The day started with a deciding what to do. No mean task when there are always about 20 times as many things to do as time to do them. So, project number one: Reinstall the Sterling Power Automatic Switch. 60 minutes outside. On a good day. Today was not a good day.
I decided to solder all the ends of the cables to seal them. When I first installed the system I did it the normal way for shore based installations. Now I realise why people solder the ends of all cables for marine use. Ah... slight problem I need power for the soldering iron in order to solder the wires for the power. Tim suggests a solution: Use the inverter.
Works like a dream until... I come to solder the wires connected to the polarity test switch, which then alarms as soon as I touch the soldering iron onto the neutral. Hmmm... just a minute there should be no voltage between the earth of the soldering iron connected to the inverter and the neutral of the power system. So, out comes the digital multi-meter. Tim says that he's happier we use the digital multi-meter than try the tongue test that you use to see if a 9 volt battery is alive!
It initially looks like there is 130 volts between the earth of the soldering iron [getting its earth from the inverter] and either the neutral or the earth of the power system.
Not good news.
Trace everything and test everything and it appears that there really is 130 volts between earth or neutral of the inverter output and earth of the power system (which is connected to the low voltage earth of the inverter). In other words, between one earth of the inverter and the other earth of the inverter there is 130 volts.
Very strange.
I will have to contact Sterling Power about that one. But for now if I bond the earth on the output of the inverter to earth on the input of the inverter everything is fine.
Obviously not a 60 minute task. Especially as Matt turns up to look at Echo and then comes aboard to look at King Malu.
Time for lunch.
Being Sunday Tim and I go home for lunch and resume just before 3pm. Tim said to call him just before I returned, but has decided to have a day break from the phone every Sunday so Erika answered. I think there might be a logic problem here...
Afternoon task was to Epidermix epoxy fill all the dings in the cabin roof so that I can finish the top coat painting during the week and then next weekend -- if its fine -- lay the Treadmaster. Well, I suppose two out of twenty is not bad.
Just as we are finishing there is a deep throaty roar of a big diesel engine starting up. One of the 'plastic fantastics' across the marina has just started its engine. Plastic fantastics are what I call the large fibreglass (ie plastic) motor yachts that cost their owners more in fuel for one day than the entire running costs of King Malu for a year.
Two kids about eight or nine are running round the deck. No lifejackets, and clothing more suitable for a theatre performance than an ocean passage. 'I wonder where they are going', I ponder aloud. 'Just out for a sunset cruise' is Tim's reply, 'across the bay and back'. They let go their mooring lines and they are off out of the marina.
We clean the utensils we used for the epoxy and check how we will mount the new battery boxes under the sink. By the time we had cleaned up and were locking King Malu the plastic fantastic was back at her mooring. Tim remarks that a 20 minute cruise was more like across the harbour and back!
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Saturday, 30 January 2010
LED Lighting
The day started at Tim's flat. He'd been to London this week - a good week apparently, and left him mentally exhausted and happy to be Ken and my runner for the day. His two big roller cases plus a roller carry on were all full of paraphernalia for the boat, for his office and for my office. Opening them up there were packages and packages of stuff. 'It's just like Christmas all over again', his mother remarked. Well... I don't know exactly but in our house Christmas presents aren't padded with underwear!
For the boat Tim had a number of LED bulbs as fittings, a fresh water pump for the sinks, shower etc, eight lifejackets, liquid insulating tape, cellulose sanding sealer, a water pump and a timing belt for the engine, a manual for the engine (it's an old Ford York diesel similar to those in the mark one Transit vans) and a thermostart plug.
OK, so I know you are all asking 'What's a thermostart plug?' Until recently I didn't know. I have driven diesel cars so was well aware of glowplugs which are little heater plugs which go into the cylinders and preheat the air to make it start in cold weather, but 'thermostart' was a new one to me. The old one had burnt out.
So first I needed to find out about thermostart and then try and get a replacement. Basically a thermostart plug goes into the air intake and has both power and fuel attached to it. The power heats a coil and then opens a valve to allow fuel to flow which ignites in the air intake heating it up and initializing the combustion in the cylinders. One website I went to said it was almost frightening to behold with a jet of flame darting into the manifold if you had the air filter off while using the thermostart.
It's not used in many modern cars, but is still used in tractors and other industrial equipment in cold climates. Yes, I know Cyprus is not a cold climate but we're trying to wean the engine off the ether start that the previous owner had been using. Kind of like a drug rehab unit for engines!
Having sorted all the boxes, tried on the new life jackets and repacked what we needed for the boat we went off to the marina. We were greeted on the quay by Ken. Obviously we had taken a lot longer than I thought. As we arrived at King Malu she was bouncing around quite a lot and the wind was such that we decided inside work was order of the day.
Ken worked on getting the exhaust back in place while I did some electrics. I'm not quite sure why it was quite so difficult, but the task involved ropes tied to parts of the exhaust running variously up past the stern gland to the locker in the stern cabin and up past the generator into the sail locker. Tim was the motive power to pull of aforementioned ropes and at one point I saw him doubled up in the sail locker wondering if he was stuck and would ever get out!
