care and feeding of nordic star

Workday followed by Rum Race

2010-09-10T18:51:00.001-07:00

Today I installed the longer bolt through the boom bail plates. The head was replaced too with a Jabsco unit.

Boom Bail Plates Installed

2010-09-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today I installed the Rig Rite K-2172RP boom bail plates. The bolt needs to be longer than the original bolt ( 3.5" ) due to thickness of the plates. There was about 1/8' wear on the starboard hole, the port hole wasn't damaged.

Existing motor mounts

2010-08-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

The first picture is the forward starboard motormount. The mounting holes are 4" on center. These mounts look alot like the DF-2205-2 Engine Mounts that Bill Kneller describes on the J/30 forum. The second picture is the starboard aft motor mount. The engine on Nordic Star is a 1982 2GM.

Racor Fuel Filter Installation

2010-08-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

I recently installed a Racor 200 series fuel filter with bleed pump on Nordic Star. Following Bill Kneller's approach I cut a piece of red oak to mount the filter. The inlet fuel hose had to be moved inboard because the steps would crush the hose and cause fuel starvation.

Boom Bail Bearing Plates on Order

2010-05-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Bill's scary photos I ordered the boom bail bearing plates from RigRite today. ( P/N K2172RP ) They were in stock at $24 each plus shipping. Standby for the installation saga. I need to find the stainless sleeves that Bill added.

New Rigging Installed

2009-12-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-08-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-02T14:23:00.000-07:00

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

Yard work completed

2009-07-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-07-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-02-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

Incorrect head board slider

2009-02-27T16:14:00.000-08:00

2009-02-27T16:11:00.000-08:00

New Sails

2008-12-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Nordic Star recently got a new Quantum main and 155% jib. Boat speed is improved to say the least. Had an issue with the top slider on the main. The correct one was installed last week.

Info on Installing Nexus Wireless Wind Transducer

2008-02-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

In September 2007 I replaced my failed Nexus(Silva) wind transducer with the wireless model. The wireless transducer has two fins and a solar cell that powers a transmitter that sends data to the WSI box mounted below decks. No wires are required in the mast. The transducer bracket mounting holes match the old mounting bracket holes too. COMNAV, the importer of NEXUS, only sells the wireless wind transducer as part of an expensive bundle. To bypass this the transducer and the required WSI interface box (Nexus Nr. 22928 for the kit) was purchased from Marine Electronic SA,41 rue Louis-de-Savoie, CH-1110 Morges Switzerland.

There were some not so obvious tricks to the installation.

You need to have NEXUS NX2 server in order to have the current depth transducer. This is needed to be compatible with the WSI box also.

You will need several NEXUS Nr. 22121 4 pole pin plugs to actually connect the transducers to the WSI box. I had to buy them from a local COMNAV dealer in FL for a excessive $40 a piece.

The NEXUS depth and speed transducers must connect to the WSI box, not the NX2 server. This is because the WSI box is the master for those transducers. I left the transducers connected to the NX2 server but could not get them to work. Contacting NEXUS fixed that.

To get a good signal from the mast mounted transducer the WSI box has to be mounted parallel to the center line of the boat. Not knowing where the antenna was in the WSI box I mounted it on a piece of plexiglass.

Below are calibration ( setup ) data used. The wind transducer auto calibrates.

CALIBRATION DATA
SPEED
C10 RETURN
C11 UNITS KTS
C12 CAL 1.25
C13 DAMPING d2

DEPTH
C20 RETURN
C21 UNIT FT
C22 00 ADJ _01.3 Transdcuer offset below surface
C23 TEMP UNIT F
C24 TEMP CAL 0
C25 Hpa INH Atmospheric pressure unit INH= inches

NAVIGATION
C30 RETURN
C31 PAGE ATO PAGE ATO automatically display nav page/gps is on
C32 00 OCA 0 no off course alarm set
C33 00.0 VAR -5.85 deg 48 min W 0.8 minus is west, underline is east
C34 AUTO DEV start auto deviation process
C35 AUTO CHK start auto deviation check
C36 AUTO CLR clear auto deviation memory
C37 000 ADJ 0 compass transducer miss-alignment
C38 OFF SEC ON position in degrees, minutes, seconds
C39 PILOT SEA MID steer pilot damping
C40 OFF MAG ON all headings and bearings magnetic
C41 DAMPING d2

WIND
C50 RETURN
C51 PAGE ATO PAGE ATO automatically display nav page/gps is on
C52 OFF TWA OFF On displays true wind
C53 UNITS KTS
C54 CAL 1.7 (1.7 for twin fin transducer )
C55 000 adj 0 Mast top misalignment ( A Fault )
C56 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C57 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C58 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C59 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C60 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C61 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C62 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C63 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C64 WIA WIA
C65 DAMPING SEA d2
C66
C67 WSA 0 Wind speed alarm in meters always, no feet allowed

