Radiant - #24

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OWNER DATA
Owner Name:  Fin Beven
Owner E-mail:  finbeven@MSN.com
P.O. Box 7029
Pasadena, CA  91109-7029
Work:  (626) 243-4145
Home: (323) 344-8720
Cell:  626-616-7124.
Year bought:  1980   
 
BOAT DATA
Boat Name:  Radiant
Sail #7124
Year 1965
Hull Number 24
Location:  San Pedro, CA
Previous Name(s):  Holiday Too
Previous Owners:  Bob Allen, Ken Croan

RACE HISTORY: Original owner was Bob Allen.  His sons, Skip & Scott Allen won Transpac in ’67; They won several class championships, as did Ken Croan.  We’ve won the SoCal class championships four times. The boat won the Congressional Cup when sailed by Scott Allen in ’67, Skip Allen in ’68, Dick Deaver in ’76, and Ted Turner in ’77. We raced to Ensenada in 2004 and finished 2nd in class.  We sailed TransPac in 2005, and finished a disappointing 8th out of the 14 Cal-40s that started. 

PHRF rating: 114 base, 111 in our local LA Harbor area. 

US Sailing ORC: According to our ORC certificate we weigh 15,435 loaded with all of the safety gear needed for TransPac (including a watermaker and spare hand-pumped watermaker, life-raft, SSB radio, spares for a 2000 mile trip, etc.), with no sails on board. I think that we’d be close to 15,200# for local racing. 

CRUISING HISTORY: Mostly local sailing between Santa Barbara and San Diego.

OTHER INTERESTING DATA:  In 1983 the boat was stripped of all exterior hardware, teak trim, portholes, mast & rig and trucked to Dennis Choat’s (Dencho) shipyard in Long Beach.  Factory non-skid was ground off, boot-stripe was re-drawn as straight-and-level, topsides were faired and painted with LP, and new non-skid was applied in the “stock” pattern.  (we have re-LP’d twice since then)

RIGGING: 

Mast: Replaced as stock following dismasting in 1969.  Replaced again in 2000, with more current section, luff-grove, internal tangs, internal spreader-root, and three-halyard masthead.

Mast Tune: Currently plumb, as far forward as possible at the partners.All halyards are internal (an easy modification which I did the first year we had the boat).  At the advice of Alan Blunt, owner of SeaTeck that built the 2000 mast, shrouds are set up so that when sailing to windward in a stiff breeze the leeward shrouds are still snug.  This prevents the leeward spreader from “working” back-and-forth as the boat pounds into waves.  This “working” can weaken the spreader-to-mast connection.

Spreaders: Aluminum. (I was nearly dismasted on a San Francisco Cal 40 in
1969 when the leeward wooden spreader broke neatly along the bolt-line that holds it to the spreader bracket).

Standing Rigging: All rod (I was replacing anyway, it’s easy to clean, and shines like crazy.  Very “Radiant”.  As with many of our local racers, the forward lowers have been removed.  I removed the tangs as well (obvious toe-stubbers, and unattractive). 

Halyards are all either Vectran or Spectra.  We have two sets, one for cruising that have polyester covers and are left up most of the year, and another set just for racing.  The “good stuff” (even the main-sheet) is always put away after races, so it should last a long time).

Mast Winches: Nearly standard, mast mounted.  Spinlock flat-mounted jammers for spinnaker halyard and topping lift. 

Boom: We replaced the old roller-reefing boom with a new one by Sparcraft in 1985.  We had “ears” welded on the mast to accept the boom and vang attachments.  Main-sheet runs internal, as does the outhaul, reef, and flattening reef.

Spinnaker Pole:  Carbon, 3.5” from Forespar.  The foredeck is happy..

