Helmsman Hacks

[capran]

great idea on the ladder. any hacks to keep stern platform rails clean

Great idea on the hooks for the ladder storage. where did you get them? also, any hacks for keeping the rails attached to the underside of the stern platform cleaned?

 

[rslifkin]

Great idea on the hooks for the ladder storage. where did you get them? also, any hacks for keeping the rails attached to the underside of the stern platform cleaned?

Prime it with a suitable metal primer and paint it with bottom paint up to the waterline. That'll keep the growth down significantly for less cleaning effort.

 

[NSM]

Capran, I found them at West Marine.

 

[chanprr]

Great idea on the hooks for the ladder storage. where did you get them? also, any hacks for keeping the rails attached to the underside of the stern platform cleaned?

Hooks...Amazon or Ebay. The ones on Ebay appear better for holding a ladder rail.

 

[capran]

Prime it with a suitable metal primer and paint it with bottom paint up to the waterline. That'll keep the growth down significantly for less cleaning effort.

thanks. How would you prep then? just not worry about sanding the stainless and just sand it off? we only keep the boat in the water for 2 months during the summer, although when we got her, it had been in the water full time, which is where most of the growth occurred. I was hoping to find a way to clean it off without sanding the stainless.

 

[rslifkin]

thanks. How would you prep then? just not worry about sanding the stainless and just sand it off? we only keep the boat in the water for 2 months during the summer, although when we got her, it had been in the water full time, which is where most of the growth occurred. I was hoping to find a way to clean it off without sanding the stainless.

Sanding the stainless to get it clean and slightly roughed up for primer to adhere is no problem.

 

[capran]

boohoo

Sanding the stainless to get it clean and slightly roughed up for primer to adhere is no problem.

boo hoo
just wish someone knew of something to remove the scale without hurting that beautiful stainless.

 

[rslifkin]

boo hoo
just wish someone knew of something to remove the scale without hurting that beautiful stainless.

You could scrape it off more maybe a little bit of very fine sanding, and then polish the stainless back to a shine. But personally, I've started taking the attitude that there is absolutely no surface below the waterline left unpainted except for anodes. Makes for much less growth, much easier cleaning, etc. Things can stay shiny stainless above the waterline where they're easy to keep clean.

 

[capran]

You could scrape it off more maybe a little bit of very fine sanding, and then polish the stainless back to a shine. But personally, I've started taking the attitude that there is absolutely no surface below the waterline left unpainted except for anodes. Makes for much less growth, much easier cleaning, etc. Things can stay shiny stainless above the waterline where they're easy to keep clean.

Thank you. I get it. I don't think I was cut out for trawler life. so many working parts. Whoever said it was easier than sailing is sadly mistaken. sigh

 

[Tom-Jill-Lilly]

APP hack - dont die for diesel

For those fueling up this summer, Try loading the Boaters Guide App.

I found the fuel prices fairly accurate.

It'd pay me dividends to go Anacortes to fuel up before heading to Alaska. It'll be my annual dry run before heading North.

Below is today's prices for reference:

 

[FWT]

For those fueling up this summer, Try loading the Boaters Guide App.

I found the fuel prices fairly accurate.

It'd pay me dividends to go Anacortes to fuel up before heading to Alaska. It'll be my annual dry run before heading North.

Below is today's prices for reference:

View attachment 146804

View attachment 146805

FYI to others, this app is limited to PNW

 

[Snapdragon III]

Great idea on the hooks for the ladder storage. where did you get them? also, any hacks for keeping the rails attached to the underside of the stern platform cleaned?

A product like 'on and off hull and bottom cleaner" would clean your crusty stainless right up. Be careful with it thought, it is nasty stuff you want to keep off your skin, and out of your lungs. If you want to really shine it up you can get 4 1/2" felt wheels for an angle grinder on Amazon and use it with black metal polish bars that would make it shine like a mirror.

 

[chanprr]

For those fueling up this summer, Try loading the Boaters Guide App.

I found the fuel prices fairly accurate.

It'd pay me dividends to go Anacortes to fuel up before heading to Alaska. It'll be my annual dry run before heading North.

Convenient marinas to refuel on way to SE Alaska via Inside Passage:

Vancouver Island: Nanaimo, Campbell River, Port McNeil, Port Hardy

BC: Shearwater, Klemtu, Hartley Bay, Prince Rupert

SE Alaska: (Petro Marine Services) Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Auke Bay and Sitka.

Enjoy the trip North. Hope to see you up there during July/August.

 

[Tom-Jill-Lilly]

Robert - definitely!
FWT - Yes sorry, I didnt say it just the PNW. I was overly excited because my homeport is listed very near the bottom $$$, good to go somewhere else.

