Where have you been, naughty girl?

Once upon a time, my uncle and aunt got a dog from a New York pound and discovered that at some point in his former life Bruno had been taught to stand on his hind legs and walk about.  It was eerie to see because we had no idea of how he had come to learn that; and of course Bruno had no way of telling us.  The knowledge added a mysterious sort of depth to his personality that, in part, helped make him a most interesting and entertaining little guy.


As I was stripping the bottom of Diana I uncovered (literally) this.

It's a patch in the hull, not badly done (though it could have been better faired), apparently from when something holed the boat.  I imagine it may have been some ugly metal angle-iron or something poking up along a bulkhead when the boat rode there during a tidal or storm surge.  For a fin-keeled boat to sustain a hull holing in a location like this-- under the quarter berth-- for any other reason suggests some kind of funny business.  Any puncture from sharp impact afloat would have occurred forward of the keel; right?

My fear is that the boat was allowed to lie over on her side, which could (but not conclusively) account for a hole here as well as the PO's having had to rebed the keel, since that is how a fin-keeled boat sustains damage when it goes aground.  But the keel has been fixed (by me), the rest of the hull is sound, and so there is really no way of knowing at this point.  It's like undressing your lover and discovering a scar from an injury or some surgery-- it begs a question; but at least in that case you could expect some sort of answer to either set you at-ease or put you off trusting her, if only for the present.


And so this shall remain as a mystery, documented in my (very poor) photos and very soon to be covered over for ever by the epoxy barrier coating, a piece of Diana's past that she is unwilling or unable to tell me about and which inevitably, however unfortunately, imparts at least some little skepticism as to her former reputation. 


* * *

Custom cooler

This is my really cool customized camping cooler for Diana.

Here shown holding what it usually does-- iced tea-- is the interior of the cooler as I modified it.  The divider is Plexiglass left over from the cabin windows.  It slides down into place between Starboard fiddles mounted in 5200 (to seal the screw holes so water doesn't get into the foam core; it does not stick to Starboard).  The side corners are cut out to let water reach the drain fitting, a plastic one I installed in the forward end.  The drain deposits its dribble into a PVC receptacle in the floor of this compartment which in turn carries the dribble forward into the bilge.  The drain in the cooler is cut off flush with the bottom so the cooler will sit level (and thus structurally sound) on a flat surface like the dock.

Beyond the divider Starboard fiddles hold a grilled shelf for smaller items.  The bagged ice goes under the grill.  (This cooler is not big or strong enough to hold a full block.  Nevertheless, with a plug in the drain it will hold some residue of ice-- not merely cold water-- for 5 days.)  With this configuration, there is a place that remains free of ice cubes to hold taller things, like full gallons of water or iced tea, wine bottles, etc.  The smaller stuff goes above the ice in back.

The grill is a leftover section from the light baffle material I got when installing a work light in my mother's kitchen.  It is not very strong and was annoying to cut, as a jigsaw only shattered it and a bandsaw did only a little less damage.  I resorted to cutting it by hand with a very fine hacksaw blade.  Of course the sides are not parallel, due to the cooler's shape, and the back edge is slightly rounded.  And then there is the issue of ensuring that the square holes, when cut through, allow enough support along the fiddles.  As can be seen I got it aligned so that one long strake rides on each side fiddle.

The cooler is not a 'marine'-spec one but a standard Coleman '5-day' campers'-spec one.  The marine ones all have top hinges along the side.  As seen here Diana needs one hinged from the end-- or, as here, not at all.

The cooler sits under the ladder; its top is covered by the bottom step (which I personally never use, as I step on the quarter berth edge when entering or leaving the cockpit).  This step is hinged at the back.  I do not yet have it rigged but I want to have a Fastpin slid through the ladder side(s) to hold up the step.  Then one can lift the cooler lid without having to hold up the weight of the step.  The step does not protrude far enough beyond the upper one to allow anyone to accidentally step on it and break it or bend the Fastpin.  If it's pinned up, you will see there is no step below (or just the cooler lid) and step onto the quarter berth instead.

