WELCOME TO DULCINEA’S OWN WEBSITE!

Dulcinea is our Moody 40 – we bought her in July 2024, when she was berthed in Premier Marina, Gosport, with the intention of taking her to the West Coast of Scotland in 2025.  In the meantime there is much that we want to sort out.

I’ll be keeping an irregular blog of progress here – for many years I did the same for my antique firearms restoration website www.cablesfarm.co.uk  but I am not really doing much restoration now that I have the boat to fret about, so I’ll transfer my attention to this website!  Note – the posts here are the most recent first.

13th May  Appologies for another long silenece!  We left Milford Haven at 5 a.m. for Arklow across the Irish Sea – Long motoring passage.  Arklow was a bit crowded, and we rafted up along the long pontoon with lots of other boats.  Next day was a longish run to Dun Loaghaire, where we parked in a large marina, Then on to Strangford Lough and a very run down Strangford Marina – a rather sad place!  From Strangford Lough we went on to Ardglass, a lovely small marina in a tiny town – the local sweet and tobacco shop was open 24/7 – the proprietor slept on site and you just knocked to wake him up and he would serve you. The harbour master must have been in his 90s and had almost lost his sight 6 months before so you had to enter the amount for the berthing fee on the card machine yourself as he couldn’t read the numbers.  There were lots of hand written notes in very large writing pinned up in his office – such a lovely, helpful man!  We’ve been feeding the engine with vast quantities of  diesel along the way – evey couple of days it seems to need an infusion of 120 litres as we haven’t been able to sail – either there is virtually no wind, or it is coming from dead ahead and we can’t afford the time to tack all the way to Scotland!  From Ardglass we called in at Bangor (outside Belfast) for 131 litres of fuel (£200) and then went on to Glenarm, another pleasant little marina (with no fuel, like most of the small marinas) but with a less interesting hinterland!  Tomorrow we tackle the dreaded St Georges Channel where the waters that fill the Irish Sea rush in through a fairly narrow channel at up to 4 knots so, as we can motor at about 6.5 knots in still water, it means that we do 2.5 Knots against or 10.5 with.  As the passage to Port Ellen on Islay is 40 miles you can see that its definitely advantageous to go with the tide when the water is rushing out!  We seem to have upset the Border Force and HMRC by not filling in the right forms – all really nonsense – so I’m not sure what country they think we are in! Probably be departed!

Very peaceful Marina at Ardglass

Anyone would think it was the middle of Summer!

8th May  At anchor in Dale for another night (Milford Haven).  Trip down to the Marina to fill up with fuel and water and replenish supplies of bacon which was running a bit low.  Just filled in the stupid form for leaving the UK in a yacht – wanted to know when I was coming back and wouldn’t let me go on without an answer – I haven’t the foggiest idea!  We filled up with 121 litres of diesel, and we had filled up in Penzance about 120 miles previously, so I reckon its a litre a nautical mile, and at around £1.30 per litre (you don’t pay VAT on 40% of the fuel as it is considered to be for heating, just on the transport element) that is around £600 for the 600 mile journey from Gosport to Kerrera, less any sailing we manage to do, which given the very light and/or contrary winds we have been having wont be much!  Had a little adventure with the dinghy this afternoon – we put it in the water and set off under engine, only to notice our feet getting wet as water came in from somewhere – I initially thought that I had forgotten to put the bung in the transom, but I could feel it in place – when we got the dinghy back on board I found a place where the floor fabric has peeled back a bit, which I assume was the cause – I’m not sure if I have a repair kit on board, and I’m not really sure that the dinghy has much life left in it after sitting around for the best part of 20 years – maybe time to replace it.  We are planning to be off at 05:30 tomorrow to Arklow – a projected 13 hour journey- watch this space.

7 May  Again things seemed to get in the way of putting news on the post!  We spent a few days in Penzance harbour – Penny hired a van ( was supposed to be a car but Enterprise website and booking is a mess, and in spite of having booked a car and had confirmation, all we could get was a van)  so that she could go up to our cottage nearby and do 4 loads of washing. We were also waiting for Rory who was going to crew with us on the long leg fram Penzance to Milford Haven.  You can only leave Penzance Harbour around high tide, so on Wednesday we left PZ at 1300 hrs having filled the fuel and water tanks at the quay on the way out.  Once we got down past Mousehole and the Minack Theatre and West along past Sennen Cove we came round to head North  and go past the Lizard and Cape Cornwall directly into wind. Although the wind was only about 15 knots  it did produce a fairly short wave pattern that with an adverse current meant that for a long while we couldn’t get our speed above 3.8 to 4 knots (it would normally be 6 1/2 to 7 knots in calm conditions ) which with the constant pitching and the occasional slam as we fall into the hole between waves meant that it was a bit less than enjoyable, although the boat coped perfectly well and we felt very secure.  The wind gradually moderated and the seas subsided so that we were doing a more reasonable 5 1/2 knots by the time it was dark, and as we got closer to Milford Haven the wind became light and the seas almost flat, so we were able to do 6 1/2 + knots.  In all, the 120 nautical miles took us just over 20 hours and we got in around 9 am and anchored off Dale just inside the Haven entrance – at an average speed of 5 knots, which in the circumstances was reasonable.  Tomorrow we’ll refuel and top up the water tank and see if we need a gas refil at Milford Marina, then go back to the anchorage for the night so we can start at 5:30 a.m. for Arklow on the East coast of Ireland,  a crossing of around 80 miles which sould take us around 12 to 13 hours all being well.

