Another Cal gets a major refit: Shady Lady

Hi Group! Yeah, it's been a while since I last posted. Blast me, sailor, for I have sanded. (ahem) I have also masked and have been threatening to paint. Probably not, but maybe. Well I dunno. What I do know is that Shady Lady, my beloved Cal 34, Offshore spinnaker racing winner and Cruising Boat of the Year in Tampa Bay, is undergoing a major refit. We will be taking Shady Lady to the Bahamas for a few weeks in the Spring, and as a gift to ourselves, have decided to make some major improvements. Paint may actually be in the offing, but that will have to be low on the priority list as functionality comes first. Probably just the blue stripe, if anything. Here is a brief beginning of a list of the stuff I wanna do: Fix up list New head add Holding tank add More water tanks replace Pressure water pump Rewire/ new panel 12V and AC Move batteries forward and port More / better batteries: house bank - (3) group 27 Rolls replace elec bilge pump and float switch add 12V Refrigeration add Solar panels / platform? regulator. Improve engine battery charge rate (install Balmar smart regulator) Transmission / V Drive rebuild get Depth sounder that works, really. add Cockpit ports add Enclosure / New dodger add Screen for midhatch build New awnings add More cabin fans add Screen cover for dorade Swing the compass add Cockpit shower get Dinghy motor Dinghy leak fix Get fishing gear Replace cracked main salon large port. Polish fuel tank Install dual Racors with valves. So If anybody has any advice (yeah, right) about any of this stuff, I'm all ears. So far, fuel polishing has begun. A slow process. I created a polisher by mounting a Racor on a portable board along with a cheap 12V fuel pump. It's hooked up with a fuel hose to a loose long copper tube which I can fit down the fuel fill and snake around inside the tank under the cockpit floor. An old tooth brush, bent into a U, cable-tied to the copper tube helps. So far we've gotten handfulls of glop outta there and clogged up a bunch of racor filters. Still at it. It's had about 4 hours of polishing and glop still comin out. There is a baffle in the middle of the tank and we've been unsuccessfull at getting the copper tube into the port side of the tank. May have to heel her over to starboard, pump most of the fuel out, and run a bunch of fuel thru the return (which is on port) to get what we can outta the port side of the tank. This will continue until the fuel flows clean. I've also begun creating the new electrical panel. Remember the parted out Ericson 35? I got the panels out of it. Tom V's word was true. It did not sink and they cleaned up pretty nicely. All breakers tested out fine. I've created a new wood panel and am mounting it on the port side above the quarter berth shelf. There will actually be enough space below it to still utilize the shelf. The new panel will be on hinges and open up like a cabinet to access the wiring. I hope to make all the wiring neat and tree-trunked out at 90 degree angles for the 'ouu-ahh' effect. Nice eh? I plan to locate the new battery bank under the aft seat of the dinnette. The run from there to the engine and panel will be shorter (under the Stbd quarter berth) than the DPO method (Dreaded Previous Owner). He had nicely located the batteries in the keel but ran the cables forward to the beam, then over to the head, and aft under the galley to finally reach the panel, battery switch and the engine. Can you say voltage drop? It was crazy. We played musical 12V devices. Turn this light on and that one goes off. Somebody runs the water and all the lights flicker. You could never put the volume on the stereo any higher than about half way. (my Marina mates thank the DPO). The old elec panel and all of it's 6 circuits were located ankle height at the starboard quarter berth. The switches always got flipped by a passing human who undoubtedly apologized later after all the juice was gone. Working on the wiring called for an acrobatic midget who could stand on his head and cut/snip on the ball of wires under the quarter berth cushion lift-out. I think the original Cal 34 had the same panel as a Cal 25. Only the wires were longer so the voltage drops were greater. Hopefully, things will be quite different aboard the new Shady Lady by next spring. So go ahead. Don't be bashful. Flood me with tips and reasons why I'm not crazy as my dock mate pays me back by going sailing every time I'm down there working on the boat. After all, I did it to him while he was doin all his projects on his Cape Dory 30. ~smile~ SMon Shady Lady, '70 Cal 34, St Pete FL. --------------------------------- Access over 1 million songs - Yahoo! Music Unlimited.