The pencil scribble on the not-yet-painted right side (left in photo) is marking where the recessed red LED footlight will go.  With the step and lid down, it illuminates the step.  With the step up, it illuminates the cooler.

The heavy fiddles screwed to the sides support the step, which is 1/2" plywood with a 3/4" step plate epoxied to the front edge.  It was varnished about 7 years ago with Captain's Varnish and is still holding up well.

* * *

Cockpit drains

Hunter, in their infinite wisdom (read that: attempts to save money) devised a simple way to install cockpit drains in the back of the H25 cockpit.  I really cannot fault this too much because they spared the cockpit sole itself from the potential for damage; and indeed my 38-year-old balsa-cored cockpit floor is one of the soundest parts of the boat.  But by installing the through-hulls through the vertical after bulkhead of the cockpit they kept much of the water from running out.  You always had to sponge out the last 1/2" or so while people stood towards the rear of the boat to get it all to run down to the drains.

This was something I meant to remedy from the start.  I found some nylon drains by Starboard East (that's the brand name) having a flattened side, meant to go in a vertical bulkhead down low to the floor; but they are nylon and subject to UV-exposure damage and stems' cracking and this is not a place one wants to risk that.  After searching high and low I found what the plumbing guy called 'bar-sink drains', at 1 inch diameter (though I have 'bar-sink drains' in the head and galley sinks and they are 'standard' at 2 inches).  They are rugged, heavy brass, but not stainless-steel and will go green unless I paint them.

Here is the mess I started with.  In this photo the starboard drain has already been chopped out.  I left the port side one for later as the boat on its stands is sort of tilting to that side and rainwater will have to go somewhere.  I had once removed the old Marelon (nee RC Marine) through-hulls and rebedded them with 5200 to stop leaks when I first got the boat.  Now I just hacked them out with a chisel.

The flange itself, now separated from the stem, is standing next to the hole.

All the tools used are in the picture!

The next step was to fill the hole.  Here are shown the 'communion wafers' of fiberglass to be used for the fill.  I used about six of these for each hole. These are of 1708 biaxial, because it was what was available.  For a small job like this really any 'glass will do.  I would not use cloth alone; but if you had at least most of it done in plain mat it would be fine.




The smaller ones are for the other holes in the cockpit getting filled at the same time. (Yes; I used the one with the bite out of it.  It doesn't matter.)



My simple 'mooyock' system for this is to apply duct tape to the back or harder-to-get side (the outside of the hull, for example) and to fill from the front or upper side.  Why make life hard on yourself?


This photo shows the power of 5200-- the gash to the left of the hole itself is from the through-hull's parting from the 'glass and its 5200 taking some 'glass with it.

Here is a close-up of the port-side hole before filling.  Apparently I missed a little with the duct tape (doing it by feel with arm down port-side seat locker).

Here is the port-side hole filled.  This-- like all the rest of these holes about the cockpit-- will get sanded and faired with Microlight before Epoxy Primekote and paint.

There is nothing wrong with overfilling it, so long as it's with 'glass.  A patch like this is easy to sand flush and it's reassuring knowing you've got solid material completely filling the hole.

As ever proper preparation is key.  Scrub the back and front sides with sandpaper and clean thoroughly with acetone before mixing up your resin & hardener.


The holes in the bulkhead above were from something the PO or the factory had here.  I really don't remember.  The smaller one is the lower drain hole of the port-side seat locker's drain, which I eliminated when I made the replacement drain trough (which now only uses the upper hole).

In this photo the right side (to the left) is already done (more or less) and the left side is to be filled.  Some days passed between these stages, to allow for a weather window which would let the port one cure before rain might leak through the cover.

You can see how Hunter's money-saving scheme for these did not include ensuring that they were mounted symmetrically.

