Changing the propellor

We are working with a company to produce an electric drive for King Malu, but in the mean time we have a 20 HP Honda outboard on the back. Not exactly pretty, but gets us into and out of the marina!

We bought the outboard from Mailspeed Marine in the UK. They are a great company to deal with.



They don't advertise the 20HP on their website, but give them a call and they can supply it... and arrange delivery wherever you are in the world.

Anyway... this morning was very still... the water like a mirror. So this is just the day to turn King Malu around and change the propellor. The reason to change the propellor is that a couple of weeks ago we noticed that at times the motor suddenly races but with no apparent change in speed through the water. We believe this is caused by a breakdown in the bonding between the rubber shock mount in the propellor and the propellor shaft.

We disconnected the remote belden cables to control the outboard and then lifted it up so that Tim, on the jetty, could get at the propellor. I remain on King Malu as the gopher... to go and get any tools he might need.

20 minutes later and the new propellor is in place! I hadn't expected it to be so quick. I thought we might fight getting the old propellor off, but it was a very easy piece of maintenance.

We also took the opportunity to remove any growth on the bottom of the outboard. Keeping it in the water is not the best for it, but we have no choice.

The old propellor shows the state of the growth on it.

So having changed the propellor we took King Malu out for a tial motor in the bay. You will notice if you look carefully two differences between the old and the new, and I don't mean the state of the growth on it. The shape and pitch of the blades is different. The new propellor has a much shallower pitch. This should give us greater pushing power and more control at low speed. It was slightly disconcerting to have higher revs than we were used to with the old propellor, but the control was certainly better. It was impossible to tell how much change in power we had since the sea was so flat.

Fitting new Furlex

King Malu came with a terribly old Goiot furler. It had long lost its bearings and was running on a grease slide between two plates. Having jammed on us a few times and the last time when we really needed it to work smoothly, we eventually decided to replace it with a new Furlex unit. This meant changing the genoa as well.

In for a penny, in for a pound, we invited Paul and Vicky Lees out from Crusader Sails in the UK to teach us how to measure boats for new sails and to advise on what we needed for King Malu.

Hence... a new Furlex. In Cyprus and Lebanon you can buy the Furlex direct from us at Malu Marine.

We first thing to do was remove one side of the v-backstay and loosened the turnbuckle as much as possible on the other side. We marked the turnbuckles with blue tape so we knew where we needed to come back to when we re-tightened them.

The next thing to so was secure the mast, so that when we removed the old forestay/furler it would not do damage. Friday had very light winds so that was an advantage, but we took the wire genoa halyard to a u-bolt on the deck and winched it tight.

It was then possible to remove the bottom pin from the old forestay.

The original forestay had been mounted onto the rear hole on the anchor roller, which meant that all the tension was being taken on two deck screws. Paul thought this a bad idea, and so did we, so we decided when we put the new Furlex back it would be on the middle hole.

We then took the forestay/furler and tied it off to a cleat on the pontoon ready to drop it onto the pontoon.

I then went up the mast and secured the top of the forestay to the spinnaker halyard and removed the top pin. I being at the top of the mast with the standing rigging not bow tight was slightly strange. I am used to the motion of the boat beneath me, but not the mast slightly rattling on top of the boat!

We then lowered the forestay/furler onto the pontoon. Paul had warned us that the luff tube of a furler bent like crazy and it certainly did!

Tim and Sid and I had read through all the instructions the night before, but fitting a Furlex for the first time, it's pretty critical to follow the instructions to the letter. Having got the old furler/forestay to the pontoon the first task is to measure it and calculate cutting figures for the forestay and luff tubes.

This is easier said than done. My old woodwork teacher always said 'measure twice, cut once'. When fitting a new forestay this is even more critical. One mistaken cut and you wait for a new forestay to be delivered!

We measured, we checked each other, we looked again... eventually it was clear and we got the measurements we needed. It would certainly be easier a second time.

The luff tubes fit together really easily, although the instructions fail to mention there is a right way and a wrong way up for the luff tubes. It is important to have the metal infils over the joints not plastic.