Being well into our first sailing season in Moon Shadow (3-34), I've been seriously happy with all of the modifications we've made. We stripped her down inside and out, and built her back again, all new, so feel free to ask, I'll answer any questions I can for you. Check out the photos in the yahoo groups site, there are two pages of them and if you need more, I'll get them. Glen Fromm Cal 3-34 Moon Shadow ----- Original Message ----- From: steve honour<mailto:st… [at] yahoo.com> To: Cal_boats<mailto:Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:52 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Another Cal gets a major refit: Shady Lady Hi Group! Yeah, it's been a while since I last posted. Blast me, sailor, for I have sanded. (ahem) I have also masked and have been threatening to paint. Probably not, but maybe. Well I dunno. What I do know is that Shady Lady, my beloved Cal 34, Offshore spinnaker racing winner and Cruising Boat of the Year in Tampa Bay, is undergoing a major refit. We will be taking Shady Lady to the Bahamas for a few weeks in the Spring, and as a gift to ourselves, have decided to make some major improvements. Paint may actually be in the offing, but that will have to be low on the priority list as functionality comes first. Probably just the blue stripe, if anything. Here is a brief beginning of a list of the stuff I wanna do: Fix up list 1.. New head 2.. add Holding tank 3.. add More water tanks 4.. replace Pressure water pump 5.. Rewire/ new panel 12V and AC 6.. Move batteries forward and port 7.. More / better batteries: house bank - (3) group 27 Rolls 8.. replace elec bilge pump and float switch 9.. add 12V Refrigeration 10.. add Solar panels / platform? regulator. 11.. Improve engine battery charge rate (install Balmar smart regulator) 12.. Transmission / V Drive rebuild 13.. get Depth sounder that works, really. 14.. add Cockpit ports 15.. add Enclosure / New dodger 16.. add Screen for midhatch 17.. build New awnings 18.. add More cabin fans 19.. add Screen cover for dorade 20.. Swing the compass 21.. add Cockpit shower 22.. get Dinghy motor 23.. Dinghy leak fix 24.. Get fishing gear 25.. Replace cracked main salon large port. 26.. Polish fuel tank 27.. Install dual Racors with valves. So If anybody has any advice (yeah, right) about any of this stuff, I'm all ears. So far, fuel polishing has begun. A slow process. I created a polisher by mounting a Racor on a portable board along with a cheap 12V fuel pump. It's hooked up with a fuel hose to a loose long copper tube which I can fit down the fuel fill and snake around inside the tank under the cockpit floor. An old tooth brush, bent into a U, cable-tied to the copper tube helps. So far we've gotten handfulls of glop outta there and clogged up a bunch of racor filters. Still at it. It's had about 4 hours of polishing and glop still comin out. There is a baffle in the middle of the tank and we've been unsuccessfull at getting the copper tube into the port side of the tank. May have to heel her over to starboard, pump most of the fuel out, and run a bunch of fuel thru the return (which is on port) to get what we can outta the port side of the tank. This will continue until the fuel flows clean. I've also begun creating the new electrical panel. Remember the parted out Ericson 35? I got the panels out of it. Tom V's word was true. It did not sink and they cleaned up pretty nicely. All breakers tested out fine. I've created a new wood panel and am mounting it on the port side above the quarter berth shelf. There will actually be enough space below it to still utilize the shelf. The new panel will be on hinges and open up like a cabinet to access the wiring. I hope to make all the wiring neat and tree-trunked out at 90 degree angles for the 'ouu-ahh' effect. Nice eh? I plan to locate the new battery bank under the aft seat of the dinnette. The run from there to the engine and panel will be shorter (under the Stbd quarter berth) than the DPO method (Dreaded Previous Owner). He had nicely located the batteries in the keel but ran the cables forward to the beam, then over to the head, and aft under the galley to finally reach the panel, battery switch and the engine. Can you say voltage drop? It was crazy. We played musical 12V devices. Turn this light on and that one goes off. Somebody runs the water and all the lights flicker. You could never put the volume on the stereo any higher than about half way. (my Marina mates thank the DPO). The old elec panel