Brightwork: Second Coat

Teak Maintenance, 11/4/2007

We returned on Sunday to apply the second coat of Cetol to the toe rail, hand rails, and cockpit steps. The second coat took the two of us just 90 minutes. There definitely appears to be some variation in color between the areas that were bare and those that still had original coatings. It doesn't look bad, but I certainly can notice it. Eh, probably I'm the only one who will care. Maybe a third coat next weekend will reduce the contrast. I'll take pictures of the finished areas next week.

The upper hand rails were in good shape, so they are done. After two coats, they really look nice! Applying a maintenance coat to sections that were already in good shape was easy. So easy, in fact, that we wish we hadn't put it off, despite the extensive list of more important work. The penalty for delay is just too high. We won't make that mistake again.

Still to do: flybridge steps, flybridge bench seat, wheelhouse door, and swim platform. That seems like a lot, but it really shouldn't be too bad. Everything except the swim platform is in good shape and should just require a maintenance coat or two. The platform will need a full sanding, so we may take it off and bring it home for the winter.

Brightwork

Teak Maintenance, 11/3/2007

"Bright it should be, and work it is." -- unknown

I'm not sure of the origin of that expression, but it aptly describes the dreaded task of maintaining teak on a boat. Often, other boaters look at the brightwork on a boat with mixture of admiration and pity. Teak is beautiful, but it also brings visions of endless sanding and varnishing. The finished product, of course, is quite rewarding. Or so I've heard.

Nowadays, pigmented coatings like Sikkens Cetol are a common compromise. The application and maintenance process is much easier, and the pigment protects the wood from UV. But, it lends a somewhat less appealing color than the mile-deep shine of traditional varnish. In our case, the decision to do it the easy way was made for us: The prior owner had already started with Cetol in 2004. Unfortunately, even with Cetol, we have our work cut out for us because we put off the project for too long, allowing the the finish to deteriorate quite badly in some areas. In those areas, bare teak has been exposed all year, and it has weathered gray. We really should have addressed the situation sooner, but we were otherwise occupied.

We started Saturday morning with the worst of it: the toe rail, hand rails, and cockpit steps. The hand rails were in mostly decent shape except for the forward-starboard rail, which was chipping and peeling pretty badly. The toe rail was moderately deteriorated all the way around. The deterioration increases the prep work substantially, since it requires sanding in addition to general cleaning. We followed these steps on all the deteriorated wood:

• Scrub thoroughly with a scouring pad, mild boat soap, and water
• Towel-dry
• Sand with 150-180 grit sanding pads to remove any flaking, and to take weathered areas down to clean wood
  
• Vacuum the dust
• Wipe with acetone to clean any remaining dust or oils
• Allow to air dry
• Brush on first coat of Cetol Light with a natural bristle brush

We freehanded the Cetol application, rather than taping off all of the surrounding area. That seemed to be the unanimous recommendation from others, given the time and difficulty involved with taping. A shop towel dampened with acetone works great for cleaning up any mistakes.

The process took the two of us about four hours. Teak is pretty soft, so sanding was easier than I expected. We only sanded to the point where all the flaking areas of Cetol were removed, which left the wood partly coated, and partly bare (click the pictures for closeups). My hope is that this will be adequate, but I'm concerned that the bare areas will show lighter than the other areas when we're finished. I expect that we'll need three coats minimum on the bare areas.

Fuel Issues

Changed Racor Fuel Filter
Changed Secondary Fuel Filter
Changed Crankcase Breather
Changed Air Filter
10/13/2006

Replacing the shift cables went very smoothly, so my father-in-law and I finished that job faster than I had anticipated. That left time for a little more maintenance before Michele and her mother arrived for our trip over to Cambridge.

I've had some concerns about our engine recently. There was a noticeable power loss and an increasing amount of grayish smoke at cruising speed. That could be a sign of serious trouble (worn rings, bad or dirty injectors), or possibly just a fuel problem. I was considering calling a Volvo diesel mechanic, but wanted to get all the filters changed out first, to determine whether it was just a fuel problem.

We quickly changed out each of the filters: the Racor primary fuel filter, the secondary fuel filter on the engine, the crankcase breather, and the air filter. During this process, I also discovered that my prior difficulty bleeding the fuel lines wasn't a problem with the lift pump after all. Instead, it was "operator error" -- i.e., I wasn't doing it right. The pump lever has some play, and I was only moving it within that range. To actually work, it needs to be pushed down beyond that range, at which point it springs back up. I was very pleased to learn this and gain the peace-of-mind that comes with now fully understanding the bleed process in case I ever need to do it while out on the water.

