All posts by Captain Jim

LED strip lighting

February 21, 2020ProjectsCaptain Jim

I replaced the incandescent bulbs inside all the overhead dome lights with LEDs many years ago. I also use LEDs in the courtesy lights along the floor throughout the cabin, brass reading lights, and inside most of the wardrobe closets. Most of these LED lights were bought 10 years ago and none have needed to be replaced so far, making their extra cost well worth it.

I’ve been wanting to increase the lighting in the main cabin and decided on LED strip lighting. Through reading articles and reviews on the many different types and brands of LED strip lighting, I came up with the following list of features:

Color-RGBW stands for red, green, blue, white. This type has a RGB “cluster”, which are 3 closely-spaced LEDs that can produce millions of colors by varying the duty-cycle of each of the red, green, and blue LED individually, plus a separate white LED that can produce a warm white. In the strips that I ended up buying, the colored LEDs can be controlled separately from the white LEDs. Some LED strips are sold as RGB only, so the white is made by combining the red-green-blue and is not a true white (and definitely not a warm white).

Dimmable–most LED strips are dimmable. The ones that I bought have separate dimming for the colored LEDs and the white LEDs.

Remote controlled–I discovered there are many ways to control the strips–physical switch, remote control, phone app, and even Alexa control. I decided on a remote control.

DC Powered–Most kits I looked at were AC powered. Since I want to connect them to 12V, I made a DC adapter that powers the LED strips through a standard DC outlet. This gives me the option of powering them with AC or DC.

Misc.–Most LED strips are sold in 16′ rolls. Some are encased in a silicone sleeve to make them water resistant, a good idea for boat applications even they will be “indoors”.

Connectability–Not all LED strips have a connector on both ends, so running 2 strips in series is not possible (sell my first attempt below).

Layout on Boat-

I wanted the LED strips not only for adding brighter lights to the main cabin, but also for adding colored and dimmed accent lighting. I also wanted the strips on port and starboard sides to be hidden from view as much as possible. As it turned out, a 16 foot long strip was just about the exact length from galley to forward bulkhead on port side, and nav station to bulkhead on starboard side. The main layout problem was to figure out how to run both LED strips with a single controller and where to place the controller.

First Attempt: I ordered an LED set that contained 2 16′ RGBW strips, a controller with on/off switch and function control (brightness, color, mode). It was Alexa controllable (though that’s not a feature I would use on the boat) and came with a smart phone app for remote control. The controller output had a Y-connector that both strips were meant to plug into. This required me to modify the wiring by adding 12 feet of 4 strand wire to one of the legs to allow one of the strips to cross over from port to starboard along the cabin top. After soldering and heat shrinking both ends of the 12′ long 20 gauge wires, I discovered that the LED’s in the strip that the wire was added did not match the color or intensity of the LEDs in the other strip, probably due to the added resistance. I determined these would not work for the boat, so I removed the 12′ extension to get them back to the original lengths and found another use for them–my daughter’s bedroom!

Second Attempt: I researched and found another LED set that I thought would work better. It also contained 2 16′ long RGBW strips, a controller, and a remote. The main difference is that these strips had connectors on both ends and had a 5-wire bus vs a 4-wire bus. The reviews said that 2 16′ strips could be run in series. They also sold connector wire in 6′ lengths with pin connectors that matched the LED strips. This would allow me to run 1 strand on the starboard side, then add 12′ of extension wire in order to reach the beginning of the second strand on the port side. The 12′ extension did not affect the color or brightness of the second strip. Installing them was easy with the 3M tape attached to the under-side of the strips. I ran them along the back side of the wood trim so they are not visible. The remote works from anywhere in the main cabin. Here’s a link to these LEDs:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JZKF2ZO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Warm White LEDs (yellow dots), RGB clusters (between each White LED)

Port Polishing (interior)

January 15, 2020ProjectsCaptain Jim

Winter in Seattle is a good time for tackling interior boat projects. I’ve always kept Apropos’ bronze exterior ports polished, but it’s been over 10 years since I polished the interior-side of the port openings. Apropos has a total of 14 openable ports–8 oval ports, 4 small 7″ round ports, 1 large 13″ round port and 1 rectangular port. Some had a nice patina color, but most showed signs of salt water that had come in contact with the bronze, resulting in green or white corrosion markings. So over the course of a few months, I removed each port along with the 2 thumbscrew/latches, and brought the pieces home to work on bringing them back to shiny using a dremel tool, some chemicals, scotch-brite pads, and a polishing compound. The outer frames could be removed but I decided it was easier to just polish them in place. Some of the pins holding the port to the frames were difficult to remove, but letting them soak overnight with an anti-corrosion spray did the trick.