and all of it's 6 circuits were located ankle height at the starboard quarter berth. The switches always got flipped by a passing human who undoubtedly apologized later after all the juice was gone. Working on the wiring called for an acrobatic midget who could stand on his head and cut/snip on the ball of wires under the quarter berth cushion lift-out. I think the original Cal 34 had the same panel as a Cal 25. Only the wires were longer so the voltage drops were greater. Hopefully, things will be quite different aboard the new Shady Lady by next spring. So go ahead. Don't be bashful. Flood me with tips and reasons why I'm not crazy as my dock mate pays me back by going sailing every time I'm down there working on the boat. After all, I did it to him while he was doin all his projects on his Cape Dory 30. ~smile~ SMon Shady Lady, '70 Cal 34, St Pete FL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Access over 1 million songs - Yahoo! 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Hi Glen, Yes, and wow, Moonshadow looks very beautiful. I can see why you are happy with the results. I don't think I'm am gong to be doing anything on the scale that you have done. Certainly, I will be concentrating more on the functionality aspect than the aesthetic. (as you can probably surmise from my list.) But wow. The woodwork in Moonshadow is quite something. I've sailed Shady Lady for 8 years as is and she has been quite a sweet boat in mostly her original form. Quite a performer. Shelves of trophies. We've done a 500 mile round trip to Key West each year and raced most years in the regatta from Clearwater. Lots of other shorter trips and one longer one when I took a contract job in Melbourne (FL east coast) for a few months and lived aboard over there. I've done what I had to to maintain her functionality. I bought sails, rigging and a new engine. I built a bimini and dodger and some cushions. All the woodwork is original and I did some varnishing below. It would be very nice to add insulation. Cal 3-34's have it but Cal 34's don't. When it's hot, it's hot below and when it's cold it's cold below. I've had boats with insulation and what a difference. They stay warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. I'm really quite torn about this boat. I want all the goodies but I don't want to put so much into her that she isn't worth the investment. This boat is eaten up with blisters. A proper fix would cost as much as the boat is worth so that's ridiculous. I'm not going to do that. But I can see bolting all this crap on and just using her for a few years. If I get 5-7 years out of the goodies, I've got my monies worth. But if I do a peel and a new bottom I've got nothing but a boat I can sell for half what I've put into her. No goodies, old wiring, etc. Right now, I could sell her for every dime I've got in her. Adding the goodies will exceed that but I can justify that because I can enjoy all the stuff. I have to have bottom jobs anyway and another grand per bottom job fixes the existing blisters. I estimate I can have everything on my list and more for the same cost as a blister job. No way I'm doin both. Can't afford it. I may want to move up to a 40-45 footer after another 5-7 years. All those goodies will sell the 34 more than a clean bill of bottom health. I'll just let somebody else deal with the blisters down the road. I've read enough about it to scare me out of spending big bux only to have the problem come back a few years after. I'll just make sure the next boat has a blister free bottom. ~smile~ SMon glen fromm <gl… [at] msn.com> wrote: Being well into our first sailing season in Moon Shadow (3-34), I've been seriously happy with all of the modifications we've made. We stripped her down inside and out, and built her back again, all new, so feel free to ask, I'll answer any questions I can for you. Check out the photos in the yahoo groups site, there are two pages of them and if you need more, I'll get them. Glen Fromm Cal 3-34 Moon Shadow ----- Original Message ----- From: steve honour To: Cal_boats Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:52 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Another Cal gets a major refit: Shady Lady Hi Group! Yeah, it's been a while since I last posted. Blast me, sailor, for I have sanded. (ahem) I have also masked and have been threatening to paint. Probably not, but maybe. Well I dunno. What I do know is that Shady Lady, my beloved Cal 34, Offshore spinnaker racing