Sunset over Dale

2May  Dartmouth was lovely – and a really good baker – crousants for breakfast!  Then a sail round Start Point to Falmouth and up to the entrance of the Fal River proper  – this is our old dinghy stamping ground from many years ago.  We moored up on the pontoon by Channels creek – the 29th turned out to be a scorcher of a day, and we stayed in the Fal all day – I launched the dinghy using the spare halyard, and lowered the outboard on the derrick on the stern – all worked just fine, no effort required!  We motored it round to Loe Beach and found Mark sitting in his Land Rover on the beach supervising the preparing of the moorings just as he had been almost 20 years ago!  And he recognised us.

On the pontoon in the Fal was sailing vessel of about 50 ft inhabited by an old chap – reputedly in his 90s – apparently he had dragged his anchor off Loe Beach and damaged his rudder, so he was rescued and taken to the pontoon, where he has been for the 4 years since –  The kindly harbourmaster checks on him occasionally, and people bring him bits and pieces, and he occasionally takes his dinghy to a pontoon where he can walk to a bus stop to go shopping in Truro.   Only in Cornwall!  SO different from the South Coast over to the East.  Yesterday we went round to Penzance inner harbour, where we are at present. Part motoring, but a nice long sail once we got round the Lizard.  We took the wimps way round and went 3 miles off rather than sneak through the inner passage, although there was no sign of any turbulence of rough water, and most of the other boats going West used the inner route.  We are now tied up alongside a big work boat in Penzance inner harbour – there are hardly any facilities for yachts – the half dozen berths for them are mostly occupied with boats in various stages of decay or resurection – none seem ready to go anywhere in a hurry!  On the way from Gosport we’ve met a few boats crews, and most of the ones weve talked too are heading to Scotland too – we are tracking them on AIS – most are romping away from us – we are waiting here for Rory to arrive as crew, and the have to find a weather window to do the long hop to Milford Haven or Kilmore Quay in Ireland.  So far we have covered 250 nautical miles, at an average speed of 6 knots.  Probably amounting to 1/3 of the complete journey to Kerrera.  No-one collected any money from us in Fowey or in the Fal, and neither place had a way to pay automatically.

Penzance harbour – rafted 4 boats deep

St Micheal’s Mount from the ‘other’ side.

27th April – Weymouth to Dartmouth.  Whoever would have believed that the biggest danger sailing in April was sunburn!  Round Portland Bill this morning by the inner route close to the Bill itself – dead calm, just a 3.5 knot tide against for a while, but not too bad.  Fuel arrived on time at 6.30 am and we shipped 90 litres of fuel (£110) – we had intended to leave at 7 but last minute recalculation gave a slightly later optimum time for avoiding the worst currents round the Bill, so we left at about 8:15.  No wind at all until we were almost in Dartmouth, and then dead on the nose, so we motored all the way – as these photos show, not that stressful.  Tomorrow we are heading for Fowey to meet up with one of Penny’s relatives, then on Tuesday all being well, Falmouth and our old haunts in the Fal.  Then on to Penzance to await Rory who is crewing for the Land’s End leg. Dartmouth is a fascinating town with lots of old 3 and 4  storey houses, some claiming to date from 1390, all built along the waterfront.  Again we averaged 7 knots for the trip, or so ORCA said! £32 to tie up on a walk ashore pontoon with no electricity.

Sailing can be very stressful at times!

Portland Bill – the West Country’s Cape Horn!

26th April – Poole to Weymouth – a short 4 hour hop today averaging 7knots with a very short sail when the wind picked up to around 10 knots for a while, then back to engine.  Anna and Sam and William came down for a fish and chip supper on the boat.  £52.50 for a pontoon berth overnight with free electricity and showers etc.  Hoping to make it to Dartmouth tomorrow, and if the weather continues kind we might brave the inside passage round the notorious Portland Bill – there is only a 3 hour window when conditions are right to make the close inshore passage, otherwise its a diversion of  an hour or two to go out round the outfalls off the Bill.  Hoping the fuel truck turns up at 6:30 as promised as we need to be away at 7 a.m. prompt for the 8 til 11 window……..

Dulcinea alongside in Weymouth -looks quite short in this photo!

