Hurry Up and Wait

Impeller, 3/22/2008

Despite the cool weather, I prepped for bottom painting today. The dock water was still not turned on at the marina, but I filled a bucket and scrubbed the bottom with a stiff deck brush to scuff it up and remove any residual slime and growth. I taped off the water line, so I'm ready to paint as soon as the weather is clear. Tomorrow's forecast looks good, so I'm hoping to finish this weekend.

I also replaced the water pump impeller today. Some people recommend doing it every year. Volvo says an impeller is good for 500 hours. I hadn't changed ours yet since we bought the boat in 2006, and I had no idea when it was done last (not to mention a little mishap last summer). So, either way, it was time.

My main concern was that it would be difficult to remove the old impeller. It wouldn't budge at first, but I cranked the engine for a second or two to get it turning, and after that, I pulled it out fairly easily by grabbing vanes on each side with channel lock pliers. It wasn't in very good shape: there were a couple pieces broken off and sitting free in the water pump housing. Very glad I changed it out. I put a little dish soap on the new one, and it slid into place fairly easily. I had one fairly serious issue, though. When replacing the cover, I stripped one of the machine screw holes in the housing. I was being gentle, I swear, but a mild turn of the wrench stripped it out. I'll need to tap it for a new screw.

Note: For our Volvo TAMD40B, the impeller part number I ordered is #875736, from Marine Parts Express. Despite their claim that it would be a genuine Volvo part, the impeller had a Jabsco stamp on it. Hmm.

More Brightwork

Swim Platform, 3/15/2008

Finally we got some weather that is clear and warm enough to start some exterior work! The water is still not yet turned on at the marina, but Michele and I spent most of the day there anyway.

We started the brightwork last fall, but left the swim platform for spring. While I took care of some inside work, Michele took the palm sander to the platform. My tasks included finishing off the water pump installation, which went fairly quickly, and coating the fairing block for the depth transducer with penetrating epoxy. The paint had worn off the block, and water collecting in that area had subsequently starting deteriorating the wood.

Once I finished inside, I helped out with some of the swim platform sanding. Michele really did 90% of it, and she did a great job, too. It was in rough shape: badly flaking and weather-worn gray. It is supposed to rain today (Sunday), so the rest will have to wait.

Next Saturday, we hope to do the bottom paint and put the first coat of Cetol Light on the platform. With luck, we'll get that done in one day. Then we can return on Sunday to apply another coat or two of Cetol to the platform, remove the shrinkwrap, and wax the hull. That will complete our pre-launch work!

Maintenance and...upgrades!

Rudder Stuffing Box, Seacock Maintenance, Battery Charger Outlet, Potable Water Pump, 3/8/2008

On Saturday, I started tackling some pre-launch maintenance. Most of those tasks have to wait for warmer temperatures, though, so in the meantime I'm working on a few upgrades as well.

Maintenance items:

Tightened the rudder stuffing box. I repacked it last year, but never adjusted it after some use. We continually had a small amount of water collecting in that area, so I got out the packing nut wrenches and tightened the stuffing box. It was pretty loose, so I hope this will take care of the water ingress.

Greased engine intake seacock. My understanding is that Spartan seacocks don't really need yearly disassembly despite Spartan's recommendation. But, our engine seacock was really getting difficult to move, so I took it apart again this year and regreased it. The head intake seacock seems to be fine.

Upgrades:

AC outlet. On Saturday, I finished installing a new outlet under the port bench. I put in a new GFCI outlet using the existing wiring for the outlet on the outside of the bench, and then wired it to feed the old outlet downstream. This will allow us to plug in the battery charger inside the bench, and at the same time, protect the existing outlet with a GFCI.

Potable water pump. Our old water pump cycles incessantly when we run the water, provides weak pressure, and is very loud. Modern pumps, like our new Jabsco Sensor-Max 14, allegedly are quieter and have continuous pressure switches that prevent on-off cycling. This was by no means an urgent upgrade, but I hope it will eliminate a minor but frequent annoyance. Unfortunately, it's also a difficult upgrade due mainly to the difficult to reach location of the pump (down low on the forward bulkhead in the engine compartment). I nearly completed the installation, but I broke one of the Qest plumbing fittings while reassembling. I'll have to complete the job next time.

Getting Ready

I've been slacking lately when it comes to posting updates here. With boating season almost upon us, soon I'll no doubt have more to say, more often.

