Ouch, Ouch, Ouch - Those Handles Have to Go!

The galley cabinet doors in the early model L40s use a U handle and friction catches. The catches can be bought in a variety of strengths (we've seen 5 pound and 10 pound). They work reasonably well, except for the trash bin, where the catch died twice. We replaced it with a magnetic catch, which works much better.

However, the operation of the catch wasn't the problem here. It was the location of the U handle on the outside of the door. It is just at the right height to hit with our knees. That's where the Ouch, Ouch, Ouch originated, resulting in the plea: "Please, can we replace these handles with something that I won't hit with my knee?"

We hadn't found anything over several years until we were looking through an Endeavour Power Cat at the Annapolis Sailboat Show a few years ago. It was the Southco Mobella Novibra Latch, available from uglyfishinc.com for under $30 each. We ordered two to see if they could be the solution. Sure, enough, with a little work, they eliminated the source of the pain and the doors have a positive latch. The picture below shows the old handle on the left and the new latch on the right. It uses a 1/4 turn handle to open and a spring latch so the door can be pushed closed.

The Details

We planned to remove the old handle and use one of the screw holes as the location for the new latch. Unfortunately, the latch receiver needed to get mounted in the middle of the wood shim that held the old latch mechanism. We removed the old latch mechanism, then measured and re-measured the location for the new latch and receiver.

A hole saw quickly made the hole for the latch.

And the receiver replaced the old latch mechanism on the door jam. The wood shims for the old mechanisms was glued to the door jam, so we left it in place. That's the reason for putting the new latch in the same location as the old latch.

A couple of pan-head machine screws filled the old handle holes, making it look like they were holding something inside. We had thought about looking for plastic inserts, but the screws were handy and we've not had a need to replace them.

The doors open and close easily and our knees are no longer asking for relief - at least from the old handles.

Lithium Battery Presentation

We've been happy enough with our Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery installation that I volunteered to do a presentation at the Annapolis Sail & Power Squadron meeting, Sept 1, 2016. The powerpoint slides may (or may not) be self-explanatory. If you're interested, a PDF of the presentation can be found here:

I later did a revised version of the talk to the Marine Trawler Owner's Association. This version contains a few more details. It is 29.2MB.
Lithium Batteries as a Marine House Bank

  -Terry

Staying Warm When It's Cold, Rainy, and Windy - Cockpit Enclosure

Old Helm Enclosure

We've been taking LUX south for the winter, going from Annapolis to the Bahamas in the fall. LUX came equipped with a badly weathered "dodger", which was actually a vinyl insert that installed between the cabin top and the hard top. It allows the helmsperson to see out while being somewhat protected from wind and rain. It didn't cover the helm position very well.

The First Enclosure

For our first trip, Carol created a simple vinyl shield that provided some protection to the helm. It only encompassed the starboard side of the cockpit area, so its primary purpose was to break the wind (i.e. reduce wind chill) and to help keep us dry from driving rain or spray. It used all the existing track and screw holes. Some screws were replaced with screw snaps.

Old Helm Enclosure - From the Inside

One of the enhancements that Mike did at the last minute was to replace the yellowed vinyl of the old dodger with Lexan from Home Depot. It significantly improved visibility. We really appreciated the improved visibility when running down the Chesapeake at night and when negotiating the ICW while it was windy and rainy. The addition to the stbd side of the dodger was especially effective and we kept it in place even after we found warm weather and removed the side panel.

The side panel used snaps mounted on the hard-top sliding panel, making it easy to quickly open the slider for improved visibility. The top part of the panel outboard of the helm seat was Lexan, for visibility, while the bottom part was vinyl. The panel aft of the helm seat was vinyl and zippered to the sun shade. (See Old Helm Enclosure - From the Inside.) The panel at the helm could tie back when the weather became warm during the middle of the day. While not pretty, it was functional and provided good visibility.

The New and Improved Enclosure

We wanted something better. Pictures of the enclosures on other boats made us envious. We also wanted to use the panel templates to make screens, allowing us to use the cockpit area as a sun room or a screened porch.

Carol and Mike did research and ordered the parts to create a full cockpit enclosure. They used the template process described in the SailRite video on creating enclosures. The sewing machine was an old Consew straight-stitch acquired from Mike's brother, who runs a canvas shop. Carol has been sewing since childhood and decided that this would be an interesting exercise and extend her knowledge and sewing skills. Design and construction took about a month and materials were about $2000.

