Taking the Plunge on Skookum 53

[captain58sailin]

I do have a freezer and I am going for Albacore, next year. I have some details to iron out before cutting the lines.

[Gordan]

I had a few projects to work out but my wife and I took our first week sailing up to the San Juan islands. The first day was cloudy with modest winds and by the time we reach our first port at Port Hudson Point, Port Townsend the weather was raining hard and lightning. The next morning we left with the tide and again traveled with modest winds. The islands were a lot of fun with scattered clouds and low 60s. We had a chance to visit Friday Harbor, Roche Harbor, Port Ludlow, East Sound and Rosario Resort. All things fixed stayed fixed.

[robert sailor]

Quite the machine, good luck with her.

[captain58sailin]

I am glad you got to get out and about. I am right in the middle of an engine, and reduction gear swap. I am investigating the possibility of retro fitting an auto feathering propeller.

[Gordan]

This past fall I was having problems with keeping the batteries charged. Starting up the engine peaked out the 120A alt to get the house batteries back up. Having some electrical engineer ed and construction wiring I decided to take this on. First to get replaced was the failed Heat 5000 inverter with a new Magnum Energy 2800 pure sine convert. Then the fun began.

The shore power was wired directly to the power panel and the 5KW isolation transformer was not even hooked up. Well it did have a 240 V plug on size 18 AGW wire with a toggle switch hooked up to power it. removed. I now have shore power going to main power switch on panel the panel that then feeds the isolation transformer. Then isolation transformer feeds the power panel bus 1 that has breaker to inverter. The Blue Sea panel is split into 2 DC banks and 2 AC banks (with polarity indicators). I know have a XOR bus switch on the panel that enables a direct connection between bus 1 and 2 or bus 2 can be powered by the inverter. I purchased and installed the current coil voltage meters that were removed by the previous paid professional. Now I have a good AC and DC source.

This boat has seen a lot of "paid" work done and there is a lot of extra wire that was just been left in place. It makes tracking things down a pain. In fact the full 12V system is on a signal 20A DC breaker off of the bus That is another project to sort out.

I had two 8D bank for the house batteries and 1 8D for starting. I decided to put in a Magnum battery monitor, remote monitoring and smart battery combiner in. Well... I decided to trace wires down and low and behold I came across another set of two 8D batteries used also for house or the anchor windlass under a carpeted floor. Replaced the batteries. Redesigned the smart battery and monitor system and tahdah all of the batteries hold a charge just fine .

I have now added on more new page to may owners manual showing how all this is hooked up...

[billr]

Hi Gordan,
If you do a search for the other Skookums, you will find my continuing inputs on my projects on Skookum John. I just retired from my primary employer (Raytheon), but still haven't been able to free up the time for my boat projects. I enjoyed your inputs, particularly on the charging system. Unfortunately, your schematic is so crunched down by the ads on this screen that it is not particularly legible. I am behind in my updates on Skookum John activities. My boat is out of the water in La Connor, and it still needs substantially more work before I will put it in. I'm sure Brad will be fishing with the Rose before I get my boat in.
Billr

[captain58sailin]

Just a quick update on my program. I got very lucky this last fall, I ran into an old friend of mine, who is a top notch ET, boat guy. Turns out he is retired, and I asked him if he was looking for work, and the fool said "yes", so I put him to work on the wiring mess in "Rose" Thanks to his efforts, I have removed two more garbage bags full of dead wires, and got a new 12 volt power management panel and breaker switches, with an 80 amp main breaker switch at the battery bank. I have wired in some Rigid LED fixtures (4) in the main engine compartment and (1) in the focsle. So now I can see! Anyway the 471 has been disassembled and the motor mounts have been unbolted, an "A" frame constructed, I built an "H" beam out of two pieces of 5" channel steel, which when I pull the engine up to the cabin sole, I will disassemble and use as rails to slide the engine out of the back of the boat, and off. I had to stop my work by mid November due to weather and my work schedule. I got really lucky last fall and the snow held off until the first week of November. Anyway I'm due off in Mid - Feb, so I hope to restart then. Sorry for the thread hijack.

[Gordan]

Bill
I have been following your thread. You are not to far from me if I recall correctly and are doing the work in La Conner? Anyway that is what prompted me to do mine.

Let me attach a PDF of wiring to see if that is any better.


I also just got in a new clutch handle from my no longer manufactured Nilsson H3000 anchor windlass. The company James Nilsson is still around in NZ and manufactured one. The original was cast brass and one of the three prongs had been bent so bad it was cracked.

[billr]

Gordon,
The pdf file worked great. That schematic is really slick. What software did you use to put that together? By the way, I live in Arizona, so won't be back to the boat until summer. In the meantime, I will be doing some more fabrication here to ship over with me. I've got a lot of comments to post, once I get this darn proposal (for the second job) finished up.

Brad - thanks for the update. Have you had any problem with the pillow block bearing on the upper end of the prop shaft. The steel base of mine is pretty corroded, so I think I will replace it when we pull the shaft. The mount appears to be in good shape. For a replacement, I am thinking about putting in one of those Craft split bearings. Are you familiar with any of those?
Bill

[captain58sailin]

I am not familiar with that specific type bearing. I have not been able to inspect my bearing yet, I'll dig in once I get the engine and reduction gear out of the boat. I have a grease type stuffing box and I have to inspect that closely as well, I am considering putting in a dripless. I had 2 on my gillnetter and they worked like a champ. I just don't know if I can get the compression right once everything is in place. the aft part of my engine compartment is a pretty tight squeeze, and the put the battery box directly over the reduction gear and stuffing box on the shaft, and I am a pretty big guy, huge actually, once the running gear is out, I'll take a look at what I have and take photos and decide what I am going to do with the shaft assembly.

[billr]

Brad,
The Craft split bearing has the bottom half of the bearing assembly (races, roller-bearings, and other assorted pieces) mounted on the pillow block. The top half of the bearing (races, roller-bearings, and other assorted pieces) get bolted to the bottom half after you lay the prop shaft in the lower parts. Its main claim to fame is that you can replace the bearing fairly easily, without any shaft removal. They make then up to at least 4" diameter shafts, maybe larger since they seem to be advertised in the workboat magazines.
Bill

[captain58sailin]

Sounds good, thank you Bill. When I get home, I'll have to crawl down into the bilge and see what kind of set up I have in place. I finally got some lights in the engine compartment so I can see what is going on.

[jbow]

I am considering purchase of a Skookum 53 trawler, "Skookum Queen" She was laid up in 1978 and is a beautiful boat. Can anyone out there tell me how the hulls are constructed? If cored, what was the material used for the coring and if any of you owners have had water intrusion into the laminate or core?

[Cheechako]

I think the Skookum's were all pretty custom or home built too. So hard to say. I've not heard any were cored but that doesn't mean much. Hopefully some knowledgeable owners will chime in. All I know is they are hell for stout.

[jbow]

Hey, Thanks for the reply