Sunday, November 21, 2021

Hole in the boat, what to do?

Hole in the Boat.

After completing the new Auto Pilot installation, we're left with the old Raymarine Auto Pilot control Instrument mounted on the Starboard side of the cockpit steering well.  Right now the Instrument is still in place, but it has to go. That will leave a 3" hole in the boat.

Looking for ideas on what to put in it's place. 

I could repair the hole but the chance of getting a match on the gel coat in that particularly visible area are slim.

I could install another instrument, but that's why we moved the new Auto Pilot instrument (p70s) to the helm shelf, it's a bad place for an instrument - it gets knocked when someone enters or exits the helm station and it's difficult to see down there.

Looking for ideas, please comment if you have an idea or experience similar.

Thanks.

Paul
 

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Rewiring our LED lighting circuit

Protecting our LED Lighting Circuit

I recently completed the BoatHowTo 'Boat Electrics 101 - Safe & Reliable DC Systems' online Course and it was worth the time and effort, it will help me when I get into our rewiring job on Eximius.  With what I leaned from the course,  I recently upgraded our Auto Pilot which involved removing all of the old wiring and rewiring the Cockpit Instrument power supplies. That was due to the obvious bad wiring install that was done before we took on the boat.

As part of the Boat Electrics 101, a 'bonus' lesson was about LED lighting, it went way past what I needed to know, but, again, was worth the effort. I have a better understanding of the types of LED lighting and the various options as far as appropriate LED's for particular use. eg. Light temperatures suitable for use inside a cabin etc.

That last lesson also explained an issue with Cheap LED lighting strips, I use quite a few of those: Galley, Head, Cabin and in equipment lockers. The issue is that those low cost LEDs have no power management on the strips and so they receive whatever voltage is available at their connection. When the Batteries are charging, the voltage could be as high as 14v DC when they are designed to operate at 12v DC. This high voltage will reduce their life expectancy.

My initial thought was to install a voltage reducer with a constant 12v DC output between the Lighting Circuit Breaker and the lighting Circuit. But then I thought, what about the Navigation Lights( Bow Lights and Stern Light), Anchor Light, Deck and Steaming light? All of those are now LEDs and potentially suffer from the same issue - over voltage reducing their life expectancy.

That complicates things slightly, I'll have to check the current draw when all of the lights are on, including the Nav lights. If the current draw with all the lamps on is less than 6A, then I can simply create a sub-circuit supply to those circuit breakers which is protected by the Voltage Reducer. Worst case scenario is that I would need to add two of the reducers, one for the Interior lighting circuits and another for the exterior lighting circuits.




This 8V-40V to 12V 6A 72W Voltage Reducer converts whatever the input voltage is (between 8v and 40v DC) to a reliable 12v.

6A is more current than all of our interior LED lighting combined. I'll test it onboard before installing it just to make sure there's no radio interference.

At that time I'll turn all of the lights on the boat, interior and exterior to determine the total current flow ( our electrical management system shows the current flow both In and Out of the Battery) I'll turn off the Solar Charger to ensure we're getting a true reading of the current flow.

If I'm going to go to the trouble of protecting the LED lamps/strips, I might as well rewire them all so that if one shorts out it doesn't flip the breaker and turn off all of the Interior lighting. So the plan is to break the Interior lighting into separate circuits.

Here's my initial diagram for the Interior LED lighting with the Voltage. 
Note. Because some of the circuits, eg. V-Berth, have multiple LED lamps, the Blade fuses will be sized accordingly.
The Exterior lights have their dedicated Circuit Breaker, I'll have to figure those out later, I'm sure they jointly take more than 6amps which is the limit of this particular Voltage Converter. I don't have an issue installing multiple converters, but they do cost $27 on Amazon. I'll update the diagram when I figure out the current in each circuit.

See you on the water - and after another grotty weekend here in South Florida cancelled a long weekend cruise, it had better be soon!

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Cockpit Table Storage Solution

 Making a storage for our Cockpit Table

The Cockpit table, affectionately called 'The Toe Buster' was refurbished a while ago, turned out pretty good but it won't last in the Florida Sun so we stow it below decks. Not having a set location for the folded table, it tends to get stuffed with all of the other boat gear in the Aft Berth and then is has to be moved around in order to get to the 'other stuff' - we needed an easy to use storage solution.


With a couple of webbing straps secured to the bulkhead just aft of the engine access door in the Aft Berth.  The TAble is not at all in the way, a good solid fixture position.

