Homemade Teak Cockpit Table

Mark Corke has once again turned out a great boat project;  a beautiful looking cockpit table.

I've tried a cockpit table in my cockpit, and ended up using hinges and support legs. I eventually removed it. Mark has a unique way of doing this and the pictures on his blog site say it all. Hop on over to his blog site to check the whole project out

He says this about the table.

 " I think that the pictures are fairly self explanatory but what I like about this table / cup holder is it's simplicity; no fancy hardware and nothing to break. As you will see it is all made from teak and teak plywood and consists of a drinks holder securely clamped to the crash bar ahead of the compass binnacle. When out cruising this offers a great place to hold mugs and cans without fear of spillage and yet within easy reach of the helmsman and crew in the cockpit. But what really sets it apart is when you get into port and you need to set up the table for alfresco dining. The table is simply lifted off it's stainless hooks and pulled away from it's clips keeping it neatly in position and slid into the horizontal, no metalwork, flaps, hinges or other impediments to adjust or break off for that matter. "

Too much to do

For all the readers who have come by my blog site, who were waiting an announce on the hybrid engine, I offer an apology. I had the unit built and running, but was unable to complete sufficient tests to determine whether it was a viable solution to reducing the amount of diesel we burn.

I have over 7 suitcases of stuff (read projects) to take back to the boat. My time just got hijacked by turning out these various items, and I just run out of time for the hybrid engine.

I have kept the equipment and may continue to pursue it when I return to home in 3 years time.

Till then, I hope to continue with the blog on Boat Projects, and I do hope you can contribute something yourselves. More projects coming in March as I settle back into the boat.

Solar Panel Mounting

Update 2013

You will read below where I have in the past preferred the lever action over the allen key action. After two years of using these, I can now say I prefer the allen key model of antenna mount with a small modification.

I took the allen head screw and had a small "T" welded to the head of the screw. This made adjusting easier (no longer needing an allen key) and more precise than the lever type.

To continue with the blog from 2011....

There are many ways of mounting solar panels. Here is one way to mount with a tidy way to raise and lower the panels.
In a storm north of New Zealand I lost a solar panel along with the temporary railing that I had it mounted on. I have since had the aft of the boat reworked with railing built so it looks like it was always there. Much stronger. Deciding that my previous attempts at methods to angle the solar panels were not that good, I have come up with the following idea for the rail mounted solar panels.
You will note the small vertical rail inserted half way along between stanchions. This was used to mount my actuator arm.

 For the actuator arm, I used a stainless antenna mount and  had made a stainless tube made with a thread at one end and closed off the other. This was screwed to the antenna mount.Apply some locktite to the threads as they may have a tendency to unscrew over time.

This is attached to the small vertical rail in the middle.  The solar panel  was mounted with white rail mount clamps which I had previously used to good effect. This time around though, I had to add spacers because the railing was curved to follow the lines of the boat.
At the bottom of the "solar panel actuator" the one inch stainless leg was placed in some pressure PVC pipe bought from a hardware store and this in-turn was secured to the bottom of the solar panel with leather on both sides of the pipe and the leather secured to the solar panel. I have found it necessary to apply some 4200 between the pvc pipe and leather; other wise the leather looses it's firm grip on the pvc pipe and the pipe will drop out. This allows free movement of the stainless piece of the solar panel actuator as the panel is raised and lowered. I used two different types of antenna mounts. One with allen key and the other with a turning lever. The one with the lever, I cut off short because you only need thumb tight and the lever would interfere with my lee cloths.

After trying both, I prefer the lever arm rather than the allen key type.
Read the mod above. The panel raises from full down to 30 degrees off the vertical. One could, if you don't have lee cloths, build the actuator arm with a curve in it near the mounted piece so that when raised it would allow the railing to not impinge on the actuator arm. I'm happy with 30 degrees off the vertical and lee cloths.

The lee cloths had small "U" shapes cut out and bound, so that the hinges and actuator arm could function. The lee cloths were secured to the railing and toe rail with cable ties. Lee cloths not shown here

A Challange

Until I get back to my boat, I thought I would throw out a challenge to you boat aficionados. A game if you like.
To the left is a piece of laser cut 6mm plate SS yet to be installed on my boat.
The challenge to my  readers is to guess what this SS piece is for and where on the boat it is located.
The SS requires two holes to be drilled in it for mounting and then it is finished.
Any reader may guess up to twice, and I will allow 5 questions from any one to help others guess as to  what and where it's for. So if you are going to ask a question, think carefully,  because you are asking on behalf of everyone. There are only 5 questions allowed. You may not ask questions related to Location or Uses. Sorry, there are no prizes. Have fun guessing. Let the game begin.
You may put your questions and guesses in the comments section below this post.

Aluminum Anodes

Ben Lee from Three Sheets Northwest has written a blog on why Aluminum Anodes are better than Zinc Anodes. He summerises  by saying... "Plus, aluminum weighs about half as much as zinc, helping with fuel efficiency as well as your back when pulling out your spares box. Just be aware that aluminum anodes corrode differently than zincs. Instead of the even pitted appearance of corroding zinc anodes, aluminum anodes tend to corrode in bigger chunks. Though it might look odd, the anode is working and should last even longer than your traditional zincs."
They are also meant to be more environmentally friendly and can be used in all water types.
Hop on over to the Three Sheets NorthWest site to read the whole article. Seems to make some sense to me; I would give it a try, but it would mean mixing anode types. A definite no-no!

 I have these zincs on my shaft and want to retain them. You can read about the line cutter anodes here.
Don’t Mix Anode Types. If you install different anode materials like zinc and aluminum, the more active anode (aluminum) will spend part of its effort protecting the less active metal (zinc). This will reduce the overall protection that you are getting. A classic mistake is adding a zinc transom anode to a Sterndrive equipped with aluminum anodes. Transom anodes are connected through the bonding system so make sure you install aluminum replacements.  

And here is a nice PDF article which helps explain it more.