25th April  – Away at  last!  We left Gosport at 09:30 – wind a bit variable going through the Solent, so we motored and motor sailed for a couple of hours but once we got through the Hurst Narrows we had a steady beam reach all the way to Poole with the tide helping to give us a boost – average speed over the ground of 7 knots, not bad as the breeze was not particularly strong – in fact once we had the sails up and trimmed it was a very relaxing trip.  We got into Poole and tried to anchor at the end of the Wych channel but a couple of other boats had the only good spots – we didn’t realise that they were only there for afternoon tea, and we could  have nestled in, but instead we picked up an empty mooring in the channel.   7 hours stop to stop.  We debated whether to go to Weymouth tomorrow or to head straight to Dartmouth, which would be a 12 hour trip at least- in the end opted for Weymouth as we need to work ourselves and the boat in gently!  The boat performed fine – slight problem reefing the new main as the last batten won’t feed smoothly into the mast and needs a bit of extra force, but not a serious issue as it can be left until we stop.

24th April – a couple more days of hovering while the upholstery was delivered and the new mainsail arrived – lunchtime today – so this afternoon took down the old main and put up the new – a bit of head scratching as its a furling main with short battens to keep the back edge straight. If you aren’t a sailing person, a furling main is one that wraps around a tube inside the mast when its not in use, and there is a slot in the back of the mast where the sail emerges when vigorously pulled.  Working out how the battens fitted was the main puzzle – happily solved quite quickly!  Actually the biggest problem of the whole business was finding somewhere to stow the old sail – we could have given it to the sailmaker to dispose of, but that goes against deeply entrenched instincts! Anyway, departure is scheduled for about 9 am tomorrow all being well on the first leg of the overall voyage to Kerrera Marina opposite Oban.  Its a short first leg of about 37 miles to Poole Harbour where we will probably anchor.  With luck it will take us around 7 hours.  We need to break ourselves in gently and get our sea-legs for some longer hops.  Most will be day sailing with hops of less than 10 to 12 hours but there will be a couple of longer legs.  We’ll see as we go how long we can manage between us, mostly dependent on the weather I guess – if its warm and sunny its a lot easier to do long passages than if its cold and wet and windy or there is a lot of shipping about.  Some of my plans from the previous post didn’t happen – I looked to shift the windlass to the bow battery but as in all things Moody, the wiring is hidden behind all the furniture and it was going to be a major destructive job so that is postponed.  I didn’t get a rope rode for the main anchor, but I did make up a 50m rope for the kedge anchor with 3m of chain at the anchor end for emergency use -all flaked nicely in a big bag so it can be carried on deck.  Anyway here are some photos of the new upholstery and pics of the boat sitting there ready to go – it even has the dinghy lashed on the foredeck!

 

 

21st April –  Hovering on the brink of departure!   We had planned to leave tomorrow, weve been waiting for the upholstery in the saloon to be fitted, but it’s running a few days late, and our new mainsail is almost ready. – an incredibly quick job by Kemps, so we might stay a day or two in Gosport rather than hang about for the fitting to be done in Poole or Weymouth, and get both things out of the way. That would also give me time to change the windlass over to the bow battery instead of the house battery, thus saving a bit of a drain on our domestic supplies when we do a lot of anchoring in Scotland as we frequently do.

14 April – bit of a jump here!  We’ve been busy getting things sorted to take Dulcinea up to Scotland, and the time has nearly arrived – probably just as the unseasonal settled weather with ideal E winds comes to an end!  We’ve been sorting out the boat’s systems so that we feel reasonably confident that they are functioning well enough to be safe on the trip, and that we know how to operate everything.  We’ve  have had a few trips out, but so far haven’t sailed in any significant wind so that aspect of the boat is a bit of an unknown.  We have got the ORCA navigation system up and running, and it looks good although I will still revert to Navionics for close inshore work – Navionics seems to have changed a bit and I haven’t got used to the changes yet – for one thing, and most annoyingly it won’t allow you to have more than 2 devices  using the app at once if they are on the internet – its a pain because I like to have the option of Navionics at the binnacle and on the little tablet under the spayhood, plus on my phone if I’m off watch below –  I need to work out a protocal for sorting that problem.  Also I can no longer drop an anchor pin when I want.  To add to the boat’s internet access I’ve added a fancy 5G router (RUTM51)  with a data sim card that will set up a boat wifi so I can get internet access anywhere there is mobile reception – in Gosport we get 20 Mb/sec up and down speeds, which is handy.   I’ve replaced the house and engine batteries with Predator DPX AGM batteries – I just managed to fit 3 size 1500 120 Ahr in the battery box with about 2 mm to spare, 2 for house and one for engine starting, giving us 240 Ahr for domestic, although that only amounts to about 150 Ahr that can be used without impairing the battery life.  We fitted a new nnchor to replace the 15Kg Delta I had mistakenly bought before I did my homework on anchoring!  We now have a 20 Kg Ronca Vulcan on 60 meters of code 4 8mm chain.  We’ve only tried the anchor once – in softish mud off Osbourne House on  the Isle of Wight, and it bought the boat to a sudden halt when we had deployed about twice the water depth of chain – not something I’ve encountered before, so that is a good sign – I plan to put about 30m of Nylon rope (Octoplait) onto the chain to give us a toal rode of 90m.  One nice thing about the Moody 40 is that the anchor locker is enormous – I’ve put in a GRP bin on one side of the aft bulkhead to hold a spare gas cylinder and the snubber ropes and anchor buoy, without getting in the way of the chain.

