Kayak Boarding

 I love kayaking from my F-24, but my one knee, injured badly in college, is getting worse. If it's choppy, I could use a little help. 

 This was the original concept. An arm that would give me something to do "dips" with. I steer the kayak between the hulls from behind, close to the port ama, with the cockpit just behind the cross beam. I push down on the gunwales, just enough to scoot my butt up on the deck of the kayak, and then use the port ama and the assist arm to press up enough to get my feet fully under me. From there, if you have good balance, it is a simple matter to stand up and step up. It's a little more complicated in waves.

 

The final version looks like this. It was welded from a salvaged IKEA bedframe, and padded with strips of exercise room foam tile glued on with Barge Cement (heavy duty contact cement foe shoe repair). It just hooks over the beam, slipping between the laces.  Folds for storage, less than 1-pound. A morning welding project. 

 

 

 

Is the Choice Between Roll Bar and Non-roll Bar Anchors Necesarily Binary?

 A roll bar is just a righting mechanism. Non-roll bar anchors can have wings that go pretty high.

 

 

 

So, when do wings become a roll bar?  Unsurprisingly, this rolls upright just the same as a roll bar. In fact, the wings are probably a little taller than they need to be.

 

Why would this possibly be better?

• Grass and trash can slide up and out, rather than become trapped.
• The turning action is better, because the wings are canted slightly inwards.
• The drag is slightly less, thus deeper burying is possible.
• The upwards levering of the toe is less because the useless mid-section is removed.

Downsides?

•  Not as strong. High strength steel is a must.
• Slightly more complex manufacture. 
• It does not solve the roll bar fit problem.
• Could more easily snag the rode unless well buried. 

Just brainstorming with you. 

 

Pausing the Gas Tax

Wow. We found free money. Note: I am socially very liberal and financially very conservative.

First, the obvious. The money to fix roads has to come from somewhere. Gas taxes. Debt. The general fund, which probably means debt. 

Interestingly, this has bipartisan support. The reason, obviously enough, is that politicians are cowards. Mid-terms are coming, and the general rule is "it's the economy, stupid." You don't want to get blamed for well, reality. Running up the credit card is always easier. 

 Reality is hard to sell. Wars have consequences. Spending has consequences. I' not sayin' a balanced budget is always the healthy answer. That's a long discussion, and there are complex answers. But sometimes it seems we just don't try. Lies are easier.

Marking Rode. Chain or Nylon.

 Chain is easily marked with paint. For yacht chain, a cardboard box helps.

 

Marking Chain 

 

As for rope, latex paint works just fine. It does not weaken the rode. Even if the paint chips a little, the rope is still conspicuously stained. The box trick still works. 

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 Don't overmark the rode. If you have a windlass, a long mark 10 feet before the anchor gives notice it is close. Otherwise, the first mark can be at the least rode you would ever use, about 50 feet for most sailors.  After that, it's not precision math; every 25 feet is more than enough, perhaps 50 feet. The fewer marks, the less there is to remember.

Chesapeake Area Galvinizing

 Anchors and chains could last nearly forever, but the galvanizing wears and corrodes away.  The minimum is rather high (300-600 pounds, depending on the amount of cleanup), but if you have a large anchor and long chain, you might make the minimum. Combined with a dockmate, you should have enough.

 

Baltimore Galvinizing. $0.50/pound for prep if rusty (like old chain) $0.50/pound for galvanizing, $300 minimum. A couple of anchors and a few hundred feet of chain will get you there. https://www.baltimoregalv.com/

 

 In 2017 industry prognosticators projected that the average (mode) owner would be about 65 by 2025.

 

 

In 2024 the average median age was 60, and the average mode was ... 64. If you look at how the average has moved 20 years older in 20 years, I think that means it's us guys. 

 

 So what happens when we age-out, and it looks like the big hits start in the next 10 years? It's obvious why DIY magazines like Good Old Boat collapsed, and why every other boating media outlet has moved on-line and to selling big boats. People have the disposable income, but they're just not spending it on boating. I get that. It's kinda dumb.

 I hear that West Marine is discussing chapter 11.  I see more empty slips. Oh well. I'm still having fun.

A Slow Rockfish Season

 I don't think I've ever seen so few boats out on opening day. Only one out of Deale, and I saw a lot of long faces. None out of Chesapeake Beach, or possibly I missed it. Very few private boats, no more than 1-2 visible within 10 miles, most of the time.  

The population is way off, as low as it was during the closure years in the early 80s. You can only keep one fish, 19-24 inches. No fun. I'm guessing no good fishing for 7-10 years. Really, I guess it's been 15 years since I rated the fishing as good. 