I'm happy to report that this effort made a huge difference in engine performance. Our speed was back up, the engine ran smoothly, and the smoke was virtually gone. We're still only hitting ~3400 RPM instead of our rated 3600 at wide-open-throttle, but that may just be a result of marine growth on the hull, so I'll wait until we launch in spring with fresh bottom paint to determine whether there's a problem.

Shift

Replaced Flybridge Cables, 10/13/2007

On my trip with Chris, the flybridge shift cable broke during our anchoring maneuvers. It broke in forward gear, with the anchor plus 20' of chain and 30' of rope in the water off the bow. It was an exciting few minutes, and an important lesson not to postpone maintenance. The flybridge shift and throttle cables had been a little stiff for quite a while, and I was planning to do the replacement during the off-season. Surprise! This project is getting done ahead of schedule!

The cables are 3300-universal type, 10' long, and run from the flybridge controls to the lower controls. They are threaded on both ends, making attachment/adjustment fairly easy. I replaced them with new TFXtreme #CC63310 cables, from Teleflex Marine. People rave about these cables, and I found them at BoatFix.com for just $30 each.

My father-in-law, who is a whiz with all things mechanical, helped me install them. It was fairly straightforward job:

• Removed the cover plates on the engine controls at both stations. There are set screws on each side, just above where the handles attach, that hold the cover in place.
• Detached the throttle cable by removing the cotter pin and spinning off the threaded fitting that holds the cable at each station. (Chris and I removed the shift cable the prior week, so I could take it home and find a new one.)
• Taped the new cables to the throttle cable and snaked them through from the lower helm up to the flybridge.
• Attached the new cables. On this boat, the fittings on the flybridge are not adjustable. Once threaded on and attached, they do not turn, whereas the lower helm fittings turn with a screwdriver.
• Adjusted the cable travel so that the shift and throttle levers hit their stops in both forward and backward positions, and so that the shift control is in its neutral detent at both helms.
• Lubricated the controls with WD-40.
• Reattached covers.

What an amazing difference! The TFXtreme cables allow a 4" bend radius, whereas other cables support only an 8" bend radius. Ours required a pretty tight bend at the lower station, so I think these cables were a great choice.

More Gunk

Cleaned Racor Bowl, 9/30/2007

AGAIN. I just did this in August (see post below). We logged about 33 hours since then, which seems not unreasonable, but I'd still like to reduce or eliminate the buildup of sludge.

This time, I tried just draining the gunk from the bowl. I only managed to get a tiny bit to come out before the drain hole clogged, so I had to disassemble it again. At least that's getting easier each time. I now keep a box of disposable rubber gloves on board, and I just put a quart-size ziploc around the whole filter/bowl assembly, remove it, take it apart, clean the bowl, reassemble, top it off with fresh diesel, and reinstall. The ziploc catches the old diesel, and I just dispose of it at the marina waste oil collection.

It seems I really need to address this problem. The fuel tank may be dirty, or I might be taking on dirty fuel at the fuel pump. I ordered a Racor fuel funnel (RFF15C), which handles 12-15 gallons-per-minute and filters to 74 microns, so I plan to filter all diesel as it enters the tank from now on. I would assume that if the supply is clean, eventually the filters will clean out most of the gunk from the tank.

Gunk In Racor Bowl

Cleaned Racor Bowl, 8/14/2007

The racor bowl was full of gunk again. While we were in Crisfield during our vacation, I disassembled it and cleaned it out. Michele provided extra hands, which helped tremendously in avoiding the mess I created last time I did this in June. Fortunately, I was able to reassemble everything this time without replacing the cartridge. The o-ring and the gasket were a bit stretched, but everything went back together ok. Next time I may try draining the gunk through the bottom instead, but I'm not sure the gunk will come out that way. Hopefully, that won't be soon!

Oil Change

Changed Engine Oil,
Changed Air Filter,
Topped Off Battery Water
8/9/2007

Used roughly 11 quarts of Chevron Delo multigrade 15w-40.

