Apropos came with a Fleming Servo-Pendulum windvane. It was an older version (1980’s) and heavily built of stainless steel. I mounted it on the stern with existing hardware and eventually learned how to use it. A servo-pendulum system steers the boat relative to the wind by deflecting a vane that pivots a paddle in the water. As it pivots, the water pressure swings the paddle in a pendulum motion, moving lines running from the windvane to a drum attached to the wheel. This turns the wheel and hence the boat rudder. We sailed thousands of ocean miles with “Ian” doing the majority of the steering. As with any windvane, having a balanced boat is the most important thing.

Here are some of the problems we encountered with Ian.

• The path the control lines take from the windvane to the wheel are through the hull into the lazerette, into the cockpit, and to a drum attached to the wheel. Three sets of blocks were used along the way but there was still a lot of friction. Enough apparent wind was needed to overcome the friction to make it work. On long ocean passages, this wasn’t too much of an issue. But chafing of the control lines and getting the proper tension on the lines were constant struggles.
• Wear and tear on the boat’s steering system was another concern. In action, a servo pendulum system is constantly turning the wheel back and forth by small amounts for course correction. Even though the rudder is only moving by small amounts and the boat is sailing relatively straight, there’s constant movement of the steering system.
• An unexpected mishap occurred during an offshore passage from Kiribati to Hawaii, when a weld joint on the paddle failed and the paddle sunk to the bottom of the ocean. We were 8 days into a 10 day passage, so we hand-steered the rest of the way. Even though Fleming is no longer making windvanes, they still had parts and I was able to have a new paddle shipped to Hawaii and had it welded back onto the shaft. It worked on a windy 20 day passage from Hawaii to Seattle. But the point is, 35-year old equipment is bound to have problems and I didn’t trust it anymore.
• The vane adjustment was difficult to use. It has a ratcheting 360 degree vane with 120 teeth to provide 3 deg adjustment. I extended 2 lines as toggles so you didn’t have to reach all the way back to the windvane to adjust it, but it was still a bit clunky to use.

New Hydrovane Windvane

A Hydrovane self-steering windvane is an auxiliary rudder type system that drives its own rudder via a sophisticated drive unit linkage. Both the vane and the rudder are larger than the vane and paddle used in a servo-pendulum system. There’s an adjustment called a ratio knob that can be set according to wind conditions. The vane can also be adjusted up & down as well as pivoting to fine tune the sensitivity. The vane rotates 360 degrees via a continuous control line that extends into the cockpit, making it easy to adjust while at the helm.

Installation

Although the Hydrovane can be mounted off-center, I decided to mount it on the centerline of the boat. Hydrovane provides the correct brackets and shaft needed for any boat, and for Apropos I needed an upper H bracket, a lower A bracket, and a longer shaft, and 2 mounting brackets, teak pads and backing plates. For every step of the installation, I tied safety lines to the parts in case something fell. I was able to work from the dock when installing the upper H bracket, and from a dinghy for the lower A bracket. The install instructions (booklet and video) provided by Hydrovane were very well done and easy to follow. Phone support from Richard and Will at Hydrovane was also very helpful with any questions I had.

For the upper H bracket, I had a custom stainless steel plate fabricated and mounted it to the stern platform with 3 U-bolts. The H bracket then got bolted to the plate for a very solid upper connection. Next I mounted the shaft to the H bracket. For the lower connection, an A bracket was used with SS tubes extending to mounting plates that through-bolted to the hull. I used 3″ pvc pipe in place of the SS pipe for determining the exact placement of the hull through-bolts. One of the most time-consuming parts was sanding the 2 teak pads that fit between the hull and mounting plates to the contour of the hull shape. For this, I taped 80 grit sandpaper onto the hull and moved the teak pad back and forth until there were no gaps (took over 2 hours per pad). I used aluminum backing plates inside the hull, and fastened them using thickened epoxy to increase the contact area of the plates. After the upper H bracket, shaft, and lower A bracket were all mounted, the drive unit was added to the top part of the shaft, and finally the rudder, vane and vane adjustment line. Here are some pictures taken during the installation.

