- I rebuilt my anchor locker. This involved removing everything scraping and sanding the locker and applying three coats of gel coat. I had a bit of a dip in the bottom where water pools so I also built that up and after gel-coating I installed big rubber mating which sits up off the floor and has drainage holes to keep everything dry. The locker is divided fro two anchors so I also replaced the wood divider with a big piece of 1' unbreakable plastic along with plastic guides (no more rotten wood). laid out my chain and put good marking on it and returned everything to the locker. This little project took about three weekends and turned out great.
- I replaced my water pressure pump. When I was winterizing the water system I could not get my pump to pick up a prime even after disconnecting pipes and manually priming it. I figured tapping it with a hammer might be a good idea, wrong. After taping it a few times it started making very bad noises and was basically $%##%. I could find a shur-flo replaced so I settled on a par pump with the same specs but a little larger. I I had of known how much issue the larger size was going to be I would have found an exact replacement. I had to rearrange the entire area where it was placed an run a few new hosed to accommodate its new placement. This project took about three weekends and I still wasn't really happy when it was completed.
- I winterized the generator and main engine. This involve changing the oil and filters along with the transmission oil fir the yanmar. After changing the oil I circulated antifreeze into both engines via the seawater intake strainer. I use a sea flush tool which save a lot of time when winterizing http://www.seaflush.com/.
- I discovered I had a bad D battery. These batteries are huge and weigh about 160lbs. Of course the one I had to get at was in the back so I had to remove the forward battery in order to slide it grrrrrr. My buddy John gave me a hand getting it out I I now have a new battery installed. This only took about four hours.
- I added a starter battery. My existing bank consisted of 2x8D batteries fir the house bank and 1x8D for the starter. An 3D starting battery seems like it would be better as part of my house supply so I decided to add a group 34 starting battery. After deciding where the new battery was going I had to build a shelf / box where the battery would sit and a means of securing it so that it would never moved in a storm. I built everything out of a plastic and have two SS threaded rods which secure the battery down with another piece of plastic and wing nuts. I'll take a picture its easier to understand. This was a fun project but I had to re-arrange the high pressure pump for the water maker and ran into another project which added another four hours but the whole thing took a weekend to complete but looks good and is quite functional.
- Nasty jobs now discussed readers beware. I decided to trace out my electrical wire that feeds the water heater from the panel since I wasn't getting any power and felt this would speed up the time I would have an electrician on board. In order to follow the wire I had to remove the floor under the nav station which also covers my 35 gallon aft waste tank. Things didn't smell to great or look to great once I took the floor up, upon closer inspection I found the vent line fitting had snapped off in the tank and was not only venting into the boat but allowing waste to over flow when on a hard port tack (that's what the smell was). It wasn't possible to repair it in the boat so I needed to get it out. My gooood friend Grant helped me lift the tank out which had been pretty much empty but not quite...oh well. The tank was pretty easy to fix and I gave it a thorough cleaning. I also cleaned out the space it had been sitting along with the wiring and figure I might as well replace all the tank hoses while its out. The tank should have been empty so after testing my diverter valve (the one that you switch for wast tank or direct overboard) I discovered it was not diverting everything so am replacing that as well. Joyce has alos scraped sanded an gel-coated the area where the tank goes and with any luck it should be dry today so that I can re-install it. In the midst of this project I had my electrician come in and do my electrical while the tank was out but that's another bullet. So in the middle of this project I did a quick inspection of the forward tank which is easier to access. I wont go into all the details of that job because its too nasty but I also have replaced all of the hoses and a defective diverter valve (dont ask me how I know) a defective macerator pump and today I will complete the job by replacing the defective tank monitor with a viewing port (again don't ask me how I know). These two crappy jobs were no fun at all but very necessary and I am glad they are pretty well finished and I wont have to worry about either system for many years so these were very rewarding if not romantic:).
- Its time for an electrician. I called David Evan's a local marine wizard who has spent the previous winter re-wiring the Bluenose but that's another story. David had helped me out with a charging issue the previous summer so I decided to have him back for this project. David was on the boat for 8hrours and did the following projects. 1) He figured out why I had no power to the water heater or washer/dryer (broken wire to the circuit feeding both) this took a while just for David to determine how the boat was wired which was a bit out of the norm. 2) David did a thorough inspection of everything connected to the batteries and found several wires that required inline fuses. Apparently for safety reasons everything that runs off the battery for more than a small distance needs a fuse to prevent potential fires in the case of a short. 3) David wired in my new starter batter and installed a combiner (this unit automatically combines the banks when it see's a charge and isolates the starter battery when it see's a draw with no charge so that I can never end up without power for starting). 4) The battery switch was rewired to accommodate the combiner so now rather than 1 - 2 or all ALL I just use number one for everything while powering or anchored. 5) Last year when I broke a belt on the yanmar it damaged the water temperature sensor/alarm so David had ordered a new one and installed that so we now will get an audible alarm if the temp rises. 6) I purchased a AIS transponder so I had David install a small bus bar and wire in the power from the AIS to my navigation breaker and he also terminated the nema 0183 on this bus bar which will make connecting a snap when I run my nema cable back from the plotter. Electrician's are expensive and I haven't received the bill yet, however this is an are where I feel good about spending the money and ma very pleased with all the work that was completed (Excellent job).
- My Rib repairs..... I have an 11' novurania which is great boat but its best days are behind it. Last eyar I spent $1200 bucks having a local repair shop rebuild it hypalon the whole nine yards. Shortly after using the boat it started coming apart in an area that wasn't work on. I messaged Vitali regarding the issue and he came without question and picked up the boat even though it had nothing to do with what he had repaired. H still has the boat and is going bto do do his best to get me back in business. Nice!
So that pretty much brings you up to speed on what I have been working on. I hope to finish installing and hooking up the waste tanks this weekend and then I will be starting on the AIS installation. I also have to haul the boat in June to clean sand and re-paint.