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.

Compass, mast, hatch

This weekend I got an acceptable amount of work done, though not as much as I would have liked. Ashley helped me get the first coat of paint on the mast. It's looking a lot better. Not as good as if I had stripped it to bare metal and had it painted by a pro, but still a big improvement over what it was. I could have done a second coat, but the threat of rain made me hold off. I also got a used Plastimo Olympic 135 off of eBay. I had to open the cutout in the binnacle for it to fit, but it's a perfect fit. The last thing I got done was resealing the glass in the hatch. I had to pull the glass, clean the whole thing, then use windshield urethane to reseal / glue it back in place. The glass was warped in the corners, so I'm not sure that it is going to fully seal. If not, I'll have to buy new Plexiglas for it.

A little more progress towards a Memorial Day re-launch!

So progress has been a little slow the past few weekends, but I am getting some stuff accomplished. Last weekend I worked in the cave and got the old onboard charger pulled out, one battery tray installed with the first battery in it, and the charger wired into the shore power. This weekend I started straightening the bent tabernacle. It's pretty much straight enough to satisfy me, but I think I can do a little better. I also started building a cradle system for the mast during trailering. The previous owner just lashed the mast to the pulpit rails, but I think I can do something more convenient for a one person mast stepping. This is the rear cradle. My plan was to put a bow roller at the stern so I put the base of the mast at the bow and the top of the mast at the stern and use the forestay, a gin pole and the trailed winch for stepping the mast, but I realized tonight that because of the proximity of the tabernacle to the companionway hatch, I think I'll need to step it the other direction. That means the roller goes at the bow as does the top of the mast. The problem that I now face is that I don't know how to winch the mast from the stern of the boat. I'm not worried, I'll figure something out.

Baby steps

Well it seemed like I worked all day on the boat on Sunday, but it doesn't seem like I accomplished that much. I cleaned a bunch of crud out of the bilges and installed a new bilge pump. Once that was done I dragged in the garden hose and washed the floor down between the settee and the aft berth. I broke a side window trying to measure the thickness of the Plexiglas, and that was about it. When I get home next weekend I should have battery trays and I can pull out the old battery charger and install the battery trays, secure the charger, and wire in the battery selector switch. 

Here is the access cover for the forward bilge. You can see the before cleaning and oiling on the right, after cleaning and oiling on the left.

 

 

Sorry the picture is out of focus. This is shortly after I stared cleaning the floor. The difference is amazing, especially if you go to an earlier post and see the before picture where you can see the whole floor. I'll get better pictures of the whole, clean floor this weekend.

 

We have power!

Today I picked up a battery and a Cabela's Pro 20 amp 2 bank charger. I was a little nervous about hooking power to the system since a previous owner had done some questionable wiring and I didn't know when the last time it had been powered up was. I hesitantly hooked up the battery expecting sparks to fly when I hooked up the negative battery cable, but there wasn't a single spark. This actually made me nervous because I thought there would be some sort of drain some where. I climbed out of the utility cave, went into the cabin and saw a reassuring green light on the electrical control panel next to the 12v master switch. I turned on the cabin lights and they came on,  I turned on the nav lights and the bow lights worked, the stern light didn't. I switched the bilge pump on and it came on. I'm pretty excited right now. I'm not done, it was just a trial run since I need a second battery, I need to secure the batteries and charger, wire the charger into the 120v shorepower system, and test the 120v side. Overall tonight is going down as a success!

A little progress

Ashley did some serious cleaning and got about 1/2 through the cabin and it's cleaning up nicely so far. I pressure washed the stern and the cockpit and it cleaned up pretty well. One thing is apparent though, the fiberglass of the deck and cockpit is stained. The prior owner had the boat parked under a tree for the last 13 years. Leaves and dirt had built up over the years and leached into the deck. I don't think any amount of scrubbing and pressure washing is going to bring the bad spots back to any shade of white.

Starting with a rough boat.

This is how the boat looked when we brought her home on 4/4/15

From the transom looking forward.

 

 Another view of the cockpit. Ashley is standing on one of the hatches for the utility space/ stern anchor locker. There is another hatch in the same place on the starboard side.

Aft berth.

Electrical panel. It has been removed and there are some loose wires behind there.

This is where the old radio was. You can see some water damage to the teak veneer from leaking windows.

The bottom of the companionway steps. Years of dirt and leaves have collected here. It appears that there were teak strips on the floor here, but they have all but disintegrated.

Cracked companionway hatch. Also, you can't see it, but one of the previous owners modified the hatch so there was a skylight with a solar panel underneath. I'm pretty sure that has been leaking too.

Looking forward from the cockpit to the bow. The tabernacle is bent and needs to be replaced, as well as the vent fan behind it, which is broken and leaking water into the cabin.

The display for the Signet depth finder is cracked and I'm guessing the whole unit is damaged by water. I could replace it with a cheaper unit, but it has a unique mounting size and a nicely flush mounted transducer on the bottom of the hull, so I'll probably spend the extra money and replace it with another Signet. Next to it is probably where the old ignition switch was mounted. The opening had wasp nests and leaves in there. Not sure what I'm going to do to repair this yet.

No compass. That's probably the easiest fix on the boat!

In the stern of the boat between the transom and the aft berth, underneath the cockpit is this sort of utility room where the batteries were, the fuel tanks is, and part of the steering mechanism. You can see some sort of battery isolator and what I believe is either a power inverter or something to do with the shore power system. I haven't actually been down there yet to inspect it. It's also where the stern anchor is stored.

Transom. It appears that there was a plate here between the old outboard and the hull. The bottom two holes are above the water line, but pass through the hull into the utility room.

Looking down the companion way into the cabin. Lots of dirt from years of not cleaning it or being used.

 

Looking down into the utility room / stern anchor locker. You can see the fuel tank below my feet.

We certainly have our work cut out for us, but a lot of what it needs is pretty minor. I got a new Honda 9.9 outboard which I will be installing. The hardest part is going to be the mast and figuring out the rigging for it. I've never seen another Lancer, and there are aren't a lot of pictures online to help me figure it out. The tabernacle is bent up and needs to be replaced. The bottom of the mast has been cut at a 45 degree angle on the front edge, probably to facilitate stepping the mast by laying it forward. I want to fold aft though so that I can use the trailer winch and a gin pole to step the mast singlehandedly. I think I am going to replace the tabernacle with a hinge plate, but I'm not sure how I'm going to attach the mast to the plate since it's already been cut and modified.