The rudder stops for the auto pilot linear actuator is 24 mm plywood with a semicircular slot
After a very good test in 35 knots on the trip back from Port Stephens I have had the chance to reflect on some of the choices we made.
The interior is remarkably dry. There are a few drips from deck fittings where a bit more Sikaflex is needed but these are very minor. All the holes are twice saturated with epoxy. By that I mean they were drilled, epoxy saturated and then drilled again and epoxy saturated so there is no timber exposed to swell to seal the leaks and it will have to be done with sealant.
There is no perceptible leak from the engine shaft seal. It is an Italian seal with a spigot for adding lubricant and one for venting the seal so that air bubbles do no accumulate. I thought that the bearing in the stern tube may need forced lubrication and bought the kit in case but the water has never sucked out of leaving the bearing dry so it is one item that will not be used. I did shift the bearing from the top of the stern tube to the bottom to give a longer distance between the gearbox coupling and the bearing. The position at the top of the stern tube was at the end of the recommended range and the alignment of the tube was good enough to give me the option to move it to the bottom of the tube. In hindsight the Volvo seal would have done the job and I now have one in stock as a spare.
The autopilot is a wonderful luxury especially on the long delivery trips. The manufacture is definite of the need for stops to prevent the linear actuator arm turning the rudder more than plus or minus 35 degrees and to that end I have a 24 mm thick plywood beam with a semi circular hole in which the rudder stop travels. It looks very solid and may be over kill but it does stiffen the last frame before the transom. I don’t know when these stops will come into play as I have not seen the autopilot turn the tiller more than a few degrees. I was concerned that on autopilot we would have to lift the tiller to stop it hitting the crew in the legs but on current performance we can just leave it moving around the few degrees and not bothering any of the crew.
On Passion , our beloved jeanneau SO37 we tried many traveller systems and ended up with a top of the range wide travel Harken system. Dudley’s standard is the cockpit mounted traveller and I did install the timber beam under the cockpit in case it was needed. Dudley approved our cabin mounted system because with the 40 ft Cr version the cabin is so long that the connection to the boom is well past half way. The boom was specified for our deck top attachment location. In practice it has been very manageable. It is an idea stolen from the Jeanneau SO349 which while shorter is not too different. To ensure the loads are well distributed we have a very large area of additional 12 mm plywood under the cabin top. The doubler goes from the bulkhead at the end of the cabin forward all the way to the front of the head and quarter berth ante room and serves to lock in the fore and aft bulkheads on either side of the companionway. Where the mainsheet bridle is attached there is an additional 12 mm backing plate bringing the bearing surface for the three 10 mm bolts on each side up to 36 mm. Our very conservative rigger gave it his approval and I will be interested to see how it goes over the years ahead.
I have also added doublers from the chain plate frames forwards to the mast support bulkhead. It is a small area but it does lock in the chainplate frames. In front of the mast bulkhead the cabin top is also made up of 24 mm of laminated plywood so that I could do away with the framing. It give a very nice clean look to the roof of the V berth and is immensely strong. Because it is such a narrow cabin top the additional weight is negligible.
The narrow cabin top limited our selection of deck organizers so we selected the Spinlock 35 mm range. We have a lot of bearing area for the bolts with the 24 mm thick plywood roof so had no worries there. In practice the plastic sheaves could not take the very high loads of the reefing system so we have replaced all the high load sheaves with the alloy variety Spinlock have as an option. Today I purchased enough alloy sheaves to replace all of them for long term peace of mind. The alloy sheaves have stood up to hours of 35 knots wind with the reefing system at full load so it has had a good test.
I am very pleased with my three single line reefing system on the Allyacht Spars boom. Two of the lines have the internal pulley system and the third line goes from the boom exit down to a block at the base of the mast back up to the pulley on the third reef and all the way back to the base of the mast. The line is held against the mast at the reef point by a large twisted shackle that conveniently fits into the goosekneck fitting. I have the same system on Passion and it worked very well so we ordered it for the new rig on Passion X. Not many yacht would have three single line reefing systems and we put this one to the test on the way home from Port Stephens in the 35 knot conditions. The only time we tried it on Passion was in a practice run out through the heads in similar 35 knots conditions but this time on Passion X it was for real.
There is lots more that I am really please about and I will try to remember to take photos for the blog.
24 mm ply in the quarter berth ante room roof with an additional 12 mm ply backing plate for the mainsheet bridle
The bridle system on Passion X set up with temporary blocks for an early sail
The clean lines in the V berth area roof