Category Archives: About Sunny Spells

Descriptive posts about Sunny Spells, her equipment, history and performance.

Windlass Overhaul

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VS1000C Windlass by South Pacific

South Pacific VS1000C Windlass

During my initial re-fit I fitted a South Pacific VS1000C windlass and replaced the anchor(s) and rode.

Having pulled the old anchor up by hand a couple of times I realized that a windlass was an essential, not a nice-to-have. I chose the South Pacific because:

  • it was cheap(!), which is never a good move, and
  • the vertical motor allowed installation above the anchor locker outside the forward of the cabin.

The winch is now just over two years old and, of course, out of warranty. It has seen a fair amount of work during my two passages up the East Coast. We anchored at the islands up north and I guess it’s pulled up the anchor oh, I don’t know, three or four dozen times. I’ve always been pretty careful not to overload the winch, motoring up to the anchor if there was a bit of breeze or only lifting the chain and waiting for the catenary of the rode to pull the boat up if there was little or no wind.

Last year, after returning from Airlie Beach, I noticed the windlass had become sluggish and intermittent. Some times I had to use a winch handle to manually wind a couple of turns before it would re-start. It was fine letting the anchor out, but pulling it up was a problem. The capstan also wobbled a lot under load, indicating that the bearings were loose.

By the time we got to Gabo Island earlier this year the windlass was pretty much useless and I knew it was probably overdue for a clean/service.

It was a pain removing the windlass, because the wiring is carefully concealed under the deck-head in the v-berth, so I had to pull the deck head out to get to the cables. Everything is also hard-wired in the interests of current delivery, so it meant cutting the cables.

Anyway, I brought it home, disassembled the unit, and found that the inside of the electric motor was covered in gold-coloured grease! The grease had migrated from the gearbox down through the top bearing of the electric motor and then covered everything: armature, brushes… The gold colour of the grease was caused by fine bronze dust, a product of the output shaft wearing away the bottom bearing – a simple bronze bush.

I realized that to fix the windlass properly was going to be difficult. At the very least, it would require a new bush to be machined for the output shaft and as there is no space for an oil-seal between the electric motor and the gearbox, the grease is likely to keep soaking into the electric motor.

I’ve now cleaned the gearbox and motor, re-packed the gearbox with marine grease and re-assembled the unit in the hope that I’ll get another 2 years use out of it before throwing it away…

Wet Exhaust Alarm: Cheap Insurance

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Soon after I acquired Sunny Spells, I experienced the dreaded “exhaust muffler meltdown”. We were motoring out to a twilight race when the exhaust note suddeny changed and a lot of smoke was emitted from the engine room. We had the main up already so the engine was killed immediately and we continued the race. After the race we picked up a mooring under sail (lucky I was not on my own).

I established that a cooling hose had come off (a separate story could be told about the cause). The plastic water lift muffler had melted and a very simple fault had now resulted in a nasty repair job. Graham Friend, having decades of experience, had fortunately saved the engine by killing it instantly.

After a bit of “Googling” I found what appeared to be the perfect solution to avoid a repeat of the problem. Borel Mfg in the US makes an exhaust temperature alarm that claims to activate immediately should the exhaust temperature rise. It seemed to be reasonably priced at $89 and I ordered one straightaway – it arrived after about a week. Installation was simple enough – the most onerous task being the wiring. I chose to install the alarm below, but ran a repeater wire to the engine alarm in the cockpit.

Borel Wet Exhaust Alarm

Borel Wet Exhaust Alarm

I’ve often wondered whether it actually works – it’s just been sitting there for two years, making a quick beep whenever the engine is started… Recently, however, it finally paid for itself many times over, when a raw water impeller failed, and saved me a lot of hassle and expense. The engine and exhaust system was saved by the exhaust temperature alarm when a brand new raw water pump impeller failed. The story of that event is the subject of an earlier post…

Practical Range for HF Weatherfax Reception

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I spent a bit of time rigging a long-wire antenna at home today to see what sort of range is practical for HF Weatherfax reception:

  • The antenna is now about 20 metres long, made entirely from inexpensive hookup wire.
  • The antenna is L-shaped, with one leg oriented East-West and the other North-South.
  • I’ve also connected an earth wire to a copper stake just outside my window, significantly reducing background noise.

To my delight the little Degen DE-1103 receiver pulled in the Wellington MetService broadcast on two of the four frequencies! That’s 1,000 nautical miles! Local weatherfaxes from Charleville (WMC) are now clean and crisp.

HF Weatherfax received in Sydney from Wellington

HF Weather Fax Reception

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It hasn’t been really necessary on my last trip, being mostly within range of VHF weather forecasts, but getting offshore weather via HF WeatherFax has intrigued me.

If you’re carrying a notebook computer anyway, the only thing you need is an HF receiver with SSB (Single-Side Band) capability. Most people think megabucks when they hear “HF” and “SSB”, but a very inexpensive receiver will actually do the job. I bought a Degen DE1103 off E-Bay. You simply connect the output from the receiver to your notebook’s microphone input and then use one of the available software packages to decode the fax data received on the appropriate frequency at the given time! I use SEATTY from DXsoft, an amazing piece of software that literally does everything for you!

Receiving a fax using SEATTY

I was amazed at the ability of the little Degen DE1103 receiver (read some reviews here). Even at home, with the supplied 12 metre long wire antenna strung among trees, I can usually get quite clear fax reception. Out at Curlew Island one night, I strung the wire antenna from the forestay to the backstay, and found the receiver was overloaded with the sensitivity switched to “DX”. On “LO” I had perfect reception!

HF Weatherfax received with Degen DE1103 receiver and notebook running SeaTTY