Where do you carry your dinghy? On the cabin top? Where is a good place to
store the small outboard that goes with the dinghy?

Any thoughts on how someone can expand their storage space on a 32'
sailboat? Any tricks of the trade? Any neat ideas?

Any thoughts on setting up tent like covers over the cockpit when in port?
How? Where to get the material?

Electricty generators? What type? Where to mount? Wind or Sun? How do
you wire? Is the wire always there once on?

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 03:24:45 GMT, "Thomas Wentworth"
wrote:
Where do you carry your dinghy? On the cabin top? Where is a good place to
store the small outboard that goes with the dinghy?


It depends on the dinghy and it depends on the sailboat. After
carrying a small fiberglass dinghy on the cabin top for many years, I
came around to the point of view that a roll up inflatable was the
best answer - faster, more seaworthy, easier to stow, etc.

Best place for the outboard is typically a board mounted to the stern
pulpit, or sometimes in a cockpit locker. Watch for gas spills, very
dangerous below.

Any thoughts on how someone can expand their storage space on a 32'
sailboat? Any tricks of the trade? Any neat ideas?


It's difficult on a boat that small. At some point you can use deck
boxes but that doesn't really work on a 32.

Any thoughts on setting up tent like covers over the cockpit when in port?
How? Where to get the material?


A good idea and very common, usually draped over the boom and tied to
the backstay, sometimes with spreader poles in the ends. Any good
canvas shop will have the material. The best fabric is called
Sunbrella and is readily available.

Electricty generators? What type? Where to mount? Wind or Sun? How do
you wire? Is the wire always there once on?


Most cuisers on sailboats in that size range use a combination of
solar panels, wind generator, and sometimes a high output alternator.

I didn't get to see the photo (881K of it!) but I'll let it download (dialup
hell) when I'm finished here...

I attended a seminar with Pam Wall, the cruiser specialist at West Marine, a
multi-circumnavigator (with kids, yet!), at the Seven Seas Cruising
Association meeting in Melbourne last November, and awnings were one of her
presentation points.

She asserts, and I'd agree, that if it takes you more than 5 minutes to
deploy or stow, you'll not use it. We're currently wrestling with how to
design ours with that parameter in mind.

Second, for the ends, she strongly recommends furler foil, having tried
everything else you can imagine, unsuccessfully. In the middle, she uses
round sail batten, as it will hold the shape, but doesn't need the rigidity
to keep the ends squared off as the foils will.

In their case, an aft cockpit, they stow it on top of the bimini, at the aft
bow. They use a flattish, rounded top, rather than tent, style, which
allows them to simply roll it up. Yes, it hangs out over the side of the
bimini - but, as most circumnavigators do, function is more important than
fashion. So, deployment is simply unrolling it, and fastening the
three-legged hoist to their halyard, tying off the sides as appropriate,
and, later, as the sun requires, perhaps hanging the screens. Getting ready
to sail is a matter of untying the side lines, dropping and retrieving the
halyard, rolling it backward on the boom and when it gets there, the bimini,
and tying the bundle, and off they go.

Our center cockpit represents much more of a challenge, what with the
topping lift (a cable to a single-pulley advantage, unfortunately, as it
would be lovely to use it for the hoist! - if it were an overhead lift) -
which would have to be either dropped, which requires some climbing as it's
not reachable otherwise, or pulled forward - and ditto the lazy jacks
(though those are routinely carried forward to sail), the backstay several
feet in front of the arch, and the HF antenna whip right in the middle of
the arch, secured to the frame of our solar panels (I doubt the whip would
appreciate the weight - as big as our boat is, perhaps 50 or more pounds of
Sunbrella and furler foil/other batten - hanging down on it), the actual
likely stowage and stern anchor point.

You can see pix of our installation (not the awning - we've not yet done it
due to our design challenges) of solar and wind and dinghy, if those arch
solutions might interest you, by clicking the url in the sig, going to the
"home" at the top of the page, and then to the "M46Projects" folder, which
will take you to our refit pix, many of the early ones yet not uploaded.
Creative types here are solicited to review our setup for ideas on how to
make a 5-minute deploy/takedown awning for our installation. The whip, the
biggest impediment, is not yet mounted, so could possibly be relocated,
though I don't know where, and I don't want to go to backstay antenna, which
would solve that part of the problem. However, we still would have to deal
with the backstay (can't roll it back with it there)

As to getting the material, there's lots of places where you can buy
Sunbrella. I don't know what the minimums are to get a commercial price,
but Glen Raven Mills sells direct, as well as their many distributors. If
you're prepared to do the sewing, it's pretty straightforward. Otherwise,
any canvas shop should be able to make it up for you, albeit at a hugely
more expensive price (gotta pay the overhead, plus the retail on the
material).

Hope this helped...

L8R

Skip, in rehab so I can go back to refit!


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
"Thomas Wentworth" wrote in message
news:1yizf.8110$Bn4.3049@trndny08...
Where do you carry your dinghy? On the cabin top? Where is a good place
to store the small outboard that goes with the dinghy?

Any thoughts on how someone can expand their storage space on a 32'
sailboat? Any tricks of the trade? Any neat ideas?

Any thoughts on setting up tent like covers over the cockpit when in port?
How? Where to get the material?

Electricty generators? What type? Where to mount? Wind or Sun? How do
you wire? Is the wire always there once on?

In article 1yizf.8110$Bn4.3049@trndny08,
"Thomas Wentworth" wrote:

Where do you carry your dinghy? On the cabin top? Where is a good place to
store the small outboard that goes with the dinghy?

We stow our PortaBote on what amounts to our side deck. The outboard
(when we bring it) is on the outboard mount on the transom. It doubles
as our "get home" device.

Any thoughts on how someone can expand their storage space on a 32'
sailboat? Any tricks of the trade? Any neat ideas?

Entirely depends upon the boat and crew needs. Generally involves
making "dead" space appropriate stowage.

Any thoughts on setting up tent like covers over the cockpit when in
port? How? Where to get the material?

We built one from a 6x8' nylon "tarp" from the sporting goods store and
two 6' rods -- we had aluminum, but wood dowels (like broom handles)
would work as well. We just toss it over the boom, tie down the ends
and sometimes sides via the grommets.

Electricty generators? What type? Where to mount? Wind or Sun?
How do you wire? Is the wire always there once on?

We have a "hard" 12w solar panel for our (mostly) weekend work. It's
sufficient to bring our 230 AH bank back up during the week. During
longer trips, it usually supplies our modest needs, but when we
over-draw, a couple of hours sunlight is sufficient to start the
diesel. We simply lay it in the sun when needed, pack it behind a setee
seat while moving.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/