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Ahhhh... here we are just getting back from this winters cruise of the Bahamas and the projects are already starting...
Air
Conditioning (May?) - Near the end of last summer 2010 the air
conditioning stopped cooling the boat. The unit is an
Aqua-Air split system,
(16,000BTU
compressor/condenser in the bilge area with a 12,000BTU evaporator/fan
in the salon and a 5,000BTU evaporator/fan in the stateroom), that was
installed in 1984 and has been used hard for all of it's life. At
26 years old, I figured that the unit was probably due to be replaced
and I planned on doing so when we returned to the states from the
Bahamas in the spring of 2011.
So... while in Nassau I
emailed Aqua-Air and let them know that I would be coming to Miami,
where their company is located, to get one of there techs to evaluate
replacing the unit (Aqua-Air doesn't only make their own systems but
they install
and service them too). In Bimini, in preparation for the service
tech visit, I ran Greased Lightning Cleaner through the raw water filter
going to the condenser. This filled it up and I left it there for a few
hours. I then opened the seacock, turned on the system, and low
and behold, black water came out of the unit! After running the
unit for about 15 minutes, I took temperature measurements of the
cooling water, the inside air and the cold air coming out of the
evaporators. The results were that I was cooling cabin air from
(I'm using figures from later as I didn't save the Bimini figures) 79F
to 50F coming out of the vents, with a cooling water temp. of 77F.
Very good cooling figures (I was told by several knowledgeable people)!
Well, apparently we
sucked up some mud into the water intake at the dock last summer that
didn't wash out during the normal running of the A/C. This
hampered it's efficiency. I still got Aqua-Air to replace one of
the fan controls that wasn't working and promised them that I'd be back
for a new Aqua-Air system when mine finally did quit. This is
obviously a VERY well engineered system to have lasted 27 years with the
first 25 being in Florida. I have all of the records on file
dating back to the 1984 install and the changing of the fan control
today is the very first service that this A/C unit has received since
new. Thank you Aqua-Air for
a quality product!
Water
Heater (6/2/11) - The water heater, a cheap Force 10 with a 6gal aluminum
tank, started
leaking while cruising in the Bahamas. Trying to
import parts into the Bahamas is a pain and the duty on them is
astronomical so we opted to wait until our return to the States.
We researched all of our options and decided on a high quality Isotemp
Basic 24. This little jewel was a bit pricey but now that we've
lived with it for a few weeks we've decided that it was money well
spent. This heater holds 6.4 gallons and heats it to somewhere
around 160F. Then the tempering valve adds cold water to the hot
water outlet to cool the water to a more usable temperature of 110F
(that was our choice). We now can get 3 looooooong (non navy)
showers in a row before the tank needs to sit for 20min to reheat.
Also, because the inner tank is surrounded by high density foam, instead
of fiberglass like lesser tanks, the water in the tank stays hot
for over 24 hours. The Force 10, even when heated to 180F by the
engine, was luke warm in just a few hours after shutting the engine
down. At best, we were able to get 2 navy style showers out of the
Force 10 before having to wait 45 min for the heater to heat more water.
Nice!
Lifelines (6/17/11) - We replaced the lifelines on the upper deck yesterday. The 27 year old ones were looking a bit sad so last Monday I dropped them off at West Marine and said make me two new ones just like these. The new ones came in on the truck Friday morning, were exact replicas of my worn lines, fit perfectly, look great and were very reasonably priced. Love it!
Mast
Stays (6/26/11) - After discovering the speed and quality of West
Marines swagin work on the lifelines I decided to do an upgrade that I
saw on Secondstar, Michael and Jan's Manatee, this spring down at Little
Farmers Cay. Their mast stays were attached to tangs on the
corner of
the pilothouse instead of the outboard tangs installed by the factory.
Bringing the mast stays to the corners of the pilothouse really clears
up the walkway and makes for a neater looking installation. Since
the new stays don't pull back on the mast at all I did have to put a
mast support/brace/block in. I used a polyurethane trailer bow
pad, cut it down to fit, attached it to a piece of aluminum angle and
bolted it on the center of the pilothouse roof. Bloody thing works
perfectly and looks like it belongs there!
Engine, Bed, Cellular Amp, and other smaller projects (7/1/11 Through 9/15/11) -
Engine - The last 2 months have been busy
ones. The first couple of weeks I spent my time researching replacing the
Volvo engine with... well... just about anything that didn't have the Volvo
branding on it! The
Volvo TMD 30A engine
that's on the boat is a good
engine and has really low hours. So, why you say, would I explore
replacing it? The answer is simple. Every time I buy a part,
I not only pay the normal "marine" premium price, but almost without
question I pay 3 to 5 times the amount that the same part
would cost for another "marine" diesel of the same hp.
