And here's a lesson learned

The 'mouse-fur' hull liner is fairly transparent.  You can see in one phone the shadows from the two large holes, so I torn it back out, plugged the holes, painted it, then made a new template and cut n glue.  The old piece didn't fit that well on the right hand side, down in the grove, so the next time, I took a little more care and had it come out right.

And here's the view going around

And it will look all homie here after some sheets and a comforter.  Can't wait to do the aft berth.

Good day today, hull liner installed in the vberth

And, I'm still trying to get my camera running where my wife sent it through the washing machine.  But, four sides, templates made, hull liner cut then glued up, yea haw.   Oh yea, here's the specs on how the prop did ;
Against Current
1500 4.25 73c
2000 5.38 74c
2500 6.33 74c
3000 6.59 74c
3300 6.74 75c

With Current
1500 4.10 73c
2000 5.54 73c
2500 6.07 73c
3000 6.58 74c
3300 6.78 75c

Need to;
Install anti chaff over battery cable
loosen stuffing box glad slightly
Reroute hot water heater hose away from exhaust elbow.
Investigate leak coming from somewhere aft
Stuffing box was cool to the touch the whole time
Strut lock nuts were tight, no leakage around strut mount nor stuffing box, muffler appears to be not leaking.
Alignment was good, no vibration at engine.

And tomorrow will entail tackling the engine room stuff, so I can then move onto putting down the hull liner in the aft berth.  Man, it's finally coming together.
Kb

Sea Trial complete, it's alive professor...

Greetings from SailH37,

Since the last time I wrote, things have really picked up, for the positive.  I pulled the plug on working in Knoxville TN and we headed South!  My wife was very happy to return home and I was anxious on getting back to installing a new motor.  I spent the next three months in Green Cove Springs Marina and installed the motor, pulled the mast and painted it and both booms, and did a bottom job also.  I learned many things during that period, I must have, I kept saying to myself, gee, I never knew I was so dammed dumb.

First of all, After having been up on the hard a dozen times and having done all the work myself, I think I'm fairly qualified in saying that Green Cove Springs Marina has a good thing going on there.  The people know what they're doing.  From Krystal in the office to the mechanics, to the hoist and crane operators, they all made it work well.  I was able to get and do everything I needed there from ordering parts, to purchasing supplies they have on hand there, to working with Monkey Fist Marine who has used boat parts, to Chuck Coats Machine shop.  They have a long term storage lot there and the place is run by cruisers, and they accomodate cruisers, in every way they can.  It was really cool doing Thanksgivings Day there with everyone too.

But, what I learned was don't cover the boat with home depot style tarps, they only grow mold and didn't protect any plastic pieces from rotting.  Green Cove Springs Marina uses a very wide weave type cloth that's about 10 wide and allows about half the sun in and the air and rain can move freely.  Another thing I learned that I hadn't thought of was that one can not use one's mast and boom to install a motor, while up on the hard.  You might be able to do it if you're in the water, but not in stands, it'll pull the boat over.  When I purchased the motor, I hired the Yanmar dealer in Green Cove Springs to help me get the old one out, and the new one in.  He originally had planned to use my mast to swap motors, until he showed up and noticed that I was scraping the paint off of it as it sat on saw-horses.  I don't know if this was his first motor swap, but it was certainly mine, and after he asked me '...so, how do you plan on getting this motor out of the back of my pickup truck, we usually use the customer's mast and boom...', I decided that it was probably better that I work with the mechanics in the yard instead.  That was a good decision.  We of course used cranes, and they were very gracious holding the motor there and then pulling it up so I could drill new motor mount holes.  Everyone thought I was crazy when I locked the new motor sitting on the ground next to the boat, to the boat using my anchor chain, but hey, I didn't want someone to drive off with it while I was in the middle of getting the old one out.  It worked out well though.

