Sunday, February 25, 2018

Rebuilding the Raw Water Pump

Rebuilding the old Oberdorfer Water Pump

This is the Oberdorfer Pump that we removed and replaced with a brand new pump. At the same time that we purchased the new pump, we also purchased a rebuild kit for the old one (this) 

It's an M202M 15 Pump fitted to our M25-
XP Universal Diesel Engine on Eximius.

Not that old, but it was a rebuild that was on the boat when we purchased it, I suspect that the seals were incorrectly installed as both the Oil seal and the water seal both leaked.









Step 1 was to remove the old impeller, seals and inspect the shaft & bearing.

The corrosion around the O-ring shows how it was not very well prepared.

The indent in the cover plate shows where it wore.

The body of the pump shows it had leaked for a while, my fault for not fixing this issue earlier. 

I called Depco on the West Coast of Florida, and they were able to ship a new pump, and a rebuild kit within a few days of the order. Of course, that was nearly $400

I'll take better care to inspect and maintain the new pump.



The seal failure is clearly shown in this pic.

Both seals were leaking. The good news is that the leaks were evident from the Weep hole in the side of the pump.

I used the tool I made following the design by Ron Hill on the C34 Forum to extract the seals. 

It worked like a charm and I had both seals out within 10 minutes of getting to work.

Getting the Carbon shaft bearing out took a bit more brute force! I used a long socket that just fit and hammered to get the bearing out. Luckily, I was able to do so without damaging the pump body. 




This is the tool I made to press the carbon bearing into the pump body (the bearing is the black cylinder on the bolt) 

I put the Bolt, Bearing and nuts/washers into the freezer for 30 minutes while I came up with the rest of the plan.

I had already buffed up the pump body with an assortment of wire brushes, it looks like new. I'm comparing that to the new pump that we purchased.



The nut had to be outside of the pump body while pressing the bearing. 

Here's I'm using a 1" PVC Pipe connector as a spacer and a couple of 5/8" fender washers.

With the pump body clamped to my bench, I used the two adjustable wrenches to press the bearing.

The bearing has a chamfer on one end which I figured was the end that had to be pressed in first.

It went surprisingly easy, I could not turn the nuts by hand, but the two wrenches made it very easy. The technique was very effective and the bearing was pressed in within just a couple of minutes of it coming out of the freezer.




With the bearing installed, next was pressing in the two seals.

There's great info on the C34 forum site about how to do this. Basically it is done using a suitable Woodworking clamp secured to the bench and a sized socket as the pressing surface.

The Oil seal is inserted first with the side with writing visible while pushing the seal in place. I used a hammer to tap the seal in place. 

The Water seal is inserted second, the side with the writing on the inside this time. Again, a socket tapped with the hammer easily pushed the seal in place. I checked the insertion progress several time as it's important to have the seal fully inserted but not so far as to obstruct the weep hole.


Now if the Oil seal leaks, oil will come out of the weep hole, if the water seal leaks, then water will leak out the weep hole.

With the seals in place, it only needs the shaft and impeller installing.

The shaft was a snug fit into the seals and the bearing and did not have any play in it at all. 

The impeller was tough to get onto the shaft, I figured that the end of the shaft was damaged as the impeller would not fit over the shaft. I had to do some careful filing to smooth over the edge of the shaft. Once done, the impeller fit nicely. Not sure I'll be able to get it off again without removing the shaft, but that should not be a problem.




With the impeller installed, next the cover plate and O-ring and the grease screw.

Before inserting the grease screw, I applied a few pumps of grease from my grease gun and then rotated the shaft several time. The sound of the impeller blades flipping as they rotated around the pump body was very satisfying.

Last thing: Mark the cover plate with the date of the rebuild.

Next it will get wrapped in cling film and stored on the boat with the other engine spares.

Time to update the Service History.

See you on the water.

Paul

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Relaxing

Trying to be a little poetic.



In our little ship, in the darkness of our cabin, we lay quietly, hearing the gentle ripple of the surrounding waters bubble past the still bow. They gurgle a short while later as they pass the, not so far away, stern.

