Blog of S/V Salty Beach

 With my middle son Ian as crew, the original plan was to leave Friday, sail to Third Beach in Middletown, RI where my dad has a mooring, then leave in the morning for Cuttyhunk. The weather had other plans. There was virtually no wind Friday, and Saturday's forecast was for gusty conditions from the east, the direction we needed to go. In a typical southwesterly, Cuttyhunk is an easy ride, but I didn't want a long beat for a shakedown cruise, so we changed plans. I saw the Herreshoff Classic Yacht Regatta was taking place near Bristol around noon, so I figured we could head up the bay and maybe see some of the classic yachts, including the legendary S&S-designed Dorade (for whom the cowl vent boxes are named). After, I figured we could possibly grab our friends' mooring in Potter Cove on Prudence Island, or sail down the west side of Jamestown and anchor in Dutch Harbor. As it turned out, we were much too late leaving to catch any of the action. We were so late we opt...

   After getting everything rigged, I took my son out for a light-air harbor sail. The boat feels great, it even reminds me of the Tanzer 22, which I love! More to come as we have a little cruise planned...

 It may be late August, but I finally got the boat launched! Fortunately, around here, some of the best sailing is in September, and even early October can be quite nice. I rented a UHaul pickup again and started towing. Less than a mile into the trip, I noticed the left wheel of the trailer wobbling. As I watched in the mirror, I gasped as I saw a lug bolt fly loose! I immediately put my flashers on and pulled over. Thankfully, I was on a slow, residential street and had a jack, jack stands, ramps, and two spare wheels with me. What I didn't have was spare lug bolts! I was incredibly lucky to find all four (of five!) that came loose lying in the road! Thankfully, the last one held long enough for me to pull over. With it jacked up, I made sure to torque them plenty. Strange, I thought I had when I replaced the wheels, but apparently not enough. I stopped twice more to check both wheels, but all stayed tight after that. Launching with the 2-ton hoist at Newport Yacht Club took some...

 Finally, there were only two major tasks left: standing rigging and electrical. For the standing rigging, I decided to go the DIY route and make new cables with Nicopress swages. In the past, I've always relied on professional riggers. The Frers 40 has Nitronic 50 rod which is well beyond my capability to work with, other than  adjusting turnbuckles. When the Tanzer 22 needed a new forestay, we simply had one made by a rigger based on the old one, with the more typical roll-swaged fittings. The reasons for the DIY approach this time were multiple: the rigging on this boat was almost certainly Nicopress swaging originally. The lower shrouds still were, and the rest were mismatched lengths that looked like they were adapted from other boats. the boat is small and relatively light, consequently the loads and therefore rigging are relatively small (1/8" specifically) I had ready access to the tools and information needed, including a proven example on a similar boat at https://st...

 After the discovery that I needed new winches, I set about finding suitable replacements. I first checked the consignment section at Newport Nautical , but there were no matched pairs of any remotely small enough. Searching online, I narrowed it down to two very affordable replacements: the Antal W6 and the Forespar MW-6 . Measuring carefully and looking at the specs revealed both had a slightly smaller drum diameter than the existing winches, but not by much. The Forespar was slightly larger of the two, so I chose to go with those. I found them in stock at Defender Marine, about an hour away from me so I took a drive to get them. It was serendipitous that they had exactly the same bolt pattern as the existing. I later discovered this is probably not a coincidence, as it seems they were likely made as replacements for the very MacGregor winches my boat had: https://shop.bwyachts.com/product-p/4501-110.htm

 I decided early on I wanted to "pot" most of the deck fasteners with epoxy to prevent moisture intrusion to the deck core. It's a process I've done a few times on previous boats that gives much peace of mind, since any failure of sealant simply results in leaks to the cabin instead of turning the deck to mush as well. Most of my previous experience was with balsa and foam cores, where I used a bent nail (as suggested by West System literature) to clear the core between the skins and make room for the epoxy. I quickly discovered this wasn't going to work on this boat due to the fact that the core material appears to be Masonite!? Some googling revealed Masonite was in fact used as a core material, most notably in the early versions of the venerable Alberg 30. I later found some sections, including the motor mount and the top of the coamings, are marine ply core. I searched for alternative methods and came across Rod Collins' excellent write-up at https://marin...