I continued to do all the things I could like put in the new 3" exhaust where it had a 2" before, not lots of fun folks, seriously.  The new control cables caused me to pull the whole steering system apart and after a half dozen times, I had everything in, on, about, and around that pedistal in perfect shape.  I put in a new prop strut, to go with the new prop (Flex-o-fold and I'm loving it so far), align the motor, run the fuel lines, new fuel filter, rework the house batteries and verified the complete electrical system.  I made many many other small changes, filling holes with resin and gelcoat, etc.  Since the mast had to be repainted, I went with new standing rigging and LED lights too, still gotta do those chain plates.  But, after 3 months of working on it every day, I lost another 20 pounds of unwanted belly fat and I was ready to start up the new motor.

My neighbor (Karl Stien) who was also having a new Yanmar 3JH5E installed, made a great suggestion.  He said that his mechanic was stopping by to start up his motor for the first time and I might want to take advantage of his being in the yard.  Man oh man was that the best decision I ever made.  I hired Al from Al's Mobile Marine Service out of Palm Coast and he found a couple of things I had done wrong, and some extra sealant on the oil pressure gauge, but got it started and running.  His knowledge of marine engines blew me away.  He knew the exact wire to check to make sure the oil pressure gauge worked, and all kinds of other things that most mechanics have to look up in service manuals (I had look up stuff  all the time when I had working on cars for 10+ years) .  Hiring him was really a good thing, and after talking with many people about it afterwards, they all agreed that he's very good and has been recommended by everyone.  He is the mechanic that everyone dreams of hiring.

Splash down, yea!  Back in the water, and what a heck of a big mess to clean up.  I had taken just about every system apart so there were tools and parts everywhere.  Using Tide laundry soap took most of the bottom paint dust off the deck, and several days later, I made the two day trip to Harbortown Marina in Jacksonville.  It's only a 9 to 10 hour trip, but the bridges in downtown Jax makes it too long for a single day.  But running the motor at it's break-in RPMs of about 90% to 95% of max RPM was really sweet.  Flex-o-fold tried to sell me a prop that I thought would have been just slightly too big and would have given me big prop walk problems, but I went with one size smaller in diameter, and the boat speed was 6.5 knots at max RPM.  This is on a boat that weights 11 tons and has a PHRF rating of about 180, and max hull speed of 7.2.  No noises, no vibrations, all was good.

After many days at the dock putting everything else in order like hooking the hot water heater back up, and installing a couple of new parts I had purchased while working in Knoxville like the fresh water pump and autopilot, my wife and I decided to spend the night on the boat.  Oh yes, another milestone.  They we found that the refrigerator wasn't working, and oh yea, the toilet won't pump either.  Well, it's always something, huh?  The frigerator was one of those install yourself under a counter and move the already attached compressor to where you need it, within a couple of feet.  I think that when I mounted the compressor in a really nice and safe place, it ended up being too high compared to the unit, and I'm thinking that maybe the oil didn't circulate or settle where it should have.  The old one worked well for 11 years, so I'm going back with another one, this time I'm going to mount the compressor down low.  About the toilet, well it was put in new 11 years ago and never messed with, it always worked well, and I just wanted to procrastinate taking it apart, but that's what it needed.  Something sat in the bottom and coated the inside of the first part of the whole thing to the point where the coating was about a 1/4" thick.  A piece of this affluent came off and had jammed in the first valve.  No biggie, just scrape all that stuff out dropping it into a couple of plastic bags, and one new joker valve, and that job was finished.  Lesson learned here was that thinking that I could escape the usual unpleasant and sometimes nasty repairs needed around a boat by putting in new parts, just doesn't hold up.  In time, what ever you install will need to be repaired too, there's no getting out of it.  Learn how to work on your boat, you'll have to do it at some time, or spend lots of money paying others to do it.

