Cockpit

I dropped off the starter motor at South Eastern Auto Electrical services in Maidstone last Saturday morning unfortunately being a bank holiday nothing would happen until Tuesday they confirmed on Wednesday that it was in very poor condition but could be refurbished I had a phone call on Thursday to say that it was ready for collection the intention is to collect the motor tomorrow morning, Saturday, ready for installation on Monday.

In the meantime I decided to get on with smartening up the cockpit the top surface on the benches was a mixture of non slip deck paint and Treadmaster, the Treadmaster was coming unstuck in a number of areas so I decided to remove it all and repaint with non slip deck paint. I began with the starboard side locker lid the old Treadmaster came off easily. At some time it looked as though some attempt had been made to stiffen up the locker lid with three pieces of ply secured with countersunk machine screws and nuts however as the Treadmaster was coming away water had been allowed to leak through into the ply some of which was becoming soft in places. I removed the ply and in the three recesses on the underside of the lid I laid up three additional layers of GRP starting with a single layer of 600g woven rovings followed up by two more layers of chopped strand mat, the choice of materials was governed entirely by what I had to hand.

Ply replaced with additional GRP

There was some stress cracking evident in the top outside of the locker lid which is possibly why an attempt had been made to reinforce the lid with the plywood. Once the additional GRP had cured I opened out the stress cracks and the countersinks for the machine screws on the upper outside surface of the lid and then filled them with some thickened epoxy.

Countersinks and cracks after filling

Apologies for the inclusion of the shadows of the photographer and the steering pedestal. True to form some of the Treadmaster came off easily and some was stuck like s#*t to a blanket, turns out some had been stuck with the proper Treadmaster epoxy adhesive which made it a devil to remove and the rest with contact adhesive which came away much more easily but still leaving the usual sticky residue to be cleaned up. The hinges to this locker lid were secured with overlong countersunk stainless steel machine screws which were much too long and all of them were loose so while the lid was off I cut all the screws down to a much more appropriate length. If I had used bolts that were that much over length when I was an apprentice my ears would still be ringing I was taught that the bolt/stud should project through the nut by one and a half threads. There were also some stress cracks in the gas locker lid which I opened out and filled, for opening out the cracks I used the corner of a tungsten carbide pull scraper in the same manner as that used for the stress cracks in the hull topsides, see previous post of 27th October 2017.

Photographs showing areas where Treadmaster has been removed

The next task once the starter motor has been replaced and tested will be to clean up all areas where the Treadmaster has been removed and apply the non slip deck paint bur if the weather is agreeable the aim will be to get some sailing in as a bit of a shake down watch this space.

More water tanks

First thing on Monday morning I gave the engine a run and let it warm up to double check the repair to the oil leak which appears to be successful however while the engine was running I noticed a regular drip from the high pressure side of the fuel injection pump which on further investigation appeared to be coming from the banjo connection for the high pressure fuel pipe to the injector on no1 cylinder. These banjo connections are sealed with steel washers and after I had cleaned everything up and replaced the original washers the leak was just as bad so I left this job for the time being until I could source some new washers.

I then went back to the water tank installation and after further thought I decided that I could utilise the existing deck filling connection in its original position and use loops in the filling line to give the required flexibility, this had the added advantage that I could utilise existing holes through bulkheads and there was no need to make any additional holes. The Vetus tanks are supplied with a filling and outlet connection also with one cutout already made so the first job was to cut another hole which would be for the outlet connection this is easily done by marking round the inside of the clamping ring for the tank connection and then cutting out with a pair of scissors making sure of course that you don't make a hole in the bottom of the tank. The inner flange of the tank connection is of course larger than the cutout so the flange is pushed into the cutout as far as possible and then by carefully running round with a screwdriver or similar the flange can be persuaded into the cutout in much the same manner as fitting a bicycle tire.

Fitting the tank outlet connection

Once the fittings are in place they are sealed with a washer with a vee section which corresponds to the vee groove in the inner flange followed by the clamping ring. The rubber mats were put in place in the two lockers followed by the tanks.

Rubber mats in place

The pipe in the above photograph is the pump suction pipe which will be connected to the tank. Once the tanks were in place I connected the filling and suction pipework. The tanks were then filled and checked for leaks and as they say the job's a good un.

Forward tank

Aft tank

The filling and outlet pipework is there on the forward tank its just that it is hidden by the internal moulding. The two tanks are connected in parallel with no isolation valves it remains to be seen whether or not they will both drain together, if valves are required it will be a simple job to cut them in to the outlet pipework.

Today I had intended to try and fix the fuel leak with Dowty seals instead of the original steel washers after I had fitted them I tried to start the engine  but no go after a couple of half hearted attempts the starter motor gave up just a click from the solenoid. After checking all the connections it was no better so I removed the starter motor and with a couple of temporary leads connected it directly to the battery and it did spin so I replaced it on the engine but to no avail. Next I removed the motor again and on removing the cover to the brush gear there was the familiar sweet sickly smell of burning electrical insulation yes it looked as though the motor was fried but then that is very often the case with old boats one step forward followed by only two back if you are lucky. On reflection I think that the problem experienced when launching the boat could have been part of the motor windings burning out also on Monday the engine was a bit hesitant to start which could possibly indicate further windings burning out next weeks task will be to source a new starter motor or possibly repair to the existing.

