Odalisque

2011, November 30th. Begin drive train rebuild

Caleb — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 06:04:49 +0000

When we first bough our boat a good friend and fellow boat owner advised me against the 35 year old Tartan 27′ from 1967 we were considering because of it’s age. I listened to the advice and we bought the old boat anyway. It looks way better then the more modern designs and sails well to boot. It just has more systems that need repairing or maintaining.

What my good friend was warning me about is the kind of maintenance chores you have to do with an older boat. We decided it was time to replace our Cutless bearing due to the shaft rotation vibrations we experienced while underway and it was deferred maintenance that could be deferred no longer.
This picture is before we did anything to the drive train.

The picture below shows how one of the shaft log hose clamps turned to dust after poking at it with a screw driver.

As it turns out, much of our drive train could very well be 43 years old, the same age as our boat. We decided to cut our old bronze shaft after we discovered that it was well worn where it meets the cutless bearing.

A borrowed Sawzall with a metal blade made light work of cutting our shaft into two pieces (thanks Bob).

With the shaft in 2 pieces and removed from the boat it was fairly easy to remove both the flange and the prop from the remaining pieces of the shaft. We used an old automobile steering wheel puller kit I had to press off the flange from the shaft and the high tech kit our club had for pulling the prop.

Sunday 12/11/11.
We spent another 4 hours or so working on the drive train today. We had tried pressing out the perhaps 43 year old Cutless bearing with no success so the next plan called for dragging out the Sawzall again to cut up the old bearing. This picture shows what a power tool can do to a Cutless bearing:

Once we were able to remove one strip of brass the Cutless bearing was easier to remove.

We did a minimal prep job of cleaning the stern tube and moved quickly into ‘put the new Cutless in’ mode. Perhaps that was a mistake. We got the bearing about half way in but it is going to take bigger wrenches, bigger nuts, better swear words and more, thicker threaded rod to get it all the way there.

I am not looking forward to pulling the new bearing out and doing a proper prep job of the stern tube. I hope the bigger tools make the rest of this easier.

December 23rd.
With the winter solstice passed and snow and ice on the way, it was time to take another crack at pressing our new cutless bearing all the way into the hull and hopefully setting up a rudimentary tent over the boat.
We were not getting the leverage we needed and we were rounding the outside of the nuts as we tightened them on our last go around. We had some time to think about how to approach this so we bought a new 3/4″ box wrench and some fresh nuts for the threaded rod at the local hardware store. We had been using open wrenches that mostly work on two sides of the nuts which was pretty tough on our nuts. A box wrench grabs all six sides of the hex nut and delivers the power a bit more evenly. The box wrench I bought did not have the ratcheting mechanism shown in this picture:
We found a 2′ section of pipe with a 2″ inner diameter that would fit over the wrench that would deliver some extra leverage. We also used some 320 grit sandpaper to lightly reduce the diameter of the remaing portion of the cutless bearing. In addition I put some Marvel Mystery Oil (5W) on both the threaded rod and the bearing. With these extra measures we were able to press the bearing all the way in, if slowly. Hallelujah! Just in time for Christmas, Hannukah and whatever other holidays fall around now.
The press fitting of the bearing took so little time that we were able to erect a rudimentary tent over the deck of the boat to keep the rain, snow and ice mostly off the boat.
The last on-board task I did was to disconnect the two old batteries that will live on the boat for the winter from the electrical system. They should discharge slowly with nothing hooked up to them and we have a way to run the bilge pump if we need to. Our primary pair of batteries are on vacation, sitting in a garage hooked up to a trickle charger.
The next event in the ‘drive train overhaul’ will be driving to the prop shop up in Newburgh, NY. This job needs to be completed well before our April launch date.

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2011, October 18th. Quick work visit and Cetol.

