Home Port; on the Delaware River at Fox Grove Marina Essington PA.

2011-2012 Work

October 20, not yet hauled out and at least one more sail trip.

New companionway doors installed, photograph to follow and lock to be installed.

New kitchen box/companionway steps and chart table/shelf in progress.

Cabin bench and quarter birth deck boards to be templated and installed.

And,... all the usual winter maintenance projects

New Companionway doors
October 2011
Locking device to be improved
October 2011
Hull cleaned, sanded and one coat coal tar epoxy with copper flour
December 2011
Hull and Deck paint
It's the 1st week of March and overnight temperatures are starting to be above freezing with a few nights in the 40's F, time to start hull and deck prep and paint.
March 4, still not warm enough for painting, so remove registration numbers and decal, scrape loose paint under rub-rail and hull scratches  (yes sometimes I hit the floating dock and sometimes a piling). Fill sand and paint when temperatures stay above 40 deg F.

Drill 1" diameter drainage holes to lazzaret through transom beam. I will close the lazzaret floor drain connected to the former engine exhaust through hull, and keep this through hull for the high cockpit drain.

March 7 60's F during the day, 40's F overnight and 70 F March 8. light sand and paint hull above water line.

Sliding Companionway Hatch Dome
Maybe this year, maybe not, but not a priority;
16 inch acrylic dome from Edmund Opticshttp://www.edmundoptics.com/products/displayproduct.cfm?productid=1395 


May 2012
Depth Sounder
Uniden depth sounder display head no longer readable, replaced with HawkEye D10D, works on same sender unit frequency 200mHz as the Uniden unit so no need to replace the Uniden Transducer. Save the HawkEye Transducer unit for when/if the Uniden unit fails.
The HawkEye display unit comes with a sun protection cap so the LCD display should last longer if I remember to install the cap when not in use.

June 2012
Stove surround
Installed tile surround to coleman stove area, to dam hot for cooking in the boat, so I am using the stove in the cockpit only
.
Under cockpit bench port lights
Ordered 4" fixed round bronze port lights, and will install to provide some light to under cockpit bench area.

Lazy jacks
Working on lazy jacks, but do I really need them?

Tiller pilot
Finally installed the mid-70's era Autohelm Mark II, why did I wait so long. Cleaned and re-wired over the winter.

Use and limitations of the Autohelm Mark II; 

The electro-magnetic compass dial control provides for the 4 cardinal points and 12 sub-cardinal points, so after setting sail trim to the intended boat compass magnetic bearing, connect the push rod to tiller, switch on and approximate the same compass bearing with the Autohelm dial, adjust until the boat is on the desired heading.
The Autohelm can handle rudder corrections with relative ease provided for my boat heel is within 10 to 15 deg, but has difficulty with gusty winds.
I am looking forward to using this on longer trips.


Bimini
July; Installed a "paddle boat" bimini from Walmart, less than $100 so even if it does not last I can use it as a template for the next one.

Ulladh

Ulladh pronounced "ul-la" (null lad).





Uladh the gaelic spelling for the territory of the U-Nail chieftains in the ancient Irish province of Ulster (English/Norse), originally the counties of Down and Antrim, but now including Derry, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, also referred to as Ulidia (Greek/Roman),.



Uladh was the home of a pre-celtic, cruithne (crew-en-ya) pictish tribe, who may have been descendants of prehistoric tribes indigenous to the British Isles since the retreat of the last ice age.



Evidence from cut marks on deer bones from more than 30,000 years ago found in the karst formations of the Burren probably from hunters suggest a homonid precence. Archeological finds date first inhabitants (DNA evidence suggests dark or black skin and blue eyes) to about 6,000 BC and trade goods from Rathlin Island, County Antrim off the northeast coast of Ireland made from porcellanite stone appearing in Egypt and Crete by 2,500 BC.



The early tribes of Ireland where displaced by later waves of migrants from mainland Europe; about 1700 BC by bronze age tribes, celtic tribes about 500 BC, and in the past two millenia; Roman trading posts, Viking settlements, English plantations... and in the 21st century a welcome increasing diversity from the European Union and the world.



SV Ulladh (for vhf clarity I use "sailing vessel ul-la") is named for the territory of the first peoples to settle in Ireland after the retreat of the last ice age.



Fisksatra

Since 1949 Fisksatra Varv in the coastal town of Fisksatra Sweden, built fiberglass boats from dinghies to a 300 ton minesweeper for the Swedish Navy.

The Havsfidra 20's were built between 1968 and the late 1970's to Swedish Navy and Lloyd's certification standards.

The Havsfidra 20 and a larger version the Storfidra 26 where sold in the United States by Continental Yachts and Trawler Agency of Atlantic City NJ.

Havsfidra; sea-feather?
(fidra; to touch or tickle with a feather -Icelandic-English Dictionary, Clarendon Press 1874)