed on it. Take a look:

Click on the image above to visit my store. More items are coming later! Feel free to send me any ideas of other designs.

The last tally was $3465.13 but that includes the backordered mainsail. For the time being I will just keep that in the total since they are planning on shipping it to me once they get them. I have since bought these additional items:

1. $50.69 – Hitch accessories
2. $96 – 26 lb claw anchor
3. $65 – 200 ft of 1/2 inch twisted nylon for the new bruce anchor
4. $23.47 – safety nylon safety tether
5. $47 – safety harness
6. $37 – 42″ drift sock/ocean anchor
7. $124 – Headstay and backstay
8. $1278 – Tohatsu 6 HP 4-stroke longshaft motor

That brings the total to $5062.29. Ouch. Luckly this will be nearly the end of the large ticket items besides a jib furler (~$500). The rest will come as needed. Of course I will be keeping track of it right here.

I broke down and decided to order a new outboard instead of buying a used one. It is just too much of a nightmare to mess with outboard to get them to work. I ordered from a place called Boats Unlimited in NY so I didnt have to pay taxes. Shipping is only 28 bucks. The total came out to be $1278. Add that on to the ongoing tally. Starting to be expensive…

Update (April 4th 2006): I canceled the order from them and decided to get one from OnlineOutboards.com. They price matched and have it in stock. BoatsUnlimitedNY.com has very poort customer service and was not a good place to deal with. View details

So this is what the chainplate looks like on the port side in the cabin. It is pathetic. I need to seriously strengthen it up whether it needs it or not. The last thing I want is for the shrouds to pull out when I’m in the open ocean.

Well, the dude who sold me the boat did not disclosed the conditions of the headstay. Fortunately I bought this boat with the intensions of replacing the entire standing rigging. It just sucks for him to tell me that things work but have it turn out the opposite. Anyways, Rudy at D&R Marine is sending me the rest of the standing rigging that I ordered last time. Since I will have a complete set of the standing rigging, he is going to just charge me the price for the whole set. That saves me about 60 bucks which was nice of them. I just got the sidestays the other day and they look nice. Very high quality stuff. I will post some photos of them before, during and after installation.

1. Headstay from drmarine.com
2. Backstay from drmarine.com

the total should be around $150. We’ll see for sure when I receive it. Maybe I will feel better later this week to install them. Can’t wait to see how the parts look once they are rigged. Took some more photos of the boat on sunday and will be using them as reference to make some purchases. I bought some parts from lowes today to strengthen the chainplates and also to seal up some holes I noticed while looking around on sunday. More photos to come.

Got some nice gear from ebay for pretty good prices. Some of it was not exactly what I need right now but I just couldn’t pass up the price. here they are. Add them to the tally:

1. $65 – 200 ft of 1/2 inch twisted nylon for the new bruce anchor
2. $23.47 – safety nylon safety tether
3. $47 – safety harness
4. $37 – 42″ drift sock/ocean anchor

I will post photos of these items once I receive them later this week. I think I contracted the flu somehow so posting on the blog is kind of a chore. sigh….

in its new home

Originally uploaded by Dan Lin.

Got the boat back last night from Rancho Cucamonga. It was fairly none eventful. I did find when I got home that the nut on the ball was getting loose. That would have been bad to have it completely rattle off of the hitch. Ouch. My boats new home is at the city dry dock near the Ventura Harbor launching ramp. It is a pretty nice location because once I get her up to shipshape I will be able to keep her rigged at all times. Since there are no telephone or power wires between the lot and the ramp and the ramp is literally across the parking lot, getting her in the water should be a snap. I’m just worried about not having a tongue extender and having to dip the rear wheels in the salt water.

broken gooseneck

Originally uploaded by Dan Lin.

This was not a pleasant surprise like the anchor. After I got the boom out from the cabin, I was surprised to find that the gooseneck fitting was broken. What a bummer. This was not disclosed during the sale. On top of that, the forestay was busted too! What the hell!?!? I’m glad I didn’t pay a dime more than I did. This is going to delay the christening of my boat. I suppose it buys me sometime to give it a new name

surprisingly nice fluke anchor and rode

Originally uploaded by Dan Lin.

for the first time I went through the inventory of the boat and found a surprisingly nice set of fluke anchor and over 200 ft of rode. Seems to be in pretty good condition. I’ve already ordered the 26 lb bruce anchor so this set will be a nice backup or for use when I need to set 2 anchors for additional stability. The rode was already nicely marked every 30 feet or so and the chain is probably over 30 ft long. The guy who sold it to me obviously didn’t use it at all because he didn’r seem to know of its existence.