Before fixing the top of the luff tubes and the forestay it's important to put on the top swivel, and as Paul said, make sure it's the right way up! The instructions also say to tape it to the sail feed slot which is also a good idea to stop it sliding around.

Then you feed the forestay through the extrusion. The end is annealed, so it should thread easily, but in our case one of the strands wasn't caught well so we had to cut it back a centimetre or so to thread it through.

The top of the new forestay/furler looks really smart and much more secure.

Finally the bit we have been waiting for... or dreading... cutting the forestay to length. A new sharp hacksaw blade did the trick.

The instructions look easy and the parts to join it to the rigging screw also look easy. Too easy. But threading and a wedge over the centre wire proved far from easy.

The instructions then say to bend the outer wires over the end of the wedge. Actually this was the bit I worried about most. The wire stands were so thick I could not believe they would bend over.

However, Tim plus pliers and we had a very much neater end than I was ever expecting.

Two spanners and some gentle, or not so gentle, tightening and the forestay is attached to the rigging screw.

The tape to the right of the finished join is to hold in a pin which we have glued in place till the glue sets.

Finally fit the bottom swivel. The instructions don't say so, but we found out by trial and error that the forestay may appear too short at this point. When hoisted and under tension we found it was perfect.

Hoisting back up and securing the bottom pin proved much easier than I expected. The luff tubes bent like crazy again, but worked fine.

Wow, does this look smart compared to the antiquated Goiot furler we had.

Next, it's back up the mast to secure the top pin. We used the spinnaker halyard to haul it up. I then secured it at the top, lowered the halyard slightly on the luff tubes and Tim was able to winch up such that the top eye aligned with the masthead eye to about 1 millimetre. Fixing the pin through was therefore trivial!

There was only one problem and that was the old guide block for the genoa halyard. Not only had it seized and was being worn through by the halyard acting as a cheese cutter,  but it was too low.

With the halyard at this angle it would put undue strain laterally on the luff tubes and forestay.

So, up the mast again and this time to fit a new halyard guide. The problem is, where I really wanted to fit it there were old holes from a previous guide, which would meant I could not secure it properly. So I mounted it about 5 centimetres lower than I really wanted.

That's a new safety harness I have on. Bought for working at height on building sites, thus much cheaper because it didn't have the word 'marine' attached. It is very much more comfortable and made working at height significantly easier. Sid said I was moving around the mast much quicker and more lithely than before.

Here's what the halyard looks like at the correct angle. To shallow and the halyard will wrap around the luff tubes, too acute and it will stress them laterally.

Then it's time to reverse the process and tension the rig again. And remember to use lock nuts to secure the turnbuckles...

...or if you have the other type of turnbuckles, using mousing wire or a split pin to secure it. It's amazing the number of boats we see in the marina without mousing. If the turnbuckle is corroded in, you may get away with it (as we did) but if they are relatively new, then a vibration in the rig can unwind it. Not what you want to happen while you are sailing!

We found that for the same apparent tension we were approx 1 centimetre different on the mast rake. As a cruising boat I'm sure that won't matter!

Finally we fitted the new drum and furling line. The two halves of the drum didn't quite match so we had to file them down so they clipped together. Paul had warned us this might be a possibility. Getting them to clip together took quite a bit of filing, but was worth it eventually.

The furling line itself is led out of the middle of the drum, perpendicular to the forestay. Getting that angle right determines how well (or otherwise) the line feeds onto and off the drum.

Gentle morning sail...

8 nautical miles

The wind was light, so Tim and I decided a gentle morning sail was in order, and we headed out north for 4 miles then turned round and headed back again. However, the wind dropped as we came back so we motored much of the way back. As we were mooring, we noticed that the engine 'clunked' rather badly going into reverse, so we turned the boat round and moored stern to, and then adjusted then forward-reverse gearbox setting. All in a day's work!

Deck Hatches and Tachometer

Wind looked high and unstable so we decided on a day's boat maintenance.