Main Sheet:  Stock 4:1 to a self-tailing Lewmar 40 mounted on the cabin-top, out-board of the main hatch slide.  Traveler is a continuous line to an Antall “box” (a continuous line winch) that is mounted on the aft side of the cabin, just out-board and to port of the main hatch-way.  It is operated by a standard winch-handle.  Lots of leverage, easy to shift in the tacks, but you can’t “pump the main” with it.  We have the solid Hall-Spars vang to provide constant leach tension.The roller-bearing traveler is mounted on the forward edge of the stern seat.  This permits a full cushion across the back, and the main-sheet doesn’t interfere with using (sunning) on that seat when we’re reaching home from a weekend at Catalina.

Running Backs:  We have T-ball fittings in the mast, on the aft side of where the topping lift comes in.  When close reaching, the topping lift would be used as a genoa staysail halyard.  We have not used runners yet, but would if we did some distance racing,  and if they were not penalized.

Backstay:  PBO (it was cheaper than the insulators we would have needed for out SSB) with Navtech Hydraulic...Works fine.  We seem to be faster with less pressure.  1200# at 10 kts TWS,

Roller Furling:  No. 

Chain Plates Stock, (forward-lower tangs removed as indicated above)

STRUCTURAL- DECK HULL COMPONENTS

Beam (Steel) Looks OK, except for some rust on the tab in the head from head over-spray.  I coated the tab with rubberized caulking.

Rudder:  We have installed the new Carl Schumacher rudder, and are quite happy with it. 

Hatches: Stock , but all have been re-built a time or two.

Dorade Box: We have solar powered Nico-Marine mushrooms near the mast and in the stern hatch cover

Decking: Minor spider webbing filled and refinished, replaced nonskid surface.

Deck Hull Joint: Teak was removed, joint was pried apart where practical, and seam re-caulked with something similar to 5200. 

Bulkheads:OK
 
Bulkhead tabbing: OK

Decking Plywood: OK

Hull & keel: After years of basically ignoring the 100 or so blisters that we had, and with the possibility that the hull had never been stripped, we went down to bare glass and fixed the blisters in 1997. 

Topsides:  Awlgrip

Toe Rail: Stock Teak, but I couldn’t stop the fastener-bleeding problem, so I replaced it a few ago.

Tiller:  Replaced with laminated teak, as the old one was de-laminating at back end. 

Tiller Bracket (the casting that holds it to the rudder-head)  Significant cracks just forward of the bolt that holds it to the rudder head.  I had a new SS bracket welded.

Life Lines: Double life-lines, gate with fore-and-aft support struts at center of boat, each side.  Easiest location for boarding, rafting, and it keeps the wet swimmers out of the cockpit.They are non-covered stainless steel to meet OCR regs, but I may switch to spectra for local sailing as it is lighter and there is no possibility of failure at a swage-fitting.  Steve Dashew highly recommends spectra for lifelines

Swim Ladder:  I had a custom ladder built.  Stainless tubes with teak treads.
It does not fold, so the bottom steps don’t rock up.  And, the bottom two steps are just the stainless tubes (no teak treads), so waves and current can roll through without causing the ladder to slam against the hull.  It stores easily in the “junk bunk” (stbd. side torpedo berth).

Port lights:  replaced with Go-Marine

Portholes :  replaced with Lewmar

Headliner None, Penetrating bolts screws have “Barrel-nuts” (basically, a threaded barrel with a screw-head) flush to headliner to help protect scalps and look good.  It’s been faired and painted with LP, as has the rest of the interior painted surfaces.

Through Hulls: Mostly Marlon (Forespar “plastic”)
 
COMPARTMENTS / STATIONS

Stair/Engine Box:  Small mahogany box, formica top, Stainless steel ladder with teak treads.

Ice Box: Stock box, Norcold 12V. refrigeration, liquid-foam insulation on all sides and under.  Closed-cell foam on lid and under counter.

Head:  Wilcox-Crittenden Skipper.  Robust, but uses a lot of water.  Pumps into a custom-fitted 20 gal. stainless holding tank in lower portion of the hanging locker.