Those holes in the bulkhead were from some previous fitting that was removed before we purchased the boat.

I'll make another webbing strap that will hold the table in the folded condition when we move it to the Cockpit, that will make it much easier to move it up to the Cockpit or back down to it's new storage location.

An easy mod and already proving to be worth the small effort.

To Do: Make a 3rd webbing strap to easy moving the table around. Fill those old fixture holes in the bulkhead.


Looking forward to getting the boat out on the water.

See you there.


Friday, October 22, 2021

Annapolis Sailboat Show 2021

Our Trip to the Annapolis Sailboat Show 2021 

We planned on going to the 2020 Annapolis International Sailboat Show - but - Covid eliminated that option. Delta Airlines allowed us to save the fare for use by 2022 - and the Show was open in 2021 - had to go.
One of the Highlights of the Show



The Flight to Annapolis (BWI)

After parking in the Park-n-Fly lot at Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) we took the shuttle to the airport. We would do that again! Excellent Service, Friendly, Cheerful, Helpful and very easy to use.

At the airport, our bags were checked in at the curbside and we quickly progressed through the security system although it's a bit crowded after getting through the scanner and pat down, they should have a better system to allow travellers to sort them and their belongings, get their shoes on rather than the tiny area provided. We had breakfast before we left home and headed to the gate, that was our Steps for the day.

The flight on Delta was excellent! We travelled Comfort+ which really does have plenty of room at the seats, we would travel Comfort+ again in a heartbeat.

Our stayover at Atlanta Airport included a walk from Terminal A to Terminal D. Easy, plenty of time, a none-event. The flight from Atlanta to BWI was very pleasant no issues. We took an UBER from BWI to the Courtyards Annapolis ($55.99), easy and no stress, well, no stress for me other than when Peggy kept gripping my leg with an Iron hand each time the car changed lanes or approached a slower moving vehicle, no bruises.

The Courtyards Annapolis is undergoing renovations "Exterior Improvements" but those extend inside too. They have a Bistro - don't eat there in the evening, the bar is not bad but not a lot of choices. The airport food areas are better and they are not great.  Our room was just fine except for the Bathroom toilet cistern leaked and would drip all the time then refill noisily about every 9 or 10 minutes. I mentioned it to the reception staff before we headed to the boat show on Friday Morning, nothing was done. I called them and repeated the issue. A guy came to the room, replaced the cistern's flapper valve. It kept me awake a lot of that night too.

Ok, so we're at the Hotel and time to head to the boat show.  Uber ($18.91). We had purchased the tickets online but still had to wait in a long line (we got there before the show opened) - had we wanted to buy the tickets at the show we could have avoided the lines! go figure.

On our 'gotta do' list was visit the Catalina display, find a new pair of Bibs to replace those that fell apart (from the inside) on my trip on Grave last January and to find info about electrification of the boat propulsion system, especially about any install history on a Catalina 34.

The Catalina display had 4 boats: Catalina 425, Catalina 355 and Catalina 315. They also had a small day sailer. I really liked the C355 but as we have a C34 it's not that big of an upgrade. They also make a C385, it's only 4' longer but beamier than the C34 and the beam spreads back to the stern. I would be interested in seeing that boat. All of the 300+ boats had the option for Inmast Furling with an SMS which believe stands for (or should) Smart Mainsail System - Basically is has electronic torque detection to prevent continued furling or unfurling if the SMS detects an issue. That should prevent the main getting stuck in the mast or ripped by trying to pull it out if it were stuck.

I did note on the mini brochure from the folks at the Catalina display that all of their boats over 30' are rated CE category A Ocean NMMA Yacht Certified and follow all applicable ABYC standards. They sure look pretty. Although they didn't have tbe 385 on display, right  now it's the boat I would spend the money on, if I had it. :)




Best part of the show? 

That smile on Peggy's face when Captain Q gave her one of his caps! Priceless.

We're avid watchers of Captain Q and Randay when they find boats, hither and yon reciting years of knowledge as well as researched info about the boats, their owners, builders and history. Botb Cap'n Q and Randay took time to talk about their travels and what's involved with making one of their weekly you tube videos. Just go to YouTube.com and search for Captain Q.






What did we buy at the show?

I purchased a tackrite boom preventer, it was 20% off so only $50. My new mustang Bibs, a Sweatshirt to keep warm (it got cool up there) and a Catalina Long-sleeved shirt. That's it!

Where did we eat?

