In the absence of a camera....

I don't have access to a camera right now; though I should by the end of the calendar year.  Here are listed some recent developments.
 
Wiring typically doesn't show well; so it may not be worth a photo or two anyway.  I have routed most of the interior wiring into 'finished' position by now.  I suppose it is typical of me to over-complicate the issue; but one of my favorite parts of working on boats is 12-volt DC electrical systems.  Also, I consider it simple to add convenience by providing adequate outlets, lights, and options for future as well. Currently Diana's electrical system includes the following:

Three standard duplex outlets, 115VAC, residential grade.  No boat ever sunk from slowly-corroding household-quality 115VAC outlets.  These are wired with high-wuality marine-spec tinned-copper wire and sealed in heat-shrink connectors.  If one should go bad, only the oulet-- available for $0.79 at Lowe's-- would have to be replaced; and that's a simple matter of two little mounting screws and three terminal screws.

Battery charger, from ProSport, 12-amp, for two separate banks.  One bank is (at present) two size-24 house batteries; the other is one size-24 starting battery for the outboard.  I have recently decided to the be add a third house battery,.the better to mount it on the port side, which is currently opposite the heavier side of the boat.  In fact I will position the first two house batteries in the two port-side battery boxes, leaving the starboard one till later (probably at the first battery replacement in 3-4 years) and to see how the boat balances side-to-side.  The battery charger is hard-wired into the 115VAC master panel; the three outlets, into one of which the microwave gets wired, are farther forward.

Several 12VDC switch panels, into which the appropriate toggle/paddle switches get mounted.  I am making these out of a sheet of black-white-black laminated guitar-pickguard material, so that they will resemble residential-type 3-gang switch panels except on a smaller scale.  Four of these will be dispersed throughout the boat's interior, in the head, in the saloon, and in the overhead panels above the galley and quarter berth.  Into these go the switches for interior footlights, deck outlet, instrument lights, cabin fans, and other stuff.

All the red-and-white interior dome lights are getting wired in two circuits, one for red and one for white.  The red and white functions are controlled by a rotary 2-position switch, at the main breaker panel, labelled .Night/Day'.  On 'Day' mode only the white sides of the dome lights will work.  On 'Night' mode only the red sides will work.  This is to prevent casual crew from switching on a white light whilst someone else is trying to navigate in the dark.  Needless to say the bulkhead lights are on a separate breaker and would remain switched off during navigation operations after dark.

In the openings vacated by the removal of the hull-mounted red vigation ligand green navigation lights, I decided that retaining the holes would allow plenty of light into the forepeak.  So I am fitting dark Plexiglas windows over these eye-like holes and then mounting a pair of blue LED lights inside that will represent Diana's eyes.  These are wired to a separate switch, independent of navigation or deck lights, so that they may be illuminated under any conditions, even at rest or at anchor.  So, apparently, Diana is a true Nordic princess then... for she has the blue eyes for the part. [wink]

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Waterline stripe

I've been getting frustrated that the progress I have been making on this boat does not look like progress; so I reached a limit recently and opened the can of Pettit Protect I've had for over a year and just went for it.  I cannot say this is a perfect job; there are minor spots in the hull I really should have faired better or filled better, and of course the first roller cover broke down after two coats and for the third I had to dig into my horde of stores for another which was too nappy and not as good.  But the paint's on the boat and that's good enough. 
   
I chose the Pettit Protect over Interlux Interprotect for one solid reason.  To reach the desired thickness, Interprotect requires five coats where as Pettit Protect requires only three.  It goes on thicker.  Therefore I accomplished this with only one roller replacement and in only about three hours of a hot Saturday in August.  
   
The rugged outline of the top edge of paint wants explanation.  In filling and fairing the hull's numerous cracks, I encountered quite a few of what I determined were 'bottom-style' cracks above the designed waterline, especially in the bow.  These are typical of any boat; and for a sailboat that one must conclude will be heeling more often than not, under way, the imposed delineation of a waterline is pretty arbitrary.  So I prepared these places as I would for any 'underwater' area; and once the waterline is established the gray can be sanded down above the line to accept topsides paint.   
  

