Funny day really... didn't feel like we achieved a lot... but I guess we did.
We started with checking out the refrigeration system, having got the pump primed and working yesterday. It appears the pump doesn't like to pump water back directly into the sea, but rather pump out into air. So after much working out we decided to pump into the cockpit drain rather than to a sea cock on the bottom of the boat. The working that way the refrigeration worked very well indeed and both the fridge and freezer cooled down to very cold. Made the water in the fridge nice to drink. This will be good for the summer.
Then we worked on getting the chain/deck wash pump working. That was a bit fiddly, but worked. Really we need a pressure tank or something to make it continuous, since the pump pressures the water in spurts. Need more research there.
Next we made the mounts for the new Paguro generator. We cut wood blocks and created the mounts ready for attaching to the platform where the old generator was placed.
Final job of the day was to remove the old wiring harness for the old generator and old diesel engine. In doing that we found something really weird. There was power to the old diesel engine control panel that didn't come from the domestic control panel nor did it come from the engine power. It appears to come from a point after the main domestic power isolator but before the breaker panel... which means there is no breaker on that circuit. That is the only wire in the loom I need to trace and work out what its doing.
Having removed all the wiring it would now be nice to remove the old fireproofing/sound insulation which looks really old and tired and replace it with something new and modern, so as well as having a new engine, the engine room looks nice and clean. The new motor has a much lower probability of fire hazard so we don't need so much fire proofing, and making soundproofing the already sound proofed generator should make it mega quiet.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Saturday, 15 May 2010
The good, the bad and the ugly
The good is that we completed fixing the liferaft in place, the bad is problems we are having with the pump for the fridge/freezer and the ugly is the problems we are having redesigning the fitting for the new motor, having realised our original idea wouldn't work! We had hoped to use a couple of pieces of angle iron and weld to the end a plate for the motor, but today realised that the hull gets in the way of the extended angle iron.
The liferaft though is really good. I am very pleased with the mounting of that. Of course, I thought it might be an hour or an hour and a half, but in fact took the whole morning. There are six bolts (created out of threaded rod) holding it in place. four were easy, two were not. One of the two difficult was due to coming through at the edge of the heads compartment. The other one was the inside corner of the heads and was exceedingly difficult and fiddly to get to the nut on the end of the threaded rod.
The pump for the fridge freezer seems under powered and doesn't self prime. Not happy with that. We will have to re-look at that tomorrow. Maybe try another pump.
Oh... and Daniel and Jacob did some whippings so the kicking strap for the main sail and the sheet for the mizzen sail should now work.
I keep hoping for news about the new motor and the new generator. The saying is 'no news is good news' but I am not so sure. I would really like the new motor to be in before the end of the month.
The liferaft though is really good. I am very pleased with the mounting of that. Of course, I thought it might be an hour or an hour and a half, but in fact took the whole morning. There are six bolts (created out of threaded rod) holding it in place. four were easy, two were not. One of the two difficult was due to coming through at the edge of the heads compartment. The other one was the inside corner of the heads and was exceedingly difficult and fiddly to get to the nut on the end of the threaded rod.
The pump for the fridge freezer seems under powered and doesn't self prime. Not happy with that. We will have to re-look at that tomorrow. Maybe try another pump.
Oh... and Daniel and Jacob did some whippings so the kicking strap for the main sail and the sheet for the mizzen sail should now work.
I keep hoping for news about the new motor and the new generator. The saying is 'no news is good news' but I am not so sure. I would really like the new motor to be in before the end of the month.
Monday, 10 May 2010
New cooker fitted
This evening I wanted to get the electrics in for the cooker and Tim was going to glue the side cheeks in for the cooker. But unlike many times, we achieved very much more than normal. Having completed the electrics and gluing/screwing the side cheeks, repairing some other wood pieces with glue, sticking in a cable guide in the bilges... we still had some time. So we set to and fitted the cooker.
This achieved two things: Firstly it moved the cooker from the saloon and secondly it made the galley look like a galley.
We also replaced the electrical facia panels above the chart table so King Malu is now looking much more like a working sailing yacht than a boat in wet dock.
This achieved two things: Firstly it moved the cooker from the saloon and secondly it made the galley look like a galley.
We also replaced the electrical facia panels above the chart table so King Malu is now looking much more like a working sailing yacht than a boat in wet dock.
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Fit genoa, anchor, microwave
Today was a day of completing a few background jobs ready for the next weekend when we hope to get the frame in for the new motor.
Firstly we fitted the genoa. Charmiane had reduced the genoa cover so we intended just hoisting it back up after the genoa.
