"Skylark", Tanzer 28 - 2002 Pre-launch Pictures
This set of pictures documents some changes that I made to the boat over the past year. The goal of the changes is to make Skylark comfortable for a long vacation, with an eye toward an eventual trip from Lake Michigan to the Bahamas.
The seatback/bunk top has been removed to provide just a bit more room while sitting or lying on the port settee. The white cord is an electric heater cord that was placed there temporarily. The picture shows the "Pride of Baltimore" under full sail, an inspirational picture.
5. 
Starboard side of the cabin bulkhead.
Pretty much stock Tanzer 28 in this photo.
I hope to run an electric circuit to a lamp mounted above the barometer and clock.
6. 
Head sink.
The water pump has been replaced by a Fynspray pump.
I installed a ball valve lever arm, a 1/4" brass rod connected to the ball valve, so you can open and close the ball valve easily.
The rod has an "L" bent into it at the bottom, and the ball valve lever has a 1/4" hole drilled into it, and the "L" is just pushed into the hole.
The top of the rod has a ring bent into it.
A 1/4" hole is drilled into the sink top and made just a bit bigger by rotating the drill a bit.
The ball valve has to be turned and the location of the countertop hole have to be coordinated to provide the right angle of movement for the lever.
The rod is inserted into the hole "L" first and slid down to meet the ball valve lever, then pushed through the hole in the lever.
The picture shows the lever arm in the open, draining position.
I have not had problems with the lever arm coming out of the ball valve lever during operation, but if I do I may add a cotter pin.
As it is now, it is easy to disconnect the lever arm from the ball valve lever by bumping it with your fist, it will come out with a little force.
In order to reduce water use, I am trying out a bowl in the sink.
Rather than filling the sink to wash up, you can just fill the bowl with four pumps of water, and use a washcloth.
Also, while brushing your teeth, you can spit into the sink and still have clean water in the bowl.
I may try to find another bowl that fits the shape of my hands when scooping up water to wash my face.
It is important to have a bowl that fits into the sink without falling in or flipping.
7. 
This view shows the ball valve lever arm in the closed position.
This is the lower position, and anyone using the sink would naturally put it back in this position, because otherwise it sticks up too far.
There are two bowls in the sink, one red, one black.
I thought about painting this bulkhead wall white to get a brighter light in the head.
A gooseneck lamp was installed here, and just behind the cabinet is another light, an automotive type dome light sold in many Wal-Mart type stores.
The dome light is hidden but provides a nice area light in the head.
I intend to buy a number of the towel/clothes hooks shown in the upper right of this picture and find places around the boat to hang clothes.
In the bottom right of the photo you can see that the head sink locker door is open.
There is a new 3 gallon water tank located there, and you can just see the top of the fill cap.
More on the head water tank coming in a later photo series.
11. 
This was an attempt at a self portrait, but I forgot about my wizard-like powers which do not permit a photo to be taken of me.
It does provide a view of the cabin looking from a position sitting on the v-berth.
12. 
Close up of the mast step interior bolts, grounding wire, and VHF antenna coax connector.
Taken while sitting on the v-berth.
I would like to put a new coax cable with fewer connectors between the radio and antenna.
I think that I have three or four on the way, and I would like to change that to one at the mast step for better radio reception.
13. 
Close up of the port chainplate, in the head.
There was some leakage through a hole in the header where the VHF (white) or electric (gray) cable went through the header.
You can see the dark line coming down from the corner.
I believe that this leakage occurred because the boat was stored in a bow-high position.
When I moved the boat and levelled it out, I no longer had a leak.
This is only partly good news, because there must be a water ingress point somewhere on the deck.
There is a small area of rot behind the cleat at the upper portion of the picture.
Rebedding deck hardware is on the project list.
I also plan to replace the old light for cosmetic reasons.
14. 
View into the former engine room, now sail locker.
After removing the old inboard, I degreased and painted the interior.
The old engine mount was used as a base for MDO plywood floorboards.
Towards the back you can see a couple of handrails which were cut out of plastic house deck material, and the black things are battery boxes.
The gray tube is the hand operated bilge pump feed tube.
The back floorboard, and the middle floorboard are screwed down, while the front floorboard is free to be removed.
The back floorboard is the entire width of the boat, and if I did not mount the battery boxes there, it could be configured as a berth.
There is a lack of headroom, with the cockpit lockers coming down from above, but it offers sitting room and privacy.
I do not expect to need an additional berth, so for me it is a sail locker.
I hope to eventually find room for two bicycles and two inflatable kayaks, and expect that there will be plenty of room, as long as I can get the item through the door.
There is room in the sail locker for long poles of about 8 to 9 feet in length, more if they are bendable.
When this area is cleaned up and painted, it is really attractive, and not hard to get back into, if you are capable of crawling a bit.
It is much easier now to get back to the transom area, although some areas do require that the water tank be removed for good access.
The place where the original stove was located has been covered with a piece of plywood, creating a large storage space underneath. I put a plywood shelf and sides out to the hull in this space, and it is now very deep and there always seems to be room for more. For the time being I am using a Coleman camping propane stove, which unfortunately has no clamps to hold pots and pans on the stove underway. I cut a hole in the plywood countertop where the propane bottle fits in, which gets it off the countertop and somewhat holds the stove in place. This is only a temporary solution and it gets covered with a cutting board most of the time. I do not cook on the boat much, so I think the camping stove will do for now. The future solution may be a Forespar Mini-Galley, or similar product, which is a gimballed propane stove which mounts on a bulkhead. I am also experimenting with a camping stove mounted in a bucket that would swing from mounting points on the bulkhead and on an aluminum bar set in the counter top. For an example see: Yacht Atom's Galley. But I think it is probably better to buy a stove that works without needing to build it. Whatever the solution is, I want to keep my new storage shelf just under the countertop.
