Dinghy Engine Mount For Our Gemini 3200 Sailboat

One of the ornery pieces of equipment to find a proper place for is the dinghy engine. Where does one store a 5 hp outboard engine?

Many of the boats in our marina have them mounted on the rails around their boat, and in fact many of them have a mounting board on their rails just for this purpose. Ariel had this same mounting board (a 7 inch by 9 inch plaque), but it wouldn't support our dinghy engine. As we test mounted the 5hp engine, our mounting board just spun around.

Inspecting the other boats, we could see that nearly all of them had their mounting boards such that a pipe ran through the center of them preventing the spinning. Ariel's dinghy mounting board wasn't configured this way. While looking at what I would need to do to have a pipe in the center, I saw a problem: our rudders would potentially bump into the dinghy hanging off of the mounting board. (Recall that on a Gemini 3200, the rudders are off the back of the boat and can be adjusted based on a desired draft and the shallower the draft, the higher out of the water the top of the rudders are.)

The other issue we noticed during the test mounting was that the propeller of the dinghy engine was perfectly situated to gouge the side of our boat if, say, the boat were bounced around. That would be bad news.

The solution to both issues (the spinning mounting board and gouging propeller) would be found on 2 different boats we saw in the marina. These boats used a long board to serve as a backing board. The longer board effectively created a wall that runs the length of the dinghy engine and protects the boat from the engine banging on the side.

We went to HomeDepot and bought a PVC Viranda board; a lightweight, low maintenance, moisture resistance, pre-colored board. After cutting it to the desired length (40 inches), I bolted it onto the dinghy engine mount on the rail and viola! we now have a secure place for our dinghy engine to mount.

Marinas are awesome .... lots of examples on how to solve challenges.

Settee Cushions Redo - Part 1

Over the past couple of months, I have been making new settee cushions for our Gemini 3200. Given my limited sewing experience, I have been taking my time making the new cushions. I want to do a really good job, because this is our home.

Before starting this project, I did a lot of research on making cushions and the different materials to use. Sailrite's website has been an invaluable resource to me. This website not only has all of the material, sewing aids, and notions, but also terrific "how to" videos. When I purchased everything to make the cushions from Sailrite, I also purchased their "Make Your Own Cushion" dvd. This dvd is definitely worth its $19.95 price. I have completed 4 of the 6 settee cushions and have referenced the video each time.

All of the materials used to make the cushions were purchased from Sailrite, except the foam. Foam is very expensive and even more expensive to ship. After a lot of thought, we decided to purchase the foam at our local JoAnn's store. It did not hurt that I came across a couple of 5o% and 40% off coupons. For the material we chose Naugahyde Universal, which is a durable outdoor marine grade material. The reasoning behind picking it was that if it can hold up to the outdoor marine enviornment, then it should do fantastic inside.

The plan is to finish the cushions this week. After I finish the last cushion and place it in the boat, I will post before and after pictures of the settee renovation.

Disney was AWESOME!

What a wonderful week. The girls and I joined Bill in Orlando, FL , after his conference. We stayed at the recently renovated, Holiday Inn - Downtown Disney Resort Area. The hotel has a great pool with a zero entry area.

We spent Wednesday at the pool and Downtown Disney, which was an easy walk from the Holiday Inn. We had a late lunch at T-REX. The food was good, but the scenery and animaltronics were fantastic. After lunch the girls played in the dino dig area.

Thursday was our day dedicated to Magic Kingdom. We caught the resort bus to the park and started our day with... ICE CREAM in front of the castle. We spent the next 8 hours riding rides, watching the parade and shows, meeting princesses, and just soaking up the Disney experience. Dy's favorite ride was the Tea Cups, while KJ loved Space Mountain. We were disappointed to find Ariel's Grotto gone, but excited about the new area being developed for Ariel and Belle.

Friday we decided to go to Epcot. We only spent 4 hours at the park. Not long enough to do it justice. In hindsight, we should have given ourselves a day or more between park visits. This is a lesson learned for our 2012 Disney visit. After the park, it was back to the hotel pool to cool off.

Saturday was a full day. We spent the morning at Downtown Disney, the afternoon at the pool, and the evening flying back to Atlanta.

WHAT A GREAT TRIP!! Now that we have refreshed our minds, we are eager to get back to our Ariel. This coming weekend is 4th of July and we are planning on taking our Ariel out for a couple of days. Lots to do to get ready.

Windex 15

Our Gemini 3200 is a sailboat and it is important for us to know the direction of the wind, as it relates to our boat. One piece of existing equipment, on the boat, that give us wind directional and speed information is our Horizon Wind Indicator. However, the information from the Horizon is not always correct and is hard to see from our cockpit.

Based on the recommendation from Dick at Sail Harbor Marina, we had the boatyard install a new Windex 15 on the top of the mast. The cost was around $50.

With the new windex, existing Horizon instrument, our flag, and coupled with some homemade telltales made from vhf tape we should always know the wind direction.

Masthead/Steaming Light

USCG navigation light requirements for any recreational boat under 12 meters (39 feet) include a red port sidelight - visible 1nm, green starboard sidelight - visible 1nm, white stern light - visible 1nm, white 360 degree anchor light - visible 1nm, and white masthead/steaming -visible 2nm. When we stepped the mast back in April, we found that our masthead/steaming light was non-existent, only bare wires. (For anyone not familar with a sailboat, the masthead/steaming light is not on top of the mast, but about 1/3 the way up the mast.) Given that we had to buy a new light, we investigated installing a combination LED masthead/steaming/deck light fixture. The cost for a new LED light fixture was way out of our budget, so we purchased a Forespar Combination Steaming/Deck light.

The Forespar light was chosen, because of the rugged construction, ease of changing the light bulb, and price. We had the boatyard install the light, while the mast was down. Now all we have to do is wire it to our Gemini 3200's DC electrical panel.