The ugly patched place to port is from where the PO had installed his bilge pump's Auto-Off-Manual switch-- right into the bulkhead, without sealant, and without cognizance of what happens when these electrical things get wet.  In this photo it's been filled with 'glass and begun to be faired with Microlight.

The big round hole to starboard is for the Whale manual bilge pump.

 
Here are the drains newly installed.

These nifty little fittings came with very good flanged nuts for the other side.  (I did not use the rubber gaskets.)  The surface-mount flanges are not too thick-- certainly much thinner than the flanges of normal nylon or Marelon through-hulls would be.  When I drilled out these holes I was relieved to find that they would miss all the balsa, which starts about an inch or two forward of the holes, and would go through solid 'glass.  It did occur to me that I might rout out the 'glass to set the flanges flush; but what tool would I use for that in this tight corner and how would I get them smooth and level enough?  I have lately decided I will mask these off and fill the space behind them and around to the outboard edges with Microlight, so as to keep water from pooling against the edges of the flanges.  Though I set these in with 5200 I did not get as much 'ooze-out' as I would have liked.  Most of it is between the stem and the hole I drilled for each one, where it should be.


My yardmate Roland made a very good point that these 1-inch drains are probably too small for offshore work.  I don't expect to do much sailing far offshore in this boat; and boats with cockpit drains of this size or worse have done successful passages.  But his point is well taken; and once I have fewer tasks in front of me I may look to replacing or adding to these with larger ones.  My choice of size for these was governed by only the existing transom fittings; but they could be changed too.

After discussing with him I did decide I will not install check-valves in these lines.  They are almost straight runs and are subject to pooping from heavy water directly aft, which would lead to not only water shooting into the cockpit but the water already in the cockpit not going out.  But the check-valves would further restrict water flow.  The H25 is pretty buoyant aft and would probably rise away from heavy swells; but who is to say what happens in such conditions?  People with experiences about cockpit flooding at sea are encouraged to comment!


I don't have a photo of the underside, but the Marelon elbows I meant for the bilge-pump outlets screwed onto these brass fittings perfectly (with plenty of Teflon thread-seal tape) and I was able to hook them up using the old hoses.  I did, however, wait for the 5200 to fully cure (about a week).  Shields no.148 hose can be a monster to fight on and off; and experience has shown it is strong enough to work loose the 5200 on recently-bedded fittings and through-hulls.  So-- proceed gently, with patience.

I reused one of my old hoses for this (just temporarily) but found the other was too short.  I hacked off a piece from the (as-yet) unused bilge-pump lines, not measuring very well as I was doing all this from lying inside the starboard-side locker, and got it almost too short again.  For now one clamp is sufficient; but these will all be done properly before the boat goes in.


The very dusty state of this cockpit is due to its being prepared for Epoxy Primekote and paint.  The nonskid of the sole did come off with scraping from a chisel; but it is adhered really well and since I don't need to bed down any more hardware to the sole I may only rough it up enough to take the Primekote and paint over it.  The same goes for the deck/cabintop.

* * *

Bare-bottomed girl

I suppose this really should read 'bare-bottomed lady', as she is 38 years old; but it got attention.

This status is the product of about 2 seasons of scraping and sanding (with everything else I have to do).  I began using Stryp-Eaze but I had a very bad scraper and made little progress.  I changed to Pettit's Bio-Blast, which I found did not respond to following the directions as they were given.  It's supposed to stay on 15-25 minutes without drying; but I found that on a moderately-warm day, not even hot, it went from gel to utter varnish in much less time than that.  The best tactic was to apply it, using a brush from a cup, wait about 5 minutes and then go at it.  I got a really good deal on a scraper-- with two sets of blades-- at Harbor Freight for $2.99.  No complaints at all with this-- it worked great; but I did rotate the 4-sided blade several times before sharpening it as it did jam up pretty quickly.

I also found that the chemical stripper, having to soak into the paint in order to work well, does not work overhead!  On surfaces that were more on the bottom than on the sides, apparently the stripper merely hung on the paint, softening the very outer layer but doing little else.  So all of the bottom (read that: hardest-to-work-with) places were done mechanically, with 'Dusty' the orbital sander, 50-grit discs and hard work.

