Posts Tagged ‘PM & Repairs’
Another flounder limit!
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
Had to wait out the fog, it was really bad till about 2-3 pm. It was amazing how many boats were out blind and on plane or going as fast as they were and in no wake zones today.
I got some things done on the boat in the mean time. I put the sink back in, hooked up the hoses, filled the domestic water tank, put some more tackle away, rearranged gear and tried the 3M non-skid cleaner on the deck. This stuff worked really well. Finally a non-skid cleaner that works without a lot of effort and claims to be safe for fiberglass and gel coat.
Anyway, finally about 3:30 we shoved off to give it a shot. Since Mike was done with working on his boat he decided to go on a boat ride with Tommy and me. When we got setup the surface current was flying with the howling SE wind but the bottom wasn’t too fast. Had 51 degree water and fish on within minutes of the chum bags hitting the bottom.
We ended up boating our three man limit with only one short and several missed fish in about 2 hours.
Bring on the inshore tuna!
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009Decided due to the holiday weekend and less than favorable conditions to stay at the dock and get some work done on the boat and of course some adult beverages and plenty of snacks and food that accompany bad weather on our dock.
I installed three new rod holders. One just off center in the transom, would have liked it to be in the center but could not due to the transom fish-box. The other two were installed foreword up near the pilothouse. These will be great for the rigger rods.
Also installed the outriggers I picked up last fall. They got installed on the aft part of the pilothouse roof. The poles are collapsible so the poles can be installed and the angle of deployment can all be adjusted while standing in the cockpit, despite them being top mounts. I really like the placement, you don’t have to climb up on the gunwales to deploy them which is great on a narrow beam boat.
The only thing left is to get new release clips and re-rig the lines and I will be all set for trolling this fall. Can’t wait! Now all we need is some decent weather for a change.
Visits from friends…
Friday, August 28th, 2009First we had a visit from Bill last week (the storm and not my buddy from SI) and now Danny (again a storm and not Capt. Red Cup from the marine). Although Danny seems to be loosing steam, thank god. Our annual cod trip up in Mass was canceled due to weather this year and is now pending reschedule based on everyone’s schedules.
Hopefully there will be enough breaks in the rain this weekend, I would like to install three new rod holders and my new to me outriggers. I don’t think the weather will cooperate enough for the latter but I should at least be able to get the new rod holders in.
I created a jig out of a 2 x 6 to help in the drilling of the new holes in the transom and gunwale caps. I made one hole 15 degrees and the other 30. So you can use the one jig two different angle rod holders. I was a little leery about trying to drill straight through the gunwale without a guide and get the angle correct. But I was very surprised at how easily, and on the first shot, that I got the holes in the jig correct. I would assume that if I were drilling directly into the boat and not a disposable piece of 2 x 6 that the holes would not have come out as good.
Now all I need to do is determine placement of the rod holder, clamp down the jig and drill the new holes. Hopefully it goes as smooth as it sounds on Sunday.
For those venturing out this weekend be safe and tight lines.
First river fluking trip of ‘09
Sunday, July 26th, 2009Decided to make a quick trip to the river and then work on the boat. The storm at 4:30 delayed my departure by about an hour. Figures…there were weakies crashing peanuts in the creek during the lightening show. Finally left the dock at 6 and had the river to myself. Tried gulp, spearing, and finally peanuts. Had a fish on as soon as the peanuts would hit the bottom. Problem was no matter where I tried they were shorts…from about 8″ up to 17.5. Moved toward the Inlet and had a steady pick of almost keeper fish and some of the smallest sea bass I have ever caught or seen. Soon after stemming the tide a bit to slow my drift down I started overheating. Threw the hook, hooked up the raw water wash down to flush the motor while waiting for it to cool a bit, cleaned the strainer (not much in it) and then headed back to the dock.
Pulled the water pump apart…had some grooving in the housing so I am ordering a new one today. Runs fine at higher RPM but at idle I guess the slight grooving causes it not to pump enough water. Not sure how long they usually last but she has almost 700 hours so it is probably time. Also checked the heat exchanger and that is clean as a whistle.
Drift was a little fast for my liking, water temps were 72.4 to 74.5 depending on location, peanuts were the best producer and the water wasn’t nearly as dirty as I thought it would be after the rain on an ebbing tide. There were also tons of small spearing all over. While throwing a small diving plug they would spray when the plug hit the water and while coming to the surface near the boat.