 

[capran]

A product like 'on and off hull and bottom cleaner" would clean your crusty stainless right up. Be careful with it thought, it is nasty stuff you want to keep off your skin, and out of your lungs. If you want to really shine it up you can get 4 1/2" felt wheels for an angle grinder on Amazon and use it with black metal polish bars that would make it shine like a mirror.

wow. Thank you for that. I'll start looking for it! I use on off for fiberglass rust stains and it works great for that. But I know what I have for that says not for use on metal.

 

[Tom-Jill-Lilly]

Best coffee and keeping it quiet

For those might know I roast my own beans and I'm a coffee snob.

Taken a proven setup from the camper and duplicating it for the Helmsman.

1) Its makes pretty good lattes
2) It doesn't make a mess
3) Easy to dispose of grounds
4) the most important for the first mate, doesn't make noise!
5) Does NOT take 1500 watts but 0 watts and a tea pot.

Aero press + a USB frother.

Grind beans as you please or buy french press ((semi course) coffee
Heat water in tea kettle and a small pan of milk on propane.
As the water is heating, tilt milk pan over flame and froth.

Hot water into the aero press. Pour coffee and frothed milk.

Go to the bridge and watch the sunrise.


Amazon.com: Clevr Blends Handheld Milk Frother, Stirrer, Mixer and Wisker for Coffee, Tea, Latte, Cappuccino, and Hot Chocolate Drink Prep and Fast & Easy Foam Creation, USB Re-Chargeable, No Batteries Needed: Home & Kitchen

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NTYK9R8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YVL8SF3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Hydraulicjump]

On the main Helmsman thread Tom asked about poles that were installed to hang stuff in the boat. Putting it here because it is a "hack" sort of. Robert, who previously owned our boat, put in a couple of vertical rods to hang stuff on. The outside rod has become our extra line hanger (first picture), wet dog towels, pfds, etc holder. It is a painted wood, 80" closet rod with rubber ends (second picture) and ss hooks. It wedges so snugly that it does not fall over in rough seas (as long as you don't use it to steady yourself). In the rear head, he put in a nice pole with an adjustable end and angled wooden pegs (third pic). Also very durable and does not fall over. Cheap hack with no drilling into the fiberglass or teak. Thanks Robert!

 

[Hydraulicjump]

 

[Doug_Snider]

We have finally found a solution for storing stemware. We mounted a stainless steel stemware rack between the overhead galley cabinet and the salon cross beam. Short pieces of rubber tubing keep the glasses from sliding and a scrunchy keeps the glasses from falling out of the rack in rough seas. The space between the TV cabinet and the beam was too narrow to allow racks on each side of the beam. If you’re having a Helmsman built with a salon TV cabinet, you might ask for a little more space in the build to allow a second rack.

 

[Hydraulicjump]

Thanks Doug. Nice hack. And look at those fancy, schmancy Alba Bella etched wine glasses.

 

[NSM]

We ran into some weather last weekend that induced a little rattling. Some of it was shades bouncing on window frames. Put these little silicone pads on that helped a bit.

 

[NSM]

Greetings fellow hackers, I’m looking for a solution to mount Scotty downriggers and/or crab pot puller on the 2” vertical stanshions in the cockpit that run from the gunwales to the flybridge deck. Has anybody attempted such a setup?

Cheers

 

[Ric]

On our 38S we opted to use a removable gunwale mount forward of the port cockpit hawse. I wanted to be able to retrieve the downweight near the waterline, before it starts swinging wildly.

 

[NSM]

I had Scott put handrails on the corners to make it easier to safely board the boat. That eliminated the gunwale option. And the handrails are not beefy enough to handle the torque from a downrigger.

First world problems….

 

[Ric]

I had a similar problem with a previous boat. I took one of the gunwale mounts (below), which comes in three parts - gunwale bracket, vertical plate, and downrigger mounting base. Didn't use the vertical plate but substituted a plate long enough to bring the bottom of the mounting base level with the top of the rail. I through-bolted the vertical plate to the mounting base (the former slides into the latter by about an inch). Worked OK and was easily removable.

 

[NSM]

An elegant solution. Thank you

 

[Tom-Jill-Lilly]

Hi Scott,

Jill ordered hand-rails from the factory. One of our best purchases. This was done after we took delivery installed at Lake union.



I constantly see people grabbing them to come on board (proves the purpose) and it works well for a rod holder as seen in the pic and ideal for a deep six to catch dinner, as proven on EmBark last summer.

For downriggers, I mounted my scottys on the Bullfrog using the mount shown above in this string and below. You can see I cut some starboard for a plate to the contour to the plastic "rib" of the boat.



