Broken ATN Spinnaker Sock Block

A couple of weeks ago, we had a try at the cruising spinnaker. The conditions were perfect with light NW winds. Our cruising spinnaker comes in this ATN spinnaker sock, which no one onboard was familiar with. We have flown traditional spinnakers before, with a turtle, topping lift, downhaul and sheets, but never a spinnaker with a sock before.We connected the spinnaker halyard to the head of the sail/sock. Then, we hoisted the sock with the sail in it. We connected the tackline to the bow roller since it is forward of the bow pulpit. We had attached two blocks at the stern, to control both sheets and ran the lazy sheet in front of the headstay. We hoisted the sock halfway up, and started to run into some resistance, so we lowered the sock and tried hoisting again. This time we noticed some fuzzy bits flying out of the top of the sock. We all agreed that this was probably not a good thing, so we lowered the sock on deck. There is a block at the top of the sock that has a loop running through it. Apparently, the line that is used to hoist the sock, must not be cleated or secured tightly (which is exactly what I did). This made the line come out of the block and start to chafe on the frame of the block. I contacted ATN and they sent me a replacement, which has already been installed. We tested raising the sock at the dock and it went up no problem. We'll have to try using the cruising spinnaker again soon!

Sailing & Fishing

Ram Ball Joint - done!

The ball joint that joins the autopilot hydraulic arm to the tiller arm was so corroded, that I couldn't pull the clevis pin out. I ended up using a puller and a hacksaw to get the pin out (previous post). Since Simrad makes the hydraulic linear drive, the ball joint is kind of a special part (metric). I found a company that sold me the ball joint, and another company in the UK that sold me the metric (12mm) stainless steel clevis pin to fit inside the ball joint. I was a little worried about buying something from overseas, but fortunately Boneham Metal Products have great customer service and the UK Royal Mail rocks! Six days later I received the clevis pin. Last night I put the pin in. It was a tight fit as there is no wiggle room inside the ball joint, but it worked.

Water Heater Leak

We have an 11 gallon Isotemp 40 water heater onboard. The heater works off AC power when the boat is connected to shore power. When the boat is not on AC power, the water heater works off the engine hot water return. The engine hot water is at 130 degrees, so through a thermo-mixing valve, we get more than 11 gallons of hot water for doing dishes or taking showers.

A while back, we noticed one of the fittings to the water heater had sprung a small leak. The liquid coming out of the fitting was pink. The engine coolant is pink, so we found out the leak was at the fitting for engine hot water return. We didn't want to be without hot water for the weekend, and the leak wasn't too bad, so we put an absorbent pad under the fitting, to monitor. After this weekend, we decided to make this project a priority since a coolant leak could make the engine overheat. It was hard to tell where exactly the leak was coming from, but after we took the fitting off and cleaned the area, we identified the source of the leak. The coolant was leaking out of the threaded connection from the heater to the hose. We put a small plastic container under the fitting, and disconnected the hose from the heater. A little coolant came out and spilled into the container. We cleaned up the threads on the heater side (stainless steel) and the hose connector (brass), then applied thread sealant to both. The heater manufacturer called for Loctite 577 or Bondline thread sealant, but we couldn't find them. We found high strength Loctite and Medium strength Permatex though. After a quick consultation with Geralyn's sister in Iowa, Pam, we decided to use the medium strength over concerns that the high strength thread sealant would create too strong a seal and damage the heater if we ever had to take it apart again. The thread sealant takes 20 minutes to set and 24 hours to cure, so later on this week, we will top up with coolant to replace what we lost when we took the fitting off. Then, with the heater exposed, we are going to crank up the engine at the dock and look for leaks.
Before


Before

During

During

After

Anchor Chain Depth Marks

Usually, folks will mark their anchor chain so they know how much chain has gone out. This is helpful for calculating scope. Scope is the length of anchor line relative to the distance from your boat's deck to the sea bottom. Geralyn and I usually do 3:1 for lunch or fishing and 7:1 or more for overnight anchoring. We've noticed our anchor has marks on it, but never knew the system that was used. This past week, we took all the chain onto the dock and documented the previous owner system for marking the anchor chain. We like the system, so we won't change it, just touch it up a bit so the marks can be seen more clearly. We keep a copy of the system posted in the cockpit and the bottom of the anchor locker door.

Here is the system:

w = white
y = yellow
g = green
o = orange

30 ft = W
60 ft = WW
90 ft = WWW
120 ft = Y
150 ft = YY
180 ft = YYY
210 ft = G
240 ft = GG
270 ft = GGG
300 ft = O
330 ft = OO
360 ft = OOO
390 ft = Long O

w = one white mark
ww = two white marks
www = three white marks

Primary Anchor - 35lb Delta G4 5/16 chain

Secondary Anchor - Fortress. 135 ft rope. 15 ft chain.