There were several key goals in making our own enclosure:

1. Use as much of the existing track hardware as possible.
2. Provide easy access to the winches and stoppers at the helm station so that we could sail with the enclosure in place.
3. Allow the hardtop slider to be quickly opened and closed.
4. Easy access to the side deck beside the helm station in the case that someone needed to quickly go forward.
5. Roll-up doorway in the walkway to the aft deck.
6. Allow access to the storage area under the aft cockpit seat (the liferaft storage area).
7. Keep the hand-holds on the aft hardtop support struts available for use.

Carol and Mike decided to use Makrolon (a polycarbonate with excellent visibility characteristics). The cloth parts were done with Stamoid, which is a vinyl covered cloth. (See Sunbrella vs Stamoid vs WeatherMAX, vs Coatguard vs Recacril.) Gortex thread was chosen; if we're going to spend this much time and money on an enclosure, let's not skimp on the thread.

Extreme Sewing

Heating Makrolon While Sewing

The sewing started with a problem. The thread was melting when sewing the Stamoid to the Makrolon. Enter the realm of Extreme Sewing. After some experimentation, they found that heating the Makrolon prior to sewing would allow the needle to penetrate without generating enough heat to melt the thread. The sewing took a slow and deliberate pace as a section was heated and slowly sewn. The process requires care to prevent overheating the Makrolon. In retrospect, they think that a thinner gauge of Makrolon may have been better.

Winch Access

The design around the helm was particularly challenging. We wanted something that allowed us to sail with the enclosure in place, requiring access to the winches, winch handles, and stoppers. The whole panel unzips, allowing quick access to the side deck if we have to quickly go forward.

The red line in the photo is the jib furling line. The lower part of the panel must be unzipped in order to bring it to a winch. The lower part of the panel is vinyl while the upper part is Makrolon.

Stopper Access

The stopper access is provided by another panel that incorporates both vinyl and Makrolon. There is a rectangular cutout in the Makrolon into which vinyl is sewn across the top. This forms a vinyl flap that allows our hand to reach out to the stoppers while providing water protection. The stitching is not in a very good place - it falls right into the line of sight for crab-pot-float-watch. We're discussing options for changing it. Fortunately, this is a small panel and we can try several different things to see what works best. This panel stays up all the time, just like the dodger panel to its left.

Helm Zig-Zag

The hardtop has an interesting zig-zag at the helm sliding top. Carol and Mike came up with a great design to handle it.

Hand-Holds Are Accessible

The hand-hold on the hardtop support also needed to be exposed, which was a big item on our safety list. You can see how the side panels slides into the track that the side sun shades use. There are zippers at the top of the panels, allowing us to change to bug screens and to include the side sun shades that expand out to the lifelines.

Hand-Hold Interior Strap

A velcro strap holds the enclosure in place around the hand-hold on the hard-top support.

Aft Seat Locker Access

Access to the aft seat locker (Liferaft locker) is also accommodated. Unzip the two panels that connect to the locker, including the zipper between the two panels, reach between the panels for the seatback support 'handle', then lift the seat.

Port Side Panels

Aft Panel

The port side panels keep the rain water out. The runoff from the hard top used to come down next to the seat, making it a wet place to sit. It is now "dry and comfy".

The aft panels fit very nicely. The Makrolon is almost like looking through glass. We can't roll them up, but with the zippers all the way around, it is easy to unzip a panel and stow it. Mike & Carol used an old sail to build a storage bin in the forward v-berth area to store all the panels.

Here is Carol, adjusting the fit of a panel.

Fitting a Panel

Working With Dodger Template

Carol used the SailRite recommendations for building templates. Here she is, working from the Dodger template to make a new dodger, the panel that runs across the front, connecting the cabin top to the hard-top.

Finally, here is the enclosure during final fitting, just before adding snaps. The vinyl door is zippered on both sides and across the top. It can be easily removed or unzip the sides and rolled up. On our trip south, it was just like sitting in a sun room. Sometimes we had to remove the rear panels to cool off.

Enclosure Fitting

The next project is to make bug screen panels to transform our sunroom into a screened back porch.

  -Terry

Ceiling Fans!

LUX has a fan in each cabin and two in the salon. But we have added two additional fans that allow us to enjoy the cockpit even when there isn't a breeze. And with the right positioning, they turn into ceiling fans!