Here is a pic from earlier in the season which shows the very bottom layer of paint.  There were, apparently, three layers, all of old-school hard-shell antifouling.  This one was, of course, hardest to remove.  The chemical stripper did not permeate this paint, no matter how many times it was reapplied-- the greenish places are dried Bio-Blast which did not cut it.  For the most part it came off with the orbital sander (which meant that, for the most part, I wore my work home).

(May-Be is my cousin Mike's Capri 26 which was sold in the middle of this summer and relocated to its new home in New York.  This freed up plenty of room to work on mine!)

The black stripe came off well; apparently it was just standard enamel and the stripper ate it easily.  It was always too small and I will be redoing it completely more in keeping with the lines of the boat.


I am sure to have more on this later; but here I will add a reminder that the boottop stripe always has sheer, in both top and bottom edges.  Nothing looks worse than a perfectly-straight boottop, like how this one was.  The top, of course, reflects the sheerline of the boat.  The bottom edge does too; but much less conspicuously. For a boat of this size the bow end might be 2-1/2" above the actual floating waterline, the middle about 1-1/2" and the stern about 2" (I'll post my actual dimensions when I have worked them out). The bottom paint is exposed to the stripe (there should be NO hull color showing, ever).  Without getting too metaphysical you might think of the revealed bottom paint as that thin line of not-yet tanned skin that the woman shows just beyond her swimsuit at the beach.  It looks like vulnerability (a boat at rest should never show her bottom paint to strangers!) but it also indicates strength and hardiness, that she can and will endure whatever these elements hand out.  No one admires a boat that looks like it can barely stay afloat!

This view shows (albeit only slightly) some of the patching I did to the bottom.  The old through-hulls were removed and filled (the two larger circles below and beyond the stand pad).  Below them are seen the new through-hulls, which my daughter helped me install (it's always a two-person job).  The forward one is for the old SR Mariner speedometer-- I got a new fitting from them and almost too late realised it had to be aligned fore-and-aft to ensure the paddlewheel works properly.  I had expected the alignment was done by the paddlewheel itself.

I have since faired the very top of the keel in front-- it looks awfully big here but it's not really.


The other blotches are places where the gelcoat was chipped, not from blistering but just from age.  I filled these using Microlight most of the time, just whenever I had some extra from fairing the deck or keel blade.  This is not the best stuff to use under the waterline; as the filling compound will soak up water; but this bottom will all be sealed in barrier-coat epoxy and so it'll survive just fine.

I also mean to carry the barrier coating up above the waterline in some places, merely to seal some cracks there; so as yet there is no paint-to line or masking involved.

It is important to note that these ancient-gelcoat cracks are not moisture blisters.  One task I had long feared to attempt was to get moisture readings on this hull; but Jerry was checking his C44 in the yard and I borrowed the meter for Diana.  Being so long out of the water it now reads a very respectable 6 and below (out of 22) just about everywhere.  The place along the port side of the keel, where I had detected some delamination and then repaired, now reads under 10.  This might even account for standing bilge water.  The starboard side, however, reads about 16 which is alarming.  I will probe this from inside when I get the chance (before barrier coat) but it may reflect bilge water as well.

(The rudder reads well over 22-- with loud pinging from the detector meter! --which I will address in another place.)

Poor Diana, of course, is understandably embarrassed to be laid so bare and undignified before strangers' eyes.  I told her she has nothing to worry about, that at least it's a very good-looking bottom; but she was very prompt, as soon as I had taken these photos, to rap me in the head with a bit of stray line and then to lash out at my leg as I vaulted out of the hatch--

By the way this still hurts (wearing long pants is like sanding it with 80 grit all day); and I have promised the boat to get the barrier coat on as soon as possible.  At least then she'll be in her pewter-gray underwear, not a bad look for any hull.