Long weekend roundup
Monday, June 15th, 2009OK…I get down to the marina, unload the truck…forgot my tackle bag. No biggie we go and buy new hooks, leader, swivels, snags, etc for fluking, sea bass and striper fishing for the weekend and pickup bait and Entenmann’s for breakfast. No we are not Norweigan…the bait is for fishing and the Entenmann’s is breakfast!
Go to fuel the boat up…lose forward on the way to the service slip. Figure let’s get her fueled up since I need it and then look at the shift issue. Go to move her back and not only don’t have forward but get stuck in reverse. Luckily the service slip is only three slips away and we float her back to her slip. It’s already dark out so we figure we will just take a buddy’s boat and look at in on Saturday, plus we figured there would be fog anyway so we would probably end up taking his since I don’t have radar.
So now we are down one boat the first day of the weekend.
Saturday…get off to a great start. In the first 20 minutes and less than a mile from the inlet we get on spraying bunker, put a 38 pound fish in the boat and have two other run offs. Then Wayne on his flounder rod gets spooled by a big fish.
The not being far from the inlet it was not long before the fleet of fluke tourney boats runs through the school of fish, puts them down and they scatter. We tried for another half hour and on a few more pods but then gave up and switched to sea bass. Had tons of shorts and decided to go fluking. Ended up putting 5 nice fluke in the boat with two 16″ sea bass and then while moving we smelled diesel.
Shut her down and look for the leak. Tanks look good, lines, everything. Can’t figure out where it is coming from. Start running again and same thing, now we get it down to the starboard motor so we come in on one and after close inspection find a broken return line right in front of the turbo! Good thing we didn’t keep running…could of been a serious problem if the fuel found its way closer to the turbo.
So now we are down two boats in two days.
We had planned on fishing a different boat on Sunday so at least we know we are still fishing tomorrow. Sunday rolls around leave the dock EARLY to get in on the great bite we had early the day before and wanted to be out even earlier to hopefully get a longer shot at them.
First drift we make bait, hookup and drop two fish. Go to move off the beach and again the starboard motor won’t fire. Get off the beach on one motor and start jogging while we try and diagnose the problem. Ignition circuits keep tripping and paralleling batteries doesn’t do much either.
Check the current charts and it is slack at the inlet and slowing in the canal so we decide to run in on one while the getting is good. It is always a good day when you come in on your own power and safe…even it is on one motor.
Get back to the dock and it turns out to be the starboard battery. Voltage was fine with no load but under load went into a dead short and even smoked a bit.
So now we are down three boats in three days.
I make arrangements to be hauled Monday morning and check with the Admiral that it is OK to stay over one more day…good thing I always pack extra clothes.
So in the mean time I run over to Harbor Freight to get a jack and jack stands to rotate my tires. Cashier is ringing me up and the register dies. So now my buddies conclude the hex is caused by me!
Monday…get hauled out and the problem with the shifting is a loose cable clamp, check the cable, no nicks or wear in it, reset the clamp and all is well…or so we think. Decide while it is out to check the drive fluid. Nice shade of light gray. Dipstick was only hand tight and the o-ring on the drain plug was rolled. Only person to blame for that is me since I changed the gear oil.
Run to the gas station get a can of diesel and flush it three times. Fuel was clear after the second, did the third to be safe and also flushed a half gallon through from the top. Filled her back up and went for a test ride and all is good.
Now we just have to wait and see. Everyone was telling me they have seen worse but with my luck I will need a new drive by season’s end.
Hope everyone had a better weekend than us.
Shurhold Buffer
Sunday, March 15th, 2009I saw a few searches lately for the Shurhold Buffer. I guess a bunch of you saw it a while back on ShipShape TV. It is finally listed on Shurhold’s web site but is only available for pre-order and should be shipping in the next few weeks. It looks to be a decent unit at a lower price point than professional, random orbit buffers. According to the ShurHold web site it retails for $149.98 so I would imagine that the street price would be anywhere between $100 and $129. I was hoping it would be released prior to my spring launch as I am in the market for a new buffer but I guess I will have to wait till my mid season haul out, painting, zincs and cleaning in June.
You can sign up to Pre-Order and be notified when the buffer is ready for shipment, have a unit reserved for you and receive a free bottle of Pro-Polish.