I use a portable radio for music.
It had eight dry cell batteries, which is 12 volts, so I tried wiring it to the 12V electric system, and it works great.
I just crimped some eyes on two-strand wire, and jammed the eyes under the springs used to hold the dry cell batteries in place.
Bullet connectors were used to connect in to the system, with tape marking polarity.
I may use this system in the future for fans and a laptop.
I don't like the cigarette lighter connectors very much.
There are other connectors, if I can find a good, polarized connector, I may go with that, but I haven't seen one.
15. 
The gooseneck lamp at the center of this picture is one of my favorite improvements.
Originally I thought it would illuminate the cooking area, but realized that it was mounted too far back to focus on the countertop.
When pointed up at the cabin top, however, it is a great area light, not bright, but a comfortable background light which is spread around the cabin by reflection off of the white cabin top.
Froggy is our good luck charm.
He is sitting next to a 110 outlet, but never fear, all 110 shorepower circuits have been removed.
The original wiring was certainly not up to todays electrical code, and with a solar powered 12V system, I don't think I need 110V, except maybe at the dock in spring and fall for a heater.
17. 
View of outboard and bracket, from above.
I chose a Fulton four-stroke outboard bracket and a Tohatsu 6hp four-stroke motor.
I have used the combination one time, delivering the boat 30 miles, and I am very happy with the results.
I generally ran my inboard at low speeds, about four knots, because it is more comfortable and I think it is less wear and tear on the motor.
I can get 4 mph (measured by GPS) from the outboard at 1/4 throttle, the start position.
At half throttle, I get 6 mph.
Although I have not used in in big waves or heavy winds, I think this outboard will have enough power.
With the new rudder, my boat seems to slide through the water very easily.
19. 
Boarding ladder.
This new addition to the boat is very important for using a dinghy and swimming.
I like the wide steps, which are easy on the bare feet.
The ladder is through bolted, with plywood backing plates.
It swings down so that the lower step is close to a foot under water.
I intend to add a rope grab handle/foot loop to make it easier for swimmers to get up on to the ladder.
This folding ladder from West Marine fit perfectly and feels very solid.
Behind the ladder is a metal vent.
There are two, one is also on the port side.
These were for the inboard ventilation.
Because they are open to the transom, I had some safety concerns about getting water in them in bad conditions.
I have not ever heard of any problems, but openings on the transom are no good in bad waves.
I went to the hardware store and bought 3" PVC plumbing plugs, which are made of a disk of rubber with two metal plates and a bolt which squeezes the metal plates together when tightened, expanding the rubber disk.
They fit perfectly in the inside of the vents, and can be removed so the vents can do their job if you are not on big water.
I also added bug screening inside the vents by cutting it to size and using caulk to glue it in from the outside of the boat.
20. 
New outboard, new rudder, new boarding ladder.
The new rudder makes the boat seem like a racing dinghy.
It turns the boat easily, and it just slides along through the water with little resistance.
You really have to enter a dock slowly, because the boat just keeps slicing through the water, it loves to move!
I have to get used to the rudder because it is so responsive, moving the tiller just an inch will alter your course a lot.
I think I need to add a tiller tamer, or some kind of friction to the tiller because you cannot leave it alone for more than a few seconds, the boat will take off into the wind.
The new rudder turns this boat into a responsive racing machine.
21. 
The outboard bracket is in its highest position here.
You can see that the outboard prop is about halfway under the waterline.
In order to get the prop up, you have to drop the bracket down one notch, then put the motor in forward gear, and tilt it to a 45 degree position.
Then it is above the water in most cases.
In heavy waves, you can tilt the motor so that it is parallel to the waterline.
The good part about this mounting height is that the prop is about a foot under the water when the bracket is at its lowest level.
22. 
Note that the outboard bracket is mounted as low as possible.
The prop will not hit the rudder, because when the outboard bracket is dropped, it moves the outboard back behind the rudder.
Note the two inch spacer between the outboard bracket and the transom.
This is necessary because of the rubrail which covers the hull to deck flange.
The outboard bracket is through-bolted through the spacer, the transom, and two 1/2 inch pieces of plywood.
I consider this to be a minimum backing plate for an outboard on a Tanzer 28.
The backing plates should be as large as possible and cover as much of the transom half as possible, and should be laminated to the transom with epoxy/filler.
If I were to do this installation again, I would bolt the spacer to the transom and backing plates on its own, and then use separate bolts to bolt the outboard bracket all the way through.
23. 
The bracket does not drop very far, less than 12 inches, and I wanted my prop down deep in the water, so I mounted the bracket as low as I could.
The transom bottom curves in here, so you lose width if you go any lower than this.
The old inboard exhaust through-hull was plugged with a wooden plug in epoxy/filler.
There is also a rubber cap clamped around the upper portion of the through-hull inside the former engine room.
I would prefer to remove the through-hull and epoxy/glass the hole, but this solution will work for the time being.
24. 
This is a cockpit drain hole.
I noticed that the opening was small compared to the size of the tube, in other words, the hull overlapped the tube.
I filed the hull opening so it is now almost the diameter of the tube.
It is much larger than the original opening.
I only did it on this side as an experiment to see if it drains better.
25. 
Oops, the propshaft and skeg should have been removed from the boat.
But the outboard is an experiment, and if it doesn't work, I will probably spend the big bucks and put a diesel inboard in the boat.
So the vestigial propshaft is insurance in case the outboard is not acceptable.
There is a lot of work involved in removing thes items and filling the holes, which I would rather do in the fall than during the summer.
So I will leave this project for later.
Note: the photo numbers refer to the photo filename on the CD disk and are for indexing only.
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