* * *

Head compartment

In these photos this is far from being done; but I was just fooling about with the camera and took some photos of the head area to record progress.


This is the head sink, which, as all H25 owners know, the boat did not originally come with.

The stainless-steel basin came from an old Chris-Craft; I bought it on eBay for $19.00.  Its drain goes through the forward bulkhead-- to get out of the foot area-- and then to a trap and down to the drain seacock.

The after portion of this countertop (to the left) lifts up for access to a 4-inch-deep compartment above the foot of the bunk.  The two openings outboard of the sink are for toiletries and towels.  The little mahogany stick on the forward bulkhead, inside the locker, is the cleat for the shelf in there.  The shelf divider is sitting against the hull.

I put the tissue dispenser in there to calculate the space for it; but I certainly won't rely on a cardboard tissue dispenser to be kept in the head, under the large foredeck hatch, aboard a 25-ft boat!

There is no headliner or hullliner in place in this photo.  The trim is not installed here either.

The wiring isn't really this messy-- it's just dangling down from the connections block above this doorway where the spar wiring enters the cabin and the cross-cabin circuits pass by.  When it is connected properly you won't see the danging bits in and out of the lockers.


This Wilcox-Crittenden Head-Mate toilet was given to me by a guy called Bill who was working on his friend's boat in Hancock's Harbor, NJ.  I saw it sitting outside the boat on a Sunday and left a note on it: 'If you are getting rid of this toilet, call me and I'll take it.'  The guy called me as soon as he returned to the boat.  It pumps perfectly well-- they must have been switching to either a larger bowl or just an electric one.  The intake/flush lever is a little rusty; that's all I can find wrong with it.

I had intended to mount my existing 'Frankentoilet' with the crossover sanitation pipe underneath this blue shelf; so the shelf is mounted a little higher than it would otherwise be.  Unfortunately this toilet's pump doesn't mount on the level; it mounts at a slight angle (like a modern Jabsco) on an angled flange on the crossover pipe.  So I can't mount this pump on the shelf, with the crossover pipe underneath, because it won't sit flush.  I have no idea why Wilcox did it like this.  I really wish I were reusing the original Raritan Compact Mk I; but this is similarly 'retro' and works fine-- and best of all the price was right.

The two little openings under the shelf are meant for access to the bolts; and this was supposed to accommodate the crossover pipe underneath so these would allow for cleaning out as well.

Behind the toilet the black ring is a Starboard trim piece around the exit pipe (PVC) leading to the holding tank.

The all-plastic Rubbermaid tool box is actually in its intended place-- this V-berth area has become a true forepeak, having room for only one to sleep but getting equipped with a tool box, workbench, hanging locker, microwave oven, plenty of outlets for charging cordless tools and possibly also a fresh-water supply tank for flushing the toilet. The holding tank is underneath, with most of the plumbing and all but one of the boat's through-hulls.  And that's in only the aftermost 26 inches of it! [wink]

The mahogany in the foreground is the backup to the compression post, underneath where the maststep really is.  It's a piece of the stock I cut for the cabintop handrails, but here it is solid except for only one hand hole (through which the vacuum cleaner's cord is running).  I gauged this hand-hold for someone sitting on the potty and only after installing the stick I realized that the head door's latch has to go at the very same elevation-- so when you reach through it you will stub your fingertips on the edge of the latch plate.  Oh, well.

At the time this was taken the lockers behind the toilet were taken up with the stereo, the outlet strip and the lift-out panels for all the lockers about the boat.

The bronze Barlow selftailing winch (vintage 1977) is a leftover from Warren Luhrs' C44 cutter and served as a doorstop in my mother's bathroom for about 20 years.  It's now slated to be the foredeck-mounted anchor-rode winch for a first-generation Hunter 25 called Diana.  Funny how things turn out!

Here is an 'aerial' shot of this space, minus the toilet, taken from the foredeck hatch opening. 