FInally it's all fixed. Just as Ken is extricating himself from the engine room (customary title more like a cuddy than a room) there is a bang and a yell from Ken. Somehow the electric screwdriver, while remaining in Ken's hand, had flown across and hit him just below the eye. Over coffee Tim tries to persuade me to take a photo today and tomorrow of Ken's eye as he reckons he'll have a whopper of a black eye in the morning.
As I mentioned, one of the things Tim brought back from London were the LED bulbs and fittings. In the main saloon there are some nice round light fittings that take festoon bulbs. Festoon bulbs use loads of electricity which is a bad thing on a yacht! So we intend changing them to LED festoon bulbs. There are two types: warm and cool. So we bought two of each to try out. The brightness of the LED bulbs was approximately the same as the incandescent but consumed approx 10% of the power.
They were as I had guessed, but wanted to confirm before buying -- the warm ones make the teak shine and look nice in the saloon, but the cool ones are brighter and better for everywhere else.
There were also a number of 12v volt fluorescent fittings around the saloon and galley which will be changed to LED.
In the saloon they were oblong fixtures with two 12 volt fluorescent tubes inside.
Because they exactly fit into the holes in the ceiling there was no way we wanted to change the fittings, which meant we needed to change the tubes inside the fittings.
So out came the two tubes, plus the starter/inverter leaving an empty white box for two LED 'tubes'.
The LED 'tubes' come as strips with the voltage regulators on the back. They are almost exactly the same size as the flourescent tubes they replace.
But how to mount them? Unlike the flourescent tubes, they didn't come with any mounting hardware and they are relatively fragile PCBs with the LEDs on the front and the regulator etc on the back and two wires coming out of either end.
Well I wired them together as a pair, which was easy and then Tim suggested using silicone 'glue' so two blobs later on each one and some judicious blue masking tape to hold in place till it set and we shall see tomorrow morning if this mounting procedure is as elegant as it seems.
One thing lacking in the lighting for King Malu was any red 'night lighting' so I also bought a red LED festoon bulb for the fitting above the chart table. We will also mount a 60cm LED 'tube' above the chart table for if we need really good bright light.
One of the things I did on Thursday afternoon was to put a white lacquer paint coat over the inside paintwork of the saloon. Today it looked really nice.
But the prize must go to something Tim had found to make the painting easier. I had really worried about how to mask up the teak for the saloon and Tim found some 3M drop cloth.
This is amazing stuff... it's basically 3M masking tape with very thin plastic sheet attached which drops down masking all the lovely teak from paint splatters.
After lunch we came back to try starting to make the gang plank. Sounds like a pirate ship where you are persuaded at cutlass point to walk the plank. But not in our case. On the way back we notice all the boats are really being thrown around by the waves, even in the marina. So we tighten the bow rope on King Malu. We're not sure if the concrete blocks or chains in the marina have moved, but with these waves she is almost hitting the floating quay.
We pass Echo, Matt's boat and stop and then go back and get one of our fenders. She is banging both the floating quay and one of the pilings quite badly. So I phone Matt to tell him. Later in the afternoon, Tim and I have a further thought and I return to mount an old tyre from King Malu on Echo and move the fender to the bow to stop her hitting the piling so hard.
One of the old timers at the marina passes me as says 'Have you ever seen it like this?' Well, since my Mirror had been wrecked by a tornado a couple of years ago and earlier this year the nautical club had looked like a wreckers yard, yes, I had seen it like this.
So back to the gang plank, er... gang way, boarding ramp or passerelle. Actually, I gather passerelle is the correct term and means a 'bridge' between boat and land. We had many ideas about this: From buying a professionally built one, through a DIY project with an aluminium ladder to the final one we are going to attempt - a cellular structured passerelle made from marine ply.
On Thursday I had bought a sheet of 9mm marine ply which I had them cut into the right size - two 45cm strips for top and bottom and the rest in 10cm strips for the cellular structure. However, when we looked at it, three layers of 9mm marine ply appeared to be too flexible for the passerelle, so we are thinking again - maybe using other wood for the cellular structure and two pieces of 9mm marine ply for side 'kick boards' which will then give it sufficient rigidity for the walkway. Watch this space as they say.
One thing I forgot to mention was he also brought back a replacement Sterling Power AC32, which is an automatic switch for the power. Both Yachtbits and Sterling Power were pretty efficient. When Tim arrived in the UK last weekend he sent the faulty unit off to Sterling Power on Monday [with covering emails from from Yachtbits], they checked it out and sent a replacement back to Tim's office in London by Thursday so he could bring back on Friday.
For the boat Tim had a number of LED bulbs as fittings, a fresh water pump for the sinks, shower etc, eight lifejackets, liquid insulating tape, cellulose sanding sealer, a water pump and a timing belt for the engine, a manual for the engine (it's an old Ford York diesel similar to those in the mark one Transit vans) and a thermostart plug.
So first I needed to find out about thermostart and then try and get a replacement. Basically a thermostart plug goes into the air intake and has both power and fuel attached to it. The power heats a coil and then opens a valve to allow fuel to flow which ignites in the air intake heating it up and initializing the combustion in the cylinders. One website I went to said it was almost frightening to behold with a jet of flame darting into the manifold if you had the air filter off while using the thermostart.
