Today, I went over to Wickford Harbor, in Rhode Island. I went to see if I could help Wyatt out with some issues he’s having on his Dehler 33. He seems to be having some problems with the VHF radio, which is original to the boat from 1997. I brought my SWR meter, a multi-meter and headed over to Wickford.
When I got to Wickford, Wyatt’s better half, Mechele, met me at the dinghy dock and we got in the dinghy, where Wyatt was waiting, and headed over to where his boat was moored. Once aboard the boat, I took a look at the cabling, since Wyatt had already replaced one of the coax connectors at the base of the keel-stepped mast. The cable that runs between the mast base and the VHF unit is 11 years old, the cable that runs up the mast Wyatt replaced two years ago.
I put the SWR meter in line on the VHF unit’s connection to the antenna. The SWR meter couldn’t be properly zeroed for the connection, indicating a problem in the cabling. I wish I had brought my spare Metz VHF antenna and the 15′ coax cable I keep with it in case of a dismasting on my boat, but I had lent both to Ken and Dottie, on Sea Spirit. If I had had the cable and antenna with me, I could have checked the cable between the mast step and the VHF and the cable going up the mast separately, with known a known good antenna and connector cable respectively.
I’ve asked Wyatt to get three more of the clamp-on coax connectors and 20′ of RG 8X coax cable. Once he does, I’m going to walk him through using the SWR meter to check the cable running up the mast. If that and the antenna check out correctly, I’ll have him try re-terminating the cable between nav console and the mast step. If that doesn’t improve the situation, I’ll ask him to replace that cable with the new one.
I think the problem with his VHF is the cable between the mast and navigation console. The end that goes to the VHF is only soldered on one of the two wires… and I think it was supposed to be soldered to both. The ground/shield wire is only friction fit against the inner shell that goes over the coax cable.
We then spent most of the afternoon talking about boats, improvements and changes we’d make to the Pretty Gee and the Dehler. We also got to see some of the National Guard Air Show that was happening in over Quonset. The Red Arrows were flying as one of the prime attractions.
The Dehler 33 is a German-built cruiser/racer that is fairly well executed. It is a bit narrow, especially when compared to a pure coastal cruiser like a Catalina, but has an interior that is fairly well thought out. My favorite feature of the Dehler is the integrated drop board system that is a part of the companionway.
The dropboards aren’t separate boards that drop into a set of rails, like I have on the Pretty Gee. They are built into a system that retracts down to form a high companionway sill. To close off the companionway, you pull up on the companionway sill, and as it rises, it spreads out into a four-board drop board system. By using a barrel bolt on each side of the companionway the drop boards can be set in four different positions—all the way down, where it acts as a high sill; halfway up—two boards high; three boards high or all the way closed.
However, this type of system couldn’t be installed on the Telstar, as it requires a companionway that has parallel sides, rather than a tapered opening—like that found on the Telstar. The only weak point of the execution of the integrated dropboards is that the bolts that support the system in various positions makes the top of the outermost drop board vulnerable to stress cracking at the corners, where there is a serious downward force when people press down on the locked boards when not in the bottom-most position.
Another nice feature of the boat was the cockpit table, which is an idea I am going to try and adapt to the Pretty Gee. The cockpit table is supported on a post that is attached to a dovetailed slot on a metal plate attached to the side of the cockpit bench base. The post has a swing arm that the table actually sits on. This allows the table to be swung out of the way of the companionway, so one can still get below fairly easily, even with the table in place.
I’ll try and get photos of these two systems when I visit Wyatt and Mechele next time.