Caleb — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:40:09 +0000

Owning a boat is a large responsibility and our old boat has numerous yearly, and more frequent maintenance chores that go along with ownership. Do you maintain your own house/apartment, car or other equipment? A boat is like a tiny house that floats and has it’s own utilities AND it could sink at any moment. It is good to be able to fix things on your own boat if you can.
I visited Odalisque today to work on the less noble chore of finishing exterior teak bright work (the equivalent of moldings in a house except it has to endure rain and snow). In the short time I gave myself I was able to put one more coat of Cetol Natural Teak on our exterior teak; well, most of it. I could not have picked a better mid October afternoon for this task; the wind was was very calm, it was warm (near 70F), the river was calm and our boat waited patiently while I put more nail polish on her finger nails (toe rails) as the current in the river changed direction and we slowly spun around the mooring.
As the sun lowered in the west and the light faded I kept up with brush and Cetol around our hatch boards and then called my partner Matt on VHF radio. He picked me up before twilight and I really enjoyed just being on our boat, if for just under 2 hours while making her look pretty and enjoying the scenery and the solitude.
Boats are a lot of work but even the ‘working on the boat’ part I enjoy. There is a saying: “A bad day on the boat is better then a horrible day at the office.” I haven’t spent a lot of time hanging around ‘the office’ lately but I do like messing around in boats.

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2011, August 29th, after Irene

Caleb — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:53:21 +0000

Our boat has now survived two relatively harsh tropical storms at her mooring off Nyack; Ernesto and now Irene. One larger keel boat from our mooring field lies sadly at an angle against the rip-rap rocks just south of our club; a likely casualty of failed mooring hardware. While conditions were pretty wild here we did not get the 80 – 85 knot gusts that were in the forecast; LI Sound buoy wind history showed no gusts over 50 with the same in the ocean by Ambrose channel. Irene sucked in a huge amount of dryer air after it left the Delaware Bay area so by 10 am on Sunday after the center of circulation had passed us it was clear, there was no rain, the winds were lighter and the sun tried to come out. A storm surge sped up the Hudson and into the Sound (probably from both ends – yes, that sounds dirty!).
We were lucky. We also spent part of today putting the boom and both sails back on and removing the extra pendants from our mooring gear. It was a gorgeous day to be out on the river even if we were just working on our boat.
The down river current was ripping along, likely due to the watershed up north that is still draining south from all the rain. The river water was very turbid with all the land runoff.
There are some areas hard hit with flooding to our north and our neighbors to the south took the brunt of the stronger winds in North Carolina where it first made windfall.
I am hoping that my friends on the Chesapeake fared as well as we did.

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2011, August 27th. Storm prep for hurricane Irene.

Caleb — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 05:29:22 +0000

With a big push from Matt we managed to add 2 extra mooring pennants to Odalisque. The newly added pennants were our last retired set that are 3 – 4′ longer then our existing new pennants and will act as a backup to our primary set. Our sails have been taken down and bagged and the boom and spin pole are now housed in the cabin. Cowl vents are held in by butyl tape and copious amounts of duct tape were applied to things that should not move. All utilities are off and even the sink drain valve is closed. Whatever Mother Nature and the weather Gods hurl at us now will decide if we have done enough.
Tidal surge seems to be the big issue with hurricane Irene. It is a huge rotating mass of disturbed weather, nearly 400 miles wide which may cause a tidal surge greater then Gloria, Bob, or Ernesto; all hurricanes of fairly recent memory that have passed over Long Island, NY during my lifetime.
Odalisque survived what was then TS Ernesto on her mooring anchor on the Hudson by Nyack, NY in 2006. I am hoping that she will survive hurricane Irene however she comes.

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2011, August 2nd – 4th with Weds. race