We used Pro-Polish for the first time last year and were extremely pleased with the product. Diesel soot easily washed off of Mark and Tommy’s boats after an offshore trip and the finish held up all season long on our boats and made cleanup very easy on my boat as well as the others that used. I highly recommend this polish, the best thing about it was how easy it went on and off in 35-40 degree weather. All of us usually go in the water in February/March and it has been a difficult procedure of polishing our boats in cold temperatures until we discovered Pro-Polish.
Getting there…
Sunday, March 15th, 2009I got to the marina early and measured for wiring up the inverter. Then we headed down to Lacey Marine to pickup some supplies, including the wire for the inverter project. We got to speak with the Interlux rep and got some good ideas for some painting projects on friends boats in the marina.
From there we headed over to the Lacey Elks Fisherman’s Flea Market. There were some interesting items at the flea market. Met Brian from GarbageFish.com and picked up a sticker. Bought some raffle tickets for the Billy Gale Rod and reel from Lacey Marine. At the door they were trying to get everyone to fill out a pots off the reef card, most were filling them out. Hopefully Roberts will get the message soon.
On out way back to the marina we got a call that the soda blaster that damages several boats had shown up and started washing mine and Tommy’s boats. We had Mike stop them and wait for us since we were only about five minutes out.
After speaking with the soda blaster for a while he said he would produce a proper proof of insurance and would like the opportunity to clean the boats. He pretty much finished Tommy’s yesterday and should hopefully complete mine today. If he does I should be able to get wet on Tuesday.
Tommy and I got the inverter hung and wired. I still need to wire in the breaker/switch at the battery but will do that next weekend. It looks as if I will get in just in time for the winter flounder opener and be serving piping hot coffee and hot chocolate throughout the day.
Busy weekend
Sunday, March 8th, 2009It was a busy weekend, everything but detailing the exterior is done. On Saturday Mark and Tommy got the gimbal bearing and bellows replaced and installed the blocking kit. Fresh zincs were installed and then Mark and I installed the outdrive, pressure tested it and refilled the gear oil. With the drive back in place I sanded and painted the helmet and transom shield. Later in the day, after a late lunch, I removed the winter cover.
Sunday I removed the winter cover frame and then replaced the thermostat, PCV valve, zinc pencil, raw water pump and serpentine belt. What a pain the belt was, I inserted the ratchet into the hole and before I put much pressure on it to loosen the tensioner the hole snapped. We managed to lift up on the tensioner and slip the belt off. The batteries and battery charger went back in and then I washed the boat, which turned out to be a futile process since none of the dirt or stains from a botched soda blasting job on another boat came off.
After lunch I cleaned up the tools and organized everything in the cabin. The only thing left to do is install the inverter but that can be done on the water. So basically all that is left until she can get wet is to detail her, put the plug in and drop her in. Hopefully the marina, soda blasting company and the boat owner come to some sort of resolution soon.
Outdrive project phase II
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
Ready for anti-fouling paint. I scuffed up the drive, washed it down once with water and once with solvent. I will give it another quick washing with solvent prior to painting. I would have liked to have sprayed the first coat tonight but with the paint arriving via UPS I figured it best to let the can warm up slowly back to room temperature before using it.
Outdrive project
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
With several years of paint build up and with some starting to peel last season from an inexperience painter overspraying the traonsom shield onto the bottom paint I decided to refinish the outdrive. I picked up my drive from Tommy this weekend. He did an awesome job on it. The pictures don’t do it justice but the finish is much better than on my new truck. It looks so good I hate to scuff it up to put the anit-fouling paint on it. Hopefully the Trilux clear is truely clear and the job Tommy did will shine through it. I will post before and after pics later in the week after I get the anti-fouling paint on it.
Batten down the hatches
Saturday, February 28th, 2009Got some more work done on the boat. All that is left that is holding up going in the water is changing out the bellows and gimbal bearing and installing the drive. Well that, and the huge mess that needs to be cleaned up from the soda blasting of another boat in the marina.
This blasting company had the audacity of blaming the mess on their customer. They claim that a part on the machine broke and their customer said the job has to be done. First off I don’t care who the customer is, if I am a business owner and it is between pissing off a customer and creating a health and environmental issue as well as causing damage to other boats in the thousands I think I would stop work and deal with the unhappy customer rather than keep going and have a dozen unhappy people.
