Commander 147

[carbonsoup]

looking great! your craftsmanship is a continual inspiration. I have many questions, however today I have two, maybe three, as they coincide with my own rebuild on A97.

1. how have you calibrated the shaft alignment athwartship? Since i deleted any existence of the previous engine mount i have little to align against. The only thing is the cockpit bulkhead, a theoretical perpendicular, however the shaft does not actually exit the boat parallel to the centerline. Or does it?

2. three blade prop for electric conversion? for regenerative efficiency? what is the spec? I was thinking of an Atomic4 prop (http://www.atomic4.com/propeller.html) seemed like a reasonable price for a three bladed prop that would fit our aperture.

and unrelated.

3. I sent an PM about your masthead setup. would your fabricator be interested in making another? I ask, as it might be quicker and easier than trying to get my busy fabricator to sit down and make it happen.

ok, one more!

4. I have spent days trying to get the Pearson Ariel cast aluminum mast base out of the bottom of the extrusion to no avail... the PO had snapped the screws (x4) off years ago so its on there. Ive heated, smacked, chisled, used penetrants... but there is just no 'purchase' to pry or lever the base cap off, any suggestions?

[Commander 147]

I saw your post this morning but I am on my way out to see a customer in Orlando this morning and can't take time right now to give your questions the response they deserve. Hopefully tonight I can. In the meantime I did not get a PM from you. So you might want to try that again.

[Commander 147]

Carbonsoup

In response to your question #1.. I would not use a bulkhead installed in a Pearson boat from our era to align anything. I can tell you none of the bulkheads in my boat were perpendicular to the fore and aft centerline. They were as set buy the TLAR (that looks about right) method. And yes the shaft should be dead on the boats centerline. The way you have redone your boats interior would make it impossible to use the method I did (which is to streatch a mason's string tightly from the point of the bow to the point where the shaft exits the boat) to align the shaft on the centerline but you could probably figure out a suitable alternate method like determining the centerline of your cabin bulkhead and stretching a string line from there to the exit point of the shaft.

Question #2.. The reason I went with the prop I did (which is an 11 x 11) reasons. First I determined the diameter that would best fit the aperature in the keel and rudder based on the ratios from that Good Old boat article I posted previously. Then I worked closely with Scott McMillian from Electric Yacht to determine what would be the best pitch for the 2:1 reduction we were using for my electric motor and the output power it developed at the shaft.

As far as regeneration I'm not holding a lot of hope for that even though my system will work that way. And the 3-blade prop will do a better job for regeneration than a 2-blade one would do. But from people that have done systems like this they don't feel they get a lot of benefit from it.

Question #3.. Yes the fabricator I used would be happy to make another mast head assembly. Are you planning on following Mike's advise (C227) about lowering the forward sheeve on the assembly? If so it would take a bit of time to rework the drawing. I can help you get it ordered with the fabricator I used. Shoot me an e-mail so we can discuss. My e-mail address is gocarpen at tampabay dot rr dot com.

Question #4.. When I was removing my mast base I accidentally snapped off a couple of the screws also. You will never get the base off if you don't completely drill out those screws. When I did it I ended up with buggered up holes in the bottom of the mast that I had a welder plug at the same time he plugged all of the other no longer needed holes in the mast. Once I got the broken screws out completely the base came off pretty easily. Before that there was NO moving it.

Hope this helps.

[Commander 147]

This afternoon I got the motor shaft lined up with the prop shaft and connected the two. Everything appears to be where it belongs with the prop and everything else so now I can glass in the shaft log.

[Commander 147]

Now that I am getting near the end of the labor intensive work I am approaching the cost intensive portions of this restore. Today I will place the order for the new hardware which I have listed below with Rigging Only. I bought my standing rigging from them and they are VERY competitive in pricing and do what they say they will . Good people to work with. In addition to that $5,600.00 worth of hardware I am still looking at a $5,000.00 paint job, a $7,000.00 suite of new sails and $2,800.00 worth of batteries to power the electric inboard. And none of that includes any of the many more misc. items I will need before I finish. Sure am glad I do not intend to ever sell Destiny. And I hope the grandkids appreciate the boat they will have some day. :-)

[Commander227]

Sounds like you've got your mind right... You'll never be able to sell it for more than half what you've got into it. And all your labor? HA!
You're building what you want for you. It's a labor of love all the way.
We're not alone in this however. I was at a car show and saw a T bucket for sale for $12,000. It was a work of art. He had over $30,000. Into it and every weekend for the last 5 years.

[Fritz]

Thanks for posting this information Jerry. I am in the market for a travelor and a few other items. Your list has pointed me in the right direction regarding source and model numbers. I had my bottom soda blasted a few weeks ago. Hoping to sand, fill and sand some more this weekend and apply interlux 2000E next weekend, weather depending.

[Commander 147]

Have I said lately how much I dislike working with epoxy down in the bowels of Destiny??????????

I have only a few smallish projects left for epoxy work on the inside of the boat and I can't wait until that list reads zero. Especially since we have returned to full fledged summer weather here in Florida which means 95 degrees and 95% humidity. These are our cabin fever months.

Of the things I have accomplished since my last post, the one I enjoyed doing the most was building the new AC electric panel enclosure. Picture below.

Also I reinforced the bottom of the cockpit floor because it was so spongy even where the core is good. And while doing that I redid the rudder tube where it goes through the cockpit floor. The tube and the cockpit floor were not bonded at all prior to my reworking it. A picture of the cockpit floor reinforcement is below.

And then I glassed in the prop shaft log. I probably over killed that but I guess it's better than under killing it. ;-) Picture below.