Slipper 17 Projects

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Site Under Construction - Last update 1/11/03 ...

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The Upgrades

Click on most pictures for a more detailed view.

  • Mast Crutch.

    A good set of mast crutches can make trailering and setup much easier. I decided to add a fixed crutch to the bow pulpit in order keep things simple and stable. A slice of PVC pipe bedded in epoxy putty acts as a bearing surface.


    I elected to use a rudder mounted stern crutch like Tim Marks and friend Bill. The vertical support is made of 1" aluminum tubing with 3/4" hardwood dowel glued inside for additional stiffness. I suspect this may fail due to water intrusion, and I will replace it with stainless steel tubing since the general concept has worked well. The PVC roller works ok, but needs to be replaced with a smaller size when I "find" some.

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  • Relocated Halyards to cabin top.

    coming soon

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  • Install Jib Downhaul.

    coming soon

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  • Repair Thru-hull leak.

    It was a big surprise when we discovered water flooding the cabin floor during our first family outing. Based on a few online responses, the sink drain and the cockpit drain are common sources for leaks on this boat. Drawing from a sample base of 2 (two) boats, both drain holes were extremely seemingly over sized based on the size fittings the factory installed. I built up the cockpit drain, and upsized the fitting on the sink drain in order to reduce the gap.

    The cockpit drain seal is particularly critical, since there is about a 1/4" gap between the cockpit liner and the hull. Thence, any leak around the cockpit fitting goes directly into the bilge, unnoticed until it overflows into the liner.

    I ended up replacing both fittings just in case there were was a crack that I couldn't see. The old fittings came out fairly easily. The bedding material seemed to be silicone, but may have been 4200. It was still resilient, but removed fairly easily. This effort seems to have solved the problem.

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  • Installed Bilge Pump.

    The previous owner had hacked a hole in the side bilge cover (?) (in the cabin, between the berths , above the floor, vaguely pyramidal in shape).The following photo shows the opening as shot from the port side looking aft. The forward section of the keel contains the centerboard trunk. The aft void is the place to install a bilge pump.


    I mounted the electric bilge pump to a surplus plastic sail batten and placed it down in the aft bilge area (imagine a big soup ladle, with the pump being the cupped end). The batten lets you guide it into a place that you probably couldn't reach & See at the same time. It also answered the question of how to mount the bilge pump in a wet area that I really can't reach into. I taped the discharge tube and the power lines to the batten to make placement easier. The batten protrudes out the aft opening of the bilge cover and is currently held in place by friction only. After a year of operation, this solution still seems to be working fine.


    		 I ran the drain line under the port quarter berth to the sink compartment. I then installed a thru hull up as high as I could within the sink compartment, to try and avoided siphoning any water into the bilge. This is a non-traditional location, but friend Bill said he had never had a problem with his.

    The pump is a "Guest" brand rated at 50 gph (second smallest). This one has an automatic function that does not use a float. Instead, it turns on approximately every two minutes and senses whether the pump impeller is submerged. This doesn't work that well in in my application. The problem is that the pump can't clear the discharge line of the last slug of water, and the discharge line is long enough to hold enough water to activate the sensor. I guess I could adjust the location of the pump, but I am too lazy at this point and just keep it in the manual mode. I connected the bilge pump to a unused switch on the power panel.

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  • Replaced Electrical Panel.

    I managed to short out the electrical panel while installing the Bilge Pump. It seems like at some time the power leads had been reversed on the system. Oh well, I really didnt like the fuse holders or the metal toggle switches. You can see that the original wiring used wire nuts which I have been told are not appropriate for the the marine environment.


    The new panel has screw-top fuse holders and lighted panel switches. I still used wire nuts with sealant, rather than the preferred quick splices. I converted an old cigarette lighter mounted Voltmeter to a panel meter.


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  • Home Built Bimini.

    The bimini for a Slipper is a bit difficult to fit due to the mid-boom sheeting, the very wide , somewhat short cockpit. I had written a visual basic program to calculate bimini dimensions (available here ). My design constraints were to maintain clearance to the main sheet, clear the boom while sailing and to fold down onto the top edge of the transom. Working with my program I determined the dimensions of the bimini bows. Local fabricators were not very interested in building the frame only, or had very high prices. I ended getting new tubing at $1.50 a foot at a surplus yard and buying a tubing bender from Home Depot. Less than 20 minutes later the frame was done!

    This was the second bimini that I have sewn so it was no problem , particularly since I was using my Sailrite Walking Foot sewing machine. It can handle 8 layers of Sunbrella without missing a stitch. Basically, you just sew up a large blank, drape it over the frame and then mark and install the pockets. The toughest part is handling the bulk of the material. The project turned out quite nicely .

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  • Rebuilt Trailer Running Gear.

    The Arrow trailer seemed a little lightly built. It seems like the axle flexed enough to allow the top of the tires toe in a bit at the top. I found this a bit unsettling. Since one of my great phobias is to be stuck on the side of the road with a broken trailer, I undertook the rebuild.

    Champion Trailers has a great online catalog along with lots of great information. A local discount house got me the parts I needed direct from Performance Trailers (local). I chose to get a spindle lube type axle , which allows the repacking of the bearings without pulling off the hub. The new axles were 2"x2" with a 1-1/16 spindle, quite a bit tougher than the original 1.5"x1.5" with a 1" spindle. I was careful making the measurements and the rebuild went quite smoothly. New tires, wheels and springs rounded out the project which ended up costing a bit over $300.


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  • New Motor mount.

    Bad The motor mount that came with the boat was awful! It was held the motor at the wrong angle and dragged in the water if you stood near the transom. Even worse, it took three hands to operate. One to unlock the mechanism, one to pull the motor up and a third to keep you from falling over the side. What a heartbreaker.
    Good

    Soon I was back with my new friends at West Marine. I purchased a Garlick -EEZ-In Model 71038. All stainless steel construction with little torsion springs to help balance out the motor weight. It is easily adjustable for the transom angle and operates with just one hand. Now I am sure my wife was ready to have me locked up as I spent 3 or 4 days trying to figure out how high to mount the bracket on the transom.

    Now the instructions have a wonderful illustration showing how to pick the proper mounting height. But of course it was predicated on knowing where the waterline is. Now we all know that the waterline is at one level when you are standing at the back looking over the transom, and somewhere else entirely when you are at the front of the cockpit. I compromised and mounted the bracket about an 2 inches above the old position. Testing showed that the motor could now be raised easily with one hand, and required a slight amount of pressure to lower it to the bottom position.

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  • Replaced the Standing Rigging.

    It seems like most photos of Slippers show some degree of problems with standing rigging. The inner stays turnbuckles often are bent due to tight tolerances. The outer stays often have kinks in them. My stays had several broken wires and some badly bent hardware which needed replacement.

    I built my own stays using Nicro-Press type fittings and 1/8" ss wire. I installed a Johnson Quick Release lever to the forestay (works great!) and installed larger turnbuckles on the inner stays. Most of the pins holding the mast attachments were badly worn and bent. This was not a very difficult project, and the the bolt-action crimping tool worked easily.

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  • Installed Instrument Panel

    - not complete yet..

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