Log of SV Free Spirit and ships company

The chronicles of the schooner Free Spirit and her crew, embarking on an open ended journey upon the great rolling heap. Free Spirit is currently pursuing humanitarian and commercial goals in the Dominican Republic, on the island of Hispaniola. Working under the Ocean Reach USA and Paradigm Research banners, she is serving as logistics headquarters, workshop, and development laboratory for many ongoing projects. This is the log of her journey.....

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Windows & Hatches



The following posts are obviously a little late :-) Please attempt the closest thing to time travel available to you, and enjoy the moment!



Here are my long awaited new windows, sealed and not rusty! We are super happy with the job Alliance Glass in Fort Myers did for us, each piece fit perfectly! We still have one more to install when we return in the fall, because a unbroken piece was accidentally broken while being stored for re-installation.



There are 7 hatches all together on the boat. 1 forward, 4 on the salon cabin top, and 2 on the aft deck. All of them needed the steel prepped and the glass replaced. As shown in a previous post, we also installed new hinges on all of them. Here I am doing the very un-natural task of busting the old glass out of the frames.



Drake, watching and waiting for any excuse to use his hammer on this job :-)



Removing the old sealant.



Hmmm... Rusty, difficult to grind and full of glass slivers; Just how I wanted to spend the next few days......



Hmmm... Maybe in the right setting I could sell this as an art form. I have in my travels seen many sculptures that I would not consider a prettier form of art. Each on of these hatch covers did in fact take about 6 to 7 hours after the final coat of paint was applied.



Here are Tamer and Raoul installing the glass in the salon top hatches. Keep in mind that at this point in the day, it had probably peaked at about 98 degrees with a humidity of 90%. Also, most of the time, the daily thunderstorms only made the atmosphere more intolerable.



This is before the razor blade clean up around the edges of the sealant.



Cleaning up.... They turned out so beautifully! I couldn't be more happy with the end result! They are sooooo clear, and crack free too! (Nancy Reagan would be proud)



The new hatches even received a new latching system. The old ones were of a very bad design, hard for the kids to use, and an intrusion into the interior.



You can see here, that the gas struts are attached with a movable stainless steel plate, that rotates freely, depending on how much the hatch is open.



Fully opened... It is not shown, but there is a small rope that cleats to the interior to latch them shut.



Preparing the aft deck and final 2 hatches was a task that we had to finish before Tamer left for Alaska. The last of the big leaks! When we started removing the rust scale from the small space between the outer piece and the inner structural wall, we found that the port side was rusted through in many places. You can see here at the bottom of the picture, that Tamer has already cut off the section with the grinder. I am cleaning up the deck side of the cuts, and prepping the surface for welding on the new piece.



Blayde and Tamer heating and bending the new piece of flat bar to fit the space.



My amazing man welding on the new piece... I must point out (as I probably already have many times), this is the beauty of steel. If you have a bad piece, you cut it out, and weld in a new one!



The starboard side was not near as bad, and I was able to prep like the others. Here I am doing the thing that everyone within 100 feet cannot stand... Air chiseling! It is very affective, but by far the noisiest method to remove scale!



Saaannnddiinnnggg........ Takes me away, to where I'm going...........



Awww, what a cute couple :-)



Here are the deck sides, done and ready for the hatches to be put on. You can also see the skylight hatches on the cabin top, ready to be installed.



WOW! What a difference.....

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Introducing Propcalc 4.0

Use Propcalc to easily match your hull with your engine, transmission, and propeller
Put the known data in the top fields, then hit the Update button to get the answers.
Results, of course, should be verified by a Naval Architect or qualified surveyor.
Data is provided for three bladed propellers of average type
For two or four bladed props, use the modifiers shown below.

Fill out the fields as follows:

Vessel LWL (ft) = Waterline length
Vessel Disp (lbs) = Vessel displacement
(max) HP = Rated Engine Max HP
Engine RPM max = Engine RPM at Max HP
Engine RPM cruise = Desired or estimated cruise rpm
(Cruise or Max) Kts = Speed to work the calculations for
Slip = Propeller efficience. 45% is average for a displacement cruiser.
Gear ratio = 1: Gear ratio of transmission
SL Ratio Adj. = This value will be added (or subtracted, if a negative value) to the calculated S/L ratio.

Key information:

If the "hp required" is greater than the "cruse HP", you have your cruise RPM set too low for your engine parameters.
If the "hp required" is significantly less than the "cruse HP", you have your cruise RPM set too high for your engine parameters.
If the "hp required" is greater than the "Max HP", then your target speed is too high for your engine/hull parameters.
The S/L ratio is calculated automaticaly based on your input. It can be adjusted if necessary, but normally it should be left alone.
If the calculated S/L ratio exceeds S/L MAX, then the results are likely to be non-predictive. Try a lower speed requirement.
SL Ratios of 1.1 - 1.4 are typical of displacement hulls. Semiplaning or planing hulls can go higher.

Typical propeller slip values:

Sailing auxiliary, barges, etc less than 9 Kts............45%
Heavy powerboats, workboats 9 - 15 Kts....................26%
Powerboats, Lightweight Cruisers 15 - 30 Kts..............24%
High speed planing boats 30 - 45 Kts......................20%
V bottom race boats 45 - 90 Kts...........................10%


Note:

it is possible to get irrational answers by irrational input , I.E specifying excessive speed for hull type and length
Any attempt to exceed hull speed (1.34 times the square root of the waterline length in feet) with a displacement hull are likely
to fail unless the hull is extremely fine (multihull) or otherwise exceptional. In such cases, an S/L adjustment would be in order.

2 and 4 bladed props:


For two bladed propellers, multiply the diameter by 1.05, and the pitch by 1.01
For four bladed propellers, multiply the diameter by .94, and the pitch by .98


PROPCALC
  Inputs:
Vessel LWL (ft) =
Vessel Disp (lbs) =
  (max) HP =
  Engine RPM max =
  Engine RPM cruise =
  (Cruise or Max) Kts =
  Slip =
  Gear ratio = 1:
  SL Ratio Adj. =
   
    Solutions:
  Prop rpm max =
  Prop rpm cruise =
  Pitch =
  Diameter =
  Static Thrust =
  Cruise HP =
  Cruise HP% =
  SL Ratio =
  DL Ratio =
  SL Max =
  HP Required =