The Cummins heat exchanger was leaking a little from it's aft-facing inspection plate. This is the same plate I'd removed several days ago to see if there were zinc bits inside the heat exchanger. Tightening the plate's attachment bolt took care of the problem.
The battery switch being used to isolate the thruster/windlass couldn't handle the bow thruster's current draw—we need a new switch that can handle at least 425A. In the mean time one of the switche's studs is connecting together the battery and the thruster/windlass power line.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Tools Down!
Cleaned the bilges. Put several coats of Cetol on the dinghy oars. TSP'd the salon walls, companionway hatch interior, and the Tommy door. Removed the wood mounts in the pilothouse that supported Peter Newman's writing table. Updated the Garmin MFDs to software V7.5. And, finally, after six weeks we put all the tools away!
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Draining the Airsep's P-Trap
For the record, all of the following occurred after opening Christmas presents.
Washed the decks with Oxy.
One more bung came off during the scrubbing which leaves three that need to be repaired. Put a new impeller in the Cummins. The old impeller was in good shape.
Drained oil out of the AirSep's p-trap. Need to add this task to the Periodic Maintenance List. It probably should be checked every six months.
The dinghy tube repair seems to be holding. Yea! The repair methodology was different this time in that (1) toluene was used to scrub the patched area; (2) three coats of contact adhesive were applied with a paintbrush; and (3) the tube wasn't inflated for 24 hours.
Washed the decks with Oxy.
One more bung came off during the scrubbing which leaves three that need to be repaired. Put a new impeller in the Cummins. The old impeller was in good shape.
Drained oil out of the AirSep's p-trap. Need to add this task to the Periodic Maintenance List. It probably should be checked every six months.
The dinghy tube repair seems to be holding. Yea! The repair methodology was different this time in that (1) toluene was used to scrub the patched area; (2) three coats of contact adhesive were applied with a paintbrush; and (3) the tube wasn't inflated for 24 hours.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Silicone Caulk that Doesn't Set--Not Good
In the immortal words of John McEnroe—"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!" Some of the GE Silicone II used on the three starboard side salon windows didn't harden. Fortunately only the most aft window had to be redone. For the purposes of full disclosure the silicone used was beyond its expiration date, and yes, I did know it. But everyone knows that caulk goes bad by hardening in the tube. Guess I'll have to modify that heuristic:old latex and polyurethane caulks harden in the tube; old silicone may never harden.
Since I was already playing with the windows today, I reversed the opening direction of the salon's port center window. Now the sliding pane is the most forward pane and slides aft to open. This was done to better accommodate the air conditioner's exhaust hose.
There's some unexplained rust-brown water in the forward and mid bilge. In a newly painted forward bilge (the bilge from the bow to the engine room bulkhead) a little brown water worked itself up through several hairline cracks in the bilge's bottom. Wipe the water away and several hours later a little more appears. The same colored water, but in greater volume, is in the mid bilge (the bilge aft of the engine room bulkhead extending to the dam under the refrigerator). The aft bilge has nothing but clear water in it. I suspect that the water has been in proximity to the iron ballast--thus the rust brown color. Like the bulwarks, it doesn't surprise me that water got into the ballast's sealed space. The question now is, how to get it out. With the hopes of draining it I drilled two two 3/8" exploratory holes in the keel. Both went through about an inch of fiberglass before hitting dry metal. Rather than continue guessing where the water may be, the next test hole will be down through one of the hairline cracks.
Cleaned the dinghy. Sanded and epoxied the dinghy's oars. Nylon tied the dinghy's gas line and sounder wires together. Filled the dink with air. The new patch appears to be holding. Gallons of water were drained from the dink's bilge. I suspect that it's rain water that found it's way below deck. When not using the dink for extended periods it would be best to remove the plug (it's the plug on the outside of the dink and low on the transom).
With the davits' falls all the way down to the dink, I could see an alarming amount of wire deformation on the port davit. The deformation was just below the turning block. This is also about where the starboard davit's wire broke. I'll bet this length of wire is usually just off the winch drum when the dink hits the water. It's then getting crushed each time the dink is raised. We need to replace the wire soonest.
Replaced the pencil zinc in the Cummins' heat exchanger. Removed the heat exchanger's end cap to make sure that none of the old zinc was blocking the tubes. Cleaned the end cap put a new o-ring around it's retaining bolt.
Removed and re-bedded the two studs which connect the Diver's Dream Zinc to Nellie's bonding wires. Ground a slot in the port forward fuel tank's cap to receive a deck key. Didn't like the result--it's still too hard to open. A proper solution is to remove each tank's inspection plate and replace the 2" caps and receivers with real diesel deck plates. It'll have to wait until we get Nellie to Maryland.
