I've been lazy about updating. We finally had it ready enough for the water on Labor Day weekend. I still have some things to do, like the starboard portlights and some minor electrical work, but it's 90% done and we had a nice 2 days and 2 nights on Lake Tahoe!

Honda Marine outboard wire colors

When it was time to wire up the Honda BF9.9D outboard with an aftermarket ignition switch, warning LEDs and buzzer I had a very hard time finding a wiring diagram/ schematic, but after days and days of searching I stumbled across a link that was helpful. The picture isn't the greatest, but you can find the link to the PDF at the bottom of my page. This picture covers the bf8d, bf9.9d, bf15d and bf20d.

This link takes you to a PDF version of the Honda Marine outboard installation manual that covers most Honda outboard motors from the BF8d up through the BF225A.

http://boatinfo.no/lib/honda/manuals/riguide.html#/0

We almost have an engine, plus, I made a board

It's been a while since I've done an update, that's mostly due to the fact that that I haven't been getting much done. I've been chipping away at things here and there, but it's just little things every weekend that hardly add up to a blog post. The engine is about 85% installed, I just need to hook up an ignition switch and the fuel line.

This was my project for the weekend. The previous owner sold the engine controls with the old engine, and it wasn't practical to use the side mount controls that came with the Honda outboard, so I bought this NOS Morse control off of eBay. They didn't quite fit the pedestal right, and there was no good way to mount the fishfinder / chartplotter, so I acquired some teak planks, busted out my mediocre (at best) carpentry skills and made this spacer/ adapter board. Not perfect, but given my limited access to carpentry tools I'm fairly satisfied with it.

More new lines and Morse controls

   I skipped an update last week because I didn't have too much to report.

   Last weekend I discovered that at less than 2 months old my Cabela's Advanced Angler Pro Series 20 amp 2 bank charger had already died. I took it back to Cabela's and they gave me a refund. I then went to Wal-Mart and bought a Minn Kota 210d 10 amp 2 bank charger on clearance for $50. Yes it's 1/2 the output of the Cabela's charger, but it was also 1/3 the price and comes with a 3 year warranty as opposed to the 2 year warranty of the Cabela's charger. I really doubt I needed 20 amps anyhow.

   Next up is eye splices! I learned how to do eye splices. I've done 4 so far, and they turned out well. The white one is my new mainsheet, and the short green one with the eyes at both ends, I'm pretty sure, is for the backstay tensioner. I was just duplicating a line that came with the boat.

    The boat also came with this block and tackle. Since the boat was clearly equipped with a backstay tensioner I assumed this block and tackle was part of the tensioner and I replaced the line with the same length of green line as the other part. Judging by the length of tail when all the tension is released, I don't think this is the proper usage. I'm guessing that it is actually the vang, and the block and tackle for the backstay tensioner is missing. It also means I made my little short guy for nothing, since when I buy a block and tackle for the backstay adjuster, it will use a different color line and the little short line will be the same color.

 This is the Yale Whiplock that I put on my new mainsheet.

Here is the new mainsheet looped over the boom.

   I also bought a new two lever Morse Marine controls off of eBay. They don't quite fit where they are supposed to go though, so I will have to modify them to fit. I have a plan, hopefully it works.

   I tried hoisting the mainsail this weekend for the fun of it. It didn't go very well. The slugs kept getting cockeyed in the track and binding up. Some helpful people on the Cruising and Sailing Facebook page suggest McLube SailKote. It's a dry lubricant that I would use to coat the slugs. If that doesn't work then I'll have to try replacing the slugs. There are probably 10-15 of them and it looks like they'll run about $1.65 each, so that's not a terrible cost. It was late and I didn't feel like taking the mainsail down and folding it, so I put the cover on and called it a night. Flaking the sail was a pain and I'm sure I did a terrible job, but it was my first attempt. I understand now the attraction of having a lazy jacks system.

We stepped it up!

   This weekend was all about stepping the mast. We had to do a good amount of problem solving, we had a few harrowing moments, but Ashley and I got it done. Not looking forward to unstepping the mast, but raising it gave me some insight to how the things go, and I will be brainstorming over the next few weeks to come up with a way to make it easier. All told, I think we probably had about 5 hours into stepping it, but the final, successful attempt took about 45 minutes. Another Lancer 25 owner had a digital copy of a manual for a Lancer 28, and while it's a different boat they are similar so the stepping process should be similar. The manual says to start with the mast laying on the bow pulpit and use the boom, main halyard, and mainsheet to make a triangle to pull the mast up, so that's the route we went.     

