Replacing masthead sheaves

Since Aeolus is out of sailing shape until the new traveler is installed, I decided to go ahead and replace my masthead sheaves as I have long known they were grooved from the wire/rope halyards. I figured while up there again I would photograph everything for reference later. The masthead sheaves on my Gulf 32 are 2 3/4 OD, 3/8 pin, and 31/64 wide. Turns out these are hard to find. I found something close to them at www.rigrite.com but really dislike having stuff shipped across the country if I can buy it locally. Plus, they weren't exact matches.

I asked on the Brion Toss rigging forum called Spartalk and was reminded of a guy here in Washington who specializes in making custom sheaves. Looks like he does really nice work and he is getting them out to me on a one day turn around. His business is called Zephyr Works.

If I hadn't already replaced my halyards somewhat recently, I might switch to just rope halyards, but I'll leave that for a few years down the road. For now, Zephyr works is making my new sheaves with a wire/rope groove, which will work fine for plain rope if I switch to that in the future. The new sheaves are delrin with nice bronze sleaves for the cotter pin surface.


Update 4/3/08. My new sheaves did in fact come the very next day and I am thrilled. They are solid and much better than my old ones. The bronze sleave fits the clevis pin much better with sufficient but no extra slack. I installed them, yet another mast climbing, and when I installed the halyards they ran even smoother than before.

I now highly recommend Zephyrwerks for quick, quality and affordable work!

A storm, new reefing system and goodbye reefing hook

Have been establishing a slab reefing system for the new mainsail and have really enjoyed the design and creation of it all. In the process, I discovered that the reefing hook was not only hard to use, but dangerous because the forces on it were very lateral, and this wanted to bend the hook toward the stern. Bad combination, since that hook is the only bolt holding the boom into the gooseneck. If it snapped, you're screwed. In the photo, the small lines you see are my lazy jack lines just being messy on the now gone hook.

After posing a question on spartalk (such an amazing resource! Much of the reason I do this blog is out of gratitude to all the people more experienced than me who have shared their wisdom in places like sailnet and spartalk in hopes this blog may help others seeking answers), the Brion Toss site, I learned that reefing hooks are generally disfavored by riggers and that there are easier and better ways to deal with the tack.

I pulled out the reefing hook and replaced it with a standard hex head stainless bolt liberally covered in lanocote due to the aluminum surfaces it touches.

My new reefing system is pretty basic. I did a ton of research online and in books before settling on a pretty common system. Bill Seifert in his great book gave the advice to arrange a small block on the clew to prevent line chafe and provide mechanical advantage. He said, and I am sure it is true, that a line run through a cringle at the leech will chafe through in just a few hours of flogging in high winds. I used beautiful Lewmar 60mm synchro blocks attached to the cringle with a halyard shackle for strength and fit and ease of removal in a pinch. Will get pictures soon.

On the boom the first reef is led from an eye to the leech block down to the back of the boom around the sheave and forward out the front and back to a cleat. Very strong, and easy to use.

The second reef is taken from an eye up to the second reef cringle block and back down to a cheek block placed so the forces are pulling back on the sail to get good foot tension and then forward to a cleat on the boom. Also simple, strong and all on the starboard side.

The tack has pendants permanently hung and just long enough to be reached. When brought down, they secure to the cleat below the main halyard winch. The angles work well and the timing of release halyard from cleat, attach reefing tack line, adjust halyard with winch, and then cover reefing line with halyard, all works out well.

A note on my boom is that it is made out of heavy gauge aluminum and when I threaded the holes, there are about 3 threads worth of purchase. That should be enough for these largely lateral forces. All screws inserted with blue loctite for corrosion resistance and holding.

Now the storm story: While finishing the installation of the new boom hardware, I have the full sail up at the dock, making measurements and drilling and tapping holes for the hardware. Out of nowhere, a windstorm comes up and in no time we are getting 40 knot gusts. Maybe higher. Smith Island weather station nearby had 56 knot gusts. It was a fun test of my new reefing system!!! I finished installing everything with great difficulty, and then reefed her down right there at the dock, without the ability to spill wind from the sail because I couldn't let the boom out too far without hitting a neighboring boat. She reefed beautifully, with only hand strength, and in pretty nasty conditions. The wind blew so strong it was lifting my 200 pounds off the deck a little bit. I love that stuff.

Getting new dodger uncovers need for new traveler

In my quest to offshore certify everything on Aeolus and outfit her with a new dodger, I discovered yet another unexpected need: a new traveler. My dodger is being done locally here by the good folks at San Juan Canvas. The current dodger has served well since being built by Hayden Island Canvas in Portland, Oregon for the original owner back in 1990 or so. It is now tired and dead, as even sunbrella wears out.

