December 31, 2010

This is last post of 2o1o, and is approximately the one year mark since I've had Circadian. My next post (the first for 2011) will include a summary of what I've accomplished so far.

On Thursday, I managed to squeeze a day out of the holiday visits to install one of the new ABI ports. It was clear as I worked through the problems of its installation that ABI had intended to simply screw the port into the cabin side from the inside; convenient and easy, but definitely not engineered for the strength to sustain the impact of a large wave or knockdown. In order to do a proper through-bolt installation, I had to drill the bolt holes at the bottom at an angle to allow room for the nuts to clear the angled flange.

I had only enough time to put the butyl tape around the flange as I did for the Ta Chiao ports (see November 1 post) and tighten down the bolts. Fortunately, with the larger bolts (1/4 inch), I could compress the butyl enough that the clamps were only necessary to hold the port in place while I drilled the bolt holes and inserted the bolts. If you look carefully at the interior photo, you can see where the butyl has self-welded and squeezed out around the inside mounting flange. You can also see that the port looks like it is mounted high inside; however, that is where it must be for proper exterior placement.

When the next dry work day comes up, I'll insert more butyl into the gap between the port and the cabin side and add the redundant 3M 4000 sealant.

Best wishes for a wonderful new year!

December 20. 2010

It was a very wet and windy week at Hidden Harbor, but only one boat sank. And that was entirely the owner's fault. He'd disconnected the exhaust hoses from the holes in the transom that were virtually at the waterline and didn't plug them. (No seacocks on the thru-hulls apparently.) When the wind blew off the tarp covering the large open cockpit and the rain poured down, the pumps could no longer keep up and you can guess the rest. And even though he lived in one of the rental units on the property not more than 100 yards from his boat, he didn't bother to check on it during the storms.

Of course a week of rain had a lot of less-serious consequences. The river was pretty high for one thing. It also provided a very serious test of the watertight integrity of my hatches and ports.

While at home during the week of rain, I got the brass ship's clock running again, and once I knew it still worked, polished up and lacquered the brass case that had become blotched with tarnish. I also put another coat or two of varnish on the remaining extension leaf for the saloon table. I did a further test on the non-op old GPS unit and determined that it wasn't just the power cord: the unit did not power up. The verdict: terminal.

I spent the bulk of Saturday doing some regrettable, but necessary, household repairs and chores. I did manage to rub out the finish on the remaining table leaf so I could bring it to Circadian and finish off that project. I also cut some moulding to replace pieces of the trim missing from some of the head locker doors.

My mission at Hidden Harbor on Sunday included cleaning up the mess I had left the week before, installing the new oil pressure sender in the hope it would solve my instrumentation problem, mounting the remaining table leaf and assessing the effectiveness of all my previous efforts at staunching cabin and deck leaks.

I accomplished all aspects of the mission, but it was not all good news. The doghouse skylight still leaked...even worse if anything, and the teak hatches had minor slow leaks. But with all the water drenching everything, it was easier to diagnose. I believe that by tightening down the skylight bolts a couple of weeks back, the frame was forced into more of a curve to follow the contour of the doghouse roof, and as a consequence, the seal between the plexiglass and the frame was broken. As for the teak hatches, it became clear that although the original seal between the plexiglass and the teak frame looked intact, it was imperfect. I was also able to easily solve the mystery of how water was finding its way into the engine room from around the cockpit lockers. The short answer is truly stupid design and/or modifications. More details when I tackle the repair. The rebuilt forward hatch and new ports above the v-berth remained absolutely watertight.

The other good news was that the new oil pressure sender solved the instrumentation problem that had thrown me for a loop on December 3rd (despite the fact that I had been assured by the Beta expert that they seldom fail).

Unfortunately, the weird intermittent failure of the engine hour meter reappeared. It was working fine when I restarted the engine with the new sender to let it run for a while. When I rechecked 20 minutes later, the meter was still illuminated but the numbers had disappeared. It could be an internal component that fails when it warms up, or a marginal connection that fails from vibration. In any case, I think it will be cheaper and easier to wire in a new Hobbs meter than to try to solve that one.


My reward for all this slogging up hill was to to install the remaining table leaf and call that project done. As you can see from the photos, I still need to fill the screw holes on the mast post with bungs. During the week I put the final coat of varnish on the wood strip that will be the source for the bungs and just need to rub it out and cut the bungs so I can finish the post project.Next weekend I'll be in Des Moines with Carol's family for the holidays, but may have a few days before the new year to make a bit more progress.

Happy holidays all!

December 13, 2010

The rain that had been predicted earlier in the week was delayed, so I dedicated the two dry weekend days to trying to install one of the new ABI ports. One of the removed and crudely patched ports was leaking, and if I could staunch that, I would have finally gotten all the cabin leaks taken care of. The ABI ports are beautiful heavy cast and polished bronze, but a challenge to install because of the downward-slopping flange, height that allowed no margin for error when placing them, and the two different radii for the top and bottom corners (See October 25 post). My basic plan was to follow the method that worked for the Ta Chiao ports (See November 1 post.), but this one would be a bit trickier.