And you know... other "marine" diesel manufacturers are not
giving their parts away either. Even the Volvo dealer, where I get
my parts from, thinks that Volvo prices are SO absurd that he
apologizes every time I call and give me a 10% discount off the top.
When I call to order something and ask "how much" he typically looks up
the price and then asks "are you sitting down?"
He should really be asking "are you bent over!" Anyhow I
digress...
While I was exploring my diesel options I tried to find a buyer for my
engine, after all, it's got low hours and runs like a top. No
takers. Everyone talking to me about the engine would finally get
to the cost of Volvo parts. I couldn't lie, so after giving out a
couple of examples for parts I had purchased within the last couple of years they all laughed, wished me luck
selling the engine and ran! Since I couldn't sell it and had
already put about $6,000 into a couple of parts and new seals in the
reversing gear I decided to get a quote on all the parts that I felt
that the engine needed to make her reliable for years to come.
Then we'd decide whether to toss it or get her back into shape.
It turned out that she didn't need that much to get her back up to where I wanted her. An oil cooler, 2 thermostats, a fuel shutoff solenoid, a new raw water pump, new hoses (not from Volvo - Yeah!!!!), new instrument panel, new wiring harness and assorted o-rings, seals and gaskets. About $5,000 worth of Volvo parts.
We decided to go with redoing the Volvo... only because we couldn't sell it and it hurt our feelings to throw away the engine along with the new parts we had just put into it of the last two years. All of the work ended up going smoothly with only two things of note...
1. The first was
another former owner issue (I thought that I was way past all of
those!). He put
a cheap green plastic pvc elbow into the raw water
intake line. As if that wasn't bad enough, he also transitioned to a
larger diameter hose right there and just filled the extra space with
silicone caulk and put a clamp on it! The only reason neither the
surveyor nor I caught this is that the pvc elbow was green with flat
sides and looking like a metal Volvo
elbow and the hose filled with
silicone was aimed straight down at the bilge. Why we didn't sink or at
least spring a huge leak is pure luck. After fixing this with a
bronze elbow and new hoses, I checked the whole engine and peripherals
with my hands and long reach mirror. I also replaced all hoses
that had not been replaced by me in the last 2 years. We should be
good now...
2. The second item of note was more
of a learning experience. When I pulled the 2 thermostats out, I
noticed that the hold down bar, bolts and sides of the housing had a
hard paste on it. I've often heard of people flushing their cooling system with dilute
muriatic acid... hmmmm... so I scraped some of the hardened paste off and
put it in a small bowl with dilute muriatic acid solution... hmmmmm... nothing...
no bubbles, no softening... more acid... still nothing, scrubbing with a
toothbrush... not much. So I broke
out
another bowl (noooo not the dinnerware Deb... really...) and poured
in some dilute Salt Off (West Marine's private label "Salt Away") and... whoa!
The clumps were dissolving and a light scrubbing with a toothbrush had
all of the hardened paste coating coming off in a flash to reveal shiny, bare metal. Nice!
I love science experiments! So before putting in the new antifreeze I
flushed the system using a half gallon of Salt Off with enough fresh
water to fill the system up. I then ran the engine for about 20
minutes to heat the Salt Off/water up and then let it sit and work for
about 3 to 4
hours. I then ran the engine again for just a few minutes to put any
solids back into suspension and then drained the system at it's lowest point
(the hot water heater connections). The dark brown water that
flowed out was FULL of suspended particles as well as
totally dissolved sludge. I repeated this process one more time
and the second draining was, thankfully, much cleaner. Looking
down into the fill cap now shows mainly bright clean metal. Very
nice! When I brought the new antifreeze to the boat I
curiously looked at the 4 main ingredients and low and behold, 2 of them are
salts. No wonder!
Pilothouse Bed - We've been wanting to be
able to convert the U shaped seating in the pilothouse into a full sized
bed. Because the pilothouse is both screened and isinglassed in, having an
convertable
bed there would allow guests the option of a more private to sleeping
area then on the
convertible sofa in the salon. Also, when doing overnight offshore passages,
one of us can sleep while the other is on watch but still be handy for
consulting or emergencies. This was a pretty easy project as all I had to do
was make 2 interlocking reinforced boards that can also be stored in the
forward pilothouse locker.
