Close the head curtains!

Close the head window curtains

Ok, so they're not 'Windows' they're 'Ports' and happen to be on the Port side, but not above a PortaPotti - They're real Head Curtains.

While waiting for project supplies to arrive, I made the final curtains for the Head.

The previous curtains fell apart in the laundry with all of the other white linen curtains from the main cabin. 

These are made from the Lobster fabric (JoAnnes) that was used for the temporary curtains in the main cabin. These turned out so well that I'll be making matching curtains for the rest of the boat.

Admiral Peggy said they were cute. Awwwww 😀

See you on the water.

1st Haul Out

1st Haul Out 

Ok, not the first, that happened when we had the boat hauled for the Survey when we purchased the boat (then 'Chris Deke', now 'Eximius') in May 2015.

The Plan

Haul the boat at Playboy Marina in Dania, Paint the bottom, clean & polish the deck and hull, install the Catalina Direct Rudder Bearing upgrade, install a new Thru Hull for the Air Conditioning.

Here's a link to my working spreadsheet, it will change as the project progresses.

Bottom Paint

From the posts on the C34 forum, it should take about 1.5 gallons of bottom paint, that's at $311+ per gallon. We're going to apply 2 coats and they need 3-6 hours between coats. All cleaning above the bottom paint has to be complete before applying 1st coat in order to ensure we don't contaminate it before applying coat #2. And the 2nd coat needs 16 hours drying time before launch. So the timing of practically everything has to be molded around the bottom paint job.

Rudder bearing upgrade

The rudder has a small amount of wobble that can be felt by trying to move the lower edge of the rudder (when the boat is out of the water). Wobble can get worse and ultimately lead to rudder failure. So we're installing the Catalina Direct Rudder Bearing kit. Basically we inject a mixture of epoxy resin between the rudder post, which is part of the rudder, and the rudder post tube which is glassed into the hull beneath the helm seat. The challenge here is to get the rudder out. It has probably never been dropped in the last 30 years, the Steel Bolts in the Aluminum steering quadrant (which is really a two part circular plate.) are almost certainly seized. My solution is to apply PB Blaster every few days for several weeks prior to hauling the boat and then to have an impact screw gun available. 

The biggest issue here will be getting the boat reblocked when the rudder is ready to be dropped and again when it's ready to be reinstalled.

If this cannot be done during this haul out, it can wait.

Thru Hull for Air Conditioning Raw Water

The AC system is cooled using Raw Water. Currently, the supply hose is about 20 feet long and reaches from the Thru Hull used for the Shower Sump and Head Raw Water (flushing). So there are currently 3 hoses attached to that Thru Hull. The AC pump (located in the V-Berth by the AC unit) has a long way to suck water, so my plan is to install a new Thru Hull in the V-Berth which will reduce the supply hose length to about 3' or less. The install will include a barbed T fitting that will have a closed cap to allow clean-out of the Thru Hull with a rod from inside while the boat is in the water.

In preparation for this project, I have made a Fiberglass backing plate with replaceable studs as shown on Rod's website. 

This project should take less than an hour on the hard as most of the prep will have been done before getting to the boat yard and having her hauled and placed in stands on the hard.

So, that's the plan. My neighbor has offered to assist with the work for a couple of days and I'm hoping to get it all done in 4 days, but have budgeted for 7 days, at over $100 per day, I have an incentive to work my butt off!

Target date to get started is 2nd week of December, but is subject to yard availability, they need about 4 weeks advance notice. So I need to book around November 27th. Time to get those ducks in a row.

And we're planning on a few sailing trips before then. Wooohooooo!

See you on the water.

Paul

Just Clean the Windows

Grotty Windows

The windows (they don't open) by the Galley & Aft Berth (Stbd Side) and above the Nav Table and the Head (Port Side) are really grotty. I have cleaned them several times and we routinely rinse them down while rinsing the Deck. We cannot see out of them and they are normally covered with blue snap on curtains.

