Securing the Furling Hobie 20 Jib - Tack and Halyard tie off points. Still Struggling.

Update - August 2017: I made a soft shackle that I think solves this problem. More in a forthcoming post.

I took these photos quite a while ago, but the problem of how to effectively raise and lower the furling jib remains with me. At issue is how to secure both the halyard, which lives inside the zipper luff pocket around the forestay, and the tack. My Furler is perhaps an older model and there is literally one French Wichard shackle that can fit around it's girth and still have a small enough pin to go through. I usually try to shackle both the halyard end and the tack to the same shackle, but the tension is too great for that, and I often resort to using two shackles. The photos below should make this easier to understand. In theory the sail has a jam cleat that can accept line and "cleat off", but I haven't been able to make mine secure without slipping under sail.

Note the tack secured with captive pin Wichard Shackle.
 The black and white spectra line is the halyard after the extension line is removed following hoisting.

A peak at the red EP spinnaker made by the original sailmaker for the Hobie 20 - Skip Elliot and family.

Hobie 20 Mast Base Sheave (Block) for Main Halyard -- Replace with larger diameter block

My Hobie Main Halyard is the standard Hobie dimensions (D = 3/16"by 64ft Long), that is to say extremely thin to allow it to reside inside the mast going up and down without interference along any of it's length, while also being relatively strong, and it exits a 90 degree corner at the base of the mast around a sheave. This sheave is the pinch point when hoisting the sail, and if there is any cross wind or any excess friction in the sail track, the load on this component climbs greatly.

Typically, this delrin on delrin bearing sheave is used (29mm Harken Bullet Sheave #160), but I've noticed it worn or completely destroyed on a couple of Hobie 20's that I've encountered, and I decided to take action to prevent recurrence of failure on my boat.

As commented in the blue text-box above, the stock 29mm Bullet Sheave riding on Delrin internal balls burns out every 2-3 years or about 100 cycles.

Although pricey at about $33/piece at West Marine, I found that this 38mm wire sheave just barely fits with some very minor interference with the center bottom Cunningham Block which straps up from below and is pulled upward and out of the way when under any tension. The sheave cross-profile is design for wire, hence a much tigher radius, but it seems to fit snugly on the 3/16 rope halyard and the bigger diameter (38mm) translates into better pulling power in my tests so far. [Update 8/17: I've been using it now for 9+ months without too many issues -- it is crucial to keep the delrin spacers and sheave tight laterally so the line doesn't jump off the sheave while hoisting.]

The other option would have been to go with a solid delrin sheave, not spinning on internal delrin balls, but rather the through bolt itself. While likely stronger against all loading, this I felt would be a step backwards as the friction to spin it about the 1/4" bolt that secured it would have been far greater than that of the ball bearing versions. So I think my solution was a good improvement without many adverse trade-offs.

For reference, here is a link to all Harken "small boat" self-contained sheaves for your perusal: http://www.harken.com/productcategory.aspx?taxid=393

Burned out Delrin Sheavee

The Joys of "Cider" Kuzumochi サイダー葛餅の喜び

Recently I had the opportunity to taste two varieties of Kuzumochi, a mochi without the red bean in the middle and is "just plain mochi". It has a great soft texture, and you can dip it into soda like sugar that comes with the Mochi. The color is close to that of "Ramune" if you're familiar with that sweet kid's drink, also known in some circles as "Marble Soda" because of the captive marble in the bottle.

Tasty Kuzumochi from Arima, Japan
It comes with a dipping powder which is flavored like cider (red writing on the left of the package)

This "Cider" Kuzumochi brand was great and kicked off the search for others.

I'll get some pictures up of the actual Mochi when I can spare not eating it...

Porsche O2 Sensor Replacement Photos

 The O2 sensor in "Big Red" as I now call the 924s was rusted to the exhaust connector pipe between the header outlet and the Catalytic Converter inlet. This is a separate part of the exhaust that can be removed relatively easily, and many bolts sheared when I did so.

The first step is to measure the existing O2 sensor wire length and to cut the new Bosch replacement to match this. Then you spice in the Bosch connector which has waterproofing features built in such as little donut O-rings which go around each wire. Best place to study up on the procedure is Clarks Garage linked here: http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/fuel-18.htm

Measure the wire. I found clamps to my work table helpful.

They grey clamps are $1 at Home Depot in Cupertino and Campbell. Great Buy.

Steven's Creek Porsche Gave it a shot, but the O2 sensor was rusted in place. We had to destroy it pulling it out.
Measure from the old sensor in a comparable location to the end where the plug connects. Then duplicate this by cutting the new sensor wire to the correct length.

Bosch supplies an "Ikea Hieroglyphic" style instruction sheet, but they have English instructions on their website also.

The most difficult portion was rethreading and zip tying the sensor wire up from the exaust once reinstalled. As mentioned in my previous post, most of the heavy lifting for plasma cutting out the old O2 sensor boss, re-welding a new boss and re-welding and reinstalling the exhaust came from Kwik Way in Santa Clara. Many Thanks to Bob and the team there.