Bridle elimination

Mike and Rebecca on s/v Zero to Cruising have found that eliminating the bridle at the dinghy stern allows it to be hoisted a lot higher (and that's a good thing):

I’m not sure if I have written on this topic specifically but ever since acquiring our new (to us) hard-bottomed dinghy back in Florida, we have had a devil of a time getting it to ride securely on the davits. With the slightly-smaller Walker Bay inflatable that we used to have, we had no problems. In fact, with that dinghy, we never even removed the outboard when carrying it on the davits. Then again, we never sailed in these conditions, or these long distances either. Anyway, with the new one, let’s just say we have had issues. I do think we’ve got them sorted though, thanks to Brio.

While anchored in Georgetown, we spotted another PDQ 32, s/v Brio, and took note of how they had their dinghy rigged. Coincidentally, they had exactly the same size and even the same brand of dinghy that we do. What we noted was that, instead of using one block and tackle attached to a bridle line to raise the stern, they used two individual block and tackles, each attached to the lifting points. With this arrangement, the dinghy can be lifted much higher allowing us to get it to sit up onto the edge of the stern. Now, because we only had two of these setups, we had to be a bit creative with some extra blocks we had on hand. It all worked out though and after testing it on the last few passages that we have been on, I rate it a complete success. We still do remove the outboard from the dinghy for passages though, storing it on the rail mount that I made. We also took Drew’s advice and use two dock lines to add extra security to the dinghy, pulling it in tight for passages. I now pronounce this challenge ’solved!’

Dual block and tackle setups allow us to get the dinghy nice and high

It’s always nice to have extra blocks on a boat.

Dock lines are used to pull it in tight.

Now, would it be possible to hoist the dinghy stern like this, but using only one line?  Something to contemplate over sundowners.

Nothing is ever easy

Despite the best laid plans, sometimes things just go awry. Over on s/v Letitgo we have a recent example...

As we all know by now; on a boat things are never simple, one problem leads to another one and sometimes one can’t help an unscheduled trip up the mast…. And this is what happened yesterday when we installed our spinnaker halyard. It all started innocently with a reeve eye and a messenger line :

All went well my bowline held (thank you very much) and in no time I had everything in place, proud smile on my face! Then again, the messenger line was routed on the inside of the spreader so we had to come up with plan B. So a genius idea of mine: get a weight on the shackle and guide it with a line over the obstacle, well you can see how this is going to end at this point I am sure, it got all tangled up into the anti bird wire on the top of the spreader. As I am sure you can understand I needed a rescue for the messenger line, and *V* was to inaugurate the new bosun chair. But this time we had the camera up so we were able to take a few nice shots! As you can tell on the picture below I am scratching my head trying to figure how I am going to sweet talk my way out of that one! Though *V* loves being up there for some odd reasons….

Now you understand why a 15 minute job takes 1 hour, we call it boat time…. But now we look more like a real boat with the ability to raise a spinnaker, have a second line to go up and a spare shroud just in case.

Knotting fools

Steve and Lulu on s/v Siempre Sabado fell into a good deal on line, and then proceeded to put it to good use:

My big plan today was to make a swim ladder for getting back onboard after swimming or dinghying around. We had this old piece-of-crap swim ladder that hung from the gunwales. It had aluminum sides and hooks and plastic steps. We bought it second hand some time ago. While we were in Avalon back in early November, I stepped on it while climbing out of the dinghy and the step just snapped in two. I thought, "uh-oh, better cut back on the cheeseburgers a bit" but then, Lulu stepped on the next rung and it snapped as well. Now, Lulu isn't hardly big enough to snap her fingers, much less a swim ladder step. The plastic was obviously very rotten. So, yeah, I will have fries with that.

Anyway, we bought another POC ladder at Minney's in Newport Beach but have never had occasion to use it. We just step up from the dinghy to the boat and so far we haven't had occasion to actually swim from the boat. But I knew I wanted something better. I had some extra line and I remembered seeing a rope ladder in one of Hervey Garrett Smith's books. I dug through "The Arts Of The Sailor" but found nothing. Next I cracked open "The Marlinspike Sailor" and there it was on page 49. I broke out some old spare line and started tying knots.