Drawers: Stock

V Berth: Major rebuild.  The original owners had removed the port-side cabinet before the ’67 Transpac.  I cut out most of the shelf on each side, leaving a 2” wide flange.  I then built non-storage partitions on each side, wider aft, to re-shape the bed space into more of a rectangle.  I raised the level of the berth approx. 4’.Because the boat gets wider as it goes up, this increased the width of the berth at the forward end (and it increased the storage under the bunk).  I extended the length of the bunk approx. 6” down the center.  This still left room to stand in the forward cabin area, and the raised height of the berth makes entry and exit through the hatch somewhat easier.  This arrangement left space for a small seats port and starboard with storage under.  With the 4” foam mattress it’s a comfortable bed.  We sleep with our heads forward where the bulkhead separating it from the anchor locker works like a head-board, and each side has a halogen reading light.

Galley: Stock ,  Force 10 stove, pressure cold water with filter

Stern Lazarette: Essentially stock with wooden hangers installed  for rope
storage.  In the area that is under the aft seat of the cockpit I have installed a “well” to hold two 1.2 gal. alum. propane tanks.  Access to this “well” is through a round, gasketed port cut in the seat.

Hanging Locker: As mentioned above, s/s holding tank just below the lip of the locker door.  Above that are two shelves, one at about the level of the lip, and on half-way between there and the deck.  I’m something of a nut about things being put away, so when we have guests aboard, the can keep their sea-bags and other gear on these shelves.  The holding tank mascerator pump is located at the rear of the upper shelf.  All “head effluent” is pumped into the holding tank, which can then be pumped overboard if we are “offshore”, or pumped out at the deck fitting.

Nav Station: Stock configuration on ice-box surface.  In forward ½ of outboard storage we have 2 shelves for glasses and coffee mugs.  Slots have been cut in the aft ½ to hold the most-often-used liquor bottles.  Sliding plexiglass hides it all.
The aft wall has the Xantrex Link-2000 battery monitor, the Garmin GPS plotter, stereo, and AC/DC breaker panels.  VHF is a “black box”, with only a microphone at the nav station at in the starboard winch-island. 

Torpedo Berths:  Starboard:  most of the excess woodwork for the old engine housing has been removed, leaving a very clean, clear area aft.On the starboard side, mounted to the inside of the bin-divider are the battery charger, the refrig. compressor, and the inverter. Ipod adaptor and VHF “black box: are mounted under the deck.  We never sleep in this bunk (which we refer to as the “junk-bunk”).  It has no cushion, but is covered with indoor-outdoor carpet.  Port:  The bin-divider has been removed and the outboard portion filled in to create a near-double bunk. The area between the bunks is open (fuel tank in the bilge), and can be used for some storage. 
 
Slide-Out berths:  For TransPac, I rigged our lower starboard-side berth so that in its out position I could “pin” the outboard corners, allowing me to hinge the berth upward.  Much more comfortable when well-heeled on starboard tack.

Pilot Berth:  Stock
 
INSTRUMENTATION :  NEXUS.  We have three “jumbos” mounted on the aft side of the mast, just below the goose-neck.  Their wires lead into the mast and down to a junction box in the head, then aft to the “brain-box”.  The GPS is integrated into this so that I can get all speed/wind/nav information from these on-deck presentations.  The numbers are big enough to be easily readable from the back of the boat, so anyone standing aft of the mast can see them.  And rarely is anyone standing or sitting in front of them.

STEREO:  Alpine CD/MP3/DVD player, with speakers in the cockpit foot-well and in the main bulkhead near the mast.  Ipod 4gb holds 700 of my favorite songs. 

RADAR:  Furnuo, mounted just above the spinnaker track.  I’ve been caught in the fog, or wanted to go when fog was likely just enough times to make this seem like a necessity.  That and the significant quantity of ship and  barge traffic in our area.
 