Once the interior side of ports are polished, it’s easy to keep them that way with a quick hand-application of Flitz polishing compound once or twice a year.

Here are a few before and after shots.

Badly tarnished port in aft starboard berth (this port was once left open during a rough passage and let in gallons of saltwater!)

Some other brass items I polished were a couple of reading lamps and a clock. The clock is mounted in the v-berth and had stopped working a few years ago due to a broken quartz movement, so I was going to toss it. The new ones I looked at were over $100 and had light-weight molded brass surrounds, not cast like what I had. I also liked the nautical face and the bevel around the outer edge of the glass, so I thought it was worth repairing. I ordered a new 4″ quartz movement for under $10 and adapted it to my clock, then polished it up and it looks (and runs) like new.

San Juan and Gulf Islands 2019

August 11, 2019AdventuresCaptain Jim

Pictures from an 8-day (3oo nautical miles round trip) sail to the San Juan and Gulf Islands. An overnight stop at Port Townsend was followed by mostly motoring across a flat Strait of Juan de Fuca. We did a big counter clockwise loop with stops in Sucia Island, South Pender Island, Piers Island, and San Juan Island. We made the return trip from Roche Harbor to Lake Union in 14 hours by waking up at 5am to ride an ebb tide down Haro Strait and into Jaun de Fuca Strait, then hitting Port Townsend and Admiralty Inlet at max flood. We reached Kingston at 4pm so decided to keep going since we had 3 sails up on a broad reach, sailing wing on wing with the Genoa and Mizzen sails to starboard, and Mains’l to port.

**Toasting marshmallows on Sucia Island**

**Exploring limestone caves on Sucia Island**

**Using the pool at Poet’s Cove (South Pender Island, BC)**

**Champ got dyed with blackberry juice while on Piers Island, BC**
**(credit Jacintha, Billy, and Gracie)**

Sailing near Roche Harbor

Teak Deck Refinishing

July 7, 2019MaintenanceCaptain Jim

I’ve always let my teak decks go to their natural grey color. A lot of boats with 36 year old teak are ripping up the teak planks and replacing it with low maintenance finishing such as Awlgrip Nonskid. Usually the reasons are because the teak has worn thin from age, scrubbing and bleaching or the deck is beginning to leak. I love the look and feel of teak decks and am starting to worry about the remaining life of the teak on Apropos, so I decided to take some action. First of all, I believe there is plenty of thickness to the teak planks on Apropos, and I don’t know of any leaks in the decks. I figured since the boat sat covered on the hard in arid San Diego for 12 years (by the previous owner), the teak hasn’t aged as much as most boats the same age. Plus I’ve been careful about not scrubbing them with stiff-bristle brushes, and have never pressure washed them. I also believe the best shape they were in was during our trip where they were constantly bathed in saltwater, which is a good natural cleaner for teak.

I’ve been hearing and reading about a product called Semco that is used to seal teak decks and thought I’d give it a try. Initially I was only going to treat a small part of the boat–the cockpit, but I liked the results so much that I ended up doing the entire boat. The procedure is to first clean the teak, then brush on 2 coats of Semco in the same day. After that, a seasonal coat should be all it takes to keep the teak looking a natural color. And more importantly, it should help preserve the teak without scrubbing.

The cleaning is the worst part because it requires strong chemicals that could harm the deck if done incorrectly. There are several products for this and I chose Teak Wonder, which is applied in 2 steps. First is the Cleaner solution that is applied to a wet deck in small sections at a time, not allowing it to dry. I applied it from a squirt bottle and worked it into the wood with a soft nylon brush, scrubbing against the grain of the teak. I allowed it to work for a few minutes before hosing it off. It must take off a very thin layer of wood along with the dirt because it’s pretty grimy before hosing it off with lots of fresh water. The second step is to apply a brightener and gently brush it in, letting it sit for a few minutes before hosing off. I was careful about not letting the cleaning and brightening chemicals to come in contact with the brightwork by masking it with plastic. This cleaning is definitely something I wouldn’t want to do every season. If it works as advertised, I should only have to apply the sealer from here on.

Applying the Semco sealer is very easy–just brush it on with a foam brush. The first coat seemed to soak in more of the sealer, which has a natural pigment and is the consistency of water. The instructions recommended applying 2 coats in the same day. After drying, the decks looked pretty good and appeared to be well sealed as water beaded up when sprayed on the deck.

