DIANTHUS

Dianthus is our Canadian Sailcraft 36 sailboat (Merlin version) we purchased in December 2011.



Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Electrical work, sure I do that too.


Last year on the way to Newport for the BDA1-2, my bow lights went out.  Then on the way to Bermuda, my tricolor went out; the anchor light too.  I suspected there was some short somewhere in the boat and wanting to change a few things, plus planning for future work, I decided to rewire the electrical panel.  There was one other consideration and that was that in it's original configuration you had a very small hole to stick your head through to reach the terminal blocks and it was damn near impossible to work on.  What I really wanted was something that would be easy to work on, neater and a little more orderly.  This is what I started with:


The panel as it was when I bought the boat.



After removing everything but before I cut out the plywood.

Next came the fun job of disconnecting everything from the terminal blocks and then tracing all the wiring to verify what went where and if it actually worked.


Oy, what a mess.  The blue tape marks where I cut out the existing plywood.  

My double handed partner from last years BDA 1-2 helped immensely as we spent quite a bit of time testing every wire and circuit to verify if it worked and then labeling everything.  One thing that puzzle us to no end was not having power at the bow for the bow light cable, but getting continuity. then half way between the bow and the panel we had power.  I finally figured it out when I pulled out the wire and found this:




Basically the wire had been compromised at some point and moisture and corrosion did their work on the wire.  Of course some of this damage is from me giving a good hard yank to pull it out and breaking it free from behind the liner.
Oh, and the tricolor went out because it had water in it!  Nothing wrong w the wiring.  Signal Mate replaced it the same week I sent it back.  Kudos to them!


Carol and I then spent several hours one cold February day removing all the solid copper Romex cable for all the 110v outlets on the boat and pulling new stranded wire to bring the wiring up to ABYC code.  While solid wire was standard in the 1980's, it's susceptible to breakage from the vibration and movement on a boat.  Oh, and let's not even talk about the wire nuts that were joining some of the splices!  A HUGE no-no in the marine environment.



I had bought a brand new BLUE SEA DC panel and and AC panel for the boat as well as a piece of 1/2" black Starboard to mount them on.  After drawing out my layout on vellum and carefully measuring multiple times I cut out the openings, drilled and tapped holes for the fasteners and did a trial fit.  Almost perfect and after shaving off a bit here and there it was.  Perfect that is. To further gussy things up and to hide the plywood edges I cut some Brazilian Cherry scrap that I had in my shop and made the trim pieces that go around the edges of the new panel.  With a stainless steel piano hinge so the whole assembly can fold down for ease of working I was ready to move on to the next step.



Next came the really interesting work albeit slow and sometimes tedious.  Mounting terminal blocks on Starboard behind the panel I set to work making all the connections.  Wire runs from the various lights, fixtures, instruments had a label attache with clear shrink tubing and then ring terminals crimped and heat shrinked.  Then I had to do the same going from the terminal blocks to the appropriate breaker on the panel.




While I still have a few things I want to add and tweak, this new panel is so much better than the previous one. Having room to expand and having everything clearly marked is a huge improvement.






We got the gun. No, we got the CANNON!

For the past several years, even before we bought DIANTHUS, Carol and I had raced in the CONSTELLATION CUP, a benefit race into Baltimore's Inner Harbor to benefit the Historic Ships.
Three years on WHARF RAT, the CS 40 I used to race on and the past 4 years on our CS 36M.
In 2014 we came in second but that was tainted by a protest that had no validity, yet left a sour taste in our mouths.  And to really piss us off, we got booed when we were given the 2nd place award.

So in 2015 we went back looking to kick some butt and loaded up with some heavy weight crew (size and sailing ability).  It was a typical CONNIE CUP day; blustery and overcast.  Carol had even asked a young woman from her work to come along.  Caitlin had sailed on dinghys but not big boats and brought her boyfriend who had never sailed.
On the upwind leg towards Ft. McHenry we saw apparent wind speeds in the mid 20's.  Reefing down the main, but not furling the jib we started to pull away from INFRARED which had been catching up.  Turning the mark by the Fort I looked back and saw a Tartan 40 closing rapidly.

Fortunately we made it around the mark with a decent lead and then had to make 11 tacks in a tacking duel to the finish at the Inner Harbor.  Sailing each tack as close as we dared to each side we got a huge lift right at the finish and crossed the line 1 min ahead of the Tartan.  Just about the time I said, "what, no gun?" (first to finish traditionally gets a gun), they fired the cannon off the deck of the CONSTELLATION and the whole harbor shook! Needless to say we were quite happy.  We finished first in the Fin Keel Class, First Overall and got to keep the perpetual trophy half hull model of the Connie for a year.

Oh, and the boyfriend who had never sailed?  Caitlin emailed Carol the next week and said he was terrified... but had a blast!


  
At the post race party....


FINALLY got the trophy 3 months later!



This summer everyone was at our house for our annual summer party so we had to take a picture with the perpetual trophy!  Pete, Greg, me, Carol, Dave, Bob   (l-r)


We will be back looking to defend this year!