It's not used in many modern cars, but is still used in tractors and other industrial equipment in cold climates. Yes, I know Cyprus is not a cold climate but we're trying to wean the engine off the ether start that the previous owner had been using. Kind of like a drug rehab unit for engines!
Having sorted all the boxes, tried on the new life jackets and repacked what we needed for the boat we went off to the marina. We were greeted on the quay by Ken. Obviously we had taken a lot longer than I thought. As we arrived at King Malu she was bouncing around quite a lot and the wind was such that we decided inside work was order of the day.
Ken worked on getting the exhaust back in place while I did some electrics. I'm not quite sure why it was quite so difficult, but the task involved ropes tied to parts of the exhaust running variously up past the stern gland to the locker in the stern cabin and up past the generator into the sail locker. Tim was the motive power to pull of aforementioned ropes and at one point I saw him doubled up in the sail locker wondering if he was stuck and would ever get out!
FInally it's all fixed. Just as Ken is extricating himself from the engine room (customary title more like a cuddy than a room) there is a bang and a yell from Ken. Somehow the electric screwdriver, while remaining in Ken's hand, had flown across and hit him just below the eye. Over coffee Tim tries to persuade me to take a photo today and tomorrow of Ken's eye as he reckons he'll have a whopper of a black eye in the morning.
As I mentioned, one of the things Tim brought back from London were the LED bulbs and fittings. In the main saloon there are some nice round light fittings that take festoon bulbs. Festoon bulbs use loads of electricity which is a bad thing on a yacht! So we intend changing them to LED festoon bulbs. There are two types: warm and cool. So we bought two of each to try out. The brightness of the LED bulbs was approximately the same as the incandescent but consumed approx 10% of the power.
They were as I had guessed, but wanted to confirm before buying -- the warm ones make the teak shine and look nice in the saloon, but the cool ones are brighter and better for everywhere else.
In the saloon they were oblong fixtures with two 12 volt fluorescent tubes inside.
Because they exactly fit into the holes in the ceiling there was no way we wanted to change the fittings, which meant we needed to change the tubes inside the fittings.So out came the two tubes, plus the starter/inverter leaving an empty white box for two LED 'tubes'.
But how to mount them? Unlike the flourescent tubes, they didn't come with any mounting hardware and they are relatively fragile PCBs with the LEDs on the front and the regulator etc on the back and two wires coming out of either end.
One of the things I did on Thursday afternoon was to put a white lacquer paint coat over the inside paintwork of the saloon. Today it looked really nice.
This is amazing stuff... it's basically 3M masking tape with very thin plastic sheet attached which drops down masking all the lovely teak from paint splatters.
After lunch we came back to try starting to make the gang plank. Sounds like a pirate ship where you are persuaded at cutlass point to walk the plank. But not in our case. On the way back we notice all the boats are really being thrown around by the waves, even in the marina. So we tighten the bow rope on King Malu. We're not sure if the concrete blocks or chains in the marina have moved, but with these waves she is almost hitting the floating quay.
We pass Echo, Matt's boat and stop and then go back and get one of our fenders. She is banging both the floating quay and one of the pilings quite badly. So I phone Matt to tell him. Later in the afternoon, Tim and I have a further thought and I return to mount an old tyre from King Malu on Echo and move the fender to the bow to stop her hitting the piling so hard.
One of the old timers at the marina passes me as says 'Have you ever seen it like this?' Well, since my Mirror had been wrecked by a tornado a couple of years ago and earlier this year the nautical club had looked like a wreckers yard, yes, I had seen it like this.
So back to the gang plank, er... gang way, boarding ramp or passerelle. Actually, I gather passerelle is the correct term and means a 'bridge' between boat and land. We had many ideas about this: From buying a professionally built one, through a DIY project with an aluminium ladder to the final one we are going to attempt - a cellular structured passerelle made from marine ply.
On Thursday I had bought a sheet of 9mm marine ply which I had them cut into the right size - two 45cm strips for top and bottom and the rest in 10cm strips for the cellular structure. However, when we looked at it, three layers of 9mm marine ply appeared to be too flexible for the passerelle, so we are thinking again - maybe using other wood for the cellular structure and two pieces of 9mm marine ply for side 'kick boards' which will then give it sufficient rigidity for the walkway. Watch this space as they say.
One thing I forgot to mention was he also brought back a replacement Sterling Power AC32, which is an automatic switch for the power. Both Yachtbits and Sterling Power were pretty efficient. When Tim arrived in the UK last weekend he sent the faulty unit off to Sterling Power on Monday [with covering emails from from Yachtbits], they checked it out and sent a replacement back to Tim's office in London by Thursday so he could bring back on Friday.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Weather... don't you love it?
Looking up the Awlgrip Painting Environment guidelines they have the following:
We are trying to get the deck done so we can put down the Treadmaster. Looks like another week, I wont get the painting done in time for the weekend.
Moisture Complications
Moisture on the surface can be disastrous. Problems are noticable when moisture comes in contact with the Awlgrip or Awlcraft 2000 Topcoats before they complete the first stage of curing.
Results can be:
These problems can also occur as a result of overcoating a primed surface that has not adequately cured or applying the topcoat to a surface that is contaminated with moisture.
