Thanks Alan. Sounds like pulling the mast was a good solution for you and glad to hear it went well. We are primarily focused on replacing the 20 year old standing rigging, but several “experts” have

Hi Alan. We are looking at rerigging in the next few months with one vendor wanting to pull the mast and another planning to do it in place. Had not considered doing it ourselves. Have you completed y

Hello Jose. We had similar carbon discharge from the Onan during spring start up, powder as well as chunks of carbon. Ultimately the Onan would not start. Opening up the exhaust mixing elbow revealed

Having been dropped by Travelers we are receiving quotes for coverage for East Coast US and Caribbean (not hurricane season). Age is apparently a factor in rates and Aletes is a 1998 hull. Received qu

We are about to have a new Bimini made and would like to incorporate into it a zip open panel above the Helmsman’s seat so he can stand and poke his head above the Bimini for better visibility during

And some of my favorites: “A boat gets 1 foot shorter per person per day.” and “The gods do not deduct from our allotted time those hours spent in sailing.” Ascribed to a Phoenician proverb. Mike Ondr

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences with storms. More tools for the tool bag. Seems like heaving to should work in most conditions, and the drogue may be the ultimate tactic. Mike Ondra Aletes

During our recent passage from Boston to the Chesapeake Bay we experienced two severe thunderstorms. In one winds reached 40 kn sustained with gusts to 55 kn for about 10 minutes at the severest. Fort

An update on the hawse pipe replacement. After consideration of the many options and suggestions, I did a cheap and easy installation with schedule 40 PVC and standard fittings. If it doesn’t hold up,

Hi Steve, We purchased replacement genoa cars from Euro Marine Trading, Inc. in Newport, RI, the US distributer of Antal parts in 2016. Cost was $259.84 each plus $29 shipping from Italy (prorated as

Aletes locker drain was also blocked. Pushing a fish (wire puller) up the drain pipe from the T in the foreword head bilge broke it loose. Water gushed out along with the mud and sand. Hose pressure t

Nice detail. I’m going to leave the steel stub in the floor. After installing the PVC pipe I’ll glass it in heavily as well. If the steel eventually rots out the PVC and fiberglass should conduct the

Hi Tom. The bolt you’re talking about screws into a steel plate embedded in the fiberglass. That plate is I believe welded to the hawse pipe to transfer load to the hawse pipe.. With the rusting out o

Hi Gary. Here are some pictures of the hawse pipe. With scale. Note how rotted out the steel pipe was. Mike Aletes SM#240

In the midst of Bow locker floor replacement. See attached photos. Plywood bottom was rotting and delaminating resulting in failure of the port locker. It was cut out to within 3 inches of the perimet

For those looking for the black mounting donuts. I looked into getting them machined locally, and it was double Amel’s price. Mike Aletes SM#240

After bending and straightening these (embarrassingly) twice, I replaced them. The ss rods are readily available on the internet and had a local machine shop cut the threads. (stainless being a bit di

Hi Kent, Many ways to skin this cat. When this shaft seized in place on Aletes, we stacked cribbing under the gear box to the deck to spread out the load and used a hydraulic jack to push the shaft ou

Thanks for the info Gary. I shall report if I hear from Maud, and whatever other solution we come up with in the event that Amel no longer has access to this assembly. Mike

Upon disassembly of the gear box I found that the top furler gearbox main bearing had seized. This could well have been the origin of the shaft failure. These gear boxes being mounted with the shaft v