Put a protruding lip on the 3 settee
hatches to hold the boards and then make up cushions that can fill in
the bed and also be used as back rests the rest of the time. We also
upgraded the foam at this time to a firm, high density "deluxe" quality
foam. Between
this upgrade and our Asus Transformer pad for reading at night our offshore
passages should be even more enjoyable.
Cellular Amplifier, Modem and Cradlepoint - Last
year we found that you could get 2G data plans from Batelco either in a
prepaid or postpaid SIM. All you need is a AT&T modem for about
$30 on Ebay, an unlock code for $1.49 on eBay, a Blackberry
Data SIM card from Batelco and then, anytime you're within Batelco's cellular
coverage area, you've got internet! Now, 2G is very slow and you'll
probably want to stick to Wifi for cruising the net, but for those times when
you're not near an unsecured Wifi signal, it'll easily get you email and weather data. To
expand the
usability of the modem, I installed a multi band cellular
amplifier by Digital Antennas as well as an external antenna above the
pilothouse. This should ensure good 3G/4G coverage up to 30+ miles
(they claim 50 miles but I figure conservatively..) offshore on the east
coast and 2G coverage most everywhere in the Bahamas. Finally, to tie
my Wifi amplifier system (installed last year) and cellular amplifier system together, I
installed a Cradlpoint wireless router which works with both systems and
can automatically switch between the two systems depending on which has
the stronger connection and wirelessly connect to all of my devices
anywhere on Fat Chance including up in the pilothouse! Very NICE!
Groco Model K Head Rebuild - After
two years of constant use the head was in need of a rebuild. It
still worked... but... no nearly as nicely as when it was new. I
bought a rebuild kit and then looked online to see what issues people
had rebuilding these heads. Man... good thing that I already had
bought the kit or else I might have sent it off to Groco
to rebuild!
The Web was full of people saying "don't rebuild this toilet,
send it back to Groco, much too hard". Oh well, I've already got
the kit, if I screw it up I can send it back to Groco. Man... what
a piece of cake! It took me about 4 hours to do, but only because
I was being meticulous, documenting my steps, cleaning all the parts
thoroughly, greasing everything with Whichards blue winch grease (very
nice waterproof grease!) and finally taping off and painting the whole
bronze base unit. It was so easy and Groco's instructions more
than adequate that I threw out my documentation. The head now
looks and works just like new. Don't understand what everyone was
having trouble with online.
Rudder Position Indicator - The Rudder position Indicator hasn't worked since I bought the boat and being at the bottom of the importance list I'm just now getting around to it. I downloaded the wiring diagram off of the internet and compared it to the actual wiring on the unit. Not only was there no resemblance, but the white wire was the ground circuit and the black was the 12V +. Go figure. The transducer at the rudder was hooked to the rudder in the easiest, as apposed to the right, manor so while turning to port sent the needle on the gauge all the way to the port side, turning hard over to starboard did not. It's all been reworked and now operates properly. It usually only takes a bit more time to do it right so why...
New Rocna! - After staying on the boat
through Hurricane Irene I decided that I would upgrade
my more than
adequate 20Kg (44lb) Rocna main anchor to a supersized 25Kg main
anchor/storm anchor.
My Rocna has done me extremely well over the last two years. It
sets the first time, every time and it sets hard. I've anchored in
the neighborhood of 600 x over the last two year with it and have slept
soundly. People always ask me why I move around SO much, often
anchoring as many as 3 or 4x a day. I shrug my
shoulders. It's just too easy when you have the right gear.
So why not move to wherever you want to be? I've anchored out in
open roadsteads when it was too rough to take the dinghy out diving,
I've anchored on short scope and never has she failed me once. In
the Bahamas I anchor with only one anchor since I believe anchoring with
2, doing the "Bahamian Moor", is intrinsically dangerous (try
pulling up your twisted anchor lines at 4 in the morning while some huge
boat is dragging down on you!). So of
course I'm going with another, just bigger, Rocna and yes, I'm well
aware that they've stopped using the high strength steel in the
manufacturing process and am not at all concerned about this. The
scantlings of the Rocna, especially oversized as this one is, are enough
of an overkill
for our boat. Love this anchor!
Wiring, Central Vac and some miscellaneous small projects (9/15/11 Through 11/01/11) -
Snubber Line - When I was
replacing the Rocna I noticed that the snubber line was looking a bit
haggard down where it's attached to the bow eye. This is due to me
splicing the line directly around the bow eye without inserting a thimble.