As part of the dodger process, we decided it would be best to strengthen my frame a little bit. The existing frame is very well designed, with conservative height and proper wave shedding angles, but did lack a tie down bar in the front. The vast majority of dodgers I see around the docks here in Friday Harbor are what I would call day sail dodgers: big, gaudy, obese and flimsy looking things that proudly stand erect off the deck as though tempting any wave to knock them down. Foolishness in anything other than benign conditions. The dodger on Aeolus is helped by the fact there is already a pilothouse providing some height and structure, but is then helped further by the conservative offshore angles and sizing. Given that it is not a hard dodger for high latitude sort of work, it is quite sturdy. Anyway, the front arch was held down by a strap that went down to the pilothouse. I needed to replace this with actual stainless tubing because it would greatly stiffen the dodger and help when we add the handholds on the outside edge of the dodger. I even angled these forward most bars in a little bit, so that all the strength in the dodger is not just from fore and aft, but able to resist a bit of sideways force.

To do this, I wanted to through bolt the deck fitting. To do this, I needed to remove the headliner in the pilothouse. Good, I thought, should do that anyway to check the nuts and backing plates on the traveler and such. So I unscrew everything and pop out the ceiling panels and what do I see but puny little seriously corroded aluminum backing plates under the stainless washers and bolts. Christ. Sometimes I think I'm the only one who thinks about galvanic corrosion. The holes in the backing plate were so corroded away that the plate was essentially serving no purpose. Fortunately, the pilothouse top is extremely strongly built and the mainsheet had never tacked hard with full sail in 40 knot winds or something. Bet she wouldn't have liked that.

So, once into it, I decided to back out the bolts and rebed everything as I've been doing. Long story short, the 20 year old Lewmar traveler would have no part of being taken apart. To remove the bolts, you need to remove the end caps and to do that, you need to remove these tiny stainless screws that had long since corroded irrevocably into the aluminum they were threaded into. Again, am I the only one worried about galvanic corrosion? They would not budge, and the heads stripped despite a soaking in WD40. As I began looking at the details of the rest of the traveler, I discovered it was worn out several other places. Not an offshore traveler to begin with, but sturdy enough when new. When I called Lewmar to find out if replacement parts were available, they essentially laughed. I essentially cried.

Thus, I began the journey to purchasing a new traveler, and had to put the new dodger on hold. Sounds like I have an infinite budget, but we don't.

After exhausting research, which I enjoy, I've decided to purchase a new Harken system. No small part of my decision was the excellent Harken customer service and the availability of spare parts for decades after they stop making something. They still have parts for my furler that they stopped making in 1989. The price was essentially the same as a Garhauer unit, which I also considered. The Garhauer unit I looked at was the UB2, a beefy thing with a good reputation. However, it cannot be bent, and so I would need their $200 risers, making the Garhauer unit the same cost as a bent Harken unit. Then it came down to design and function, and I am impressed by the simplicity, serviceability, and strength of the Harken system.

I'm going with their Big Boat traveler, as Aeolus is right at the upper cusp for their midrange system, and so I once again erred on the conservative side. I'm getting their HI-Beam track, bent to my deck curvature, and a 4:1 car and end cap system. It is all really beefy stuff, and the price I got from sailnet saved me easily hundreds of dollars over normal retail. If everything comes on time and as ordered, I'll be thrilled. The Harken unit can also be mounted into my existing traveler holes.

To be exact, I ordered from sailnet:

3170 End pieces w/cam $328

3156.1.5 HI Beam track $142
Bending for 2” chord rise over 42 length













3164 Car with ears for blocks $260







2638 40mm blocks (2) $82 total









3158 Trim Cap $11

I'm excited about this new traveler and hope to have it in hand and installed within a couple weeks. Will publish photos of it and a review once it is in.

Turns out upon investigation that my old Lewmar unit was never rigged properly. It had always worked just fine so I never noticed, but the bitter end was incorrectly tied into the eye instead of into these cool rope clutches built into the car. This photo shows how it was done wrong, and how it should have been done. You can just see the line on the right coming out of the car. Inside there, is a set of teeth that grip the line. The right photo shows these teeth removed. Very simple, strong and elegant. What the previous owner had done is on the left side of the car on the left photo, which is to awkwardly tie off the line around the eye. That top eye had been badly eaten way by the years of pounding by the straight edge of the fitting you see there. And that topmost fitting was stretched and weakened. A very bad combination.