Anyway, all being well we are pretty much prepped to go after the Easter weekend, when the tides will be right – just hoping the weather will be kind!

9th March  – Back from yet another visit to Gosport to work on Dulcinea.  Jobs are gradually being ticked off – This time we fitted holders for the emergency tiller in the port stern locker, fixed up the NMEA engine data link (Yacht Devices YDEG04) and got the Orca system more or less running BUT the connection between the ORCA CORE and my ruggedised l-tablet is not 100% reliable even at close range – maybe due to insufficient memory.  The Navionics on my 10 inch Tab A tablet also hangs up occasionally so I need to address both issues!   I put on the new binnacle extension bar with the new plastic plate for the tablet – it does work but would be much better if the angle of the tablet could be adjusted to accomodate both sitting and standing at the wheel – at the moment its fine for sitting, which is not the normal position, so I’ll have to engineer a tilt mechanism.  Some time ago I got worried about how much gas we had on boards for extended periods away from supplies – Dulcinea currently runs on Camping Gas 907 bottles that only hold 2.7  Kg instead of the 4.5Kg of the calor bottles.  I decided it would be good to carry an exstra spare bottle beside the spare in the gas locker – it needs to be in a place where any leaked gas drains overboard, which rules out the aft lockers that drain directly into the bilges.  There is plenty of room in the anchor locker, so I made a fibreglass ‘bucket’ to fix on the aft bulkhead of the locker that would hold a spare gas cylinder or e.g. the tripping line and snubber or whatever.   My bucket was too big to fit through the opening and past the windlass and the bar running forward,  so I cut it in two and reassembled it wben inside the locker.  It doesn’t take up any of the chain space – the only downside is that it will need to be unscrewed from the bulkhead and lowered to allow the windlass to be serviced.  The first tranch of upholstry has now gone off to be used as spatterns for the complete new saloon upholstering.  So things tick on and we are starting to think more seriously about setting off for Scotland!  Next big jobs are sorting the batteries and power etc, getting the binnacle right with tilt and holders for the radio extension and thruster remote control,  and possibly adding a router and dedicated mobiles connection.  I also need to sort stowage for 40 lts of emergency fuel storage.  We will get there in the end!!!

17th Feb 2025  Made another visit to Dulcinea for the Volvo engine inspection and trial which went OK – boat handles nicely with the Featherstream prop.   I tackled the instrumentation – sorting the antenna connections for tha VHF as they were a bit on the short side, and putting in a fuse block for the vhf, antenna combiner and network bus.  I have a composite network as there are instruments running on the old SeaTalk, Seatalkng and NMEA200.  See the INSTRUMENTS page above for details……  I have now finished the emergency tiller – the old one was rusted beyond recovery, so I made one in Stainless steel , and made the main.lower leg in two parts to make it easier to stow.  In use it fits onto the top of the rudder post which is under the aft bed, and sticks out through the deck above, with a cross piece that has ropes to the two aft winches for steering  – tried it on the pontoon and it works – not the easiest thing to use though!

9th Feb 2025   Back in the water last Wednesday!  Cue starting work on the various jobs again – it means I cna stay on the boat instead of having to stay in the local Travelodge – which is near the boat, cheap and serves breakfast from 7 a.m. so its practical!   I spent a couple of days fitting lighting and some sound insulation in the engine bay and rebuilding a bit of the furniture around the engine, plus refitting 8 doors that I had taken off to make access easier for the engine swap.  I reconnected the wiring to the mast using Wago electrical connectors that  I mounted in 3D printed boxes – much neater although I did have a couple of wires that Hadn’t made connection as I hadn’t pushed them in far enough….   Next job is to finish the emergency tiller assembly – I need to align it with the rudder – and then begin to sort out the instruments an fit the interface to the engine instrumentation and the ORCA CORE system – all joined together with a new wiring system…  I’ll be back down tomorrow as the engineer from VOLVO PENTA is coming on Wednesday morning to inspect thes engine installation so that they can give the engine a 2 year guarentee.

27th Jan 2025  Dulcinea is now ready to go back in, the engine is done, the mast is back in and the keel is re-bedded and its antifouled. At the moment the yard is very busy and the wind has been at more or less gale force for the last few working days so they can’t safely operate, and we don’t know when they will get her it.  I  am standing by for an email telling me they have a slot, but I have a feeling it will be Febraury before its in.  When its back in I can get on and put he doors back on and get the instruments sorted.   I have got most of the kit to put in an Orca Core2 and connect all the existing instruments to it – I’ll put up a separates technical post elsewhere along with the circuit diagram.

14th Jan 2025  She is still in the yard – the mast has now come out and the keel is off – Mark is waiting for some studding to make the new bolts before the keel goes back on.  Ross the rigger (from GTR Rigging derigged the mast for the takeout and found that there was no VHF antenna at the masthead – given that we don’t have any other antenna connected I’m mystified that we could pick up the King’s Harbour Master `(KHM) who assiduously controls all the traffic in the harbour – you are not allowed to move a boat in the harbour without a listening watch on channel 11.  Ross thought that there was probably enough wire to pick up the very local signal, but I’m glad its been discovered now.  I had had a look at the masthead with binoculars but I must have missed it……  Another thing to fix.  And another – it turns out that the stainless elbow and the joiner in the exhaust  were 2 1/2 inch, or about 63mm diameter, and the new exhaust hose is 60mm – so I’m having to make new ones from 60.3 stainless 316 tube – I will probably get the welder I  use for gun parts to do the welding on the elbow as I’m not sure I can weld well enough to last 20 years!  I am in the process of cutting and filing a perfect matching 90 dergee joint!