Anyway, the blasting company did finally stop by yesterday and said they would clean and polish the boats and would get the stains out. I don’t have that much faith in them after seeing the work they have already done. This mess has also already delayed our going in the water by two weeks and now the blasting company claims they have another job next week they can’t put off. I think I am going to have to insist they have it done or I will have it done and give them the bill. I refuse to be put out by people with sub-standard work ethics and will not own up to their screw ups. It took them three weeks to acknowledge the fact that they caused this mess and to return my calls. And that is a whole other issue, this should be the marina’s problem not mine. They seem to want to sit on the sidelines and not get involved.
Enough of ranting, I did get the conduit for the inverter installed and the deck hatch back in place and sealed. I also cleaned and painted the transducers, installed zincs on the trim tabs and touched up the paint around the transom assembly. Hopefully after next weekend I can go in the water…we will see.
Swiss cheese
Sunday, February 15th, 2009Had a busy day today at the marina. Tommy, Mark, Wayne, Mike, Chris, Eddie and Danny were down either working on their boats or checking in on them. This weekend’s work was drilling a bunch of holes in the side of the hull and bulkheads for through hulls and electrical conduit. Two new through hulls for the new bilge pump and fish box macerator as well as drilled and dry fit the conduit for my inverter project.
The wheels were delivered to the prop shop today, so hopefully they will be done and back by the end of the month.
All I really need to get done before going back in is to drill the last through hull for new foreword bilge pump, install the conduit for the inverter, seal my deck hatch and have Mark and Mike walk me through the bellows and gimbal bearing replacement. Everything else on my list can be done while in the water.
I was hoping to just uncover her and wash her prior to launch but that has been complicated by staining from a soda blasting company that should not be allowed to work in the manner they do. They did not really erect a tent, the blasting media and the bottom paint was not contained and ended up covering a very large portion of the marina as well as half a dozen or more boats. Not to mention this was performed not even 10′ from the water’s edge let alone outside the 100′ buffer zone. I tried to wash off the dust and dirt but after the surface mess was removed it revealed heavy staining that will need to be compounded out. The owner of the boat that was blasted did not seam to care too much about the damage and mess caused by the labor that he hired. I am not 100% sure right now how I will proceed but I don’t feel I should have to detail the boat myself or foot the bill to have someone else do it. Prior to covering I washed and polished the hull sides…so I would not have to do it prior to launch. She was also compounded in spring of 2008 so there should be no need to do it again in 2009.
Alphabet Soup
Sunday, January 25th, 2009I went to SHBC for MFC and then did some PM and repairs. It’s a new year and I need to get back to doing what I said I would…posting at least weekly. This week was pretty uneventful, I have heard a few reports of good blackfishing in 90-120′ of water and some rumors of cod and pollack in the same depths. I have also heard that mackerel are within 15 miles from the beach.
Tommy and I ran down to Barnegat to see Joe at Sun Harbor Bay Club, I needed to get door prizes for the Manasquan Fishing Club meetings and also to visit since I have not been down there in a while. We will have some really great prizes over hte next six months thanks to Joe and his generosity to the Manasquan Fishing Club.
As for the boat I removed all the sealant around my deck hatch for the fuel tank due to it leaking late in the season. That effort was three fold, I also plan on installing a conduit through that hold for some wiring and also installing a fuel vent whistler to prevent fuel spills while filling up.
I had planned on giving the bilge its annual cleaning and doing some rust busting but it was a bit cold for that and the marina bathroom was winterized so I had no access to hot water for rinsing the bilge out with. I guess I will have to bring the turkey fryer next time to heat up some water.
All covered up
Saturday, December 20th, 2008With snow at the house and then the boat, I shoveled the snow and ice from the walks and driveway and headed down to the marina. Luckily there was no accumulation there. I removed a few items from the boat and started erecting the frame for the cover and then got her covered up for what seems like it will be the worst winter we have had in a long time.
This year I am trying the tennis ball tip in Saltwater Sportsman to help prevent chaffing on the cover from the rocket launcher. It makes a lot of sense, and I added a little twist to it. I made two small holes opposite each other in the tennis ball. I then passed a length of shock cord through it and adjusted the length so there would be just enough to slip over the bottom of the rod holder and keep the ball in place over the top of it.
Next week I will remove the rest of the gear and get the v-berth and pilothouse cleaned. After that I will start on my many projects.