The black Sharpie lines, applied at the upper edge of the green-tape stripe, will represent the lower edge of the painted stripe(s).  Thus I am 'cheating' the original waterline up about two inches.  

I lowered the rudder in its shaft tube but without digging a hole I was unable to remove it entirely.  As of this picture it has been sealed and re-'glassed (the yellowish stuff is epoxy, with some Microlight filler).  I found every seam in the rudder shell to have been open and filled with bottom paint (not a good sign), which was responsible for the whole thing being saturated in water.  As I used up all the Pettit Protect on the hull, I will have to buy more for the rudder and the stand squares.
   
From earlier photos one can see that I stripped the entire hull bare-- leaving no stripes.  Earlier I had plotted all three lines-- float waterline, designed waterline, and top of bootstripe-- and recorded the measurements.  These current lines come from those plots.
   

 

This sort-of-closeup view shows my 25-foot Stanley tape clamped along the toerail of the boat.  Using this as a kind of number line, I dangled the other Stanley tape from this, at prescribed intervals, taking 'soundings' down along the hull to the stripe.  To get the waterline back onto the hull, I had only to read my numbers back and to plot the marks from them.  
  
I am not sure I'm happy with the replotted marks.  Though I did the plotting accurately, I fear the boat is going to be too heavy, especially forward, and especially to starboard, which worries me.  To starboard are the engine-starting battery, the galley, the toilet itself, the toolbox, the primary anchor and (short) chain rode, and the microwave oven as well as the skipper's usual sitting area below, where the computer and stereo are located.  Everything else is more of less balanced out by a complement to the other side.  For now I shall let these lines alone and count on shifting some weight about (possibly by storing all canned goods to port, for example).   
   
In the background Jerry's 1980 C44 can be seen.  Jerry's a liveaboard who's been doing a heroic job stripping bad 'glass from his boat's bottom and re-'glassing the whole thing.  His stamina and indefatigable fortitude are an inspiration.
  

  
After taking some of these pics I just had to snap this view of Diana's underside all recently done in pewter gray undercoater (Pettit Protect).  
  
Yes; the keel looks a little bent out of shape.  Believe me-- it was much worse before I got my hands on it.
   
The paint does look a little blotchy in this view.  Maybe it's glare.  I can vouch for the effort than went into smoothing this; and the result really is pretty good.  Undoubtedly it's better than it was when new.  
  
The little oval block affixed to the bottom, aft of the keel, is the fairing block I made for the bronze drain plug.  Maybe it's just overkill; but, then again, every girl can use a little help....  
 
  

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Interior developments, 2013

I have not been on this site for some time!  Here are some photos of recent progress as this boat really is coming back together.

 

Anchor-rode lockers

I have long had the idea for relocating anchor rodes farther aft in the hull.  One of the biggest detriments to performance, especially in small boats, is in carrying heavy ground tackle at the pointy end of the boat.  Of course this is where it must be deployed, and from where it must pull; but nothing but some shortsighted concept of 'convenience' says it has to be stored there.  Ancient ships brought their anchor rodes aft to the foremast or even abaft it; but this was only because the ship was sufficiently wide there to allow for a human-powered vertical capstan.  When I designed Starchase (an 84-ft lug-rigged schooner) in 1981-82, I envisioned a whole full-width compartment aft of the foremast in which sails were stowed and through which the anchor rodes were dropped to a deep well under the sole, right in front of the ballast.  This is where such weight should be; but of course it entails the leading of chain aft along the deck, which can be a tripping hazard and much else. 

