In case you don’t remember, I took my Simpson-Lawrence (Lewmar) Sprint 400 anchor windlass apart last week, in hopes of improving its sluggish performance.

First, here’s a picture of me reassembling it:

Oh, sorry…wrong photo. See, I felt a little like Scotty in the Jefferies Tube every time I slid up into the forepeak on my back. Here I am:

So I put it all back together, and…it didn’t work any better. Actually, I think it was worse. But now I’m not sure there was really anything wrong with the electric motor (or the current flow through it) to begin with.

See, part of the compound gear assembly is broken, and I didn’t realize it until now. That just MIGHT have something to do with the sluggish, gutless performance I’m seeing. Maybe the motor’s working fine, but it’s encountering SEVERE resistance because of one or more failures within the gear case. Hmmmm…

So here’s the lower part of the gear case, showing one end of the part I know is broken. The gear in the upper right is reverse-threaded onto a shaft. In the picture on the right I’ve removed the gear. The threaded shaft is broken. It’s difficult to tell with grease all over the place, I realize.

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I wrote about this in May, and after I had spent some time with the options I discovered, I came away underwhelmed. Here’s my big question for anyone out there: Has anyone gotten cTide or NavStation to run on a Windows Mobile 6 device?

Anyway, I was glad to see that somebody else has given this worthwhile topic a more thorough going-over. Karen and Jeffrey Siegel have published an article entitled “Tides and Currents on a Mobile Phone”, over at MadMariner.com.

If you’re not a MadMariner subscriber (and why-ever would you not be, forsooth?), you better read the article soon, before it slips behind the subscribers-only firewall!

Actually, “Hella” is the manufacturer’s name; Hella Marine, to be precise. But I tell ya, these kids today, with their hulahoops and their dungarees and their hip, cool “hella” slang…it’s impossible for me to resist temptation.
 
So I say these new Hella Thinlite LED Strip Lamps are “hella cool”. At just over 3/8″ (10 mm, to be precise), the Thinlite LED Strip Lamps from Hella Marine delivers dependable, low-current-draw illumination in a low-profile surface mount design suitable for interior and exterior applications. Here’s the lowdown…

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Now THIS is pretty dang cool. Green Boat Stuff sells a product by Green Marine Products called the Fuel Whistle. That’s a lot of green, but even if you’re not an ultra-liberal tree-hugger, you’ll appreciate what this product does.

Here’s how it works:

While the tank is being filled a ‘whistling’ sound is produced by the Fuel Whistle. The sound is loud enough to be heard from any point on the boat. It will be audible in a strong breeze or with any normal surrounding sounds. As the tank approaches full, the sound turns to a ‘warble’ and when completely full it immediately stops. This is the signal to stop the fueling process before any spill occurs.

I’d love to give it a try. I’m always trying to balance my desire to fill my tanks as full as possible with my dread of overfilling. It would be great to have some warning!

Is “overhaul” quite the right term? I’m not sure. Anyway, the anchor windlass was not working properly, so I took it apart, cleaned it up, and put it back together again.

I was playing with it because I wanted to see how well or poorly my new Rocna 6-kg anchor would self-deploy off my current bow-roller. Here is the anchor and windlass on Two Lucky Fish’s foredeck, complete with my shiny new do-it-yourself custom-fabricated bail:

The windlass appears to be a Simpson-Lawrence (now Lewmar) Sprint 400, and it was not actuating reliably in either direction, and even when it would run, it was gutless, unable to lift much of anything at all.

My theory was that it was not getting all the current through it, so I decided to open it up and take a look. Yuck!

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I’m on a few different email lists, and recently I’ve received two very different calls-to-action from two sources, both of which I respect. I’m not going to try to convince you which side to take, but I think you ought to be aware of the arguments on both sides. And then, if you feel strongly about it, contact your senators and representatives.

On the one hand, we’ve got Jerry Fraser, Editor & Publisher of National Fisherman. On the other hand, there’s Michael Campbell, President of the Northwest Marine Trade Association. These aren’t the only two with something to say on this topic, by any means. But they’re the two from whom I happened to receive email.

At issue is the the Clean Boating Act (S.2766/H.R.5949), which Mr. Fraser summarizes pretty clearly:

Two years ago, a federal court, hoping to prevent further transmission of potentially invasive species lurking in the ballast tanks of high-seas cargo ships entering U.S. waters, said the Environmental Protection Agency could not continue to exempt incidental discharges of deck wash, engine cooling water, and the like under the Clean Water Act.