- overall loss of gloss and image
- flat spots
- a rough or grainy surface
- blistering
Avoid applying topcoats in situations where rain, dew, fog or other condensation can contact the paint surface before the coating has completed the first stage of cure. Whenever feasible, erect some kind of cover or shade over the work area. This cover will help keep dew from the curing finish.
Condensation occurs when the air becomes completely saturated with moisture and the temperature drops below the dew point. At standard conditions (77°F (25°C), 50% R.H.), avoid applying topcoats when the temperature could drop below the dew point within 6–8 hours after the application.A couple of days ago the forecast was for fine weather the whole of this week. Now look at the 10 day forecast from weather.com (I captured as an image as it will change):
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Treadmaster and other bits for the boat
The Mailspeed Marine order arrived today. Tim had arranged for his office to call as soon as it arrived to save having to take 40kg up to the office and then 40kg down to my car. Didn't happen like that. They didn't call. But UPS must tie in their acceptance system automatically as apparently Tim had an email from UPS saying it was delivered earlier than he had one from his office saying it was delivered!
So I checked it all out, it was correct except the boom straps are not the size I expected - much smaller than the ones for the Wayfarer so way too small for the mizzen boom on King Malu.
I also unpacked the Treadmaster to lay it flat ready for fixing at the weekend. I was glad I did, and wished I had earlier. It has taken up a slightly rounded aspect. So I unpacked it all and lay it face down with the curls downwards and flattening.
Oh, and we heard that Sterling will be over-nighting a replacement automatic mains switch to Tim in London so he can bring it back with him on Friday. Great news.
So I checked it all out, it was correct except the boom straps are not the size I expected - much smaller than the ones for the Wayfarer so way too small for the mizzen boom on King Malu.
I also unpacked the Treadmaster to lay it flat ready for fixing at the weekend. I was glad I did, and wished I had earlier. It has taken up a slightly rounded aspect. So I unpacked it all and lay it face down with the curls downwards and flattening.
Oh, and we heard that Sterling will be over-nighting a replacement automatic mains switch to Tim in London so he can bring it back with him on Friday. Great news.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Undercoating
I am trying to get the deck finished painting this week... the aim is to get it ready for the Treadmaster to be put down next weekend. I have already done some of the undercoating and did a second coat on some and a first coat on other areas.
Tim's dad used to be in the merchant navy and painted like a professional. Which means that the paint stayed on the brush, not the handle, nor his clothes and only went where it was supposed to. I'm not quite like that, but pretty close, so it was annoying to find paint splatters where I didn't want them.
I'm painting with epoxy undercoat and its very thin to start with, slowly getting thicker as you paint till it ends up like school glue.
Anyway today I found out why it was splattering... no it wasn't my painting, it was the wind blowing the paint off the brush as soon as I lifted it out of the pot!
Tim's dad used to be in the merchant navy and painted like a professional. Which means that the paint stayed on the brush, not the handle, nor his clothes and only went where it was supposed to. I'm not quite like that, but pretty close, so it was annoying to find paint splatters where I didn't want them.
I'm painting with epoxy undercoat and its very thin to start with, slowly getting thicker as you paint till it ends up like school glue.
Anyway today I found out why it was splattering... no it wasn't my painting, it was the wind blowing the paint off the brush as soon as I lifted it out of the pot!
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Couple of small jobs
Went down to King Malu today and did a couple of jobs before the rain started: Replaced the shore power cable with a new bright yellow [and thicker] one... and did some more cleaning of the engine... and then painted relevant parts with Kurust. The cleaning of the engine will be an ongoing task.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Refrigeration
Today Tim was flying to the UK late afternoon so we only had the morning together and decided to first put some more gel-coat on the winch block and then try to get the refrigeration working. Tim suggested bets on whether it would work or not and I gave it a 50-50 chance of working.
So we set to replacing the 220 volt pump -- it's a water cooled system. Most fridge-freezers on land are air cooled, ie they pump heat out into the surrounding air. Water temperature can be cooler than air temperature, so on a boat it's more efficient to use water.
The pump had been wired in by the previous owner with just twisted wires taped up with insulating tape. Even for testing I used a terminal block!
The pump also had been located underneath the floor boards in the for'ard heads [toilet to the non-nautical folk]. Now the floor boards in the heads had a grating, so water can easily fall onto this pump. It's not a submersible pump, so its pretty dangerous. We will find a better place to locate it eventually. Somewhere in the engine room.
We connected up and turned on... and... the compressor started immediately. That wasn't a surprise I had turned it on for a few seconds before. After sorting out a water leak from the pump [one of the fittings broke] we left it on for about 15 minutes to see how it ran.
Both the fridge and the freezer got cold! So my 50-50 was a pessimistic outlook. We then tried it on the inverter. The compressor was not happy running on the inverter, so I switched back to shore power...
PHUT! And then all the power went off. The Sterling Power Automatic switch over unit went wrong... well... actually when I opened it up I could smell burning. Not happy with that. It appears that it somehow managed to connect both the shore power and the inverter together!
So Tim will be taking that back to the UK to return under warranty.
During the week I had also been painting the engine. Ken had remove the diesel pump and so I had wire brushed, painted with Kurust and then with two coats of Hammerite. The engine is beginning to look clean and cared for!