I'm eagerly awaiting spring launch, which is scheduled for the week of April 1. There are several mandatory pre-launch maintenance tasks that are causing me a bit of anxiety, however, so we're likely to be delayed a couple weeks. Not that it matters, we were ready to go in on April 1 last year, but the yard didn't get to us until April 20 anyway.

"Must-do" pre-launch maintenance work on the agenda:

• Refinish swim platform
• Bottom paint
• Wash and wax hull
• Grease seacock for engine-intake
• Tighten rudder stuffing box
• Epoxy/paint fairing block for depth sounder

Connections

GPS/VHF Wiring, 2/9/2008

I installed new electronics last spring, but to date had not yet completed the wiring for the GPS. That means our DSC capability for the radio wasn't complete. We could make an automated digital distress call, but it would not include our coordinates. That would certainly complicate a search and rescue should we ever be unfortunate enough to need it.

On Saturday, I finally finished off the wiring. The instructions for the Standard Horizon radio indicate three connections: data in(+), data in(-), and data out. The GPS instructions only indicated data in and data out (no polarity on the data out). Standard Horizon tech support was very helpful, and advised me to make connections as follows:

VHF blue (in+) to GPS blue (out)
VHF gray (out) to GPS yellow (in)
VHF green (in-) to ground

I ran a power/data cable for the GPS to both helms, and joined them at the lower helm. From there, I ran the red and black wires to the switch and ground bus, and the signal cables to a new 4-post block. I then ran a length of signal wire up to the radio, and attached it to a quick connect so that I can easily disconnect the radio when I want to remove it from the boat. The worst part of this project was handling the very fine signal wires, which are difficult to strip and separate without cutting them.

Looking forward to trying out a ship-to-ship DSC call this summer!

Isolated

Galvanic Isolator, 2/9/2008

As I mentioned earlier, one of my planned projects was installing a galvanic isolator. This was recommended, but not required, by both our surveyor and BoatU.S.

Although Mariner II wasn't showing any serious problems with corrosion, zinc loss during the summer is difficult to address, as it involves diving under the boat (which I did once this past year). Diving under to replace a zinc isn't that bad as long as the sea nettles aren't there keeping me company, but usually they are. A galvanic isolator should, minimally, slow our zinc loss enough so that it can be replaced once per year, during winter haulout.

I considered several brands, including Guest, Yandina, and ProMariner. Ultimately, I installed the ProSafe 30, without a monitoring system. ABYC recommends that galvanic isolators be self-tested and monitored to ensure that the AC ground wire is uninterrupted. The isolator alone does not meet this recommendation, but thousands have been installed this way without problems long before ABYC made their recommendation. Since the monitoring system costs more than the isolator itself and complicates installation considerably, I opted to skip it for now. The ProSafe 30 does allow me to add the monitor later, but for now I will just plan to test it routinely (spring and fall) with a diode tester. The test is easy: with shorepower disconnected, attach one lead of a multimeter (in "diode test" setting) to each side of the isolator and get a reading. Switch, and test again. Both readings should be the same (within 10%), and both between approximately .7 and 1.5 volts.

On our boat, the isolator fit nicely in the starboard storage area below the helm. I was able to simply cut the ground wire, attach insulated ring terminals, and connect them.

Updates

I spent most of yesterday doing some work on the boat, so I'll have some updates shortly. In the meantime, a long-overdue update on the Jabsco oil-change pump issue: I received a replacement unit, free of charge, in 2-3 weeks as promised by Jabsco. Outstanding customer service -- no hassle, no question, they stood behind their product.

More on boat maintenance to come soon...

Wipers

Wiper Motor Wiring, 1/6/2008

We had a beautiful day on Sunday, temps in the 50's, so I got a little work done on the boat.

The shrink wrap zipper door arrived Friday, so I put that on to gain access to the inside of the boat. Piece of cake -- tape it on, unzip, cut a hole in the shrink wrap. The inside of the boat seemed in fine shape, no condensation or mildew problems.

I went to work immediately on the windshield wiper situation. Over the summer, I bought replacement motors which appear identical to the old motors, but when I connected them up, they didn't turn on. I bench tested them with a 12-volt battery, and they work fine like that, so I knew it was a wiring problem on the boat. Both the old and new motors have an identical set of connections:

1. "s": switched wire, runs to the switch at the helm
2. "-": the ground wire
3. "+": always-on wire, so the motor can self-park after the switch is turned off

Simple, yet the new motors didn't work. Some investigating with a multimeter revealed the problem: in the original wiring, the "s" connection ran through a switch to the ground, rather than to the positive feed. Sure enough, the owner's manual has it diagrammed exactly that way. I'm not an electrician, so I don't really understand why it would be wired that way.