 

For Diana I had already given over the idea of using the V-berth for a two-person sleeping area.  Its foot is too cramped and the whole space is too hot.  And I had already committed the after outboard corners to plumbing and such for the toilet and holding tank.  Against the forward bulkhead is the toolbox locker (with microwave above, since it's the only place a microwave can fit) to one side and a hanging locker (the only one in the boat) to the other.  So I decided to extend these lockers forward and to make room for the anchor rodes as well. 

   

My first idea was to use common plastic trash cans for the rode bins.  They're cheap (and replaceable) and, if fitted with a plain nylon through-hull, can drain into the bilge or elsewhere.  I bought two trash cans; but after cutting out the V-berth hull shelf I realized they were just not going to fit.  So I concluded the sensible plan was to use the trash cans as trash cans somewhere else and to just drop the rodes into the spaces as they were. 

 

The two bulkheads are show here, each side, before the fitting of the longitudinal bulkhead that will finish them off.  Each side will be fitted with an access plate; but the bulkheads will be removable as well. 

 

This 'glass did not kick off immediately.  I suspect bad MEKP, or just an improperly light quantity of it, as my MEKP dispenser's pickup tube snapped off in the bottle while mixing.  (This happens with MEKP dispensing bottles when they get old.  No matter what it looks like, replace it at least every three to five years.)  These surfaces will be painted in gelcoat later; but for now this is what the work looks like. 

1. Port side 

  
The white stuff is 5200, with which I seal all edges of plywood before 'glassing them to the hull.  Water intrusion along the edges of plywood where they are 'glassed to the hull is the number-one killer of plywood bulkheads-- especially where chainplates are mounted. 
 
(If you think it's sealed against water, think again.  It's a boat.  Water gets everywhere. 

2. Starboard side  

  

Here is the toolbox locker, complete with fiddles to hold the all-plastic (no metal anywhere) Rubbermaid toolbox.  Ahead is the old rode locker, above which the rode deck pipe is removed.  Though I fitted a proper drain pipe in the pointy space, to lead dribbles aft to the through-hull sump, this will be dry.  Some light comes in through the 'eye' windows, where the old hull-mounted running lights were.  (More on that later.) 

 

The battery box fitted with a PVC tube and rolls of wire is my Wire-O-Matic (shop-use wire dispenser, typically made from a box or barrel).  It even has a proper lid (the lid from the battery box)! 

  

The hull-side shelf is cut out for where the plastic trash can was; but now it broadens the space so there is less chance of the rode becoming caught under its edge when running out by deploying an anchor.  

  

  

 Main cabin (aka 'saloon')

During one of the hottest weeks of July I came out to the boat each day at 6.30 AM before leaving at 8.30 for my contract job 50 miles east.  I managed to use up a whole quart of Easypoxy on the bulkheads, which has been a great relief because it's made the boat look closer to done.  
   

  
Nearly all of the brightwork was removed before painting.  The very intricate and delicate doorjamb seemed stuck to the bulkhead with varnish and I would not risk prying it off; so I masked it.  Along the baseboard to port some residual tape can be seen.  The baseboards are actually structural-- they help hold the sole joists down against the hull. 

  

The thermometer and hydrometer are from a cheap 'weather station' I found in the trash.  I dismantled the instruments, cleaned them and painted the shells in matte black.  They work great.  Above them, on the same centers, will go the clock and barometer.  Below them is a bulkhead-mounted compass (mounted in the bulkhead! --imagine).  I consider it vital to have a decent compass visible below, with which one can check courses and at-anchor bearings.  Below below this, above the drop-leaf table, goes a clinometer.
  

The second blue plastic outlet box is for a 12VDC outlet and USB-based chargers.  The stereo goes between the empty box and the (now absent) table.
  

The four-foot-long fluorescent shop light is, of course, temporary. 

  

  

In this view the saloon is being used as a varnish shop.  The large piece on top of the workbench is the top of the 'duffel-bag lockers' outboard of the toilet in the head.  The other plywood piece is the top of the galley bins.  The rest are just various bits of mahogany that go all over this compartment and in the head. 