I've done this in the past because someone told me that an eye thimble
on a snubber
make too much noise... well after replacing the snubber 2x a season
(usually splicing in the new line while standing in 4 feet of water) I've
decided to try a stainless thimble in my eye splice.
I'll let you know how much of a noise issue, if any, there is. The
other end of the snubber line is spliced to my favorite chain hook in
the world! This hook is made of 316 stainless so there's no rust
after 2 years of hard us and more importantly the captive pin still
works as smoothly as it did new! The hook is a Whichard "Chain Grip".
It slides on to the chain just like any other hook but it will not come off
until you pull the pin. A simple, well executed design. I
wouldn't use anything else!
Battery
Cables - I had a marine electrical engineer come to the boat
and assess the work that I had done so that he could recommend any
changes or future upgrades. That went quite well and he only
questioned one of my installations where he said "it's not wrong but I
wouldn't have done quite the same way." As far as the rest of the
wiring, he found some welding cables that were factory installed in 1984
that he felt had some corrosion in them and a rats nest that needed a
bit of organizing. He had me rubbing cables between my fingers
looking for a slight "crunchy" feel. I never felt it, but I
trust
him so I decided to replace all of the welding cable (2/0) with new
Ancor 2/0 marine cable and straighten out the "rats nest". Not a
hard job and I feel much better for having taken care of it. Best
of all I got ~$40 for the old cables at the recycler... hmmmmm... a
couple of top shelf margaritas AND enough money left over for some apps! Nice!
Counter Tops - We've been using the galley
and head's, solid acrylic (same as Corian just different colors) counter
tops, for a solid 2 years now and they were starting to look a bit shiny
in areas. That's right, shiny. When I first installed them,
we decided to sand and then buff them with 3m scratchy pads to give us a
nice matt finish that looks like genuine river rock (I'm a geologist by
education so I know the look!). So I removed the silicone caulk at
the back splash and hand rubbed the counters with the 3m pads, once
again ending up with a nice matt finish. After recaulking the
backsplash seams they looked good as new! I just love 1 hour
projects that make things look like new! As an aside... I don't
understand people putting very expensive granite counters in their
houses and having the granite highly polished... it looks fake... like
plastic. Much better a smooth matt plastic that looks like rock!
I'ts more durable anyway...
Central Vac! VERY NICE! - We haven't
been happy with any of the 4 vacuum cleaners that we've tried over the
last
2
years. They were clunky, too big or small for the area being
vacuumed, had hoses, canisters,
cords etc. to juggle while just doing a mediocre job at sucking up the dirt.
I didn't have an answer for this problem until I went down to see my friends Tom and Amy
on their 36' sailing cat one weekend. They showed me their newly
installed central vac. It was a very clean install, the hose was
long enough to vacuum the whole boat from a centrally located vacuum
port, you didn't have to deal with power cords, canisters, or large
footprint of an upright machine and best of all, the suction power was
incredible! Needless to say, I went home, ordered the unit and had
it installed by the end of the week. I
installed
the unit on the unused pantry ceiling. I did have to put a
supportive shelf underneath because I felt that the teak and fiberglass
ceiling wasn't really strong enough for a 4 lag installation. A
small garden hose holder for the hose and tips finished up the job
nicely. After a couple weeks of use I can tell you that both Deb
and I REALLY love this unit. It's a bit pricier than a standard vac and certainly
had some installation time involved, but it was WELL worth it.
Electrical Panel Labels - Just a note for you Krogen owners. I've been wanting to change some of the circuit breaker labels for a while now. Some circuits have been changed to new functions and other labels have just faded over time. I had used the Brothers P Touch label maker on past boats to label external items like lines exiting from a mast or controls. Because the labels made by the P Touch are laminated, waterproof and UV resistant they held up very well for years. So I bought a black with white lettering tape cartridge and made the labels that I needed. I put the new labels centered on the plastic tags and trimmed the curved corners with a razor blade. They look great! Just like the originals but newer. The text font was almost identical and the label maker allowed me to do two lines of text on the 1/2" tape when needed. Just like the originals. Nice! Very nice!
Once again, there were several small projects done that haven't been written about in this blog only because I feel that they are common sense or individual taste items. The only real job left for this year is hauling and pressure washing the hull, replacing zincs etc. Then we're off for the islands! Yeah Baby!!!! (said like Austin Powers while eyeing a young lass...)
Enjoy!
Please note, when I mention the "former owner" on these Projects pages, it refers only to any, all or non of the real former owners, there associates, friends or mechanics that had a hand in doing whatever " bad or stupidly done repair" that I'm bitching about at the time.