Caleb — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:14:41 +0000

Rick, Don and I managed to get out on ‘Odalisque’ around 11 am from Nyack Boat Club on Wednesday, August 3rd. With light or no wind evident we motored up to near the magnificent cliffs where there was at least some evidence of a light breeze. We tacked up river and tested the echo effect of one of the rock faces from varying distances and verified that sound does indeed travel about 1,126 feet per second. Life is perhaps a little more interesting when you are sailing with 2 science teachers.
We buzzed in close to Sing-Sing, the notorious Ossining prison and looking for guards in the guard towers surrounding this impressive complex. We got quite close to Croton Point when someone spotted a large, maybe 3 – 4 foot, fish break water and splash down on the surface. Probably a Sturgeon. I only saw the effect of the large animals splash.
We had a race to participate in at 6:30 so we headed south back to Nyack as the wind shifted from the NE to the SE and we hit our best speeds over ground near 6 knots. The sky had clouded over giving us some relief from the sun and rain was expected and experienced. It was not a pounding rain but a spritzing or gentle rain as I would call it. We tied ‘Odalisque’ to the NBC dock around 5 pm and waited for Matt to join us.
The tenacity of the rain increased so we raced in the rain and got wet. I can’t tell you how many adjustments, tweaks, jibes or pole launches we did but at the finish we were very close to 2 boats in our division finishing 3rd over the line. The PHRF corrected results I saw put us in 1st place over our competition. I’m afraid that this first place finish thing is seeming to be more like a habit then an accident. We brought ‘Odalisque’ back to the NBC dock to spend another night aboard.
Rick stayed around long enough to enjoy a hot meal at the NBC snack bar and enjoy some frosty beverages with Don and I aboard ‘Odalisque’ once we said good night to Matt. When Rick was going to his car around 10 pm he heard what could have been fireworks but sounded more like gunshots. Then he heard police sirens wailing. A pretty big, if rare event in Nyack. Don and I heard none of it as we were ensconced in the cabin of ‘Odalisque’ hiding from the wind and rain.
The next day Don prepared for the rest of his trip up to Maine for a family shindig and I slowly found the energy to move about. Don left around noon leaving me to contemplate my own retreat and returning ‘Odalisque’ to her mooring. Once I had nearly all of my belongings off of ‘Odalisque’ I thought that I was ready to take her back to her mooring except that there was very little juice left on our batteries; I had left the power on overnight which had trickle depleted the batteries of which one was seven years old.
It was bullet biting time so I drove off to Haverstraw to get 2 new batteries leaving the boat tied up at the dock. Once I had the new batteries connected the engine started but still ran at high rpms (2000) and would stall if I tried to lower the throttle to a normal idle speed of 600-800 rpms. Matt joined me and decided to look at the spark plugs (which were fine) and then he replaced the distributor cap, rotor and ignition wires (thankfully the spares were on the boat). Once we started her up she ran just fine at an easy 600 rpms at idle and would throttle up when asked to. We motored uneventfully back to the mooring and enjoyed putting the boat away when she was dry, clean(er) and functional in every sense instead of wet, broken or about to break, and barely functioning.
There is a lot of give and take with boats much as there is with human relationships. I always enjoy sailing or racing our boat but I especially enjoy using it in a manner it was intended for; cruising with friends, even if we just tie up at the dock for the night instead of anchoring out. I thoroughly enjoyed my ‘birthday cruise’ on our boat and hope we can make it a tradition. I’ll also try to work on all the other things ‘she’ has asked me to do for her.
It was also great to sail with old friends who helped me to make this happen. My thanks to all of you. You know who you are.

Hope you are enjoying high summer.

Caleb

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2011, July 27th Wednesday race

Caleb — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:20:10 +0000

We earned a red badge of courage as sailors and finally managed to wrap a dock line around our prop with the engine running, while in gear.
We had taken our boat to a finger pier and had a diver do a ‘bottom job’ on the boat while we did some wood finishing work. An extra stern line was deployed to help the diver maneuver around under the hull from the other stern cleat.
The weather had been a bit fractious with localized storms passing on either side of us at Nyack. We experienced some wind gusts and a few rain drops.
Since there was some lightning and thunder nearby I guess we were in a hurry to get back to the mooring. I cast off the dock lines as Matt took us off the finger pier until the motor died. It did not sound right. Tried again and the same.
We unfurled the jib and managed to sail to our mooring under jib alone. Granted, there were light winds but there is always a current in the Hudson. My hat is off to Ernie who kept in touch with us by radio and picked us up once the lightning had moved safely off to the SE.
So on Tuesday, we had a clean bottom, a new main sail and an engine that was fouled because the propeller was strangled by a line, or rope, wrapped around it.
By Wednesday afternoon I got to our boat club at 4 PM and we ‘hip towed’ our boat in with one of their motor boats. Morris helped us with lifting the boat out of the water with their 10 Ton crane while Matt scooted under our boat to cut away the offending tangle of line on our prop. We now owe Morris a yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum for his help in expediting the mess we had both made.
Because we had just lifted our boat in the straps we had pushed our center board into the slot far enough so that it was stuck in the up position. We got out to the RC boat and hoped the board would fall but we were prepared to sail her as she was. The center board never dropped and we sailed the whole race without it and I’d be surprised if we were not within seconds of first place or in first. Leeway be damned.
That will not be our first 1st finish this season.

