OK- SOME of the things we did to Tehani

Posted By: Charlie Jones, Meridian 25 Tehani, Magnolia Beach, Texas
Date: 10/11/07 6:39p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: What's YOUR thoughts on what makes a boat "blue water" ready? (pic) (Charlie Jones, Meridian 25 Tehani, Magnolia Beach, Texas)

First- the companionway was WAY too big, so I "smallered" it. It's now 24 x 24 and has vertical sides for the wash boards. This picture pretty graphically shows how much. You can see the light shining through the new glass. Then I built a seahood based on plans I found in an english book. Could find absolutely zero plans in any of my american boat building or modifying books for a seagoing hood. This plan came from a book called Yacht Joinery and Fitting, by Mike Saunders Moving to the cockpit, I removed the tiny little nothing cockpit drains and rebuilt them much larger. The originals were 5/8 inch diameter hoses, and had a kink in them from the way they were designed. The new drains are 1 5/8 ID with 1/4 thick walls Here's a view into the motor well with them installed- there's one each side. The Meridian is designed with a bridge deck and our boat has an outboard in a well. Therefore if the cockpit ever gets totally filled, the front of the motor well acts as a LARGE drain, which is lower than the bridge deck. All rigging was redone, using Stalock fittings, and I moved the chain plates outboard to the sides of the hull, rather than through the deck. No more deck leaks from leaking chain plates. Our sails were from kits from Sailrite. I spent a good bit of time on the telephone with Jeff there designing them. A good friend in Las Vegas put them together for us. Both sails are built from 6.5 oz Contender Super Cruise. The main has three sets of reef points and was built battenless. All seams were triple stitched. We use two line jiffy reefing. The working jib was built with a single reef point, which reduces it to storm jib size. It's a hanked on jib- no roller furling. Again, all seams were triple stitched. We have not done anything so far on the ports- they ARE too large for blue water use. When we reach the stage where we'll be sailing a lot offshore I'll install lexan covers over them. All through hulls in the boat were removed and the holes glassed over- heavily. There are zero openings in the hull below the water line. Even the sink lifts out and dumps overboard- no drain. There is an electric bilge pump mounted in the deep bilge, wired directly to the battery. Just flip the switch. There is also a Whale Gusher 10 mounted in a cockpit locker, usable from the cockpit without opening the locker. The 1 1/2 inch outlet hose exits into the motor well. It's a dual action diaphram pump and can move a LOT of water. There is a hard point installed just outside the companionway- it's a 3/8 U-bolt, backed with a stainles plate, set through a 3/8 thick solid fiberglass bulkhead. Clipped to that, our harnesses allow us to go into the cabin and lie on the starboard settee, go to the mast to reef, and be anywhere in the cockpit without unclipping. Off shore I install jack lines leading to the bow cleats so when going forward we are clipped onto that prior to leaving the cockpit. I do not adhere to "all lines led aft" I think that gives you a false sense of security because sooner or later you WILL have to go forward. ANd if you do it all the time, you'll be more comfortable up there. Frankly, I've never seen lines led aft on any long range cruising boat. The Hiscocks didn't, the Pardeys don't. Evans Starzinger and Beth Leonard don't. Oh, and I installed 12 new keelbolts, right alongside the existing nine, because I couldn't completely check the old ones. There were 9, I added 12, now there are 21 Also added a second water tank in a new location under the cockpit floor. We can now carry 38 gallons in our built in tanks, along with 8-10 extrea in 1 gallon jugs Laura uses as "trim ballast" when stocking the boat for a trip. water is delivered via a Whale foot pump and each tank can be isolated. I'm sure there are many little things we did during her rebuild, but it's really difficult to recall all of them all at once. Right now we are working on a really good way to mount a radar reflector. STILL haven't figured that out. For now, it's set up on the back stay just over the boom. Not a great place, but it's there. The problem is finding a place for it where it'ss stay still, and won't chafe sails or it's own lines.