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You beat me to it Rocky. I was the original poster on the Sundowner Forum and nearly wet my pants when I finally found these little babies. ONE NOTE: make sure that you save the little metal discs from the bottom of the old washers as they are not supplied with the new ones. From yet another...

Webasto Have two seasons of flawless operation on my 16K unit. You might consider the Mermaid "Condensator" to drain the pan. The original A/C install dumped condensate into the bilge; didn't want to go that route again. Make sure that your duct work and vents meet the Webasto specs. I had to...

RE: WiFi Antenna Recommendations Nearly all the Lake Michigan marinas berthing more than 20 boats have some sort of WiFi service available, most of which is uniformly poor. I picked up this Alfa unit from Amazon: Amazon.com: Alfa AWUS036H High power 1000mW 1W 802.11b/g High Gain USB Wireless...

It's a Chatterbox Falls model Sundowner Somewhere on another computer, I actually have a sales brochure on the Chatterbox Falls model. Basically it's the 30 footer with raised pilothouse and owners berth, but nothing behind the original version as sold by Sundowner. I'm betting that someone...

Yup, Still for Sale Yes the Lectra-San is still available. Good timing as I just came back from a road trip to see the grandkids. You can PM me and we don't have to clog up the board. RickH

This was another find while cleaning up my basement storage area. I removed it from our Sundowner when I switched over to gel batteries. It's basically a 30 Amp "dumb" charger (no electronics to control charge rate)in a stainless steel case with three charge outputs. It is designed for lead-acid...

While waiting for the snows to melt here (Chicago) I decided to clean out our basement storeroom and found this bad boy buried under a bunch of stuff. It's a Raritan Lectrasan LSTEC, 12 VDC version, and includes the electronic control panel and brine tank assembly. It was removed from our boat...

Rob, You may want to consider Citri-Strip stripper, pretty benign stuff that didn't hurt my gelcoat on the tug. I cleaned up the drips about 10-15 minutes after application and the gelcoat looks fine. The product is available here at Home Depot, and probably at other places as well. No...

Last weekend marked our marina's celebration of National Marina Day. They go all out with a lighted boat parade, fireworks, rides for the kids/grandkids, and food. One new thing this year was a "flyboarder", who demonstrated in the turning basin. Imagine telling this one to your insurance guy...

I'm currently in the middle of an A/C install myself and certainly agree with everything that Mike mentioned. A couple of other thoughts: I looked carefully and measured all the existing ductwork and return air. They all met the specs for the Webasto FCF that I'm installing, save for the return...

Captain Chuck nailed it. His linked article is the best of many such on the internet. Follow his instructions and you'll have a hard time screwing up. The author mentions Presta Products. I've used 3M and Meguiars in the past; Presta is head and shoulders above them. Yeah, you'll have a few sore...

From one Sundowner owner to another; congratulations!! She looks almost as nice as ours....:lol: RickH

Talk about timing, our fairly ancient Lunaire AC system crapped out during the midwest's hottest weather in years, and I'm looking to replace it. It's a self-contained unit that resides under the pilot house bench and there is plenty of room for a similar sized new one. Ductwork and return air...

So, I guess that the real question is this: Based on your background and experience in aerodynamics, how would YOU empirically test a modicication such as this one? Inquiring minds would like your input. RickH

I'm not one of those "I made it so it must be good" people. Our trawler (Sundowner Sea Tug) was a pig at slow speed, and only vague in it's response to helm inputs. I first read about the thistle on this forum and T&T and did some further research. You may find the boat owners quote in this...

The 45 degree diamond configuration suggested will probably give you some sort of improvement, but here is a true "thistle" cross-section plotted from the Gerr article mentioned earlier. It's basically a modified airfoil with the fishtail on the trailing edge. Gerr also strongly recommends the...

Suggest that you order down Dave Gerr's article on rudders from Professional Boatbuilding. Go here: Professional BoatBuilder - #102 PBB Aug/Sept 2006 and you can get a PDF via email for under six bucks. He gives all sorts of good info, including plotting the fishtail based on rudder size. RickH

Here's another take on the fishtail/thistle rudder: Thistel Sandwich-Hold the Mayo.... | SailAngle.com Low speed handling greatly improved and minimal cost (<$200) RickH

Like many others our "sliders" didn't slide very well either, despite having a stainless steel plate (approx 1/8" thick) on the bottom. My solution was to remove the doors, rout a channel in the bottoms, and install UHMWP (ultra-high molecular weight plastic) strips in the channels with...

Splitter is SOLD The AM-FM/VHF splitter is SOLD. Thanks to all for looking. RickH

Re-doing some electronics and now have a surplus Shakespeare AM/FM/VHF antenna splitter, model # 4357-S. Works fine and appears almost as new. Takes the output from your VHF antenna and splits it into a PL-259 plug (for VHF), and a industry-standard "motorola plug) for your AM/FM radio. About 60...

Had the same problem with our Westerbeke after the previous owner jury-rigged the stop solenoid and it burned out. If I recall correctly, there is a mechanical relationship between that linkage, the stop solenoid pull down, and RPM. My manual is on the boat (and I'm not tonight), but take a...

Mike, Very nice job!* I wanted the McLear thistle cross section to improve the low speed handling on our tug (30' Sundowner) and downloaded the Dave Gerr rudder article in Professional Boatbuilding.* It was an easier task for me as I simply built a poplar cored thistle shaped sandwich to go...

When I posted last night, I guess that my brain cells were not fully engaged.* I did a write up on the thistle rudder project for the Sundowner owners group.* If anyone is interested in the particulars, here is the link to that article: http://www.sailangle.com/group-forum/topic/id/1871 Rick...

I have a printout of the Dave Gerr article and while the discussion on various rudder types is very complete, there is no data on figuring out additional loads for articulated rudder.* After a lot of research, I went with the McLear "thistle" rudder for our tug.* Single screw, no bow thruster...