@@#$% 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.

Still More Plumbing

I have not taken many pictures because I've been working non stop, running around trying to find parts, making some progress, discovering the part I bought don't fit.  I have several odd ball plumbing fittings I still cannot find. 

So what have I gotten done?

I have the hot and cold water manifolds plumbed with PEX and crimped down.  These manifolds need to be secured to some study wood backing to make it 100% reliable, but for the time being I want to get the plumbing working and that can follow later.

While I have the head out-take plumbed, the intake as been a problem.  The inlet I want to use is 5/16. I have 3/8 and 1/2" parts and reduction fittings, but I don't have 5/16" and I may have to plug this and T off of the sink drain.  I finally have all the parts needed for the sink drain.  I had to buy a complete sink drain fitting and steal the bottom half to mate up to the Stainless Steel drain I alreayd have.  So it is a matter of 5 minutes work to install this drain, perhaps 10 minutes if I chose to T off of this to the head.  With some luck the head will be plumbed tomorrow.  I plan to use fresh water through the sink to flush the head, or what I more typically do is use the shower fixture to charge the head to flush it with fresh water when in shore, and switch to clean salt water when offshore.

All of the hot and cold water plumbing is done except for:

1) Cold water hook up in the galley--I have the part in hand for that.  5 minutes work.
2) Connection between the pressurized water side and the hot and cold water manifolds.  I have the parts in hand for this also.  10-15 minutes work.
3)  Aft head and sink is deferred until I can do some fiberglass work back there.
4)  The cockpit shower needs some sort of oddball fitting to mate up with the PEX serving that area.  I may have to remove the whole shower fixture to take it with me to a plumbing supply house.  Before I do that I need to inspect it and see what brand it is and look it up in the West Marine Catalog.  I think it is 1/2' British thread of some sort.  I will probably need to go to a plumbing supply house for the unions to mate that up to a standard size sink hoses for flexibility while securing the PEX under the deck to that area.  Time Reuired?  Hours for sure.

In any event, I will have the forward head and sink working tomorrow.  And I need to think about bedding the sink into the counter.  I'm leaning towards leaving it loose for now so I can remove it to work in that area.  I still need to build a holding tank and plumb that. 

Next I need to think about plumbing in the shower sump, or at least running a temporary drain to the bilge.  The sump would need some wiring, and I want to add a second sub-panel in the closet nearby--needed for some fan circuits in the forward part of the boat.

More Plumbing

I secured the cold water lines to the ceiling with cable ties.  The PEX hose is not flexible so it took more ties than I wanted.  I will need two more packages to finish off the hot water lines.

I picked up adapters to mate up the head discharge hoses.  I am modifying the head intake fittings to eliminate a 90 degree bend--That needs a torch and a vise to remove the old part.

The two manifolds for hot and cold water are installed.  I still need to shorten and connect the various lines.  This should go fast, but I'll need to secure the hoses to the hull first.

I have an adapter to mate up to the deck shower, but have not yet tested it to see if it will fit.  Once that is done, I can add pigtails to feed it and connect to the PEX serving that area. 

While I am getting close, step by step, it is a tedious process finding the parts I need.  For example I need to connect the sink drain and I can't find a part to connect to the large diameter sink drain.  I found a replacement part, but it is all plastic and I know it will fail or get scratched up quickly.  I'd rather make my stainless part mate up to something.

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.