I'd hate to be in the charter business. I guess I need to take my trolling gear off the boat, and just sail and kayak. Oh well. Maybe the summer spot fishing will be good, but I'm not that into it.  Sounds like freshwater will be the thing. I'll be 65 in a few weeks, so the license just got cheaper. Time to get a lifetime freshwater licence, I think. Just $25.

 

 Not worth going out for Rockfish, not for a while, in my opinion. Let them recover.

 

 

Even More Anchor Testing

 The long version (over 40 pages) will, I believe, be in Practical Sailor.

 I built a 9-pound version, suitable for my F-24 MKI. Today I tested it in sand and mud, and it exceeded expectations. It easily held the same 500 pounds in the ooze/mud that 35- 45-pound anchors have in prior testing. It set every time, it reset every time, and came up pretty clean.

 It fills my need, replacing an Excel and Northill.

 

 Alloy Excel #1 on the left, 9-pound Chesapeake anchor on the right. All it cost was some welding rod, since I have a lot of scrap.

  

 Rolling in. In practice, it always lands right side up, just because of the balance. But I tipped it a few times, just to be sure.

 

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I coated mine with industrial polyurethane. I parkerized first, then two coats, then post cured at 170F for 8 hours. It's holding up well and makes the anchor slippery. But galvinizing would be better, I just didn't have nearly enough to make the minimum (my 9 pounds vs. 600 pounds of new anchors minimum).

 

 Baltimore Galvinizing. $0.50/pound for prep if rusty (like old chain) $0.50/pound for galvanizing, $300 minimum. A couple of anchors and a few hundred feet of chain will get you there. https://www.baltimoregalv.com/

 

Replacing the water tube.

 About 1/4-mile from the dock the motor began to overheat. I nursed it back to the dock, stopping occasionally for it to cool. I took the motor home, removed the lower unit to replace the impellor (it had been some years), ad found the water tube had brooken loose at the top. The brass dezinced and it snapped off, so no water to the motor. 

 A little head scratching and Googling later, I determined that the powerhead had to come off to replace it. 

  

It comes up into that notch on the right, held by a grommet I removed. the pee hole is visible lower right.

 It seems like everything has to come apart. Covers. Controls.Reconnecting the shift bar is the worst part. 

 Run like a top now. 

 

More Anchor Testing

 It finally got warm enough to spend a day on the water, in-and-out of a kayak, and generally getting wet.

My modular testing system provides for over 100 possible combinations, but thankfully, many were eliminated early on as dead-ends. The convex fore-aft and convex toe-to-heel flukes disappointed; they did not penetrate the firm base layer well. Small differences in angle matter, but testing can be confined to combinations that showed promise. The Claw, Guardian (pivoting fluke), and Mantus anchors were tested as known reference points, since we have tested these at the same locations before.

So which combination is showing the most promise in layered Chesapeake mud? 

• The Guardian is VERY strong (>200 pounds, probably 500 pounds but we stopped at 200 pounds) when it reaches the firm layer, but in mucky areas it set less than half the time and never reset.
• The Claw never achieved anything we could call a "set." typically holding was 15-25 pounds, or less.
• The Mantus did well when it reached the firm layer, which was about 75% of the time. Holding was typically 80-120 pounds. If it did not reach the firm layer, holding was 35-45 pounds. 
• The odd looking split toe, no-roll bar anchor to the right is the winner so far. It set over 90% of the time, and holding was 120 to >200 pounds when it did. Getting it out of the bottom was a chore.  When it didn't reach the firm layer, it still held more than any other combination.

Why? I'm guessing at these things, based on testing in other configurations:

• The high shank helped it get deeper, through the muck. The Mantus penetrated a little more reliably with this shank too.  No-roll-bar seems to be an asset in muck.
• The roll bar did have a small advantage resetting in sand.  Let's not throw the baby out with the bath--except for very deep muck, it is likely the superior design. 
• Sharp toe. The split reduces the angle of the point. The Knox anchor (also split toe) is sharpened to a chisel instead of a point, and that is what we tested first, and it did well, about the same as the Mantus. Then we welded on a point and performance increased dramatically. 
• Angle. The fluke angle is a few degrees greater than the Mantus. We tested the Mantus with a greater angle, but it did not penetrate as well. We  tested the split-toe with the same angle as the Mantus, and it did well, but when we increased the angle it did better. The exceptional penitrating properties of the slit toe better tolerate the steeper (stronger) angle.
• They all set like lightning and securely in sand. The hold is over 50x the anchor weight (except for the Claw). All reset reliably except for the Guardian. If sized for mud, sand is not a problem.  

 

There are many more fine points. There will be a long (series?) of article in Practical Sailor covering all of this, but that is the gist of it.  

 The next step is to make a full-size version and test that all over this summer.