We've liked the Caframo fans for many years. However, the suction cup base doesn't stick for long and the fixed base means that the fan is stuck in one place. I made some bases for the fans many years ago for our previous boat, a Westwind 38. The bases are simply a piece of smoked acrylic. I used flat-head screws, countersunk in the base and cap nuts to make it look nicer and safer to handle. Non-skid  is glued on the bottom with contact cement (make sure that what you use won't eat the base or the non-skid).

We can position the fans anywhere. A 12-volt extension cord allows us to reach remote locations, though we sometimes have to watch out for the cord.

One of the favorite places on LUX is to put the fan on the helm seat, pointed down at the cockpit table and plugged into the 12v outlet at the helm. The other fan (we have two) is put on the salon top above the cockpit table, pointed down at the table and plugged into the navigation station 12v outlet. Instant ceiling fan effect!

Another favorite is to put a fan on the nav station and direct it to the salon table. These fans can also be employed to help dry things like shoes and backpacks after a hike to/from the store and getting caught in the rain (like yesterday ;-( ).

  -Terry

Cool Sewing Project: Keeping the Salon Cool

We've looked at some of the expensive Ocean Air shades, but with LUX being in charter service, we wonder how long they will last. So we came up with a simple, inexpensive solution to helping keep the salon cool when the sun is shinning in the forward window. One of the requirements was that we be able to allow viewing through either the upper or lower parts of the windows.

Georgiana acquired several of the fold-up sun shades for cars. Carol created a design for using them. Georgiana sewed two of the shades together and added several additional pieces of elastic to the corners. Carol and Peggy mounted 3M Command Strips so that all four corners and the two sides are supported. This allows us to use an entire shade or to fold it in half to shade on either the upper or lower part of the window.

They make a big difference in reducing the heat gain from the sun. We've not added shades to the side windows, which have an external white mesh that blocks some of the sun. We could make shades for the sides, but haven't found it necessary so far.

  -Terry

Multi-Purpose Cockpit Cushions

LUX was equipped with a set of seven blue folding seat cushions. We've wondered about the cushions found on other Leopard 40s until we spent some time with Ed and Mary Beth on Esprit de Mar. They noted that the big cushions are difficult to store and make it challenging to open the cockpit seat lockers.

Of course, there is the normal use of the cushions in the cockpit. They unfold as shown to cushion our derriere and back. They are also useful to take forward for sitting on the grand staircase or on the trampoline.

Stacked, they make a great additional seat, provided that they are not being used elsewhere. We often use them in front of the fridge/freezer. Adding or removing a cushion adjusts the height. They are typically stored in a stack in front of the freezer, which makes the use as a fridge spelunking station rather convenient.

Finally, they fit a variety of locations where a work cushion for knees, hips, ribs, and backs. Here is the setup that we use to work on the electrical systems that are located under the galley sink. One cushion for the hips, a stack of two cushions for the external threshold, and one cushion inside for shoulders. No more bruised ribs and hips from working on the electrical system. A single cushion works well for the knees, though we avoid using it in really messy jobs.

The cover is a vinyl mesh, zippered on a foam square.

We've not seen similar cushions in our travels. If you know where to find them, please leave a comment.

  -Terry

The wonders of a shower curtain or two on a boat

Quite often, boaters look for something to block the sun while you're in the cockpit enjoying breakfast... Or that evening cocktail. We've seen towels, sheets, canvas, and old sails. We have our own solution. Sower curtains! No, not those plastic ones. The nice polyester/microfiber cloth ones are just great. They are lightweight, and they are mold and mildew resistant. Here you can see them shading the cockpit for breakfast this morning.

As you can see, the grommets at the top come in handy! We use Velcro ties to attach our shower curtains when we have lines or other grommets. At other times, clothes pins work well. 

You might have also noticed that our shower curtain has grommets on the bottom as well. That was due to our industrious Carol! She realized that it would be convenient to have tie downs on both sides, so she just took care of that pesky detail.

Now, our shower curtains can be seen all about the boat. Sometimes they are draped across the front windows in the salon. Sometimes they are hanging on the back. But, no matter where you see them, they are doing a great job.

Enjoying the Inverter

We've really enjoyed the convenience of the big inverter on board. We've not had to worry about charging our various devices and the battery charger function has worked flawlessly. I think that it has actually helped improve the batteries (AGMs).

Tonight, just after anchoring, Gee broke out the blender, which consumes about 400 watts. Being able to fix frozen drinks after a long, hot day on the water is quite refreshing.