In the afternoon a friend popped by and we chatted and then I wired in the alarm. The alarm will be a general boat alarm, but specifically will be for the secondary bilge pump at the moment.
If the primary bilge pump goes wrong, or cannot cope and the water level rises 15cm above the float switch for the primary bilge pump the float switch for the secondary will cut in starting a secondary pump. Since this is an emergency situation then an alarm will sound to tell us something has gone wrong and needs fixing.
The pump had been wired in by the previous owner with just twisted wires taped up with insulating tape. Even for testing I used a terminal block!
The pump also had been located underneath the floor boards in the for'ard heads [toilet to the non-nautical folk]. Now the floor boards in the heads had a grating, so water can easily fall onto this pump. It's not a submersible pump, so its pretty dangerous. We will find a better place to locate it eventually. Somewhere in the engine room.
Both the fridge and the freezer got cold! So my 50-50 was a pessimistic outlook. We then tried it on the inverter. The compressor was not happy running on the inverter, so I switched back to shore power...
So Tim will be taking that back to the UK to return under warranty.
During the week I had also been painting the engine. Ken had remove the diesel pump and so I had wire brushed, painted with Kurust and then with two coats of Hammerite. The engine is beginning to look clean and cared for!In the afternoon a friend popped by and we chatted and then I wired in the alarm. The alarm will be a general boat alarm, but specifically will be for the secondary bilge pump at the moment.
If the primary bilge pump goes wrong, or cannot cope and the water level rises 15cm above the float switch for the primary bilge pump the float switch for the secondary will cut in starting a secondary pump. Since this is an emergency situation then an alarm will sound to tell us something has gone wrong and needs fixing.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Water, water everywhere...
Yesterday was tipping it down with rain. Tim and I had intended going to the boat in the evening but the rain was so heavy we decided to take a rain check (pun intended).
I got up this morning (I am the owl and Tim the lark) to find an email from Tim:
I got up this morning (I am the owl and Tim the lark) to find an email from Tim:
Went down this morning. Beautiful morning. no wind, the sun came up, flat water.
Found a few things.
1. The cockpit was full of water. We forgot to open the drain sea cock. (Don't panic yet about a little water around the sea cock. I found out the problem by trial and error.)
2. So I waded across and got in. Quite a bit of water in KM. Not sure where it came in. I mopped it up. moved various docs from the chart table to dry out. Ford manual, Lavac doc, paint / varnish catalogue. These are now scattered to dry around km. Need to put back in a dry place whoever goes down next first.
3 Fitted the pump on toilet. pump does not leak. Toilet seems to work, need to make a real test. (LOL) Lots of hissing around the seat (could be air and water) however it holds the vacuum for over 20 seconds.
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Fine weather means working weekend
This was our first weekend with King Malu on the water and since the weather was fine we started on our 'in the water' list of jobs to do.
On Saturday Mark hand sanded the deck areas that need painting. That was a task and a half.
Tim and I started working on the marine toilets. We have Blakes-Lavac Zenith toilets. The one attached to he main cabin has been used extensively and the one attached to the for'ard cabin hardly used at all... at least for about 15 yeasr or so. So we decided to tackle the well used one on the basis that it was more likely to work.
Having changed the seals, we tried it and... nothing happened. So we primed the toilet with sea water and tried again. The Henderson pump emptied the water but none was drawn in to the toilet.
So we removed the inlet from the sea cock and tested that (1) water came out of the sea cock and (2) air could be blown up pipe into the toilet to confirm that water could flow. Put it back together, which is task because the pipe is old and brittle and needs heating with boiling water to be able to put it on the sea cock.
Still nothing happened.
OK, let's try something more drastic. We remove the pipe from the sea cock again and try an old water pump to confirm water really is coming through to the toilet and that there are no leaks in the pipe which might make the vacuum insufficient.
When we connect the pipe horrid brown water comes through so we assume that maybe there was a partial blockage on the pipe, reassemble the whole thing, using boiling water to soften the pipe... again.
Still nothing happened.
Next Tim checks the Henderson pump. Meanwhile I return to fixing the new light in the sail locker. That was relatively simple and worked well. Tim found a few problems with the pump, none the least was that it hadn't been cleaned from the toilet waste for some long time and so was caked, so to speak, in solid matter. He left it in sea water overnight to try and clean it up.
Overnight I downloaded the Blakes-Lavac manual which said that the vacuum should be sufficient to make it impossible to open the toilet for about 30 seconds. The vacuum was nothing like that so no wonder it was not drawing the water through.
While Mark and I washed the deck carefully ready for painting, Tim returned to the delicacies of toilet pumps! The were multiple problems with the pump, the o-ring on the trap was leaking as were the screws. Having found parts from an old pump Tim reassembled a working (almost) pump and the toilet worked (and the pump leaked!)
The wind came up and I painted about two thirds of the deck. I had hoped to get two coats on, but there was no chance of that! The Awlgrip epoxy undercoat is horrid paint to work with but excellent paint as a paint. Worth the pain, but definitely not easy. It's weird paint, like painting with extremely thin school white glue that suddenly becomes extremely thick and gooey white glue as soon as it is painted on the surface. So, it drips everywhere and is difficult to paint evenly!