Hauled, weighed and blocked
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008With 2008 winding down and the threat of a bad winter as well as some much needed drive maintenance I was hauled out today. But first before blocking we had her weighed just about full of fuel, no water and with full gear. She tipped the Toledo at 6,300 pounds. I thought it would have been a little more but at that weight being full I can tow her with the new truck.
Once she was blocked I flushed the motor, changed the oil and filter and winterized the motor. This weekend I will get the stateroom and pilothouse cleaned up and then get her covered up. Then I can start in on my winter projects.
- Have wheels re-pitched
- Drive service
- Replace bellows
- Replace gimbal bearing
- New aft bilge pump
- Replace forward bilge pump
- Replace two rod holders
- Add three new rod holders
- Install outriggers
- Install inverter
- New cockpit power point
- Plumb outdrive discharge overboard
- Install fish-box macerator
And I am sure I will find a few others. A few of these items I have been putting off for some time, hopefully I can get them all taken care of this winter.
New rod holders
Sunday, November 16th, 2008I was hoping to get out around noon for a few hours but as the morning went on the winds got stronger and stronger so despite their Westerly direction and reports of the seas being just a swell along the beach we decided to just work on our boats.
We did a group trip to West since we all had 20% off coupons and the stores had tables of stuff 40 and 50 percent off due to the stores closing and moving to a mega store. I was able to grab a couple of items I was in short supply of for half price plus 20% off…score!
Anyway back at the marina I removed the old factory rod holders, sealed the old screw holes and the hole for the rod holders themselves. Then covered the gunwale cap with masking tape to make out the new holes. They ended up a little close to the old ones but I am not too concerned as we are installing a backing plate and through bolting them instead of just using lags as they were originally installed.
Installation went fairly easy and once installed they looked great. The stainless rod holders with white liners looks much better on the boat than chromed ones with black liners. Over the winter I will order five more and replace the other two existing ones, add a center transom rod holder and two forward for the outriggers.
I also retooled my shelf for the bilge heater. After converting the raw water intake the new through hull and hose is slightly in the way of the old shelf. Plus the newly installed battery boxes cut down on the width in the motor well. Once I cut down the shelf length and made its feet longer it was a perfect fit once again. And just in time for this cold front coming through.
Next weekend looks to be very promising weather wise…lets hope the forecast holds.
LED marine lighting
Monday, October 20th, 2008I have been slowly converting my interior lighting to LED. For several reasons, but mainly to limit the drain on the batteries. I do not have shore power so when I overnight or weekend on the boat I rely on the house battery to power the lighting, stereo, coffee pot, etc. I had noticed a couple of times that if I had the v-berth light, dinette light and cockpit lights on for most of the night they drew a considerable amount of power. This was when I started looking into the LED alternatives.
I tried a couple of less expensive models out from Ancor and others available at local marine supply stores but they are nowhere near as bright or burn as cool as the Dr. LED lights. After doing some research I decided on the Dr. LED line of fixtures and replacement bulbs. I found the Dr. LED products to have the brightest light, in most cases, the least amp draw. I have installed their MR 16 Magnum Ring to replace the halogens in the v-berth and they are great - bright, cool (no longer burn yourself touching the fixture to reposition it) and plug directly in with no modifications needed. The light is a little different from incandescent or halogen bulbs, the LED’s are much whiter light…excellent for reading…at least for me. I am going to try out their nav light replacement bulbs over the winter.
This weekend I replaced a dome light with a white/red LED dome light, the Red Mars Dome. Unfortunately it was bright and sunny so I am not really sure how well it is going to work yet. The v-berth lights are actually brighter than the old halogens, they don’t get hot and hardly draw any power, so I am hoping the dome light will be just as good. The addition of the red lamp will be great as my crew regularly blinds me on our way out turning on the light to find things, getting rigged up or choosing which donut is next on their menu.
I was unable to test it at night as I did not stay over this weekend but during the day the white light seemed just as bright as my other incandescent dome light. Next time I stay over I will report on how the white and red light was at night.
Another Easterly blow ahead
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008Tomorrow’s weather looks great. I can’t get off of work, nor can I muster a four man crew for a weekday with ease. This coming weekend has forecasted for another East to Northeast blow coming our way most likely keeping everyone at the dock or at least in the rivers and bays.
