Solar. Shine. Sand. Sail. TTR Work Days ~ Some Hard, Some Easy.

Like all homes, Ticket to Ride requires routine maintenance. Sometimes we have easy projects, but occasionally bigger projects must be attacked.

Solar: A Big Project

We have had a solar panel project looming over us for well over a year. Our solar panels had an issue with the top plastic layer coming detached from the panel and allowing moisture to gather under the plastic. The solar panels were suffering and underperforming.

The problem occurred early in the life of our panels and the maker, Solbien, sent us replacement panels under warranty. Unfortunately, the new panels did not come with an employee in the box to do the replacement project for us.

Although all 16 panels need to be replaced, there was a delay in receiving some of the replacement panels. Only eight were delivered directly to us and another group of eight were sent to one of our sons. The defective panels continued to loose efficiency, so we needed to move forward with the panels we had on board and accept the idea of replacing the remaining eight when we can.

We hired Leo to help us replace the eight panels we had with us. Leo is a hardworking, knowledgable young man and we knew he would be excellent help.

The process involved removing the old solar panels using a putty knife and a halyard.  Frank and Leo started by lifting one corner of each panel by hand. Next they disconnected the electrical terminals and dead ended them.

This was followed by putting a small hole in the solar panel and attaching a halyard.

While Leo and Frank gently severed the glue holding the panels to the coach roof, I peeled off the solar panel by lifting them with the halyard. The combined effort of the steady pull of the halyard and the guidance of Frank and Leo at the solar panels, allowed us to separate the glued panels from the coach roof without damaging the roof.

Once the eight panels were removed,  it took the better part of two days to completely clean the surface of the coach roof in preparation for gluing down the new panels.

Thankfully all of the new solar panels worked well when tested, so Frank and Leo glued them into place.  Next, Leo laid a solid strip of caulking around the edges of the solar panels to prevent any leaking. And voila! the job was complete.

Well, at least half of the job is complete.

The good news is that the replaced solar panels are working really well and dumping much more power into our batteries than the old ones.  We can definitely tell there is more charging occurring because we rarely need to use the generator to top up our batteries.

Now we have to figure out how to get the other eight panels shipped to Ticket to Ride.

Sail: Poor Drifter!

The sail project I am covering is sort of an “oops” on our part, while we were making due with what we had available… 

When we returned to TTR from the U.S., the genoa furler had seized and would not furl or unfurl.  Long story short, we had to ship our furler to France to replace the bearings.  This left us without a genoa sail for seven weeks. Instead of staying in Tahiti while we waited for our repaired furler,  we chose to explore the Society Islands using our main sail and our two large forward sails.

All was going well until we were sailing from Bora Bora to Huahine. We chose to sail our “Drifter,” a downwind, lightweight sail. This was a great decision and a delightful sail ~ most of the trip.  

As we turned along the north end of Huahine, the true wind direction began shifting a bit forward and it began building slightly.  We only had about six miles left to sail and without a genoa available, we were hoping the wind direction would hold and the Drifter could take us to our entrance.

But a few minutes later, Frank and I decided we should take the Drifter down as the wind had built to 15 knots and moved to about 90 degrees. Literally as we were walking to our places to furl the Drifter, a ripping sound reverberated from above…. our trusty Drifter had split in two.

We were able to furl the sail without an issue and we motor sailed the remaining few miles into Huahine.

That leads me to our next project – removing the torn Drifter and replacing it with the new one fabricated for us by North Sails Hawaii.

Our new sail was fabricated, then shipped to meet us in Fakarava. Fortunately, there is an outdoor, covered sports court in town which was a perfect place for us to set up the new Drifter.

Frank and I spent a long day removing the ripped sail from the top down furling cable and putting the new sail onto the furling cable.

Our original Drifter sail is one Frank worked very hard to create to allow us to fly it in lightish air conditions with wind angles from 100-165 true.  Frank, Gino Morrelli of Morrelli and Melvin and Fuzz Foster of North Sails Hawaii, discussed this sail and tweaked it to create a sail we could fly with only the two of us on TTR.  We did not want a socked spinnaker because it would be so large; about 215 square meters. Frank wanted the sail on a top-down furler so we could easily use with just the two of us on board.

The Drifter that Frank, Gino and Fuzz designed has worked very well however, when we had the new drifter made, Frank asked for a slightly heavier sail material and he had the sail enlarged from 175 square meters to 190 square meters.

Downwind sailing is often “champagne sailing” and we were very happy to have our Drifter again. However, we had the sail ready to go for three weeks before we had weather conditions that allowed us to try it.

This week, as we were sailing inside the atoll of Tahanea, we were finally able to hoist the Drifter. The sail was so delightful that we sailed past our intended anchorage and just enjoyed the butter smooth ride for about 45 minutes.

Shiny: A simple cosmetic job

When Frank and Leo were working away on the solar panels, I took the time to wet-sand and epoxy the carbon fiber chafe guards on TTR.  It is a pretty quick project (my favorite kind) that makes a noticeable difference in the shine of the boat.

The first step was wet-sanding the carbon fiber using 600 grit sandpaper. Next I taped around the carbon fiber to protect the paint and the hardware.  Using a two part epoxy, I painted each plate.  The epoxy we have is self leveling which helped create a nice finished surface.

One day of curing and I was able to remove the tape to reveal our shiny, carbon protectors.

Sandy Times:

The last project is a time consuming, mindless task that happens rarely but must be accomplished. As the teak flooring in our cockpit wears through weather and use, the black caulk wears less quickly than the teak and becomes “proud.” Occasionally we have to sand the teak and the caulk to make them level. This process balances the height of the teak and caulk and removes the weathered look of the teak.

Using a handheld electric sander, Frank and I took turns gently removing caulk and wood. We attach a shop vacuum to the sander to catch the dust and keep the boat and water clean.

While not exactly a glamorous job, it’s a productive way to spend a day or two. Music or a good book on tape make the time and this project pass quickly.

So there you have it, a couple of projects recently completed on Ticket to Ride. A little window into the less exotic side of living on a sailboat.

As always, thank you for stopping by to read our blog. As alway, we wish you good health and happy adventures. If you would like to hear from us more often, please see our Facebook or Instagram pages.