Dinghy Davits - Sold

The dinghy davits sold last week to a guy in Ohio who responded to my Seattle Craigslist ad. Packaging them was a serious effort consuming 4 rolls of tape and a dozen sticks of hot-melt glue. Hope they arrive safely.

Craigslist is an amazing tool for the money (free). You do need to be careful not to be ripped off. The best insurance is CASH. I would not have had courage though, as the buyer did, to send a large sum of money to a stranger 2000 miles away on the hope that the merchandise would arrive as promised. But thats me.

High Performance WiFi Adapter

Swantown Marina where Summer Place is moored offers free wifi. Our slip however is far away from the access point and the signal is too weak for the laptop's internal wifi adapter. RadioLabs offers a high performance adapter for $140. + shipping that completely eliminates the problem.

All of the electronics are located inside the antenna module. All you need to do is install the driver software and plug cable into a USB jack.

I like having wifi on the boat for email and internet surfing but also for watching Slingbox and listening to Pandora, the free and excellent internet radio service.

Slingbox is a device that connects to your home video system and home network. It transmits your home TV signal across the internet to any location where wifi is available. You can even control your video system from the remote location

Satellite tv on Dell notebook (note the remote on left side)

DirecTV program guide controlled from remote location
Slingbox at home

Dinghy Davits

Summer Place came to us with a beautiful set of Ocean Marine lifting davits. Its a good setup for lightweight inflatables but not a happy marriage with a Livingston hard dinghy and 8hp outboard - my preferred setup.


Once the dinghy is raised as high as possible, its very difficult to stabilize as the davit is optimized for the tubes of the inflatable.

Rubbing salt on the wound, the length of the boat with the dinghy mounted on the davits, exceeds the allowed length for the 36ft. slip. That forces us into a 40 ft slip for an extra $40/month.

I have a nice set of davits for sale. Contact me if you're interested.

Winchlass?

Summer Place has a power device for raising the sail. Its also great for hauling bodies up the mast. Its very powerful - easily capable of doing a lot of damage if used carelessly.

I was wondering why this thing isn't self-tailing like all the other winches?? Could it be converted? The name on the top is Maxwell Nilsson. I went to the Maxwell website where it says that Maxwell winch assets are now owned by an Australian firm called ARCO. (winches@attglobal.net)

I contacted them and the story is that this device is really an anchor windlass and cannot be converted. I learned that most Maxwell winches can be converted but not so for the windlass.

Autopilot

Summer Place now has an Autopilot with wireless remote. (Raymarine X5/S100)

Installation is bolt-on simple owing to the elimination of the rudder position sensor from the previous (S-1) model.

I would have preferred a below-decks unit to avoid the wheel-mounted actuator but at triple the cost, I couldn't justify it for the inland use the boat will have.

The remote allows steering from any position on board.

Electronics Refit

I decided to rearrange the navigation electronics on Summer Place. The goal is to open up the view at the helm.

After removing the electronics console and cup holders that came with the boat. I needed a simple mount for the GPS/chartplotter. It had to allow the GPS to be rotated to any angle because when the weather is bad, I stand under the dodger and steer with the autopilot remote control or when sailing, I like to sit on the leeward coaming.

The mount is cut from 3/4" Starboard. 1 1/4" holes engage the pedestal guard and the mount is held in place with 1/4" nylon set screws. A 5/16" diameter thumbscrew can be eased off which allows the GPS to rotate.





The radar display was moved to the nav station below decks. I'm comfortable running in low/no visibility with chartplotter alone except in areas where ships and ferries also operate. With the display mounted below, targets can be spotted by crew, or when single-handing, with a quick step below for a look at the radar picture.

Cockpit Table

A must-have accessory for me is a cockpit table. Many of them are available to buy for lots of money but none that meet all my requirements. So I decided to make my own -- again.

My basic requirement is to have a table that can be used while operating the boat and not interfere with movement about the cockpit.

The table will be an improvement of the one we had on the Nonsuch 26 (photos) with the main difference being material. The previous version was built of plywood with Formica laminate and teak trim. This one is built of white Starboard, a solid plastic composite, and teak trim.

The small "day-use" table remains attached to the pedestal all the time. If a larger table is desired for cockpit dining or socializing, a clamp-on leaf is available. The larger leaf (about 24" x 30") is stowed away when not in use.

Since the cockpit/helm arrangement on Summer Place is different than the Nonsuch 26, I decided to build a prototype out of some scrap plywood.









Prototype:



click here to see more pics