Maintenance and upgrades, 2006

Whisper does require some maintenance. This article lists several of the things done to maintain and upgrade Whisper.

To do:

• Install solar vent. I’m looking at the 3″ Nicro day/night solar vent and hoping it will fit in the Marinco 3″ deck fitting at the bow. If not, I’ll need to replace the Marinco mount with a Nicro snap-in mount. The follow-up to this will be to add a chain pipe so I can utilize the anchor locker.
• For cross ventilation, I need to come up with a watertight vent near the stern. I want air to come in at the stern and exhaust at the bow.
• With the new plexi hatch, I’ll need to create a curtain or hatch cover. (June 2006: A towel and couple of plastic clothespins made a servicable curtain.) And I’d love to figure out an out-of-the-way place to store the hatch when it is not in use. (July 2006: the plexi hatch stows flat on the quarter berth, or vertically in the quarter berth. It really isn’t in the way.)
• Permanently mount an electric bilge pump.
• Obtain a few extra mounting pins for the dodger and bimini. I need four, and had four until one of the spring-loaded pins learned to fly about five feet, landing in Puget Sound in May 2006.

June 2006

During my May 2006 sojourn the starboard V-berth window began to drip. I drilled out the rivets, rebedded the window with marine silicone sealant (as recommended by International Marine), and replaced the rivets with stainless button-head screws from Tacoma Screw Products. The exacts specs: SS BUTTON HD SOC C/S 18-8 #10-24 x 1″. I’m hoping this will allow easier repair of leaks in the future. I damaged one exterior frame when the rivet head spun as I was drilling out the rivet, so I repaired the hole with white Marine-Tex and redrilled the hole.

May 2006

I installed a shear pin (supplied by IdaSailor) in the rudder to keep the blade from popping up accidentally. I also installed a second jam cleat on the rudder head to help hold the blade in the down position.

February 2006

• Rebedded the forestay, backstay and side shroud plates with 3M 4200.
• Bought a smoked plexiglass hatch (one of only two left at the time) from Joel at IdaSailor. The idea is when the weather is nasty and I’m in the cockpit, Jan can stay warm and dry inside and still keep an eye on me at the helm.

January 2006

Like a few other owners of Pacific Baja trailers, I discovered the hard chine on my P19 had somehow encountered the trailer tires. I obtained a set of bunk-style side guides from Ryan at International Marine and installed them. I’ll adjust the guides on our first trailer trip this spring.

May 2005

• I invested some time resealing several fittings.
• The carpet-like headliner installed at the factory looked great, but I prefer to see fasteners inside the cabin. I took some thinwall conduit, held one end with vise grips, heated the other end with a propane torch, and carefully but quickly melted holes in the headliner around each bolt/nut.