Sunday night we went out at around 20:30, and came in a little after 23:00. Monday morning we started around 9:30 and had the mast up by 11:30.  The problem I ran into is that with the mast down and in the tabernacle, neither the upper or lower shrouds would reach to the chainplates so I tried hooking the lower shrouds to these other eyes that are a little ahead of the chainplates. The shrouds started out loose, very loose. Too loose in fact to provide any stabilization until the mast gets past 45 degrees. At around 45 degrees I can no longer control the sway of the mast. Sunday night when we tried stepping the mast I was guiding the mast at the bow while Ashley winched the mast up.  The first attempt we didn't get it very high and it started to sway and crashed into the street light pole. The second time it got up to around 45 degrees and began swaying. I almost thought the mast was going to fall over and I was about to just let it go when I got it under control at the last minute. Ashley lowered the mast and we called it a night. Monday morning I tried hooking the lower shrouds to the toe rail where they were a little tighter, but we couldn't go very high before they were too tight to continue hoisting. I tried again with the shrouds a little looser and we were able to get it a little higher. I then hooked the upper shrouds to the toe rail where they were tight enough to offer control, but loose enough to allow us to to hoist higher, then I unhooked the lower shrouds and we went a little higher. When the uppers were getting too tight I rehooked the lowers, unhooked the uppers and was able to raise the mast the rest of the way, and while walking the shrouds in this manner was slow and cumbersome, it was also safe and effective. I have an idea for making a line/ wire that the bottom of the shroud can slide along as the mast goes up and stay tight, but not too tight.

   It was pretty awesome seeing the mast up on the boat, and it actually seems like a sailboat now. It will probably stay up for the next few weeks while I finish up the other projects and work out my plan for making the stepping process faster and smoother. We also had a lull in the wind and I took the opportunity to raise the Genoa just for fun !

The mast is rigged

In keeping with what now seems to be a recurring theme, I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped.

   My goals for this weekend were to finish my work on the mast, get it back up on the boat, and step it (or raise the mast in non-nautical jargon). I did accomplish the first two of three goals.

   Saturday and Sunday I picked away at finishing up the mast. I had to run my new halyards, reconnect my stays and shrouds and topping lift, and make a wiring harness and wire up the lights on the mast. I have an anchor light on top of the mast, the steaming light, and I added a deck light that will give us some night time outdoor lighting while at anchor. I also replaced the antenna wire. Not only did the antenna wire look rough, testing revealed a dead short that probably would have burned up the transmitter in my new radio relatively quickly.

   Ashley and I got the mast back on the boat, but that's as far as we made it. A fellow Lancer 25 owner was able to send me a PDF file of an owners manual for a Lancer 28. They are very similar boats, so much of the info is pertinent including the procedure for stepping the mast. The manufacturer suggests starting with the mast resting on the forward pulpit with the base of the mast in the tabernacle then using the boom as a gin pole and hoisting the mast with the mainsheet. It seems like a good idea in theory but I was unable to try because somehow I managed to loose the pin that connects the gooseneck to the mast. The gooseneck is the hinge between the mast and the boom. I also discovered something that concerns me. In order to get the mast base into the tabernacle, the mast has to go well beyond half way over the pulpit, which means the mast head wants to pivot towards the ground with the base in the air. Because of leverage, this means there is a lot of weight trying make the mast tip and I'm not we will have enough leverage to get the base of the mast into the tabernacle. We'll find out next weekend I suppose!

   We also now have our bottom paint and new plexiglass for the cabin windows, so I have plenty of work waiting for me next weekend!

Bottom paint

It's been a busy few weekends around home with Ashley's craft shows, so we are behind schedule and a Memorial Day weekend launch is not going to happen. Oh well, no point in dwelling!

I got my new used compass, a Plastimo Olympic 185. I had to enlarge the opening in the binnacle for it to fit, but the size is perfect. I haven't screwed it down yet though because I am planning on replacing the red incandescent lighting with green led lighting.

I finally ordered bottom paint yesterday. I had been putting it off because the price made it hard to swallow, but waiting has paid off! I wasn't 100% sure that one gallon would be enough, but I didn't want to buy more than a gallon if I didn't need it. Lucky for me West Marine had one of their bottom paints (the hard kind, not the ablative) on sale for buy one, get one free. I got my extra if I need it, but I only had to buy one gallon!

We're also done with painting the mast. It's not as good as if I had stripped it to bare metal and primed it, but it is most definitely better than it was and should look good for at least a few years. This weekend my goal is to rewire it, run my new antenna wire, get it on the boat and hoisted. My plexiglass for the cabin windows should be here on Saturday, but I don't think I'll have time to get started on that. I also purchased a used vhf radio for it, a Uniden President LTD950. It's fairly old, 1990, but looks very good for its age and other than the internal speaker not working, it seems to function well. I could replace the internal speaker if I wanted, but I think I'll just opt for an external speaker. I may actually already own one.