As a result, by Sept. 30, thousands of previously exempt commercial vessel operators and millions of recreational boaters will be required to obtain permits for discharge “incidental to normal operation of commercial and recreational vessels.”

You know, things like weather run-off, bilge water, engine cooling water, and even the drain from the galley sink.

If they do not, they could be subject to potentially severe fines for almost anything that might accidentally wash out the scuppers, even spilled milk.

Penalties for non-compliance include fines of up to $32,500 per day per violation, and citizen lawsuits. OK, I’m paying attention now.

Vessel operators in states that report (by Sept. 30) to the EPA how they intend to implement the regulations will not have to obtain individual permits. However, all states may not impose the same rules.

In short, a well-intentioned decision by the court is begetting regulatory hell.

The Clean Boating Act would exempt recreational vessels from the permit requirement. But it does nothing to address the needs of smaller commercial vessel operators. And therein lies the conflict.

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Following up on last week’s trip aboard the USCGC Eagle, here’s a photograph taken by Petty Officer 3rd Class Tara Molle, who you may be familiar with from the District 13 Podcasts, which she hosts. The latest episode is devoted to Eagle, and I recommend it.

Anyway, I just love this picture, and it’s currently my desktop wallpaper. It features an HH-65C Dolphin helicopter, the barque Eagle, of course, and the Seattle skyline.

I’ve got my new Rocna anchor, and it fit on my anchor roller just fine…once I removed the anchor roller bail! See, the Rocna’s shank is too tall tall to fit under the existing bail. Sorry I didn’t take a picture of the anchor + anchor roller so this would all be clear.

This product picture from Fisheries Supply will have to suffice. The bail mounted on the end helps keep the anchor and rode on the roller, protecting the ground tackle AND the boat.

But like I said, the bail isn’t long enough to accommodate the Rocna’s shank. It needs to be about an inch longer.

Ballard Sheet Metal offered to fabricate one for me. For $55! That’s probably a reasonable price for one-off custom fabrication in stainless steel, but I was willing to put a little bit of my own time and energy into the project, especially if I could save a bit of money.

See, I’m not even sure my existing anchor roller is going to work very well with the Rocna. My old Bruce-clone “Claw” wouldn’t self-launch from this roller under any conditions. The Rocna MIGHT self-launch…just maybe: It appears to be perfectly balanced on the roller. If I can get the inboard end of the anchor up just a bit, the anchor should roll off on its own.

Anyhoo, that’s why I’m not willing to spend $55 in a long bail for the current roller; there’s too much chance it’ll all end up on the ash heap of history if I have to buy a new self-launching anchor roller.

So Wednesday afternoon, I spent a couple of hours visiting shops in Ballard (which is always a lot of fun for me anyway) in an effort to save some money. As it turns out, I saved a LOT of money. About $50, in fact.

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Nick Ward, who survived the disastrous 1979 Fastnet race aboard the 30-foot Grimalkin, has recently published a book about his experience.

It’s called Left for Dead: The Untold Story of the Greatest Disaster in Modern Sailing History, and it ought to make interesting reading for anyone heading offshore in a small boat. For a preview, read the story over at the Telegraph.

But a word of warning: I suggest you read it while you’re safely moored in a well-protected harbor somewhere. I was once sailing across the Pacific, and we made the mistake of listening to the book-on-tape version of The Perfect Storm when we were about seven days out…what a stooopid idea that was!

Especially when we got to the part where author Sebastian Junger describes PRECISELY what happens, physiologically, to the human body when it drowns. We listened to that just as night was falling. What were we thinking?!?

“…are advised to navigate with extreme caution. Coast Guard Sector Seattle out.”

Wait…what? I missed the first part. What’s the problem? Where’s the problem? Should I care?

I hate that feeling. It seems that every time I get a slip assignment from a harbormaster, I forget it within five seconds. Or I hear the tail end of a transmission on the vessel traffic channel, and I’m not sure if they said that 20-knot container ship is inbound or outbound, which matters because I’m about to cross the lanes! I sure wish I could just listen to that last transmission once more, know what I mean?

The product developers at Cobra know what I mean, and they offer an innovative feature on some VHF models that should help. It’s called Rewind-Say-Again, and it uses a digital voice recorder to play back the last call received.

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