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2011, June 22 race, showers.

Caleb — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:49:21 +0000

I am happy that Bill joined us for this race. That brought our number of hands up to 4 so now worries, right?
The radar showed some local cells approaching our area so the race started later then the usual 6:30 PM start and we were the only boat in our division as other sailors just did not like the look of the radar images and stayed put at the club. I’m glad I brought a bathing suit with me to wear in the cockpit.
We may have finished 1st in our division but we got wet, really wet. It was kind of wondrous to see, hear and experience the rain coming across the river and lose sight to the north due to low clouds and threatening weather. The threatening part was mostly about rain and not high winds and hail so it rained in waves. Some overhead thunder was heard.
The river and the wind showed their moodiness. The clouds came low and dumped their white walls or veils of rain over the water. The wind was never strong but was fickle as always. The river current changed to S about the time of the race.

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2011, June 15th race, Full moon.

Caleb — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:25:19 +0000

We have been working as a crew on ‘Odalisque’ for a while now. The three of us: me, Kenny and Matt have been doing a good job of keeping our old cruising boat at the top of our highest PHRF racing division so it is not a big surprise that we finished first in our group. The trouble was that the race started later then the Notice of Race stipulates so this race was not counted.
There was a beautiful orange full moon that came up over Tarrytown and the weather was wonderful and warm. It was a great night to be out on the Hudson which came up so orange. There was a full eclipse of the moon in the southern hemisphere on this night so the moon was coming out of penumbra and was quite orange in color.
This was the night that Matt fixed the fuel leak we had going on with our water separator filter. It really was a good night.

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Hudson River sailing

Caleb — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 04:37:18 +0000

Hudson River sailing turns out to be not that different then sailing in the L.I. Sound except that the tidal currents are generally stronger and the high cliffs and mountains that line the lower Hudson valley tend to make the wind a bit more erratic. We have been enjoying our Weds. night racing matches at NBC and judging the current of the river is one of the critical matters that a racing skipper needs to take into account.
Sometimes the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Sometimes the shortest time sailing between two points is not a straight line. The currents, especially in a river can make or break your forward progress.

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Third season; up the river

Caleb — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:06:47 +0000

We started our third season with ‘Odalisque’ on the LI Sound and happily there were no issues with the boat. The highlight for me of this season was the delivery trip we did with ‘Odalisque’ bringing her up to Nyack Boat Club from ‘the Sound’. A change of anchorage was planned and although an unknown to me, I agreed to the Tappan Zee area of the Hudson River. The boat would be quite close to where Matt and family had moved to.
A plan was made, while consulting the Eldridge Tide and Pilot manual about the East River currents and times, a day was picked and a crew showed up to take ‘Odalisque’ around Manhattan and up the Hudson River. The crew was myself (Caleb), Matt and my old friend Jean Marien from my school days.
On the LI Sound section of our relocation trip we sailed all the way from Hempstead Harbor. We entered the East River an hour or two late for the change of the current so we tacked and tacked again. In fact we sailed down to just before Roosevelt Island before we kicked in the motor and furled in the jib for the flume ride by Roosevelt Island. Our hand held GPS showed our speed over ground (SOG) at just under 10 knots as we flew by a congested F.D.R. Drive.

Rounding the bottom of Manhattan it is important to watch out for the Governor’s and Staten Island Ferries. We took a few tacks near Lady Liberty and the end of Manhattan and motored into Liberty Landing Marina for the night.

Jessica joined us the next morning for the 25 nautical miles to Nyack, up the river. Pretty soon we were under way. Once we reached the Palisades and were past the G. W. Bridge our SW wind was greatly reduced. A Canadian catamaran of at least 32′ came up from behind us flying only an asymmetrical spinnaker. The Canucks passed us. It was a long day in a lot of sun and heat but we got ‘Odalisque’ delivered to the Nyack Boat Club.
Pictured here are Jessie and Jean:

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