The door jamb, to the right, was excessively tedious.  It is a T-section and has to fit a very awkward three-sided space and accommodate the natural crookedness of the boat as-is.  It turns out that the face of the head's sink cabinet (side of the port-side berth's footwell) is neither in one plane (it's twisted) nor parallel to really... anything.  Fitting delicate mahogany (the lower portion of that stick is 5/16" square) to a crooked boat is an exercise in near-futility.  But I got it to fit!


The threshold of this doorway is somewhat more robust.  If it appears crooked, it's because the main bulkhead of the boat is not square to the centerline.  Believe it or not that threshold is in the only place it can be to make the (not yet built) door work.

I still have to countersink those screw-holes to fit them with plugs; but I'm keeping it as removable in case something happens with the door later.

The rough plywood sole is only temporary.  The finger-hole, however, will be in the finished mahogany panel.  It's the drain for the space, as there'll be a shower hose here too.


The black square is the pedal for the Whale Gusher foot pump for the head sink.  It feeds from only the port tank, however, despite being likely to be the most-used water source in the boat.

In the foregound (top right of photo) you see the coaming for the foredeck hatch, not yet varnished.

I like the deep-blue/white/black/stainless/mahogany decor theme of this boat.  It's bright, cheerful, nautical and traditional.

* * *

Removing holes from aluminum spars

One vital consideration concerning aluminum spars is that they derive all their strength from skin stiffness.  Aluminum can and will bend; but as the molecules shift about it's important to not give them anywhere to go that they should not be.  This means all extra holes in an aluminum spar will weaken it.

My boat came with the then-common 1970s slab-reefing system consisting of a genoa track mounted on the boom, a cheek block mounted on a slide, and a Cunningham hook above the gooseneck.  The single-line reefing system as depicted in the Schaefer catalogue and elsewhere makes infinitely more sense, not only for sail trim but for simplicity and even safety.  Properly located, the parts of single-line reefing will contribute to a very efficient sail shape for the reefed sail and give one the ability to effect the reef from only one place-- in my boat's case, the safety of the bridge deck and main hatch.

To remove the parts of the old system required the filling of some two dozen holes on the boom and elsewhere.  Certainly one could weld these and have an excellent-- though expensive-- reconditioned boom.  Honestly I never thought of that; but I knew I'd have to fill them somehow.

Then Jeremiah, in the shop, suggested just using aluminum screws, threading them into the holes, and breaking them off to file them smooth.  The sheer simplicity of this idea just blew me away.  After all, so long as the holes are filled with something that can't shift-- thus prohibiting the molecules from moving too far-- it does not matter how you fill them.

Amazing Grace, the C48, came into the shop for a refit and I got the job of preparing the booms for refinishing.  As part of the job the aluminum screws were ordered; as soon as the necessary holes were filled I took off with the broken-off bolts and reused them all on my own boat. After all they only need to be long enough to thread into the wall thickness of the spar.


This first photo is not great, owing to glare; but the aluminum screws sticking out of the side of the boom (spar to the left) are visible. Most of these were for the reefing track.

The black tape marks where the sheetline bail will go.

In this photo you can see where a few of the screws have already been broken off.  I sawed most of the way through each one and then bent them with pliers to snap them off.  These screws are 1/4-20 thread.  They can break off when you're about 2/3 through them with the hacksaw.  The best idea is to saw them as close as possible to the surface of the spar-- but you'll have to choose one thread of the screw as the hacksaw blade will choose one for you otherwise.

The red stuff is Loctite 'permanent' (not my blood; that's elsewhere).  A caveat: the Loctite will work only if the hole is the right size for the screw and decently threaded.  Don't count on the Loctite to fill gaps (or even to stick if there are gaps).  If there is too much play, you can use epoxy (perhaps with a little filling compound) instead.

Here is the side of the boom after the screws were broken off and sanded over.  Can you see where they were? --for you certainly can't feel where they were with your hand.