Teak Plug Replacement

The cabin-top decking has no plugs so it must have been glued down, but the sidedecks and cockpit decking is all screwed down. Every now and then a teak plug, or bung, either falls out or wears thin. I recently went around the boat and replaced around 20 plugs. Here’s pics from one example:

Brightwork Refresh

July 5, 2019MaintenanceCaptain Jim

It took me 2 summers to restore all of the brightwork aboard Apropos by removing the old varnish and applying 7 coats of Awlwood MA Clear (varnish alternative). Some parts of the boat have gone 3 years and some 2 years since the new brightwork and it was holding up well, but starting to show minor wear and scratches (after all it is a boat and we have a dog). So I spent a couple of evenings and weekends lightly sanding and applying 2 refresher coats of Awlwood MA clear. It brought the shine back!

Haul Out

June 24, 2019MaintenanceCaptain Jim

Apropos hasn’t been out of the water since April 2016 when she was in Fiji, so she was due for some new bottom maintenance. We hauled out on a Thursday morning and put back in the water the following Monday morning. During those 4 (*very long*) days, the following took place:

Pressure wash the bottom (yard labor)
Sand the bottom (yard labor) isverigeapotek.com
Roll on 2 coats of Interlux Micron Extra bottom paint (me)
Clean outer hull with Meguires Cleaner/wax (me)
Machine polish the outer hull with Marine Polish & variable speed polisher (me)
Change all 6 zinc anodes (me)
Polish and lubricate propeller (me)
Replace speed transducer and rewire (me)

Winch Servicing

June 7, 2019MaintenanceCaptain Jim

There are 12 Barient winches on Apropos:

2- 28 Self Tailing, 2-speed	Jib Sheets
3- 23 Self Tailing, 2-speed	Stays’l Sheet and Main Sheet
3- 18, 2-speed	Main Halyard, Spinnaker Halyard, General purpose Halyard
4- 10, 1-speed	Mizzen Halyard, Mizzen Sheet, Main Out-haul, Main Reefing

Winch numbers (multiplied by 100), are standardized according to their strength. For example, size 28 is capable of 28,000 lbs of load.

All winches were serviced in 2004 during a major refit just before I bought the boat. We serviced the 2-28s and 3-23s in 2014 before our South Pacific cruise. So we were far-overdue for a complete cleaning/lubing of all 12 winches.

4 Barient 10s, 3 Barient 18s, and 3 Barient 23s

The 7 smaller winches (Barient 10s and 18s) are fastened to the masts or boom with 4 or 5 ss screws and can be easily removed for servicing. But the 3 Barient 23s are mounted with ss screws but also bedded down to the cabin top with something not easily removable. These can be serviced by disassembling the winch in place. The 2 Barient 28s can also be removed but requires unbolting 5 ss hex bolts that attach them to aluminum winch bases.

The Barient 10s and single speed winches and are the simplest to take apart and clean. Here are the basic steps for servicing these small winches:

Separate the drum from the internal parts by removing the snap spring and cover plate and carefully pulling the drum off. Remove the 2 pawls/springs at the top of the drum.
Remove the 4 ss screws that fasten the winch to the boat.
Disassemble the winch by first removing the snap spring on the bottom of the winch base and remove the 2 pawls/springs.
Slide the cage bearing off the shaft
Clean all parts with mineral spirits to remove grease and dirt. A toothbrush is helpful on the cage bearing and bronze wool can be used on the bronze and ss parts. The drum has a chrome plating and bronze wool is safe to use on it.
Assemble in reverse order. Oil the pawls/springs with pawl oil (never use grease). Lightly grease the bronze shaft and cage bearing with winch grease.
Screw winch in place using Tef-Gel on the ss screw threads when going into aluminum mast/boom. Carefully slide drum back onto the winch while squeezing the pawls (front 2 first, then back 2) so they clear the ratchet teeth.

Barient 10 Parts

The larger 2-speed winches (Barient 18) steps are similar but there are more gears and bearings. The Barient 23s have even more parts (30 total!). It’s good to take pictures during disassembly to reference when putting it all back together. Apropos has 2 identical 23s next to each other so I was able to look at an assembled one while assembling the other.

**Barient 23 2-speed self-tailing (before cleaning)**

The largest winches on Apropos are the 2 Barient 28ST 2-speed jib-sheet winches. They are also the most exposed winches since they are outboard the cockpit and see the most seawater and dust/debris than the other winches that are under the dodger or on the masts and booms. After removing the drum, there were 4 ss screws holding the winch to the aluminum winch base. But after removing the 4 screws, the winch wouldn’t budge due to corrosion between the bronze and aluminum. We scraped away at the corrosion around the 4 feet and sprayed a generous amount of anti-seize solution on all 4 joints, then allowed it soak for 2 days. It still took some pretty hard hits with a hammer, using a wood block against the winch shaft, to free them.