Stuff It

Repacked Stuffing Box
Replaced Racor Fuel Filter
6/30/2007

After the recent repair work, I'd been having trouble getting the stuffing box adjusted properly. I had just repacked it over the winter while the boat was on the hard, but I was concerned that the packing may have been compromised by the repairs. It's a cheap fix, so I repacked it again. This time, however, I changed the packing while the boat was in the water. Since the packing is what keeps the water out, that seems like a scary task, but it really wasn't bad. Having done the job before, I was confident that I'd be able to complete the job quickly and easily, with a little preparation. I laid out everything I needed near my workspace:

• Gore GFO packing material, cut into rings in advance
• Stuffing box wrenches
  
• A rag and Simple Green for cleaning the shaft
  
• A pick, a long screw, and a screwdriver (for removing the old packing)
• An allen wrench for pushing the new packing into the box

I unscrewed the packing nut and slid it up the shaft. Water starting flowing in immediately, but not at an alarming rate. Working quickly, I cleaned the residue from the old packing material off of the shaft, and then tied the rag around the shaft to slow the water. The pick was not very helpful in removing the old packing, so I used the long screw instead. I screwed it into the old material until it gripped, and then used it to pull out the ring, repeating this step for each of the four rings of old packing material. Once all of it was removed, I wrapped each new ring around the shaft and slid it into the packing nut, using the allen wrench to push it all the way in. Once all four new rings were pushed in, I removed the rag and screwed the packing nut back down. I tightened it by hand until it no longer dripped, and then used the stuffing box wrenches to set the stop nut tightly against the packing nut. The whole thing went very smoothly, and the bilge pump easily kept up with the inflow of water (it only turned on twice).

Now, about the Racor filter... I just changed the filter in April when recommissioning for spring. The bowl, however, had collected a fair amount of debris or sludge since then, so I drained the filter and cleaned the bowl. I wouldn't have changed the filter, but the o-ring between the filter and the bowl was shot. Next time I'll see if I can buy a spare o-ring at the hardware store, since the filters are expensive, and it probably didn't really need to be replaced. I reassembled the bowl and filter, filled them with filtered diesel, and put them back on. The engine fired right up, with no need to purge air from the lines.

Bad Vibrations?

The repair took care of almost all of the shaft wobble. There is still a bit of movement (more like vibration), particularly in the 1200-1400 RPM range, but the problem is much improved. I'd like to get rid of the vibration too, but at least the situation is tolerable for now. If you look closely at this video, you can see what I mean. There is some vibration, but it's far better than what you see in the video in my last post. For now, I'll probably just monitor the problem and consider taking care of it in the off-season. If it worsens, maybe I'll reconsider.



I'm probably going to repack the stuffing box (again) this weekend, just to bring that back to baseline. The packing material is cheap, and the job is easy. It will help me eliminate possible causes if any problems continue.

Shafted

I was hoping I wouldn't have any maintenance or repairs to write about for a while. Our Rock Hall trip over Memorial Day, however, made it clear that I needed to address the shaft wobble immediately. Here's a video of the wobbling shaft at cruising speed.



I scheduled haul out and repair at Hartge Yacht Yard for June 11. My expectation was that the wobble was some combination of bad alignment, bent shaft, or worn cutless bearing. Luke Frey (the yard manager at Hartge) added bad engine mounts and prop damage to the possibilities.

You might be wondering why I scheduled the repair at Hartge instead of Bristol Marine, at my home marina. I've mentioned before that Bristol staff are slow to respond and rarely communicate. I asked them during the off season to do the prop work and inspect/replace the cutless bearing as needed. After considerable hounding, they finally did the prop in April, but not the cutless, which I stupidly took as indicating that the cutless bearing was ok. It looked real nice, too bad it wasn't done right. I actually called and emailed them about the shaft wobble, but didn't hear anything back for a full week, when I received a work order for a short haul to inspect the cutless bearing. Well, this wasn't what I asked for, and Hartge was already scheduled to do the work, so I cancelled the work order. The manager only acted annoyed, when he should have been concerned about a unsatisfied customer in his own marina.

Anyway, while anchored in the Rhode River prior to dropping the boat off at Hartge, I swam underneath to check out the running gear. I discovered the prop nut and new zinc were gone, strongly suggesting that the nut was not fastened correctly with a wire or cotter pin to keep it from spinning off. I was very fortunate that the prop itself wasn't lost. That was the last straw. In addition to the extra haulout expense and lost summer time, I'm now out $80 for a new prop nut. I am done with Bristol. If I get around to having a frank conversation with the yard manager at Bristol, maybe he can convince me to give them another try.

Stay tuned, I'll post an update soon on the outcome of the repair.