I'll not mention the airport food, wasn't worth the money or the time in  line. Friday we had breakfast at the hotel, surprisingly good, their Egg White, ham and cheese on an English muffin were really nice. After hours walking around the boat show, Day #1, we had Lunch at Pussers right next to the boat show. Nothing special, Salads with chicken. Despite the really busy lunchtime, the staff were excellent.

For  our Friday dinner we went to a local deli and purchased a couple of Brie Sandwiches and a bottle of wine. Expensive and turned out too much food.

 Saturday Morning we had the same breakfast at the hotel. Then, Day #2 at the boat show we visited O'Brians on Main Street - Oh Sooooo Good!  Appetizer was Shrimp Cocktail, plenty for two, too much for one. Shrimp were perfect. My choice was Spinach salad with Crab Cakes, absolutely delicious, the Crab cakes were real giant Crab! Peggy only got to taste the Crab Cake. Peggy's choice was Seared Tuna platter, that was an OMG moment, way to much for one person, we almost ate all of it together. A couple of glasses of wine and two Jack & Gingers finished off an excellent lunch. Ok, so the $139 bill (including tip) was a bit steep, but we were ok with it just this once.

Sunday we headed into town (Uber) for breakfast. Mike in our Sailing Club had recommended Chick & Ruth's - THANK YOU MIKE!  The Uber driver dropped us off right next to the restaurant. It was a chilly morning and it was packed, first seats available after a 20 minute wait hanging out on the sidewalk watching people go by, were outside. I kept looking at the store across the street that looked like it sold sweatshirts.
So for Breakfast, I had Eggs Benedict with Crab Cakes and Potatoes. Peggy had a Ham and Cheese Omelette. My breakfast set me up for the day, eggs runny inside = Perfect, Crab cakes - would have them every day, potatoes - Delicious. Peggy's omelette was too much, I had to help out. Coffee was pretty good too. The bill was the lowest we had for a meal all weekend!

Back at the hotel after a great visit of the Maryland State House - (ask Peggy about that, she's the history buff) we ordered dinner from the Royal Kama Indian Restaurant. It was literally a five minute walk from the hotel and was waiting when I got there. The restaurant was almost empty, I guess time of day and it looked like it was brand new. I have not had a really good Curry in ages, theirs made up for it. Good sized chunks of nicely cooked tender chicken and delicious curry sauce and rice. Really good, worth going to Annapolis just for the Curry. 

Monday morning we left the hotel before 7am for our Uber trip back to the airport where we planned to have breakfast. As I said, airport food is not worth the mention.

Our Uber drivers were great although one did have his music too loud and didn't understand our request to turn it down (4 stars). The best was John on Monday Morning with his Tesla 3, very pleasant. During our discussions the subject of self driving ( no driver) cars came up. I'm not a fan: If we travelled in a Taxi, the relationship is that of Service provider and Customer. When using Uber (et.al.) the relationship is much more friendly and always (ok, nearly always) a great conversation. If we used a Driverless Self driving Auto, the relationship is not there! Just a couple of passengers sitting inside of a tool. We would probably be subjected to endless Ads on a big video screen. No thanks.

Our Flights.
The best part of of the trip travel wise was actually due to a failure! We travelled both ways on Delta Comfort Plus, that meant that we boarded earlier than most. While sitting in our seats waiting for everyone else to board the flight from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, I noted that there was some kind of issue hearing the very quiet comments between the cabin crew. A few minutes later the Pilot announced that there was a safety issue with the plane and did not feel it safe to fly. They were trying to correct the issue but he was not confident that would happen quickly and pre-warned us that they had stopped boarding and were looking at alternative travel arrangements. A few more minutes passed and he confirmed that the issue needed much more attention and that he was going to start the de-boarding process shortly, as soon as they had confirmation about the alternative flight arrangements.

At this point I was very happy that he made a clear decision and did not take the unnecessary risk. Less than 10 minutes later, the Pilot advised that there was a similar plane waiting at another gate and that we should de-board and proceed to the to the other gate. Guess where the other gate was? Yep, at the other end of the airport terminals - We had to walk from terminal A gate 1 to Terminal T gate 2 Time to get walking! Everybody exited quietly and got the legs in motion, some needed wheelchair assistance.

By the time we arrived at the T2 Gate they had nearly completed preparation of the aircraft. We saw the pilots and crew arrive, they walked too, and less than a half hour later we were boarding with cheerful crew and fellow passengers. Well done Delta Airlines! 