Since I was already playing with the windows today, I reversed the opening direction of the salon's port center window. Now the sliding pane is the most forward pane and slides aft to open. This was done to better accommodate the air conditioner's exhaust hose.
There's some unexplained rust-brown water in the forward and mid bilge. In a newly painted forward bilge (the bilge from the bow to the engine room bulkhead) a little brown water worked itself up through several hairline cracks in the bilge's bottom. Wipe the water away and several hours later a little more appears. The same colored water, but in greater volume, is in the mid bilge (the bilge aft of the engine room bulkhead extending to the dam under the refrigerator). The aft bilge has nothing but clear water in it. I suspect that the water has been in proximity to the iron ballast--thus the rust brown color. Like the bulwarks, it doesn't surprise me that water got into the ballast's sealed space. The question now is, how to get it out. With the hopes of draining it I drilled two two 3/8" exploratory holes in the keel. Both went through about an inch of fiberglass before hitting dry metal. Rather than continue guessing where the water may be, the next test hole will be down through one of the hairline cracks.
Cleaned the dinghy. Sanded and epoxied the dinghy's oars. Nylon tied the dinghy's gas line and sounder wires together. Filled the dink with air. The new patch appears to be holding. Gallons of water were drained from the dink's bilge. I suspect that it's rain water that found it's way below deck. When not using the dink for extended periods it would be best to remove the plug (it's the plug on the outside of the dink and low on the transom).
With the davits' falls all the way down to the dink, I could see an alarming amount of wire deformation on the port davit. The deformation was just below the turning block. This is also about where the starboard davit's wire broke. I'll bet this length of wire is usually just off the winch drum when the dink hits the water. It's then getting crushed each time the dink is raised. We need to replace the wire soonest.
Replaced the pencil zinc in the Cummins' heat exchanger. Removed the heat exchanger's end cap to make sure that none of the old zinc was blocking the tubes. Cleaned the end cap put a new o-ring around it's retaining bolt.
Removed and re-bedded the two studs which connect the Diver's Dream Zinc to Nellie's bonding wires. Ground a slot in the port forward fuel tank's cap to receive a deck key. Didn't like the result--it's still too hard to open. A proper solution is to remove each tank's inspection plate and replace the 2" caps and receivers with real diesel deck plates. It'll have to wait until we get Nellie to Maryland.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
RIB Tube Repair Methodology
Painted the bottom with one gallon of Rust-Oleum bottom paint (47.5% copper). Since Nellie will be hauled in October there's no need to do a full bottom job now. (Update: The Rust-Oleum was not a good bottom paint; lots of hard growth--10 May 2014).
Tried again to fix the slow leak in the dink. The process was (1) rough sand the area; (2) wipe it down with tolulene; (3) put three layers of 2-part adhesive on both the patch and the area to be covered; (4) apply the patch and rub it hard into place with a wrench. Letting the patch sit for 24 hours before blowing the dink up.
Had a hard time replacing the 4"x6" Divers Dream zinc. Its nuts were completely encrusted with marine growth. Both studs turned. Got the zinc off but will have to remove the studs and re-bed them before putting the new zinc on.
A year since it was installed the heat exchanger's pencil zinc was completely gone. Need to check it every six months.
Tried again to fix the slow leak in the dink. The process was (1) rough sand the area; (2) wipe it down with tolulene; (3) put three layers of 2-part adhesive on both the patch and the area to be covered; (4) apply the patch and rub it hard into place with a wrench. Letting the patch sit for 24 hours before blowing the dink up.
Had a hard time replacing the 4"x6" Divers Dream zinc. Its nuts were completely encrusted with marine growth. Both studs turned. Got the zinc off but will have to remove the studs and re-bed them before putting the new zinc on.
A year since it was installed the heat exchanger's pencil zinc was completely gone. Need to check it every six months.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
That's Why We Test!
Installed corrugated stainless steel gas line between the Force 10's 3/8" male flare fitting and Nellie's 5/16" flared cap (female fitting.
The good news is that changing out Vacuflush parts is becoming easier and easier to do. The bad news is that I was working on the head again today. I'm pretty sure that the vacuum leak is at the el under the toilet. It's a very slow leak as the vacuum pump comes on maybe once in four hours and then only for seconds. Today I took out the makeshift el and installed a proper PVC one. Had to use a heat gun on the white toilet hose to make it easier to get the connectors in.
