Cockpit Table

Ive been busy with work during the month of July so getting things done on the boat has been a challenge. But I did finally finish the new cockpit table and get the Garmin GPS installed.  We also have a new 120% genoa aboard, but havent set it up on the furler yet. Lastly we took the liferaft and MOM unit in for servicing.

The reason for the new cockpit table is that the original one took up too much space and we got tired of it being in the way. The new arrangement works much better for actually sailing the boat and provides a place for the new GPS.

The process began with removal of the original table. The photo below shows the standard arrangement for the B423. You can see that it pretty much fills up the cockpit forward of the steering pedestal. It is fitted with large drop-leaves that make for a very spacious dining table when they are deployed and for many B423 owners its a good arrangement.

The lid fits loosely on the table and encloses a deep stowage bin. Notice the slip pin hinges for the drop-leaves.  

Plenty of room with the table removed

Removing the table reveals the spaciousness of the cockpit. I filled in the holes left by the mounting bolts. Later I installed a teak foot rest which concealed them. The table legs are nicely made of stainless steel and are plenty strong so I kept them for use on the new table.

Table base incorporates a solid, if slippery footrest. The blue tape covers the forward hinge which had an uncanny ability to snag clothing.

The next step was to mock up the new table. I wanted it to be smaller than the original table, incorporate the new GPS and provide solid hand-holds. I took a template off the forward side of the pedestal and entered those dimensions into the computer because I wanted the new table to follow the contours of the pedestal. Then I played around with different shapes until I had something that looked like it would work. I made a mockup out of particle board and check fitted it.

Particle board mockup. 

The new shape looked good, but the original table leg assembly was not tall enough. I wanted the table to be high enough that we could see the new GPS even when standing at the wheel. So while the leg assembly was in the shop getting modified I laminated up a mahogany riser and fabricated the table itself out of 3/4" StarBoard.

The mahogany riser puts the table at a convenient height. The post that the GPS is mounted on can be adjusted for height and it swivels. The cable is routed down through the post and fed into the starboard table leg. From there it passes through the deck and into the aft cabin. 

With the GPS mounted high enough for good visibility from the helm, it was too high to be convenient when sitting in the forward part of the cockpit, which is why I incorporated a pedestal that can be adjusted higher or lower and swivel for good visibility from anywhere in the cockpit. When were at sea, we almost never stand or sit at the helm. When youre on watch alone, the autopilot will always do a better job of steering the boat than a human over the span of an entire watch. The best place to stand watch is in the shelter of the dodger. On the Beneteau 423 that presents a problem because all of the instrumentation and controls are on the "dashboard" at the helm. The new GPS solves the navigational aspect of the problem and it will display AIS information as well. The handheld remote for the autopilot substitutes for the controller at the helm. The new TackTick sailing instruments are wireless and the displays can be located anywhere. So with this system in place we can navigate and control the boat from the most comfortable spot in the cockpit. This gets real important when youre punching into a head sea on the midnight watch and youre the only person on deck for three hours on a windy and moonless night.

On the left is a 2011 Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, to the right is a 2009 Cakebread Cabernet.

Once the unit was installed we had to check fit the drink holders. They worked like a champ! I have been planning to add a fold-down dining table which would be attached to table leg assembly but for now, were pretty pleased with the current arrangement.


                                                                 The Rescue Pod

Switlik Rescue Pod 4
Switlik refers to it as an "Emergency Floatation System" rated for 4 people. It would be extremely cozy for four, but reasonable for two.

Finisterra has a Switlik Rescue Pod for a liferaft, which is fine for coastal cruising in the temperate and tropical regions where the Finisterra will be traveling. It was time for a checkup so I took it to Avalon Rafts in Wilmington, California. Everyone who owns a raft or races offshore has taken a Safety At Sea course and seen raft deployment demonstrations, so you have a general idea of how they work and how they are equipped. But few of us have deployed our own raft, so we hung around and went through every detail of our little pod. It was something of an eye opener to see exactly how it works, what happens when things go wrong, and what the equipment bag really has in it. It has caused me to revise the equipment and supplies we carry in our ditch bag and I feel a lot more prepared in case we ever have to deploy the raft in a real emergency. If you plan to do any truly offshore work, one look at the Pod when its deployed will convince you to opt for a real liferaft.