8 Jan 2025   I’ve just got back from Gosport – the mast was supposed to come out today, but Ross the Rigger got called away to an urgent job so it won’t happen until Friday, and even then depends on the wind being low enough.  I did manage to check a few things while I was down there – I’ve been working on a replacement emergency tiller, so I was able to check the sleeve I’d made to couple it anto the rudder stock – unfortunately just too tight a fit, so I’ll have to remake it.  I also checked some hooks I’d made to support the lee cloths I’m making – I need to refine that design too.   I found that the ‘house’ battery was flat, so I borrowed a battery charger to run off the extension that one of the contractors had left on the boat – hopefully that will save the battery, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it needed replacement.   While I was there Ash and Andy fitted the new propeller and rope cutter – I was quite glad we had asked for one to be fitted as I heard an account of a 68ft yacht that had caught a creel line off Southampton that had got so wound up in the propeller that it pulled the shaft and separated the gearbox from the engine and bent the ‘P’ bracket and damaged the shaft seals…….   I’m busy planning the upgrade to our instruments – I’ll put that on a separate page..  Here is the beautiful prop….

 

29 Dec 2024  I hope you all had a peaceful and pleasant holiday over Christmas.  The New Year is almost upon us, and the days are beginning to get a bit longer- at least in the Northern Hemisphere!   Dulcinea is sitting out in the yard at Endeavour Quay waiting for everyone to get back to work – I think it will be next week before things really start to happen – the mast is due to come off on the 7th – I’ll go down on the 6th as I want to get a look at the fittings etc at the top of the mast and replace anything that needs it.  I’m hoping th standing rigging is OK, it was replaced 7 years ago so it should have 3 years before it is due for a major inspection, and maybe it will need replacing then or at least within a couple of years – I’m pretty sure it hasn’t had a lot of stress since it was replaced, so I’m optimistic that it will last.  I do know that some of the running rigging needs replacing – particularly the genoa halyard as the core is bunched up in a few places.  The main halyard doesn’t get much use – in fact I would not be surprised if the mainsail had been up all the time since the rigging was replaced, so I’m not expecting it to need replacing  – All the vulnerable bits of it are within the mast anyway and thus protected to some degree.

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Battery Choice

I’m still puzzling about the batteries to use on Dulcinea – the more I search for information the more conflicting views I get!  There is a bit of a potential problem with Lithium batteries and the alternators fitted to new engines that produce a lot more power than the old ones.  One problem is that the alternators have a fairly low efficiency, meaning that they waste up to half of the power the engine puts in to them as waste heat. They have a built in fan that will keep the alternator cool at high engine revs, but if they are producing a lot of current at mid revs the fan is not very effective, and the alternator can overheat and destroy itself – this is particularly likely to happen with the Lithium batteries as they have a very low internal resistance and so can mop up lots of current.  The most common way to avoid this problem is to have a moderate sized lead acid battery as the engine start battery as they have very little work to do and tend to last for many years and charge this directly from the alternator, then use a crafty bit of electronics  (called a Battery to Battery charger – B2B, or a DC-DC charger ) to take spare power from the engine battery charging circuits and convert it into a suitable voltage to charge the  main domestic battery bank.  In this way it doesn’t really matter what the domestic batteries are, as the B2B can adjust its output voltage to suit whatever battery you choose.  You can also choose the B2B charger so that it won’t take more than maybe around half of the alternators maximum output,  and as the engine starting battery is almost always kept fully charged ( starting an engine takes almost no power, just a high current for a few seconds) you can in that way restrict the power the alternator puts out to safe levels.  We have a battery in the bows for the bow thruster ( to keep the wires short) Since the bow thruster is only used momentarily and very rarely that battery doesn’t require much charging current, but does need to be able to supply a heavy current – up to 500 Amps – for typically 10 0r 20 seconds – run it for over 2 minutes and there is a risk it will burn out.  The bow battery could be wired in parallel with the main battery as it is now, although that would put a big current through the rather small cables joining the domestic and bow battery – better would be a second small B2B also running off the engine battery.   The advantage of the B2B based system is that it then doesn’t really matter what type of batteries the domestic and bow use as long as its suitable for that function, so we can start with eg. lead AGM batteries and later change the domestic to Lithium.  From my perspective the big advantage of Lithium is that I can lift them into the boat, whereas lead batteries are just too heavy to manipulate.

