Leak Patrol!

Leak Patrol:  I am catching up on some older events.  We had a lot of rain about a week ago, and Marco and I found a few more leaks.  Noteworthy is a leak in the main cabin where a second of deck was cut out and not repaired properly.  I expect to revisit that in the future.

The Forward Hatch.  Found a drain hole clogged with debris, causing water to back up and flow into the V-berth.  The hatch needs to be rebuilt completely.  While the teak is good, it still seems like a good idea to make some changes to the hatch.  More on that later.

Bow Access Plate: There is an access plate in the bow that was leaking--the seal has shrunk and water was getting in and collection under the V-berth in a spot with no limber holes.  He has already sealed that up.  I plan to glass in a water tight collision bulkhead up there with an anchor locker above the waterline.  For now I just want the leaks fixed.  Later on I'll probably remove this and build a nice anchor locker and windlass mount.

The Cockpit:  With the back of the boat opened up in preparation of glassing a bulkhead cofferdam--for increased safety, we spotted several leaks around the binnacle, emergency steering port, and the binnacle guard rail. 

Marco has been busy fixing the area around the emergency steering.  It has to be done in stages because it meets the rudderhead, and I don't want to fight to get those screws back in. He has also done some work to fix the area just aft of the forward hatch.  I have him sealing that up, but I plan to cut it away and fix it properly  And that will depend on the forward hatch replacement/rebuilding.  I want that area to keep water out.

Just in front of the companionway hatch was a depression that would collect water and overflow into the boat.  Marco suggested filling that with epoxy and filler, and I asked him to angle this so that water would go forward and flow out the limber holes under the winches.

Binnacle:  Sometime ago, my binnacle mounting bolts failed and I replaced them.  I'd like to revisit that area and replace the plywood reinforcing with some new marine plywood.  I expect to have some left over from the aft bulkhead project.  I have orders a new stainless top plate from Edson, and need to check a few measurements of the binnacle before ordering a new larger double bend NavPod 1.25" guardrail, and some sort of quad-pod housing.  I'd like to install a 15" chart display, and I'm leaving room for that, but for the short term, I'm very happy with my iPad for on deck navigation, and I plan to use a Mac Mini down below for navigating.  I will need to wire in the instruments I have, fix my compass light wiring.  There will be space for a Raymarine autopilot control in the Quad housing.  While many people don't like Raymarine, I like their interface, and I plan to put a heavy duty hydraulic auto pilot in the boat next year.  It would be great if I could afford to buy all new instruments, that is neither practical nor necessary.  I would like radar also, but I can wait on that too.

The bottom line is ECHO is almost all the leak sources fixed.  There is a very small leak on one of the cockpit hatches.  I think the wind has to be blowing hard for any water to get in there, and not enough gets in to form a drop.

The mast leaks very slightly.  I think a bit of shrink wrap tape would stop it.

Hatches:  The two remaining problems are the companionway hatch and the forward hatch.  Both need to be replaced.  I need to job that out.  These hatches are made out of wood and acrylic.  My idea is to make a frame for each out of aluminum and wood or starboard with Lexan laminated in between, and corner reinforcing.  I have two pieces of acrylic I could use for the companionway, I'd rather use on piece.  In any case, I need to move this onto a higher priority.  What I'd like to do is job it out, perhaps in two phases, welding and woodwork.

Installing and Wiring in the Powered Winch

The winch body is installed here. I had to lop off the ends of two bolts for clearance on the flange.

Next the shaft coupler is installed.  You can see one stud temporarily installed in the top of the picture. The blue and red wires are for the control circuit.  I still have to run those wire.  It occurred to me that I can pull power from the heavy cable and likewise ground and put a 5 amp fuse in this circuit. I wonder if I'll need a choke to avoid power surges.  I may run the wire back to the panel but that seems unnecessary.  

I used locktite on the eight studs.  I was missing four flat washers with notches cut out.  I will have to get four more tomorrow and grind the edges to clear the flange.  I don't suppose flat washers are necessary, but I might as well be consistent.   The white thing at the top is a relay (Solinoid) to control the heavy current going into the motor gearbox.  The control wires are not yet wired in.  The motor gearbox has a pair of wires also--a thermal protection circuit which is wired in series with the switch.  There is a spacer in there too.  I could move the whole motor gearbox up 1/8" if I wanted to go to the trouble, but it does not seem to be worth my time.  I also like the idea of a little space between the motor and the deck.

