Building 23' catamaran. Build updates

[stevemid]

Hi Steve

Wouldn't window covers at least be worth it if only to keep prying eyes out from a security point of view?
I bought the mesh and the SNADS today
I am a bit like Lovey 80, were it my blood sweat and $s I rather see it up on a trailer as it was for transport or at least under cover and some security on racks when not in use. At least you know who has some experience building what you need and can knock you up a trailer. Did it work OK by the way?
Cheers
Chimo

I assume by "it" you mean the trailer? Yes, it worked a treat as did the Patrol. I'm now taking Saturday morning to read the papers, the blogs and drink too much coffee. A little later, a trip up the coast to get my hot knife and some bias binding to complete the mesh coverings for the front windows. Life is great with only the bits and bobs to add over time.
Steve

[Chimo]

What colour 4wd are you looking for?

[stevemid]

What colour 4wd are you looking for?

I am accepting gifts without respect to color or brand, only that they are register-able in NSW, or that they come with a Qld house with a decent shed.

[Chimo]

Sounds like a plan!

[weswilson]

Awesome job Steve, beautiful boat! Thanks so much for blogging it all and posting the frequent pictures throughout!

[MarkIC]

Hi Steve, almost seems sad that the updates have stopped :-( With all the great Easter weather surely you have some new Pic's of her out playing

[stevemid]

Hi Steve, almost seems sad that the updates have stopped :-( With all the great Easter weather surely you have some new Pic's of her out playing

G'day Mark,
Yeah, I miss the reporting and feedback too! Trouble is now I have to get in the dinghy to take photos of the boat and doing things single handed underway is stupid and probably illegal! I've been doing a lot of toodling around the harbour and using Seadog as a workboat to visit the sailboat which I'm getting ready to sell.

Anyway, I've been sorting out my fishing equipment and perfecting my on-board flushing system. I've spoken about the equipment I've collected over in the tackle forum (I think the thread is tackle recommendations please.) Here is a video which shows the salt-away flushing system. This is connected to the freshwater parmax 11L/M pump and really works well.

Today I finally got around to mounting my transducer in the space between one of the motor pods and the boarding platform. I've temporarily mounted the tranducer to a piece of pvc which is screwed to a 400mm X 50mm aluminium angle, which is clamped to the side of the motor pod. Tomorrow I'm going to do some road tests and adjust the height of the puck to suit. See how much spray I'm generating, etc. Then when I have her hauled out for the 20hr service, I'll mount the pvc and the puck permanently in the right place.

Also at the 20hr service I'm going to repaint the antifoul line. (once I quit loading crap on board, I'll know how high to paint it.)

[MarkIC]

Hi Steve, good stuff with the flushing setup. I know there are people that say salt x and macs etc etc work / don't work. I've got a 220hp v6 mercruiser with an alpha leg that is now 10 years old in a whittley 660 cruiser with 450 hours. The original owner always flushed with macs and I have as well since buying the boat 2 years ago.

Anyway most people say 5 years is about it for manifolds and risers, well I changed the risers last year at 9 years old and have new manifolds ready to fit later this month for my 2014 service so they have lasted 10 years.

Always used in salt water but stored on a trailer and religiously flushed every time with macs :-)

unfortunately I'm up brassy way otherwise I'd be happy to act as a chase boat and grab some more pics and video of your great project.

Awesome job, thanks so much for taking the time to share this experience with everyone

[stevemid]

Hi Steve, good stuff with the flushing setup. I know there are people that say salt x and macs etc etc work / don't work. I've got a 220hp v6 mercruiser with an alpha leg that is now 10 years old in a whittley 660 cruiser with 450 hours. The original owner always flushed with macs and I have as well since buying the boat 2 years ago.

Anyway most people say 5 years is about it for manifolds and risers, well I changed the risers last year at 9 years old and have new manifolds ready to fit later this month for my 2014 service so they have lasted 10 years.

Always used in salt water but stored on a trailer and religiously flushed every time with macs :-)

unfortunately I'm up brassy way otherwise I'd be happy to act as a chase boat and grab some more pics and video of your great project.

Awesome job, thanks so much for taking the time to share this experience with everyone

Yep, as the little Irishman says, "t' be sure, t' be sure."

Frankly, they say human taste is a very good detector of the presence of salt and I must admit that after just a minute of freshwater flushing, I cannot taste any salt coming out the teltale so I'm not sure how 'necessary' salt-x actually is, but I'm on a mooring and I'm flushing out of the on-board tanks so I don't have the luxury of letting the water run forever. So for me, the salt-x is just that little be of extra insurance and it certainly easily removes the residual saltspray on the motors.

[stevemid]

I got the mattress for the berth on the weekend. Clark rubber had a queen sized 100m foam one with a zippered cover for $129 so I picked that up. I just needed to trim it a little bit where the bows curve in but it fits perfectly. The bridgedeck curves up a bit to the bulkhead separating the berth from the anchor lockers so I reckon I'll make that the head end.

Also have had some problems with seagull shite so I acquired a Bird Busta which has trained them to roost on the neighbors' boats. $79 at Whitworths. I split a couple 50mm PVC pipe lengths to mount 'em. I'm going to change the mounting so that the 4mm bungee cord doesn't have to cross the solar panels. Anyone have any opinion as to how much those two 4mm strips would degrade panel performance?

[Chimo]

Steve

Not enough to notice.

Clark rubber seems very cost effective and when multiplied by night-caps and gentle rocking motion should be good to go.

Must be almost time to lift it and get the paint brush out?

Are you going to lift the motors a hole or two while you have it out?

Cheers
Chimo

[stevemid]

Yep, 17 hours on the motors. I'm ordering the coppershield this week. I started out with the motors mounted at the top hole learning too late that on a sharkcat type boat, the motor mounting plate should be 70mm higher than a normal planing boat. So the top hole gave me 50mm rise. I'm going to live with the motors being 20mm too low for a while. Right now my money is going to paying off the launching expenses and buying fishing equipment.

Steve

[Chimo]

3' or 5" jacking plates are about $200 ea but as you say maybe later .

When you get bored you can rebuild a tow truck and build a trailer too.

Cheers
Chimo

[stevemid]

3' or 5" jacking plates are about $200 ea but as you say maybe later .

When you get bored you can rebuild a tow truck and build a trailer too.

Cheers
Chimo

You are better than my wife at creating "honey-do" lists for me.

[Chimo]

Here to help !!!