Back from a couple of days putting her in the water and a sail out in lake St Clair. All the work I had done over the winter was well worth it. So, some observations, and a few questions.
I was done with the 150 Genoa last season so fitted the jib instead. This was a very good thing I think. Much less heeling yet the same speeds. Had 10 to 25 knot winds and this seemed like a perfect sail for that. About half the weather helm, force to hold the wheel. So much easier to tack with instead of dragging that 150 over the shrouds, it just flips over quickly. Very nice.
I set up to run downwind so I could experiment with the jibe preventer line, worked well, I let the main back wind and the preventer kept the boom where it was. Lot of load on that line at that point, but I had ran the line through the large cheek block, with cam, that is behind the aft winch, then back to that winch, good plan I thought.
My new traveler was nice. Can now make small trim changes without leaving the helm, and watch the speed change on the now working ST60 instrument. I sailed close to the wind and could take the traveller past center and gain a few degrees more, nice. I have 3:1 on that system, and it needs that much to adjust under load.
I had never put diesel in the tank, it was full when I bought it. I was worried about the guage calibration and that maybe it was almost empty. So at the fuel dock I had the wife call out at each 5 gallons, and I put a mark on the gauge bezel, so at least I have some idea what is in it . Was amazed that I only had to put in 25 gallons, with the hours of motoring up and down the St Clair river. Marine diesel has no road tax on it, at least in Michigan, and was about 50 cents cheaper a gallon.
The water tanks were, well, in one word, nasty. So I had pumped a bleach and water mix in them through a hose that I had ty-wrapped sponges to the end and scrubbed as the bleach pumped in, and repeated that over and over. Now, the water does not have an odor to it, very nice.
Yes, that is 7.2 feet deep there in the pic, St Clair isn't much deeper than 12 feet mostly.
Questions; the Rariton PH1 toilet, that I had rebuilt last year with a rebuild kit, works, but not well. We are both mostly over it. So, what pump unit could I replace it with? Electric might be nice? I'd rather not replace the whole bowl and everything.