  -Terry

Anchor Bridle Rattle

Have you ever anchored in a nice little inlet only to be awakened in the middle of the night by the anchor bridle rattling? The current running past the bridle causes it to vibrate at a 2-3 hertz frequency. The thimbles and shackles on the bow rattle in their fittings as a result. I don't know about you, but I find that incredibly annoying. I'm very sensitive to noise on board and I like to minimize it as much as possible, so that anything out of the ordinary will alert me to something that's amiss.

Tonight, we're anchored in Lincoln Creek, near St. Catherine's Sound in Georgia and there's a 3 Kn current running. I could tell that the noise was going to keep me from sleeping soundly. So I set out to find a way to stop it. My task was complicated by the wind vs current. The wind was blowing towards the mouth of the creek while the current was incoming. LUX was facing the current, but the bridle was facing aft because the wind blew us back towards the mouth of the creek.

Tying a line to the bridle back and belaying it to the bow strut isn't a good solution because the angles will change when the current and wind changes the angle of the bridle with respect to the bow strut. I found that if I tied a piece of line between the two bridle legs, it performed two things. First, it changed the resonant frequency slightly, reducing the tendency to vibrate. Second, it stopped the shackles from rocking and the noise stopped. Here's a photo of the resulting arrangement. Now I can sleep and yet be awakened by any errant noise. The ends of the line are brought aboard so that if the knots loosen, we won't lose the line. I used clove hitches for this experiment. We'll see if they hold all night long. A rolling hitch would also be useful if the clove hitches don't work.

 -Terry

The Quest for Cool

LUX didn't have Airconditioning when we bought her. It is seldom needed in the BVIs with the trade winds there. But now that we're in Annapolis with the hazy, hot, and humid Chesapeake weather, A/C is now a requirement. Looking at Leopard 40s of various vintages, we found that the early models and the plans showed two 12,000 BTU units. Later models have two 16,000 BTU units. We wonder if experience showed that 16,000 BTU was more appropriate.

The layout drawings in the owners manual show the two units located under the main salon settee, port and starboard. Fortunately, we had pictures from other Leopards and were able to learn a few key tips about the installation. We considered having someone else do the installation, but the cost of nearly $13,000 plus haul-out put us off.

Several weeks later, we have two EnviroComfort 16,000 BTU units installed and a set of nice looking supply vents and return vents. We did the installation ourselves instead of having an installer hack on Lux, putting things where it was easy to install instead of where it made the most sense. The parts were ECD16K-HV 410A w/passport I/O Display, 16000 BTU, 115v Dometic/Marine Air, 6"MR, 15' display cable and March AC-3CP-MD 115V Sea Water Pump 630 GPH.

Unit Installed

We had several installation requirements. We wanted to limit the number of holes that had to be drilled or cut. We didn't want the salon vents to use precious shelf space. We also wanted to consider the option to have one A/C unit provide cooling to all four cabins (LUX is the 4-cabin, 2-head model). We also wanted to use the electrical system design, which looked very good. So we decided that we would do the installation ourselves and we are happy with the results.

The two units went under the main salon settee, just as in the original R&C plans. A 3/4-inch plywood base was put under the units to raise them slightly and to bridge the gap in the bases that already existed.

Cooling Water Plumbing

One of our goals was to limit the number of through-hull holes, we connected the cooling water supply to a Tee off the 3/4-inch raw water supply for the marine toilet, using a one-way valve on the head supply feed to keep from sucking water out of the head. Our reasoning is that the head use is infrequent and it doesn't use much water. On the starboard side, we created a 4-way manifold which we can use to supply water to an anchor wash-down pump as well. The cooling water exhaust goes to a Tee on the galley sink drain and the condensation drain goes to a Tee on the drain for the cooler that's outboard of the sink.

The cooling water exhaust is also ganged together into a 1-inch hose that goes to a Tee with the galley sink drain. That causes a bit of running water noise if the sink drain plugs are not in place, which may annoy some people. The condensation drains are ganged together on a 1/2-inch hose that goes to the cooler drain that is adjacent to the galley sink. One suggestion that we found is to not combine the cooling water drain with the condensation drain so that if the cooling water drain gets clogged, it doesn't pump water back up the condensation drain hose. Both hoses were wire tied to bases that we glued down with 5200. The condensation hose is particularly important to have a smooth run to make sure it drains easily.