I guess I will do my oil change, hose, belt inspection, torque nuts & bolts, etc. and then go for a boat ride. Maybe head over to the canal and do some black fishing.
Due to conflicting numbers from my fuel gauge I will also re-measure the tank to re-calculate the volume levels at various point of the gauge. I had previously calculated that at three quarters of a tank I have sixty six gallons, thus only needing twenty four gallons to fill the tank. When refilling this weekend from three quarters it only took twenty gallons to fill the tank. I know it may seem trivial but I like to know my range for longer trips, know that I can go out and come back with less than a full tank with confidence and if I have fuel delivered, how much to have brought in and end up with a full tank.
The dock box could use a good cleaning out, over the season lots of stuff gets tossed in as a temporary storage location and never makes it back out. I also need to get a good inventory of my sinkers for the upcoming wreck season.
As much as I would really like to get a good half to three quarter day of fishing in, I can get lots of odds and ends taken care of for those days when we can get out and won’t have time to do them.
Fall weather at its best
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Due to weather yet again we stayed tied up. I did however get some PM and other odds and ends taken care of this weekend. I also tried to get fuel while out for a boat ride in the Metedeconk and the bay but no fuel docks were open.
Originally my raw water wash-down pump suction side was routed around the outside of the motor well. After installing the sea strainer we redirected the suction line under the motor. At the time it seemed like a good idea. However the hose that was used did not hold up to heating and cooling from the motor. I replaced the nylon reinforced tubing with wire reinforced wet exhaust hose as well as installing a sea strainer on the wash-down pump. This was probably overkill but two buddies had their pumps die this year and after dismantling in attempts to fix them they were pretty loaded up with crap.
We went for a quick boat ride in Mark’s 37 Bertram to test the new gaskets on the sea strainers prior to running offshore this weekend. After that we took a quick ride in my boat.
Next I performed the 100 hour service including: torquing nuts, bolts, clamps, servicing the batteries, checking all lamps, bilge pumps and electrical circuits for functionality, checking fluids and an oil change.
The marina was pretty void of life, similar to the waters along the coast prior to the big blow. By early afternoon I was the only one left at their boat.
I finally put each electrical circuit on its own breaker. Something I have been putting off for some time. Of course I left a brand new package of terminals at home on the workbench so off the hardware store I was…luckily they have an expanded marine section and carry waterproof electrical terminals and are only a half mile down the street. After getting back I also realized I left the spool of red number 14 primary wire on the bench at home as well. Luckily I found a three foot scrap in the bottom of my spare parts bin and began installing all the breakers.
I have to redo the labeling, I was in a rush and did not cut them even or stick them on straight but at least I know which breaker is for which and they are all on their own complete circuits now.
Lay day due to wind
Sunday, April 6th, 2008Boy did I goof when looking at the weather. I committed to helping my mother do some packing for her move later this month on Saturday leaving me Sunday to go fishing or work on the boat. With the hard NE blow on Sunday there was 1 foot of chop with white caps coming West up the creek.
I heard a few guys on the radio claiming they had fish but you know how fisherman on the radio are…more likely than not they had no fish.
In between showers I compounded the aft pilothouse bulkhead and cockpit. I also tried the compound on the interior glass and it removed the three years of sneaker marks pretty well. Much better than anything else has. The difficult part with the interior is it is not gel coated nor smooth. It is splattered with resin and then painted flat white. A surface that I will never own again.
While I was disappointed to not fish, you can not get skunked if you don’t wet a line!
Oh happy day!
Friday, March 7th, 2008Indeed it is…launched the boat today after finishing up the installation of the new raw water intake system. The hoses, valves and elbows are all installed and clamped. All that is left is to bond the whole system. That will have to wait…we are launching today!
After the hoses were installed I reinstalled the battery shelves and boxes, all that remains with the electrical system upgrade is to install the new batteries. They are in, just waiting to be picked up from Sun Harbor.
On the shakedown run she ran a little hot. After inspection there was a ton of grass in the heat exchanger and hoses from last season. Now with the sea strainer in place that will all be eliminated. After cleaning the leftovers out she ran great, only getting up to about 165 degrees and the risers ran at a cool 75!
Can’t wait to get back on the water on a regular basis and start catching again. I was so elated with being back in the water that I forgot to take pictures of the completed system, I will take some next week and post them with hopefully pics from my first striper of the season.
Ready to get wet!