AUXILLARY POWER
Engine: Universal 35B Diesel  (35 HP)
Engine Controls: Spinlock, which operates with a removable winch-handle
Transmission/V-Drive :  part of the engine (i.e., no separate v-drive)
Propeller :  Max-Prop, feathering.

TANKAGE

Fuel Tank: Fuel Tank, Aluminum, 35 gallon in bilge.  It is filled through a long, 1” hose from starboard deck just aft of the cabin, and then leads down just behind the engine, under the engine and down into the bilge to the tank.  The aft edge of the tank is about 1’ forward of the aft edge of the lead.  The fuel tank has a 1” dip-stick access port.  It’s cap is just barely above the hole cut for it in the cabin-sole and the carpet.  To verify fuel level we just remove the cap and “stick” the tank with a ¼” dowel. 

Water Tank: 16 gallon s/s tanks under each slide-out bunk.  These are pressure-fed from a female hose fitting in the cockpit and vented back to the same area.  When both vents start to “spit”, the tanks are full.  These tanks feed the galley elect. pump.  20 gallon bladder in head cabinet which feeds the electrical pump for the head faucet and the deck-shower (a 3” x 14’ ABS tube, fresh pressure water into the aft end, a 6’ hose and shut-off sprinkler-head at the forward end).  This set-up produces plenty of warm, fresh water for a quick rinse-off after the day’s swimming.

Holding Tank:20 gal s/s tank with float-monitor in bottom of hanging locker.  There is just enough room to run a 1 ½” hose under the “bridge” that supports the mast.  And while I’m in the area, we used to get trapped water under the mast, in that “well” you can reach from under the head.  While the bilge-fuel tank was out, all I had to do was drill a few holes in the block of wood they put in there during construction.  Now it drains just fine.

ELECTRICAL

Charging:Engine Driven:  90 amp alternator controlled by a Xantrex Link-2000 regulator/battery monitor.  Shore charging:  Xantrex TrueCharge 20.

BATTERIES:  We have a 4D AGM battery “on end” down in the bilge aft of the ballast lead for the “house” bank, and a Group 27 AGM sitting on the back edge of the ballast lead for engine starting.  They are combined automatically by a Blue Sea Automatic Charge Relay which links the batteries whenever it senses a charging current from either the alternator or the battery charger, and de-combines them when the voltage drops below 13.8vdc.  The batteries can also be made “on”, “off”, or “combined” by a Blue Sea manual combiner switch. 

Electrical System:  New concept:  “Power hubs”.  One drawback to DC power is loss of voltage over long runs.  Common wiring involves lots of small wires being distributed from a single breaker panel, and often running long distances.  Common wiring involves lots of breakers, whereas my new set-up will only use breakers for devices that cannot be individually shut off (such as my instruments and running lights).  Devices such as cabin lights, GPS, VHF, Stereo, etc. will be protected just by simple blade fuses.In my new system, there are 4 “Power hubs”, each connected to the house battery by a pair (+ and -) of Ancor 6 ga wire.  Each “hub” is an ST Blade Fuse Block made by Blue Sea.  For example, the starboard side run starts at the battery shut-off switch, and runs to an 8-position fuse block in the Nav Station area.  From there the pair of 6ga wires (+ and -)  continues to 6-position fuse bloc in the hanging locker.On the port side, the first hub is at the galley, and from there it continues on to another hub in the head. 

Interior Lighting: Incandescent “dome” style s/s fixtures, one on the overhead just aft of the mast (I ran its power source up through the mast and out), one under the cockpit bridgedeck, two on each side in the galley, and one on each aft wall of the forward cabin for general illumination.  Each bunk has an elegant ABI (1806CH-D) chrome reading lamp (20 watt halogen with dimmer).We have LED replacements for the lights for off-shore racing. 

AC Electrical System: Shore power circuited through an Automatic Transfer Switch in the Xantrex Pro 1000 inverter to AC panel with double-pole master breaker, polarity indicator, and 4 sub-breakers.  It then powers the AC/DV refrigeration, the 115V outlets, the battery charger. 

