Electrifying News

Greetings!

Last Spring, I referred to a plan to order a new mainsail for S/V Seafari, our Watkins 27 sailboat.  The original idea was to construct a kit from Sailrite, thereby saving money and gain additional experience as a DIY sailmaker.  But in the interest of saving time and enjoying a sailing season with a new crisp main, we ordered one from Doyle Sails.  It is a beaut!

Loose Foot!

The difference in sail shape/performance between the original 1981 blown out, limp rag and the brand new 7.4 oz cruising main is enormous. I highly suggest upgrading your sail inventory if you carry legacy rags.  It increases your sailing pleasure exponentially.  Mainsails are now designed with a loose footed main.  When you stop to think about it, a loose foot makes perfect aerodynamic sense.

A new sail cover is now being constructed thanks to an easy-to-build Sailrite kit.

Admittedly, we did more sailing this Summer and Fall than restoration projects, but that is a good thing.  All work and no sailing is not an option.

I would like to recommend an interesting boat restoration series on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5xDht2blPNWdVtl9PkDmgA  It's hosted by Danish Sailor/DIY'er and it is very entertaining!  Also, Boatworks Today with host Andy Miller, who is a top notch professional.  Andy is at  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0kDqq-pSzdqFUk3oTaHBuA

A hazardous rat's nest

Now that Seafari is winterized and sitting at the dock, it's time to re-prioritize and get to the main problem areas of the boat.  The immediate issue is the electrical wiring.  After watching tutorials on YouTube produced by Pacific Yacht Systems based in Vancouver,  I realized our boat was in dire need of a complete re-wire, both DC and AC.

Back in 1981, many builders took shortcuts to remain competitive in the hot sailboat market. As a result, some wiring was pretty sketchy and over time, became downright dangerous.   Couple that with shoddy quick fixes by previous owners and... well, you get the picture.  The ABYC now has some very strict standards when it comes to onboard electrics.

A VOM is your friend

New 12 volt breaker panel

I noticed my old wiring consisted of various gauges of wire improperly crimped, unorganized, and unlabeled. I even noticed solid copper AC wiring which is totally wrong.  Some wires with bare ends led to nowhere. One AC outlet doesn't function and there is reverse polarity on the rest.  When I recently turned on my cabin light switch, the old glass fuse immediately blew. There was a short in the old 12 volt wiring.  It's all a recipe for disaster and it's a wonder Seafari has not burned down to the waterline.
So, I've been working on a new wiring diagram and am purchasing new supplies for the project. These items include all new 12 and 14 gauge ABYC approved tin plated, stranded DC boat wire, 10/3 stranded AC boat cable, shore power inlet, heat shrink ring and butt connectors, new DC 12 volt breaker panel plus AC breaker box.  We're also replacing all cabin lights and switching to led's.

New stuff - note: 12 volt wires are now
red (positive), yellow (negative)

We also need positive and negative terminals and inline fuses.  Whew!  This is a major project and as Jeff Cote of Pacific Yacht Systems would say,  "Boat wiring needs to be perfect."  Once everything is diagrammed and engineered properly, the rest is just time consuming and painstaking assembly.  Fortunately, this is only a 27 foot boat and the system is not complex.

Helpful to the novice

It turns out, boat electrics is kind of fun if you're a DIY'er.  I'm re-learning a lot about basic electricity and consulting with my Blue Sea amperage calculator app quite often.  There are a lot of resources out there if you don't know an amp from a volt. You just need to know a few basics and disconnect from shore power when working on the electrics.  Running voltages through your boat is serious stuff. The chance of an onboard fire increases as your system ages and decays.

I for one would rather not worry about faulty wiring and deadly fires. The only "charge" we want to get on this boat is the kind you get from experiencing life under sail!

New Mainsail Plan

On my previous post I alluded to constructing a new mainsail for Seafari.  Although I have built two previous sails, I've decided to let Doyle Sailmakers build the main just to get going quickly for the season.  I've talked to  their loft in Kemah Texas, and they can build one quickly.  

People sometimes forget that the sails are the primary propulsion devices on a boat. Old, blown out sails that cannot hold an aerodynamic shape need to be replaced.  Mine was a rag which could not be re-cut or even patched. Pictured below is one of the many holes  and tears throughout.

