Tiller Head, Liferaft and Guardrails

A Transocean Liferaft Installed on Deck.

Here is a quick mash-up text of three « small » installations on Jean-du-Sud. The installs were fairly straightforward, except perhaps some specific dimensions that are described below.

Tiller Head Install

Jean-du-Sud’s former tiller has a shaft of 7/8″, while the new one has a shaft of 1″. This means that a new tiller head was needed.

The most difficult par (for a French Canadian) was to figure out its English name, so as to be able to search for a piece supplier. The members of the Alberg 30 facebook page gave me the name, as well as a reference on the Alberg 30 Association website. The page provides the manufacturer name, Edson.

From then, it was just a matter of installing the head. It took three days to have it delivered to Canada. The installation took five minutes and it fits like a glove. The downside is the price (745 CAD / 560 USD).

Guardrails

The solar panel install forced me to remove the old guardrails. They were clamped and could not be shortened without buying a new tool. Buying new DIY guardrails was cheaper than buying the tool. I thus purchased Tecni products (video below), a product I find to be very well designed. The install is as easy as the video shows.

Liferaft Installation

I installed a 4 person Transocean liferaft below the boom. As it is the case for many jobs, prepping took more time than the install. The install required changing the angle of the forward feet of the cradle, so that it fits the deck (see picture above). I had a machine shop change the angle and furthermore increase the length of the forward feet by three inches. Installing the cradle was then fairly simple.