**Aluminum winch base after removing winch**

**Jib winches removed from base (before cleaning)**

**Cleaned parts from Barient 28 ST 2-speed winch**

Conclusion

Barient winches are built like tanks! There are no plastic parts like in some winches. All the gears are heavy-duty bronze with stainless steel shafts. The cage bearings , pawls & springs are all very high quality. My winches are over 35 years old and after servicing them, are as good as new. I even decided to use my original pawls since they were in great shape, and I read that replacement pawls are not made with as high of quality material as the original Barient pawls, and they cost was something like $12 each (there are 4 pawls per winch X 12 winches, so total cost for just the pawls was going to be $576!).

With so many winches on Apropos, it took a lot of time to service all of them. I estimate it took 2 hours for each of the single speed 10s, and 3 hours for the 2-speed 18s, 23s and 28s. That’s a total of 32 hours spaced out over a week. The only costs were pawl oil, winch grease, and mineral spirits.

A little bit about the history of Barient. The American company was founded by 2 sailing enthusiasts–Derek Baylis, owner of SV Orient, and Jim Michael, owner of SV Baruna. Their purpose of designing and building winches was for use on their own boat (and their friends’ boats). They ended up creating a business by combining the boat names (BARuna orIENT) and produced some of the best winches available. They never really intended to profit from the business, and eventually sold it to Lewmar. Lewmar also purchased the Barlow winch company, then discontinued both the Barient and Barlow manufacturing. Clever way to beat the better competition–buy them out and then keep making only their own inferior product! Parts are no longer made for Barient winches, but the good news is you can find old Barient winches that with some servicing, are probably as good as, or better than the new ones made by other companies.

Waiting for Spring to Arrive

March 2, 2019Projectswinch servicingCaptain Jim

Winters seem to drag on in Seattle. January was warmer and drier than average, but February was one of the coldest and snowiest on record in Seattle. I still have a few more winter projects that I want to complete before May, like servicing all 8 winches, replacing the canvas along the foot of the Genoa, and replacing some of the parts that are glued onto the main body of the dinghy. But sometimes when I have only a few hours to spend on boat things, I try to pick one thing that improves one aspect of the boat. Today that one thing had to do with storage.

I like an uncluttered boat, but it’s sometimes hard for me to remove something that has been on the boat for a while. When cruising full time, we filled every available nook and cranny with something–gear, spare parts, food, clothing, books, etc. But since we returned, I have to decide what should stay on the boat vs what can be stored in the garage or even thrown away. Things that remain on the boat should have a well thought-out place to live in order to keep the boat organized.

The cockpit surround panels are big and bulky. Most of the time they are not being used, but they are good to keep on the boat for when they are needed. They add an “enclosed porch” to the boat. They consist of 6 mesh panels that zipper onto the bimini when more sun protection and/or privacy is wanted. They also came in handy in a few anchorages in Mexico to keep the mosquitoes out. There are 6 snap-on vinyl panels that can be used to keep rain and wind out of the cockpit. These come in handy at the dock especially in the spring and fall when it rains and the full boat cover is off. But storing them has been a problem. During the trip, when not being used, they were folded up and put in a sail bag. This led to creases in the vinyl because they sat that way for a long time (all passages and during the 6 months the boat sat in Fiji). So today I decided to find a better way to store them. I bought a 5′ length of 3″ pvc pipe and rolled the individual panels around the pipe, using long lengths of velcro to hold them in place. Rolling them this way should keep the vinyl from developing creases. I had a red canvas bag that came with the boat and wasn’t being used and it was the perfect size to store the rolled up panels in.

This bag can be stored in either the pilot berth or in one of the aft cabin berths, and easily be carried up to the cockpit when needed.