The ladder itself went really fast. Splicing a lanyard on to the loop took way longer, mainly because the line I was using sort of tended to fall apart as soon as the strands were unlayed. That, and the fact that the twist held the line together tenaciously and it was like pulling teeth to open the strands enough to make a splice. But, soon enough it was all done.


The rungs are about a foot apart and, yes, they are kind of narrow. Smith maintains that the one-footed rung is the right and traditional configuration. He feels that a double-footed rung is unnecessary and will undoubtedly sag badly. Good enough for me. The large diameter rungs, made of soft dacron line, are very kind to bare feet. The lanyard allows it to be tied to whatever is handy and it's long enough to hang down into the water, making it easier to climb than if the first rung was at the surface. It also folds up to stow in a very small spot. I gave the POC ladder to a local Mexican guy who likes to get free stuff from the boats. He was welcome to it.

While I was making this ladder, Gary from s/v Megadon next door asked me if I wanted a fishing pole. Gary is getting ready to try to sell Megadon and he's pretty sure he's going to take a bath on the deal. So, he doesn't feel inclined to leave a bunch of stuff aboard for the next owner. So, he had this medium weight Daiwa graphite pole with a Penn 309 open spool reel that he was offering to give me. HELL YES, I want it! One of my jobs today was going to be going to the store (Ferre-Mar) and buying a fishing pole and reel so we'd be ready to haul in the lunkers up north this summer. Now Gary had saved me a trip and a considerable sum of money. Then he offered me a tackle box full of goodies. There are even lures small enough for our little lightweight "playing at anchor" rods that we brought from home. Combined with the stuff that we bought in Ensenada, we are pretty well set.< But it didn't stop there. Gary then asked if I wanted any line. I thought he meant fishing line and said "sure". Turns out he meant lines as in "sheets", "dock lines", "halyards", etc. Never one to turn down free line, I said, "You bet I want it. What have you got?" He proceeded to unload a box that contained a bunch of old braided dacron line as well as some 3-strand nylon. It was all too big for the fittings on our boat (megadon is a 53 footer) but I figured we could at least use it as dock lines or something. After I finished building a second swim ladder (just because I had the line and I could), I started contemplating all the line I'd gotten from Gary. There were two sheets of some sort, possibly for a spinnaker. It was the kind of old dacron that gets very soft and pliable. I thought, "This would make a great little mat to give Gary as a partial "thank-you". I measured the line out and it was about 65' long. Wasn't sure how large a mat I could make but I started working on a round one. It went fairly fast and, when I was done, I had made a round mat about 2' in diameter. The worn dacron felt very nice on my bare feet. Now I was getting a little more inspired. Maybe I should just make the rest of the old sheets into mats. There was some really pretty red line so I started working with it. It also was about 65' long but this time I decided to make an oblong mat. No telling how big it would be. An hour or so later, I had a mat about 15" wide by maybe 24" long. It fits perfectly on the side deck just forward of the sword mat. Not sure if that'll be its final resting place but it sure makes a nice welcome mat for now. I have enough line left to make at least 3 and maybe 4 more mats about the same size. There'll be one or two more red ones, a blue one, and a white one. Won't we be festive? And patriotic.
So, that's what I did with my day today.

And what was Lulu doing during all this? Well, first she cleaned house (boat). That's why I had picked today to finally go get the fishing pole, etc. I can't go below while she's cleaning and going to the store was a good way to make sure I didn't go below. Turned out not to be a problem. Then she took a nap to try to get over a nagging headache. Finally, she worked on, and finished, the first of her new macramed porthole curtains.


This is one of the ones in the V-berth (our bedroom). The ones in the saloon will be a little less densely knotted to allow a little more light through. But these are for privacy while still not completely cutting off all the light (and air).

So, there you have it. We're just a couple of knotting fools. Might even call us a couple of knotheads.

Transom lettering

When we bought Eolian, "Eolian" wasn't her name.  Using John Vigor's Denaming/Renaming ceremony, we re-christened her to Eolian.

But before we could do this, there was a tiny detail:  the name on the transom was wrong.  So I scraped off the old name.  When they made these boats, Downeast created, what appear to be from a short distance, carved name boards for the transom.  But actually these are molded resin.  I gave ours a fresh coat or two of paint, in a color that more closely matched our trim color.