The Pod is, as you can see in the photos, basically a flat disc. That means that in has a 50% chance of inflating upside down. It has a righting line across the bottom, so it can be righted, but if you have a Pod, keep in mind that the first thing you may be required to do once youve launched it, is to get in the water and pull the thing upright. It looked pretty easy in the comfort of Avalons shop. It might be a different story in 15 foot seas and 40 knots of wind.

I snapped the photos below with my phone so they are not very good quality, but you can see fairly well what the rescue pod is like.

This is how the raft looks after its hit the water and inflated. The CO2 canister is in the background. It normally remains attached to the raft. The pressure relief valve is the donut shaped part in the foreground. The drogue or sea anchor is the white thing on the left. Equipment visible inside the raft is stored in the equipment bag.

The person standing in the background provides a good indication of the size of the Pod. This is a single chamber raft, which means that if it is punctured, it turns into a large trash bag pretty quickly. So be sure that you throw it clear of any sharp objects and try not to accidentally stab it while getting aboard. The unit comes with a repair kit, suitable for fixing two holes. Unfortunately the instructions are printed on a little piece of paper and carefully packaged with the kit in a small plastic bag. So be sure that when you do get that puncture, youre in a clean, dry place and have plenty of time and good lighting so you can read the instructions, which call for cutting the hole large enough to slip one part of the "clamshell" inside the the air chamber then clamping the other half to it. Stay calm while the air is whistling out of the hole and youre reading those instructions.

Standard rescue pod equipment include a surprisingly effective manual pump, combination strobe and flashlight, puncture repair kit (in the plastic bag), and a relief valve cap (the white thing below the repair kit).

Ill post our revised ditch bag equipment list in another day or two.

Transpac Village Walkabout

I spent some time working on the boat last week, mostly routine maintenance items, but also on the new cockpit table, which is coming along nicely. Ill post some photos in the next day or two. Anyway, after a couple of hours of work on a particularly beautiful afternoon we decided to have lunch at Tequila Jacks,  which is about a ten minute walk from the boat. While sitting in the patio of the place, dining on fish tacos and  ice cold Pacificos, we noticed that "Transpac Village" was beginning to fill up with boats that are doing the upcoming Transpac Race, so we decided to wander over and have a look at the latest developments. It turned out to be an interesting stroll, with an extraordinary variety of boats in the marina, all in different states of readiness. They ranged from the venerable old Sparkman and Stephens designed "Dorade" to the ultra quick ORMA trimaran, "LendingClub", with lots of interesting boats between these two ends of the racing spectrum. While the boats we observed were just a small fraction of the fleet, it was interesting to see all the variety and to get a really nice perspective on the evolution of racing yacht design over the last 80 years.

Designed by Olin Stephens and launched in 1930, Dorade was a revolutionary racing yacht in her day. Notice the tall cowl vents. They sit atop boxes which let fresh air into the boat while keeping water out.  Dorade was the first boat ever to have such boxes so they became known as "Dorade Boxes" and are found on nearly every offshore cruising boat built since then. My 2005 Beneteau is fitted with Dorade Boxes.  I love this simple, elegant solution, but vents are not what made this lovely yacht famous. Its her race record. Imagine sailing this beauty down the Molokai channel under a full moon with main and mizzen spinnakers set.

Here is a diagram of a Dorade Box. These days most people dont know why cowl vents are mounted on boxes. Air and spray, and sometimes green water, enter the cowl vent. The water drains away through scuppers in the box and the air is drawn into the boat.

Santa Cruz 50
Notice the wood cabin trunk. Later 50s had molded glass decks. This 30 year old design wont compete with todays fifty footers, but it can still deliver an exhilarating ride.

On the next gangway we spotted the Santa Cruz 50, "Chasch Mer". This boat is hull number one of the famous "Cruz 50s". Her narrow beam, "V" shaped hull sections, and ultra light weight (for her era) are the embodiment of her designer,  Bill Lees mantra of "Fast is Fun". While far off the pace of more recent 50 foot designs, Chasch Mer will provide her crew with an exciting, if Spartan ride to Honolulu.

Speed & Comfort
A true dual purpose boat,  the SC 52 is a nearly ideal racer/cruiser.

