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With my list in hand I started with all of the basic but very important stuff. The boat is a 1999 model so all of the through hulls, hoses and clamps were original and since they kept the water out I thought this would be a great place to start. Because our boat is 47 feet in length and is equipped with a lot of complex systems (water maker, three air conditioners, washing machine, two heads, two showers, five water tanks, generator etc...) I began at the bow and started pulling up floor boards and working my way aft until I felt that I had checked and changed every hose or hose clamp that looked even a tiny bit sketchy. I found a surprising number of hose clamps looked good visually but when I gave them a slight turn they failed and were out under the spiral screw. As I checked or changed hose clamps I had yellow sleeves that I placed on the ends showing where I had been. Changing hoses was a pain, getting them off and then getting the new hoses back onto the hose barbs. I found the easiest way to get the new hoses onto the hose barbs was to stick the end of the hose into boiling water for five minutes. I used the stove on the boat; the hoses expanded just enough to make putting them on a breeze. I double clamped everything below the water line. While I was going through the bilge I also worked all of the through hulls several times to ensure they operated smoothly. I did find quite a few hoses that were past due for changing. This was a very worthwhile project, though it wasn’t visible to visitor’s. I also repaired a leak in the siphon break for the engine which had been identified in the survey, this was a pretty easy fix but because of the leaking over time it had rusted one of the engine mounts (pro-active maintenance on a boat saves a ton of time). This project doesn’t sound like much but kept me busy right into December, while the snow fell outside I worked inside.
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