Ducting

Cabin Supply Vent

The ducting was the biggest challenge, particularly to the forward cabins. We found that Marine Systems Inc makes a nice set of vents that can be custom ordered. A variety of distributers handle their products at a wide range of prices. We ordered ours from Marine Discounters. Lux was built when the trim was beech, so we ordered soft maple, which is a reasonably close match to the beech wood.

Salon Supply Vent

The vents arrive unfinished so we used Minwax Polyurethane gloss finish and it did an excellent job. Finishing inside the vent requires a steady hand and a small artist brush. The vents in the aft cabins are close to the bunk because they have to avoid the wiring, tubing, and hoses that are behind the panel.

All vents except the return air vents have built-in dampers, which helps with directing the air where we want it. The additional directional blades in the front of the vents allow us to direct the air within each cabin.

We had to build custom venting to the forward cabins. Tech foil (available from Farm Tech and other suppliers - bubble wrap with aluminum foil backing) was used with 3M 77 spray adhesive to build insulated ducting between the forward cabin wall and the built-in shelving that's inboard, behind the cabin door. The Tech Foil will also keep the shelving from collecting condensation from the cool air on its back.

Plenum Box with Salon (to the left) and Starboard Cabin Feed

A 7-inch plenum box tops the A/C unit, with 6-inch hose adapters to feed to each side. The outboard feed goes to a 655 Y. The two 5-inch legs of the Y feed each cabin. The aft cabin gets fed by a long piece of 5-inch insulated hose purchased from Home Depot (only available via order - we couldn't find it in stores). We wished that we could find 5-inch plastic hose with 1/2-inch insulation like the foam pipe insulation that we found in Home Depot.

Hose End with Foil Cover Taped Inside

Passport Control and Return Vent, Stbd Hull

The second 6-inch feed off the plenum box feeds a short 6-inch duct that uses the space behind the R&C logo box as its plenum. We used the Tech Foil again to line the box. We made sure to not foul the electrical connections to the masthead. With both units running, anyone sitting in front of the salon vent gets a lot of air on the back of his/her head. The dampers and vents can be directed to minimize the wind tunnel effect.

A tip for running the 5-inch duct: Fold the external foil cover over the duct hose and tape it. This holds the hose, insulation, and cover all together and makes it much easier to handle. Also watch out for the random hose clamp or wire tie end that will rip the foil cover when you're pulling the duct into place.

The end result was a nice looking system.

New Shower Heads

When we acquired LUX, she had the stock shower heads. After a week cruise, we determined that replacement shower heads were an essential upgrade. The original Grohe shower heads used a lot of water and were showing their age and evidence of their hard life in the tropics. Mike and Gee had found a really nice shower head for use at home - Oxygenics. It uses little water and yet you feel like you're showering with a larger water flow. The Oxygenics incorporates a shut-off valve in its base, but due to where it is located, it generally requires two hands to operate - one hand to hold the shower head and the other to twist the knob at the base. We bought the white model, which is also a bit less expensive than the chrome model. It matches the Leopard 40 shower quite nicely.

We prefer single-hand operation, so we also installed a separate 1/4-turn valve at the mixer output on the shower wall (it is the little knob between the shower hose connects to the mixer output). It is easy to find and adjust even when our eyes are shut while shampooing.





The parts even go together without tools.

Here are links to what we bought:
Oxygenics Shower White


Shower Shutoff Chrome

  -Terry

Electrifying!

LUX has been equipped with a couple of small DC to AC inverters to allow for charging of small devices. We could run the blender off one of the inverters, allowing us to make frozen drinks. However, we couldn't use anything as powerful as a microwave.

Design Sketch

In preparation for our trip to Marsh Harbor, I wanted to install a more powerful inverter that could handle all the AC outlets and that could run a microwave oven. LUX also had the original Dometic Sentry battery charger which was not a multi-stage charger. I had adjusted the set points on the Sentry to keep from overcharging the batteries, but the result was that the batteries were never fully charged. After doing research on various systems, I decided on the Vectron Multi 3K, which would fit in the space where the Sentry had been located, provide us with 3000 watts of inverter power, a four-stage battery charger, and could also augment the AC output for starting surge loads, such as one of our 16,000 BTU A/C units. It has two AC outputs, one of which is only active if the AC input is active. So I designed the installation to run the outlets all the time from AC Out 1 and run the A/C system from AC Out 2 (the switched output). The design is shown in the first picture. The top drawing is the conceptual design, showing the addition of a 5KW generator in the future and how the system will be connected. The lower drawing shows the details of connections for the current installation. I worked with Peter Kennedy at PKYS to purchase the unit, the supplies I needed, and to review the design.

