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04/03/2006: "A very good weekend"
We got out for a sail Sunday. The forecast was for temps in the low 70’s and about 10 knot winds. It was just too tempting to go sailing then to work on any projects. We got an early start and spent about six hours working up and down the river with 10 to 15 knot winds. We finished it off with a straight shot from Oriental to the channel entrance to our creek with the wind on the port quarter.
This was our first sail of the season. It reminded me of some of the projects that I have been putting off. The main halyard winch needs to be rebuilt and I bought two winches to use for parts for the headsail winches. I did solve the starting problem. I have been having problems with the starting battery not having enough power to start the engine without combining it with the house bank. All the tests I have run showed the battery was ok. This time I ran the load when starting the engine. Other load test have passed, By measuring the voltage drop when starting the engine there was a considerable drop below 12 volts, a sure sign that the battery did not have enough power to crank it over any more. A quick run into town and a new battery was installed. I also solved the slow starting problem. When I bought the boat it started as soon as the start button was pushed. I did something to it so that it took several tries to get it started. I found where I had disconnected the wires to and from the oil pressure switch. With the way I reconnected them the oil pressure had to be up to a certain pressure before the fuel valve opened. It had previously been bypassed. I found how it was bypassed and redid the connection. Once again it starts as soon as the button is pushed. Now I need to rethink the use of the pressure switch. It makes starting the engine harder but it provides a safety feature by shutting down the engine if the oil pressure drops. On the positive side, whatever was wrong with the auto pilot last fall is not happening now. He steered like a pro. The only glitch was when we wanted to tack to starboard. He just didn’t want to do it but worked perfectly when tacking to port.
Just a few issues to mull over during the week.