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008I am ready! Finished up all the major stuff that needs to be done before going in the water today. I rewired the wash down pump and always-on buss bar for electronics memory. They used to be on the start battery and both always hot. I moved them to the house battery and the wash down is now on the fused side of the house load so it no longer has 24/7 power like it did.
We used Yacht Brite Pro Polish on my boat and two others yesturday. The results were great, all the boats looked great. The best part was despite the chilly temps it went on and off extremely easy. So easy it actually took longer to use the polisher than it did by hand and all three of us polished our boats by hand…even Mark with his 37′ Bertram!
The battery boxes went in along with stops that I made out of starboard to further secure them. I just did not trust the flimsy straps that came with the boxes. Plus the plastic box sitting on a starboard shelf is very slick and moves easily. The house battery box I had to remove the handle on one side to get a good fit but since I don’t carry the batteries around in the box nor did it seem to be structural in anyway felt it was not an issue to do so. Otherwise I would have either had to go with a tray again or a smaller battery…neither of which I felt were options.
The only thing left to do before going in the water is to connect the hoses for the raw water intake, just waiting on the hose to arrive. Assuming there are no issues with the hose and connections I should be launching this Friday!
Play’n Hooky
Monday, February 25th, 2008I was able to slip away from work and work on the boat in hopes of launching later in the week. Unfortunately some things took longer than planned and the guys in the marina won’t be in on Friday which would be the only other day this week I could get back down.
Anyway we got the through hulls in today. That was the big hurdle, now that those are in it is all down sea from here.
I had planned on polishing the hull sides today but the water stains were so bad on the hull I had to compound the boat first, so now I need another half a day to do the polishing. On the plus side it does look really good now. At first I figured it would be good to compound it and make it look like it was just trailered out of the showroom…until I realized I did not put the last crate of tools in the truck. The one that had the extension cords and the polisher in it. I ended up compounding from the gunwales down all by hand…not fun.
I do have to say though that so far I am very pleased with a new line of cleaning products I am trying for the first time. I recently started to use the Yacht Brite products after seeing them in action on TV. I used the cleaner in the pilothouse for spring cleanup and it came out really nice. The compound worked very well, even when compounding it by hand. I have yet to use the polish, as long as it is not raining I will be polishing this weekend.
More spring M and PM
Sunday, February 24th, 2008It has been a busy weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) getting the boat ready for launch next week. Filled with good news and bad. I don’t need a new water pump but I do have to track down a broken vane from the impeller…hopefully it is in the bottom of the heat exchanger. The zincs were in good shape but for forty bucks why chance corrosion of much more expensive parts right? But before I was able to get any work done I had to shovel two to three inches of slush out of the cockpit, off the roof, etc.
Today I installed the new battery switches and charge relay and rewired some accessories. What a job to do the switches. The old switch, fuse, bus bars and breakers were through bolted onto a stainless plate. I removed the bolts and tapped the holes in the plate instead of through bolting. Why would you want to disconnect every wire and have to remove the panel to change a switch or add a breaker…that is just crazy.
I also put the start battery shelf back in and installed the battery box for the start battery. I have to get another house battery box to replace the one I just received, it was for up to group 31 and is way too big for the space. Hopefully I can get the group 29 battery into a group 27 box. If all the dimensions on the manufacturer’s web sites are true it should fit.
I tried to polish the hull sides as well today but didn’t realize how bad the water stains from the well water were. Interlux’s heavy duty stain remover worked well but would take way too long to use to do the whole boat. Tommy had tested his compound on a small spot on my boat that I had not realized and since it was nice and clean there I am going to pickup some compound tomorrow to do the whole boat. I just hope I will have time after installing the through hulls, valves and sea strainer tomorrow to get the hull compounded and polished.
Glass 100% Full
Thursday, February 21st, 2008The holes for the through hulls are glassed in! Woo Hoo! The glass work is complete and I guess you could say the glass is completely full. Progress…now that the weather is not cooperating for re-boring the holes and installing the through hulls and valves it is once again a waiting game. That waiting should not be that long however-Monday looks pretty good as far as weather goes and we should be able to get her done and ready to get wet then (fingers crossed). There is lots of work to do this weekend and the list keeps growing as I think of things. Not sure what happened this winter but boy did I get behind. I am sure burning my hand and not working on anything for two weeks did not help. Only 8 more days till backwater bass!