Final job was to clean off more of the oil from the engine. The engine is cleaning up nicely. Tomorrow I hope to use Kurust on parts of it prior to Hammerite painting it.
Bending over for so long was really backbreaking and when I got home that evening Sue said I was not standing up straight for a few hours.
On Saturday Mark hand sanded the deck areas that need painting. That was a task and a half.
Tim and I started working on the marine toilets. We have Blakes-Lavac Zenith toilets. The one attached to he main cabin has been used extensively and the one attached to the for'ard cabin hardly used at all... at least for about 15 yeasr or so. So we decided to tackle the well used one on the basis that it was more likely to work.
Having changed the seals, we tried it and... nothing happened. So we primed the toilet with sea water and tried again. The Henderson pump emptied the water but none was drawn in to the toilet.
So we removed the inlet from the sea cock and tested that (1) water came out of the sea cock and (2) air could be blown up pipe into the toilet to confirm that water could flow. Put it back together, which is task because the pipe is old and brittle and needs heating with boiling water to be able to put it on the sea cock.
Still nothing happened.
OK, let's try something more drastic. We remove the pipe from the sea cock again and try an old water pump to confirm water really is coming through to the toilet and that there are no leaks in the pipe which might make the vacuum insufficient.
When we connect the pipe horrid brown water comes through so we assume that maybe there was a partial blockage on the pipe, reassemble the whole thing, using boiling water to soften the pipe... again.
Still nothing happened.
Next Tim checks the Henderson pump. Meanwhile I return to fixing the new light in the sail locker. That was relatively simple and worked well. Tim found a few problems with the pump, none the least was that it hadn't been cleaned from the toilet waste for some long time and so was caked, so to speak, in solid matter. He left it in sea water overnight to try and clean it up.
Overnight I downloaded the Blakes-Lavac manual which said that the vacuum should be sufficient to make it impossible to open the toilet for about 30 seconds. The vacuum was nothing like that so no wonder it was not drawing the water through.
While Mark and I washed the deck carefully ready for painting, Tim returned to the delicacies of toilet pumps! The were multiple problems with the pump, the o-ring on the trap was leaking as were the screws. Having found parts from an old pump Tim reassembled a working (almost) pump and the toilet worked (and the pump leaked!)
The wind came up and I painted about two thirds of the deck. I had hoped to get two coats on, but there was no chance of that! The Awlgrip epoxy undercoat is horrid paint to work with but excellent paint as a paint. Worth the pain, but definitely not easy. It's weird paint, like painting with extremely thin school white glue that suddenly becomes extremely thick and gooey white glue as soon as it is painted on the surface. So, it drips everywhere and is difficult to paint evenly!
Final job was to clean off more of the oil from the engine. The engine is cleaning up nicely. Tomorrow I hope to use Kurust on parts of it prior to Hammerite painting it.
Bending over for so long was really backbreaking and when I got home that evening Sue said I was not standing up straight for a few hours.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
King Malu launch
So... we rushed down to King Malu and sanded off the bottom of the keel. In the process found three small places where the hull was damaged so mixed up some Epidermix epoxy and filled those. The a layer of Awlgrip Hullguard and two layers of Alwgrip anti-fouling.
While I was painting Tim went off the the marina office to confirm the tow. But there was a problem: The marina tow boat had just come out of the water for repair and was not available. So, quick phone calls and found we could borrow Fuad's speed boat. But... the battery was flat! So Ken to the rescue - came hot foot to the marina with tools and removed the battery from my car to get Fuad's boat going.
So off they went again persuaded the 2:30 yacht to come out of the dock while we went in.
It's a very strange experience to see your boat motoring around the yard. The webbing straps that are holding 15 tonnes of boat must be taking a tremendous strain.
When she was down I climbed aboard, secured the mooring lines and the crane released her.
I then turned on the electrics to ensure that the bilge pumps were working and we connected up a towing line.
The wind dropped and with Tim driving Fuad's boat we went over to our mooring. Of course, Tim was disappointed not to be on boat King Malu.The harbour master complemented Tim on his towing and King Malu had arrived at her mooring for the next few months.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
King Malu on the crane? Not...
Read all about it... on Sue's Cyprus Life blog.
Or watch the video here (BTW, it's best to click the full screen icon when playing the video to see the annotations clearer)
Or watch the video here (BTW, it's best to click the full screen icon when playing the video to see the annotations clearer)
Monday, 11 January 2010
Ready for launch
I went down twice today to try and find Alexi to arrange the crane lift for overnight Tuesday/Wednesday, but couldn't find her either time. Tim said there was spray painted mobile number on the shed... I just thought it was graphiti!
The weather for Wednesday is currently showing a 80% chance of rain at 9am.
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Final weekend before launch
Then we talked to Costas from Raymarine who sold us the windlass and he advised that the plastic blocks would create stress points in the wood which would eventually damage the wood and was therefore not a good idea. As a result Tim and I decided it was not a good idea to raise it on spacers.
So we epoxied it in with the wood block direct to the deck - it will be a little lower than we hoped for, but should work fine. Having epoxy glued it in place on Saturday then on Sunday we coated it with epoxy and then with gelcoat. Gelcoating to epoxy takes better than gelcoating to wood. We need another coat of gelcoat, sand it down and then we can mount the windlass permanently.