I know its overkill but its better to be bigger than I need than too small. I bought a 26 lb anchor for my 22 ft boat. its not going anywhere…

$96.00

I recorded a some-what short entry for the podcast with my cell phone as I was going to pick up the boat from my friend Nicole’s parents house tonight. The podcast gives a basic run down of the boat and this site. Audio quality is not great since it was recorded using a mobile phone. It is pretty cool though that Odeo has that feature so I can do a quick entry where ever I have access to a phone.

Download the podcast

Went to Lowe’s and bought some trailering gear that we will need with the new car:

2 x 7/16 quick links for securing the chain. I will use it later for the anchor rode

1 stainless steel 2 inch hitch ball

1 stainless steel lockable pin for the hitch

total: $50.69

To complement this blog, I’m also starting a podcast about the projects I have planned for the boat. If you are interested in what I will be doing, subscribe to it and check it out:

Subscribe to the podcast

setbb.com has free hosting of PHPBB message forums so I signed up. Maybe people will come and use it but maybe they won’t. Well have to wait and see. Since you are already here, go use it!

Click here to go to the message forum

I kinda like this color scheme for the ODay. Found it on the odayowners.com website forum. This is from an ODay 22 in the SF Bay area:

Maybe red with shark teeth at the bow like a WWII fighter plane.

This trailer I have for the boat is only a single axle and has no surge brakes. It did alright on the way to Rancho Cucamonga from Highland but I can defintiely see the advantage of having brakes and maybe a more evenly distributed weight on the trailer. As it is right now, the boat is weighted just slightly behind its single axle of th trailer so it tends to want to fall back. It has some to do with the boat not all the way up on the trailer but think adding another axle will also help with the teeter toter problem. I’m going to look into the cost of such an operation and maybe will add that to the list if its reasonable.

Just got a call from Rudy at D&R Marine. Apparently the replacement main sail is backordered. bummer. I suppose if anything has to be backordered this would be the best. I can just deal with the stretched out old main sail for now. Can’t wait for all this stuff to get to me. Rudy says it will get there this week as they ship via USPS Priority. Maybe I need to tell the dog sitter to keep an eye out for it while we are gone….

I guess this means my ongoing tally is temporariy $510 less than expected

I am already up to $3465.13 on the boat’s ongoing price tag. My budget of $5500 still gives me some more room to go. But the outboard motor can really blow my budget out of the water (pun unintended.). I bid on a used Raymarine ST1000 last night when I woke up to go to the bathroom. I lost by 5 bucks but I dont mind too much since the auto tiller is still a bit early of a purchase. There are other things I need more right now.

I’m sure this won’t be my last order from them:

1. 2 lower sidestays ($72 each)
2. 2 upper sidestays ($78 each)
3. Sail slugs ($3.50)
4. New main sail with 1 reef point ($510)

Total including shipping: $840.07

Well, haven’t had possession of this boat for over 6 hours and I am already making a list of things that I need for this boat. I got this boat for a fairly good price knowing that I will need to spend some money to get her in to the shape I’d like her to be. Let’s see:

1. New Shrouds
2. Headsail furler
3. New main sail
4. 6 HP Tohatsu 4-stroke long shaft motor
5. running lights
6. anchoring light
7. steaming light
8. deep cycle battery
9. New trailer lights (maybe magnetic mount LED)
10. Cabin lights
11. Cockpit cushions
12. outboard bracket
13. Bottom paint
14. topside paint
15. Sail slugs
16. topping lift/boomkicker

I think I should stop there. I should probably prioritize or it will blow my budget pretty quickly.

$25.06

$2600

I just picked up my new 1974 sailboat (new to me) today from Highland, CA. It is an O’Day 22 with a shoal keel. This will be the place where all of its updates and adventures are tracked. I paid initially $2600 for the boat and trailer. The goal is to get her ready for coastal cruising for less than $5500. That’s a pretty tall order since she needs a new main sail, electrical system and motor. Stay tuned.