Occasionally, gently clanging rope lines running down the mast disturb for but fleeting moment, no need to go up top and quiet them, their elusive skill at being quiet when observed is almost magical.

Warm beneath our hugging covers, we sleep, toss, turn, dream, as our ship wallows, mostly smoothly through the night, but not without a reminder that we are guests on the water as a more energetic wave passes by. 

But, we sleep, as sailors do, drifting off to dreams of further ports, and meeting with other cheerful souls in other waters.

We sail, but we do not sail to escape, nor to get away. We sail to relax between the stresses of life, to share time with the World wherever we are.

It's not always easy, things happen at sea as they do in port. Good things, Bad things, a sailor has to deal with both every day, in every port, in every sea.

We're sailors, we offer our friendship, our knowledge, and always ready to hear a good tale of others about their sailing adventures, wherever they are, or whenever they were.

We'll see you on the water.

Paul Alcock
February 22nd 2018

Monday, February 19, 2018

Re-plumbing the Air Conditioning system

The Old (2 years) System

When I installed the AC system two years ago, I plumbed the Raw Water Pump with a hose from the Thru hull in the bathroom that ran all the way to the V-Berth, that's about a 18' run. I worked fine except that it would keep losing pump prime and the long hose would get blocked with build up ( barnacles, guck, etc.) and we would have to run barnacle buster through the hose to clean it out far too often.

Solution

Install a new Thru Hull in the Bow below the water line to provide Raw Water input to the pump.

Step 1. Here's the Sea Cock and Thru hull fitting. The Sea Cock is mounted on a backing plate that I made following the instructions on the Compass Marine Website. The SeaCock is secured in place by 3 bolts that have been cut down. So, if the seacock needs to be replaced some time in the future, I can simply undo the 3 nylon lock nuts, extract the bronze thru hull and remove the seacock. 

Step 2. I cut a hole with a 1" deep hole cutter from the outside into the hull in the V-berth.

Next, I sanded down the inside to create as flat an area as possible for the Thru Hull Flange to bed onto the hull.

The pic shows the hole and the sanded area. I did all of this while the boat was hauled out at Playboy Marina in January 2018











Here's proof of my screw up! The Thru Hull fitting in the pic above shows it as a mushroom headed thru hull. I screwed up by cutting it to the right length, well, nearly! The old adage, of Measure twice cut once! Well, I measured a half dozen times and cut once, but forgot to include the thickness of the hull! So it was off to WM and purchase a new Thru Hull fitting, but the only one they had was a flush model. So I had to cut into the hull to create a angled bedding for the fitting. 

I used my Cordless Dremel and 1/2" belt sander to get a near perfect fit.








The new Thru Hull held in place with the Boat Hook (since deceased)  for a dry fit.

Everything looked good, so Step 3 was to plaster the underside of the Backing plate with a Resin mixture with filler and plaster the inside of the hull with the same mix, wax the thru hull fitting and screw the seacock and backing plate down onto the thru hull.

I tightened it up from the outside by putting a pipe wrench on the sea cock to stop it turning and then, from the outside, screwing the waxed thru hull in as far it it would go.

After letting the resin cure for 12 hours, (next day) I removed the waxed thru hull, cleaned it off, applied 3M 5200 to the inside of the thru hull and screwed it back in place. This thing is water tight!

Now that the thru hull is fitted and the sea cock in place, it's time to work on the hoses to the raw water pump.


Here's a schematic of the AC Raw Water System. It includes the clean out system that uses Barnacle Buster.

I'll have to wait for the two Tee connectors to arrive before completing the system.

When complete, the AC Pump should prime easily because it will be only about 24" from the intake thru hull.






The Tee Connectors were waiting for us at home on return from the Chili Cook Off.

A quick trip to ACE hardware and I found the End caps and barbed connectors to complete the plumbing (the Black Tees in the Pic above) All of the Raw Water plumbing hoses will be double clamped.

Now that we have everything I can complete the project. Probably tomorrow (Thursday)


  • Install Tee between Pump and Discharge thru-hull
  • Install Elbow on Raw Water Thru-hull
  • Install hose from Elbow to 2nd Tee
  • Install hose from 2nd Tee to Strainer
  • Install hose from Strainer to Pump
  • Test for leaks
  • Run AC system and check for prime and leaks.