Scotty Downrigger Rail Mount | Bass Pro Shop

It works well. However, the 10' bullfrog is nearly hard to starboard trying to go straight dragging a 12-pound ball at 100'. Just makes it that more fun when you spin counterclockwise when a big king hits

On the Helmsman, when Jill asked for the extra stern rails, she basically said where to place them regarding it's length. They made them in the factory and shipped them on the next vessel shipment. I was there at waterline when they installed them, but I didn't think of the application for a Scotty downriggers.

They placed the rails dab in the middle of the gunwhale which makes sense, but doing so didn't allow enough space for the starboard plate. The rail needed to be offset inboard which would look a bit weird on a normal day without a scotty mount. Plus fishing on the Helmsman, I would need to punch more holes in the boat for the 12v connections wiring etc.

So I made the dingy the fishing boat which is a lot better for running fast, find bays and points miles away from the anchorage. The drawback is you are limited to one person, two max and I would not run out many miles from shore.

So if you want others to be a part of the fishing experience, I would consider a simple rod holder and a deep 6. Try that for a year. It’s a cheap option and works well for me.

Especially if you are heading north where the fish are in the inside passages if you can stand going 1-2 knots.

Important for the trawler - I also NOW understand there was (is) an option to enable the transmission to run at a lower RPM for trolling. Trolling valve (mechanical) for slow-speed drive. Some folks order this option. I didn’t know it was available. I’m not looking into it now because I elected to fish from the Bullfrog.

ZF 85 A Marine Transmission | ZF Hurth 85 A Marine Transmissions (tadiesels.com)

If your going for Kings without this option, you'll find yourself throwing in and out of gear as our Helmsman was a bit fast at idle..

I am confident the rail if like mine (see pic above) is sturdy enough for a down-rigger. I took a few moments as we cruised up into Canada today to think about a bracket that can work for you. Considering the force the moment with a arm at 3' using a 12 pound ball at 3 knots is about 36-40ft-lbs, however I would rate it to the breaking strength on the downrigger line which would bring it up to 80x3 or 240 ft-lbs or close to 3psi on gunwhale bracket I would consider which isn't much. I would design a plate made from starboard that not only rests flat on the outside on the gunwhale but has a brack pulling up on the short side of the handrail.

The opposing force on the long rail and short rail distributes the load. Plus I would also look at an additional support on the bump rail on the outside of the tunnel. Not sure how, but with some starboard in hand, one can look into.

Here is a rough sketch on my thoughts..

Obviously, I’d construct a prototype out of cardboard of plywood for fit and thought before finalizing and constructing the starboard bracket.

Doing this route means you'll have two large plate brackets, downriggers, 3 or so 12 pound balls, downrigger spare part tackle box, to store somewhere vs a simple rod holder.

Or consider this.. Here is a video on the deep six,

Deep Six

I don't typically use a flasher or anything else that creates drag. Caught lots of Coho and Kings using this.

I have 4 or 5 of these in my spare parts tackle box in the Laz on the way up to Alaska. We could only store a weeks-worth of fishing, which was a couple of kings, 6 or so coho, a chicken hali and many rockfish, ling and seabass fillets and one sole.

The bad news is the coat of shipping fish back. One big hali and your full on the deep freeze in the basement. Don’t do the $/lb math versus costco, it never works.

Luhr-Jensen Deep Six | Fisherman's Warehouse (fishermanswarehouse.com)

Lastly, check out comments on the trawler forum on fishing, interesting reads: Fishing suggestions on a trawler | Page 2 | Trawler Forum

Good luck and let me know if you come up with a solution, and see you in September.

Tom

 

[NSM]

Tom, thanks for you detailed and thoughtful reponse. We were inspired by Jill’s handrails and had them installed on ours. But I also hadn’t thought through the impact on downrigger mounts. I had Scott install wiring for them so if I can figure out a solution I’m good to go. At this point the path of least resistance is to set the dinghy up as my downrigger boat and do what you do on the helmsman using the Deep Six.

Cheers

 

[Ric]

We got the trolling valve and it is terrific. I didn't anticipate using it other than for fishing, but the design is such that (unlike the old style) it's simple to operate. We've only had one long weekend shakedown, but we used it getting in and out of crowded locks and harbors between Seattle and Pender Island. You can go anywhere from barely moving to full throttle, with the trolling valve only operating while the engine is at idle. Your engine rpm stays steady at 600 and your speed is throttle controlled from 0-3.4kt at that rpm; at higher speeds you automatically go back to normal transmission operation.

 

[Tom-Jill-Lilly]

Hi Ric, Interesting. I assume your value option was installed at the factory?
I need to read up on it. If you have a good article, let me know. I did read somewhere you have to be careful if you rev the engine in this mode, you can ruin the transmission. Maybe that's the "old design"?