NEW MASTHEAD LIGHT

In 2005, Santa brought me a new LED masthead light from Orca Green. http://www.orcagreen.com/   It is a beautiful piece of engineering, and draws very little current.  I attached the new light to the mounting bracket that held the old light.  I don't know if it is original Pearson equipment, but it does look like it.  The masthead fitting on older Pearsons is a massive stainless steel fabrication that will surely last until the next Ice Age.  A short length of stainless tubing enables the anchor light to sit up above the masthead fitting so that it can be seen from all sides.  The light is attached to a base which has a short piece of stainless welded to it.  This piece is concave.  The concavity matches the OD of the tube so the stem can be attached  to the tube with a couple of screw clamps.  The cable comes up the mast, out through the tube , to the light.  Quite simple and works well.

PROPANE LOCKER PROJECT

Like most boats of Delphini's vintage, she had a pressure alcohol horror of a stove.  it was gimballed, had three burners and an oven and a pressure tank that you pumped up with a bicycle pump.  On the slightest provocation it would flare up and set the saloon curtains on fire.  I learned to sail in Europe where any fuel other than propane would be considered borderline insanity.  One wag suggested that the only truly appropriate location for an alcohol stove on a sailboat was about two feet aft of the transom!

I was able to buy a used propane stove identical to the existing one for $100.  It didn't have gimbals but I was able to remove the gimbal hardware from the old stove and attach it to the new one.  Fit perfectly!

The hardest part of the whole project was summoning the mental strength required to cut a great honking hole in my beloved boat.  I came home from work early one day, had a short restorative nap and then picked up the sabre saw and cut the hole before I could talk myself out of it!

Next project was to build a propane locker.  I built the locker out of plywood, lined it with epoxy, and then epoxied it up to the underside of the cockpit seat.

I bought the largest Bomar deckhatch I could get, I think the ten-inch size.  If I could have found one with the opening only 3/8" bigger, I could have used the 8.8 lb propane bottles.  As it was, I have to use the smaller 4.4 lb size.  This picture shows the regulator, electric solenoid and pressure gauge installed.  Each opening where the hose or wire passes through the box must be sealed with a compression-type seal

This photo shows the location of the bottle in use.  Space is tight but it is not difficult to connect and disconnect the hose and remove the bottles.

This photo shows the spare bottle in behind the bottle currently in use.  Switching bottles is a little cumbersome because they both have to be removed in order to switch places but I don't find it to be a bother.

Anyway a little bother is a fair price to pay to banish the alcohol horror from the boat!

A propane locker must have a drain to vent heavier-than-air propane vapours out of the boat.