Stbd Side Galley Window - Before

I took this pic of the Stbd side Galley window with the curtain removed.

Stbd Side Galley Window - After

Here's the same side but the forward of the two windows after cleaning.

I used my Makita Buffer & Finesse It II polishing compound.

Initially just applied the polish to the buffer pad and wiped it over the outside window surface. Then progressively ramped up the buffer speed to #4. Finally just wiped it down with a micro fiber cloth to remove any spot spray.

Stbd Side Cabin Windows - After

Outside view of the Stbd side windows after polishing.

There are a few craze cracks in them both, so they'll have to be replaced soon, at that time I'll make a set of window covers to keep the Sun off of them. Probably use snap fasteners that are secured in place where the existing window screws.

Very pleased with the results.

See you on the Water (no pun intended 😏)

Oh for some fresh air

Time to service the Dorades

Eximius has 2 Dorades with Silicone Vents (those white vent Cowls in the pic) They look pretty nasty, and they do not function. There is a handle on the inside of the boat beneath each cowl that is used to open or close the vent. 

The design of the Dorades is meant to keep out water, but the closure facilitates control of the ventilation. One is stuck wide open and the other is stuck fully closed.

The Cowls are Silicone but have been (badly) painted in the past and look awful. Time for a Makeover.

Here are the two vent covers (they would be visible if you could see down the vent cowl). I spent 10 minutes cleaning up the one on the right, compared to the condition prior to cleaning (the one on the left) it looks like this will work out well.

Same idea, this is the screen plate that is attached to the boat under the cowl vent, the one on the right has been cleaned and the screen removed, it looked pretty much like the one on the left.

I replaced the wire bug screen using aluminum screen material from Lowes Home Improvement store. 

Getting the center nut off was a problem, 48 hours of PB Blaster applications did nothing to help, so I used my Dremel to cut a slot in the backside of the nut and they came out easy.

Here they are, threads cleaned up, new wire screen (I have a 84" x 36" roll, most of it left over!) and all polished up. They look good.
If I have to replace the screen wire, I have enough for repairs for the next couple of lifetimes.

Last part of the valve covers, I used my thread cutting kit to clean the bolt threads that are on the backside of the covers. 

Very pleased with how these turned out.

The Cowls were another story. The surface has been painted, but it looks like the paint was applied before a thorough cleaning, I had to sand them down, soak them in chemical cleaner, douse them in Acetone and smooth out the surfaces with Magic Eraser. Even then, I'm not overly pleased, however, they are 30 year old vents.

Decision made: Paint them Black on the outside and Red on the inside of the Port Vent and Green on the inside of the Starboard vent.

3 Cans of Krylon from Wally World, Red, Green & Black.

Here's the Before and After the initial painting.

I spent a couple of hours cleaning the one on the right then 5 coats of Krylon - A couple more after 48 hours cure time.

Meanwhile, I'll get to work on the other one.

Not bad progress so far.
Plan is to complete the Furler Repair on Wednesday and install the new Tank Monitoring system. Dorade vents should be complete and ready to install Saturday.

Well that took longer than planned due to the 48 hour wait period between coats. But they are finally ready to reinstall. Of course, the zip lock bag that I put all of the screws in is nowhere to be found. Good news is that Lowes had packs of 40 of both types of screws, so I'll have a bunch of screws left over, what's new about that situation?

Finished the install.
I used Butyl Tape to seal the surfaces between the vent 'valve' and the Fiberglass mounting surface and between the Cowl lower part (fixed) and the mounting surface.

Countersank the screw holes in the mounting surface to improve the water seal.

The valve knob (accessible from inside the cabin beneath the vent hole) is set using Loctite.

All cleaned up and looking good

The install took about 30 minutes work on each side, most of that was cleaning up the mounting surface, then applying a bead of Butyl tape around the edge of the Opening Valve as well as filling the holes with tape. They look as though they have been filled with resin and re-drilled previously.  I used a sharp blade to remove the silicone caulk that was used on an earlier repair, most of it had shrunk or peeled, it was the residue that took the effort to remove.