First we replaced the spinnaker halyard. This hayard was badly worn and since it will be used for the bosun's chair was essential to be safe. Tim had brought back 200 metres of 12mm Liros braid on braid from the UK. Tim stitched it to the old halyard and we hauled it over the block at the top of the mast and then Tim whipped the snap shackle to the end.
What we had not noticed before we hoisted the genoa was that the spinakker halyard was twisted over the genoa halyard, so when we came to hoist the cover it didn't go up to the top. Which meant dropping the cover, dropping the genoa, untwisting the lines and then rehoisting the genoa and rehoisting the cover. This time it worked well.
Next job was to fit the anchor. We have two anchors, a plow and a Danforth. The Danforth was what was on the boat when we took it over so that was going to be our main and the plow as a backup. So we fitted the Danforth in position using our newly working winch and tried to shut the winch hatch... but it wouldn't close. No way would the winch hatch close over the Danforth. Then we remembered that the starboard winch hatch had been broken. Now we new why!
So we went back for the plow and brought that on board, and that fitted beautifully. However, it's slightly rusty so will need cleaning and painting. A job for another day.
Then we fitted the microwave. A little bit of a fiddle but went in well.
Final task of the day: fit the cooker. The new cooker is smaller than the old one, so we had already made side cheeks which were to be mounted to the galley and the cooker fitted between them. It felt a little like the BBC TV show Blue Peter, 'Here is something I prepared earlier...'
We used threaded rod and nuts on each side, embedded into the wood side cheeks. Not an easy task.
When finally fitted we found that we were still 16mm too narrow, so we went back to Tim's flat and planed down some wood facing for the side cheeks. This will need gluing during the week.
Then cut the cradle for the liferaft - solid teak - and though solid in general we found a crack which needs epoxy gluing. Two steps forward and one back...
Firstly we fitted the genoa. Charmiane had reduced the genoa cover so we intended just hoisting it back up after the genoa.
First we replaced the spinnaker halyard. This hayard was badly worn and since it will be used for the bosun's chair was essential to be safe. Tim had brought back 200 metres of 12mm Liros braid on braid from the UK. Tim stitched it to the old halyard and we hauled it over the block at the top of the mast and then Tim whipped the snap shackle to the end.
What we had not noticed before we hoisted the genoa was that the spinakker halyard was twisted over the genoa halyard, so when we came to hoist the cover it didn't go up to the top. Which meant dropping the cover, dropping the genoa, untwisting the lines and then rehoisting the genoa and rehoisting the cover. This time it worked well.
Next job was to fit the anchor. We have two anchors, a plow and a Danforth. The Danforth was what was on the boat when we took it over so that was going to be our main and the plow as a backup. So we fitted the Danforth in position using our newly working winch and tried to shut the winch hatch... but it wouldn't close. No way would the winch hatch close over the Danforth. Then we remembered that the starboard winch hatch had been broken. Now we new why!
So we went back for the plow and brought that on board, and that fitted beautifully. However, it's slightly rusty so will need cleaning and painting. A job for another day.
Then we fitted the microwave. A little bit of a fiddle but went in well.
Final task of the day: fit the cooker. The new cooker is smaller than the old one, so we had already made side cheeks which were to be mounted to the galley and the cooker fitted between them. It felt a little like the BBC TV show Blue Peter, 'Here is something I prepared earlier...'
We used threaded rod and nuts on each side, embedded into the wood side cheeks. Not an easy task.
When finally fitted we found that we were still 16mm too narrow, so we went back to Tim's flat and planed down some wood facing for the side cheeks. This will need gluing during the week.
Then cut the cradle for the liferaft - solid teak - and though solid in general we found a crack which needs epoxy gluing. Two steps forward and one back...
Saturday, 8 May 2010
Clean up the boat, plan the new engine room
The entire lower deck was filthy, particularly the floor boards. So the morning was taken up cleaning and returning tools to their proper homes. We'd found some amazing cleaning spray from Andreou Brothers, pink in color it cuts through the oil and grease and the boat is beginning to look like it is a yacht again.
In the afternoon Ken came down and took more measurements and worked out an idea for how the elctric drive chain and the battery bank can be mounted in the engine room.
One little job to complete for the day: Fit the controls for the new winch. Fitting the foot switches went much easier than expected, making them work was not. The wire for the 12 volt control for the foot switches was dead. Nothing at all... eventually I worked out that it was actually coming from the pump control under the for'ard heads, where I found it totally unconnected to anything.
Under the for'ard heads there was also a red wire also connected to nothing at all. Tracing that wire back I found it under the port locker, still connected to nothing. So we connected it up to the 12 volt breaker panel, connected it under the for'ard heads and then we had control power for the winch!