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19-12-24

Back from another trip to Gosport to sort out the latest issues!   Dulcinea is currently out of the water having the new engine fitted – seeing the exhaust elbow of the old engine removed showed that keeping the old engine wasn’t really an option!   Mark (Solent Repairs)  had a look at the keel bolts and wasn’t impressed – they are the original carbon steel bolts and have obviously sat in salt and fresh water for a large part of their lives.  To make matters worse, they were only ever single half nuts on the studs, and so are now almost rusted away.  We could have tried to extract the studs one by one and replaced them – but decided that it would be best to have the keel taken off  and rebedded with new studs in 316 stainless – thus hopefully putting the issue to bed for the next 25 years!   The problem with taking off the keel is that you have to take off the mast to maintain balance, so that does increase the scope of the job – but we can have everything inspected and checked and rebed the mast step at the same time, and maybe even install a deck light!   While the binnacle was out, the bearings for the ship’s wheel were inspected – they were pretty bad – the lip seal had gone and one of the bearings was almost completely destroyed – I’m not sure why it wasn’t evident when  using the wheel, but at least that is a simple and cheap job to fix – in so far as anything to do with boats is cheap! Another little isssue was the engine sea water strainer with inlets and outlets that were too small to give the specified water flow – another thing to replace – when the engine installation is complete it has to be inspected by Volvo Penta as meeting their standards in order for them to issue a 2 year guarentee, so happily all the work is externally ‘marked’.  The marine electrician was on the boat checking the wiring of the alternator and batteries to make sure it woukd pass VP inspection, so I explained what I was proposing in the way of batteries, including Lithium Iron Phosphate for the ‘domestic’ battery bank with some clever electronics as  Alternators and Lithium don’t get on well together – he suggested that it would be better to stick with Absorbed Gas Mat lead acid battteries throughout with a much simpler arrangement. since that doesn’t involve much new equipment and can always be upgraded later if it turns out to be inadequate!  I picked up another tip – the radar was connected from the mast inside with small lever clips as used in domestic wiring -Weco or something – and I thought this was a bit of a bodge, but he told me that modern production boats use them for all the hidden wiring and they were his go-to connector when he wasn’t using chocolate block – so I can give up looking for something more professional!

I stayed long enough to watch the smart new saildrive fitted – I think the engine is due in this afternnon but I didn’t stay.  Got to clear up my mess at home for Christmas…..

Interestingly I had a discussion with Ashley and Andy, the engineers fitting the engine about the engine revs I mostly used when using the engine – based on past experience in other boats I said around 2000 to 2300 rpm, but was firmly told I should run the engine harder for at least some of the time, and up to full revs ( 2900 to 3100) at least for a time each trip or it would carbon up!  I guess fuel economy isn’t the only consideration!

New Saildrive minus the Featherstream prop and Gori cutter.

 

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15 12 2024

I have a pile of jobs in hand – like the sailor’s trousers, I don’t know where to begin!

I’m going to the boat shortly to clean out the old soundproofing in the engine space while the engine is out, and put in a new lot, then when the engine is in, I hope during the next week, I will sort out the remaining bits of the engine room soundproofing, and fit new lighting and sort out some of the horrible web of wiring in there – some of which I’m sure is redundant, like much of the wiring in the boat, and some vital.  Then I will have to put back the doors on the engine space and the loo and cabin doors I had to take off so that the  lads could access the engine without having to open and shut doors all the time to move around.  I have to put the VHF radio back before we can move the boat or I’ll get into trouble from the Queen’s Harbour Master who controls the harbour very actively – not surprising really as big ferries come and go almost everr 5 minutes, and the Navy’s two new Aircraft(less) Carriers are docked a few hundred yards from our berth.  Other jobs on the current list are making a new emergency tiller ( necessary in case the wheel steering wires or mechanism breaks) and making lee cloths so the setees in the saloon can be used as underway berths for night passages etc.  Then there is the whole matter of a new battery system to go with the new higher power altrnator (see below) , and so on………………….

BATTERY WIRING AS 15-12-24

 

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We have liftout!

12 Dec 2024

After hanging about in Gosport for a day we got the boat lifted out on Wednesday – the boat had already had the engine drained and the shelves above it removed and the cockpit floor freed up as that is where the engine exits – which meant that we had no engine and no steering, so the yard had to wait till the wind dropped before they could tow her to the lift.

The tow was interesting – I did my powerboat course years ago and it covered towing from a rib alonside, but the yard towed with the rib positioned as shown on the port quarter- 1 line forward to the midships cleat and one across to the starboard aft cleat which meant that the engine was a few meters aft of the stern, and so had much greater effectiveness at controlling the yacht’s  direction because of the leverage about her keel.

The stern view is not a particularly clear photo, but the saildrive is visible just astern of the lifting strop.  The thing that surprised me whas how full the hull is aft of the saildrive – almost a bustle, or looking pregnant – I’ll remember that when I’m manouvering because the effect is probably to move the centre of lateral water resistance aft.  I haven’t done much manouvering yet, I’ve only taken her out of her berth two or three times, so haven’t found out how much the saildrive changes boats characteristics compared to a conventional shaft drive.  When we do get her back in the water – probably sometime next week – it will be interesting to see how the new feathering propeller works when going from ahead to astern or v.v.

