Captain’s log
Dateline: 14.07.2022

Rain shields

Curious Cat has six portlights: one for each stateroom, plus two midship. They’re Lewmar Atlantic Size 32, 400mm (15-3/4") by 200mm (7-7/8"). Originally the boat had four or five rain shields that weren’t even for rounded portlights, they were for rectangular ports, and to be honest, looked a bit out of place: old, dirty, mounted on 3M double-sided tape. Likely a wave big enough could easily knock them off — perhaps that’s why there wasn’t six of them in the first place. I removed all of that beauty, took them to Hawaii, and donated to Salvation Army in Lahaina.

They were all PortVisor™ 18-R by Seaworthy Goods. One of the previous owners likely didn’t like rain getting into the boat every time it poured, and closing those portlights and removing flyscreens is no big fun, hence I get the desperation to put at least something and call it a day. I see they have 17-RE today for $43 a pop, it’s a buck cheaper than 18-R, and fits the shape of the portlight much closer. Maybe that model wasn’t around back in the day, who knows. Have to confess, it’s very tempting to splurge a couple hundred on new rain shields, but I’m going to sail back to Hawaii soon, so it’s not a good long-term investment. I’m thinking of 3D printing something like a flyscreen with that rainshield built into it, so it’d only be there when the portlight is open, not at all times. My boat is wide enough without those plastic things hanging off her sides. Maybe I’ll design something compact that gets permanently attached to my portlights and won’t get knocked off whenever I dock or do crossing.

On a side note, it's really shocking how much stuff can be simply picked off by passer-byers on dinghys with little to no effort: parts of winches, helms, sun covers, rain shields, personal flotation devices, fishing rod holders, solar panels, lines, fenders, wind turbines… even propellers can be detached easily from the outside, all you need is a wrench and snorkel mask.

Captain’s log
Dateline: 15.07.2022

Flanges

My E-Tech motors came with beefy rigid couplings. They’re not stainless but very well made.

I’m having a very bad feeling attaching 50kg motors to my 30mm prop shafts using those. Long story short is I feel that using something like Combiflex by Vetus instead would allow me to reduce noise and vibration, plus prevent subtle movements of my motors from possibly bending the shaft, damaging shaft bearings, or wearing out its own internals. The motors are going to be mounted on antivibration engine mountings that will let them swing a little bit. It only makes sense to use flexible couplings here, my cat is a sailboat after all.

The prop shaft is 30mm in diameter, the motor’s shaft is 35mm with 8mm key. I’ll have to design and custom-manufacture flanges that go along with those Combiflex couplings, but once that’s done the connection will be as close to perfect as it can be.

Captain’s log
Dateline: 16.07.2022

Balls

Measured tracks on my boat. Three out of five of them are currently out of commission. All seem to be by Lewmar. The car for the mainsail looks like a custom-made one from their Ocean series — the line that’s phased out, but still possible to find spare parts for, so big ❤️ for that, Lewmar!

For some unknown reason found Harken kit for reballing their cars (HBB197). Tracks in the cockpit could be by Harken, but I think somebody just plainly fucked up. Torlon® balls are a bit exy, about $1.5/piece, and Lewmar seems to be selling them in packs of 100. Luckily, found 58 of them aboard, and about the same amount of Harken’s 10mm balls from that kit. Harken are a bit bigger, 9.56mm (3/8") while Lewmar’s appear to be 9.5mm exact (Size 3). Have nothing against Harken, just don’t want to have anything but Lewmar on my boat, and don’t think it’s a good idea to attempt stuffing 9.56mm balls into Lewmar car meant to run on 9.5mm, no need to cut corners, literally.

Can’t find cars for tracks in the cockpit, will likely have to buy those. I like Lewmar’s new cars, they’re black.

Bulbs

I have lots and lots of wires hanging off my boat’s ceilings. The ugly old lining that used to hold them in place is gone, so now they’re... well, hanging in there. I’ll eventually replace all that fire hazard with flat 12V wires and OLED lights, but until then it is what it is.

Some of them are missing bulbs, and since LED lights seem to be neither expensive nor hard to find, it’s worth improving the current situation so that I could work in certain areas of the boat when it’s dark outside. It should also help prevent getting burns by accidentally touching one of those wonders of modern technology. Besides I have no idea what kind of fumes the casing may be emitting when the lamp heats up — rather keep all those mysteries to a minimum.

LEDs usually have a lot of UV and blue light emitted besides what us humans have evolved to be comfortable with, so it’s not entirely an upgrade, but should work well for the time being.

Let’s dive in.

The current lamps I have installed are 32mm long and have pins 4mm apart, that’s likely the famous G4 socket. The diameter is about 7mm accompanied by the base getting as wide as 8mm. I keep seeing warm white lights for sale, and don’t necessarily need them to be dimmable, so so far so good, just need to find something bright and small enough to fit into those round housings and not touch the reflectors. I’ll need 7 bulbs for each hull and 9 for the cabin, that’s... 23 in total.

Found this beauty. Seems to fit into my lamps, 4000K is neither too yellow nor too blue, and they’re slightly above $1 a piece. Will get 30 just in case they don’t do well in the marine environment or are made you know where. These claim to be 320 lumens, that ought to be enough for anybody. I could splurge and go with these 350 lumen babes, but would be a bit dumb paying almost six times more for extra 30 lumens for something I want to replace ASAP with OLED lights anyway.