New rudder bearings

Since getting Spice I’ve noticed that the steering gets stiff under load, and I’ve wondered what could be done to improve it. That, combined with not knowing how much play is too much play, led me to drop the rudder this winter with an eye to replacing the bearings.

Naturally, it was a snowstorm the day we went to drop the rudder, and we had to dig in frozen soil to make room to drop into.

After getting the rudder out we discovered that the lower bearing was actually a solid bushing. Surprising, considering that the original had been a Harken roller bearing, that they would have altered it with the new rudder to a bushing. Certainly lasted well, and would have continued to do so, but I wanted to be able to feel what the boat was doing going upwind, so a better solution was in order.

A call to John Rae at Competition Composites in Ottawa (purveyors of Jefa bearings) turned up a few different solutions to get roller bearings installed. Two primary choices – self-aligning or fixed-alignment; then some details after that. I decided to go with self-aligning for two reasons:

  • Any movement or bending in the post is automatically compensated for, and any misalignment on my part is also; and
  • The lower bearing came in it’s own tube which meant that I didn’t have to worry about getting the bushing out without damaging the boat, and could proceed with removal and installation.

Once committed we started removing the old rudder tube, which was quite a job – it is a strongly built unit! It took an open mind to start hacking away at it, and some innovation in tool selection to get in amongst it without damaging anything else in the boat. Eventually it was cut out, though, and with a template and some router bits we cut a new hole for the large tube (260mm diameter).

With the hole cut there was considerable cleanup inside the hull before gluing it in place (thickened epoxy) and then glassing it (epoxy and biaxial cloth).

Some paint and we’re ready inside the boat, but the new bearing system relies on a gaiter to keep the ocean on the right side of the hull, and the rudder post has flat sides to attach the quadrant and tiller arm, so it was necessary to round it out so the gaiter would seal against it.

A quick mold and more thickened epoxy and it’s ready to go back in.

Dad dug a hole to let us re-insert the rudder

We got the rudder in place

And made some adjustments to line things up as well as we could. The top bearing had a smaller outside diameter than the old one (8″ vs. 9″), so it was going to take some additional work to secure, and I decided in the interests of getting the season started to use the old top bearing for the year, as it is actually in pretty good shape.

I don’t have any good photos of everything back together, but I did take one after the gaiter was installed

Jefa sent along regular hose clamps – long ones, but serrated, or whatever that style is called – which I wasn’t all that happy with. McMaster Carr sent me a really robust one for the top (t-bar, or something?) and the best they had for the bottom – they didn’t have the style from the top available in the length of the bottom. So there are two on the bottom, and I’m confident in the ocean staying where it belongs. The tube is considerably taller than it used to be also – at least 100 mm, which helps.

The new bearings are absolutely perfect. There is no more friction at 25 degrees of heel than at the mooring, and I feel everything the boat is doing. It’s quite magical.

So now we’re just enjoying the boat again, which is exactly what we are supposed to be doing!

Spice updates to June 5 ’22

I’ll keep posting updates periodically to record maintenance and replacements on the boat – likely this is of more interest to me than to anyone else, so this is more of a record of what I’ve done and when than anything else. So, with that in mind:

Chartplotter and radar installation is complete, and working nicely. The radar mast was updated with a new platform (clear polycarbonate) and two of the four antennas were removed, leaving one VHF and one GPS antenna, both for the AIS. The AIS one doesn’t seem to work, however, and the AIS seems to be working fine with it’s own internal antenna, so I may remove that one also.

The AIS is installed and working nicely.

There is a lot of dead wiring in the boat, mostly running through the aft cabin into the lazarette. I plan to do a purge, but haven’t managed it just yet.

I’ve installed a plug at the engine control panel to connect the solar panel to, and am working on wiring. I was able to reuse a dead wire which was previously for the SSB (it’s been removed). I’ve also bought a new 100W semi-flexible solar panel, so battery recovery will be quicker, and the panel will be easier to stow (the aluminum frame has sharp corners!).

We’ve switched the mainsheet for a thinner, core-dependent line, as the mainsheet winches were annoyingly dropping the sheet out of the self-tailers. That didn’t actually fix it, but the new line is nice so we’ll keep it (probably) in the new Harken winches I’m installing today.

We only had a single set of shackles for attaching the four spinnaker sheets, so we’ve gotten a second set – now sheets will have a large-bail shackle each, and the guy will clip onto them.

The new batteries and battery monitor are installed – it’s great to know we have lots of power, and the ability to really know the state of the batteries.

One of the genoa cars broke an end cap, resulting in it’s spilling out its bearings  – which is no good. It was somewhat painful to install a rebuild kit, but that car is not only working again, but is smooth as silk now! I’ll be rebuilding the other car fairly soon to avoid having the same problem a second time, and to make it smooth also.