The flight home was quick and on the updated time.  A bus from Park -n- Fly arrived within minutes of our bags at the baggage claim, probably less than 10 minutes to the parking lot, the driver pulled up right behind our truck. We headed home, stopped a Publix for some dinner and bread (I didn't have any bread left in the freezer). A glass of wine for Peggy and a Cap'n Morgan on ice for me, dinner and relax. We could unpack the bags in the morning.

Great trip. Especial thanks to Delta Airlines, Uber's driver John, and all of the folks we talked to at the boat show. A HUGE thank you to Cap'n Q you and Randay made Peggy's Day. 







Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Refitting the Rubrail

Refitting the Rub Rail on our Catalina 34

Pic from Ohana
If we brush up against a piling when docking, occasionally, the Rub Rail Vinyl extrusion will pop out of the Aluminum track and form a loop that just wants to get bigger.

First time this happened I spent hours trying to get it back in place, but now have the process down so that it only takes a few minutes.

If the 'Loop' is close to the Stern then it should be moved gradually towards the Bow and if it's near to the Bow, then the 'Loop' should be moved gradually towards the Stern.


Here's how to 'move the loop'

Basically the Vinyl rub rail has stretched, it's Vinyl, of course it stretches. The trick is compress the 
vinyl as it is moved.

Let's imagine that the Vinyl has popped out several feet from the stern on the Port Side.

Start by pushing the aft most edge of the loop back into the aluminum track and the Pushing will compress the vinyl just a small amount. As the aft end of the loop is compressed and pushed back into the track, most likely the forward end of the loop will come out of the track, just a bit, but that's ok, it's not pulling out and stretching, it's just easing out of the track.

Inch by Inch, continue to press the aft end of the loop into the track and pushing that edge towards the stern and thus compressing the vinyl a little more. Again some of the leading edge of the loop will pop out of the track, don't worry. As this process is repeated, the size of the loop will diminish, eventually, it will be such a small loop that both the front and stern edges of the loop will be able to be compressed and pushed back into the track. 

Having done this several times now, I'm able to reinsert a significant loop back into the track in less than 20 mins. 

To get the Vinyl back into the track, I get the lower edge of the vinyl into the track first and then push down on the upper edge of the vinyl to force it into the track, all the while pushing the vinyl to compress it towards the end that I started from.

Hope this works for you.

See you on the water.


Saturday, September 25, 2021

Autopilot Upgrade - Wiring the System

Upgrading the Autopilot Power supply

Our existing Autopilot was badly wired when installed before we purchased the boat Six years ago. Now that we're replacing the Autopilot with a new Raymarine EV-100 system, we're making sure that the power supply is up to spec, all of the other cables are new.

The Autopilot Control Unit (ACU-100), the Electronics and Wheel drive motor of the system, requires 7amps 12v DC power. Separately, the new Raymarine SeaTalkng network Backbone requires 3 to 5 amps. 

The Electrical Control panel on Eximius is planned to be rewired later this year but we'll take any opportunity to upgrade the electrical system before then.


The Electrical Control panel has a 15amp breaker for the Autopilot. With a total of a max of 7amps, I'll replace existing 15amp breaker with a 10amp breaker.

The existing wire from the breaker to the Autopilot is #16 and the round trip distance is about 30 to 40 feet. The Correct wire size for 7 amps along that length of wire is #10.

Of course, the probability is that the -ve cable to the old Autopilot is also a #16 so that will have to be changed out for a #10 also. I installed a -ve Bus Bar adjacent to the engine a couple of  years ago, however, the planned upgrade to the Electrical panel includes having new -ve bus bars inside of the electrical panel housing. There is a -ve bus bar in that area, but it's just not suitable - and has far to many wires terminated at the bus bar. I'll install a temporary -ve Bus Bar near the panel.

So, we're going to pull two Red #10 (+ve) and a Yellow #10 (-ve) wires from behind the Electrical panel, aft into the Bathroom, aft again into the area behind the aft berth stern bulkhead then to the ACU area along with all of the other wires from the Navigation system (GPS, NEMA2000, Radar, and VHF, Echo Depth Instrument). 

In an earlier post I covered the rewiring of the instruments at the Helm Nav Shelf, so all of the instrument cables now exit from the deck down into the aft berth.


The existing electronics requires 2 fused connections supplied via the Aux GPS Circuit Breaker. Another two fused connections to be supplied via the Autopilot Circuit Breaker.