Apropos came with 8 oval, 3 small round, and 1 large round bronze port screen rings. After arriving in Mexico, we realized we needed them to keep out bugs, mosquitos, and no-see-ums (tiny flies that bite) since we had to keep the ports open for ventilation. The problem was that the frames had no screens, so we hastily added some fine mesh fabric by wrapping polyester thread (same as used for sails) around the edges of the rings. This worked well for the year it was needed, but eventually the mesh fabric became brittle and easily torn.

After removing the fabric and thread, I soaked the frames in a metal cleaner, then used a dremel tool to polish them. Next I coated them with Protecta-Clear. I had about a yard of bronze screen that came with the boat, so I cut pieces slightly bigger than each frame. I ran a bead of Gorilla glue on the frame, placed the screen on wax paper and the frame on top the screen, then a 5 gallon bucket of water to apply pressure for 2 hours while the glue cured. The final step was to trim the screen along the edges with a pair of scissors. Here are all 12 finished rings and a picture of one of the oval port rings in place.

About a year ago I replaced the old manual head with a new electric head. I plumbed it with fresh water fill/flush but wanted to add a sea water option. The fresh water option will be used whenever there is easy access and abundant water. When sailing offshore or cruising in areas where fresh water isn’t easily available, the head would be switched over to using sea water.

I added a 1:2 valve, a Jabsco pump (taken from the old refrigeration system), and T’d into the sea water input for an easy project that was accomplished in a weekend. Here is a drawing of the project showing the new plumbing inside the yellow boundary. The green lines represent sea water and the blue lines fresh water. The sea water pump is wired to the electric head control board so when the fill button is pressed, the pump will activate. A disconnect switch was added to open the wiring to the sea water pump when the system is in fresh water mode.

The boat cover has been used for 15 years worth of Seattle rainy winters. It goes on around November 1 and comes off by mid to late April. The cover was custom made using marine canvas (Sunbrella) with zippers and twist locks connecting 4 large sections. I usually rinse it with a hose, allow it to dry, and pack it inside 2 huge duffel bags, then store it in a garage until bringing it back out for the winter. Over the years it has accumulated quite a bit of dirt and mildew, so this year I decided to clean it well. I started with a hose and a canvas cleaning product, lightly scrubbing it with a soft brush and then rinsing. This did very little in the way of making it look any cleaner. So I decided to bring out pressure washer and that made a huge difference. It took a few hours of spraying at close range to remove most of the grime, but it came out looking almost new. After drying well, I applied 3 gallons of 303 Marine/Aerospace protectant using a garden sprayer. This gives it UV protection, and makes it water repellent and stain resistant. I also cleaned and treated the 18 canvas bags that hold sand used as weights that clip on along the bottom of the cover.

We had canvas dinghy chaps made when we were in Mexico to help protect the dinghy from UV exposure. It was custom made for the dinghy, so 9 years later when we got a new dinghy, it no longer fit. I tried modifying the chaps, but wound up replacing most of the Sunbrella canvas to get a better fit. It’s my biggest sewing project using a Sailrite machine and I got pretty good with it. I also re-stitched some of the other canvas covers for the boat, and replaced the vinyl in the butterfly hatch cover and the forward hatch cover since both were over 10 years old.

The teak decks on Apropos are 40 years old and still in pretty good shape. Much of the caulking is also in decent shape but there are places where it has separated from the teak. This allows water to sit between the teak and caulking. These areas can be seen when a wet deck is drying since they are the last to dry.

The fore-deck teak had a lot of these caulking gaps so I decided to start there. Using a utility knife to score both sides of the caulk, and a Teakdecking Systems Reefing Hook, I removed all the old caulking. Next I sanded the U-shaped channels, vacuumed, and cleaned with Acetone.

Next was the tedious job of taping the teak. I used Scotch brand blue painters tape. This method requires much less sanding which is important with 40 year old decks. I used 3/16″ fine-line tape to line the bottom of the channels, as recommended by Teakdecking Systems. This prevents the caulking from bonding to the bottom of the channel and allows it to expand and contract with the constant movement of the boat deck.

Finally, I applied the Teakdecking Systems SIS 440 caulk. The method I used was to over-fill the channel, then use a metal putty knife to apply pressure to remove any air gaps and remove excess caulk. After sitting for 5 minutes, I peeled off the blue tape. The entire fore-deck took 6-10oz tubes of caulk.

After the caulk cured for 5 days, I sanded with 80-grit paper to smooth out the caulk and make it flush with the teak. Here’s the final result.

