New Rigging Installed

After failing the rigging inspection it was determined that the uppers and the headstay were too short ( no visible threads showed through the top of the turnbuckle). The bottom of the uppers had one suspicious swage. The back stay had crack starting in swaged fitting above the back stay adjuster. Since we were changing the headstay, I decided to replace the headfoil with a Harken Carbo 1 7001 ( to get the #6 luff tape ). The Head foil feeder has been very tight and it was time for it to go. 10 years in the FL sun didn't help either, the plastic foil was cracking at the upper end.

The rigging parts, swaging and Carbo head foil ran $891, shipping the bits back and forth to the swaging shop in Miami ran $50, labor was $168 for three trips up the mast and sales tax was $67 for a total hit of $1176. This is part of my pre-retirement boat fix up program.

The existing Nautec turnbuckles were found to be in good shape so only fresh threaded ends were needed.

Leaking Vangmaster & swage cracks

I sent the Vangmaster back to California for fresh O rings for about $70. The vang would leak down after 2 days so it is time for this process. No complaints after 25 years. I spoke to Doug Grant at Vangmaster, 737 Channel St, San Pedro, CA 90731, telephone 310-831-2877.

Today a rigger checked the standing rigging after a recent survey requested this be done. It appears corrosion has started on the back stay and the base of the uppers. Head stay and lowers checked out OK. This set of rigging is 10 years old. We may wait for hurricane season to pass before dismantling the rigging.

Here are a few shots of the new transmission, dripless seal, shaft, split coupling and exhaust hose.

Yard work completed

Yesterday I picked up the boat from the boat yard. Later that evening we had a race and managed to beat the other J/30 we race against. The freshly painted & burnished bottom is working. The some minor blisters, new propellor, cutlass bearing, shaft & dripless seal, coupling, transmission, exhaust hose, new waterline boot top tape and some gelcoat repairs were also done.

July 2 breakage discoveries

The dripless shaft seal faces are pitted so the whole assembly needs replacement. Attached is a shot of the engine end of the shaft that I'm told is worn from the loose coupling.

So we'll be launching with everything new in the drive line aft of the engine except the strut.

Today's news is that the dripless shaft seal faces are shot and were leaking. The mechanic showed me the coupling and shaft that should have been a press fit. Over the years the mating face of the coupling got roughed up during de-mating and caused a miss alignment that caused vibration. The yard located a new transmission.

More discoveries at the boat yard

Some more exciting news from the boat yard today: Phone call #1: the bottom has many small blisters running up the centerline. Very upsetting after having the gel coat peeled and replaced with epoxy in 2003. Phone call #2: the shaft and coupling were machining each other into oblivion at the set screws and the transmission is shot. Looks like this haulout will run about two weeks since the transmission takes a while to get.

Why you should paint your bottom

Nordic Star is in the yard for a fresh bottom and some freshening of the running gear. Here are some before shots.

Cabin Lights Exposed

After reading the forum post about the LED cabin lights, I ordered a few for the main cabin. The light is a small circuit card with a heatsink and a socket adapter. They work as advertised with much reduced power consumption. Our original J/30 cabin lights carry the P/N T3606.

Compass Replacement

The port Nexus 125 B/H compass turned murky and hard to read after 13 years. According to COMNAV it is not repairable. The price has trebled in that time period but I like this particular compass because it does not protrude very far from the bulkhead. The new one has a 10 year warranty.

Traveller Re-bedding

I've been doing some more work on the boat starting with rebedding the traveller onto a new Starboard spacer 2" wide X 1" thick X 4' 11 7/8".

The 1/2" thick old teak spacer had split along the bolt holes and was leaking. All 16 fasteners were replaced and the whole spacer was sealed with "Through the Roof " made by Sashco. It's a non-hardening butyl sealer that is puported to last well in sunlight. I've previously used this to seal the cabin port lights and chain plates and we'll see how it lasts in the FL sun.

Replacement Vee Berth Board

The board in the vee berth started to come apart so J. W. Austin fabricated a new piece from 1/2" Star Board for me. It was $40 and they used the old piece as a template. I transfered the trim and forward stop to the new piece. And it fits well.

Installing a Capstan on Nordic Star

I installed a bow mounted capstan to ease the anchor recovery. It is also very handy for raising the mainsail and being hoisted aloft. The capstan is a Lewmar C-3 purchased from PYacht. The kit including circuit breaker, capstan and waterproof foot switch is Lewmar part number 6960056. The data sheet for the capstan can be seen on Lewmar's website: http://en.lewmar.com/products/catalog/1-17.pdf

This model has an in-line gear box and is fairly compact. Using a supplied template a hole was cut in the deck aft of the stem fitting. I cleaned out the balsa core around the edge of the hole and filled it with fiberglass cloth and resin. The edge of the hole was finished off by applying structural epoxy filler. The deck has to be reinforced because the capstan attaches to the deck by clamping mounting pieces from below against the underside of the capstan. A shim also had to be fabricated from fiber glass and resin to provide a flat mounting surface for the capstan due to the J/30 deck crown. The forward edge of the capstan base is 17" aft of the stem fitting. Excuse my teak toe rail, it is scheduled for extinction. The aft edge of the foot switch is 10" forward of the anchor locker.

Because of the length of the wire runs from the battery ( 25 feet ) I used 2 gauge wire routed along the port underside of the deck up into the bow locker. The deck switch was located on the starboard deck forward of the anchor well. In one of the shots you can see the capstan's #10 gauge pigtails that were connected to insulated posts nearby.

J/30 "Starboard" Hand Rails

I replaced the hand rails on Nordic Star a few years ago with ones made from starboard. J. W. Austin Industries, Melbourne, FL fabricated them using the old hand rails as templates. Then they were match drilled up through the cabin and the outer & inner hand rails were reassembled with new hardware. The only place that had long handrail screws locally was Daytona Bolt & Nut.

Cooling System Work

For the last 2 weeks I've been working on Nordic Star's engine cooling system. The pump impellors hadn't been changed for about 250 hours. Each pump impellor had cracks and was about to let go. The hoses were looking rough and the sea water pump was leaking. I replaced the seawater pump with a new one and will get the old one rebuilt for about $75 and keep it as a spare. The fresh water pump ( Yanmar sea water pump on non FWC setups ) just needed a new impellor. That pump is 27 years old and running smooth at 1319 total engine hours. A new one is $400 but can be rebuilt for under $100. There is also a replacement freshwater pump available that is about $200 but can only be used with freshwater/antifreeze. The Sendure end caps and gaskets were oozing so they were replaced by an aftermarket equivalent ( non-Sendure ).

The Sendure freshwater cooled 2GM was the only option to get FWC in 1982.

I used non-toxic antifreeze. The area under the engine bed is damp..the core under that area was dry when the gel coat was stripped.

Incorrect head board slider