This pic shows the completed installation (with paper towel leak detectors in place beneath the Pump & Strainer connections)

The open hose that can be seen hanging down near the strainer is the fill hose for the AC Condensate collector. We put a 2gallon jug in place to collect the condensate and use the condensate to flush the head rather than use our Fresh water supply.

The Old Speed log transducer (shown with the wire attached) is no longer used, and will be removed the next haul out in about 2020)
The Pump is not mounted, I needed to know where it would sit before making the support shelf. Now that I do, I can cut a piece of Starboard and 3M 5200 Glue it into place beneath the pump, secure the pump with 4 screws through the AVMs and tidy up the electrical supply cable.


Just another view of the AC Raw Water Supply plumbing.

We had the AC running for a half hour and no leaks! WooHoo!

Now I can get rid of the odd bits of hose that I kept knowing that it might be handy when I do the re-plumbing job.

Note the White Cap (yellow label) , that's one of the two AC Flush system connections.

And the Strainer is now shown horizontal, we can see if water is flowing in the strainer.

Peggy wants me to install a lamp beneath the V-Berth to improve visibility, I'll buy  a couple of the LED Switch lamps from ACE Hardware.



This is the AC Raw Water Discharge Thru Hull and Sea Cock. The white cap is the port that will connect to the AC Raw Water Flush system to get rid of Barnacles inside the Raw Water tubing, AC Unit, Strainer and Pump.

Note how the Paper towel leak detection is totally dry.

As said before: WooHoo!

I should be able to get the Pump support shelf done over the next few days. Pretty simple really: Just a piece of Starboard, cut with similar angles to match the sides of the hull by the pump then glued into place with 3M 5200.

But right now - We have AC again!



See you on the Water.

Paul

Tensioning the Engine Drive Belt

Correct Tension Reduces Wear

This pic shows the Engine Drive Belt which gave us a problem over the New Years Eve Cruise. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to tension the belt correctly simply because of the lack of leverage against the Alternator Body.

So I plan on making a Tensioner using a piece of Threaded Rod, inside a piece of Square Aluminium tubing and a long hex nut.

The idea is to apply pressure between the Alternator Pulley and the Engine Crankshaft Pulley using the tensioner and then, when tension is correct, tighten the Alternator securing bolts at which time the Tensioner can be removed.






Here's my 1st model. 
One end has a cross bar that is bolted into a slot in the end of the Square tubing.

The other end has the long nut with about a 1/2" of the threaded rod exposed.

The end of the threaded rod has been ground to a shape that approximates the pulley grove.

In this pic, the tensioner is adjusted to it's minimum length. I won't know if that is too long until I get to the boat and try it. If it is too long, I'll simply cut the length of the square tubing.





I used a 4 1/2" Metal cutting wheel in my grinder to shape the end of the threaded rod.

Original plan was to cut a slot into the end of the rod and make a 2nd bar, similar to the other end and mount that in the rod, but I thought I'll keep it simple.

The black marks are simply what I used as a guide when cutting the angle on the end of the rod.




The Flat bar is about 2" long and inserted into a slot cut into two sides of the Aluminum Square tubing. Then drilled and thru bolted with a nyloc nut to secure the bar to the tubing.









This shows how the threaded rod is simply inserted into the square tubing. 

The threaded rod is 6" long 

The Long nut is 2" long

The Square tubing is 8" long

So this allows the tensioner to expand from a minimum of about 10 1/2" up to about 14", I may have to cut the square tubing down if the distance from the inner surfaces of the pullies is less than 10 1/2" - I'll take my cut off grinder with me.


Here's the tensioner extended simply by turning the Long Nut.

Another job for tomorrow - check to see if it works.










Well that was a surprise, it did need to be shortened.  I used the tape to mark the correct length.

After a couple of minutes with the cut off wheel, it's now just under 7" long fully retracted.

The angle of the parts that meet with the pulleys need to be increased (they are too fat and I'm concerned that they may bend the pulley belt faces.)