Mark joined us for the weekend. He has been a tremendous help with the refit. Yesterday and today he was sanding the deck ready for painting next weekend.He has also learnt how to whip ropes and how to do a reef knot. Tim leant him a book about yachtmaster so he is now keen to learn the ropes.
There were a couple of jobs we had been putting off. But today we could not provarocate any longer so had to do them.The first job was checking the stern gland. The Arabs say 'nobody is perfect... except God' and we have found the one imperfection from the Camper and Nicholson design of the boat. And that is the hanging locker in the stern cabin. It's through the floor of this locker that you access the stern gland.
The bottom of the door is approx 40cm off the floor, which means you have to lean your stomach on this and fall headlong into the locker to get at the stern gland. Now... if the hanging locker had only gone down to the floor or near the floor this would be a trivial job!
Anyhow, what we had to do was check and adjust the stern gland. That has to be done upside down with a spanner and vernier guage. The vernier guage is because it's very important that both of the nuts are equal.The other 'put off' job was retouching the grey paint on the port side of the hull. The masking tape for the black strip had not worked and so I hand painted/retouched the grey where the black had bled under the tape. A painful detail oriented task that I had kept putting off.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Deck prep for painting
We want to get all the power sanding done before we put the boat in the water [which happens in 7 days time] so today was a prep day for the deck.
Tim sanded the teak rubbing strip and the teak stern handrail. We have decided to varnish the 'rubbing strip' and the handrail as both are not areas that need to be non-slip and will definitely look much prettier varnished. The stern handrail looked amazing when Tim had finished so I think they will both enhance the look of the boat a lot. Tonight I must order some cellulose sanding filler as the teak is quite weathered and needs that before varnishing.
I spent the day cleaning off the areas to be painted prior to hand sanding. The main area that took a lot of time was the toe rail. When we had ground off the old treadmaster there were bits of glue/gunge everywhere and some of those little spots went high on the toe rail and then stuck fast. So I gentle scraped them off with a wood chisel. The toe rails will need hand sanding as they need painting. In fact there are a few chips that will probably need filling too.
The other thing we did was to cut the rubbish bit off the old anchor chain leaving us with about 12 metres of good chain. That we stowed in the secondary chain locker so that it will be on the boat when it is put into the water.
It was a strange sort of day - we both worked hard and the teak looks like it will be great when its varnished and the white toe rails etc look clean now, but I prefer the putting together rather than the prep/taking apart.
Tim sanded the teak rubbing strip and the teak stern handrail. We have decided to varnish the 'rubbing strip' and the handrail as both are not areas that need to be non-slip and will definitely look much prettier varnished. The stern handrail looked amazing when Tim had finished so I think they will both enhance the look of the boat a lot. Tonight I must order some cellulose sanding filler as the teak is quite weathered and needs that before varnishing.
I spent the day cleaning off the areas to be painted prior to hand sanding. The main area that took a lot of time was the toe rail. When we had ground off the old treadmaster there were bits of glue/gunge everywhere and some of those little spots went high on the toe rail and then stuck fast. So I gentle scraped them off with a wood chisel. The toe rails will need hand sanding as they need painting. In fact there are a few chips that will probably need filling too.
The other thing we did was to cut the rubbish bit off the old anchor chain leaving us with about 12 metres of good chain. That we stowed in the secondary chain locker so that it will be on the boat when it is put into the water.
It was a strange sort of day - we both worked hard and the teak looks like it will be great when its varnished and the white toe rails etc look clean now, but I prefer the putting together rather than the prep/taking apart.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Final DMS inspection & delivery of the cooker
This morning I was up early and down at the marina by 8:15. The inspector from the Department of Merchant Shipping (DMS) was due at 8:30 do to the final inspection. He had to check that we had painted the name of the boat correctly on each bow and the stern, that we had the port of registry (Limassol) painted correctly on the stern and that across the centre joist of the boat we had an engraving of the ships name, port of registry, registered number and tonnage. Obviously this was a very quick and simple check. He then took the paperwork away to the office and when its dealt with we will be legally registered and... the legal owners of King Malu.
After he left I did a quick bit of filling of the gelcoat when the dings were, so that tomorrow they can be sanded. As I was coming out of the cabin with the gelcoat Tim was coming back up the ladder... he wanted to show me another boat. It had two solar panels on outriggers from the stern exactly as we intend to put on King Malu.
This afternoon there was a phone call from Tim, the goods from Mailspeed Marine had arrived and the delivery man said it was too heavy to bring up so Tim suggested putting straight in the back of my car.
What had arrived was the new Smev cooker. It looked great. Also some blocks and what we need for next week... fender ropes.
After he left I did a quick bit of filling of the gelcoat when the dings were, so that tomorrow they can be sanded. As I was coming out of the cabin with the gelcoat Tim was coming back up the ladder... he wanted to show me another boat. It had two solar panels on outriggers from the stern exactly as we intend to put on King Malu.
What had arrived was the new Smev cooker. It looked great. Also some blocks and what we need for next week... fender ropes.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Bilge pumps working
Last night I was up late and did some scouring around and found two things, a workshop manual for the Ford York Diesel engine and a new replacement water pump. Both on ebay. I like ebay. I enjoy searching around and trying to find deals. The water pump was about 25% of the cost of a new shop item. Hopefully the workshop manual will make removing and reinstalling parts easier.