Then I paid a visit to Prism Graphics, folks who custom-cut vinyl graphics on Westlake Avenue here in Seattle.  They were great to work with.  They asked me to bring in a full-sized tracing of the name boards so that they could custom-fit the lettering to the actual boards.  And they spent quite a bit of time getting it right.  Thinking about how great it would look on the green, I chose simulated gold leaf for the material, and they left me with a print out to show Jane.

Applying the letters was easy.  They come on a transfer sheet, which is stuck to the front side of the lettering.  The transfer sheet keeps things lined up and in place, and allows transferring the entire design at once.  Prism's directions said to use a spray bottle with soapy water to moisten the transom and the graphics before application - this allows you to adjust things, presuming that you don't lay the design down spot on the first time - and you won't.  So, I boldly peeled off the backing sheet (lettering still stuck to the transfer sheet) and wetted the adhesive side and the name boards.  A little adjusting (a dinghy does not a stable work platform make), pushing the bubbles out from under the letters, and it was time for a beer.  After a while, you can peel off the transfer sheet (better to wait too long than not long enough).

Voila!  Unfortunately, the simulated gold leaf was not a good choice.  Because of the tilt of Eolian's transom, it is almost never in direct sunlight.  The net effect was, that for almost all viewing angles and conditions, the lettering essentially disappeared.  (When the sun did hit it tho, it was spectacular!).  Sadly, this would not do.

So I returned to Prism, and asked them to recut the letters, this time in white.  This was not difficult for them, since the design is just a small computer file they now had on one of their systems.  In white, the name is visible regardless of the sun angle.

Implosion prevention

What happens if your holding tank vent gets clogged?  It could be a bug building a nest in the vent fitting out on the stern.  Or it could be "stuff" pushed up into the vent by overfilling the tank (oh, there's enough room for one more flush, isn't there?).  Whatever the cause, having the vent line blocked is a problem.  If it is almost blocked, then you will probably be unaware of it during normal head usage, because the rate of inflow is small.  Ah, but during pump out, when the flow rate is much, much higher, problems can occur.  How to protect your boat from this event?  Paul on s/v Solace has this helpful tip for us:

While pumping out my holding tank, I heard a crackling sound of fiberglass. Stopping the pump out, I noticed the holding tank was starting to implode and the fault was a blocked vent line. To prevent a disaster happening in the future, I installed two Tanksavers from Sealand. These offer a one way valve which will open if it detects too much vacuum inside the tank. With those big dockside suction units, this could be the one thing that could save your tanks.


A three inch hole saw and a Tanksaver kit from sealand costing about $20 is required.

 Find a flat surface on your holding tank top surface and drill the 3 inch hole. Push in the rubber ring and then coat the valve insert with dish washing liquid and push in. That's all there is to it. Just a ten minute job on each tank.

Hole drilled and rubber insert placed

Finished product

Hi-tech splicing

Carol and Livia on s/v Estrellita 5.10b are replacing their running backstays with hi-tech line.  Let's tag along as they splice it up...

Carol playing splice.

We've been working hard for about two weeks now and our boat doesn't come out of the water until tomorrow. We have another solid two or so weeks of work before we get to scoot North.

Non-boating friends - this one is just going to be boring. See you next time.

Spliced eye with d-ring & stemball

We are converting our running backstays from wire to a hi-tech core dependent line (D2 for the rope people). We needed to shorten them because they are long enough that when we stow them at the shrouds with the block and tackle still on, they bang on the deck. While we were shortening them we thought we would change to synthetics rather than wire so we could further minimize banging and because synthetic line is sexy.

In process

Carol used the Marlow splice book (instructions also online) and a set of splicing tools to create 4 eye splices - a set on each running backstay. These connect via a d-ring to a stemball fitting which fits into cups in our shrouds.

A big thanks to Lauren of SV Piko and Ken of SV Seeker (both sister ships) for advising us on this process.

Finished except for trimming tail

I then took the splices and finished them off with a half-hitch style whipping from the Samson instructions.

All in all, they are not as aesthetically perfect as if done by a professional but as far as we can tell in this type of splice, pretty isn't the same as functionally strong. In fact, Carol moved a large cement block, on accident, while pulling on the splice.