 

 

 

 

 

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Engine change imminent!

The yard, engineers and the antifouling are all on track for a liftout on 10th December so maybe the boat will hopefully be back in the water by Christmas or shortly afterwards.  I’ll be going down tomorrow (9th Dec 24) to check over a few things and see the boat coming out – weather permitting.  Whhile I’m down there I can check if my fibreglass ‘bucket’ I’ve made to hold a spare gas cylinder in the anchor locker will actually fit past the windlass.  I made the bucket because getting gas around the Highlands is a bit hit and miss, but I guess we might go the way a lot of yachts are going at the moment and put in a decent sized inverter and use an electric kettle and an induction hob for some of the cooking.  The new engine will have a bigger alternator output – around 100 Amps – so we could charge a reasonably big Lithium Iron battery pack – say 300 AHrs that would give us enough power as long as we ran the engine for a few hours every other day.  For the most part we havent been going into marinas in the Hebrides and not all have shore power anyway so we really have to be self sufficient in energy.  The boat electric devices and battteries available now are so very different from those available when Dulcinea was built,  and she is currntly more 2000 than 2024 in her equipment!  While I’m down at the boat I’ll need to sort out temporary storage for the old engine as I have managed to sell it and the vast trove of spares to be rebuilt.  I’m sure it will be fine to rebuild – had it not been for the expense and difficulty of getting it out and putting it back in, the time taken and the difficulty of transporting and moving it around, I would have taken that route myself, as I’m sure there is nothing wrong with the engine that can’t be sorted once its out and stripped down.

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What have we taken on?

It’s a 1997 boat – although actually it sat for 3 years in Moody’s yard before it was commissioned and sold, so effectively 24 years old, and little used since 2020.  It is nevertheless a boat – and boats almost always come with a list of things that need doing – even sometimes new boats, and new owners have new ideas and always want to change things.  In the case of Dulcinea we decided that we wanted to get things in good order before we took her up to Kerrera  Marina opposite Oban next year, and to set her up so that with luck we don’t need to do anything major for a few years (of course realising that it won’t happen that way!).  So here is a list of the jobs that are done, ongoing or to be started:-

New engine and saildrive – the old engine was burning oil, leaking and appeared to lack power – so rather than spend on diagnosis and  repairs with no guarantee that it was going to last we went for  a complete replacement to get peace of mind, particularly since major repairs would have incurred the not insignificant cost of taking the engine out of the boat and putting it back in.  Burned in my mind is the trauma of battling head winds and tide to get back to Stornoway before the fish and chip shop closed,  in a very underpowered boat!  Next time it might actually matter…..

New anchor and chain – the old chain had rusted into clumps, and the old  CQR anchor is not as reliable at setting as newer designs.   Before replacing the chain we put a wooden ‘duck board’ in the base of the locker as the old chain had been sitting in a puddle much of the time.  We now have 60m of  solid galvanised grade 4 chain and a 15 Kg delta anchor that we intend to replace with something ‘better’ and at least 20Kg when we can discover what ‘better’ is!

Installing the diesel heater – the previous owner bought it years ago but never got round to completing the installation since the boat was mostly used in Brittany and didn’t need one.  Most of the necessary ducts were built into the boat by Moody so it wasn’t too much of a problem – the only downside being that Moodys didn’t insulate the ducts and now it would be almost impossible. I had to 3D print a few custom joining ducts in carbon reinforced nylon to complete the installation.

New Genoa from Kemp Sails .  The genoa was the original sail – we took it to Kemps for a wash and check up, and got a quote for laundering the sail and replacing the sacrificial strip that had pretty well perished – which is after all it’s function!  Being a bit surprised at  the quote, I got them to quote for a new sail, which turned out to be little more than twice the price of fixing the old one, due to a 20% Black Friday discount – so no brainer!

VHF radio – we wanted to fit the boat with AIS ‘B’ that lets other ships see your position and speed etc. as it is an important safety feature, so we fitted a new VHF radio with AIS B built in (B&G V60-B, the only VHF that has AIS B).  I fitted an antenna on the stern for its AIS so it can also be used for the VHF if the masthead VHF antenna is damaged. I’ll get an antenna sharing device to keep as an emergency measure.  The GPS output of the VHF will replace the old FURUNO GPS that gives position to the other instruments.  Funny how many instruments come with built in GPS  – VHF, chart plotter, tablet, ORCA, phones etc – I would guess there can be at least 12 GPS  working receivers on board at any time.

Upholstery – the saloon had two armchairs in place of a settee on the starboard side that had been added at some time.  We didn’t find them that comfortable as we both like to put our feet up in the evening, and also because it would be handy to be able to use the settee as an additional passage berth, so we are having it put back to the original layout and the saloon completely re-upholstered.  We’ll make lee cloths – mostly for the voyage to Scotland when we will have some night passages.

Windows – or portlights in boat speak – As is to be expected in boats of this age, almost all the portlights had small leaks, mostly due to what might be classed as a design fault.  I replaced the saloon and aft cabin fixed lights with 10 mm Perspex that allowed more light into the boat and were a lot cheaper than having the original frames reglazed (see another page).  The opening portlights we replaced with the newer design of the same – they are better designed and let in a bit more light too. See separate page link below photo at top of this page.