Further down the gangway we spotted a beautifully maintained Santa Cruz 52. This boat does not share the same design pedigree as the 50s and 70s. It was designed by Bob Smith and is offers similar performance to the Cruz 50, but with very civilized accommodations. The Santa Cruz 52 is a classic.

Southern Cross 52
Meanie, the former Vela Veloce shows her somewhat cruising-friendly cockpit. Notice the seats at the forward end of the cockpit. The boat also boasts more accommodations below than you would find on a TP 52.

A closer look at Meanie.
In this view you can see the seats at the forward end of the cockpit. In the foreground note the powerful running backstays. 

The next three boats are all variations on the Transpac 52 theme, with an IRC twist. Meanie is the ex Vela Veloce, which was built for the late Dick Oland in 2009. Officially, it is a Southern Cross 52, not a TP52. The most visible difference between the two is the requirement for more accommodations and comfort in the SC 52. Do not be fooled by the concessions to cruising comfort, this boat is extremely quick and I doubt that youll get your mother in law to do the runners.

Humphreys 54
Bengal 7 features a lifting keel, reducing draft from about 12 feet to a mere 8-2".  

Next to Meanie on the gangway was the Humphreys 54, Bengal 7. Launched in 2010 as Oystercatcher XXVIII, this yacht can easily be mistaken for a TP52. Bengal 7 is now owned by Yoshi Murase and handled by an all Japanese crew.

Bengal 7, in Oystercatcher livery, at speed.

Closeup of Bengal 7/Oystercatchers cockpit. Notice the beefy running backstays, wide open space for the crew and the unsupported deck at the transom. It appears that the mainsheet runs directly from the traveler to a pair of cockpit winches. This is lighter and more efficient than the popular Admirals Cup system seen on many racers.

I would call Bengal 7 a pure IRC boat. With its hydraulic keel lifting machinery and slightly more accommodating interior, it is a bit heavier for its length than a state of the art TP 52. You can see a definite evolution in the design of the cockpit, compared to the slightly older Meanie, and truly vast differences from all out racers of yesteryear such as the Santa Cruz 50.

Beecom: A modern TP 52. Notice the contours of the cabin trunk, and the companionway dodger. That little bit of canvas will be much appreciated on the delivery back to the mainland.

Beecom was tied up on the same dock as Meanie and Bengal 7 so it gave us a unique view of recent trends in race boat design. Beecom was launched in 2011 and is a true Transpac 52. This development class has evolved quickly over the last decade and I get the sense that it is stabilizing a bit, so this boat provides a fairly up to date perspective of the class. Unfortunately I had only my I-phone with me the day I took these photos so they are not as crisp as I would have liked. But if you look closely you can see the chine in the hull that runs from about station 3 to the transom.

Clean, simple lines in Beecoms cockpit. Notice the short mainsheet traveler and absence of deck hardware. Like Bengal, the mainsheet is simply run to a pair of cockpit winches.

This boat was designed by Rolf Vrolijk and built by McConaghy. I am particularly impressed by the clean lines and simplicity of design here. You can also see in this photo above the pronounced chine. If youre a regular reader of this blog, you know Ive been mildly critical of racer/cruisers with chines. Well, here is a case where they really do make a difference. Once cracked off, this boat will almost always travel at more than its displacement hull speed.

Can you spot the jib tracks? Youll have to look closely. This photo also provides a visual comparison of Beecom to the cruisier Southern Cross 52, Meanie, tied up next to it.

Notice the hull shape at the sheer. It fairs from a fine bow to virtually straight sides aft. High performance sailboat hulls are beginning to look a bit like powerboat hulls. I liked this boat best of all the ones we saw in the Transpac Village that day.

New Bottom

Finisterra was hauled out of the water the day before yesterday to get fresh bottom paint and have some other minor work done. This is the first time Ive had a chance to inspect the bottom carefully and I was pleased to find it in generally good shape. The bottom paint is still in reasonably good condition except for a few small spots on the keel where the paint has been rubbed off. The painters will sand and prime those areas and shell receive two coats of Pettit Trinidad before she goes back in the water next week.