  

Plugs have been added to the vertical grab posts (at last!).  Typically I varnish the main piece a few times before adding plugs so that the plugs receive a few coats less and so show as a lighter color.  This is just an aesthetic I happen to prefer; and I have always done it this way.  

  

The galley counter is still covered in cardboard.  I have decided to add ceramic tiles to that 3-inch-high bulkhead above the settee. 

  

The small red toolbox is the 'jewelry box', in which I keep all the cool rigging stuff (my favorite parts). 

  

Here too can be seen the side of the speaker box, at the forward edge of the hull shelf, and where I 'glassed the small athwartships bulkhead of it to the hull.  The white-pine stick, old iron C-clamp, and red-handled squeeze clamp (almost hidden from view) are currently holding this shelf up into position.  Like the ones in the V-berth these two did not match each other, sideto side; and this one sagged while the one to port tilted up.  The stick is forcing it up till the 'glass cures.  Hopefully this will remedy some of the problem; but the little mahogany block under the forward end of the shelf (partially painted white, because its proper replacement is undergoing varnishing) will assist in this.

  

Other stuff

Here is a pic I took, on my back, up at the new foredeck hatch with the old hatch, which fit only the original trapezoidal molded-fiberglass opening, on top.  Still waiting on white Sikaflex 295-UV to complete the new one.
  

The terminal blocks are junctions for the spar wiring.  These get screwed to the teak crossmember (now painted white) and enclosed in a cute little mahogany box with sliding door, currently undergoing varnishing.  

   

   
At the other end of the boat, I 'glassed a short bulkhead across the back end of the fuel-tank shelf, tucking it in just ahead of the fiberglass rudder-post tube.  The problem with all skegless rudders is that they are liable to catch something nasty, such as when shooting some dodgy inlet.  In this eventuality, there are two possible outcomes: one, the rudder will break off below the stainless-steel shaft (preferable) or, two, the rudder, tube and all will tear backwards and out of the boat (not good).  If this were to happen, there is little anyone could do to save the boat-- unless that water were able to be confined to a watertight compartment.  ALL rudder tubes should be isolated from the rest of the boat, so that intruding water cannot invade the rest of the hull and overwhelm the bilge pumps.  (We all did learn something from the Titanic; right?)  
  

 

This bulkhead is not high; and it will be fitted with a drain tube as well-- but in the event of a leak at a stricken rudder tube, the drain can be plugged and this compartment will contain much of the water before it is overwhelmed.  This may be enough time to shift weight forward, get something over or into the torn hole(s), or fix or reroute a pump to handle the inundation.  In any case it's far better a solution than that on most other boats-- which is to say it's better than nothing at all. 

 

The little block is just holding the bulkhead in place and gets removed.  In fact I painted this recently and probably should have taken a newer photo.

 

The little step in the foreground was added for climbing down into this locker through the cockpit-seat hatch, which I have done about 350 times since I have owned this boat.  I got tired of leaning over and lying upon the edge of a 3/8" piece of plywood.  Above this is the top of the under-cockpit locker, forward of the fuel tank, which is accessible through the quarter berth and, as of this writing, is now isolated from the rest of the under-cockpit space and its attendant gasoline fumes. 

  

 
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What it's supposed to look like....

These illustrations are from an early brochure done by Hunter marketing based on my dad's 1972 drawings of the Mk-1 Hunter 25.

My dad's idea was to have windows like an airplane, aluminum frames having the right shape and then just installed in the cabinsides. John Luhrs later thought it was best to use the same commercially-available portlights all other boatbuilders used; and the design went downhill from there.

It was my idea to extend the settee berths under the bulkhead-- I had seen it on some more-obscure boat before. By doing this we got a 5-berth 25-footer that still has a decent cockpit.

The wrap-around coaming was my dad's idea but we all (Bob Seidelmann, my brother, Warren Luhrs, my dad and I) contributed to it. It is good-looking, if awkward functionally, except for at the back where it finishes off the cockpit very well.

