Three things caused me to do this modification...1. I was tired of stubbing my toes on the windlass, 2. I was tired of the lazy sheet getting caught on the windlass when I unfurled the genoa, 3. The last straw was when the windlass would leak if we took water over the bow, causing a flood in the V berth. I repaired the leaks in the windlass with a kit from Maxwell, but figure that it will only be a matter of time before the O rings go bad again and I'll have another mess to clean up. This cover has been replaced with an inverted stainless bowl.  It looks much nicer and more nautical.  It still accomplishes all of the above goals.

I put the Edson motor mount on the port rail since it was the only place I could put it. It holds a 15hp Mercury. I noticed that the rail would flex when it was rough and I wanted to put a stop to it before it caused damage. I installed an angled brace from the top rail down to the deck and it is very solid now.

Aft Washdown

I took out the aft shore water regulator, since I never use it anyway, and changed it over to a washdown for the cockpit area. I had a forward shore water regulator put in by my dealer when the boat was new. In the near future we will be retired and spending much more time on the boat. We will have a dog onboard and there will be times when it won't be able to go to shore in a timely manner. I will train it to do it's "duty" on a piece of outdoor carpeting and then I will be able to wash down the area using this spray hose.

I added adjustable genoa cars made by Garhauer so that I could adjust the genoa lead without having to tack. This has proved to be a great modification. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is tired of putting up with poor sail trim because it is too much hassle to tack the boat just to make an adjustment. My wife couldn't care less! She is happy if the boat is moving forward, I'm not happy unless I feel that I am getting the appropriate performance for the conditions. What she does like is that she no longer has to assist me in completing a tack just to adjust the genoa car.

I installed a washdown pump in the bow to help with getting the mud and debris off the anchor rode as the anchor is being retrieved. It was originally mounted, in the position shown, on the shelf just under the windlass. This was a mistake! Pumps push water much better than they lift water, so I remounted the pump under the V berth at or near the waterline. Since I boat on the Great Lakes and we are not allowed to have macerators, I used the through hull for the forward macerator as the intake for the pump. It gets 12V power from the same source as the windlass with an in-line fuse specifically for the pump. The output goes into the anchor locker as shown in the second picture and the hose is connected and stored as shown in the last pictrue. It's easy enough to hang the coiled hose over the lifelines to get it out of the way when dealing with the anchor rode. There is also a switch under the cleat, which can't be seen in this picture, to shut off power to the pump so that it can't be run accidentally. You'll also notice that the bitter ends of both anchor rodes are cleated off! You'll only make that mistake once!

When I first got my C400 I wanted an outboard that could get the dinghy up on plane. I purchased a 15hp Mercury which was, at the time, the lightest 15hp motor. I thought that I could handle it as far as maneuvering it around the boat and getting it mounted on the dinghy. Was I ever wrong!!! It wasn't the weight, it was the awkwardness! I read on the original Sailnet C400 list about the Garhauer motor lifting davit and purchased one for "Cygnus." This has been one of the best modifications I have ever done! The first picture shows the davit directly over an Edson motor mount which I installed to handle the weight of the Mercury. The second picture shows the outboard ready to be lifted off the mount, swung out over the water, and lowered down to the dinghy's transom. What a lifesaver, now I have the engine I wanted and don't have to deal with the weight and awkwardness. The motor mount is on the side rail because there was no room on the stern and the motor is mounted inside of the rail to make maneuvering around docks easier.

Towing the dinghy or having it on deck got old very fast. So I added hanging davits. This project turned into more than I had ever thought it could be!!! The davits are made by "Kato" and are VERY well built. Every piece of tubing is one size bigger than any of their competitors. Kato originally provided two stainless straps that formed a V from the inside of the coaming to the top rail. This might have helped except for the fact that the davits are free floating where they attach to the top rail. So, when the dinghy was lifted and the boat was pounding in heavy seas the top rail started to bend downward. I then added a brace to fix the distance between the top and bottom rail and to help distribute some of the load to the bottom rail. This helped, but now the top rail started bending outward. Next a brace was added between the top rail and the swim platform to stop the top rail from bending outward. This reinforcement was definitely the most effective and probably should have been the first one. It has an added benefit of giving you something to hold onto when climbing out of the water using the boarding ladder. My wife has commented that she doesn't know how she got out of the water before I added these braces! The last brace was added because all of the other stresses on the rail had started to bend the stern seats downward. I lifted the seats back into their proper position using a halyard and then added a brace from the bottom of the seat to the hull. I love my davits, but I sure didn't know what I was getting into when I started!

When I purchased my boat the windlass was only wired to pull the anchor in, even though Maxwell provides for the motor to run in either direction. I purchased a battery switch and rerouted the original positive lead from the foot switch to the common post on the battery switch. I then wired "Battery #1" to the post for anchor retrieval and wired "Battery #2" to let the anchor out. A piece of starboard material blocks the "ALL" position which would burn out the motor windings. The "OFF" position allows me to use a washdown pump, which is wired to the same 12V feed as the windlass with an in-line fuse, independently of the windlass. I can also use the washdown pump with the windlass to wash off the rode as it is being retrieved.

When my Lab was a puppy he was constantly going swimming off the stern. This became a real problem in the marina with all of the boat traffic. I built a divider to keep him from being able to do this. While the project was worth the time for other reasons it didn't accomplish it's purpose. Lab puppies can be very determined! The oval hole at the upper edge allows easy removal.

Anchor Locker Divider

I wanted to be able to use either anchor rode without having to hassle with the other one. I built a vertical partition that separates the locker into port and starboard halves. There are 1/2" x 1/2" strips of starboard material mounted on the forward and aft sides of the locker to form a channel for the divider piece to drop into. I can now access either rode. The last picture shows everything back in place and ready to use. The pictures also show a forward input for shore water and shore poweer. These features were added by the dealer before I took delivery on the boat. It allows me to use a 10 foot piece of hose as opposed to a 50 footer. Besides being very handy it cuts down on the "hose" taste when using shore water, also the power cord doesn't have to lay on deck the whole length of the boat.

I added a 12VDC outlet to the port outboard lazarette. I then made up a cord with a universal end on it so that it could be used with more than one 12V device. I have an inflator that I use to inflate and maintain the pressure in the dinghy and a small electric bilge pump mounted in the lowest point in the dinghy to pump out water that accumulates. If you do a lot of cruising, I'm sure you know how much water can get into a dinghy after a continuous rain. I've actually had the dinghy nearly half full after two days of rain. This pump can be a lifesaver!

Storage Access

I added a piano hinge to the right vertical edge of the panel that allows access to the area under the windlass. On the left side of this panel I installed a latch similar to all of the other latches on my boat. This now allows easy access to this area and gives me a place to store spare hoses and other items that can be stored in such an area. I reinstalled the screws, just to hide the holes, after cutting them off short enough that they didn't go all the way through the panel.

Wind Generator for Charging Batteries

This wind generator has the ability to generate up to 20 amps for the purpose of recharging my battery banks. The amount of charge is exponentially proportional to the wind velocity. If the wind speed doubles the amount of charge goes up by a factor of 6. I'll be adding 270 watts of solar power in the summer of 2010. Between the two sources of power, I should be able to be energy independent. The ability to spend weeks on end away from any source of commercial power will be very important when my wife and I circumnavigate Lake Superior during the summer of 2011.