Yesterday I finally had my sea trial.  I wasn't able to coordinate schedules with Al's Mobile Marine Service before then, and had my hands were full with other repairs, so it had been some time since the install.  The usual track is to do a sea trial very soon after installation.  I hadn't run the motor but a couple of times sitting at the dock, so it was nice to go thru the trail.  Again, Al did a great job.  While we motored at specific RPMs for a set period of time, we checked boat speed, temperature, etc.  He crawled all over that motor while we were under way, and had some great suggestions for me like maybe some anti-chaffing gear here, re-route the hot water heater hose a little further away from the mixing elbow, etc.  He had me give it wide open throttle for a short period of time to make sure that I couldn't over rev the motor, which also validated that the prop wasn't too small.  Wide open throttle was at 3,210 RPMS and I hadn't run it beyond the max stated in the books of 3,000 so when we reached 6.75 knots, it's was exciting.  The hull speed of boat is 7.2 and I see that it wouldn't be safe motoring that speed, so I'm really happy with the way everything came together.  There were no vibrations, no noises, everything is there.  I can now safely say that the motor has been installed.  Al's Mobile Marine Service, Green Cove Springs Marina, and Yanmar gets the accolades.  And again, none of this would have even possible if it hadn't been for two very generous friends; Chad and Patti Roberts.  Thank you again.

It's the first of February now, it's still too cold in my eyes to be out there sailing, so I'm going to busy myself with installing the new hull liner that arrived (getting tired of rolling over and trying to find a painted fiberglass hull warm and fuzzy at 6am), and installing the new frig when it gets here.  These two projects will be finished just in time to go put some hours on the new motor.  I need to get it to it's 50 hour mark, then have Al come adjust the valves and send a oil sample off to have it analysed as suggested by Yanmar.  This spring is starting to shape up very nicely.  If you're in the middle of a project and you're a little frustrated, take a deep breath, and press on.  It's worth it, you can do it with diligence and patience.  See ya out there.
Kb
s/v Renasci

Propane Locker Replaced

The latch was broken many years ago, and it was originally meant for holding home irrigation controls.  It was twice as large as it needed to be and stuck out a little bit, made it so you always came in and out of the cockpit using the port side of the backstay.  It had to go.  I was really happy to have found the plastic box I did, and even more surprised by the way it installed.  I still keep thinking it's too good to be true.  I used a plastic box from off of Amazon, under the name of BUD Industries NBB-15243 Style B Plastic Outdoor NEMA Box with Solid Door.  The regulator I already had fit so well that I put a hole in the top so that the gauge could be easily seen.  The box had a structure already built in that allowed me to bolt down a piece of starboard and then screw the regulator down to that.  I drilled a couple of really big holes, a couple of small ones, and wha-la.  If I need to make it more robust, I'll need to cut some small wedges out of starboard and shim it against the railing.  The stern rail is conforming to the curvature of the stern at that point and isn't level itself.  The new box is have the size and everything fits perfectly, as far as I'm concerned.  I especially like the catches as they are plastic too and seem to work well, so far.

And of course, one job completed and another arises.

We spent the weekend on the boat and had a great time.  We got to clean the dinghy and took it for a spin around the marina.  Then we discovered that the refrigerator wasn't working and the toilet clogged up with only a small amount of paper.  Oh boy.

I'm wondering if the frig when out because I had hooked it up backwards and tried to run it for a few minutes.  It wasn't hard to do, all you have to do is use a scrap piece of wire that is coded the new color scheme and hook it to a piece of wire with the old black/red scheme, then try to remember years later... was it the red that was hot, or... So, after 10 years, it might have just gone out.

Now, the toilet.  I put in a new joker valve, it's manual, and the handle works but is very stiff, and won't draw matter into the pump.  So I'm going to try a coat hanger to try to see what's clogging it and hopefully get it into the tank, so I don't have to handle all that with my hands.  I'm betting that my idea of using aluminum foil to put underneath the pipes as I loosen them, will help keep the affluent from going everywhere.  I'm going to have the wet dry vacuum there too.  Its a work vacuum that is on it's last leg and has been full of everything else nasty, so why not.  Pray for me,  More updates to follow.

New Raymarine Autopilot installed

I installed a Raymarine wheel autopilot and performed dock side install steps, so far so good, still need to test it out on the water.  It's the new version of what they've carried in the past, so lets see how it does.  I am pushing the limits a little with the overall weight limits for the vessel, but with a balanced rudder, no weather helm, all new hardware from pedestal, to pulleys, to rudder, and on and on.  It paid to read the install manuals over and over again.  I'm glad I mounted the sensor upside down like they said I could, that made it really easy to plug in.  I also followed the suggestions to drill a hole into the handrail and route the wire thru that avenue, instead of going thru the pedestal.  After redoing everything in there, I had everything secure and really well put together, oh yea, you have to completely take everything apart and put is back together again no less than one dozen times before it's right.