Very pleased with the results. Should last a good while now.

That's the last project before we head out for the weekend, plan is to motor down the river, head out for a sail on Friday up to Hillsboro Inlet then up the ditch to Lake Boca. Sunday we'll return the same way. Weather looks good for the whole weekend.

See you on the water!

Paul

Now that the vents have been replaced, I won't be able to just grab some paper towel.

Nice pic Peggy! 😉

Update

Accolades from the Admiral - Nice work! But the pics don't show the installed vents very well.

So here you go, forgive the water marks, we had just rinsed off the deck.

Port Side (Red Interior)

Starboard Side (Green interior)

Did the Bilge Pump run?

Installing a Bilge Pump Counter

Recently, while at the boat doing other projects, stops me getting bored, Peggy was in the Cabin and called up to me that the Bilge Pump just ran. The pump is setup correctly so that it will automatically run if the bilge float switch rises. But we have never heard the pump run automatically before. Now, we did have a couple of really really heavy down pours in the past week, I'm not talking of a bit of rain, I'm talking of having to drain our pool at home because it was threatening to flood.

If we had a Bilge Pump Counter, we would know if the pump had run (and how many times). Knowing if it ran frequently would give us a heads up about a potential issue.

This is the unit I decided upon.

The concept is simple: The unit displays the number of times the bilge pump has run since the last time the Reset button was pressed.

Wiring it in should be pretty simple. It should have an inline fuse or a Circuit Breaker, a ground connection (always a point of mirth on a boat) and a power supply connection, plus a line to the bilge pump power so that it knows when the pump runs.

The unit arrived today, thanks UPS, the electronics look a little 'home made' but they are very well coated to ensure they are not affected by operation in a Marine (salty) environment.

Shouldn't affect the installation. We'll see how it works out.

Added feature is that it has a delay of 1 second, which means it will only record a minimum of 1 second bilge pump operation before adding the the counter. That's cool.

Installing the display unit

This looks to be pretty straight forward, Total Panel size is 3" x 2.5".

I'll use my vibro saw to cut a hole to fit the back of the panel on the side panel by the Nav Table.

That went pretty much as planned.
Next is connecting it to the Bilge pump circuit.

And that's where I hit a snag!
When I checked the electrical wiring at the Electrical Control Panel, I found a few wires from the circuit breaker and the Manual over-ride switch and the bilge pump activity lamp.

Down in the main bilge (all of the bilge compartments have limber holes that leak into the main bilge where the Electrical Bilge Pump is located) it's a nightmare! There are wires that are wrapped in household/automotive electrical tape, wires that are connected to others of smaller size and different color and none of them match the colors of the wires that are at the electrical panel! Nightmare time! Looks like I'll have to rewire the entire bilge pump circuit, replacing all of the wires that go from the bilge pump and auto float switch up to the electrical panel, and then I can connect the counter. Grrrrrrr!

Connecting the counter

Three wires:

Black: Common Ground, that will connect to a ground bus bar behind the electrical panel

Red: Power Supply - that will run to the +ve of the Bilge Pump Circuit Breaker

White: Run that to the Bilge pump +ve supply, That will attach to the powered line that goes to the pump.

The existing wiring will be pulled out and tossed. The bilge pump is a critical system, the wiring for that circuit has to be right. I'm going to run 2 over size cable pairs for the Bilge Pump and for the Float Switch up to the Electrical Control Panel, there they will connect to the -ve bus bar that I installed during a previous job and a new bus bar that is just for the bilge circuit. The counter will be connected to that bus.

Here's the diagram that I created that shows how the Bilge Pump Circuit Diagram should appear.

All of the wires should be labeled and the Bilge Pump and float switch wires should be #10 AWG to cope with voltage drop between the Electrical Panel and the 2 devices.

FYI, I use Open Office to create my diagrams.

