December, 2008

Your Webmaster has had 3 failures in this system - 2 this year (2008)! In June while sailing Marionette back home from racing off Block Island the stainless steel U bracket on the gooseneck slide car failed. The failure was not at the weld, but the stainless steel bracket "tore" right off at the bend - the weld was fine. Five years ago, this same bracket failed in Rhode Island Sound off Newport while single handing Marionette to Maine. That time however it was the weld that failed. I jury rigged the boom to the mast with some line and padding and put into Newport where a guy welded the same bracket back on to the slide.

Returning to this year's 1st problem, I jury rigged the boom to the mast, again, and sailed the 3-4 hours back home. I did not have much time to effect a repair as I was again heading to Maine in a few days. So I had a local mast builder/rigger grind off what was left of the old bracket and make up and weld a heavier ss U bracket to the same slide ($125!!) At left is a picture of the slide car with the heavier material U bracket. One might ask why not just get a new slide car? Because my Dolphin's aluminum T track is 7/8" wide and they just don't make 7/8" cars anymore. I would have to get a new 1" wide T track and a new 1" slide car, take off the old track, match up the holes and all the hassle that involved. No time.

Three days after I picked up the repaired slide car we were on our way to Maine crossing Massachusetts Bay. My daughter Nicole and I were sailing downwind in probably 15 knots of breeze and 2-3 ft waves and had jibed a few times. After one jibe I noticed the boom at the mast looked 'funny', so I checked the gooseneck. It was fine but the track on which car rode had partially ripped out of the mast and was bent!

The picture at left shows the bent track. The two screws holding the track right at the black band were partially pulled out of the mast and one of them was bent. This failure may have been gradually happening over previous days when racing - Dolphins love to jibe - and I never noticed the effect on the track. I always check and tighten the fastenings in the Spring when I set up the mast.

Probably these screws should be checked regularly during the season. They are ss self tapping screws in an aluminum mast and over time corrosion is a factor, although the screws did not look bad. Maybe it was just a material yield failure in the aluminum which I couldn't see. Anyway, when these screws let go the track was not strong enough, and distorted and bent. By tapping the bottom of the car with a hammer I repositioned the car up higher on the track to a section that was not bent and the screws tight, and reefed to take some load off the boom.

We put into Rockport at the tip of Cape Ann where I would lose my crew and anyway had to sit out a couple of days of bad thunderstorms. A good opportunity to hunt around and find some 7/8" track to replace my old track.

A short side story. I rented a car and drove down to Crocker's Boat Yard in Manchester by the Sea, about 15 miles away. Click here and wander around their photo galleries. This is a wonderful family owned boat building and restorations yard run by Sam Crocker, grandson of the famous Sam Crocker - click here to find out more about him . The picture at the left is his design # 291 on her shake down after restoration. A contemporary of our own first Dolphin builder Palmer Scott, and also a naval architect graduate of MIT, Sam Crocker designed fast cruising sailboats and was well known by boat builders in New England - certainly by Palmer. Anyway, grandson Sam, who is probably 70, listened to my story, and coffee cups in hand we wandered through their memory lane, several rows of wooden storage racks where they kept their old boat parts inventory - but no luck. Then he sent me to a couple of other old boatyards he knew around Cape Ann that might have 7/8" track - still no luck.

Altogether, this side trip on the fruitless hunt for that 7/8" track was a lot of fun and a great example how cruising around in a sailboat can lead to unexpected adventures and experiences.

Continuing off the track, pun intended, Marionette was moored at a floating dock at Sandy Bay YC inside Rockport's small, seawall protected harbor. This YC was very hospitable, had free launch service but also lent out club dinghies free to get back and forth to your mooring, showers, a lunch galley, reasonable mooring cost at $25/day and WIFI. It was also only a short walk into town for good restaurants and interesting galleries, and to a small, end of the line, train station that with a couple of connections will get you anywhere in the country that has track. Nicole caught her train here for Boston and points south.

