She's in a slip in Howard Prairie reservoir, just east of Ashland, OR, to the end of this month. I had her there for a month last year also but the water was low...had to move to a buoy half way through, as the marina was grounding out. The reservoir is full for the first time in six years...sure is nice! Something like 16 or 18 feet of water under her. Keel stop bolt area fix is complete "enough" - not visually pretty but glassed & sanded good enough. Should be all solid there now, no veins/cracks for water to seep into keel any more. Stop bolt has nut protruding on one side, as later this year I want to pull the bolt, drop the CB enough to replace pennant (& shackle if worn). Only a quick shakedown sail today but the nut didn't seem to affect speed that much ;-). The teak is all lovely looking after its refinishing this spring. New battens - a couple were broken and the others were old. A few bent turnbuckle T-rods replaced; backstay bracket tops ground to better clear angle of backstay attachment toggles (still needs a tiny bit more, I was guessing with the mast down). Bow light re-mounted on 1" brown starboard round, replacing rotted/split teak round (thanks Dave Scobie for the starboard scraps!). The two best new things though...from this often singlehanded skipper's perspective: Tiller extension, Ronstan RF3129, just the perfect length for my M17 cockpit, long enough but not in the way, light, great grip, and, half the price of adjustable ones that I would never adjust, given how perfect this length is. Quick easy no moving parts tiller minder, a.k.a. a Racelite RL-46 stainless jam cleat (a whopping $4.07 from Duckworks), mounted about midway fore-aft on underside of tiller, with jam end towards bow. Used with a bungee between the aft docking line cleats - bungee runs just under tiller and behind the cleat. Pull bungee forward & slip into jam cleat...holds tiller, with some give, at whatever position desired. I'm just using a long all-purpose bungee with hooks that I had on the boat, but it could be "tuned" with a line & bungee combo to be stiffer, or lighter. And, same cleat can be an attachment point for eventual experiments with sheet-to-tiller steering. cheers, John S. -- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
John, Great to hear Pararita is back in the water! Serenity should splash this next Monday once I get fresh anti-fouling on this coming weekend. Upgrades & work this year on the boat include all the teak redone & sporting a teak instrument panel on the port side of the companionway with the addition of a Hawkeye depth sounder plus a Garmin 18 GPS tied into the Icom radio. Also an old school Barlow 16 winch mounted at the back of the bow roller that serves as a vertical windlass for my Rocna 6, plus the usual yearly maintenance on the outboard... You have me thinking about the Ronstan tiller extension as I single hand most of the time too.. Will be interested to hear how it works out for you... Looking forward to getting some serious time on the water! Keith *Keith R. Martin, P.Eng.* *Burnaby, B.C. CanadaSerenity, M17 #353* On 4 June 2017 at 23:54, John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net> wrote:
She's in a slip in Howard Prairie reservoir, just east of Ashland, OR, to the end of this month. I had her there for a month last year also but the water was low...had to move to a buoy half way through, as the marina was grounding out. The reservoir is full for the first time in six years...sure is nice! Something like 16 or 18 feet of water under her.
Keel stop bolt area fix is complete "enough" - not visually pretty but glassed & sanded good enough. Should be all solid there now, no veins/cracks for water to seep into keel any more. Stop bolt has nut protruding on one side, as later this year I want to pull the bolt, drop the CB enough to replace pennant (& shackle if worn). Only a quick shakedown sail today but the nut didn't seem to affect speed that much ;-).
The teak is all lovely looking after its refinishing this spring. New battens - a couple were broken and the others were old. A few bent turnbuckle T-rods replaced; backstay bracket tops ground to better clear angle of backstay attachment toggles (still needs a tiny bit more, I was guessing with the mast down). Bow light re-mounted on 1" brown starboard round, replacing rotted/split teak round (thanks Dave Scobie for the starboard scraps!).
The two best new things though...from this often singlehanded skipper's perspective:
Tiller extension, Ronstan RF3129, just the perfect length for my M17 cockpit, long enough but not in the way, light, great grip, and, half the price of adjustable ones that I would never adjust, given how perfect this length is.
Quick easy no moving parts tiller minder, a.k.a. a Racelite RL-46 stainless jam cleat (a whopping $4.07 from Duckworks), mounted about midway fore-aft on underside of tiller, with jam end towards bow. Used with a bungee between the aft docking line cleats - bungee runs just under tiller and behind the cleat. Pull bungee forward & slip into jam cleat...holds tiller, with some give, at whatever position desired. I'm just using a long all-purpose bungee with hooks that I had on the boat, but it could be "tuned" with a line & bungee combo to be stiffer, or lighter. And, same cleat can be an attachment point for eventual experiments with sheet-to-tiller steering.
cheers, John S.
-- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
Thanks Keith, You probably have one of the most tricked-out M17s in terms of electronics and gadgets and gear...:-) Second sail yesterday, a bit more time out on the water. The RF3129 tiller extension is still great. I can lounge against the coaming with my arm resting there and steer. I can even sit up on the coaming just forward of the winch and comfortably steer - feels like sailing a big dinghy from that position :-). I can even stand in the companionway (note that I am fairly tall with a long reach, so YMMV on that one for other body sizes). At right angles to tiller, the end of it is just short of the coaming, so doesn't interfere there. In other words, it's long enough, but not in-the-way long. And their urethane universal joint makes it so that it just kind of "hovers" roughly where you let go of it - it doesn't flip up, or swing around to any pre-fixed position. That's on fairly calm water, it might move more in rough conditions. But so far, I can be holding it out to the side, let go briefly to use both hands to trim the jib sheet, and the extension is still hovering basically where I let go of it when I reach for it again. I mounted it a comfortable hand's width back from the fore end of the tiller, so I can still have that hand on wooden tiller feel when it's convenient. Also because it sits flatter against the tiller when clipped back out of the way (YMMV with tiller shape). Also, it is easy to remove and install, there's a small bracket fixed on the tiller and the stick clips on and off easily and securely. cheers, John S. On 06/05/2017 11:14 PM, Keith R. Martin wrote:
John,
Great to hear Pararita is back in the water!
Serenity should splash this next Monday once I get fresh anti-fouling on this coming weekend.
Upgrades & work this year on the boat include all the teak redone & sporting a teak instrument panel on the port side of the companionway with the addition of a Hawkeye depth sounder plus a Garmin 18 GPS tied into the Icom radio. Also an old school Barlow 16 winch mounted at the back of the bow roller that serves as a vertical windlass for my Rocna 6, plus the usual yearly maintenance on the outboard...
You have me thinking about the Ronstan tiller extension as I single hand most of the time too.. Will be interested to hear how it works out for you...
Looking forward to getting some serious time on the water!
Keith
*Keith R. Martin, P.Eng.*
*Burnaby, B.C. CanadaSerenity, M17 #353*
On 4 June 2017 at 23:54, John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net> wrote:
She's in a slip in Howard Prairie reservoir, just east of Ashland, OR, to the end of this month. I had her there for a month last year also but the water was low...had to move to a buoy half way through, as the marina was grounding out. The reservoir is full for the first time in six years...sure is nice! Something like 16 or 18 feet of water under her.
Keel stop bolt area fix is complete "enough" - not visually pretty but glassed & sanded good enough. Should be all solid there now, no veins/cracks for water to seep into keel any more. Stop bolt has nut protruding on one side, as later this year I want to pull the bolt, drop the CB enough to replace pennant (& shackle if worn). Only a quick shakedown sail today but the nut didn't seem to affect speed that much ;-).
The teak is all lovely looking after its refinishing this spring. New battens - a couple were broken and the others were old. A few bent turnbuckle T-rods replaced; backstay bracket tops ground to better clear angle of backstay attachment toggles (still needs a tiny bit more, I was guessing with the mast down). Bow light re-mounted on 1" brown starboard round, replacing rotted/split teak round (thanks Dave Scobie for the starboard scraps!).
The two best new things though...from this often singlehanded skipper's perspective:
Tiller extension, Ronstan RF3129, just the perfect length for my M17 cockpit, long enough but not in the way, light, great grip, and, half the price of adjustable ones that I would never adjust, given how perfect this length is.
Quick easy no moving parts tiller minder, a.k.a. a Racelite RL-46 stainless jam cleat (a whopping $4.07 from Duckworks), mounted about midway fore-aft on underside of tiller, with jam end towards bow. Used with a bungee between the aft docking line cleats - bungee runs just under tiller and behind the cleat. Pull bungee forward & slip into jam cleat...holds tiller, with some give, at whatever position desired. I'm just using a long all-purpose bungee with hooks that I had on the boat, but it could be "tuned" with a line & bungee combo to be stiffer, or lighter. And, same cleat can be an attachment point for eventual experiments with sheet-to-tiller steering.
cheers, John S.
-- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
-- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
participants (2)
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John Schinnerer -
Keith R. Martin