keltiks' 1980s Ross 35

[keltik]

The double eye springs also have less camber so the ride height should drop by 30mm which is very welcome.  Can't get any lower without going to a pair of gullwing axles as the center would contact the framing around the hull at any decent amount of bump.

[johnnyfive]

How heavy do you suppose this badboy is?

[keltik]

Internets reckons 2.5t but I have no idea.  Sounds about right. Feels a bit heavier than a typical car trailer.

Will chuck it on the scale at work sometime.

[Mof]

Double eye rockers are far far better than that slipper junk

[keltik]

Got the new springs in.

Managed to bleed the brakes properly by unbolting the caliper and tilting the bleeder nipple to the top as it's in the 11 o'clock position when installed.

Not sure why, but it tows a million times better now. No more banging the back end of the tow vehicle around - it just follows along smoothly.

Went for a WOF and failed on front wheel bearings.  Previous owner said he had done them but one was rust fucked and the other had no inner bearing cage left... Just powder.

Had to tidy up the seal surface on the stub axles so hit it with JB weld to fill in the pitting.

Should be better than it was. 

Replaced the lights with some of those Narva kits that have oring sealed connectors on the harness so there's no joins - you just plug it all together and cap off any connections not used with blanking plugs.

Hopefully get the WOF issued next week when I can get it back down the local for a recheck.  

[keltik]

Been doing the Wednesday night races on another boat in Tauranga.  It's keeping me motivated to get mine done.

The Wednesday night stuff is a bit more aggressive than the weekend ones I'm used to.  Straight into the race after work, no time for messing about.  Luckily the crew are excellent people who don't take it too seriously.... But still managing 2nd in our division of 16 others.

Finally decided on a name and made the official change.

Since the jet boat was "Good Enough" this one shall be "Nice Try" which reflects all of the work done by the last guy and the quality of my repairs.

[keltik]

On the to-do list;

Get all instruments working.  Managed to get the depth sounder to power up after rewiring +12v to the correct pin.  Need to make sure the transducer is good next time I'm in the water.

The mast head sender unit for the wind angle and speed gauge is missing.  Luckily, all my gauges are made by Midas who still support the old stuff and can provide parts for an acceptable price.

Sort out wiring for cabin lights.

Install the solar panel and charge controller.

Replace the jib.  I've got 2 sizes currently, they're both kevlar laminate ones that are fucked from age.  Need to decide what size and material I want the new one made from.

Install my chartplotter somewhere in the cockpit.

Repair a few chips in the gel coat then paint or antifoul the bottom.

Sail it in a decent wind and see what breaks.

The big goal for this year is to do the legends regatta without dying.

[HighLUX]

Those wednesday races are fun, did a couple as a crew member for some sailing barry years back. One night he had too many beers and turned into current while motoring and crashed into the boat ramp wharf pontoon thing putting a sizable hole in the bow

 

[keltik]

Managed to rip one of the lifeline stanchions out of the deck.  I knew it had leaked a little water under there but was hoping for the best.

Sent it off to the old mans place so he can play boatbuilder.  He loves fiberglass.

Since that particular stanchion takes a lot of stress and the docking cleat is close by - he's cut the hole out until there was good wood, glued in a new piece of ply, glassed it all together then set the deck skin back over the patch.

While it's there, he's also going to repair a few dings in the gel coat on the hull so we can apply a new barrier coat and paint the bottom.

Got a deadline to work to. He wants to go sailing around Tauranga for his birthday in 3 weeks.

[keltik]

Today's progress

Trailer has a legit WOF from not my workshop.

Rotten hole has been patched and faired.

And painted.

Not exactly Roman levels of fabrication excellence, but it's getting done.

Bought some epoxy barrier coat and antifouling paint for the hull.  This weekends mission is to get that sorted.

[keltik]

Took dad sailing for his birthday.  Absolutely perfect day for it 

The missus had a bit of a freakout.  She's never been on a boat in the sea before and never been sailing with any wind.  Heeling over going to windward was a bit much for her.  She had the death grip on the bulkhead and wouldn't move or speak.

Anchored off matakana for a bit then dropped her off at the ramp and went for a quick blast with the old man to push it a bit harder.

It's quick!  Sails like a much bigger boat.  I'm thoroughly impressed.  Doesn't point as close to the wind as I'd like and there are some other handling quirks to get used to. On the whole, I feel a lot better now I know it works.

[keltik]

One thing that didn't work great was the new outboard.  Remember how I swapped the original one for a newer short shaft model?  Well that was a mistake.  The long shaft really would've come in handy today.

Coming back to the ramp, it managed to suck some air down and sit there cavitating for juuust a bit too long.  Dropped power to idle but it wouldn't recover.  So the wind blew us into the breakwater rocks.

Bit gutted, but the main cedar planks are ok, it's just fucked the outer plywood skin.  Should be able to cut off the damaged layer and glass a new piece in easy enough. 

[keltik]

Update time.

Got the hole fixed. Sent it to Mr Jones Snr who has the luxury of being retired so had plenty of time to spend on it.