One of the cam cleats for the spinnaker pole car control lines broke, so that’s been replaced.

We blew our light #1, and have found a used one at Bacon’s in Annapolis, and Heather was conveniently right there to pick it up, so we just keep on rolling!

Coming soon: propane sniffer, fix anchor windlass, dodger replacement…

Settling in

With all of the excitement of a new boat I haven’t taken any time to write about her. Unsurprising, but I’ll try to correct that now, and to document our voyage together starting now!

Since getting home I’ve been doing a little bit of sailing when the weather’s nice and a little bit more of working on her rough edges. There is never a question that an old boat has lots of little things that need doing, so it was just a matter of spending time with her to figure out what Spice’s are, or at least the first wave of them. So far:

  • Chartplotter screen is aging and I don’t have charts for Canada.
  • AIS not transmitting.
  • Sirius satellite radio and weather won’t be used, but are still powering up.
  • Bilge smells horrible!
  • Aft shower sump siphon break doesn’t work, and the system backflows into the boat. No cover on the sump, either, so it flows straight into the boat.
  • Forward shower sump output connection broken – pumps straight into the bilge. And no cover.
  • Pressurized fresh water system leaks.
  • 2 of 4 batteries test badly.
  • Battery monitoring system doesn’t register all current (bilge pump, Espar furnace, probably other loads are outside of the circuit it’s monitoring).
  • Anchor too small (35 lb. CQR).
  • No anchor snubber, chain brake on foredeck missing a key piece.
  • Anchor windlass pulls up just fine, won’t power down (motor just spins and makes clunking noises).
  • Etc.!

So I’ve started building the list, and knocking items off of it. So far I’ve:

  • Installed a new Vulcan 25 kg anchor.
  • Purchased (not installed) a new chain brake.
  • Diagnosed the windlass problem: it has a clutch which limits power for putting the chain down so that it doesn’t force a chain kink through the deck, over time this wears, and it loses the little bit of power it has for lowering chain. I’ll be removing, disassembling and servicing the windlass one of these days.
  • Purchased three new Rolls deep cycle group 31 batteries, will install as a single house bank and changing the charge profile of the Balmar regulator to match.
  • Purchased a Balmar SG200 battery monitor and will install once the new batteries are in.
  • Have and will install an automatic battery load controller so I can reduce to a single (relevant – there will still be a second for paralleling) battery switch.
  • Purchased and am installing a new B&G chartplotter and radar (have to replace radar when you switch brands of chartplotter, unfortunately), and a new Em-trak AIS. This is entailing a switch away from NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2000 – hopefully I won’t regret the single point of failure that the CAN bus entails.
  • Removed most of the old Furuno gear – still have substantial dead wiring to remove from inside the various wire runs, however.
  • Thorough cleaning of the bilge, including taking the boat for a vigorous sail with clean soapy water in the bilge to slosh around – now it doesn’t actually smell sweet, but it smells so much better you wouldn’t recognize it!
  • Fixed the rear shower sump siphon break (through blowing it out). Still need to deal with the lack of covers, and the broken forward sump box.
  • Fixed the fresh water system leaks.

So that’s quite a lot, especially for one post, but it happened over the course of the past couple of weeks, which means it wasn’t so bad. I am happy with the anchor and the bilge and the water system, and with the Radar installation (photo below); still a long way to go, but progress is happening nearly daily. This weekend I will get the chartplotter installed (modify the Navpod to take the new unit) and connect power to the radar and the chartplotter. I’ll also install the AIS, and may get it connected to the backbone – but I may not have the cabling needed, we shall see.

Spice arrives at her new home

Spice has arrived! Into my life, at any rate. I purchased her from the New Bedford Yacht Club Foundation who had been using her as an offshore sail training platform for teenaged sailors at their club, and have brought her to her new home in Chester, Nova Scotia.

We had a reasonably uneventful trip over, with some discomfort crossing the Gulf of Maine due to waves coming from multiple directions, but fundamentally got home safe and sound with no failures or major stresses to report. Checking into Nova Scotia/Canada was more of a pain than usual: due to Covid it was no longer possible to arrive anywhere you’d like and call in, it was necessary to arrive at one of the designated ports to call. So instead of South Shore Marine in Chester Basin, we wound up at Shining Waters Marina in Tantallon where we left her for the night and returned to sail her the final, short leg, the following morning.

Here’s the happy crew on board after clearing customs:

And a representative picture of the journey:

On the dock in Tantallon (main not put away very nicely!):

On the dock at South Shore Marine:

And finally at her mooring at CYC:

Spice!

Welcome to the Spice site! This site celebrates the J/44 Spice, and will host images, stories, racing tips, links and whatever else seems useful.