Beneteau 423 Deep Keel

A couple of observations regarding the design of the boat that are not apparent when shes in the water:
The keel is made of cast iron and weighs about 5,569 pounds. My rough calculations indicate that about 40% of its weight is in the bulb at the bottom of the keel. The bulb is about 16" wide at its thickest and fairs into a very thin fin section. I took some basic dimensions and discovered that the fin is about 3" thick at the thickest point with a chord length of 64", for a thickness ratio of  .047 or 4.7%.  The top 8 or 10 inches of the fin fair out to a beefy and wide hull/keel joint. So, if we disregard the bulb and the thickened area at the hull/keel joint, the actual lift generating part of the keel is about 36" high by 64" long, with a thickness ratio of 4.7% and an aspect ratio of .56. I wont go into a technical discussion of keel design here but I would love to hear the designer explain his reasoning behind these numbers.  It would have been a simple matter to design a much more efficient keel using the same amount of material and draft for exactly the same amount of money, so I wonder what the designer was thinking when he or she designed it.

Cast iron fin keel. 

Note how thin this keel is. Racing keels have thickness ratios roughly twice the 4.7% of this one.

So what conditions would this keel work best under? Well, itll never generate much lift on the upwind legs and it sports too much wetted surface and parasitic drag to be much good in light air. It will probably work best broad reaching and running in medium conditions. Our experience sailing the boat certainly bears that out. With all that said, if any of you B423 owners out there want to improve your boats performance, swapping out the keel would be a quick and effective way to go.

How about the rudder? There have been times when weve pressed the boat pretty hard on a reach and the spade rudder has proven to be up to the task of steering her in a straight line. Of course the boat can be pushed hard enough to round up in a breeze but it gives plenty of warning and it rounds up in a predictable manner. There is nothing special about the shape of the rudder. It is a bit over-balanced for my taste, meaning that under power if you let go of the wheel, the rudder will slam  hard over to port or starboard quickly. Im not pleased by this, but the excess "balance" of the rudder makes helm loads pretty minimal when under sail. This means that you can sail the boat with little pressure on the wheel and the autopilot never has to work very hard under sail. I suppose this is a good trade-off, but I prefer a perfectly balanced helm. The rudder stock is vertical and rides in a set of bushings. From a purely hydrodynamic point of view, a vertical stock is more efficient than a radically angled one. In most boats the upper rudder bearing or bushing is mounted to the underside of the deck but Beneteau has chosen to build the entire rudder support system into the hull only. On my last boat, a Beneteau 36s7,  this structure was made of a fiberglass cone about 36" high glassed to the hull with the upper bearing mounted at the top of it. It was a bit disconcerting to see the top of  the cone moving around as the boat sailed in anything other than flat seas. Finisterra has a similar arrangement except that the cone has been replaced by a set of longitudinal and transverse bulkheads which appear to do a better job of resolving all the loads imparted by the rudder. At least I have not been able to see any movement of the assembly while underway. I cant say Im a big fan of this method for securing the rudder stock but from a purely structural point of view it works. The main disadvantage is that this arrangement is heavy and takes up a lot of space.

Slipstream Stainless Steel Propeller

Three blade folding prop is a vast improvement over the standard fixed prop. Notice the small collar type zinc. In our harbor these things need replacement about every six weeks. 

The hull shape itself is very respectable. Its not a particularly beamy boat and the waterlines forward are finer than I expected, while the stern sections are fairly broad. the U-shaped sections forward are about what youd expect and there is no doubt that the 423 will pound a bit when motoring into a head sea. Once again, I think thats a reasonable trade-off for good performance reaching and running.

I was glad to find minimal play in the rudder when I grabbed hold of it and pushed from side to side. My guesstimate is about 1/8 inch in each direction. Overall, I think the hull and appendages are in good shape for our upcoming voyage. The fresh bottom paint should last a couple of years in the tropics.

Mounting the instruments in the cockpit required moving the rope hangers outboard. 

I mounted instrument brackets in the companionway too. I plan to build a removable seat that will fit in the companionway recess. Its a perfect place to be on cold or rainy watches. 

While the boat is out of the water I replaced the speed and depth sensors. Awhile back I bought a Tacktick T104 instrument package for the boat but have not been able to complete the installation of the system until the boat was hauled and I could change the sensors. Now well be able to use the Tackticks for speed, depth, wind, VMG, etc. By the way, out of curiosity I measured the thickness of the hull laminate in this area. Using dial calipers which I was just able to fit through the hole, it measured .66".