Water tanks

I got home on Sunday evening and after a rest day on Monday it was time to get back to work, the new Vetus flexible tanks arrived on Monday together with the fittings for the filling line. I  had decided to put down some rubber mats to lay the tanks on to try and prolong the life of the tanks and after searching the local value stores, Poundland etc, I found some perforated textured mats in B&M I am hoping that the perforations will allow any water that finds its way between the tanks and the hull to drain away as this has been known to lead to osmosis on the inside of the hull.

Perforated rubber mats

The first job on Tuesday was to give the inside of the lockers, in which the tanks would be installed, a rub over with some 60 grit sandpaper to remove any roughness this was followed by a good clean out of the two lockers before laying in the rubber mats so that I could then put in the two water tanks once they were in I could finalise the pipework which requires to be fairly flexible to allow the upper surface of the tank to rise and fall as it is filled or when water is drawn off. As 38mm PVC hose is not particularly flexible I need to allow for as long a horizontal run as possible in order to achieve this it looks as though the filler position will need to be re sited from the forward end of the port cockpit bench to the side deck.

Tanks in position

As there was a decent breeze and HW was at a convenient time I stopped work and went sailing for a couple of hours. On arrival back in the berth I was checking around the engine space ant it appeared as though there was a lot of oil under the engine but as time was short I left any further investigation for the time being.

The first job on Wednesday was to hang the clocks and barometer on the forward saloon bulkhead, number two daughter had bought me a tide clock for fathers day and I had been making a hardwood panel to mount it together with a barometer and another clock which I already had. The panel was made from a hardwood plank which came with the boat and for which I had not so far found a use I made a couple of brass keyhole mounting plates which were flushed in to the back of the panel.

Clocks and barometer 

As there are two clocks the tide clock is set to GMT as most tide tables are in GMT, the only exception that I have seen are the tables issued by Swale Marina which have the relevant tables in BST, and the left hand clock is set to BST. After going for a sail on Tuesday I noticed that when the boat heeled water was sloping out of the temporary water tank, a bucket see previous post, so on the way over I bought a five gallon plastic jerrycan to act as a temporary water tank until I complete the installation of the permanent tanks

I then moved on to removing the oil from the bilge under the engine as there is very little clearance between the engine sump and the bottom of the boat I used a vacuum oil extractor to suck it up which was very effective. Once the tide had risen sufficiently I could start the engine and start tracing the source of the leak and once the engine had warmed up I could see a regular drip from the joint between the oil filter mount and the engine block a new gasket was going to be required.

The first job today was to remove the oil filter mount and make and fit a new gasket this turned out to be easier than I had anticipated and once this had been done I set to and started to clean up the bilge under the engine giving it a scrub down with some industrial strength detergent followed by a rinse with hot water the residue was then removed with the oil extractor. Once the tide had risen sufficiently I could start the engine and test the repair which appeared to be successful although I did not have the time to allow the engine to reach normal operating temperature, next week when I have a bit more time I will give the repair a proper test.  

All mod cons (well almost)

The main aim this week was to finish off the hot and cold water installation again the warm weather has not been conducive to a lot of work. I started by mixing up some thickened epoxy and glueing a wooden block to the inside of the galley moulding so that I could finish securing the pipework to the galley taps. I made a visit to Screwfix on the way to the marina to pickup some fittings so that I could connect the heads taps up and once this was complete I installed the expansion vessel/accumulator in the space occupied by the calorifier and domestic water pump.

Expansion vessel/accumulator installed

After a bit of research it would appear that it is possible to either install a single expansion vessel/accumulator or two separate units with either the accumulator connected close to the pump discharge and an expansion vessel connected to the hot water flow pipe from the calorifier with a non return valve in the calorifier cold feed or with one unit doing both duties connected close to the pump discharge. The only possible problem is that with the second method as the calorifier warms up it is possible that a small amount of hot water will be forced into the cold water pipework but later on when testing the system I found that this did not appear to be sufficient to cause any problems.

The first job on Wednesday morning was to jury rig a cold water supply to the system in the absence of the proposed water tank this consisted of a flexible hose connected to the pump suction, the black hose in the above photograph, which was then led into a bucket of water.

Temporary water supply

System filled cold water from the tap

Once everything was connected I switched on the pump and filled the system, the bucket needed to be replenished several times in order to fill the calorifier it was then just a matter of waiting for the tide so that I could run the engine in order to test the calorifier, there is an immersion heater fitted but this will require the 240v shore supply to be installed which is a bit down the list in order of priority at the moment. After the engine had been running for about half an hour I opened the taps and voila hot water.

Hot water

The hot water is very hot I have fitted a 72 degree thermostat to the engine as recommended in the Perkins manual but the calorifier will of course reach this temperature as it has no separate temperature control but as the calorifier is only about 15 litres capacity careful use of the mixer taps will in effect increase the amount of hot water available. 

Another hot day today so most of the day was spent musing on the water tank installation trying to get the maximum amount of water capacity which is not easy due to the small size of the lockers under the quarter berth in fact all the under berth lockers in the saloon are on the small side. I am going to have to settle for two flexible tanks giving 120 litres capacity. I shall be off sailing for most of next week so the plan is to order the tanks ready for installation when I return.