Another view looking forward.  I will need to fabricate a fiberglass cover for this to keep things pretty.  I mounted the powered winch on this side to avoid head bump.  It is right over the sink and not in the way.

This shows the view from the bottom.   Those are red cables from the battery and 100 amp breaker supplying juice to the motor gearbox.  This is a windlass motor gearbox, so, of the three studs on the motor, only two are used, lift and ground.  I need to figure out which is which. 

This will make a number of jobs easier.

1.  Measurements:  Taking Measurements for replacement rigging.

2.  My Backstay:  I want to pull my backstay to fix a very poor job done Tom Anderson of Hathaway Riggers.  I hope I can re-terminate it myself. I will probably bring it back to Tom Anderson even though the job was done many years ago.  While it is true I waited too long to return it, it remains a very poor job and I may have to do a lot of rework to make it right.

3.  My Forestay:  I want to build a new forestay and install an already purchased, Harken furler.  Once that is done, I can think about a new headsail.  I will probably modify my current Genoa, but I'd also like a new Yankee for better visibility.  The option of hoisting both while sailing downwind has a certain about of appeal. Much less work and I'd only need another spinnaker pole for a tidy, non-chafing rig that would keep ECHO pointed downwind without a lot of work.

4.  Inner Forestay:  I want to replace my inner forestay and install a Harken furler on that.  I have a used furling drum and only need new extrusions and the small piece parts to install that.  I want a small self tending staysail, so once this furler is installed and I determine where and how to mount a track for this.  A self tending staysail will make tacking upwind a breeze for one person. 

5.  Jumper Stay:  I seem to have lost the small wire cable that connects my Highfield Lever to the bow of my boat.  It is a short cable, and I might as well practice on that before working on the other stays.

Power Winch

This shows some detail on the power winch modification.  I am using what turned out to be a windlass motor/gearbox.  To mate it up, I needed this coupler (dark piece at bottom), a spacer, not shown, and the light gray flange (between the bronze mount and the coupler) had to be drilled and tapped on a wider spacing.  That is all done and ready to mount.  The winch is installed but some fiberglass work needs to be done to seal off the mounting area. After that I can install the motor-gearbox, contactor relay, deck switch, 100 A breaker, and run the heavy cables to serve it.

Bilge Pumps Complete

I am back from a trip to the west coast.

After completely removing and re-wiring my bilge pumps I was stunned to find them not working properly.  Well, I've fixed everything. It turned out there were two bad circuit breakers, and I also discovered that when power is applied, to the automatic circuits, the pumps run for 6-8 seconds.  I was scratching my head wondering why they came on in an empty bilge.

So--both pumps are mounted, set on automatic, and I have two independent circuits for manual operation.  I can trust my pumps are working--for the time being.  I still would like to update these in the future to a smaller lower pump to remove more water, and a higher volume non-submersible pump, and a also an engine driven high volume pump. 

@@#$% Bilge Pumps

I have a leak somewhere and the water level rose high enough to short out my automatic circuit on one bilge pump and something is wrong on the other.  I might have mis-wired it. 

As I am going out of town, I need to get at least one automatic pump working.  I've also shut all my though hulls.  I need to check my cockpit drains.  Water could be coming in through there also.

So much for bad news, and it's really not bad news.  I need to find every problem and fix it now, not later when I'm offshore or someplace inconvenient.

On other fronts, two of the chain plates have been re-bedded, Marco pulled two more and has started repairing the decks in those areas.

Most of the stanchion basses have been re-attached.  The gate stanchions are Y shaped with two bases.  They need to be bent for a better fit.

I have not had much luck with getting my welder friend to repair my bow pulpit.  This is causing all sort of delays.  I can't operate the boat without this replaced, and now I have decided to pull the pushpit for repairs--perhaps this will work out better, he can come out for one trip only, and do everything I need done.

I've added two more sub-panels on ECHO to break up some of the wiring and reduce wiring to the main panel.  One sub-panel is in the galley area and will serve that side of the boat, the other is above the engine bay to serve the aft cabins.  I am debating adding one more for the port side, while that is close to the main panel, I would like to move the main panel to a more protected area aft at some point. 