NETWORK & NMEA CALIBRATION
Enter Calibration/Set, press Page until C70 is displayed
C70 RETURN
C71 ENTRY BEEP ON
C72 d0 SEA d2
C73 OFF BSP OFF FOR USE WITH NEXUS LOG
C74 OFF DEP OFF FOR USE WITH NEXUS DEPTH
C75 OFF COMP OFF FOR USE WITH NEXUS COMPASS
C76 OFF WIND OFF FOR USE WITH NEXUS WIND SENSOR
C77 NMEA SENTENCES OUT FROM SERVER
TO
C92
C93 d4 NME NMEA OUT DAMPING COMPASS HEADING & SPEED ONLY
C94 OFF SOG OFF FOR NX2 SPEED SENSOR
C95 OFF COG OFF FOR NX2 COMPASS SENSOR
C96 REF BSP REF BSP For use of log transducer for BSP wind functions

Procedure for installing the Annapolis Rigging Spreader Thru Bar kit

2008-01-06T16:43:00.000-08:00

Spreader through bar installation ( mast up ) 1/5/08

-Release tension on the upper shrouds, both sides.
-Securely tie a 16’ ladder to the inner shroud. When working aloft tie a safety line around yourself & the mast. You will need two hands when working the pop rivet tool.
-Remove the spreader attaching hardware & end caps and take down the spreaders.
-Refinish the spreaders while you’ve got them down & replace the flag halyard block.
-Using a center punch, drive the mandrel of the existing pop rivets into the rivet bodies.
-Drill out old spreader bracket pop rivet outer flanges with a ¼" drill bit.
-Using a ¼ " drift drive the rivet bodies into the mast.
-Remove old spreader brackets. Look for cracks around the rivet holes. Clean off corrosion and refinish area.
-Remove the thru mast stiffening tube. It may interfere with the installation of the thru bar and once the reinforcing plates are installed you can’t get tube very easily.
-Assuming no cracks, install the Annapolis Rigging reinforcing plates using the supplied ¼" pop rivets with the Harbor Freight $20 pop rivet tool. Use a small vice grip around the mandrel between the pop rivet tool and the pop rivet to prevent the mandrel from being pushed inside the mast. The reinforcing plates install using the existing spreader bracket holes.
-Using the reinforcing plates as a guide, cut the mast holes for the through bar. Drill a 1/8" hole in the corners and use a healthy AC powered roto-tool like a DeWalt with an aluminum capable blade such as a Dremel 1/8" roto bit. Set the depth of the cutting tool to the minimum required to spare the halyards and wiring inside the mast. ( A reason to use a ladder in case a halyard gets cut )
-Insert the spreader bar from the port side of the mast making sure to get all the wires & halyards aft of the spreader bar. One tap with a hammer got the thru bar in place. Center the bar using the marking on the aft side of the spreader bar.
-Reinstall the spreaders and attach them to the spreader bar with two ¼-20 bolts per spreader. The spreader bar protrudes from the mast about 5 ½ " on each side.
-Restore upper shroud tension.
-Go sailing.

Completed spreader thru bar installation

2008-01-05T19:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more shots of the completed spreader thru bar installation. Using a center punch sped up the removal of the port side bracket & rivets. The center punch drove the mandrel into the rivet body so there was less metal to drill out. After drilling off the rivet flange I then used a drift to drive out the remains. The Harbor Freight pop rivet tool was tamed be using a small vice grip to prevent the mandrel from being driven inside the mast while cycling the pop rivet tool.

Two 1/4" bolts 1 1/2" long were used to attach the spreader to the thru bar. The thru bar went in with one tap of the hammer. The small thru rod interfered with the thru bar and during the installation it fell down inside the mast. It was not welded as previously thought. It is a little scary to see the amount of metal removed from the mast to install the thru bar. Hopefully no masts have come down with the thru bar installed.

We have a race tomorrow so that is why the last photo is after dark...

More shot(s) from the spreader thru bar

2008-01-01T17:33:00.001-08:00

Installation of the Annapolis Rigging spreader thru bar

2008-01-01T16:52:00.000-08:00

Here are a few shots of the ongoing spreader thru bar with the mast up. The starboard plate is almost completely installed. There is a tube welded internally in the mast that connects the port & starboard sides of the mast. According to Jay Herman the bar can be left in as long as the halyards are behind it. ( one of the jib halyards is not behind the tube ). The Harbor freight 1/4" pop rivet tool is not completely fool proof and I messed up two pop rivets that will have to be redone. In removing the old pop rivets I used up about one drill bit per rivet. So far there is no cracking observed in either the mast or the old spreader bracket. The DeWalt roto drill was able to make the cut out with harming the halyards.

A shot of 16' folding ladder I'm using to get up to the spreaders. The ladder is tied to the lower stay and I tie myself to the mast while up there.

J/30 Stanchion from Tops in Quality

2007-12-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots of the stanchion I received from Tops in Quality.

Stanchions & rudder pins

2007-11-24T15:15:00.000-08:00

While ordering a new stanchion from "Tops In Quality", I discovered they offer J/30 rudder pins for approx $160 each. Their phone number is 800-414-2801. The J/30 knowledgeable person there is Gregg. The stanchion is about $70 +/-. On Nordic Star the top corroded away letting the top lifeline fall away at the gate. Based on comments from the Redhead this place seems to have the ability to supply some of our more obscure J/30 bits & pieces.

Spreader kit revealed

2007-11-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here is the Annapolis Rigging spreader thru bar kit. Jay Herman is the contact point and you'll have better luck calling his cell at 410-493-9522. The price was $450 plus shipping. I am arrainging to have the kit installed with the mast up.