Monthly Archives: February 2013

2013-02-22 Meeting Vela – a new Jib

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I was amazed today to see and advertisement for a Tanbark Jib sail appear on Craigslist, and doubly so because it was for a Nor’sea 27!! Answering the ad, I met up with Bryan, the (relatively new) owner of Vela. Vela spent 16 years in storage in the northwest and its interior is in near perfect shape. Bryan’s spent some time updating the boat, replacing all the standing rigging adding Amsteel lifelines and proper bronze through-hulls.

Stepping aboard Vela at the Richmond Yacht Club was like entering a time machine. It’s a rare opportunity to see a “new” norsea in fantastic condition. The Yanmar 2GM had less than 100 hours on it. Bryan mentioned that at his last haulout when the 2 coats of bottom paint were stripped, folks were asking if his boat was new!

The boat’s a newer 80’s layout that has pristine teak inside and out.  Bryan’s setting off for Mexico in the next week or so, so this was a serendiptitious opportunity. Oh, and I did buy the jib, and expect to put it to great use when my own projects are completed.

2012-02-16 Minney’s Yacht Surplus

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I made a trip to Minney’s in Costa Mesa on Saturday and brought home a haul of goods.  I took a wish list with me that had all the critical dimensions.

  • Two teak hatch covers $75 each. These mesaure abotu 36×30 but are parallelograms, not square cornered hatches.  I have a plan to square them up at the cost of just a couple of inches of length.  Hopefully they aren’t glued too well!
  • Manual Vertical Capstan Windlass.  The windlass was $95 and the Barient winch handle was $28
  • 2 Yanmar manual starter cranks.  I bought one last visit for $3 but it turned out the inner diameter was too small.  These are definitely larger and a couple of different lengths, too.  Each was $3.
  • Companionway doors.  These are light but really well made and feature some integral removable screens and glass panels.  One glass panel is missing and the bottoms were roughly cut.   The kick is that the width was just about perfect – 11.5 inches.  They’ll need to be cut to length – about 25″ and radiused anyways.  The best part was the price $21 each!
  • four bits of pull-apart perko hinge I can use on the door, they were priced $3 but they were thrown in.
  • A water faucet for $12.  I’m hoping that I can open it up and replace the leather valve.
  • Cole stove with stack.  This one is similar to the one on Jules but came with a 3″ stack that has a damper.  it’s a little larger in the frame and has a side deflector.  Perfect  for Oz – $145
  • The coup – two bronze bollards for $16 and $48.  Check out the price over at.  Basically these went for the price I would have paid for shipping on “the one that got away” over on eBay
  • A hatch prop for the forward cabin $12
  • A bag of miscellaneous teak stuff for $20 and another Teak Handrail bit for $12
  • A wooden teak & holly cutting board for $5
  • A red bag about 8′ long that I think will make a nice tiller cover

They had a good price on a Hille-Range propane oven but it was looking a little tired and the door had some rust through on the inside, so I held off hoping Craigslist will turn up another Origo 6000 or Force 10 oven, or something similar.

 

On the way out we stopped in Long Beach to stop at the Captains Locker, which I was hoping was another consignment place but it turned out to be a well stocked boat supply that sold only new items.  On the way out though I checked out the West Marine at the same harbor to see what they had in the discount section, and there I found a 6″ nickel plated bell, new for $5.17.

2013-02-09 Yanmar 2GM

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After finding this ad on Craigslist, I contacted the seller, Ronnie Simpson right away.  I met him on Wednesday, looked over the motor and made him a cash deposit of $300.  I found out a lot of impressive information on Ronnie over the next few days.  He mentioned he had singlehanded in the Transpac to Hawaii, but he didn’t mention that he had one his class.  I also found he was active in the Bay Area Disabled Sailor (BADS) group, and was a wounded veteran, having been injured by a rocket propelled grenade blast that left him legally blind.

Ronnie and I met on Saturday at his cruiser boat, a Cal 2-27 berthed in Alameda.  We spent most of the day pushing the engine out through the small access port in beneath the galley, then up through the companionway using a hoist connected to the boom, and we plopped it on a dolly.  Ronnie had the engine fully disconnected when I arrived, but we wound up having to remove most of the motor mounts, the alternator, starter and fuel filter before we could get the motor free.

In the course of removing the starter we found the reason for the grinding noise was that the starter housing had basically exploded.  The hope was this was the extent of the problem and a new starter might get the motor back on its feet.  Ronnie also mentioned that the engine did leak oil and suggested at least replacing its seals.

We loaded the boat into my 2000 MPV van.  We had to dump about $50 worth of diesel in the recycling because it was sloshing around too much.  I came away with a nice Racor fuel filter, a raw water filter, 10 gallon aluminum tank and filler, as well as the electronics harness and panel for the Yamar 2GM.  Ronnie’s going to work with a diver to get the driveshaft and propellor out and then contact me for pickup.