On the way to the boat Tim went past all the chandlers and other electrical shops. All closed... bar one... so he bought two new one way valves, which are much better sized for the bilge pumps and make it look much neater.
This morning we returned to making the bilge pumps work. We built a new cable loom of marinized cable, mounted a new terminal block and rewired everything. And yes... it all worked correctly.
Taught me that we do want to use marinized cable [multi-strand with all strands tinned] for all wiring despite the cost and pain. And... all ends should be soldered to seal them and make good connection to the terminal block/appliance.
Then we fitted a new light into the engine room. The original had been a 12V 1 metre fluorescent tube, which you kept banging your head on and then eventually it stops working. Not surprising really. So we replaced it with a waterproof/fireproof fitting and a 12V low energy bulb, which was a 12V version of the ones you have in houses. Worked really well. We have a second unit to fit in the sail locker.
Then we measured the sail covers to send the details to Lee Sail Covers who are making replacement covers for us. Glad we did, rather than taking the measurements from the sails as we suddenly noticed that since we have mast steps there are holes needed for the bottom step in the main and mizzen sail covers.
On the way to the boat Tim went past all the chandlers and other electrical shops. All closed... bar one... so he bought two new one way valves, which are much better sized for the bilge pumps and make it look much neater.
This morning we returned to making the bilge pumps work. We built a new cable loom of marinized cable, mounted a new terminal block and rewired everything. And yes... it all worked correctly.
Taught me that we do want to use marinized cable [multi-strand with all strands tinned] for all wiring despite the cost and pain. And... all ends should be soldered to seal them and make good connection to the terminal block/appliance.
Then we fitted a new light into the engine room. The original had been a 12V 1 metre fluorescent tube, which you kept banging your head on and then eventually it stops working. Not surprising really. So we replaced it with a waterproof/fireproof fitting and a 12V low energy bulb, which was a 12V version of the ones you have in houses. Worked really well. We have a second unit to fit in the sail locker.
Then we measured the sail covers to send the details to Lee Sail Covers who are making replacement covers for us. Glad we did, rather than taking the measurements from the sails as we suddenly noticed that since we have mast steps there are holes needed for the bottom step in the main and mizzen sail covers.
Friday, 1 January 2010
Water pumps and fuel pumps
Friday being New Years Day was a public holiday and thus an extra day to work on King Malu. We achieved a lot, but it was frustrating work. Tim and I had planned to get the bilge water pumps working and Ken came down to remove the fuel injector pump.
We have a Fork York marinised engine. It's the same engine as the original diesel engine in Ford Transit vans and minibuses. But... with a different fuel injector pump. It looked an easy job to remove a few bolts and it would slide out. No way... it was a task and a half to remove the injector pump. When removed we then took off the back end of the water pump to see if that would make it easier when it came to put it back in. Sludge. Light brown sludge. And the bearings on the water pump were lax, so we need to remove and replace the water pump.
When I say water pump I mean the primary water pump. There are two water pumps for the engine - one for the primary system and one for the secondary. The engine is cooled by normal tap water with anti-freeze, which we call the primary circuit. There is there a heat exchanger rather like the radiator in a car which is connected not to air but to sea water, which we call the secondary circuit.
Now the water pump was fitted to the engine with a number of bolts. Undo them and it will slide off easily. No way... one of the bolts was cross threaded and into an almost inaccessible mounting hole. That took another hour to remove.
With those two tasks complete Ken took off and Tim and I returned to connecting up the bilge pumps. Aiii... one of the brand new non-return valves had stuck and it didn't flow water at all so the first bilge pump we tested failed totally.
The cable we were using [the old cable from the bilge pumps] was bad and unreliable so we left for the night a bit frustrated but determined that tomorrow we would win with the bilge pumps.
We have a Fork York marinised engine. It's the same engine as the original diesel engine in Ford Transit vans and minibuses. But... with a different fuel injector pump. It looked an easy job to remove a few bolts and it would slide out. No way... it was a task and a half to remove the injector pump. When removed we then took off the back end of the water pump to see if that would make it easier when it came to put it back in. Sludge. Light brown sludge. And the bearings on the water pump were lax, so we need to remove and replace the water pump.
When I say water pump I mean the primary water pump. There are two water pumps for the engine - one for the primary system and one for the secondary. The engine is cooled by normal tap water with anti-freeze, which we call the primary circuit. There is there a heat exchanger rather like the radiator in a car which is connected not to air but to sea water, which we call the secondary circuit.
Now the water pump was fitted to the engine with a number of bolts. Undo them and it will slide off easily. No way... one of the bolts was cross threaded and into an almost inaccessible mounting hole. That took another hour to remove.
With those two tasks complete Ken took off and Tim and I returned to connecting up the bilge pumps. Aiii... one of the brand new non-return valves had stuck and it didn't flow water at all so the first bilge pump we tested failed totally.
The cable we were using [the old cable from the bilge pumps] was bad and unreliable so we left for the night a bit frustrated but determined that tomorrow we would win with the bilge pumps.
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