First step was filling part of the old port hole recess to accommodate the shorter ABI port. This time I used the thinner glass fabric rather than heavy roving, which worked out better. Although it required even more (40+) layers, it was easier to handle and allowed more a more precise build-up, which resulted in much less filling and fairing. Cutting as many as six layers of fabric at once sped up the process. Still, it took most of the day Saturday to grind away the old caulk, grind a bevel to receive the new fiberglass, lay up the fiberglass, grind it flush, fill and fair it. In what was left of the day, Scott helped me tighten up the bolts on the leaking doghouse skylight. In the process we discovered that my previous helper hadn't been too good about getting them really tight, and at least one was stripped and not doing anything. I'm optimistic that we will have conquered the leaking skylight.


Once the hole had been filled, I used the template I had made previously to place the new port and mark the locations of the centers for the four corner holes. These four points were critical as they would determine the size and location of the entire cutout. Because of the size of the interior mounting flange and the limited space on the cabin side, I had to get it right.
I used an adjustable bevel gauge to capture the angle of the sloped flange on the port and then set the angle of my drill guide. I used the drill guide to drill pilot holes which in turn guided the hole saws that were too big to use in the guide.

The resulting four holes determined the cutting lines for the jig saw cuts that would connect them and complete the cutout. The top and bottom cuts had to be angled, so I used the bevel gauge again to set the saw blade angle.

Once the angle was set, I screwed some scrap to the cabin side to guide the saw and made the cuts.But no matter what type of jig is set up, a hand jig saw is not a precision machine tool. The blade is held only at one end, so it tends to flex, especially when cutting at an angle through thick hard material like fiberglass. So I wasn't surprised that one of my cuts was less than perfect. I had anticipated some careful grinding would be required back in October when I made my test panel cut-out. Alternate grinding and trial fitting eventually got the job done. It also turned out that I was about 1/8 of an inch too high in my placement of the cutout, so I had to grind away a bit of glass on an interior stringer where the ceiling meets the cabin wall. Not difficult; just very messy, throwing fiberglass dust everywhere.

With the cutout completed, I epoxied the exposed edge of the plywood liner and filled the gap between the liner and the fiberglass with epoxy putty. I had hoped to get the port installed and sealed up by the end of day on Sunday, but I was running out of daylight fast. I set up an infrared heat lamp to try to speed up the curing of the epoxy.I had hoped I could cut and place the butyl tape around the port while the epoxy cured, but it was just too late and the epoxy wasn't curing in time. It would have to wait until the next dry weekend. I had no choice but to temporarily cover up the hole with plastic sheeting and duct tape. I had just enough energy left to clean things up enough to go home and recuperate.

News flash: The new oil pressure sensor arrived today, so I will hopefully be able to solve my engine instrumentation mystery soon!

December 6, 2010

A blanket of fog had settled over the Delta Sunday morning, so I negotiated the narrow and serpentine levee roads that led to the marina with just a bit more caution. Rather than stress over the delay, I settled back, sipped a steaming cup of coffee and listened to classical music as I drove. The forecast called for more rain, so I had planned to continue the rainy day projects I started on Saturday. I had managed to get one of the table extension leaves refinished and ready for installation (the other still needed another coat or two of varnish) and picked up a few supplies, but that's about it. The big item on Sunday's agenda was trouble-shooting the engine instrumentation problem. After studying and annotating the manual at home, I was ready to meet the challenge with a new and steely determination.

First, I needed to be sure that the engine was getting full voltage. It was. Next, check the wiring harness connections. I disassembled them, cleaned the contacts, and reassembled them. No change in the symptoms. I disassembled and cleaned the connections to the oil pressure sender. No change. Finally, I cut the wire to the sender near the gauge, disconnected it at the sender and ran a separate and brand new jumper wire from the gauge to the sender. No change. However, with no wire connected to the gauge, it did register zero oil pressure. I concluded that there was no fault with the wire from the gauge to sender and the chances were good that I have a bad sender. So my next step will be to get a new sender and see if that cures the problem. The drama (trauma?) continues....

I spent the remainder of the day doing projects inside the cabin, since it had begun raining by mid-morning. A couple of modifications to the stove installation were my first priority. The changes were needed to mitigate some serious safety hazards. As on my previous boat, the original stove had been replaced by a larger one, which placed at least one burner too close to a flammable bulkhead. To make it worse, there was also a pretty crude wooden spice rack screwed to the bulkhead in the most hazardous place possible (probably to hide previous heat damage). In the "before" image you can see the damaged finish behind the spice rack. To fix these issues, I removed the spice rack and mounted a piece of mirrored stainless sheet as a heat shield , leaving about 1/4" of clearance between it and the bulkhead as well as around the edges to ensure air circulation. The only tricky part was holding the screws and spacing washers in place while it was mounted. With no room for fingers or pliers between the sheetmetal and the bulkhead, I tried temporarily taping them in place to the back of the stainless sheet. It proved to be a simple and effective solution.