In the afternoon Ken came down and took more measurements and worked out an idea for how the elctric drive chain and the battery bank can be mounted in the engine room.
One little job to complete for the day: Fit the controls for the new winch. Fitting the foot switches went much easier than expected, making them work was not. The wire for the 12 volt control for the foot switches was dead. Nothing at all... eventually I worked out that it was actually coming from the pump control under the for'ard heads, where I found it totally unconnected to anything.
Under the for'ard heads there was also a red wire also connected to nothing at all. Tracing that wire back I found it under the port locker, still connected to nothing. So we connected it up to the 12 volt breaker panel, connected it under the for'ard heads and then we had control power for the winch!
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Remove generator and other parts
Tim and I came back this morning and worked hard on removing the old Yanmar generator. This too had seen better days. We split it into three parts: flywheel, engine and generator. All were really heavy, but not as heavy as the main engine and gearbox.
With effort we managed to remove them from the engine room, and... remove them from the boat. They are now sitting in the drive of my house. Not content with that we then removed the gearbox from the boat. Ken had suggested putting the main engine on a plank and manhandling that off, but there was no way were were going to attempt that!
Final task of the day: Clean out the the engine room. I scrubbed and cleaned using washing detergent.
It was a really filthy job, but amazing to see the result - the engine room floor was white!
There is still a lot of wiring to remove before we start re-building with the new electric drive, but it was absolutely amazing to see the engine room so bright and shiny.
On the starboard side the plate where the old Yanmar can be seen. We are most likely to replace it with a new quiet and automatic Paguro. I say 'automatic' because the old Yanmar needed you to manually control the speed of the motor to control the voltage.
With the hose on the boat we finally decided to hose down the deck and scrub the teak in case any oil had got onto the wood.
I have no idea where Samuel Coleridge got that idea from. Teak expands when you wet it. And it cleaned up nicely, but with water everywhere I got thoroughly wet.
With effort we managed to remove them from the engine room, and... remove them from the boat. They are now sitting in the drive of my house. Not content with that we then removed the gearbox from the boat. Ken had suggested putting the main engine on a plank and manhandling that off, but there was no way were were going to attempt that!
It was a really filthy job, but amazing to see the result - the engine room floor was white!
There is still a lot of wiring to remove before we start re-building with the new electric drive, but it was absolutely amazing to see the engine room so bright and shiny.
On the starboard side the plate where the old Yanmar can be seen. We are most likely to replace it with a new quiet and automatic Paguro. I say 'automatic' because the old Yanmar needed you to manually control the speed of the motor to control the voltage.With the hose on the boat we finally decided to hose down the deck and scrub the teak in case any oil had got onto the wood.
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
I have no idea where Samuel Coleridge got that idea from. Teak expands when you wet it. And it cleaned up nicely, but with water everywhere I got thoroughly wet.
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Finally extricating the engine
The previous weekend Ken and Tim had done amazing work getting almost anything that could be removed detached from the engine and removed. Today we all arrived down and set to work on extricating the engine itself. No small task!
Ken brought some planks and we wedged one underneath and with a winch attached to a rope we put round the main mast and down through the saloon hatch we slowly winched the engine out of the engine room.
Jacob, our midshipman, was with us for the day and he reported that there were cries of 'Quick, Jacob, bring this...' and 'Jacob, quick, push that in there... at times while I was in the engine room holding something (like the engine from slipping off the plank), Ken was in the saloon holding something (like the engine from slipping off the plank) and Tim as holding something (like the winch) and balancing something (like the engine from falling off the plank with his foot).
The photo shows the relief on Ken's face with the engine safely on the floorboards of the saloon. My head can be seen poking through the engine room hatch and shows the size of the gap we got it through.
Having remove the engine block, we then proceeded to remove the clutch and gearbox. This was nearly as heavy as the engine block. By mid afternoon we covered the extracted remains with plastic sheet to stop getting more oil everywhere and left for the day.
Jacob, our midshipman, was with us for the day and he reported that there were cries of 'Quick, Jacob, bring this...' and 'Jacob, quick, push that in there... at times while I was in the engine room holding something (like the engine from slipping off the plank), Ken was in the saloon holding something (like the engine from slipping off the plank) and Tim as holding something (like the winch) and balancing something (like the engine from falling off the plank with his foot).
The photo shows the relief on Ken's face with the engine safely on the floorboards of the saloon. My head can be seen poking through the engine room hatch and shows the size of the gap we got it through.
Having remove the engine block, we then proceeded to remove the clutch and gearbox. This was nearly as heavy as the engine block. By mid afternoon we covered the extracted remains with plastic sheet to stop getting more oil everywhere and left for the day.
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