Towed it into work to paint the bottom so I could have a nice warm dry space.

Lifted the boat off the trailer with a jack under the front. Found a screw had backed out of one of the bunks and ripped a hole in the hull. So quickly bogged that up.

Got 3 coats of epoxy barrier paint on the bottom.  Learned that the fumes from that paint are pretty grunty!

Then threw a couple coats of antifouling paint on there. Last paint job is to add a silver pinstripe along the waterline.  

Got the signwriter to throw a name on the side.

The star is some kinda hi-vis stuff used on road signs.  Looks mint with some light on it.

Tempted to hire a berth at Tauranga for the rest of April so I can do a few long weekends without having to set up the boat and tow it around each weekend.

[keltik]

Did a sailing

New Honda outboard is a peach. Had enough grunt to start bending the mounting bracket in half so will get a tig magician to lightning glue a strengthening backing plate onto it.

Mrs didn't freak out this time.

Put it in the boat park for a few weeks so I don't have to dick around setting it up each weekend.

Next event is taking the workshop lads out for a drink/sail/fish on Saturday if the weather holds up.

Then going to do the plate island race the week after.

[yoeddynz]

inspirational.

This reminds me that I too have a boat. Its really good at propping up old bikes and firewood.

I promise I will try harder.

[keltik]

Had the local rigging guy take a look at the boat. Since it's 'rod rigged' with solid nitronic rod holding the mast up instead of multi strand wire - the usual wear signs of fraying or unraveling wires don't really exist. It just fatigues, cracks then your mast falls off the next time you load it hard enough. So the experts recommend having it all removed and checked every 7-10 years.  The expected lifespan is 15-20 years. Well this rig is 30 years old now.  So today we took it all down and sent the lot off to his workshop for inspection.

Turns out one rod had some cracks in it, a couple of the rigging toggles were damaged and needed to be replaced and the whole way it was set up was a bit janky.

As all of the rigging wire gets coiled and bent out of shape when you lower the mast to go on the trailer, the solid rod was a massive pain in the ass to deal with. Especially when you need to be careful not to kink it.  It needed a minimum bend radius of something like 1.5m so was rather unwieldy to tie down.  The bonus of rod is that it lasts longer than wire and doesn't stretch, but the rest of the boat probably won't make another 30 years and racing performance is less important to me than ease of trailering the boat.

So I've made the tough decision to throw money at the problem and make it go away. Hopefully on Friday we will put the mast up with the rod replaced by more conventional easier to handle wire.  All new hardware and a few other minor annoyances fixed.

At least once this is done, the chances of being killed by a fallen rig dragging me into the sea will be reduced.

My wallet is thoroughly beaten and bleeding.

Fingers crossed we get it all done in time for Saturdays fishing trip. 

[yoeddynz]

43 minutes ago, keltik said:

My wallet is thoroughly beaten and bleeding.

This sounds like exactly the sort of thing that @Testament warned me of in my boat thread..

...."I hope you are quite aware you have just acquired a bottomless hole in the ocean that can only be filled with money, or possibly the blood of your first born"

[VitesseEFI]

10 hours ago, keltik said:

My wallet is thoroughly beaten and bleeding.

Is there a “hobby” worth doing that doesn’t make your wallet smoke from time to time?  Boat is looking really good now. Quite envious.

Sailed a bit in my late teenage, though mostly only dinghies, with a bit of occasional crewing (my version) for someone with a 25 footer around the Solent and IOW. Liked that. If I lived in your part of the world, the temptation would be strong!

[BlownCorona]

On 13/04/2023 at 06:30, VitesseEFI said:

Boat is looking really good now.

i know nothing about boats, so now that we're past the thoroughly punishing trailer chat, this thread is really enjoyable to read, really interesting. 

[keltik]

The riggers got the mast finished Friday afternoon. Loaded up the Mazda service team on Saturday and filled a chilly bin with beverages. Some sick fucker brought a box of big can ranfurly.

https://i.imgur.com/tLBWj7T.mp4

Didn't have reefing lines so had a bit too much sail up for the amount of wind.  Sailed past the mount and had a look outside the harbour but it was a bit too hectic. Heading back in, we tried a gybe (turning the back of the boat through the wind) and got massively overpowered. Had the boat heeled over so far the water line was half way up the cabin windows and half way up my back sitting in the low side of the cockpit.  Decided to drop sails and motor for a bit after that.

So we found a sheltered spot behind matakana island, dropped anchor and threw some lines in the water.

Pretended to fish for a couple hours, had some lunch and plenty of beers.

A good day out.  Headed home with just the small foresail up and the engine humming away at low revs.

Next job is to get some reefing lines run for the main sail so it's not so unwieldy. Should have a good day for it this Sunday then I'll bring the boat home from Tauranga Sunday night.

Thanks to the average weather I didn't quite get my money's worth having it in the marina.  It was nice not having to set the boat up every time but it felt a bit lame knowing every week is $100 you don't get back so you feel extra pressure to go out.