It was late June during the week so the tourists were not there yet. After a last night early dinner at a great restaurant on the water, I wandered through the nearly deserted little town, walked into a couple of galleries and, in one of them, spotted a print I could not resist. This small sailboat rounding Halibut Point off Cape Ann under an angry sky kind of looks like a Dolphin don't you think? Made a nice present for my wife - that she thought would be best hung in my office. I thought so too...Click here for a larger view

Back on track, I had confirmed that the tapped holes in the tube inside the mast were stripped, and any new track would have to be repositioned and new holes drilled and tapped. So, with a clearing forecast for the next day I bought 2 large ss hose clamps, and found a thin strip of wood at the scrap pile in back of the club that I cut into 3 1/2 " strips. I surrounded the mast with the strips positioned vertically 1/2 in apart and clamped the existing track to the mast on either end of the slide car. This gave me a 'fixed' gooseneck about 3 inches higher than the black band. I re rigged the down haul so I could properly tension the luff of the main, and this jury rig got me through a summer of cruising in Maine. Why I did not take a picture of this set up escapes me. But, from now on I will have those 2 large hose clamps and wood strips on the boat in my parts box.

May 26, 2009 Click here to see larger pictures of these parts, and a partial restaging of the setup.

So now, its winter and we have to fix this. I had a $125 into a rebuilt slide car that needed a 7/8" track. No luck in finding it. The nearest current standard I could find was a 1" wide T track with a 1/4" inch base instead of 1/8" - a beefier section. I found an 18" section for $2 in Defender's clearance section - a wonderful place to find stuff and unbelievable prices. I once found a pair of new Lewmar # 8 winches for $75 the pair!

It cost me $50 to have the 1" milled to 7/8" and, after some fine filing and polishing to fit, I have a sturdier new 7/8" track. I will position the new track so I can drill and tap new holes into the mast and back up tube. These would be much stronger than the self tapping screws in the old system. I may even get extra long bolts (5 1/2  or 6 " bolts) and through bolt the track to the other side of the mast - just at the black band location.

The mast builder/rigger had suggested to me that I do away with the track altogether and go to a fixed gooseneck. Probably a good idea. The boom spends most of its time at the black band anyway. These are the soft reasons why I did not want to do this 1) you can adjust the vertical location of the boom if you have a track - useful in light air 2) at anchor when cruising I sometimes like to raise the boom and rig our boom tent so there is more headroom under the tent. This is easily done with a track, possible, but a hassle, with a fixed gooseneck fitting for the boom and 3) with a track and car system its easier to remove the boom.

The mast is put away for the winter so fitting the new track will be a Spring project. Stay tuned.

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February 27, 2009 - Its not yet Spring but the temperature was 55 today. So down came the mast from its perch in the barn, and 1/4 - 20 drill tap in hand, the new track was positioned with new holes drilled and tapped.

While thinking about this for the past 2 months I had this great idea. I had the new track milled to make 1/16" steps on its back face (another $65) so that it would just fit inside the slide groove. This should further support the track against torquing under severe load and failing as the original one did. Sorry about the focus...

This is the track ready to be fastened with these 8 bolts. New holes were drilled with a 13/64 drill, through the tube in the slide groove. and into and through the mast extrusion. Then tapped. They are all flat heads except the last one - a round head which is the slide stop.

The bottom end of the track with stop bolt head

Here the final product screwed into the tube and mast - a heavy duty track with a heavy duty slide.

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I don't really want to do this but the $$ recap on this repair follows:

I waived my $200/hr labor fee and did not include the cost of the Cape Ann print

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I do not want to find out what 2' of standard 1" T track would have cost plus a new 1" wide gooseneck track slide fitting. Truth is, I would really love to find a small, used milling machine for maybe $200-$300?, learn how to weld stainless steel, and then get a welding set up and save even more money....

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May 26, 2009

Here is a picture of the new track installed with the boom/slide car in place.

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