I have just ordered a second fuse block (see below) in order to provide a neat install of all four of those connections.

These blocks have a transparent cover and have 4 individually fused connections, however, I expect that only two of each will be required.

There will be a seperate Terminal block for the -ve connections.


Those fuse blocks will be mounted on the Aft Bulkhead close to the ACU. 

RANT Time!
Ok, I understand that electronics manufacturers need to make the cables long enough to suite a wide variety of installations, so the cables can be quite a bit longer than required. HOWEVER - they should have a note on the installation instructions suggesting that the cables should be trimmed to a length suitable for the installation. I've seen so many installs of Boat Electronics where the installer has coiled up the wires and left them loafing about somewhere behind the various panels on the boat. Today I pulled out 6 cables each one at least 15' long that could have been as short as 5' Grrrrr! I spent over an hour figuring out which cables were no longer required and could be removed in their entirety. At least I got them all out.    But then I started on replacing the power wires for both the Garmin Echo depth finder and the Garmin GPS - I knew they were bad, but had no idea how bad! Tomorrow I'll work on replacing those cables.

RANT Off!

During a conversation with the Raymaine Tech support, I learned that there should only be a single power connection to the SeaTalkng Network backbone. My plan was to add 12v DC to that backbone. However, as they also clarified that the SeaTalkng backbone is basically identical in function to the NEMA 2000 backbone and that if they are going to be connected it should be via a SeaTalkng to NEMA 2000 (which Raymarine refer to as 'Device net') via a backbone connection and not a spur connection. That means that the 12v DC that is already provided for the NMEA 2000 network will also power the SeaTalkng backbone. One less power supply to worry about. That means that the 2nd Fuse block noted above will only provide power to the ACU-100 and not to the SeaTalkng backbone.

Down at the boat yesterday, I was able to remove a few unwanted cables (because they went nowhere and had no power on them). It required that I remove the Aft Bulkhead in the Aft Cabin, not too difficult. The port side bulkhead of the Aft Cabin also came out just to allow more access.

It will take a bit of effort to sort out the remaining cables. The Data cable from the Radar Unit cannot be cut and has about 30' of excess cable. Probably because the Radar Dome has the option to be mounted up the mast.




The bare wire connections that have to be made to the ACU-100 are the type I try to avoid, but there's no getting around it on this device. However, I can terminate the bare wire ends with Ferrules.

The ends of the bare wires that extend beyond the ferrules will be cut off. That leaves a nice and strong termination to clamp down with the Screw in wire holders of the ACU-100

Those ferrules will be used on the bare wire ends of connections for the SeaTalkng Spur cable, the Wheel Motor Power, the Rudder Position Sensor and the Power cables.

Some of those wires are just 24awg, imagine how fragile they would be if the bare wire ends were simply inserted and screwed down into place.  The kit was cheap from Amazon, worth every penny.


The old power cable for the old Autopilot is a two wire sleeved cable at the Autopilot end, but the other end is not sleeved and is not the same cable. So that whole wire has to come out as mentioned above. Sadly, the cable passes from behind that aft panel in the Aft Cabin up to the side of the Port side Cockpit locker - that means the locker has to be emptied - it's crammed! Probability is that I'll find a join in the cable that is slavered in liquid tape - I really really detest that stuff.

Anyway, while getting this part of the project done, Peggy found another leak in the cockpit, she was scrubbing it down after all the groty work I did earlier this week. The to Aft Cabin port lights are leaking. Another project, but for now I have applied Butyl Tape to where the outside port light flange attaches to the side of the cockpit seating. Another post for that.

At this point we're ready to run the power cables, 30 mins to empty the port side cockpit locker, another 30 to pull the old cable out (and the other defunct cables), same again to the the cables all the way from the 12v Control panel. Replacement should be  quicker as there'll be room in the loom cable ties for the new cables after pulling out all of the old cables.

That's Monday's job.
This project does seem to be taking a whole lot longer than expected, what's unusual about that, but we are spending time getting rid of the failed equipment and wiring. If we were installing this from scratch it would take a fraction of this time.  Oh well! Boat projects tend to do that.

Update: Here's the schematic modified after talking with Raymarine Support



Had to take a break on this as we found a couple of leaky leaky bits around the cockpit to aft cabin windows, that lost us two days.

