Sunday, September 9, 2007

Thoughts on Steering



While transiting the Cape Cod Canal, I noticed that there was a period of time as I approached the fuel dock when there appeared to be no steering. The steering appeared to be work a few moments later so I attributed to unfamiliarity with the boat (i.e. maybe I need to turn the wheel more to get a response).

About an hour later and 4-5 miles off-shore, the steering was definitely not working. I dove into the cockpit lockers and under the cockpit sole to take a look. There I found that the coupling that keeps the pedestal shaft gears and the rudder shaft rack together had parted. We were able to fashioned a temporary coupling out of hose clamps just in time before the squalls hit.

I will show a picture of the fashioned replacement part in the spring.






MARINE SURVEYOR: This one really upset me. The surveyor spent a good amount of time looking over and testing the steering system. He noted a "strap" that was inhibiting the rudder from turning the full range to port. He recommended removing the "strap" to allow for full range since there were rudder stops also available.

What he did not realize was that the "strap" was in fact the broken coupling. The steering system was broken when he inspected it. The rudder end of the coupling had seized to the rudder post due to corrosion and lack of grease and the connecting bracket had suffered metal fatigue over the course of having been twisted each time the rudder was turned. The pedestal end of the coupling worked fine but when the wheel was turn, the coupling had to flex since the rudder end was seized.

What was ironic was that the surveyor made the comment after coming out from inspecting the steering that you should not trust an overweight surveyor. They won't look in the hard to get to places. Well, he did look at it and didn't know what he was looking at...

OWNERS REPRESENTATIONS: If he did know anything about it, he didn't say anything. The coupling looked like it was a post production part and/or had been repaired in the past but there is no way of knowing if it predated the owner although he owned the boat for 20 years.


How the Blog Works

For this restoration project, you will see two entries fairly regularly, Marine Surveyor and Owners Representations. These are designed to let you know how much a surveyor sees and how much an owner is willing to tell you.

If you want to know the Surveyors name, just email me.

Thoughts on Heads

This is pretty simple observation. Buy a good head, period.

The head that came with the boat is a Jabsco MANUAL COMPACT 16.75D X 17.75W X 13.19H 120325. It is lightweight, cheap, leaks and the rebuild kit costs $55 to $60 when a new one costs $130. http://www.hamiltonmarine.com/.

If your serious about cruising or extended stays on a sailboat, a cheap head is a major let down. The head is one of those pieces of equipment that while it may not make the boat unsafe or unable to make it to port, if it is not operating it can ruin a trip.

In our situation, I needed to get the head working quickly so that we could use the boat. I major refit and replumbing of a new head was more of a project then I really had time for during the shortened sailing season. The head replacement is now back on the list of things to do.

MARINE SURVEYOR: He made no comments on the head. This is not unexpected since the survey was done on the hard. The mounting appeared to be properly done; however, after a few uses, the screws parted from the mounts.

OWNERS REPRESENTATIONS: When we arrived on delivery day, I noted that there was a small amount of water on the head mounting platform. The owner represented to me that he had washed the head down with the shower and that there must have some left trapped behind the head. Knowing what I know now, that was probably not the case and the head had started to leak once the boat was in the water and the head was used.

Acquiring the Cheoy Lee



After a two year search which involved looking at 25 boats or more and researching many 0thers, we decided to purchase a 1978 38' Cheoy Lee Sloop. We bought the boat in Fall River, MA and sailed it home on July 6th and 7th, 2007. The trip home was memorable because of dense fog in Buzzards Bay (never say the bay at all), a broken head, a failed steering system, an amp/charging problem and a couple of squalls.

The head was fixed with a rebuild kit shortly after we arrived home. (see next blogs). The steering problem was temporarily fixed with a few hose clamps (see next blogs) and the amp problem was partially solved when the alternator belt let go and was replaced. In the picture you will notice that the speed log and depth sounder are working. In time both of these instruments will fail.

Needless to say the boat arrived safely and we enjoyed several long weekends before the boat was pulled out of the water to begin the restoration project. This blog is will be a diary of the project.

Please follow along as I learn more about the boat, restoration and hopefully see the final result.