The installation took about 24 hours over 3 days. The AC cables need to handle 50 A, so that means working with 6 gauge cables (ugh)! The battery connections are specified to be two 1/0 cables for both positive and negative.

Victron to Stbd Under Galley Sink

I had also previously purchased the Victron BMV600 battery monitor and wanted to install the shunt at the same time. Getting the AC cables led to the terminal blocks was a chore. I removed the screws that held the bottom plate in place to provide more working room to bend the wires. Upon the advice of others who have installed the Victron, I installed the wires before mounting the unit. I couldn't have installed them otherwise. Victron should take a look at making it easier to run the wires into the system.
The DC wires are easy to install. Peter helped make up a few 2/0 cables that are needed for the case ground and for the connections to the battery monitor shunt. I have a Greenlee crimper that handles up to 1/0 cable (I should have bought the larger crimper that could do 2/0). The resulting Victron installation is shown here, with all the cables connected. It is located to port under the galley sink.

DC Cabling to Port Under Galley Sink

The DC wiring is to starboard under the galley sink, so the battery cables are short. I used a short 2/0 cable to jumper from the battery negative fuse to the BMV-600 shunt, then bolt the negative cable bus bar to the other side of the shunt, shown below. The inverter battery connections were made to a terminal post that I added, which is connected to the battery switch load terminal. The positive cables were upgraded to 2/0. The BMV-600 shunt is polarized, so it has to be installed such that the load side is down. The connection to the display head faces aft, making it easy to access. I did have to modify the fiberglass cover to fit over the modified cables, but the modification didn't affect the safety. I also added wire ties after the photo to secure the cables.

The AC panel is behind the port, aft cabin access panel. There wasn't enough room on the existing panel to install the required terminal blocks, so I mounted the plywood that I cut out for the A/C return air duct to the back of the panel. The 6 Ga wires come in on the left and the connections to the panel are on the right. A piece of lexan was cut and now covers the terminal strip to prevent accidentally touching a live wire connection.

AC Wiring Section of Wiring Panel

There is a nice conduit that runs from behind the electrical panel to under the battery connections. It was easy to run the wires using a snake. I also removed the old house bank charging wire and will be removing the starting battery charging cables. A pair of Blue Sea Systems Automatic Charging Relays connect the house bank to the starting batteries when the house bank is being charged and the voltage reaches the relay trigger voltage.






The system is running well, giving us a good battery charge. The BMV-600 shows the state of battery charge and the amount of current going into the battery bank. The microwave and outlets are usable. They are still protected by the existing GFCI outlets in the main salon, which was one of the key requirements.
  -Terry

Debugging the Cabin

When we were planning our trip from Tortola to the Chesapeake, we knew that we would be going through the territory of biting bugs. Carol and Gee purchased two of the MagicMesh bug screens. Carol and Mike installed extra snap bases around the salon door where the slightly modified screens were attached.

Carol joined the two screens together to span the salon doorway, positioning the magnetic clips in the center of the walkway. The screen had to be hemmed along the bottom so that we didn't step on it.

The result is a very nice bug screen that really works really well and packs away in a small bag when we don't need to use it.

 

To debug the cockpit, Gee also found a pair of the patio umbrella screens, which we tie on top of the bimini. One end of each screen is wrapped around the traveler lines forward of the bimini and the other end is wrapped around the main sheet block. We use clothes pins to clip the two halves together. It works very well for those near-windless days and evenings when the bugs like to feast on us.  When the wind pipes up, it doesn't stay in place very well, but the bugs tend to not be a bother on those days and the cabin isn't as hot either.

Update 4/24/2021: We've found that the MagicMesh screens have rather large holes that allow No-Seeums to go through. We watched one of these nasty bugs land on the screen, crawl through the mesh, and fly away on the inside. It's time to upgrade the mesh to No-Seeum screening. 

Since writing the original version of this article, we've completed a cockpit enclosure, which makes early spring and late fall sailing more comfortable. We have found that the solid side panels on the port side keep the cockpit table seating dry when it rains during the summar.

The umbrella screens described above have been retired in favor of screened panels. Of course, the screens of our cockpit enclosure are made of normal mesh instead of No-Seeum mesh. And there are the small gaps at the junctions of the panels and under the doorway.