One of the problems we wanted to fix was something that had become apparent with the rain we had over the past couple of weeks, and that was that the deck hatches were leaking. Jacob and Marie, who clean King Malu, had mentioned that they thought the hatch above the saloon was leaking. This seemed very strange to us, since we had recently replaced the acrylic in the hatches and sealed it carefully with Sikaflex 291i. During the week, however, we noticed that the Sikaflex had not adhered to the acrylic and that when you pressed the acyclic you could see water between the window and the Sikaflex!

We talked to others about this problem and one person suggested that there is a known problem with Sikaflex and hot temperatures for making it fail to cure properly. Maybe this was the problem, though we only changed them recently and we didn't think the temperature was that high when we did it. Whatever the reason, the Sikaflex 291i hadn't adhered and Tim could push the windows out with his fingers!

We were recommended to try Hyperseak 50, so that's what Tim and Jacob spent their Saturday doing - removing the acrylic, re-masking it and then resealing the hatches. We'll know how effective it is when it next rains.

I (Richard) am working 3 day weeks till the end of the year and so decided to try and find a way of making some kind of tachometer for the Honda outboard, pending doing this for the new electric inboard, which should arrive soon. So I worked out the relevant NMEA sentence and tried sending that to the Raymarine C70 we have on board. I tried everything, but never responded at all. It appears that the C70 only responds to tacho sentences on the Seatalk line, and making a Seatalk interface was definitely not what I want to do right now, expecially as the language is not pure NMEA so would make it more difficult in the software too...

So I decided to try a different approach. The Honda 20HP tacho output gives pulses from a separate coil on the generator, which basically give an AC voltage between 6 and 100 volts depending on the RPM of the engine. So, I decided if I rectify that and smooth it with a 100uF capacitor and then voltage divide it down I should have a DC voltage between 0 and 5 volts that can be displayed on a LED bar graph. I used an LM 3914 IC to display this and 6 high brightness LEDs. Wasn't quite trivial to make it work, but it did work fine eventually (you need both a 12v and a 5v supply for the IC, so two regulators were needed).  So that was how I spent my Friday afternoon and Saturday.

Windguru got it wrong!

Tim and I have been watching the wind predictions on Windguru for Larnaca all week. Earlier in the week it was showing strong winds so I had suggested calling off sailing today. Yesterday, however, the prediction showed the wind abating somewhat down to 12-15 knots, so we decided that we would have a go.

Crew today was Tim, me, Jacob, Dave and Yanis. When we got to King Malu the wind felt a bit more than 12-15 knots. Looking on the wind meter it was showing 15 and up to 20 knots... which looked OK though so we thought we would still go out. We would use a small amount of genoa and a mizzen sail to hold her steady.

The wind was from the north so getting out from the berth was non-trivial but Tim managed that manoeuvre pretty neatly. I was at the stern watching to fend off the boat behind us, but King Malu came back gently and the bow thruster pushed her round.

As soon as we are moving I insisted the crew get their lifejackets on. Normal practice on King Malu is to put life jackets on as soon as we leave the marina, but not until we are outside. Today with the wind the way it is I want people wearing them earlier.

So why don't we put them on as soon as we board? If you fall in they will self-inflate, pretty much instantly. If you are manoeuvring close to another boat and have someone in the water with an inflated life jacket, that person cannot dive down to avoid getting squashed. This actually happened to Tim once so it is a very real possibility.

Anyhow... we came round into the main channel with no problem, then headed out of the marina... white horses everywhere. 28 knots wind from the North. Tim handed the helm over to me and I pushed out into the chop.

Sorry, let's try that again I try to push out and then hit the chop and the 20 HP Honda outboard didn't make headway against this chop at all. Full throttle, no movement - partly due to cavitating, partly due to lack of power because of propellor position. Anyway there was no way we were going to make it so I turned back for the marina and handed the helm back to Tim to get ready for berthing.

But... we didn't turn and the waves were now driving us onto the sea wall protecting the marina. Tim had the outboard full in reverse but to now avail we were edging slowly towards the marina wall...

