Boat Maintenance: Engine Room Blower Replacement

Old blower fan.

While motoring into the port the other day, we noticed air venting out the of port side, but not the starboard side. This fan has the important job of venting the hot air out of the engine compartment, so it doesn't overheat inside.

Once we were secure on the quay, Jared went into the engine compartment to investigate. After checking the connections, we decided to replace the fan.

Starboard blower vent area (we removed the cover to access the bolts). It got a good cleaning and new sealant afterwards!

Two days later, we had the new fan installed, but it would not turn on. Hmmm. We double checked all of the connections and wires again and determined that one of the wires was bad. After replacing that wire, we were back in  business!

I guess I can say that it was a good thing this happened. While messing about with the wires at the helm, Jared noticed our start switch wires were badly corroded and replaced those while he was at it.

So, next time you switch on your engine(s) check to see if your blower is working. We don't know how long ours was out of commission, but are glad we found out before a serious problem arose.

Port blower vent area (for reference).

                                           

Boat Projects: Running the Main Halyard to the Helm

Getting ready to install the blocks. 

Yet another project we tackled on RoundAbout was running the main halyard back to the helm. As it was, one of us would have to go forward to crank up (or drop) the sail, and when it is pouring rain, it isn't all that fun a job. We have an electric winch that would make raising (and lowering) the main sail so much easier! We'd also get to say out of the bad weather, so that was part of the motivation.

First, we ordered blocks for the main halyard (72mm size), a Spinlock clutch, and the plastic material for the shims, which will go under the blocks. Receiving these parts took all of about a month. Once we had all of the parts, install took about a day.

Shims cut and being prepared for installation.

Jared traced the blocks and cut out the shims. We then set to work placing the blocks. After we were happy with the placement, we completed the installation.

We installed one block on the mast, and two blocks on the roof leading up to the new clutch at the helm.

All done and it works great!

We finished just before evening and tested the system. It worked great!

Boat Maintenance: Leaks

Yes, that is what it looks like...

We have been chasing after leaks and think we have finally found the sources and repaired them all! What a job that was.

We noticed back in January that one of the port forward cabin lights had shorted out and water was sitting inside of it. We re-bed the seals on both starboard and port areas, as well as the jib tracks, and the traveler. We dried out the area and thought that was that.

Well, fast forward to re-launching from the boat yard and a major washing down of the boat. After we had finished cleaning, I walked into the port cabin and noticed the same light was flickering and had water inside of it again. We had just replaced it, too! Ugh! We removed it and tossed it into a bag of silica gel packets. I am hoping we can save it, as they are about $80 a piece!

Where was the water coming from? We checked the handrails and stanchions, which were all dry. The only other place we had not resealed were the steps.

Resealing the steps.

It took a couple of days, but after re-sealing the steps and drying out the area, we have not had any more leaks! We tested with the hose on full blast and it was still dry. Whew!

Watching for leaks while the water is being sprayed above on deck.

Jared even removed the hatch, so he could watch for leaks as I sprayed down the area. The only thing left to do was make sure the area was dried out. This entailed taping up our hairdryer to blow the hot air into the hole for awhile.

Drying out the moisture from the leak.

A week later, we tested the area again with full blasts from the hose and it is still dry.

Chafe Gear for Docklines

Chafe gear doing its job.

After buying new dock lines for RoundAbout, we wanted to ensure they had a long life. This meant coming up with a way to protect against chafe.

While we usually prefer to anchor out, sometimes we need to go into a marina or tie up to a town quay. Tying up to the cleats while Med-mooring is hit or miss. Some of these cleats are ok, but a lot of the older ones are very rusty and have sharp edges. This isn't too much of a concern for a short stay, however, when we need to come in for longer periods of time, it could become an issue.

As we have been working to complete our to-do list for the boat, we have been chasing parts and suppliers. This means we are often tied up for a few days while we wait for a delivery. In our last case, it was almost two weeks. During those two weeks, we had crazy high winds which caused quite the swell to enter the marina. We saw other lines snap during the last storm, so felt a little safer with the chafe gear on our lines.

Jared bought reinforced pipe to use as our chafe gear (old leather or fire hose also can work well).

All tied up just before the big storm hit
( a little deja vu for us, as the last time we tied up in a spiderweb was prepping for a hurricane).

Boat Projects: LED Lighting

New LED light

RoundAbout came with LED lighting, except for in the heads (bathrooms). In the starboard forward head, the light didn't even work and had burn marks. It was melted all inside, so simply replacing the bulb was out of the question. We wanted to replace the old halogen anyway, so we bought four new LED lights to install in every head.

Obtaining these in Greece meant over two months of waiting. We placed the order back in early January and received two of them after one month. We received the other two another month later. This was after they sent us 24 volt lights instead of the 12 volt ones we had ordered.

After removing the old light and installing the new one, we also added a different switch. These are much easier for the kids to reach and work better as well.

Sometimes Size DOES Matter: Bolts and Backing Plates

This is one of those times when size DOES matter.

We had noticed cracks surrounding our port stern cleat and had the yard do the repair while we were hauled out last month. A week later, the cracks had returned! 

After investigating further, we noticed the backing plate for the cleat was way too small! It was about the size of our cell phone (we have the Google Pixel).

Port cleat backing plate

We now have new metal plates that are ready to be drilled and installed (the shop made them a little too big, so we are cutting the section with the X off). The photo with the phone on the plate is a reference to see just how much we increased the backing plate size.

We are going ahead and reinforcing both the port and starboard stern cleats. We will replace the bolts also, as we noticed they were different sizes. We decided that we might as well do so, while we have the resources nearby.
We are waiting for the plates to be dropped off after they get cut to finish the install. I'll update the post once we get everything completed.