That's why we test! After filling the holding tank with water until it overflowed from the deck plate, we found two leaks in the system. Much better to find the leaks now with clean water than later with … ;-) after fixing the leaks a re-test revealed nothing but dry joints.
Relocated all the life jackets from the top of the stateroom's hanging locker to underneath the salon's settee. Still easy access and reduces clutter. Speaking of clutter, the storage location for the the pilothouse's floor and nav table inserts is now on top of the genset. At least while at the dock this keeps the pilothouse bench foot rest clutter free.
Replaced the starboard davit's 4mm wire rope with 3/16" Amsteel-Blue. Reused the wire rope's thimble and wove it into place using a fid made from a 6mm knitting needle ($2.50/pair at Walmart). The needle is hollow and when cut to about 4" long, worked perfectly. Some nylon whipping, from the thimble up the falls 4", keeps the stainless weights from rubbing on the Amsteel-Blue.
Covered the chain-locker-side of the doors at the end of the bunk with an insulated plastic sheet. This helps keeps water spray and odors in the chain locker.
Scraped more loose gel coat from the hull. Started to put black bottom paint on just the bare spots but have decided to go ahead and put bottom paint on the entire bottom. Need more paint.
The stateroom is finished! The mattress cover was washed, air dried and sprayed with a deodorant. The new polished brass lights were re-installed. The new bedspread and new throw pillows were put fashionably in place.
Installed a new bronze Kohler sink faucet. Redid all the cable ties holding the saltwater and water tank vent lines to the back of the kitchen sink cabinet. Believe it on not, the back cabinet is made of teak.
The good news is that changing out Vacuflush parts is becoming easier and easier to do. The bad news is that I was working on the head again today. I'm pretty sure that the vacuum leak is at the el under the toilet. It's a very slow leak as the vacuum pump comes on maybe once in four hours and then only for seconds. Today I took out the makeshift el and installed a proper PVC one. Had to use a heat gun on the white toilet hose to make it easier to get the connectors in.
That's why we test! After filling the holding tank with water until it overflowed from the deck plate, we found two leaks in the system. Much better to find the leaks now with clean water than later with … ;-) after fixing the leaks a re-test revealed nothing but dry joints.
Relocated all the life jackets from the top of the stateroom's hanging locker to underneath the salon's settee. Still easy access and reduces clutter. Speaking of clutter, the storage location for the the pilothouse's floor and nav table inserts is now on top of the genset. At least while at the dock this keeps the pilothouse bench foot rest clutter free.
Replaced the starboard davit's 4mm wire rope with 3/16" Amsteel-Blue. Reused the wire rope's thimble and wove it into place using a fid made from a 6mm knitting needle ($2.50/pair at Walmart). The needle is hollow and when cut to about 4" long, worked perfectly. Some nylon whipping, from the thimble up the falls 4", keeps the stainless weights from rubbing on the Amsteel-Blue.
Covered the chain-locker-side of the doors at the end of the bunk with an insulated plastic sheet. This helps keeps water spray and odors in the chain locker.
Scraped more loose gel coat from the hull. Started to put black bottom paint on just the bare spots but have decided to go ahead and put bottom paint on the entire bottom. Need more paint.
The stateroom is finished! The mattress cover was washed, air dried and sprayed with a deodorant. The new polished brass lights were re-installed. The new bedspread and new throw pillows were put fashionably in place.
Installed a new bronze Kohler sink faucet. Redid all the cable ties holding the saltwater and water tank vent lines to the back of the kitchen sink cabinet. Believe it on not, the back cabinet is made of teak.
Friday, December 21, 2012
New Force 10 Stove
Installed a Force 10 stainless steel three burner stove. The LNVT has a very nice stainless steel lined stove recess that's 24"(w) x 22" (d) x 22" (h). The LP gas line from the stack is the same 5/16" copper tubing that is used for the diesel fuel system. The LP gas tube enters the stove recess from the top, forward, outboard side. The Force 10 is gimbaled and uses two side-mounted brackets for support.
Ocean Eagle Yachts installed some nice looking teak trim between the recess and the old stove. I'll do the same when Nellie gets to the Chesapeake.
Finished painting the forward stateroom. Replaced the screening in both ceiling hatches. Polyurethaned the screens' frames.
Ocean Eagle Yachts installed some nice looking teak trim between the recess and the old stove. I'll do the same when Nellie gets to the Chesapeake.
Finished painting the forward stateroom. Replaced the screening in both ceiling hatches. Polyurethaned the screens' frames.
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