So, despite a painful expenditure, I am certainly happy to be getting such a beefy and worthy traveler for Aeolus.

Update 4/3/08: To the right is a photo of the underside of the pilothouse where the traveler bolts come through after you remove the headliner. I've purchased some stainless and fabricated new backing plates that will take better advantage of the area. As the picture shows, I have also epoxied the area using enough coloidal silica for peanut butter consistency and then using a piece of plastic, I used the backing plate to flatten out the epoxy over the entire area of the new SS backing plate. This way, the plate is bearing uniformly on the pilothouse roof and not point loaded on the irregular surface the way it had been. I'll drill the bolt holes back out from the top down. Can't wait for the new traveler to arrive.

Installed tether pad eyes

As part of an ongoing project to make Aeolus more suited for offshore trips, I installed three beefy Scheaefer pad eyes with backing plates in the cockpit. One right at the companionway so you can hook in before leaving the cabin, and one on either side of the wheel. I figure these two by the wheel can be used to secure the wheel from turning as well as people from flying away.

I believe we will have two tethers for the person at the wheel, so by clipping into both eyes on either side, there is no way for the helmsman to get tossed over the lifelines.




I have also installed nice brass pad eyes around the cabin sole as part of my floorboard securing system. After considering many options and methods, I settled on what I think is the strongest and cheapest. With four pad eyes around the sole, I run webbing between them and through the finger holes in the floorboards. When tensioned, there is no real movement of the boards, and with the webbing being woven through them, they can't go anywhere even if they get a bit loose. Way cheaper, and easier, and more certain, than most any other system I researched, including installing flush latches, which wouldn't work well for this boat anyway.

Saga of the temperature sender

None would guess that getting the proper temperature sender for my boat would prove to be so difficult. Alas. So often on boats, and in life, success goes to those who are willing to suffer absurd setbacks and try, try again. I've always liked that supposedly Buddhist expression to "Fall down six times, stand up seven".

On a Gulf 32, all the engine controls are down by the electrical panel in the pilothouse. All that is, except for an utterly useless engine start button which I have never been able to see the reason for. So from the wheel in the cockpit, you cannot see engine RPM, or most importantly, engine temperature.

On a challenging day heading out of Deception Pass against 40 knot winds, we had to motor at nearly full throttle to make a pathetic 2 knots SOG amongst the steep 8 foot wind waves, and this with a nice 3 blade prop. Clearly, engine overheating was a serious concern, in fact, a mortal concern. The intake was getting popped out of the water at the top of every big wave we were getting bounced over. And because there were no gauges in the cockpit, I had to ask my stalwart crew member Adam to let loose his death grip on the cockpit and open the companionway doors and look below to see that our engine was steady at something below 180 degrees. Every 10 minutes. Even this felt like too long to wait.

So, with this experience, I set about to install a dual station in the cockpit beside the wheel. I've mounted a teak winch pad and on it a Tiny Tach diesel tachometer and a second Teleflex temperature gauge. Fine, I do all the wiring and fiberglass cutting and all is well. A fun job. But when everything is wired up, the gauges do not come up to normal operating temperatures. I had purchased what I thought was the proper dual station Teleflex sender from Cook Engine in Portland, an engine shop that specializes in all things marine diesel.

Believing the sender was fine, I tested every other possible reason for the gauges not working. I called Teleflex to make sure the two gauges were compatible. They were. I checked wires. Fine. I prayed to Neptune. He laughed.

So then I did what I spend all my time doing these days, and that is a massive internet search to figure out the damn problem. After endless queries and false starts, I discovered that Teleflex does not imprint their own part numbers on their senders. Repeat, there is no identification on their own senders that will tell you which one it is in their catalog. Unbelievable. I eventually called Teleflex and spoke with one of their tech gurus and was told that in fact Teleflex doesn't even make a dual station 1/4" thread sender anymore!!!!! Now only Sierra Marine makes them, an offshoot of Teleflex, and oh no, they do not share part numbers.

Apoplectic, as six months had elapsed, I called Cook Engine, they agreed to take it back, and send me the correct Sierra sender. It arrives, I install it, and the temperature gauges do not come up to temperature...!!!...!!!...!!!

I connected each gauge by itself to this Sierra sender, and they worked fine. No problem with the gauges or wiring.