The threaded rod was also shortened.

This pic shows the new max length of approximately 8.75"










Engine Drive Belt Tensioner

Success! It works like a charm!

I was able to ease off the Alternator Support Arm bolt (1/2" Wrench) and the Alternator Support Bolt (11/16") and the Alternator Arm attachment bolt (1/2") .
Then insert the Tensioner, tighten up on the Hex Bolt to apply tension fo the drive belt. Once at the desired tension, tighten up the 3 bolts and remove the tensioner.

No Sweat, No damage, no busted knuckles. 
Sweet!

See you on the water.


Monday, February 12, 2018

Loafing on the boat

1st Bread

So, the plan was to bake Harvest 8 Grain Whole Wheat Bread, it's similar to loaves I have made at home, but this was to be baked on the boat.

Here's my Galley (hope you like the new faucets that I installed about a week ago) 

I keep my tablet nearby so that I can read the recipes, the door with the vent leads to the Aft Berth where I keep, well, just about everything! Including non-perishables.

The Red Bowl is a great mixing bowl, but also serves as a salad bowl or delivery bowl when we take dinner over to other boats.




Friday:

We were rafted up with Dave & Pam on Sjofn at Lake Sylvia

To make sure I had everything with me, I put this package together at home. 
Yeast, 6 Cups of Flour (4 cups Whole Wheat, 2 Cups Bread Flour), mini Tupperware container with a mix of Seeds: Caraway, Flax, Fennel, Quinoa, because I couldn't find the King Arthur Harvest Grain mix at the store, not even Whole Foods!

I should setup a Video camera at the galley, trying to shoot a video with one hand and actually doing the food prep with the other just doesn't work. Hmmm. Amazon shopping is in my future.

The ingredients are enough for two loaves, one for us, and one to take to the Chili Cook Off on Saturday. But the dough mix was much wetter than it should be. And, because I didn't include any 'extra' flour, not a lot I could do. Thinking out of the box, I used an extra packet of Oats (Maple & Brown Sugar) and added that to the mix. Still too wet! I was ready to toss it out, but Peggy suggested that I go ahead and cook it anyway, worst case would be a dough ball.


I let the dough rise in the mixing bowl overnight. It rose nicely!

The No-Knead recipe requires that the risen dough should be De-Gased, and stirred to help develop the gluten strands which give the bread it's crumb.

Saturday 07:30

I used a regular kitchen spoon to stir the dough then left it to rise a 2nd time while I prepared the oven.



What didn't I do? I didn't check to see if the oven would hold 2 bread pans! It doesn't! Grrrr. Peggy suggested that I freeze half the dough, then she thought it would be ok to cook in a larger pan, making one large loaf. So I used the Skillet from my stainless steel stacking pan set. Greased the pan with spread.

It looked as though it would hold the dough and there's room above the pan in the oven for the bread to rise.

Oven set to 400ºF with shelf lowered, it only took about 15 minutes for the oven to get up to the set temperature, another 1st, never had the oven on the boat that hot before.

I had purchased a small oven thermometer a while back, does the job nicely.

I felt a bit like the bakers in the Great British Baking Show as I was kneeling down to check on the temp and to see how the bread was rising.

It looked good even if it's not very clear in the pic.

The recipe said 40mins, I added a few minutes because of the loaf size.




Well, that didn't turn out (pun intended) as planned! The loaf was nicely crusted on top, but the dough was still 'runny' inside as I could see where it leaked out while trying to get the loaf out of the pan. Just as well it didn't release, it would have been a really soggy mess!


Back into the oven at 350ºF, I tested it again after 20 extra minutes, still sticky inside. We had planned to leave Lake Sylvia around 9am and the loaf was still in the oven. I tested again after another 10 minutes, and it's still sticky. We need to cast off and head out onto the ocean. 

Leaving the loaf to cook longer in the oven, we headed out of Lake Sylvia and down towards Port Everglades, we were going to sail up to Hillsboro Inlet rather than motor up the ditch. Dave &Pam were following as soon as they pulled up their anchor.

