Thanks for the kind words. Best of luck on your refit project. Hope to see you out there!

Have fun! In June, you should have relatively settled weather. Crossing the Gulf Stream north of Hatteras will certainly be faster than slogging down the coast. Your timing avoids the strong fall and winter fronts that pummel so many boats as they head south from Nova Scotia and other parts of New England in the Fall. When you get to Bahamas do some exploring. My favorite places are in the Exumas, but everyone enjoys different things. Pay attention to your navigation and of course the tropical forecast as the summer wears on. Have a good dinghy of some sort since the distance from anchorage to town can be long in the Bahamas. Sounds like a great trip!

@@Setforsea good donghy. Roger!!

You're 100% correct about the length of that heat shrink! I don't remember now why that piece was so short, but it should have been at least another 3/4" longer. Fortunately, that connection is very easy to reach and I'll probably slap a longer piece of heat shrink on there one of these days. Thanks for your kind words!

@@Setforsea If you're like me, one of these days means when and if it lets you down! lol

@@jimrussell1246 Yes, I know that problem all too well... haha

That sounds awful. Here's to more smooth water in your future!

Thank you!

If you don’t have a tool, can’t borrow one, and need to make a battery cable, I recommend just ordering custom made cables from somewhere like Genuinedealz.com (no affiliation). They have good prices on cable, and the custom cable cost is almost nothing. You can specify cable gage, length to the inch, lugs, even heat shrink color. Without a proper tool there is no way to reliably crimp a lug to a standard that will remain safe under the loads the wire is capable of.

Thank you!

Hi- I recommend checking with a rigger, or at least getting advice from others who can provide specs on a working setup. The most important thing for a spinnaker block is that it can take the sideways loading. This usually takes the form of a fitting resembling a "U" bolt onto which the block is shackled. There are pre-made fittings that can be bolted onto the flat part of the masthead, or a fitting can be welded on. Sorry not to be able to provide any specs or photos. I wish I still had my CO 26--she was one of the sweetest sailing boats I have ever had the pleasure of being aboard. I will still take your advice to visit the Contessa 26 group, as I love the design and have friends with CO 26's. Cheers!

Many thanks. I gained a new appreciation for the toughness of Idle Queen's construction through taking her apart. That gives me real peace of mind when things get rough. The repair has since held up perfectly.

Yes, you are right! That piece of heat shrink should have been longer, and for this size wire, 2 inches would have been about right. Thanks for highlighting this.

Hi, and thanks! Sorry, I can't help with the name of the music. It is stock music available in iMovie.

Thanks for watching! That was such a great sailing boat. :)

Rimas Meleshyus Nice! Hope to see you out there!

VJ Rail, hi! Sorry to take so long to reply, but internet is spotty where I am currently sailing. At the time of that video, I used a small soft-floor inflatable dinghy, which I stored below when not in use. I had no roller furling, but just changed sails when required. The working job was good for a wide range of wind speeds, but if it was less than 10 I’d put out the genoa. I never had to use the storm job on that boat. The few times I was out in more than a solid 25 knots I was either running or it was a short squall. I just dropped the jib for the squalls if it really began to blow. She would take quite a bit of breeze with a double reefed main and the working jib or storm jib.

Nice! They are great boats. :)

Haha... Probably need longer fingernails than mine!

Thanks!

It was used to suck air. It probably wasn't a necessary step in the repair, as just pushing everything into the fresh "mash" by hand bedded it very well.

I never did, though I had plans to. The Cape Horn vane worked well in so little wind that it could steer in next-to-nothing. I barely ever hand-steered that boat.

setforsea oh my dream to not need to steer !

Many thanks! Fair seas to you!

Thanks for sharing your story. Wishing you many more happy miles with your stout ship!

Thanks! Good luck with your project!

Hi Louie- It sounds like you may have ended up with a mis-match between the two standards used to measure wire sizes. The two most common standards are AWG (American Wire Gauge), and SAE (Society of Automotive Engineering). Your wire should be marked with one of the two standards somewhere near where the gauge is marked. A problem can arise between the two standards because SAE wires run between 5 and 12% smaller than AWG for a given gauge. Most lugs that I use come from Ancor or FTZ and are a good fit on AWG wire. I have come across no-name lugs in random stores that felt loose on AWG sized wire, but I have used them in a pinch. With a good crimp, they still provided a reliable connection. I make sure to give a good pull-test on any crimp before putting it into service. If you have a spare lug, you can try a test--it may crimp down okay. You are correct that the other measurement on your lug is the hole size. So, a 1/0, 3/8" lug is sized for 1/0 wire and has a 3/8" hole. I hope this helps. Good luck with your project!

