Recent posts

#1

Bavaria Yacht Help! / Re: Saildrive seal replacement...

Last post by mibbal - Today at 08:51

Maybe someone else can share experience of moving the engine? I'm in doubt on how to fix upper side of the halyard... Any suggestions are much appreciated

#2

Modifications & Equipment / Re: Second Replacement of Deck...

Last post by jeffatoms2 - Today at 03:55

Hey Doug,

We have the same prolem wuth 100% of our portlights and windows (1998 38 Ocean).  If you are a DIY person and happen to have an iPhone Pro version 15 or later, I've had good success using a 3D scanner app and the LIDAR feature from the phone to get your scan.  Your could have it cut in 2D acrylic and then heat form it to the 3D curve.   Keep the original window to use as your mold template!

If you get the LIDAR capture, I'd be happy to "flatten" the file and cut it in 1/8 material (scrap, foam, plywood, cardboard) to prototype it for you.  The catch is i can only go up to 10 feet six inches and a rigid panel might be expensive to ship to get your test fit.  Other material can be rolled and shipped in a concrete Sano tube.

#3

Modifications & Equipment / replacement Whitlock dash pane...

Last post by jeffatoms2 - November 12 2025, 23:56

Things have been a bit slow lately at work so we have branched out and we have been making items for our 1998 Bavaria 38 Ocean, Zephyrus, our remarkable boat.  At the shop we have a 11 foot by 6 foot CAD/CAM waterjet cutting table, laser engravers and other fun, capable and cool tools so I set out to make parts for our boat that aren't readily available.

Our first project was to get rid of original 27 year old the Autohelm dash/helm navigational instruments and the original Garmin GPS and replace them with newer, slightly used and slightly almost free Raymarine gear, including a mini chartplotter/depth contour readout, onto the same dash footprint.  Most of the original stuff had dull screens or was becoming unreliable.

Due to the sizes and cutouts for the new gear, the original fiberglass panel could not be modified and recut to fit the new instruments, however all of the original wiring could be re-used.

We've done the same project on other boats and we have the process pretty well figured out.  Basically we took off and disconnected the old dash, marked the wires, taking lots of photos, traced out the panel with a Sharpie pen onto a oversized piece of butcher's paper, scanned it into the computer, digitized it, created a cut path file on the computer from the digital scan, verified measurements and cut it out onto a new piece of 1/4 plywood. This created our prototype dash "plug" #1.

From there, we verified the fit including alignment of the original screw mounting holes to the Whitlock pedistal.  If adjustments were needed, the digital file would have been modified and the process repeated.  From there, we test fit the new gear by placing the plastic sun covers in their desired locations, moving them around on the plug until they looked good.  We then obtained the PDFs cutout files from Raymarine's internet site for the wind, depth, speed, autopilot and chartplotter.  We overlayed the imported PDFs onto the original digital template we created earlier and cut a second prototype from UHMW.  FYI, the Raymarine PDFs had both the outlines of the sun covers and the cutouts, making placement easy (so does Garmin-FYI).

We then mounted the new gauges to the UHMW and connected the new dash up to the original wiring.  The only new wire we had to run was for the new CHIRP depth transducer which we mounted inside the hull just aft of the keel but before the rudder in the bilge.  Note the new chartplotter has an internal GPS that required no new wiring.

My goal was to get all of the "new" instruments into the same space as the originals.  The truth is it's pretty tight as you can see from the photos but it worked quite well and all in, I think we spent less than $250US (our net cost) to run through it twice.  I'll be fine tuning it onto #3 sometime this winter as it was too close to the compass but the proof of concept worked quite well, according to plan.  Typically three iterations are necessary on this type of project just right, hence the use of cheap materials thus far.