Bonding: the engine and electrical panels are bonded to the one bronze through-hull for the lower port cockpit drain.  We have significant quantities of copper foil epoxied to the inside of the bilge, against the hull under the cockpit, and running back to the stern for the SSB tuner.  We generally do not keep the SSB on board, but it can be easily re-installed for offshore racing. 

RACE/CRUISE  EQUIPMENT

Sails:  All by North.  3DL Main. 3DL 155, .  .6 Poly primary chute.  .5, .75, and 1.5 Nylon back-ups.  As our local PHRF does not penalize Asymetrics, I’ve recently ordered a 1.5 Asymetric from North.  Kevlar-Mylar #2 (140%).Our current favorite is the 7 oz Dacron, full-hoist “blade”, which is sheeted to the middle of the deck, just aft of the mast.  I this seems to be the perfect sail for 14 kts+ TWS 18-20 AWS.However, you can only sheet such a sail if you remove the forward lowers.  We have a full set of cruising sails, so we wash and fold the “good stuff” after racing (we even fold the spinnakers) so they last a long time. 

Winches: Self-tailing Andersen 52’s as primaries (for genoa and afterguys), moved to the forward end of the winch island (they are aft in some boats which made sense in 1967 when the boats sailed with 180% genoas under the old CCA rule).  Self-tailing Andersen 40’s for the spinnaker sheets, self-tailing Lewmar 40 for the main, lead to the port-side cabin top.  Split fore-guy:  runs from a single block at the end of the pole, then down to twin blocks in the middle of the foredeck, then out-board of each stanchion back to a small Harken turning block on the deck just inside of the rail, and opposite the middle of the winch-island on each side.  It then enters the winch island and secures to a jammer mounted to the inside top, just inside the teak lip.  Stainless (s/s) rub-bar on the teak to protect it.  With this, the person who is adjusting the afterguy can also adjust the foreguy, or it can as easily be adjusted from the other side.  And because most of the foreguy path is out by the rail in the “gutter”, there is rarely a “butt-cleat” problem.  Generally, all deck blocks and jammers are from Harken.

Sail Track Movement:  by “screw-pin”.  We use three short (18”) sections of track on each side:  one just aft of the shrouds in the middle of the deck for the #3, one on the rail for the #1, and another about 1’ inboard for the #1. 

Heating: none

Refrigeration:  Norcold, mounted in the forward-outboard corner of the box.
Works great.  Generally, we just take ice-cubes for cocktails when we cruise for 3-4 days.
 
Computers & Software:  Sony Vaio lap-top, Expedition routing software, US Sailing polars, Gribs received via Iridium sat-phone. 

Fire Protection:  Halatron (B-C)Fire extinguishers mounted over the forward end of each pilot berth, one (A-B-C) in the hanging locker, and one more (A-B-C)  in the lazarette. 

Safety Gear:  Full ORC Category 1 compliance. Liferaft and MOM will be repacked in March, 2007   

Survey Status:  passed “with flying colors”, 2006

Cal 40 Strategies: In windward-leeward races, a few more bodies on the rail are fast (in L.A., at least, where we have a fairly consistent 15 kt. afternoon westerly).  The basics:  get the weight out of the ends, reduce weight where possible, gear break-downs are the skipper’s fault, smooth bottom, good sails (with good spreader patches and spreader boots), consistent crew and practice with them, conservative tactics.Concentrate on target boat-speeds. 

Off-shore, I’m a firm believer in a good spinnaker net and Stan Honey’s “out-grabbers”.

Race Weather:  pre-race, try BuoyWeather, Sailflow, and Ocens .Weather is also available in GRIBs from SailDocs (part of Stan Honey’s SailMail program).  Coamps also available.

Owner Plans with Boat: As always:  fast & beautiful … Radiant.