Thanks, Owen!

I appreciate the feedback, Greg. Thanks!

Hi Warren- Thanks! It's good to have her back in the water. It's been a long process, for sure. The new Sampson posts are sealed with a bead of 3m's 4000 UV. The top of the holes in the deck are beveled a bit to provide more bonding surface. If I were to do it again I'd probably seal them with a generous worm of butyl rubber, and maybe cover that with a trim ring to make things look neater and protect the butyl from sun damage. So far so good, though.

Absolutely! One should do everything possible to keep all the wiring dry. Electricity and water don't play nicely together... One thing I would add to the video is that I would put a longer piece of heat shrink over the connection if it were going somewhere that it ever might get wet. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Hi Alex- Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a comment. It's great to hear that the video was useful!

Thanks for the positive feedback, Mark!

Yea... what scares me is too many learning the wrong/ incorrect ways. I got trashed , following all the ‘experts’ saying to adhere my solar flex panel, to roof of my teardrop... oops... it is losing efficiency, as no underneath cooling escape for panel getting warm... I would destroy the panel if I tried to get it off to correct... Thanks ‘experts’ ! Ya burned me good !

Still saving up to continue the voyage. As far as any plans I have, they are written in sand. Hoping to be sailing this summer, though...

Sure, from a materials standpoint it might even cost less than solid GRP. This repair only cost a few hundred dollars in materials. If you are paying for labor, it will cost more, however, as there are a few extra steps to be taken when making a good repair. It took time for me to remove and replace the core. After that, it is just a fiberglass repair. The big thing I took away from the entire exercise is that the repair would not have been necessary if the hardware had been properly installed in the first place, or even decades later. It took almost 40 years for this damage to occur...

Thanks so much! I had not planned to make a technique video like this, but had seen too much misinformation out there... Glad you found it wherever it's buried here on KZbin. :)

Hi jim davidson- The lugs used in this video are different from ones designed for soldering. If these lugs are crimped correctly, the joint is cold formed into a solid mass. The crimped joints are vapor and watertight and have a resistance equal to or less than that of the wire. Solder, if used, will not flow into the joint, and also introduces the possibility of creating a hard spot which can lead to work-hardening and failure of the wire if subjected to flexing or vibration. The connectors used in this video are made of tinned copper, which is why they look silver. The tin coating is there to prevent oxidation of the copper lug, ensuring that the connection has the lowest resistance possible.

Right, tin is not a good conductor of electricity. You know, like copper? Electrons travel on the outer surface of the wire/conductor. Not through the inside of a wire strand.

You bring up a good point about the conductivity of tin--tin is not as electrically conductive as copper. However, it is much better than corroded copper, and is the standard plating for corrosion protection of copper conductors in the marine industry (this video shows the assembly of cables that will be used on a boat, and is aimed at that audience). Bare copper is excellent electrically, but is much more vulnerable to corrosion than the connectors used in this video, which leads to a much shorter service life in the marine environment. As far as the conductivity of the strands of the conductors goes, these cables are intended for DC use. DC current uses the full cross-section of a wire. The phenomenon you are referring to is known as "skin effect", and its effects are dependent on the frequency of A/C current in a conductor. Skin effect losses are negligible even on normal domestic A/C wiring (50-60 Hz) until the conductor size is much larger than the ones I am dealing with here.

The "power lugs" that setforsea used in this video are tin plated copper lugs, and are significantly thicker copper than the standard grade that was also shown at the beginning of the video. These type of lugs are far superior for battery loads because they wont introduce heat into the battery terminal if crimped properly, and they were crimped correctly. These lugs are the premium grade for battery use.

DC uses the entire conductor, not the outside.

Good quality cable cutters are a great choice as well. The important thing is to get a clean cut on the end of the wire. I usually reach for those particular shears because they produce a very clean cut, and have a spring opener so I can use them with one hand. The compound lever mechanism makes cutting wire up to 2/0 easy. They'll work on 4/0 in a pinch, but if I had to do more than a cut or two I'd reach for the large cable cutters instead.