Note that we now have redudancy galore.  In addition to two radar equipped Raymarine E80s aboard, each with their own GPSs, we now have bow and stern depth, one set to water depth below with the keel (bow) and waterline depth at the stern.  Though we actually purchased a new masthead wind instrument, it turned out that the old dash instrument was faulty, not the masthead, so we have a spare.  Additionally, we like and know the Raymarine ST5000+ autopilot but still replaced it with the same and we will soon have a spare there when I replace its LCD ($100 in parts).  The final bonus is once I add AIS signals to the helm, we will only have to swing out the big companionway chartplotter when we use radar, freeing up access to get below decks.

Photos to follow.

#4

Bavaria Yacht Help! / Re: Saildrive gear ratio Visio...

Last post by symphony2 - November 12 2025, 17:41

That is correct

#5

Bavaria Yacht Help! / Saildrive gear ratio Vision 42...

Last post by Ronaldrf - November 12 2025, 15:07

Hi i am looking for the saildrive 130s ratio
I own a vision 42 with the 40 hp volvo, i think it is 2.19 to 1 but not sure.
Not close to the boat now , therefore my request of any Owner with a vision would be able to help at short notice.  Its required to order a new prop.

Thanks Ronald

#6

Modifications & Equipment / Re: dedicated fresh water toil...

Last post by jeffatoms2 - November 11 2025, 16:05

HappySailor, im energized to check out lining the bottom of the rear lazarette as you suggested.  That is alternative #5.  The 38 Ocean has adequate water tankage.  My goal is to have a dedicated 7 gallon head system and clear out the seven gallon jugs from the shower stall.   When the tank empties, the flush line dries up and its time to pump out.

Toilet smells are the honest, unspoken bane of small sailboats.  We cannot tolerate them and don't really have an issue.  That said, the waste lines are 25+ years old and will soon stink so we have that on the horizon.  The golden rule for us is dont test the limit of the system.

Why this matters?  We live on the Puget Sound and Salish Sea.  The two of us have called the shores home for a combined 120 years!  The problem we are faced with is the most beautiful cruising grounds we love are basically 100's of rock islands without much fresh ground water and even less to share.  We love to cruise here and a self-sufficient yacht, albeit 38 feet, is our goal.

Thanks for the great ideas!

#7

Modifications & Equipment / Re: dedicated fresh water toil...

Last post by Happysailor - November 11 2025, 07:11

Completely another solution would be to properly re-route the breather overboard. Making a hole in the hull is less painfull to my opinion. If you want to have a freshwater flush, expand the usual freshwater capacity by having 2 tanks, the usual one PS aft and 1 additional one under the fwd bunk. Combined with watermaking capacity your can also have a solution which works?

[big thank you]

#8

Scuttlebutt / Re: Forum back again

Last post by UP - November 10 2025, 19:21

A big thank you to the people behind bringing the forum back, cheers!

#9

Modifications & Equipment / Re: dedicated fresh water toil...

Last post by jeffatoms2 - November 10 2025, 15:32

Thank you, Happy Sailor, for the considerations.  Yes, the aft locker is and it may be a better solution than i had considered.  More pondering.....ironically, the magical capacity required to avoid cayastrophe is no more than 7 US gallons, feed line included, meaning, the further away the deck/transom fill from where big tube meets holding bladder, the less space we will allow in the bladder, as 7 hallons is our max.  When yhe fresh water pump stops pumping, its time to pump out.  These measurements are time proven and have never failed/caused flooding.

All that being said, im also adding a watermaker this winter which will require some thru hull modification, a lift pump and a strainer.  That project is coming along well (maybe a separate post).

#10

Modifications & Equipment / Re: dedicated fresh water toil...

Last post by Happysailor - November 10 2025, 14:35

I find it quite daring to drill holes into the structure of the boat which originally were not intended to be there. Now it has been completely sealed and laminated and this is destructed when holes are drilled, potentially creating a new issue for the future with a solution for now. Yes, later boats have tubing into the ships stringers and webs, but these have been part of the boat from construction. So strenghwise it would not be a too big concern.. but moist and no drainage from non accessible points?
(Is your deck storage locker on the same side as your head?)