Steering Quadrant Refinish

December 16, 2018ProjectsCaptain Jim

Another one of my winter projects was to refinish the steering quadrant, which was starting to show signs of rust from years of exposure to the marine environment. Even though the lazarette is a relatively dry space, the effects of humidity and wet ocean passages takes its toll on all metal parts. The 2 halves of the quadrant were easily removed in less than an hour. I decided to have them powder coated by Seattle Powder Coating–they are only 2 miles from the marina and I was pleased with their service and quality of work when I had 4 wheels powder coated there recently. While the parts were off the boat, I took some time to tidy up the lazarette by vacuuming and cleaning it with a bilge cleaner then spraying it down with a hose. I also stripped the worn paint from the metal quadrant base and re-painted it with a primer and 2 coats of enamel paint. I replaced all 4 stainless steel clamps on the rubber lip (where the rudder post exits the hull) since the old ones were also showing signs of rust. I used the heavier duty ss clamps that have a bolt and locknut for tightening. In the process, I discovered a zerc fitting, so I shot some grease into it and will be interesting to see if the steering becomes any easier. Finally, I inspected the wire cable and fittings and all looked good. When re-assembling, I shortened both ends of the wire cable to get a bigger adjustment range with the ring bolt and with proper tensioning, it removed the small amount of play that used to be in the steering system. These parts (cable, chain, quadrant, fittings) are some of the most critical on a sailboat, but often don’t get much attention because they are out of sight. I’ve been guilty of not inspecting them often enough so will try to start doing so at least once a year.

Here are some pictures of the project….

Quandrant before:

Quadrant installed after powder coat:

Rudder post base before:

Rudder post base after painting:

New SS clamps:

I also had the 5 dorades powder coated white on the insides (they were previously painted red). Then I polished the outside stainless steel, so they came out pretty nice.

Before:

After:

While I was in the painting mood, I removed 3 aluminum cleats from the boom that needed some attention. I had them sandblasted then I sprayed them with 3 coats of satin enamel. At first I was going to just buy new cleats, but couldn’t find any the same size with the exact hole spacing. Ones that were close in size were selling for around $75 each, making $10 in paint to restore 3 of them a bargain!

Winter Boat Cover Project

November 16, 2018Projects, SewingCaptain Jim

I had a full boat cover made around 10 years ago. I normally put it on in November and take it off in April, so it gets used 5 or 6 months a year. The cover was made of heavy duty Sunbrella canvas, and was built in 4 sections that zipper together and keep Apropos almost completely dry from stem to stern during Seattle’s rainy season. With cutouts for 2 masts and 11 stays, I was amazed at how well it was built by The Canvas Company located in Seattle.

About 5 years ago, to make room for a bimini, I raised the mizzen boom 13″. Since the aft section of the cover went over the mizzen boom, that section no longer fit. For the past couple of years I didn’t use the aft section and just relied on the bimini with full enclosure of the cockpit to keep the aft 1/4th of the boat “dry”. But a lot of the brightwork was outboard of the cockpit enclosure, so I decided to have the aft section of the cover modified so that it could be used.

After getting a quote for over $2000 to modify the cover, I did what any good sailor with a Sailrite machine would do–make it a DIY project!

Here is a picture showing how the cover was used without the aft section:

Next is a picture showing how it looked trying to hang it over the mizzen boom that had been raised 13″ (it hung way too high, didn’t reach the forward section, and didn’t cover the wind vane):

Next we tried hanging it below the boom but over the bimini (although it reached the forward section, it still fit too high and the openings for the stays were way off):

It would have taken a lot of work to modify the cover to fit in the position shown above. After some more thinking, we decided to remove the bimini canvas and the forward section of the bimini frame. This allowed the cover to sit perfectly to mate up with the forward section and all the stays. In order to cover the windvane, I added a panel to the aft end. I used 2 fiberglass tent poles to help support the cover (they can be seen in the picture taken of the inside). Here are some final pictures of the fit after all the modifications were done:

In order to get the above fit, we made the following modifications:

removed the seam on the aft end and added a 14″ section to allow it to completely cover the wind vane (this required moving one side of the zipper and the outside flap that covers the zipper)
sewed in white vinyl protective material wherever the inside of the cover touched the bimini frame, the 2 tent poles, and dodger side rails, and the solar panel atop the dodger
removed the boom cover section (the boom extension cover used originally when the cover sat over the mizzen boom) and replaced with a vinyl window to allow light in and also to see out

Overall, I’m happy with the fit of the boat cover now. The downside is I will have to remove the bimini canvas and part of the bimini frame whenever I put the cover on, but this only takes 10 minutes. The only cost of the project was about $50 for Sunbrella canvas and $30 for vinyl material called Shelter-Rite…. (vs $2000 for a complete retrofit of the aft cover section to make it fit over the boom). Total time spent ripping out seams, sewing, and trial fitting was around 30 hours.

This is why I cover the boat during most of Seattle’s winter:

svapropos blog

Follow the adventures aboard s/v Apropos….