So I said we would just have to use the genoa and sail ourselves off. We have ordered new suite of sails including new furlex, but that won't be here for a while, so we're still on the old cranky furler... which jammed! So I rushed forward to try and unjam it, to see that the rope holding the furler in place had totally jammed up the furler. I did what I could and ran back to the cockpit to get the safety knife to cut the snagged rope.

We're now about 3 metres from the sea wall...

I must have un-done it enough as a couple of metres of the genoa came out and pushed us round. We were back-winding the genoa like we do to help turn us when tacking. Much more power in the small bit of genoa than a bow thruster!

So we headed back to the berth. We have this extremely awkward berth to get into and out of so either I helm and Tim is at the bow directing or the other way around. Today since he was helming I was at the bow directing.

Coming into the berth, with the wind from the North just makes it even worse as all the boats are pushed together and you have to squeeze them apart to get in. I pointed one way, I hear the bow thruster going, but we're not moving the right direction!

A very small pocket of the genoa had not furled back correctly so we are still sailing. Tim told me later he had the motor full in reverse and we were still moving towards the quayside! We eventually get all the lines attached and refurl the genoa.

Interesting experience and showed everything worked as it should (the theory at least) but also the importance of checking your genoa is running free before you even leave your berth. Of course, even testing beforehand, it could still jam when you need it.

We then went off to the club for a coffee. Yanis, who sails quite a lot, said it was interesting watching us, because we all moved so fast in that situation - each regular crew member doing what's needed. That is because we are all dinghy sailors who have moved up to yachts.

He also mentioned that safety is one of the things he sees as very important to us on our yacht. Too true!

Sorry, no, we don't have any photos of this as it was all a bit to quick to stop and take snaps.

Sunday Sail

11 nautical miles

Upgrading the VHF radio to include AIS

We kind of had hoped to get a bit of a sail today, well, I had anyhow, but turned out the whole day was taken up fitting our new Navicom RT-650 VHF radio. We had an old Icom non-MMSI radio and for some time we intended changing it to one that included MMSI, but recently it had been proving more and more unreliable, so we ordered the new RT-650.

Why the Navicom RT-650? Well, it's not just an MMSI compatible marine band transceiver, but also includes two extra 'goodies' - an inbuilt AIS receiver and an MOB bracelet so that when someone is on watch alone, particularly at night, then the watch-keeper wears the bracelet and if they fall overboard then the entire crew is woken up and alerted. Sounds like a simple job, be done by lunchtime...

The first problem was that when we connected the new radio it didn't work. Part of the problem with the old one turned out to be dodgy wiring from the previous owner.  He had just twisted wires together and taped them up mid-way along a cable run. Salt water had got into the joint and corroded the wire badly. This horrid twisted joint was hidden behind a waste water pipe so not visible! Tracing and finding the fault took some time and then replacing the old wire with a new cable through a rather tortuous route took longer still.

Next problem was to get the radio to receive GPS signals and send AIS signals. Also easier said than done. The manual, though in English, is somewhat spartan and didn't explain that the GPS input is locked to 4,800 baud whereas the AIS output is switchable and defaults to the normal 38,400 baud. However, the Raymarine C series chart-plotter will either do 4,800 baud or 38,400 baud not a combined send at 4,800 baud and receive  at 38,400 baud to be compatible with the Navicom.

Eventually I downgraded the output of the Navicom to 4,800 baud to match the Raymarine, but this is not a good solution as the higher traffic of AIS means it is possible some data will get lost.

Next problem was that the MOB bracelet didn't work - turns out the battery needs charging. But it is a 5volt unit, not 12 volt so needs a separate charger.

The solution for the future may be to build a Seatalk to RS232 or RS422 converter, since Seatalk works at 4,800 baud, and use this to feed the GPS to the Navicom leaving the AIS data at 38,400.  Seatalk is basically electrically very similar to RS232, but with 0 being 0 volts not minus volts. Because we only have positive voltages on the boat converting will be a little more difficult. Also, the data standard is not quite the same as NMEA so some translation necessary there too. Anyway... that's for another day... or another way.