The other safety issue resulted from the stove swinging forward on the gimbals whenever the oven was opened. Can you imagine what would happen if you opened the oven while a pot of water was boiling on top of the stove? The Previous Owner's quick fix was to tie the stove to the guard rail. Not only was that tacky-looking, but it didn't work: the stove would still swing forward enough to be dangerous when the oven was opened. To secure the stove firmly, but still allow it to be released easily when necessary to swing when the boat is heeled at sea, I installed a barrel bolt forward on the side where there was room and improvised a polished stainless toggle aft using a backing plate from a u-bolt for the side where there wasn't clearance for a barrel bolt. After seeing that Worst Marine wanted $50-$60 (!) for a stainless or bronze barrel bolt, I looked for a more reasonable alternative and found a solid brass barrel bolt the right size for $6 at the local hardware store. Even if it corrodes in just a couple of years, it would be a cheap and easy thing to replace.

Next was installing the saloon table extension leaf that was finished. That was simple, quick, satisfying, and a long time coming. The table saga goes back to early October when I worked on salvaging the corroded, gunked-up, seized-up and very expensive Soss hinges. And don't get me started on the trials of trying to get a blemish-free finish. Anyway, it's all there in the October and November blog entries.
I'll install the other extension leaf as soon as it's "finished."

I decided my next little project would be to finish organizing and filing all Circadian's equipment manuals and other paper bits partly because it would allow me to enjoy using my newly refurbished saloon table. In the process I discovered a few little gems I didn't know I had, and gleaned a little more information about Circadian's history. Based on a long-gone liferaft's certificate of inspection from 1996, she had apparently been actively used at least until then. I also found the instructions for raising the genoa on the furler and tightening the luff, which had heretofore been a bit of a puzzle.
It was a real treat to do something useful and satisfying that was free of trials and tribulations. I wound up the day by digging out a couple of old GPS units that came with Circadian for later testing at home. After buttoning up everything, I drove back home through a heavy rain.

December 3, 2010

I got a call from Scott on Wednesday telling me that the crane would be at the marina the next day to step someone's mast and I could use it to remove the big old genset that was now sitting in my cockpit. I took the day off on Thursday so I could bring the boat over to a corner of the marina known as "Bill's Boatyard" for the operation. The "boatyard" is nothing more than spot next to the bathrooms that's close enough to the bank for the crane to reach out to boats squeezed into the corner. While waiting for the crane to arrive Thursday morning, I installed the polished stainless heat shield for the bulkhead by the cook stove and started work on a cover for the windlass motor hanging down from the ceiling in the v-berth. About noon we got the boat moved and tied up at the "boat yard."I removed the teak doors from the aft cabin companionway so they wouldn't get damaged as the monster genset swung around. We padded other vulnerable areas with plywood, carpeting and blankets. Dennis, who was paying for the crane to re-step his mast, helped Scott and me prep for the big hoist. We rigged tackles to control the position of the big genset as it was eased up and around the overhanging aft end of the doghouse. Once the crane arrived, it only took a few minutes to hoist the monster out and set it on the back of Scott's flatbed truck.It all went without a hitch...until I started Circadian's engine to bring her back to her berth.

The oil pressure warning buzzer continued to blare after the engine started, even though the idiot light was not on and the gauge showed 75lbs. Not wanting to risk destroying a nearly new engine, I immediately shut it down. Turning the key to the "run" position without starting the engine got the same indications: buzzer blaring, no idiot lights on, and 75lbs of pressure showing on the gauge. Very odd. I tried starting the engine again just long enough to see if I could tell if oil was circulating normally by looking in the fill hole on top of the valve cover while it ran. I couldn't tell, so I shut her down immediately again. By this time we had to get Circadian out of the way so Dennis could get his boat in position to re-step the mast. Scott's brother Jeff ended up towing me back to my slip using the marina's little work boat while Scott helped Dennis re-step his mast. It didn't help that it had begun raining; I was now cold and wet as well as disheartened. I spent some time escaping from the rain by perusing the troubleshooting section in the engine manual. It advised that the symptoms indicated a faulty ground. That might also explain the intermittent failure of the electronic engine hour meter (although that was still working fine). While that's a whole lot better than oil pump failure or something worse, it's still a pain in the ass to find the fault. I checked all the connections under the instrument panel by sight and feel, and everything seemed clean and snug. The connection to the sender appeared solid as well. I tried cleaning and re-securing the ground connections I had messed with when I installed the radar ground originally. No luck. To add to my woes, I discovered the newly rebuilt and re-bedded skylight in the doghouse roof had developed a new leak.

I was out of time and enthusiasm, so I put things away and called it a day. In the next few days I'll study the engine wiring diagrams and see if I can sort out the grounding circuits. Based on my previous unrewarding experiences trying to solve ground fault problems, it will probably be easier and more successful to just add a new ground circuit. As for the skylight leak, hopefully all that will be required to staunch it will be tightening the mounting bolts. Sigh. Always something!