Project Progress, 2018

[NickScheuer]

Didn't use the boat a lot this last season except for our cruise among the Slate Islands of Lk Superior.

Project accomplishments were mostly minor, but nice to have completed. The glitchy ball-bearing catches on the head door were removed in favor of a standard black-finished diecast zinc hardware store storm door knob. Works every time with no accidental openings.

Replaced the sliding thingy hold-open prop on the hinged companionway hatch with a spring prop from WM which holds the hatch up when it's straight, and lets the hatch down when you bend it in the middle. Should done that years ago; the hatch no longer falls on our heads prematurely as we pass through.

Got the necessary parts to rebuild the wiper arm on the port windshield wiper, so now we have a pair.

Put new O-ring on the rudder post.

Filled our shaft seal with grease.

But most importantly, have rewired the navigation lights through a new (a year ago) circuit breaker panel so that four out of five now work properly. None of them would light when we got the DuNORD, so we've been using clamp-on lights when needed, though we rarely run in the dark. In addition to the red, green and 240-120 white pair , I added a 360 white anchor light to the top of the mast (not the sail rig). I still need to locate and move the wire for the 240 white light, work made more difficult after botched attempted fix several years ago. The objective is to deactivate the original fuse board, and I'm almost there.

[NickScheuer]

Of course we're legal to run at night using the 360 white light, but I want to have the original pair of Albin 240-120 white lights working properly.

[NickScheuer]

I should point out that electrical work is the element of boat maintenance I'm least comfortable with.

[DesertAlbin736]

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing... about in boats — or with boats. In or out of ’em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."
From Wind In The Wilows, by Kenneth Grahame