About half a tube of caulk was used to fill the deep gaps between the decking and aft bowsprit and chocks shown here. It’s important to keep water from leaking around the bowsprit and chocks.

The refrigeration on Apropos has been inoperable for a long time. During our South Pacific trip, we shut the freezer down after departing Mexico for French Polynesia–it was consuming too much power for our solar to keep up with and we knew there would be no docks to plug into for the rest of the trip. We replaced it with a portable Dometic refrigeration box that found a place on the cabin floor in the v-berth. It eventually got moved closer to the batteries on the aft port-side cabin floor. It worked well but took up valuable floor space (24″ x 16″). After returning to Seattle, it was a low-priority project until now.

The Old System

The old system was very complex. It was a Glacier Bay 12VDC water-cooled, cold-plate system. It was installed in 2004 and was run continuously for about 10 years, but Glacier Bay went out of business so parts were no longer available. It had 3 zones–a refrigeration box, a freezer box, and an air conditioning zone (we never really used the air conditioning zone except to try it out a few times). There was a solenoid valve for each zone and only one zone could be active at a time. There were many feet of refrigerant carrying copper tubing that ran from the compressor to each of the 3 zones. It had 2 remote display/control panels for setting and reading temperatures in the freezer and refrigerator boxes. We discovered soon after arriving in Mexico that the refrigeration system was running too often, most likely due to the lack of good insulation of the boxes. While in Mexico, I bought a sheet of 1″ foam closed-cell insulation from a hardware store and lined both boxes, but it was a sloppy job trying to fit the insulation around the cold plates. Soon after, we gave up on it and began using the Dometic portable refrigerator.

The New System

I chose an Isotherm Magnum 2505. It’s a 12VDC sea-water cooled system with an O-evaporator and built-in pump. I decided to keep it simpler by only having a refrigerator box, and convert the old freezer box to dry storage. The freezer box was very small and top-loading, and being tucked into a corner of the countertop, it was hard to access especially the lower half. For the amount of food it held, it wasn’t worth the energy it took to keep things frozen. The O-evaporator is like having a mini freezer within the refrigerator–with just enough volume to freeze a few items. The system comes fully charged with quick-connect self-sealing valves for easy installation–no refrigerant technicians needed. The compressor is industry standard Danfoss/SeCOP and is designed for volumes up to 7 cubic feet.

Installation

First I had to remove the old system. The holding plates came out easily and I was surprised how little refrigerant came out when I cut the copper tubing on the holding plates. I had always suspected a leak in the system so either it leaked out or settled in the tank or holding plates. The compressor unit was mounted under the pilot berth in a “dry” bay, but signs of moisture and corrosion were obvious.

After removing all the old equipment and cleaning, the next step was to insulate the box. Without insulation, the box measured about 7 cubic feet. I used 2″ thick closed cell insulation (R factor of 12.5) for the bottom and 2 sides (hull side and engine side). For the large sides (fore and aft) I intended to use 2″ but after seeing how much smaller it made the box, I compromised with 1″. Since the box is top loading, we stack lock-n-lock boxes to organize the food (one for meat & cheeses, one for soda cans, one for condiments, etc), and they fit perfectly with the 1″ insulation on the sides (the box would have been too narrow if I had used the 2″). After fitting the insulation, I caulked all the seams to fill in any air gaps. Next I covered the insulation with 20 gauge stainless steel to protect it and make it easy to clean the inside of the box. For this, I made a cardboard template of all the sides and took them to Ballard Sheetmetal for cutting. It fit perfectly so I used adhesive to hold them in place, then caulked all the seams with grey silicone caulking. The final refrigerator box measurements came to 5.9 cubic feet, so I lost about 1.1 cubic feet from the insulation, but this should be a big improvement since the system won’t be cycling on as much.

Installing the compressor was easy. I ran the refrigerant lines from the evaporator box and connected them with quick-connect couplers, then ran the input and output seawater hoses for cooling, and connected a fused 12V supply. These were already in place from the old system. The old system required an external water pump, so I bypassed the old pump to feed seawater directly from an existing thru-hull. I used the old temperature probe and digital display from the old system so I can monitor the temperature inside the box. Everything worked when I turned it on and the O-evaporator box easily freezes water so we’ll have ice cubes now!