Chain Plates

Chain Plates:

These are a mess and look like hell.  I was planning on putting cover plates on top and getting rid of this huge mess.

 

I have three of these on each side supporting the shrouds. On the starboard side they measure roughly 5' x 7".  A simple matter to make a stainless steel plate and secure it eh?  Well not so fast.  First lets have a look under that mess. 

I cleaned off most of one of these.  It is awful.  First the holes were not filled properly.  Next this particular one has play fore and aft.  I may have to pull the whole chain plate to get access to the deck here to fill it after scooping out what will surely be rotten core material.  My helper Marco has done that several times already.  That is not so hard to do.  The real problem is what to do about the deck to make it look good.  After seeing this, I'm thinking I will need to repaint the deck.  I was planning on doing that next year, but I may do it this year instead.   You will read more about this later.  I will have Marco start on pulling the chain-plates one by one, and filling the depression in the deck here which would tend to collect water, and then remounting these chain plates and rebedding them.  I don't want to remove too many of these at once, so I will probably have Marco do them in mirror pairs, two at a time.  So it will be a few hours a day for the next week or so to sort this out.  When finished I can put four pan head screws in the top holes for a finished look.  If they are screwed in to solid fiberglass there will be no leaks.  Last will be painting.  I think a Dremel tool can make a nice flat round corner rectangle with a template for shape, and this will clean up ok.  Perhaps we won't have to paint the decks just yet.  I have one other modification I want to do before painting the decks.

Electric Halyard Winch

Electric Halyard Winch:

I carefully measured before drilling this hole.  There is also a slight radius increase near the top of the flange, so I had to bevel the top of this hole to get the power winch, a Lewmar 44 Ocean Series winch, to lay flat.  I was able to find two of the needed bolts to secure it, but there is no rush as I may need to modify the winch drive shaft to mate up to the gearbox.  Note the thickness of the fiberglass.  There is over an inch of solid fiberglass, a layer of wood and then more fiberglass.  The later two layers could have been skipped as the top layer is very strong.

Here it is in place but not bedded in and mounted.  Of course we had a fe major rain storms and it leaked.  I was originally going to put this on the port side, but changed my mind as this puts it over the gally sink and away from a head butting location.  Believe it or not, this winch required 110 Amp breaker and 1/0 wire to feed it.  I bought a 100 Amp breaker and will need 19' of wire to serve it.  List price on the wire is $7.20 per foot.  I am hoping I get a good discount on that price--it is a bit steep.  My cost will be about $200, I'm guessing for the wire alone.  I also have a relay and a deck button to control it.

Here is my snag.  I can mount the winch to the top of this winch (top side of the gear box opposite the flange, but then I could only access it from the top. I don't want to cut a big hole in the deck.  The flange on the bottom has a whole pattern 3.5" across which does not match the winches 3.25" hole pattern.  My friend Karl is drilling new holes and tapping them with 3/8-16 threads.  Also I will need a 7/8" spacer to drop the gear box down to avoid cutting into the underside of the deck.  I will have to make a fiberglass cover to hide this ugly thing too. 

The wires shown are for a thermal shut down switch, which is wired in series with the relay control switch.  There are three contact poles, I will only use two of these as this winch will only operate in one direction.

I am looking forward to putting someone up the mast is 75 seconds.  It will be an easy two man job to send someone to the top of the mast, instead of an ordeal using normal winches, or a slow climbing procedure with prussic knots.  This is important, as previously mentioned because I have several tasks to do requiring going up the mast in the near future.

Plumbing Work

Forward Head: 

I have been wanting to reinstall the forward head in ECHO but painting the shower pan needed to be done first.  Well that is complete so I started working on the forward head and other plumping work.

I started by putting things where they belonged and then added hoses.  I am no longer amazed by how longs things take working on boats.  They just do and no amount of planning is enough.  I find it best to focus on one or two things at a time, while also assembling other parts and materials.

Finding the right size toilet seat was an issue.  18.5" is too big, and 16.5" is too small.  I tried three different seats before I found a 16 5/8" seat that was actually a little bigger than that.  It fits fairly well so I need to pick up another one for the other head. 

I could not find screws the right length for the anti-siphon on the waste line, so I used over-sized nuts as spacers.  It worked out rather well.

I lucked out, guess what parts I needed to mate up the sink lines to the supply hoses.  I noticed there did not seem to be any rubber washers inside the sink so I grabbed an assortment and hope those will work OK.  The faucet went in a few days ago.  My only regret is that I did not order a second one for the aft head.  I like it a lot.

I pulled PEX hose, in blue for cold and red for hot water lines, to the forward head and aft to the cockpit shower.  Tomorrow I will use the last of what I have to supply the aft head, even though that is not going in yet, I'll have the hose run and ready to hook up.  Actually hooking up the PEX is second work.  Just slip the hose on the barb, with a clamp on it, and crimp it down. 

I still need to secure the hose to the under side of the deck with straps--that should go fast, and drill a few holes to route the hose through a few bulkheads with a hole saw.

I have two manifold for water distribution.  I planned to put those under the sink, but changed my mind and plan to put these near the water heater as I think that will be easier to hook up.  I want to add a set of valves for water tank selection under the sink instead of at the tanks--the lower tanks are a pain to reach.  I'd like to be able to switch tanks easily without lifting floor boards.  My idea is to build a small manifold out of copper parts and use either PEX or barbed fittings depending on what I'm hooking up to.

Here is the sink and faucet.  The sink is not bedded in yet.  The faucet is bolted down tight and just needs a simple crimp to connect the PEX tubing that that end.