We're hoping to sail to Beirut the week beginning the 13th November, so getting everything ready for the trip, and one of those things is having a decent working radio on board.

Sailing to Nissi Beach

37 nautical miles

I (Richard) am in the UK. At 9AM the phone rings. 'Hi, Tim here... just to say it's the two year anniversary of acquiring King Malu and Sidney, Anna, Jacob and I are on our way to Agia Napa...' Sounds like they had a great sail. Wish I'd been there.

---

Today we had a wonderful sail. Tim, Sidney and I sailed all the way to Ayia Napa. We started off in a Northerly wind around 10 past 9. On the way we saw a MASSIVE Sailing ship, "Running On Waves", and Tim took some photos. Around 11 o'clock, in 17ish knots of wind, we rounded Cape Pila, and got our speed up to 7.4 knots!!!!!! A RECORD!

On the way in towards shore we passed a fish farm, and then tacked. At this point the wind started switching every which way as predicted. Then we ate while going past Nissi beach, headed back to Cape Pila, saw a flying fish or two, and headed back towards Larnaca in the distance.

Then (once again as predicted) the wind died down to an unsteady 4.5~8.5 knots coming from dead ahead of us. Finally it died out completely. Tim started the motor and we motored. We were worried about there not being enough fuel, but it worked out fine. 

After the wind changed again dramatically, we unfurled the Genoa for a bit. We berthed  King Malu without mishap. Tim says that once we have the new sails, which he has already ordered, we'll be easily doing 8 knots in a good wind. Can't wait! 

Tomorrow I will practice taking her in and out of the marina with Tim. 

-Midshipman Jacob

SAGA3 - Beirut to Antalya

325 nautical miles

'We had a great sail to Antalya. Just the 3 of us. We sailed at 9.5 knots most of the way. A total of only 50 miles motoring as the wind was right on the nose for a short way.' - Tim

8 October 2011

14 nautical miles

1 October 2011

23 nautical miles

18 September 2011

19 nautical miles

Gentle morning sail

20 nautical miles (route incorrect, more towards Cape Pyla)

Tim was flying to Dubai this evening so we only went for a short sail. However, the new asymmetric spinnaker is amazing... 

To start with there was no wind at all so we motored out and anchored and Tim and Jacob swam and cleaned the growth off the outboard. Meanwhile there were loads of boats moving around the bay so I played radar - tracking targets with MARPA as this is something I want to hone as a skill.

Then there was maybe 4 knots of wind so we thought we'd try and see what the new asymmetric made of this: 2 knots SOG! The wind increases slightly to 6 knots and we did 4 knots SOG. We are definitely trimming the sails better and King Malu is sailing faster.

Lunch was amazing. Now we have two gas cylinders we are more prepared to use the gas and Tim cooked pork fillet with apples and salad with blue cheese sauce. My mouth waters thinking about it as I write up the blog. 

Coming back we have 11 knots of wind and we're doing more than 6 knots SOG. We decide to furl the asymmetric since I am not feeling great and it needs quite a lot of energy to furl this smoothly on the magic furl.

All in all a wonderful sail.

Monday sail

25 nautical miles (route incorrect, missing sailing north)

Our guests for the day were Mark with his two daughters Emily and Marie. Marie had just completed a contract testing samples of water and such like in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil disaster, so we very used to being on and off boats, though being treated as 'the scientist' on board is very different to being on a sailing yacht. Much quieter than a work boat!

There was no wind, so first stop was to find somewhere to anchor and let the girls have a swim.

Emily is just starting her career as a singer/performer on Broadway - couldn't really be more different to her sister who is a naturalist/scientist. She was catching some sun before returning to 'the big apple' to look for work.

Although Mark is from the mid-west, he looks as if he could have been born on a boat.

It didn't take long for the two sisters to find the laying in the sun place on board and lie there and catch up with old times.

They referred to Tim and me as 'the two captains'. That's a phrase (captain) I still don't really get used to.

And this is to show they did all really have a day out together sailing!

