[C38] Cockpit sole hatch
Kerry Grimes
littlebreeze at comcast.net
Mon Aug 6 17:27:44 EDT 2007
Charles
I bought my boat with the cockpit floor opened up and covered with a
makeshift hatch made from the cutout. It took me a while, but I finally
found an aluminum hatch with a stainless steel boarder to replace the
fiberglass/wood hatch. I still need to make ring for the bottom side of
the cockpit floor and have it powder coated. If you are interested I
can send photos of what is currently there and the hatch I purchased to
do the repair. But I wouldn't recommend doing the modification. No
matter how well you install the hatch it will speed up the failure of
the wood under the cockpit floor. Between the cabin opening and the
steering pedestal there is not the room you would hope. Someone still
has to hold you by your feet and drop you head first into the engine
compartment. Feel free to make a trip out to Antioch California and
I'll let you try to fix something behind the engine through that hole
and you will not do the modification.
Don
I see you are out in Emeryville. Any chance of coming out to look at
you spinnaker setup some time soon. Contact me off list at
littlebreeze at comcast.net. Thanks
Kerry Grimes
Little Breeze #139
Antioch, CA
Charles wrote:
> All of this reminds me that one of us had a problem with the cockpit
> floor and fixed it my making it into an engine access hatch? As I am 6"
> 5" and haven't been able to touch my toes for more than 50 years...
> getting to this part of the boat is out of the question. If I am
> correct, could whoever made the hatch in the cockpit floor tell us how?
>
> Thanks,
> Charles Finn
> Mighty Quinn, #114
>
> D. R. Strong wrote:
>> Les:
>> I have wrestled with the packing gland repeatedly, and finally seem
>> to have mastered it. In my estimation, the cramped space for the packing
>> gland is the worst aspect of our boats. Access to the gland is very
>> difficult. The quadrant for wheel steering has to be removed to gain
>> access to the gland. After having a good laugh at our expense, Cree at
>> Berkeley Marine Center taught me how to replace the packing material. He
>> assured me that it would be far better to replace the packing material
>> properly than to screw around trying to install a gaitor; we simply
>> don't have enough room for a gaitor. The main advantage of being too
>> small for high school athletics is that (taa da!) I can work on my own
>> C38 packing gland! Accessing the engine compartment through the sail
>> locker, then wriggling sternward, one can remove the quandrant then deal
>> with the front two bolts of the gland; the rear bolts of the quadrant
>> and rear two bolts of the gland are removed through the stern locker.
>> You should use 3 lengths of packing material. The key to getting the
>> packing material right is to make a diagonal cut with a very sharp razor
>> blade, getting the exact length by cutting wraps that have wound around
>> the rudder shaft (which you can access in the cockpit by removing the
>> bolting base of the tiller: THE RUDDER WILL SINK WHEN YOU REMOVE THE
>> BOLTING BASE. SECURE THE RUDDER WITH A ROPE HARNESS). Then, grease up
>> the cut length of packing material with water proof axle grease, and
>> slip it into the gland from the stern locker. Space the cut ends by 60
>> degree intervals, score the gland so you can remember where the ends of
>> each length are. Then go back inside and tighten the two front bolts,
>> then the two rear bolts from the cockpit. Then replace the quandrant.
>> The whole activity should took 6 intense hours the first time. My mood
>> turned so foul that Karin left the boat and went shopping. The second
>> time took about 4 hours, and the third time, After Cree's instruction,
>> when I got the cuts in the packing material right and used the axle
>> grease method, took about 3 hours.
>> I used a mirror on a stick to assure myself that the gland was not
>> leaking, during a hard sail. With the mirror, I found that the hose at
>> the bottom of one of those horrid rubber things holding the ping pong
>> ball in the cockpit drain was loose and leaking. I replaced the cockpit
>> drain hoses (which is another long story).
>> Don
>>
>> Les wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, Everyone,
>>> Sometime ago there was discussion of using a gaitor on the rudder tube.
>>> I am curious about the effectiveness and installation cost, also if the
>>> packing gland were removed, and did that affect the play in the rudder
>>> shaft?
>>>
>>> We just had the packing gland adjusted for JACE. I am a bit too bulky
>>> to get in there, and Nancy doesn't understand what needed to be done, so
>>> I got someone skinnier and more flexible to do it. But that brought
>>> home a point. What happens when we're out? How could I stop the
>>> ingress of water from the stern?
>>>
>>> I feel I should mention that I did make a modification to the stern
>>> locker floor inserts, using some bits of mahoghany 1x2. I cut the
>>> existing pieces from port to starboard, so that it is now 4 pieces.
>>> Then I added a support from aft to the rail over the quadrant to support
>>> the intersection. Finally I added the 1x2 under the forward pieces to
>>> support the aft pieces, set up in such a way that they 1x restricted the
>>> support from moving side to side. This means the whole thing, the four
>>> pieces and support fit together in such a way that they can be easily
>>> removed from the top, but will not slide down into the bilge. I will
>>> add fasteners to the pieces to hold them in place so that they will
>>> effectively be one piece.
>>>
>>> I did this when I had my minor panic attack from the bilge pump hose
>>> slipping off the thru hull and causing water to circulate, but I didn't
>>> know that at the time, what I saw was a lot of water flowing into the
>>> bilge while the bilge pump was running continuously. I thought I was
>>> sinking.... What a rush!! Fortunately we fixed the hose and it turned
>>> out to be "nothing". By the way, check the hoses, mine were just glued
>>> in and the glue had dried out, which was the source of the problem. Now
>>> I'm hose clamped good!!
>>>
>>> Even with this stern locker floor out, we can only reach one bolt of the
>>> three under the quadrant on JACE. I don't know if all the boats use the
>>> same packing gland or not.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Les H
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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