Instruments – the existing instruments work – except for the speed log, which almost never works on boats because the ‘works’ gets gummed up with fouling, – and there is even a working radar on the boat, but the chart plotter is down below in the cabin, and we usually navigate from the helm using a tablet computer running Navionics charts.  We are planning to add an ORCA core that will allow us to tie in all the boats electronic systems into the tablet display, possibly even the engine data, so we’ll have to put in a more up to date NMEA 2000 data network.

Batteries – The new engine has an alternator that puts out over 100 Amps – twice what the old one did, so it might make sense to think about using this extra power by revisiting the existing battery arrangement of lead acid batteries – one for engine starting, one aft for domestic and one AGM battery forward for the bow thruster run in parallel with the domestic battery.  It’s tempting to change to lithium batteries as they last much longer and can be discharged much deeper than lead acid.  Also it is relatively easy to lift lithium batteries in and out of the boat, whereas lead acid battereries are a real pain to handle in boats at about twice the weight for a given capacity. The engine starting battery almost never gets discharged  significantly as starting the engine takes less than 1% of the starter battery power unless there is something wrong with the engine, so it is probably OK to stick with Lead Acid for that. (I always find it wierd when I do the calculations that to start a diesel engine you need  less power than contained in a standard ‘D’ cell – less than 1 AHr – so at say 20 amps charging, it will recharge in a couple of minutes! )

Binnacle – I need somewhere to put a tablet that can be used while at the wheel, but without blocking access to the stainless tube  hoop handhold.  I’ve designed a new and taller stainless tube to fit in place of the  original one so that I can put a plastic or fibreglass  stand to take the tables and also the VHF remote handset and still leave enough room to grab the hoop for stability.  Its being made a Foxs Marina.  I did the same on Sepiola and it worked well.

Myriad small jobs – e.g. Cabin joinery – the Navigator’s seat was too low for me to work comfortably on the chart table, so I made a 10 cm. box to put under the cushion that will contain ready use tools and bits and pieces kills two birds with one stone..  When the table leaves are folded down there is nothing to stop things falling off the bit of the table that’s left, so I made a couple of fiddles that can be put in place to stop things sliding off if one or both leaves of the table are f0lded down. The M40 has a very useful counter top on the fuel tank under the companionway steps, so we put a draining rack and a storeage tray there, and made a Perspex screen to stop water or dirt falling onto things as the steps down into the cabin have open treads.  Heads – so far I’ve changed the whole pump mechanism on the aft sea toilet, Still got the forward one to do.  I’ve put a new bilge pump in the saloon bilge and connected in its wiring and new plumbing – the Moody 40 is a real pain to insert wiring or plumbing as access to anywhere under the floors or behind the furniture is almost impossible. Another job on the list is a shelf in the stbd aft locker to take 4 x 10 ltr diesel cans for standby fuel supply – fuel is sometimes difficult to find in the Hebrides.

3D printing:  Having a 3D printer and CAD software to design parts its inevitable that the Dulcinea will have lots of plastic bits and pieces, although I have sworn off covering her with loads of unnecessary clips and hooks.  I designed big hooks that take a loop of rope to hold warps etc. and I’ve put up a row just inside the starboard aft locker so all the warps can be hung up where they can be  got at quickly. A row of similar hooks in the pilot berth cabin take 4 lifejackets on the engine side and keep them tidy and easily grabbed – each person can have their  own hook to avoid muddling them up.  I’ve also made a couple of clips for torches, so that one can be reached from the cockpit ( see on the 3D Prints page)  No doubt there will be other bits and pieces.  See other pages for more on 3D prints.

Lights – the lights in the boat still had old tungsten bulbs and use loads of electricity, so I’ve started replacing them with LED bulbs or complete fittings.  The boat was mostly used in Marinas so was geared around having shore power available, so there was no necessity to have LEDs.  We will need them as we will probably be anchoring most of the time.  Amazing how many lights there are :  I counted about 40 tungsten bulbs in the accommodation.  Fortunately  the 17 recessed ceiling lights can have an LED array put in place of the halogen bulb, the rest will likely need new fittings, some of which I have bought already.

Running rigging – the running rigging had been exposed on the boat for some time , and was stiff with dirt and mould/algae.  We took off  what we could and washed it in warm water, which got most of the muck off – the genoa sheets we replaced, and the rest went back on- we might change more later.  The halyards and topping lift are wire spliced to rope, as was common practice before Dyneema came along.  They probably need changing – the Genoa halyard definitely does –  I’d change them for rope halyards but I don’t know if the blocks at the masthead are suitable – we will get a rigger to inspect the standing rigging and the masthead before we go to Scotland.

Coppercoat  antifouling – This is on our wishlist, but its not a cold weather job and it was difficult to see how we could fit it in before Scotland, and there seemed to be enough things going on without that so its on the maybe list for later,  We’ll get a better look at the hull when she’s out for the engine change,  She is booked for a normal antifouling at that time.

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