The schematic shows the approximate physical layout of the system. The float switch and pump are about 10 linear feet from the electrical control panel. To reduce the voltage loss over that 40 feet round trip of cabling, it makes sense to use #10 AWG Tinned Multi Strand Copper wire.

The Bilge Pump Bus Bar will get mounted behind the Electrical control panel. Using it is the better alternative to having multiple wires crimped together. The Bus Bar will allow the wires to be terminated with ring terminals and heat shrink. Those wires will connect to the float switch and pump via crimped butt heat shrink connectors, which in turn will be covered again with further heat shrink tubing to make sure they are water proof in the vicinity of the bilge.

Thanks to Ken Kloeber on the C34 Forum, I modified my schematic, changing the color of the wires 'from' the two switches from Red to Brown. Apparently, Brown is the correct color for a switched power supply.

I'm using a Blue Seas Terminal Block for the Bilge Pump Bus Bar connections.

Each wire will have a crimped Ring terminal and the block will be secured to the inside of the Electrical Panel. I'll try to keep the wiring neat and tidy, but there's a forest of wires that would make any electrician worth their salt to weep!

The 4 terminals will be Jumped together, I have spare jumpers from previous work projects. Have to love keeping a glory box with my electrical supplies.

Someone asked me how to keep the electrical Butt Joints in the Pump and the Float switch wires waterproof. I use Heat Shrink Tubing, the kind that has a hot melt glue on the inside. So when they are heated (using a heat gun) the tube shrinks, and the glue melts, result - waterproof and a reinforced connection.

Testing the Counter

The counter should be powered up all the time although the Bilge Pump Power Circuit Breaker will allow it to be powered down for service. The Circuit Breaker switch is always in the On Position unless we are actually working on the Bilge Pump.

Test 1: Does it power up✅

Test 2: Does the counter increase when we operate the Manual Bilge Switch✅

Test 3: Does the counter increase when we operate the Float switch manually✅

Test 4: Does the Display revert to zero when we press the Reset Button.✅



It's good to go. 

See you on the water!

Paul

Installing a Tank Monitor

Need to Know

As mentioned in a recent post, our holding tank was unexpectedly full and we had to visit a pump out station rather than leave 25Gallons of Poop in the tank till our next trip. If we had a Tank Level Monitor we would have realized that we were heading (no pun intended) for a problem. 

Researching online for Tank Level monitors, I found a great article on Practical Sailor that identified several units and their recommendation was the SensaTank Marine 100 and I found one on Amazon for $174. It has 3 sensors, so we could use it to monitor the Holding tank, and the two fresh water tanks. Ordered on Tuesday, arrived on Thursday - thanks Prime.

The kit has 4 components.

• Display Panel
• Interface Module
• 3 x 15' Wire Harness each with 4 Sensors
• Cat 5e Cable that connects the Interface Module with the Display Panel

Setup is really simple: Install the Display Panel, connect it to the Interface Module with the Cat 5e Cable, Connect the 3 sensor harnesses to the Interface Module and attach the Sensors to the sides of the tanks.

Of course, running the wires from the Sensors to the Interface panel is going to be an issue, The interface panel could be placed anywhere, but it's probably best if it is near the boats Main Electrical Panel, that means some of the tank wire harnesses will need to be extended. Not a big problem, the directions state that can be done. The bigger problem is finding an unobstructed side of the tanks. The holding tank is very well secured in the boat (definitely don't want that tank moving about, particularly when it's full!). The Midships Fresh Water tank is also very secure, I don't think there is an open side on that tank at all. The Aft Fresh Water tank should be easy.

Installing the Display Panel

The Display Panel has no moving parts (except an adjustable potentiometer on the back for varying the readings on an LPG tank but we're not using that option.)

It requires a flat surface 5.5" by 3.5" and a cutout of 4.5" x 2.25". I intend to install it at the Nav Station along with the existing Air Conditioning Control Panel.

It has to be connected to 12v and I'll connect it to the 12v DC Panel Meter wiring with an inline 1amp fuse.