winner and Cruising Boat of the Year in Tampa Bay, is undergoing a major refit. We will be taking Shady Lady to the Bahamas for a few weeks in the Spring, and as a gift to ourselves, have decided to make some major improvements. Paint may actually be in the offing, but that will have to be low on the priority list as functionality comes first. Probably just the blue stripe, if anything. Here is a brief beginning of a list of the stuff I wanna do: Fix up list New head add Holding tank add More water tanks replace Pressure water pump Rewire/ new panel 12V and AC Move batteries forward and port More / better batteries: house bank - (3) group 27 Rolls replace elec bilge pump and float switch add 12V Refrigeration add Solar panels / platform? regulator. Improve engine battery charge rate (install Balmar smart regulator) Transmission / V Drive rebuild get Depth sounder that works, really. add Cockpit ports add Enclosure / New dodger add Screen for midhatch build New awnings add More cabin fans add Screen cover for dorade Swing the compass add Cockpit shower get Dinghy motor Dinghy leak fix Get fishing gear Replace cracked main salon large port. Polish fuel tank Install dual Racors with valves. So If anybody has any advice (yeah, right) about any of this stuff, I'm all ears. So far, fuel polishing has begun. A slow process. I created a polisher by mounting a Racor on a portable board along with a cheap 12V fuel pump. It's hooked up with a fuel hose to a loose long copper tube which I can fit down the fuel fill and snake around inside the tank under the cockpit floor. An old tooth brush, bent into a U, cable-tied to the copper tube helps. So far we've gotten handfulls of glop outta there and clogged up a bunch of racor filters. Still at it. It's had about 4 hours of polishing and glop still comin out. There is a baffle in the middle of the tank and we've been unsuccessfull at getting the copper tube into the port side of the tank. May have to heel her over to starboard, pump most of the fuel out, and run a bunch of fuel thru the return (which is on port) to get what we can outta the port side of the tank. This will continue until the fuel flows clean. I've also begun creating the new electrical panel. Remember the parted out Ericson 35? I got the panels out of it. Tom V's word was true. It did not sink and they cleaned up pretty nicely. All breakers tested out fine. I've created a new wood panel and am mounting it on the port side above the quarter berth shelf. There will actually be enough space below it to still utilize the shelf. The new panel will be on hinges and open up like a cabinet to access the wiring. I hope to make all the wiring neat and tree-trunked out at 90 degree angles for the 'ouu-ahh' effect. Nice eh? I plan to locate the new battery bank under the aft seat of the dinnette. The run from there to the engine and panel will be shorter (under the Stbd quarter berth) than the DPO method (Dreaded Previous Owner). He had nicely located the batteries in the keel but ran the cables forward to the beam, then over to the head, and aft under the galley to finally reach the panel, battery switch and the engine. Can you say voltage drop? It was crazy. We played musical 12V devices. Turn this light on and that one goes off. Somebody runs the water and all the lights flicker. You could never put the volume on the stereo any higher than about half way. (my Marina mates thank the DPO). The old elec panel and all of it's 6 circuits were located ankle height at the starboard quarter berth. The switches always got flipped by a passing human who undoubtedly apologized later after all the juice was gone. Working on the wiring called for an acrobatic midget who could stand on his head and cut/snip on the ball of wires under the quarter berth cushion lift-out. I think the original Cal 34 had the same panel as a Cal 25. Only the wires were longer so the voltage drops were greater. Hopefully, things will be quite different aboard the new Shady Lady by next spring. So go ahead. Don't be bashful. Flood me with tips and reasons why I'm not crazy as my dock mate pays me back by going sailing every time I'm down there working on the boat. After all, I did it to him while he was doin all his projects on his Cape Dory 30. ~smile~ SMon Shady Lady, '70 Cal 34, St Pete FL. --------------------------------- Access over 1 million songs - Yahoo! Music Unlimited. --------------------------------- Check out the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster.