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Plumbing - Check it Off

Posted on Sat 06 December 2008 in Projects

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As I told my neighbor at the Marina, “We can check something off the list… and add 12 more things to it!” The plumbing project is now complete!!

We started this project because were unhappy with the quality of the water which had a but of a smell to it, the look of the faucets and the LOUDNESS of the water pressure pump. We resolved all those issues, especially the pump. The old pump was so loud I was embarrassed to even used the water, the new pump is so quiet I wasn’t even sure it was working at first. I also did away with the splices connecting both the water pressure pump seen in the picture and the wash down pump in the v-berth and put in a power bar instead which will let me add things in the future.

There are some random pics on TwitPic too.

Here’s all the new pieces that went into the project:

  • All plumbing hose replaced with Trident 1/2” white hose. The old hose was clear which had allowed growth within
  • Jabsco Sensor Max VSD 31750 Variable speed water pump
  • Added American Plumber water filter to the to the pressurized side of the system. Foot pump had filter previously.
  • Galley faucet with sprayer
  • Head faucet
  • Blue Sea Systems 30 Amp Power Bar
  • Removed faucet from v-berth
  • Removed sink drain to thru hull connection in v-berth. This thru hull is still used for the anchor wash down pump. I need to add a strainer here as there is not one today.

Tomorrow we should finish up with the tile in the head and bolt down the Nature’s Head composting toilet. I’m also going to determine where the Nicro vent will be installed as well. More posts and pics on that later.


Golden Gardens Drive to Re-Open in a Month

Posted on Thu 13 November 2008 in Destinations - Shilshole Bay Marina

According to the SDOT and MyBallard we’re about a month away from being able to make that straight shot from Shilshole up to 85th Ave NW. That will make my frequent runs to Home Depot so much easier and I love to ride the scoot up that windy hill!


Page Updates

Posted on Tue 11 November 2008 in Pearson 424

There are a lot of additions and a  major reorganization to the Pearson Upgrades page. I spent a few hours on this last night. This is one of the pages I keep going back to when I want to figure out how to attack a project on Deep Playa. Its great to have an active group of owners.

I also added some linked to the Pearson Information page for the groups I created on the social networking sites to which I belong:


Web Site Changes

Posted on Fri 07 November 2008 in Geek

I owe you a write up on the plumbing work and wifi systems I’ve been working on at the boat. That will come, but this morning I made a couple of minor changes to the website. I moved the Flickr photos badge up to the top on the right hand side, and added a Twitter badge to the left hand side.

The twitter account is nice because I frequent take pics with the iPhone and send out little updates when I’m down working on the boat. Which currently is pretty much the only camera I have because my Nikon D50 is on the fritz and the battery in my point and shoot optio is also dead. Cameras and I always have had bad luck. Anyway, check the updates by coming to www.DeepPlaya.com.


Boat Math

Posted on Tue 21 October 2008 in Classes and Workshops

NOTE: I have updated this entry with accurate chainplate beam measurements.

Here’s some hardcore math as an outcome of my time at the Brion Toss Rigging workshop this past weekend. The point of this exercise is to be able to determine the loads and thus the wire sizes needed for the standing portion of the rigging on my Pearson 424.

Feel free to leave a comment if I messed anything up. I’m sure I did, see the footnotes for caveats and sources.

My Formulas

  • Main Shroud Load = (RM30 * 1.5) / .5 (Beam at the Main Chainplates)
  • Single Spreader Double Lower Main Shrouds
    • Upper Shroud Load – 45% Main Shroud Load
    • Lower Shroud Load – 32.5% Main Shroud Load
  • Mizzen Shroud Load = (RM30 * 0.5) / .5 (Beam at the Mizzen Chainplates)[1]
  • Single Spreader Single Lower Mizzen Shrouds[2]
    • Upper Shroud Load – 45% Main Shroud Load
    • Lower Shroud Load – 50% Main Shroud Load
  • Wire Rating Requirements = The Specific Shroud Load * SafetyFactor

My Inputs

  • DWL = 33’ 8”
  • RM30 = 47000 lbs[3]
  • Beam at the Main Chainplate = 9.54'
  • Beam at the Mizzen Chainplate = 10.83'
  • Safety Factor 2.75[5]

My Findings

  • Main Shroud Load = 14,465 Lbs
  • Upper Main Shroud Load = 17,900 Lbs
  • Lower Main Shrouds Load = 12,928 Lbs
  • Mizzen Shroud Load = 4,246 Lbs
  • Upper Mizzen Shroud Load = 5,254 Lbs
  • Lower Mizzen Shroud Load = 6,423 Lbs

[1] This formula is not in the Rigger’s Apprentice. Brion Toss provided at his workshop 18 October 2008

[2] I have assumed that the load per wire ratios for mizzen mast shrouds are the same as those for main mast shrouds with the same numbers of shrouds and spreaders as in figure 5-25 pg. 138 in the Rigger’s Apprentice.

[3] I derived this number from the RM30 table Figure 5-24 pg. 136 in the Rigger’s Apprentice.

[5] Brion supplied this as a fairly standard constant used in rigging at his workshop 18 October 2008


Brion Toss Rigging Class Photos

Posted on Mon 20 October 2008 in Classes and Workshops

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My real camera is busted and the backup point and shoot had a dead battery so I took very few photos with my phone. You can check them out with descriptions on Flickr.


Brion Toss Rigging Workshop

Posted on Sat 18 October 2008 in Classes and Workshops

image I am in Port Townsend this weekend attending the Brion Toss Rigging Workshop. At the end of day one, its been very worthwhile thus far. The basic flow of the class thus far has been to walk through the systems of a rig, explain what they are, how to think about them in terms of the entire rig, how to inspect them, etc. Obviously the point isn’t to make you an expert in 2 days, but I’m feeling like at the end of this I’ll be a much better informed consumer when we do our re-rig and I think there are aspects of it I could do myself in consultation with someone who is a rigger by profession.

In addition to the classroom there has some hands-on and dock-walking. Its one thing to talk about chain plates, clevis pins, wire and fair leads and then to go look at an actual boat. The hands on activities, drilling a hole in a spar (I never got my entry and exit holes to line-up), knot tying for going up the mast, and splicing an eye into three-strand braid were great. The splicing part was particularly awesome because it took something that I thought was witchcraft and proved to me that I could definitely learn do it and it.

As a rock climber I found some of the knots and practices used in going aloft to be a little riskier than what I am used to and the terminology to be confusing but that’s fine and I’ll probably adapt some of my climbing into my own practices. For instance they will hoist a ratcheting block to allow the person going aloft to raise themselves (using a another halyard as a backup) and using a carabiner hitch to tie-off when at the top. I think I’d rather have a something like a Gris-gris instead, but Brion did mention that could also be an option when were out on the dock so its not like the two are odds with each other. Also people climbed using two carabiners as a belay device for a long time before any specialized devices were made so really for me I think its just a comfort thing for me to use what I’m used to (i.e., they are right too).

We ended the day talking about wire sizes and how to calculate what you need on your boat for shrouds, stays as well as how to calculate chainplate dimensions. That was really interesting and the formulas are pretty simple. I’ll try to work up all the numbers for a Pearson 424 tonight as I’m reviewing my notes.

Its been a great first day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m off to roam Port Townsend for awhile before dinner.

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Boat Renaming Complete

Posted on Wed 01 October 2008 in sv Deep Playa

IMGP4034 I want to thank everyone who came down to the boat Saturday and helped Dawn and I with the renaming ceremony (pics on Flickr). Dawn and I have been a long time coming to this point in our lives where we could actually have the boat and call her by a name we loved. Its been about 2.5 years since we first sold the house to make all this possible and to share it will all of you was important to us.

There will be many more times when we can raise a glass to give thanks aboard Deep Playa and Dawn and Dawn and I look forward to sharing those times with you.


Mild Excitement tonight

Posted on Fri 26 September 2008 in Systems - Composting Toilet

You may recall that I've ben removing all the old plumbing for the head and holding tank. Today I decided I'll pull that last 4' of hose off of the thru-hull wich part of the system that would pump the holding tank over board when at sea. Well it turned out that seacock no longer closed all the way and we had a bit of water coming into the boat. Not that much and not that quickly. I had my wood plugs handy for just such and emergency and pounded one into the 90 degree bend coming off of the seacock. It was dripping a little bit but everything was under control.

I called and they had space in their schedule for me to do a haul-out so I could see if I could pull that 90 degree bend off an put on a proper threaded cap to close the whole thing off permanently. Ideally I would have ben hauled-out fixed it and they could put me back in the water all in under an hour. Well getting that 20 year old fitting of needed a big-ass pipe wrench which I didn't have so we're hanging in the slings tonight in the boat yard. Dawn and I were able to go to Home Depot get the tool we needed and the whole thing took about 20 minutes to fix. Since we were hauled-out we also had the prop zincs replaced (what is electrolyis link for Matty) and we scraped the shaft and prop clean and painted it with a zinc absed ant-fouling paint which reccomended since we had a bit of barnacle build up. The zincs were pretty gone so this was actually a good time to do this. We will be on a 6 month schedule from now on and i'm going to add a fish to our dock side routine as well.

Anyway, a lot of running around a late night doing some unscheduled but needed maintenance. Sometime around 6 months when its time to haul for the next set of zincs well probably go into the yard to work on the rigging and bottom paint.

The good news is everything is for the renaming ceremony tomorrow!


Renaming Ceremony - Do Over

Posted on Mon 15 September 2008 in sv Deep Playa

We cancelled last weekends event due to rain so we're going to give a shot this wekeend.

We're having our renaming ceremony this Saturday evening, if your friends or neighbors your welcome to come by. Pics will be coming shortly thereafter.