I will still need to install some teak trim around the shower pan and cabinet faces.  I may leave that to a cabinet maker, or else defer that for a while.  For the short term I will apply some caulk and glue on a cover plate on the unused port in the shower pan.

I was glad to find a Kohler seat to fit my Groco head.  It was slightly larger than the other brands and fit fairly well.  The head is all rebuilt and clean except for a bit of dust in the bowl.

Water Heater:

The water heater has had one leg sawed off for clearance purposes and the other three and screwed down.  It is firmly attached to it's permanent location.  I also used two pairs of adapters and 3/4" PEX barbs to the water heater inlet and outlet.  I want to use 3/4" hose on the feed from the water tanks to the cold water manifold and hot water heater, and from the hot water heater to the hot water manifold.  All hose from the manifolds is 1/2" and color coded.  I have an assortment of T's and Elbows to connect the two manifolds and water heater.

I connected the wire to the heater and just need to measure and cut it and wire it to the AC panel--an easy job.

A bit more work is running hoses from the Yanmar engine to the water tank.  I deferred that work, but I'm starting to think about connecting that now, so I'll pull off the engine cover and figure out where to run these hoses, and what sizes to use.  It should be easy to do once I determine the specfics of this tanks.

I am close to completing Phase II which is what I can Partial Mission Capability.  ECHO will be functional on a limited basis.  I can use it, with ice instead of refrigeration, with one head working, and basic navigational equipment.

Phase I was completing various deck upgrades--new boom and reefing system, fairing and painting the hull, however, I've back slid on these and until I bolt in new track and some deck hardware that I removed, I have deck leaks.  I also need to install new running lights, which is a minor amount of re-work.  So, I am hoping to report Phase I and II will be complete by the end of next week, somewhat dependent on my friend Carlton the welder.

Pictures of Recent Work

I don't have much time to put these in order, so I'll just post them.

Storm damage repair--Here it is in primer.  This is all repainted white now, but I need to touch up the gray cove stripe still.

Barient Coffee Grinder stripped down to bare metal.

Storm damage on the port side--this side got a little fiberglass repair also. I try to always use a little glass.  In this case my help Marco did the work.

More of Marco's fine work.  The forward head show pan has been painted.  This is after the first coat.  It could have used one more application of fairing before painting, but then again better is the enemy of good enough.  I'm happy to have it painted so I can install the rebuilt head this week.

Marco also cut off one leg of this water heater so it fits closer to the hull.  There will be a settee built on top of this.  I wanted to the hot water working first.

Inside details of the coffee grinder.  It needs to be cleaned and greased.  I am debating rechroming the winch handles.  I may wait on that.

More parts during the disassembly of the coffee grinder.

Lots of Progress

I have gotten lots of work done in the last few weeks. And have not had much time to document it.  I have some pictures and will update this post later on with pictures.

Recent Jobs Completed:

1. The topsides have been repaired and repainted.
2. The shower pan has been repainted and I'm getting ready to mount the rebuilt head.
3. The back half of the boat has been caulked around the toe rail to match the front.
4. The main water tanks have been cleaned and resealed.  One tanks showed a sign of leaking at the resealed overplate.  I plan to reseal that, but will wait while I finish off some other projects.
5. Removed the bow CT use decals, and the US documentation number on the boom--which was installed slightly crooked.
6.  Cut off one leg of my water heater, so it will tuck in closer and take up less space on the starboard side.
7. The primary, Barient coffee grinder, winch has been stripped of paint, and is partially disassembled.  I plan to finish taking it apart and it will be primed and painted.  I will be trying  spray painting this time due to the complicated curves on this piece.
8. I decided to rebed all the deck gear and stanchions, starting with the deck tracks have been removed and one track deck area showed some core damage, so I plan to fill those holes with epoxy and re-drill them.  

I have lots of gear to be installed, and the best way to clear some space is to simply mount it and that solves two problems--getting it installed and getting it out of the way.  The first thing I want to do is mount my power winch.  There are a few snags.  I need a different flange to mate the two pieces together. While the two parts will mate up as is, that won't work as access to the screws need to be on the bottom not the top.   I am hoping I can order a different flange from Lewmar, or if not, then I'll get one made up by Carl at my friendly neighborhood machine shop.

A Key Point:  The powered winch will be a big help in sending people up the mast. Suddenly it will be an easy two man job.  I can use it to a) remove both the forestay--to install a Roller Furler, and b) to remove the backstay (screwed up by a reputable rigger who is not so reputable).  And c) I also need to retrieve a halyard by my other boat, that is rafted up next to it. With my primary winch out of commission, this is my best option to send someone up the mast--Although I may have the primary back in commission first.  In any case, I will make a big push to get this done.


My near term priorities:


Foreward Head:

• Installing the forward head.
• Plumbing in the sink and shower.
• Installing trim around the shower pan.
• Designing and building a holding tank.
• Installing new stainless deck pump-out ports for both heads.

Coffee Grinder:  

• Finish breaking it down so it can be moved.
• Priming and painting it.
• Cleaning and lubricated the gears and bearings.
• Reinstalling it.

Deck Gear Re-bedding

• Rebedding the deck tracks.
• Rebedding and the bow pulpit.
• Rebedding the spinnaker deck chocks.

Power Winch:

• Buying or building a new mating flange.
• Cutting the access hole to mount it.
• Mounting the power winch
• Mouinting the gearbox.
• Mounting the deck switch.
• Mounting the Contactor (Relay)
• Buying and mounting a breaker
• Wiring this together.
• Fabricating a cover for the gearbox (deferred until later). 

Roller Furler:

• Remove Forestay
• Build new forestay
• Attach Roller furling
• Modify #2 Sail for luff groove.