When we hauled out in August 2024, we didn’t realize Rainshadow would be on the hard until mid June 2026. A variety of events lead us to not sail at all in 2025. We did work on Rainshadow in 2025, but the brutal work started in April 2026.
The original cockpit canvas (that is, the canvas at the time of our purchase) didn’t fit well and was starting to fail. So we decided to make some design improvements and construct a new one.
Our boat has 10 portlights, 5 on each side of the cabin. We learned on our recent passage to Hawaii that they are leaking. There are multiple reasons why.
We hauled out on July 21st, hoping to “haul and hang” for an hour to pull off the old Axiom and put on the new one, but with the nagging fear in the back of our minds that we should have replaced the white metal bearing during our haul out in June.
Nicholson 38’s do not have a cutlass bearing, they have a white metal bearing in a stern tube. This works well as long as you keep it well greased, and that’s why there is a stern tube greaser integrated into the stuffing box. But after 37 years, the white metal bearing was worn enough, you could wiggle the shaft quite easily and make it go “thump thump thump”. It was well past time to replace the bearing.
Axiom made the new prop in just under three weeks, and UPS got it here in just five days. What an amazingly flat world.
Rainshadow has a 16 inch diameter, 12 inch pitch propeller that is specified by Camper and Nicholson for the Nic 38. It sits in an aperture, which is about 20 inches in diameter. She also has the original Perkins 4-108 with a 2:1 reduction transmission. We find there are three major problems.
Yes, it’s true – we bought new sails! Though our original plan was to try to make our own sails – we decided to go with the professionals. I’ll give a review of how everything went.
A few months ago, we had our fuel tank professionally cleaned. We vowed to keep the fuel clean so we are not stranded by our trusty Perkins when we need it most.
This posting is about good ideas and bad ideas. Or maybe I should say good ideas with bad and good implementations.