Fire Extinguisher

April 2014

Like may Drascombe owners we often cook on board using when cruising or even just day sailing. 

We have two Trangia stoves - small camping stoves which burn methylated spirits- on board and carry the fuel in sealed containers However as cooking involves a naked flame and even with correctly stored cooking and outboard fuel on board the potential for a fire is always something to be considered.

Cooking on board - naked flame and fuel!

Having fitted a number of electrical instruments to Tra Bhui over the last couple of years along with an electric start outboard, the number of possible ignition have continued to grow.

While a boat floats in one of the most effective fire suppressants that there is – water, water is not suitable for electrical or fuel fires so a suitable fire extinguisher is required on board.

Where to store an extinguisher is a consideration on an open boat. For other Drascombes, the cabin offers a perfect location to install an extinguisher, but on an open boat such as Tra Bhui, there is no obvious –easily accessible place that an extinguisher can be mounted, near to hand in which the extinguisher is dry and secure.

The solution I found was to install a Fire Extinguisher locker in the cockpit. The recessed locket that I bought on line from Force 4 Chandlery is made from polypropylene and has a transparent polycarbonate door through which the extinguisher is easily visible.

Dry Powder Extinguisher

Although the recommended storage for a fire extinguisher is in the vertical, we were forced to mount our horizontally A Velcro strap holds the extinguisher in place on its cradle.

The locker was installed simply by cutting a suitably sized hole in the port buoyancy tank towards the rear of the cockpit. After raking out the required volume of polystyrene buoyancy I placed a bead of silicon sealant around the opening before fitted the locker using grade 316 stainless steel screws. The silicon bead ensures that the integrity of the buoyancy chamber – which is full of polystyrene anyway - is maintained.

This is a really simple solution that could be used on any Drascombe.

Gunwale Protection

March 2015

During the 2014 season we found that raising the anchor caused some damage - mainly cosmetic to the starboard gunwale near the bows where the chain tended to rub over them. While this problem would appear to a simple one which could be overcome by just holding the anchor clear of the boat, the physical weight of the anchor and chain if the boat was pitching or rolling made this impossible, especially if Kathleen was on anchor duties as the anchor weighs about the same as she does!

The simple solution was to fit a short length of Grade 316 angle iron to protect the gunwale.

Rebate cut in Gunwale

Angle mitered and clamped into place

M6 stainless steel bolts fitted to hold angle in place

Fitted

Brown sealant bead installed around angle to prevent water ingress

Fitted!

Having had the angle fitted for the full season (2015) Tra Bhui has virtually no anchor marks on her Gunwales as the stainless steel angle has provided the protection required.

When time permits I will remove the angle and polish it - but that is not a priority job.

Roller Reefing

February - 2014

When we bought Tra Bhui she came with her original sails. With nearly 20 years of fairly hard use they were past their best and in need of replacement. Rather than buy a full suite immediately we decided to first replace the jib and mizzen.

The jib in particular was showing its age. The original sail was simply hanked on to the fore stay and had no provision to either furl the sail or reef it. As we planned to mostly sail Tra Bhui with a crew of two we decided that the new sail should be capable of not only being stowed away with the minimum of effort, but that we should be able to vary the size of it to suit the weather conditions.

Rather than the traditional Drascombe furling system which is designed for stowing the sail around the fore stay we decided to install Plastimo's 406S roller reefing system. This consists of a bottom drum, a mast head pivot and alloy fore stay tube

Reefing drum assembled on the workbench

The system comes in component form and is easy enough to assemble. The final section alloy fore stay sleeve requires cutting to the desired length to suit the boats rig. The only thing that we found we had to adjust for was the nearness of the fore stay to the mast head on the Gig which means that the top swivel is very near the fore stay tensioning blocks.

The reefing system is slightly heavier than the reefing system due to the heavier fittings and the fore stay tube.

Reefing drum fitted 

Mast head fitting

Having used the roller furling for two seasons now we are very pleased with its performance and would certainly recommend it over the more traditional furling system