Ordering a sail through a distant loft requires exact measuring by the owner.  This past weekend, I recorded all the pertinent measurements and will be submitting them to Doyle.  You NEVER send in the old sail for replacement or take measurements from it - not good.  A 36 year old Dacron sail will only remotely resemble the proper dimensions, not to mention the true camber and shape.  Just the boltrope can shrink several inches over time.

Submitting the P and E measurements to a sailmaker is not nearly enough information.  Since these are not one-design boats, rigging details from the factory can vary quite a bit from boat to boat, not to mention possible changes made by owners through the years.

I had to measure tack back to the mast, tack up from the boom, clew pin measurement, leech measurement with boom lifted to clear the bimini, mast track measurement, feeder slot distance, reef hooks, slide type, reef hook relationship, etc, etc.  It took a while and I had to hoist a measuring tape up the halyard as well.  





The Watkins 27 is strictly a cruising boat.  With a new mainsail, she will definitely point more effectively to weather. The other concern is long term durability.  Doyle Sails recommended 7.4oz Dacron which only amounts to being two pounds heavier than the 6.4oz I initially desired.  The slightly heavier cloth will add to the durability and longevity of the sail.

The boom is already rigged for two jiffy reefs so, why not include them on the sail order?

Doyle's other concern was bimini clearance.  We have an older bimini on this boat which is still quite serviceable.  They suggested that during measurement, I needed to include 4" of boom clearance in order for the bimini to be used whilst sailing. Good idea.  Our Summer sun on Grand Lake of the Cherokees can get mighty intense.  With the topping lift raising the boom just above the bimini, I took a new leech measurement which turns out to be 30'5.5"

Although the new main will be expensive, it will be finished quickly and will be of good quality.  I wanted to build this from a cut kit from Sailrite with my LSZ-1 Ultrafeed.  But I learned from my previous sailmaking projects, this process is time consuming and would, most likely, take me all season to build.  Racing on other people's boats has a priority this Summer and the lake is 200 miles away from home.

With the old sail off, I'll bring the 37 year old Kenyon boom back to the shop, repaint it and install new outhaul and reefing lines. The original sail cover will be replaced with one which I will build.  

Next time, I'll reveal how I discovered the difference between a re-fit and restoration. I'm leaning towards calling this a re-fitstoration. 

A New-To-Us Cruising Boat

Seafari is a 1981 Watkins 27 Mk2.  She is docked at the Grand Lake Sailing Club in NE Oklahoma. We bought the boat in late 2016 with the intent to restore her to her once pristine condition.  It was a $4,000 investment, including lots of extra supplies and hardware. We figured her to have good value despite the 37 year old mainsail that looks like an old bed sheet stolen from a Motel 6 in Toadsuck Arkansas.  I'll build a new one.

With the price of new yachts these days, it makes perfect sense to find older boats in restorable condition and spend a little extra cash and a lot of elbow grease to get a boat shipshape for fun and adventure.  I figure to hire a boatbuilder to build a Watkins 27 from scratch would cost over $100,000 assuming they could even find the original molds which I'm pretty sure were destroyed long ago.  This is our fourth and largest sailboat we have owned in 40 years.

The first project was to clean out the cabin completely in order to have a habitable weekend place to stay while working on the boat.  Remarkably, the interior was in very good condition both aesthetically and functionally. This boat is no speedster and doesn't point well but very comfortable for a 27 footer.  It's a reasonably well built cruising boat designed by Walter Scott and once built in Florida.

It took an entire day to haul out all the junk from the previous owner and 2 additional days to clean.  Pic to the left shows the cabin before cleanup. The cleaning process also included waxing the interior shell and scrubbing the bilge.  Fun.

The engine is an early 1990's Yanmar 2gm 13 h.p. which is in great condition.  In the Winter of 2016, I replaced all the engine water hoses, clamps, impeller, belts, air/oil filters and diesel hoses plus, I pumped out the old diesel and changed engine and transmission oil.

In early 2017, we replaced the large cabin portlights with new Bomar ports.  We will eventually change out all the portlights.  Getting out the old ones took a putty knife and hammer to pry them out. I used painters tape on the interior shell around the old ports so as not to score or damage the shell.  I had to repair a little rot around the cutouts with thickened epoxy but nothing major.

I'll take more photos of these projects in the
future.

The restoration will include some deck replacement, full deck resurfacing/painting, new shorepower, new mainsail, new standing and running rigging, new wiring, new sail cover, new primary winches, anchor rode replacement, 2 new seacocks and a whole lot more.

Next on the agenda - repair a pesky deck leak on the port side.