The semi-flush deck (cabinsides tapering into nothing ahead of the mast) made my dad call this initial edition the 'blister-canopy' (as with the Supermarine Spitfire) or the 'bubble-top' (what they called the North American P-51C with Malcolm hood). Once a fighter pilot, always a fighter pilot....

The rig is tall and the boom short, typical for an IOR-influenced boat of this period-- it's technically high-aspect. The narrow stern is an IOR feature as well, meant to get the smallest-possible girth measurements to 'defeat' the rule. Still the boat rates 19.4, not 18.0; and so it is not a quarter-tonner.

The narrow stern actually makes the boat appear and behave very much like a double-ender, being responsible for the boat taking a following sea rather well and leaving the water close to the way it found it (if the outboard is not too heavy or kept down).

Notice that the mainsheet in this drawing goes straight down to where Diana's bridgedeck-mounted traveler goes. ;) Also the plan drawing appears to indicate a bridge deck, which was not as-built.

I just noticed that this drawing shows the deck having scalloped handrails, not those little teak sticks that went on production boats. They also appear to extend a little too far forward. By some bizarre coincidence (for I did not examine this before I made them!) the handrails for Diana look exactly like the ones in this drawing.

The parallelogram keel is a sign of the times (1972). In 1974 it would have had a vertical trailing edge. The semi-skeg in front of the rudder is as well; in 1976 my dad would eliminate all but a minor dimple there on the Raider and by 1978 he had said he should have done without it entirely.

Other than this, the Raider 33 looks like a direct descendant of the Hunter 25. Both boats are noted for early heeling, stability once heeled, good pointing ability and the tendency to be driven hard by the jib (throttle) and steadied by the main (shock absorber). I call this a 'hellandback' boat, because that's where it'll take you.

* * *

The crucial duty of the compression post.

A Hunter owner asked me about rebuilding his compression post; and my comments on the Hunter Owners Web in response are probably worth something; so here they are--

http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=996161#post996161

And here are some pics that go with it--

 

This is what Hunter gave H30 owners-- it is NOT a compression post.  This is the view looking through the bilge.  Apparently this corroded object purports to support a piece of mahogany, which supports a piece of aluminum, which supports the plywood sole, which supports a teak block of some kind-- and all of it transmitting the load to precisely the wrong place-- the top of the keel.


Here is my post; and below is how it is supported.

The pic below shows Diana's bilges before I installed the sole (half of it is in place to starboard). Thejoists are all 5/4 mahogany, cut and fit to the hull and bonded with 5200; the post stands on a doubled one abaft the main bulkhead. Note that none of them are in contact with the actual bottom of the hull. The goal was to spread each one's load to as much surface area as possible. Note the limber holes and bilgewater spaces, access for keel bolts, and the central joist having cleats to accommodate the leg of the drop-leafed table (looks like a tripled joist). The part on top of the can that looks like 2/3 of a joist goes in the head compartment.

The electric bilge pump goes in the space farthest aft in this view.  The manual pump's pickup goes in the farthest forward space in the main cabin.

Under each settee is a water tank and a house battery, so all this weight goes here, not to the ends. The red and yellow wires tie the batteries together as one bank.  The orange wire is for the voltmeter.  These will be restrained in fairleads later.

The PVC freshwater manifold (second big space from bottom) connects the two tanks, one under each bunk.  Unfortunately the head sink will feed from only the port one.  There are independent shutoffs, port and starboard.  The valve to the back is the drain, so either tank can be selected to either drain or supply the galley sink.  The black thing is a particle strainer.  Under the galley sink goes a proper cartridge filter.

The hull drain has since been added, under the tanks' drain.  It is removable from inside-- the better to facilitate inspection and maintenance (and to streamline the underbody).

The brown dirt is pretty much bonded into the spilled epoxy and will have to be sanded off and painted in Bilgekote.

 

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