I yank it out, go home, check the paperwork, and discover that the model I was sent was part number 26650 on the box, when what Cook Engine had on their invoice was 26651. With another several hours of internet searching, and I'm good, I finally find that General Automotive Specialty Company Incorporated makes the sender for Sierra who is a part of Teleflex and the box I was sent was a sender that hasn't been made in so long that it doesn't exist on anyone's lists of current senders.

However, Sierra sender 26651 is indeed supposed to be the proper dual station 1/4" sender. So I called Cook Engine again and said, you won't believe this, but...And they said they would get back to me on Monday as it was Friday afternoon.

All I have ever wanted was the proper temperature sender. I intensely hope that Cook Engine will promptly send me Sierra sender 26651 right away and we can all laugh about this in 2023.

I tell this lengthy story just as testament to the sort of determination it takes to get so much of anything done in this world, especially on a sailboat. Delayed gratification, they say, is the single most important ingredient to happiness. Ironic, but true.

Great Overnight to Lopez Island

Amy had an overnight work trip to Lopez Island and so the boys and I went over yesterday to meet her in the afternoon when she was done. Elliott took the wheel and steered for quite a way over to Lopez. He was proud, and I was proud of him. He's learning how to use ranges to steer a straight course. We went into Fish Bay, always a fun trip through the narrow entrance, and although the tide was rising, it was the lowest I have ever seen upon entering. Fortunately, experience helps and we had no problems. Once in, we anchored in about 10 feet of water just SW of Islanders Marine.

We dinghied over to the dinghy dock and walked into Lopez Village for some play time in the big field and the dirt pile. There is a dirt pile about the size of a truck load right near Bucky's cafe and the boys love rolling around in it like dogs. We then went to the wonderful Lopez library and enjoyed a magical few hours of reading.

After going to pick up Amy when she was done, we went back to town to eat at the Love Dog Cafe for the first time. Wonderful place. Great food at a good price. Way cheaper for the quality than anything you can get in Friday Harbor.

We rowed back to Aeolus at dusk and fired up the diesel cabin heater and settled in for a cozy night. All was quiet and in the morning we slept in as late as Elliott and Owen would allow. On the trip back Amy wanted to handle all duties to sharpen her captain skills so I just stood aside. She took us out and most of the way across. I took over near Turn Island as the current had picked up pretty fiercely and I was having to cut a steep ferry angle to make forward progress. Eddies and whirlpools abound right off Turn Island.

Home again, home again. Everyone piled into the dinghy to row the short distance back to our neighbor's dock where we are allowed to keep the dinghy tied up for easy access. Another great family trip made possible by Aeolus and we never had to touch a car from the time we left the house to the time we returned.

Replacing alternator

The original Motorola alternator on Aeolus started acting up a bit last week when we did a day trip to nearby Jones Island State Park. I noticed that after starting the motor that the alternator was not producing any charge. After a few minutes it finally kicked in. Figuring it was probably an early indication of the inevitable failure of the 20 year old alternator, I decided to give my back up a try.

About a year ago I purchased a back up alternator from DB electrical. I got a Mando marine internal regulator 50 or 55 amp, I can't remember. From everything I've read these are pretty good alternators, though they are Korean, and are OEM on Mercruiser I think. Anyway, I had to do some research to figure out how to wire the thing because the wiring is not identical to the Motorola. Fortunately, I have no fear of anything on engines as I grew up under the hood of a car.

After a lot of reading, which I always do, I decided to not ground to the case as the Motorola had been but to run the ground to the block directly. I used 6AWG boat cable for the short run.
When I fired her up she worked great but put out a fairly high 14.6 volts. Alarm bells. I called DB electrical to find out the regulator setting, and they said anything below 14.9 is normal. Called Trojan battery since I have their batteries and they said anything below 14.9 is great. In fact, they recommend 14.8 for their flooded batteries, which I have. Never mind that Casey says anything above 14.4 is bad...I do think, however, that Casey's suggestion of putting a switch in the excite circuit to shut off the alternator on long motoring trips is a good idea. You have to stop the motor and restart it for this to work, but that's OK. Up here, where the wind is fickle in summer, you often motor for 6 or more hours a day when you are trying to get somewhere. That's a long time to pump more than 14 volts into a battery. So I went and got a high quality Cole Hersee single pole single throw switch and built a little wooden house for it and have mounted it on a reinforcing bulkhead in the engine compartment near the alternator. I connected the excite wire to it, and it works perfectly. For use on those occasions when I'm motoring along all day.

Have to say, this Mando alternator cost me about $100 and to rebuild my Motorola is estimated at $150. Why bother. Time will tell if it holds up, but at that price, sure beats a Balmar.