My Harbor Freight Vibro saw gets plenty of use at home and on the boat. Marked out the panel position so that it was level with the adjacent Air Conditioner controller and then cut into the woodwork.

Once the hole was made, easy to just screw the panel in place, run power lines to the -ve bus behind the electrical panel and connect the +ve to the Water Pressure Circuit breaker (that's the only 'water' relevant breaker).

Here's a pic of the Nav table (the bulkhead that houses the VHF, Stereo, Engine Hour meter, AC Controller, and now the Tank monitor panel, is an addition by a previous owner. It certainly gives plenty of room for the additional electronics.

Installing the Interface Module

This module has a self adhesive pad on the back, so it's just a case of choosing where to install it and sticking it to a flat surface. It needs a few inches of space in front of the module in order to be able to connect the cables.

I'll install close to the back of the Display Panel.

Note. the module has 2 Cat 5 connectors, the 2nd is for connecting an optional remote display, no need for that on a 34' boat.
The Sensor plugs are labeled Fresh, Grey, Black and a 4th for LPG.

Installing the Midships Tank Sensors

The pic shows the forward side of the midships tank and the glassed in bulkhead that helps keep the tank in place. There's about a 1" gap on the inboard side (left in the pic).

I was able to clean the tank side with a paper towel taped to a 16" metal rule and soaked with 91% isopropyl alcohol, did that a few times. Then taped a sensor to the end of the rule and guided it into position, once it touched the side of the tank it stuck! So just a push on the rule detached the tape from the sensor and twisting the rule 90º I was able to use it as a lever and apply additional pressure to the sensor. It's definitely stuck in place. Repeated the process with the other 3 sensors. 

Ran the wire temporarily across the cabin and plugged it into the Interface module. Press the button and WooHoo, works.

Installing the Holding Tank Sensors

I used  my Vibro Saw to cut a 2" slot in the end panel that secures the holding tank in place. To protect the tank, really did not want to puncture the tank with the saw and have a poop leak! So I inserted my 16" metal rule between the aft end of the tank and the retaining bulkhead. It only took a few minutes to cut the slot. Turns out the bulkhead is glassed nearly all the way around except at the deeper part of the tank bottom so it does not need to be modified after the sensors are installed. Otherwise I'll attach a wooden plate over the slot to reinforce the end panel.
The sensors were easily adhered to the tank.


Then I temporarily connected the sensor wires to the Interface module to test the tank. Uh Oh! It shows the tank as being 3/4 full, but it's empty! Ok, perhaps we did not do a good pump out last week. So I opened the vent at the top of the tank and peered in (that's a first). With a flash light I could see the bottom of the tank below the vent, but very little else. The tank appeared to be almost totally empty, a small amount of sludge on the inboard side of the bottom of the tank. I could see an almost crystalline residue on the visible part of the tank bottom. Hmmmm!

Possible issues:

• Sensors are bad (I should have tested them before sticking them to the tank)
• There could be a 30 year old build up of crud (salt, poop, calcium) on the sides of the tank, similar to that which is visible on the tank bottom, that might interfere with the sensor operation.
• The tank could be more than 10mm thick, a limit described on the SensaTank instructions.

I've sent an email to the manufacturers asking for advice, but I think the most likely issue is the build up on the tank sides, so I'm planning on adding an inspection port to the top of the tank and giving the tank a good clean. There has to be some pluses with that process, but it sounds like a crappy job. It can wait till the haul out in November.

Installing the Aft Tank Sensors

The aft tank is in the Aft locker and a pain, literally, to access. However, not too difficult.

Just empty the aft locker, remove the shelf that covers the rudder quadrant and then get into the locker. There's room for a couple of stowaways down there. 

The sensor wire will have to run to the port side then over along the back of the fuel tank, behind the bathroom cabinets through the hanging locker and into the Nav station area. Easy!

Pretty easy install. The pic shows the sensors applied to the back end of the Aft Water tank before I cut off the wire ties.