Back on task, I removed the wooden bulkhead between the aft berth and the fuel tank in addition to the bulkhead between the aft berth and the water tank, all in order to get access to the jumble of wires that are behind those panels. So far I have pulled out another 40' of poor quality wire, bad connections and wrong sized wires.  By Saturday we had the wires pulled all the way into the main salon, just a couple more feet to go in order to get them out from the tangle of wiring behind the electrical panel. See the pic at the top of this post.

It's Labor Day Weekend, so we're doing family stuff until Tuesday, plus I'll get a bit of Canvas work done to bring in some boat bucks. Plan is to head down to the boat on Tuesday morning with the hope of running the new wiring from the circuit breakers to the fuse blocks close to the ACU and the GPS/Echo instruments.

Just in case you're wondering! Yes, we're ready to get the boat out as soon as this work is done! Working on the boat is fun and fulfilling, but we need water under the keel time.

Update Thursday Sept. 9th.
Down at the boat yesterday. Peggy spent most of the morning scrubbing down the deck, it's a constant challenge. With the power cables ran from the Cabin thru to the After berth, I was able to sort out the mess of wiring above the aft water tank. While at it (yep, another bit of project creep) I pulled the wire for the Echo Depth finder's transponder from it's old route into a much shorter and neater route which allowed for the additional wire to be coiled up neatly. Here's a pic of the current state of the wiring behind the aft bulkhead.


NEW PIC HERE


Sadly I could not find the adapter cable I had purchased from Amazon that joins the NEMA 2000 backbone to the SeaTalkng backbone - we spent way too much time searching for it. A new cable should arrive Friday. Saturday we'll go down to the boat and should complete the wiring at the Aft bulkhead, connecting the ACU and the Backbones. That should leave just a few more steps.
  • Replace the Wheel Pilot with the new one.
  • Complete the cable management of the wiring from the aft berth all the way to the main cabin.
  • Connect the Positives (Red #10) to the two circuit breakers
  • Connect the two Negatives (Yellow #10) to the -ne Bus bar at the back of the electrical control panel.
  • Test everything before doing the sea trials.
Well, Saturday was a huge success. I completed the looming of the cables in the Port Side Cockpit locker, removing about 30 old zip ties that were really not doing anything. Then completed the wiring in the aft berth, that's the cables going to the ACU, the SeaTalkng backbone connection to the NEMA 2000 backbone. Installed the Negative terminal block and connected the -ve from the ACU power connection, the -ve from the Echo depth instrument and the -ve from the GPS power connection. Then the +ves to the two fuse blocks  - 1 for the ACU and the other for the GPS & Echo Depth. Ran the ground wire from the ACU to the fuel tank grounding tag (the fuel tank is grounded to the engine) Basically got all of the wiring in the aft berth complete.

So the plan on Tuesday is to go down to the boat and run the wires from their entrance into the cabin (that's inside the sliding door cabinet above the Nav Station) and connect +v's and -v's as mentioned above, at that point we should be able to test the electronics. WooHoo!

Of course, life gets in the way! On monday the roofing company is due to arrive at our home to start work on replacing the roof and Facia. We're in Florida, so that work needs a bit of personal supervision, the last company we used 20 years ago did a carp job and had to re-do some of it due to failing an inspection. Now I know what to look for - and I'll be looking!

We may get the boat out in a week or so, won't that be sweet!

See you on the water - soon.



Sunday, September 19, 2021

Replacing the Coolant Hose on Universal M25-xp Diesel Engine

Replacing the Coolant Hose on our Universal M25-xp Diesel Engine



The short hose from the Coolant tank to the Thermostat housing appears to be breaking down near the thermostat housing. At first I  thought it was corrosion of the housing but then realized it's more likely the hose is deteriorating near the hose clamp.

Talking online with buddies on the C34 forum, they confirmed it would be ok to replace the hose with a Silicone hose.

Found one on Amazon and placed the order. It arrived on time and I just needed to spend a bit of time getting the old hose off.

After removing the hose clamps, I used a steel bent point to pull the hose away from the housing and from the coolant tank, only took a few minutes

Cleaned up the housing (Aluminium) and the tank connection (copper) and it was time to replace the hose.




 The new hose has an Elbow, so no need to try and curve it but simply cut the ends to length.

I didn't have any of the non-perforated type of hose clamps handy (not sure where they are right now) So I used the original clamps.

The new hose looks to be a good replacement. We won't be running the engine for at least a week while I complete the Autopilot upgrade project. But I will replace the clamps and then run the engine to ensure there's no leaks.

An easy job. Then it will be time to clean the engine and give it a fresh coat of engine paint.

See you on the water.