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.

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.

Odd jobs

Last couple of days we have been catching up with odd jobs, but not finishing any of them.

The priority is the bilge pumps since we don't want to go into the water without them working automatically. We cut out the hole for the pump control panel and fitted all the pumps and float switches, 3 of each. We have two bilge pumps, excluding the manual one. A small one that is the normal bilge pump and is left on auto all the time running from a float switch. The second is a much bigger one that can be either auto or manual. We tested the small one and it kept pace with the hose running into the bilges so we are pleased with that. The third pump/float switch combination is for the grey water holding tank.

I also sanded the cockpit ready for painting and Tim put Sikaflex between the deck rubbing strip and the hull. In the process he found a small part where the hull is delaminating which we will have to fix.

We have also been making the block to support the new winch to allow the chain to fall properly into the chain locker. We put all the chain in the locker too.

Ooops... nearly forgot the main news. We have a launch date! Wednesday January 13th at 9am. So we have to get all fixed by then.

Bilge pumps and polishing

Today we started the morning with me working on the bilge pumps and Tim working on polishing the topsides. Neither of us finished our task!

However... the starboard side looks pretty amazing from the polishing. We had been sold some colour restorer and polish by Harris at Ocean Marine and to be honest I was skeptical. But the results were amazing. No it doesn't look like a freshly spray painted hull, but it does not shine and the water runs off much quicker.

The bilge pumps took a lot of work and we ended up going to see Costantinos at Comar Marine for some more plumbing pipe, clips and one way valves. We installed and tested the grey water holding tank and installed both bilge pumps and tested the smaller one. The float switch for the large one still needs fixing... another day.

Sanding topsides

Tim spent most of the day sanding the topsides of the hull. We'd tried a small part of the hull - sanding and polishing and thought it would be a quick job. It wasn't. It took him most of the day just to sand it to get the gell coat to look pristine again. He then washed it down ready for polishing.

We noticed too that there was a gap between the rubbing strip and the hull. We'll fill this with Sikaflex.

Tim also finished all the preparation work for the Treadmaster. We still need to prepare the white paintwork since that has to be done before gluing the Treadmaster... but she's getting ready for launch.

Awlgrip anti-fouling

Anti-fouling is really rotten stuff, so Jacob was wearing hat, gloves, mask and protective glasses for painting the hull with me today. And it was a good job he was too... there were paint splatters on the hat, mask and eye glasses, and significant quantity on the gloves.

Because the paint dries so fast, Jacob and I were painting in shifts, so that the roller wouldn't dry out. I was doing the high bits and...

...Jacob was doing the low bits.

I must say King Malu did look smart by the time we had finished.

We also spent some time filling the ding on the port side a small problem at the port stern and some little gell coat holes at the bow all with gell coat.

Gell goat is horrid stuff to work with, at least that's what I find. It doesn't work like a filler, more like an over thick lumpy glue/paint that refuses to be smoothed and has to be filed smooth after it sets.

Hopefully tomorrow it will be hard enough to sand off and get smooth.

I also touched up the black line on the starboard side. The masking tape had not masked completely and there was a crinkly edge to it. So I hand painted the grey edge between the black and the grey.

Acid bath and exhaust

Notable happenings today were Ken's extraction of the exhaust pipe... which had holes in multiple places. Unwrapping the bandage from it showed just how big they were!

The shape of the exhaust meant Ken was somewhat concerned about how a new one could be manufactured.

Another of the activities was to give the propeller an acid bath to clean it up. We painted the propeller four times and then washed off.  We used concentrated sulfuric acid, which was what was recommended, and it seemed to do a very good job.

It doesn't look like new, but it is totally clean brass now.