New Sailing Instruments
We considered a few different brands of sailing instruments. So why did we pick Raymarine? It’s a pretty popular brand in the sailing industry, and they have a pretty good reputation. Ultimately, it was because we already had a Raymarine radar. Our boat came with a pretty old Standard Horizon speed log and wind gauge. […]
Cleaning Our Water Tanks
Our water tanks are fairly new. Removing the old stainless steel tank was one of the first projects we did back in 2013. That tank had at least one hole in it and the entire bottom was rusty brown. We think the old tank was about 90 gallons. The two polyethylene, rotomolded tanks we replaced […]
Our Stuffing Box Leaks
Yep, our stuffing box leaks. But wait…it’s supposed to. We have a traditional stuffing box (also known as a stuffing gland, packing gland, and other variations). In general, it’s “an assembly which is used to house a gland seal. It is used to prevent leakage of fluid, such as water, between sliding or turning parts.” […]
Making a Custom Boom Vang
A boom vang (US) or kicking strap (UK) is a line or piston system on a sailboat used to exert downward force on the boom and thus control the shape of the sail. There are a lot of really nice boom vangs for sale that I’m sure are fairly simple to install. We considered buying […]
We Almost Lost Our Prop!
Note to self: Don’t let the dinghy painter get tangled in the prop. It seems like a pretty basic premise, and yet, that’s exactly what we did. What started as a quick little sail out to Middle River for the weekend, turned into yet another project to fix. As we were trying to anchor in […]
Fixing Our Wheel Brake
What’s so important about a wheel brake? That’s what I wondered when we couldn’t get ours to work. Back in 2012 during the survey we noticed the wheel brake didn’t work. It’s basically just a twisty knob on the side of the steering pedestal that tightens a clamp around a shaft that stops the wheel […]
Measuring for and Installing a Mack Pack Mainsail Cover
We’ve had our new sails and Mack Pack mainsail cover for about a year now and absolutely love them. After using the 106% genoa last year, we decided to get a smaller yankee jib (about 85%). We had some issues using the larger genoa on the river where we sail. The wind is often flukey […]
Creating a New Storage Locker
Tayana’s have a lot of storage locker space, and yet, it never seems to be enough. We’ve completed a few projects where we were able to convert unused (or poorly used) space into useable storage lockers. And we’ve thought about changing the storage under the settees and engine room, but that’s for another post. Once […]
Engine Room Insulation
Our Perkins 4-108 is located under the companionway steps right next to the galley and quarter berth and is fairly noisy. There is existing insulation, but it’s now over 40 years old. When we did the sea trial, we used a free phone app decibel meter and clocked the noise at around 80 dB. And […]
Bilge Pump Cycle Counter, Switches & Alarms
Our boat came with two electric bilge one manual bilge pumps. The small electric pump is located at the bottom of the bilge and the larger electric pump (a Rule 3700) was located higher in the bilge near the middle of the boat in front of the old water tank. We decided to revamp the […]