As we passed under the 17th Street Causeway Bridge, I pulled the loaf out of the oven and decided to leave it in the pan just incase the inside was still gooey. The forecast was for a lumpy ocean sail, so I secured the pan with the Pot Holders onto the top of the cooker.

We had a great Sail! Sure, it was lumpy, but the boat handled it really well and Peggy's tolerance of rougher weather rose several notches, she's becoming a good sailor! (but she still reminds me that she's 'Not In Your Navy' regularly.

When we arrived at Lake Boca for the Chili Cook Off, and were safely tied up along side Sjofn, I pulled the bread out of the pan, it did require a bit of assistance with a knife around the edges, but it came out in one piece.

It's a big loaf, and heavy due to the high moisture content, but it tastes ok, has a nice crust. I'm glad I didn't toss it out.

My local food critics (Peggy, Pam, & Dave) gave it good marks, but I know that it's not great.

It did make really good skillet toast for breakfast on Sunday.

So, lessons learnt:
  • Have extra flour on hand to add if dough is too moist
  • Get pans that fit the cooker if I want to bake two loaves (saving propane usage)
  • Get a bread knife for the boat. I know, really?
  • Use non-stick pans! But I asked other members of the Cooking on Boats Facebook group and the majority of members choose Silicone Bread Pans (Hello! Amazon, you still there?)

There were about 17 club boats at the Chili Cook Off, we didn't win any trophies for my chili, but Katie Sparks (Into the Blue, boat on the left of the three of us rafted up on Lake Boca) did! I'm envious, but she is a pro dietitian and her Chili was really good. 

We left Lake Boca Sunday morning in time to pass the Camino Real Bridge's 10am opening.

Then it was a leisurely motor down the ditch and back to our dock in Fort Lauderdale. That's a long ride down! I'd rather be sailing, but the forecast was in the low twenties and Peggy had earned a break from further rough sea training for the weekend, so I was happy to give her some loafing time.😉

See you on the Water.

Paul

Cooking on the Boat - Bread

Cooking for a weekend on the boat

We're planning on spending Friday Thru Monday on the boat, joining a bunch of sailing buddies for the Annual Chili Cook Off, and I'm hoping to do some cooking on the boat that is not just heat up the Seal-a-Meals we have prepared in advance.

Bread on the Boat.
We normally take at least a full loaf of whole wheat bread, more if over 4 days. That covers Breakfast Skillet Toast and Lunch Sandwiches. This weekend I want to Bake Bread on board.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread (Pan)
I got into bread making about a year ago and just could not bake anything other than Wheat Rocks! They turned out more like Biscotti than Bread. A good friend helped with advice, but I was doing something wrong, they tasted good, but really didn't need to be toasted, they were already like rock the morning after baking.


Over the past weeks, I've been practicing baking bread following Steve Gamelin's No-Knead Bread Cook Book, and very successfully too! So far I have made about 6 loaves of Whole Wheat Bread.


Several of the loaves turned out nice but many had an unintended split. I learned from the Cooking On Boats Facebook Group that it was known as 'Oven Spring' and I figured it was caused by our Oven's 'Convection' setting. 

The bread still tasted great, had a good crumb and was cooked evenly all the way through.

It cut well and toasted well, really pleased





This loaf turned out really well. It toasted really well and with Avocado, Scrambled Eggs, Mini Toms, Cheshire Cheese, it made a great breakfast.

There's something about home made bread that makes a huge difference at breakfast time. Something to do with the fact that it's not from the store and that it was made with that extra bit of excitement as it comes out of the oven.



This was my multi seed bread, no Oven Spring (cooked on regular 'Bake' setting), and was really tasty. Whole Wheat PMDO sCrumbstios Whole Wheat Flour, Bread Flour, Flax Seed, Caraway Seed, Fennel Seed, Oats D-Licious!

Then some good friends invited us for their Birday celebration, their Parrot was 40 years old!
So I planned on taking a loaf to help feed the crowd. This would be my first White Bread loaf. Intimidation was low because Whole Wheat Bread is supposed to be difficult compared to White Bread. 


