Family Sailing Adventures
My Dad, the Midwest farmer, just visited for 2 weeks. We had lots of adventures associated with Rainshadow.
Chronicles of Rainshadow
Prop Analysis and Replacement – Part III: The Second Axiom Prop
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.
Replacing the White Metal Bearing
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.
Galley and Water Improvements
Fresh water has been a problem for us so far. The built-in fiberglass tank was badly affected by venting blisters, and as of last summer, we weren’t content to drink water from it any more. We tried using Sanitred to fix it, which was a complete disaster!! Never ever use Sanitred products on your boat!!!
Short Trip to San Juans
This has been a funny season so far. In our wintertime dreams, we planned to leave in May to head north. But one thing after another has held us up (some of it was work related so a reasonable excuse). When a friend from NYC called and said – “hey, we’re in Friday Harbor for work, want to meet us for dinner in three days?” I said – “YES, we’ll sail there!”
Prop Analysis and Replacement – Part II: The Axiom Prop
Axiom made the new prop in just under three weeks, and UPS got it here in just five days. What an amazingly flat world.
Summer 2011 Haulout
We hauled Rainshadow at Sea Marine in Port Townsend for a week, starting June 13th. We had a nice stay there. Sea Marine pushed a staircase along side the boat, so I could climb aboard (I certainly would not be able to climb a ladder). So we lived aboard on the hard, and worked on her every day. Weather was pleasant enough (read, very little rain) – it was a nice “vacation” even though Van slaved away on the boat non-stop.
Prop Analysis and Replacement – Part I
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.
Awaiting Spring
It’s been a long cold and wet winter. Finally, the 3rd week of April has had some reasonable sailing weather – good wind and not-so-cold temperatures (mid 50’s F). So we took Rainshadow out for a day sail, and had a wonderful time.
Trying out our new North Sails
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.