No matter, I just rewired according to the instructions with the new motor. It was a fairly straightforward change: reroute the wire from the switched terminal to the positive feed instead of the ground bus. Now the positive feed comes off the fuse panel and splits to the "s" and "+" terminals, and the ground wire simply runs directly from the ground bus to the "-" terminal. I attempted a Visio diagram (below) of the change, so I can update the owner's manual to show the new configuration.


I attached one of the new motors, and it now works exactly like it should. In the spring, when I can access the bow of the boat again (under shrinkwrap now), I'll finish installing the motors in the windshield frame.

Corrosion Protection

Oops, forgot one:

• Galvanic Isolator. When the boat is connected to shore power (as ours always is), stray current flows through the AC ground and the DC bonding system. This current can really cause the zinc anodes to dissolve away quickly. An isolator blocks low voltage in the green AC ground wire, but passes higher voltages through if there's an electrical fault.
  

Shrinkage

I visited the boat yesterday, intending mainly just to check on it after a full unattended month. I had hoped the shrink wrap would be finished (with a zippered access door), so I could climb aboard and make sure there were no moisture problems inside. Shrink wrap sometimes results in condensation, which can lead to mildew and other problems.

The shrink wrap is done, and appears well-ventilated, but they didn't include an access door. I'm not sure if I forgot to request one, or if they missed it on the work order. No big deal, I'll add one myself. It will be cheaper that way anyway: I just ordered one from Dr. Shrink for $14.00.

I had also hoped to do a quick assessment of what I will need in order to complete some winter projects, but I guess I will have to wait until the zipper door arrives. As always, I have a list of projects a mile long. Some are important and will be done before spring launch. Some are just "nice-to-have" and can wait indefinitely if need be. On my project list, roughly in priority order:

• Wiper motors. This is at the top of the list because, after last season, I consider it an important safety item. On several occasions (mainly head seas), visibility from the lower helm was seriously impaired by the broken port wiper. The starboard wiper, while functional, wasn't completely reliable either.
• Electronics wiring. The GPS and VHF radio connections are not complete, which means our DSC capability is limited. Plus, although our GPS runs fine on it's rechargeable batteries, a constant connection to the on board batteries will be helpful in keeping it charged.
• Impeller. I have no idea when the raw water impeller was last done. We've had the boat two seasons, so it's probably past due.
• Exterior teak. The swim platform desperately needs refinishing. I think it will require complete sanding and three or four coats of Cetol Light. The remaining teak (the cabin door, flybridge steps, and flybridge seat) are in good shape, and just need a maintenance coat or two.
  
• Bottom paint. As you can see in the picture below, the old paint is in decent condition, but it has worn worn off in some areas. A new coat or two in the spring should keep the bottom in good shape over the next season.
• Starting battery. I initially purchased a single group 27 deep-cycle battery for the house, and group 27 dual-purpose for a starting battery. I've since concluded that this configuration is woefully inadequate. I plan to combine the two existing batteries for the house needs, and add a single group 31 for a new starting battery.
• Battery charger outlet. Our battery charger currently plugs in to an outlet outside the port bench, and the cord gets in the way. I want to add an outlet inside the bench.
• Backup bilge pump. One could argue that this should be higher on the list. We have a single bilge pump. If it ever fails, or if we have a catastrophic leak, we'll need a high-capacity backup.
  
• Rebed windshield. Our center windshield leaks, so it needs to be removed and rebedded. Might be a major project, so I'm not sure it will get done this year.
  
• Anchor roller. My back would thank me, but again, I'm not sure this will get done this year.
  
• Chafe guards. Some of our lines are chafing where they run through chocks or around cleats.
  
• Replace life jackets. Some of our life jackets still say "Cuanna", the boat's prior name.
  
• Dri-dek for anchor locker. I want put down dri-dek panels in the anchor locker to protect the surface from the anchor, chain, etc.
  
• Galley water filter. A water filter might improve the taste enough that we can skip the gallon jugs of drinking water.
  
• Toilet paper holder. Inside the vanity in the head, where it won't get wet from showers.
  
• Drink holders. For the flybridge.
  
• FM antenna. Mostly we listen to our iRiver Clix anyway, but we have a nice new stereo, so it seems like it should have an antenna!
  

See what I mean? I always have an endless list. Anyway, the boat is shrinkwrapped. Boats look gigantic when out of the water, don't they?