I started it in the morning, it's Cheesy White Bread, Gruyere Cheese instead of Cheddar (because that's what I had!) 
The dough should have risen within 90 minutes, but did nothing, I was ready to toss it out. Peggy said just let it proof overnight. So we took two bottle of wine instead of one. 
Sunday morning, it had risen quite a bit, not what I have been used to seeing, ready to toss it again. Peggy said 'Bake it!' So I did, it's awesome.

Just cutting the bread brings out the flavor of the Gruyere cheese. 


Now, it's time to get ready to bake a loaf on the boat. This is a perfect time to try it. We're heading up to Lake Boca on Friday for the HISC annual Chili Cook off. We'll be at Lake Sylvia on Friday night with friends coming along side after they finish work for the day. I plan on putting my first Bread on the Boat together starting Friday Night.

Harvest 8 Grain Whole Wheat Bread, cooked in a Bread Pan.
The method requires a two step mix. Step 1. Yeast, Salt, Sugar, 8 Grain mix that gets added to the Water and Olive Oil, yeast 1st. So I'll make a baggy of Salt, Sugar, 8 Grain mix, and take along a packet of Yeast and a bottle of Olive oil.

Step 2 is to add the Flour: Whole Wheat Flour and Bread Flour - I'll prep them at home and take to the boat in a 2nd baggy.

I'll need a mixing bowl (don't have one on the boat right now) and a couple of identical bread pans, one to act as a lid in order to create a Poor Mans Dutch Oven.

Maybe the excitement of baking will wear off someday, but for now, I'm happy that it doesn't take much to brighten my day. Heading out on the boat and baking bread - simply pleasures are sometimes the best.

See you on the Water

Paul

Here's a link to the results: Loafing on the boat












Saturday, February 3, 2018

Playboy Marina - Review

Playboy Marina

We selected Playboy Marina upon recommendation by many of the Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club that have used the facility.


In anticipation of our 1st Haulout since the purchase of Eximius in May 2015, we visited the marina which is about 25 minutes away from our home, a trip with which we became very familiar!

The Marina is immediately South of the end of the runway at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, it's easy to get to via I595 just don't waste time trying to go there during rush hours! The traffic on the Turnpike and on I95 can be very heavy early morning and around 4:40pm. We left the marina several times at rush hour in the afternoon and it took us 50 minutes to get home compared to just 25 minutes going to there after 9am.

 My initial trip there was via Griffin Road, but that's the long way! 

Big plus! West Marine, Boat Owners Warehouse and Sailorman are less than 10 minutes away from Playboy Marine Center.

They have a large travel lift to haul boats out and seem very competent in the process. They have a pressure wash runoff drain where the wash the boats down upon hauling. The runoff is filtered to prevent pollution of the waterway.

They also have a large crane that is mostly used to remove the Masts from boats that need that. There were several boats in the yard that were either having new masts delivered or were having work done that required the mast pulled before hauling the boat. There are several Rigging companies in the area that are available to assist.

The office is also the Marina Store. Lisa is cheerful, polite and seems very knowledgeable. They have a pretty good supply of items needed for boat work, and their markup is very reasonable. Our 34' Sailboat was charged $25 per day for the 1st two weeks, then it goes up to $40 per day. They don't want you to keep you boat there too long! We kept Eximius on the hard for 16 days (Monday thru Tuesday Launching Wednesday at 7:30am)

The gates to the marina are open at 7:00am, we never stayed late enough to find out when they close, but the office/store closes at 4pm week days. Still, check their website in case times have changed since our visit.

There are several Boat Service Contractors onsite: Absolute Boat Care, Patagonia Services, Atlantica Marine services to name a few. I found all of them very helpful and noted that some were able to quickly jump in to help solve a problem that a DIY owner might have (for example, the boat next to us were replacing their fixed prop with a folding prop, not as simple as initially thought, Patagonia Services helped them complete the task at short notice)

We purchased the Bottom paint for Eximius at the office/store. They have a mechanical paint can shaker and they can get most paints within a few hours on a week day. eg. Order in the morning and they can probably get it by the afternoon. They stock most of what the DIY owner needs to paint the boat bottom, including safety gear, application tools etc. They have a pretty good selection of promp shaft and hull zincs. 