The only gottcha was the wires from the actual drive unit, a wheel drive in this case, were brown and blue and they had female spade connectors instead of soldiered wire tips.  After looking and looking, the consensus was use the Blue wire for B aka negative.  Well, then I first cranked it up and did the dockside test, the wheel turned the opposite direction from what it initially thinks.  I say it like that because it displayed a series of questions that had it going in the right direction within seconds, literally.  I think it's a mute point on how you hook up the drive motor, the calibration process fixes which way is which.

Here are the pics of the pieces.

Nothing sexy like a new motor, just other necessary repairs.

It to do those other repairs.  Over the past couple of days, I've installed a new sink drain in the head, that has a p-trap built in and cool rotating flap type device to hold water in the sink.  Now we won't be dis-heartened when we drop something down the drain, as it won't go directly overboard.  Besides that, I installed a new fresh water pump under the galley sink.  I did a proper install versus just following the previous install, and it's quiet, no water hammering, and no intermittent loading on the electrical system.  Also, after 12 years of having worked on everything on the boat, I found a piece of screen that was shoved into the pipe for the outlet side of the tank selector switch.  Taking that out really increased the water pressure and helped the pump run more smoothly.  Besides that, I cleaned out the raw water strainer for the AC-heater and replaced the raw water strainer for the head.  I had modified the raw water strainer for the head so that I could route a fresh water tank for flushing only.  What I found out over time is that it takes a lot of water for a fresh water flush and I just don't have the time nor do I want to carry that much water.  And, it didn't eliminate the sulfur dioxide smell.  So, I ripped out the rain drain plumbing and hooked it back up so it routes the rain overboard like before, and replaced the modified raw water strainer.  Not sure if I'll keep the small tank for something like a wash down pump, or turn it back into storage.  I know, nothing like a fresh water wash down, but that's more of ... pumps, tanks, needing to fill, higher electrical loads, etc.  I'm wanting to keep thing simple at this point.  This boat just isn't a Discovery 55, ha ha.  It's really designed for sailing in and around Florida and the Bahamas.

With those repairs completed, it's time to move onto the head and the holding tank.  I'm going to dive into re-doing the holding tank for a second time.  I'm not convinced that it's not leaking just a little bit.  It's time to replace the hoses anyway and I have an electrical pump to discharge the phecal matter that I can install, but I may hold off on that as I just rebuilt the manual pump a year ago.

After that, I think I should really replace the piece of flooring that has rotted out over the years.  It's in the galley and isn't too dangerous as the whole boat has a think fiberglass flooring and the wood flooring is only for looks, but the possibility of splinters is a definite, not a maybe.  And, the carpet that I had down works at the dock, but not out sailing with the boat on a heel.

And, finally, yes, I'm actually getting to the end of the list of shit to do, and it will be ready for this spring.  Gotta get a new fishing license.
Kb

Pics of the new motor.

Called Al's Mobile Marine Service will be visiting me sometime soon to do the sea trial, which will validate the techometer which are almost always on the money.  I've already put 11 hours on it, it was necessary to get it from the work hard to the home marina.  Everything ran great.  Now I have the hot water heater installed and the insulation glued up.  After the sea trial, I will need to call Al back after I get 50 hours on it, to drain the oil and anti-freeze to send to Yanmar for analysis (part of the installation validation process that's needed before they completely bless everything.), and then Al will adjust the valves.  After that, I'm good to go for good.  Man, it sounds like a new boat with everything in place now.  In the mean time, I will need to install that new auto pilot I've already purchased, and replace the holding tank hoses and rebuild the head, you know, usual type stuff, ha ha.

Back to work

We made it back to Florida yesterday without any drama or mishaps.  It's 7am, time to get back to working on the boat.  Today will involve draining the anti-freeze enough to hook up the hot water heater, then check the alignment of the motor and check the tightness of the motor mount bolts, then get the stay sail bent on, and clean up some more.  Yee-haw.