It's been a bit of a trying week. But we've come out ahead. We now have a Hydrovane self-steering system installed and we're getting ready to give it a sea-trial this weekend. I ended up at the office quite a bit less than planned and it took us three solid days and a lot of frustration, but we installed the damn thing. The tough part in the end was shaping the timber pad- a wooden plate that sits between the vane structure and Ardea- that had to project the support arm for the vane at the correct angle in order for the shaft of the vane to slide into both brackets. That ended up being a huge pain.
We first made the mistake of failing to realize the angle was off. We got the top bracket mounted and then drilled the hull for the bottom bracket. Instead of checking the setup to ensure it was in line, we decided to put bedding compound down and go for it like it was impossible to fail. Ignorant. Cocky. Stupid... I don't know- we got a little excited. Not only did this not work- but it took us several hours to cut the tubing little by little for the lower bracket to determine for sure that it was not going to work. As you can imagine, the polyurethane bedding compound was well on it's way to kicked when we realized it needed to come back off. It was a pain, but we got it off without screwing up the gelcoat too much. I didn't make it to work that day...
The next day we measured as best we could the angle and depth that we needed to sand on the timber pad. After a lot of fruitless hand-sanding, we got the idea from my friend Erin Maroni to take the pad to the Wooden Duck in Berkeley. Wicked smart, Maroni. The folks at the Wooden Duck were really nice and put up with two rounds of sanding our block for us- we couldn't have done it without them (by the way- they make gorgeous furniture out of re-claimed wood).
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| Connor putting the final curvature on the timber pad. To do this we taped 60 grit sanding paper to the hull and, after drawing many parallel lines on the timber pad so we could tell when all was sanded (i.e., a flat surface), we worked it vertically over the area it was to be mounted. |
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| Chittick putting the bottom bracket on for the last time! |
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| Anna in the laz. |
Soon Ardea will be properly adorned as well!
It wasn't the smoothest bit of projects this week, but it all worked out in the end. And we continue to learn. We also now have an amazing two-level shelf in the starboard lazarette, which Dana, who designed and built it, is going to blog about soon. Man-over-board pole is also mounted. Topping lifts and reefing lines are re-done. Solar panels get here next week! The list is getting smaller for once...
We're getting up at 0400 to head out to Drake's Bay on the coast. We'll spend Saturday night there before heading out on the Ocean for a trip around the Farallon Islands. We'll get a chance to sea-test the new vane, practice running shifts and do some drills. The forecast is fantastic....
Have a glorious weekend,
Connor
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| It's not all fun and games. Here I am, supervising. |
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