Here is a close-up of the side of the boom, with a better view of the filled-in screw holes (silver circles).  I sanded these by hand-- 80-grit production paper takes the nubs down quickly and easily.  You will see a trace of greasy-looking aluminum residue following your sanding-- this tells you that you are actually sanding the end of the screw.  When you see the surface of the boom going silver you've come to the end (as you see how I hit it here).

I changed to 120 grit and then to 220 to polish these off.  As I will shortly be applying etcher, primer and paint I'll be able to further fair these places, should they need it, at any point during the future stages.




I filled the holes for the winch bases on the mast as well.  Since those holes were a bit too big to accommodate 10-24s any more, I drilled them all out to 1/4-20 (I should have used 12-24 but didn't think of it!).  In installing the winch bases on the mast again, to avoid running afoul of the old (now filled) holes, I can relocate them.  The open holes shown here are the new ones drilled to reuse the old mast bases in new locations.

(The pole in the back is the fence, not the spreaders!)

* * *

Internal pole lift

Since this boat is so small, it's unlikely I'll ever have a proper whole-cockpit awning without setting it over the mainsail cover.  So when in the ICW or anywhere that calls for more powering than sailing, I won't have the opportunity to set any sail to assist the motor other than the jib itself, which is too far forward to allow the boat to balance under the one sail alone.  What's needed is a smaller sail more centrally set, fore-and-aft, that can pull reasonably well on most points of sail in light air... like an inner forestaysail.  And, more importantly, it will also serve to take over when/if the motor fails.

This is more important than most people realize.  A prudent mariner should never enter a dodgy or unfamiliar harbor with the mainsail cover drawn and snapped closed and the headsail bagged or lashed to the deck.  (I know-- most people will claim that having a roller-furling headsail resolves this.  But the point still bears consideration.)  In such a state, if you were to suffer an engine failure you'd be hard-pressed to get anything up and drawing air before you crashed or went aground.  It's a matter of simple seamanship.

I've had the idea to have a regular spinnaker-pole lift that can also be used as a halyard for a small jib, what I call the 'canal sail', something small but useful to assist the motor, provide safety and redundancy and maintain steerage in freaky currents and conditions.  I decided to use the former winch mount on the starboard side of the mast and to reuse the old Seaboard halyard winch for this.  (The port side gets another winch base and a Lewmar #6; more on this later).

This exit block came from DAMCO (Dwyer Aluminum Mast CO.)  These people are the very best in the business, helpful, sensible and economical.  This block cost $26.00 and handles 5/16" line (actually 3/8" would fit but oughtn't be loaded to capacity).  A Schaefer one is over $90.00.  I cut this hole and mounted this thing using tapped 10-24 screws; it will get removed when it comes time for paint and then reinstalled.

I calculated the location using an original 1973 blueprint of this boat's sail plan which Skip Moorhouse, sailmaker and first owner of Hunter 25 hull no. 1, let me inspect.  Assuming a theoretical inner forestay about 3'9" aft of the headstay, it would land on the foredeck about 4' aft of the headstay plate.  So the place for this block is about 9'7" down from the top of the mast.  In this way I could, if I chose to, fit a tang here to accommodate an inner forestay and running backstays and so configure this little boat as a bona-fide cutter.  I just figure if you're going to install something like this, you might as well make some sense of it, if only in theory.

At the other end I have to add an exit plate on the starboard side, rather high up in order ti lead it down to the winch.  The existing two exit plates are for the two main halyards.

In reusing the old Seaboard winch I have to keep in mind that the handle for it is a hexagonal drive, unlike modern standard square-drive winches.  Apparently in the early days of top-action winches (about 1968-1978), there was no standard top-drive handle format (sounds eerily familiar to the development patterns of other technology!).  Fortunately I have one of these handles; though it might have been easy enough to just use the Seaboard winch as a snubbing winch and use arm strength to cleat it tightly each time-- it's only a pole lift on a 10-ft pole.  But now I have to ensure that I have room on the spar for two handle holders, one for each handle.

* * *