Using a cable fish rod, I ran it through the holes in the cabinet above the Nav Table aft into the Head and then aft into the void under the Port side Coaming and into the area behind the Engine Control Panel. I was able to attache the end of the sensor cable to the fish and pull it through into the head cabinet. The wire is only 15' long, so I had to butt join an extension to be able to reach the Interface Module. As I keep the electrical kit onboard, that was easy.

With the aft tank sensor attachment complete, I ran the wire from the midships tank aft to below the galley counter, then over to port above the hot water tank, down under the cabin sole into the are of the Holding tank, then ran both the holding tank and the midships tank wires up the port side near the main battery cables and behind the electrical panel into the area with the Interface module. Easy.

Testing the System

The Aft Water tank sensors are connected to the 'Fresh' tank connection on the Interface Module, the Midships to the 'Grey' tank connection and the Holding tank to the 'Black' tank connection. The Aft and Midships tanks are working fine, but the Holding tank is reading 3/4 full even though it's empty.
Talking to the C34 owners, I'm leaning towards the issue being a build up of crud on the inside face of the holding tank where the sensors are attached. But that will have to wait till I install a surface mount inspection plate in the top of the holding tank - a crappy job to say the least! Meanwhile we're trying a chemical clean of the tank, I don't hold much hope of that working, but it's cheap and easy, so worth a try.

Looks like we're going for a sail this week, probably Thursday or Friday, wooo hooo!

We really will see you on the water.

Paul

Furler won't

Fixing our Harken Furler

Ok, so I didn't read the manual on the Harken Furler that came installed on Eximius, my Bad (sorry)

When we put the Jib sail back on the furler after Hurricane Irma passed, I noticed that the lower plate of the furler was broken. If I had read the manual, I would have learned that there should be at least two turns on the furler drum. The reason - because if there are less, it will cause the strain on the furling line to go more directly to the lower furler flange plate and can cause it to fail (there's a big warning in the Furler Installation Manual... Duh!)

The pic shows the broken tab that joins the two halves of the lower flange plate. The consequence of that failure is that the drum is not securely attached to the flange and thus it can rotate - in use that would mean that the sail could possibly unfurl from a reefed position. That would not be fun. So, I called Harken after finding the part that was broken online. They impressed me at the outset - a Human answered the phone. I actually said "Wow, a Human - Thank you!" no press 1 for Sales, press 2 for something else all the way through press 99 to go back to the beginning, a Real Human!

Not only did a really nice person ask about why I was calling but the quickly passed me on to the guy that handled that particular furler (and probably others, but he seemed to know the product very well.) I described the problem, he explained that it can happen if there are less than 2 turns on the furler drum and they have the part in stock. Within just a couple of minutes I had spoken with Kim and placed the order.

The new Flange Plate pair arrived today. I have researched the replacement process and there's no need to drop the jib. I'll take pics of the process when I do the replacement on Wednesday (assuming the weather is nice, not a comfortable position to sit in the rain.)

Wednesday - replacement day
Well, that went well. The Cover plates were easy to remove (just two hex screws on the underside). I tied a line through the 'Line' openings in the cover plates to prevent them falling overboard. Once the cover plates were off, the lower flange plates easily pulled out, both had fractured tabs. I installed the new flange plates, had to use a stubby bit adapter to tighten the small hex screws, but they don't need to be overtightened, they screw into metal inserts in the tabs. Then I cleaned up the cover and bolts and reinstalled them. Finally fed the line through the 'Line' opening in the cover, 6 times around the drum, down through the hole in the flange plate out of the gap on the underside, tied a new stop knot and took up the slack. Neatly laid the line around the drum nice and tight, secured the furling back at the cockpit. All Done.

Total time was about 20 minutes.

Cross that one off the list.

Won't be out on the water for a few days, grotty weather and Peggy has pinched a nerve in her wrist, so need to babysit wrist for a few days.

Next week looks good, so see you out there.

Paul