Aries Vane Gear cleaning service

 Over the years, well decades the Aries Vane Gear becomes stained with salt and grime from its many miles steering your yacht.

When an Aries Vane Gear comes in to me for new bearings I can offer a cleaning  service of the various metal parts.

Aries vane gear model three down tube bearings

 Made in the UK originally

in PTFE which is a really slippy plastic, I now make them here in South Africa with a Durban made product named Vesconite High Lube.

The Vesconite will outlast the PTFE and be very Slippy in service also.

Check the web site at www.vesconite.com 

Argie 15 sailing built by Jaap.

 

The Aries mark three vane gear

 What does the Aries mark three vane gear look like?

This picture shows the Mk3 version, there may be others with some slightly changed fittings, the hinge assembly on the water paddle being one, the air vane clamp may be another.

Genuine Aries vane gears ( there are copies) should have the words Aries Cowes I . O .W in the main frame assembly.

This Aries was cleaned and restored by myself, it was then packed into a shipping container and sent by courier to its new owner.

Aries Vane Gear stainless steel cross shaft bearings

 The early Aries Vane Gears were made to Imperial sizes, so the measurements were in inches.

The stainless steel cross shaft that supports the swing arm measures 1" ( one inch ) I have made a set of standard Vesconite  bushes to suit that, this will require the bronze or stainless steel gear machining out also.

Aries Vane Gear re made spare parts

Having the Aries Mk3 in for a service has allowed me to copy ( it is in inches ) exactly the required dimentions that need to be machined to.

An old bearing to the stainless steel down leg is on the left, a new pair of bearings are on the machine.

The Vesconite High Lube material in the lathe will next be cut to make a second set of bearings for another Aries Vane Gear.

Aries Vane Gear bushes in Vesconite High Lube plastic

 Aries Vane Gears will work better and for longer if the bushes ( bearings ) are made from Vesconite High Lube material.

The Aries Vane Gear mark three version I have in for service right now has had a set of bushes made, they are ready to fit soon.

I can accept orders from Worldwide, delivery is by Fedex and payment can be by Pay-Pal or a bank draft?

Aries Vane Gear spare parts

 

 It is thought that over 20,000 Aries Vane Gears of various types were produced?

Who has them and where are they, there were many models and types over the years!

Some we see here in Hout Bay near Cape Town and from time to time I am asked to service them for their owners.

In the past would ask a local engineer to machine bearings from Acetal, that person is no longer available to me, so  to be able to continue to service Aries gears I have bought a Maximat V10-P lathe.

With this lathe I can now machine in house and deliver faster.

A test part for another use was on a sample of Acetal.

I can also machine none Aries parts as well?

An Argie 15 kit build in New Zealand

We shipped an Argie 15 kit down to Ian in Picton, New Zealand.

Ian made a really fine job of  his build and uses the result for both power and sailing ventures.

Bill Petigrew took the image.

 

 The St Ayles Skiff in Hout Bay has created a new class for the HBYC, they now have a rowing section.

The new group has grown to the extent that another St Ayles Skiff is wanted, then they can race against each other !

The skiff is kept on the clubs marina and in sligs, so launching is really easy.

Its a fun thing, the rowing has introduced so many new members to the HBYC.

All part of the fun on the waters in Hout Bay!

Argie 15 kit build by Ian Allan

 This was a CKD plywood kit we shipped town to Ian in New Zealand.

He sure made a nice job of his build!

This was the first sail, note the nice rig, its a real simple one.

Ian and Paula having fun.

Ian, the builder looking really proud of his build effort!

How hard can it be?

Shipmate RS 5900 and RS 5910 user manual

 My Shipmate RS 5910 ran just fine from a Garmin 35/36 GPS, for some reason it no longer even lights up when powered from a 12volt power source.

I have the manual and can copy should anyone need one?

There are 67 pages in all.

Shipmate is a Simrad product.

Tysons of Dryden Street, Liverpool 5, an update

 

 

Two and a half years back, well a little more and I made contact with Penny who was Peter Tysons daughter, she told me lots of nice family stuff also that she had two Tysons mugs and some wooden coasters.

Penny sent me one of each to Cape Town via a friend who was flying out this way!

 

 Peter Tyson was one of the sons of Mr Tyson, he had a brother named Leslie.

Mr Leslie, his training was as a bricklayer.

I had virtually no contact with Leslie but there was some contact with Peter , the last was when I wrote to him from Salvador, Bahia, Brasil and explained that I had just sailed there on a 38ft wooden sail boat from Cape Town, South Africa and was about to leave, this time flying North.

Mr Peter is on the right, his wife is center, the contract was the River Thames flood barrier.

I was asking about employment? he replied, the end of his letter said " My advice to you is to keep on sailing! " we never met again and on my return to the UK I found employment in Shepperton Film Studios and as an interior designer with DK Shop Fitters.

That was just about it, then recently I received a mail from Peters daughter Penny, she had found my blog on Tysons and introduced herself.

We shared mails and one of them from Penny included a picture of a Tysons mug and a coaster.

I asked were there any spare and if so may I have one?

Penny mailed me  and one of each has been posted to me and today!

This is a remarkably kind offer and I will treasure the mug and coaster making a space in my display cabinet here in my office.

I think that Peter himself used this coaster?

This has been a remarkable event for myself.

Roy

Ardic 04-D diesel heater major servicing

 Many years back, say twenty of them, I became the owner of an Ardic 04-D diesel heater, it was not installed when removed from the boat it was on and the owner had no information about it at all!

In searching for the user manual I found one on line easy enough.

This unit above is similar to mine but with a different type of electric pump.

Mine has the SU type pump, it was a Lucas label on it.

In my case the wire harness had been cut, there was a very short set of wires left on the multi plug, about 80mm long.

There are six wires involved with connection, red is positive, white negative, they are the thicker 4mm wires.

There are four more wires, white, blue, green, they go to the control switch, the other wire is orange and will be used for the tell tale light to show when the Ardic is running.

Note that there is a factory service box which plugs into a spare multi plug, which is kept in an empty socket, only the factory and service agents will use that plug.

Running the unit makes a fair bit of sound, once installed I doubt that will bother many, as the induction and exhaust sounds will be well muffled.

The heater puts out 3Kw of hot air which exits from a large diameter pipe on the end of the casing away from the control switch.

After a few days I was seeing success, there was plenty of blue smoke on start up, left to clear and on a restart the heater warmed up quickly and without and smoke at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nadZsnpZVnM

I used length of steel pipe to exit  the exhaust fumes out of the work shop.

Running the unit will use 0.4ltrs of diesel per hour.

To be continued:

Please ask me questions, I will advise if I can ?

All info supplied is in good faith and at the readers and users own risk, I will accept not liability for any errors.

Roy

Argie 15 by Dix Design

 One of our kits was sent down to Ian in Picton, South Island, New Zealand.

The owner builder was Ian, he has since done his usual top quality assembly and build, the finish is in a similar paint shade as the Cape Cutter 19 named Tiptoe that we also shipped to him.

Ians care in his assembly always looks great.

This is a nice sized yacht for coastal sailing, as long as your equipment and experience allows.

Seen here in primer and before final sanding prior to the top coats.

We can ship this type of boat and larger to most places, always as a kit and a flat pack , sea or air freight.

Seen here this is Ians kit packed in a steel bound plywood crate, this type of packing means that your order is secure and safe to travel.

We have an Argie 15 PDF which explains the basics of what can be supplied and what the price indications are.

Roy.