An Inside Lock for the Companionway Hatch

18 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Modifications, Repairs, Uncategorized

The new hatch lock conceals the bulk of the brass barrel bolt and makes it stronger. It also can’t be reached from the bridge-deck.

One of the things I have not liked about my boat is I have no way to lock the companionway from the inside. It’s an odd thing when you think about it. When I rebuilt the boat, though I made a lot of changes, I kept the basic design of the original companionway intact. This is an important capability when you are sleeping on the boat and you can’t lock the “front door” so to speak. You are therefore vulnerable. I heard about more than just a few boats getting boarded at night when I was sailing in the West Indies.

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Installing Off-Shore Stanchions

13 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades

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Singlehanding home from Sint Maarten to N.C. in May 2016. The lifelines felt too low and I wanted to replace them.

During the six year rebuild of the Far Reach I wanted to replace the original 24” tall lifeline stanchions with taller ones of about 30 inches. But, at that time, taller stanchions were not enough of a priority to make it on to the budget. We made do for the past three years including 3,500nm of off-shore sailing.

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A Drink Caddy

10 Saturday Nov 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades

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The caddy will hold three drinks, travel mugs, or water bottles

Just a little project to to address the need for a way to keep drinks secure in the cockpit when sailing. Some teak, 3/32 silicon bronze, and chrome tanned leather. All scraps or off cuts from other projects. Inspired by an old article written by Lin and Larry Pardey.

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A Few Small Projects: Bug screens, whisker pole mod, windlass rebuild, and a new sculling oar lock.

23 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Equipment, Maintenance, Modifications, Repairs, Uncategorized, Upgrades

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We never had problems with bugs in the West Indies as we always anchored out and there was always a breeze. Nonetheless, I wanted to have a full set of screens for the Far Reach.

With Hurricane Florence behind us, it was time to return to the preparation of the Far Reach for the voyage back to the BVI and the West Indies. At the moment we are working on a few small but important projects. Described below are a few of them.

We completed building the drop-in companionway bug screens. I built the teak frames last winter but got side tracked before installing the screens. I still need to sew up some screens for the foredeck and saloon deck hatches. Gayle sewed a nice padded pouch to protect them when stored under a bunk.

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Hurricane Florence

10 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Local Sailing, Techniques, Tactics, Tips, Uncategorized

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The Far Reach about 24 hours before Florence made landfall.

I am very happy to report that the Far Reach survived the trial of her life during Hurricane Florence, which pounded eastern North Carolina from 13-14 Sept 2019.

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Splicing Wire Standing Rigging in British Columbia

23 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Boats, People, Planning, Upgrades

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Liverpool Splice

I spent three weeks on Vancouver Island splicing rigging and helping my friend Kaj install the rig on his self built Lyle Hess designed 34’ Falmouth Cutter.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was invited by my friend Kaj Jakobsen, to help him step the mast and splice the standing rigging on his beautiful Lyle Hess designed 34’ Falmouth Cutter. I flew to Vancouver Island in the middle of July. I had never been to British Columbia and all I can say is wow! It is gorgeous. It reminded me of Montana but with a lot of water. Many islands. Clear water. Deep fiords. Lovely Douglas Fir trees everywhere. Clear sunny skies. Perfect temps.

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Dyneema Soft Shackles and an Improved Deck Bucket

16 Thursday Aug 2018

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I selectively and carefully incorporated dyneema and it’s heat treated cousin Dynex Dux into the rebuilt Far Reach. I used Dux for the forestay and later modified it with a quick release pendant. The link to how we made the forestay releaseable can be found here. https://farreachvoyages.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/a-new-forestay-release-device/

We used a 5/16” doubled soft shackle to attach the large low friction ring to the tack fitting on the gammon iron as part of our releasable forestay system.

We also use dyneema for our lifelines and various shackles with and without toggles. The dyneema has performed very well. We continue to find ways to use dyneema in a manner that suits our philosophy of reliability, simplicity, and self sufficiency.

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Hand Splice Standing Rigging—The Liverpool Splice

16 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Equipment, Maintenance, Modifications, Musings, Uncategorized, Upgrades

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Hand spliced wire rigging

All of the standing rigging on the Far Reach is spliced to include the 3/8” bob-stay and the 5/16” sprit-shroud stays.

Readers of our rebuild website may remember I hand-spliced the standing rigging for the new mast we built for the Far Reach. It was one of the many projects associated with the six year rebuild. I used a splice called the Liverpool Splice. I learned it by reading Brion Toss’ book The Rigger’s Apprentice.

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Cape Lookout Summer Cruise

18 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Local Sailing, Musings, People, Uncategorized, Voyaging

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We had hoped to sail to Bermuda this summer but it was just not in the cards. We had too many balls in the air especially with the kids graduating from home high school and the seminar I teach at Camp Lejeune graduating at the end of May. So, we decided to enjoy a more simple to execute, week long cruise out to the Cape Lookout National Seashore. This trip was just for Gayle and me. Because the kids are usually with us, it was the first time Gayle and I have been alone on the Far Reach for more than a night. So we left the newly graduated high school seniors at home with a credit card and the car keys.

The Far Reach all provisioned and ready to go.

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Upgrading Primary Winches—Phase II. And a new winch base design.

09 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by farreachvoyages in Equipment, Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades

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Before: The primary winches were on a 2” riser pad and were, by design, very tall winches. They also suffered from aluminum/bronze corrosion—IMO a fundamentally bad design.

After: The new primaries are a little shorter in height plus I removed the riser pad. They are the same model as the smaller stays’l winches we installed last fall. Note the new winch base with bronze plate.

After completing a number of small projects this year, it was time to tackle the last big project for the foreseeable future—installing the new primary winches. The new winches are bronze Lewmar Ocean Series ST 46 two speed winches. The 46s replace the original 1982 era bronze two speed Lewmar 44s. Though they performed satisfactorily, the 44s were a flawed design from the beginning, mixing aluminum with bronze. The aluminum jaws were ate up with galvanic corrosion. For more information on the original installation click here.

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