Oh and I should mention the stowaway we caught on board clinging to the lifelines...

Friday sail

19 nautical miles

Our guests for today's sail were Mark, Lois and Anahita. Mark grew up on boats. When many of us took  the bus or train to go to school, Mark went by boat. He lived in a small island just off the mainland of Canada. It was a very pleasant sail.

Sunbathing sail

27 nautical miles

This is one of of gentle sails. Some people tell horror stories of their sailing 'adventures'. We have some of those too, but we like to introduce people to sailing like it is most of the time... gentle and very enjoyable.

Sidney is one of our 'regulars', when he's nor off playing golf that is...

Anna has been a couple of times...

Jacob, our midshipman, is always with us... when he can...

Mark, a colleague from the UK, was out for the first time. If you feel a little queasy... keep your eyes on the horizon!

The stern deck is coming into its own now as the weather is cooling slightly and the sun not burning quite so much. Earlier in the season the bimini is a must!

Now both stern and foredeck can be used for sunbathing. 

20 August 2011

17 nautical miles

Our guests for the day with Nader and Billy along with the regular crew of Tim, Jacob and myself. It was a really enjoyable gentle sail.

Sailing with my son

16 nautical miles

My son Tim is over for the summer. He has finished his degree and next year does his PGCE. I inveigled him out today for a sail. Unlike my older son who likes boats, Tim is more a landlubber and his summary of the day was 'boring' but than hastened to add boring was not that bad!

The first thing this morning was to repair the genoa. The previous owner of King Malu didn't do very good maintenance on her for the last few years and the genoa was one of the places he cut corners: The sacrificial cloth which should protect it from the sun had perished and he hadn't replaced it. This meant that the edge of the genoa is somewhat sun perished. The rest of the sail is fine. We have added sacrificial cloth, but this is now really part of the sail rather than an extra, in that it is holding the edge of the sail together! Anyhow... what this means is that there is a tendency for the edge to rip and need repairing, which is what we did first thing this morning.

We then went down to the marina. Tim (sailing Tim rather than son Tim) took her out and used the new bow thruster to nudge her out. We tacked south hoping to go over the Xenobia but couldn't get that close to the wind and so tacked round to the north. We then put up the gennaker/asymmetric spinnaker and sailed well, doing 5 knots in 7 knots of wind. Actually we seem to be sailing King Malu much better now, and the whole day we sailed close to 5 knots sometime touching over 6 knots. Tim said that it would be great to get that speed on a long passage, as we would get about 120 miles per day.

Tim (son Tim rather than sailing Tim) said that he really liked the bimini which gives a lot of shade and with the open sides the wind keeps us reasonably cool.

It was a great sail.

I took her back into the mooring and having the bow thruster gave me much more confidence: Because we needed steerage we had come it with enough speed for steerage and usually had to use significant reverse thrust to stop her in the berth. If we got it 100% right it was impressive. If we didn't (and this was much of the time) then we would have some sort of difficulty.

So with the bow thruster I brought the speed right down navigating around and knew I could turn her as I wanted to nudging her into place without having speed for steerage. She behaved exactly as I wanted and though Tim said I could have done it faster I prefer slower. King Malu accelerates slower than she decelerates, hence I much prefer to have her slow and nudge the speed up than to have to use reverse to slow her down. Anyway, I was very pleased with the berthing and it meant Tim just stepped off onto the floating dock and took the lines to moor her. Much easier than two weekends ago!

Adding a bow thruster

With our new permanent berth being really awkward to get in and out from, and with both Tim and I having had problems berthing we decided that a bow thruster was needed, so we lifted King Malu and so we went down to see Costas at Damianou Marine and bought a Quick 4kw bow thruster.

We got him to arrange for professional fitting of the thruster tunnel and we ran the ancillary circuits and then he commissioned it. We added two extra 100 amp hour batteries to power the beast.

By the time it was finished it all looked very neat and because we did this in the summer when the boat yards are quieter we lifted the boat, got the work done, did all we wanted and returned King Malu to the water 7 days later!