I purchased more parts to make the plumbing system more reliable. I will defer that work for the short term.  First I need to ID the leaks.

I am talking to cabinet makers about finishing off the salon.  If I can't find someone local to do the work then I will need to take ECHO south.

At this point, moving ECHO south seems less likely this year.  I will be traveling for the next ten days, so things will slow down a bit.  Much depends on what I can get done in the following six weeks.

Bilge Pumps

I spent a bit of time on the last few days trying to improve my bilge pumps by replacing the electronic float switches and rewiring them.  I have the wire run to terminal blocks above the bilge and purchased new wire to make the connection to the main panel  This wire will be run below the ceiling inside of through the engine bay, or increase reliability.

Below is my lower bilge pump.  Note is it attached to a stainless steel piece of angle iron welded to a flat plate.  This "Laddle" type arrangement allows me to remove it for maintenance.  I originally had smooth hose for this bilge line, but swapped it for this type as the other type was too stiff to remove the bilge pumps easily.  Also this type of hose separates from the check valves located a few feet above these pumps.  The check valves are to stop cycling where the pump stops, water flows backwards starts the pump again which pushes the water up the hose but not out of the boat, and then the level drops, water flows back, etc, etc.  

The new non-floating type switch has not been installed.  It will go on the plate in front of the pump and below the hose.  I spent a lot of time cleaning this and the bilge, part of a never ending battle to keep the boat clean and the bilge as dry as possible.


The old capacitive water level switches did not hold up.  I am hoping this new type will prove more reliable.  I do not recommend this type. 


I also cleaned out the bilge as much as possible and retrieved some debris and a 1/2" wrench that fell down there this week.


Most of the deck fittings areas have been repaired and the lifeline stanchions, highfield lever and spinnaker pole shoes will be reinstalled this week.  The coaming around the companionway, got it's second coating of epoxy and it looking better and better.  I chose to make this bright instead of a matte Cetol look so that it will hold up in the long term better.  The matte Cetol doesn';t not last very long, perhaps a season or two.

Below ECHO bald of lifelines.

I purchased some new stanchion bases, and need to buy four more, or order them.  Some were in bad shape and it was easier to replace them than repair them.  Also, I want all of these to be stainless steel and not chromed bronze.  A few others were easily banged into shape.  The bow pulpit will be repaired in place this week, so I can work back to the pushpit.

I will need shade from the sun, and I'm debating building a hard Bimini and Dodge for the cockpit.  I also need a small dodger for the companionway area.  For now I will focus on the bow and stanchions and follow up with the pushpit and then ladders for the cockpit and companionway.

More Photos

My main sheet blocks.  The bearing do not look so good.  Time to replace them.

Some deck track removed. These holes were drilled out extra large and filled with epoxy and re-drilled for a more solid foundation.

Some new track installed.

Laying out some track to check the length.  Also shown is a pad for a spinnaker shoe.

 

 The plexiglass cover was a cheezy patch job for an old fuel tank fill or something.  This was recently removed and filled.  The messy looking thing underneath the plexiglass was an old stanchion base that had a wooden pad that was glassed over.  The pad was rotten and the extra holes were drilled to remove the wet core.  Here it is shown with some epoxy thickened with West Systems 403 filler.

A stanchion on the starboard side before removal and re-bedding.

This was the old diesel fill.  I am not sure if I will be using this, so it will remain filled for the moment.

This is a close up of the pad base for a spinnaker deck shoe.

A pair of chain plates wer removed.  This is one side, after being scooped out and filled.  The tape is to keep the filler for leaking out on the low side.

A chain plate which the cheezy caulk job removed, and taped up to prevent water from getting in.

These are two deck fills that were not being used, so they were filled.  I may reuse this location if I decide to add another water tank to the boat.  

Forward deck spinnaker shoe pad mount.

My Highfield Lever deck mount.  I removed to re-weld it, and that is complete.  I need to decide if I want to polish the aluminum or put it back as it was.

Bow pulpit removed.  I still need to modify the bow pulpit and reinstall it.

More pictures of stanchion base.

More pictures of stanchion base.  Note the new waste pumpout deck fitting.

Chainplate.

Bald bow.