We rented their vacuum sanders but, sorry guys, they suck (pun intended) I ended up purchasing my own sander and vacuum. I was told that they are going to service the vacuums.

The marina really does try to limit pollution, so they keep an eye out for inappropriate techniques such as sanding boat bottoms without a vacuum sander. They have plenty of Tarps available for protecting the tarmac under the boat from paint splashes etc.

The marina support team, including (L-R) William and Marino, are busy most of the time, either hauling or splashing boats, pressure washing and barnacle scraping boat hulls, preparing boat stands as well as keeping on top of trash disposal. 

I'm guessing that at least one boat at the yard was in excess of 54'. There was a 54' sailboat next to us and he has used the marina many time (at least once a year to clean and paint his boat hull)

Because we had to do some work on our boat's rudder, we had to have our boat raised after the rudder repair was complete to allow us to re-insert the rudder into the hull. I spoke with Lisa about our need and she advised that it might not be for a day or two as they had a busy schedule of hauling and splashing boats. But she said they would arrange for the lift as soon there was a break. That occurred the next day. The guys came over to the boat earlier than the 3pm opportunity, just after 1pm and said they could raise the boat in about a half hour. I quickly finished off the project I was working on, cleared the area on either side of the boat to allow the boat lift to pass around Eximius. William and Marino maneuvered the lift into position and put the straps in place. I needed to be on the boat to secure the rudder once it was inserted. They called in an additional set of hands to get the rudder in place. Within 10 minutes I had the rudder secure and they lowered the boat and re-positioned the support stands.

During our stay, we needed to paint the bottom where the boat stands were located. The team moved them before we got to the boat that day. It pays to talk to the staff so that they can do what they do when they can.

A mobile catering wagon visits most days after noon, but we took a sandwich after the fist day. They have soda machines outside the office/store and a couple of tables to have lunch. 

Behind the office/store are the bathrooms, they appear to be open all of the time except when being cleaned. It's a DIY marina, don't expect the bathrooms to match the Hilton!

There's a friendly bunch of Cats that hang around the office/store, they're well fed, but I bet they are responsible for us not seeing any rodents during our stay!

We needed a scaffold for working on the hull above the waterline. They have plenty, but planks are in short supply, but mostly because some users take more than they need. Next time we use the marina, we'll probably rent or purchase our own scaffold from Lowes or Home Depot - and chain it to the boat! 

They have some wooden ladders, home grown type, needed for getting up to the boat when it's on stands. We took a folding ladder with us but used their wooden ladders most of the time.

Close to each boat space is a typical Shore Power  & Water pedestal. We only used the 110v 15Amp outlets but they have typical shore power outlets as well. The pedestals have water spigots and there's at least one hose nearby. We took our own hose, but didn't use it at all. 

Remember, it's a Marina, lots of boats (there were 35 while we were there) doing lots of dirty work, and it's nearby a major airport (don't try to make a mobile phone call while the planes are taking off), so you should protect the top of the boat from dirty shoe marks. Next time, I'll put a door mat on the stern entry point of the boat and wash it off daily. Hence the nearby water spigots and hoses.

They only accept cash for payment! In our case, Lisa tallied up the balance on Monday afternoon (we planned to splash Wednesday morning), that gave us time to get the money out of the bank. We paid after lunch on Tuesday, I was only $76 over budget. They have a strict rule of Cash before Splash. There are several banks within 20 minutes of the Marina.

We were very pleased with our experience at Playboy Marina. Right up till the last minute, they helped us achieve all of our goals planned for this haulout, including letting the boat hang in the boat lift while a quick last minute application of paint on the underside of the keel that could not be reached while the boat was on blocks.

I give the Marina and Staff *****  We had to change our plans slightly when we discovered that we needed a part that was not available locally and had to have it shipped from California, that extended our stay from 7 days to 16. Lisa arranged for the later splash day over the phone. I highly recommend the marina to anyone wanting to DIY their boat projects on the hard.

Thanks Guys!

See you on the water.

Paul