Breaking All the Rules ...

[homeless]

Another day of investigations, surprises, and repairs.

The bilge pumps have been bugging me. One does not have a non-return valve, so it tends to get into a cycle of pump, turn off, backflow, pump ... which needs manual intervention to stop.

There was a spare bilge pump on board, so I decided it would not hurt to plumb and wire it in with a non-return valve and mount it lower than the existing pump to reduce water in the sump, add redundancy, and remove the risk of draining batteries when the existing pump cycles. After half a day of testing the spare pump with a 12 volt power supply, then plumbing and wiring I turn it on .... and after 20 seconds the bilge pump breaker on the switchboard cuts out. Test again ... same issue. Seems like the "spare" was one of the pumps that contributed to the flooding of the boat by cutting off the bilge pump breaker and it was replaced ... but never thrown out. Will need to buy a new one tomorrow.

While I was down in the bilges I noticed that an inspection cover in the floor under the engine was loose, meaning that water has probably drained down below the bilge. Removed the screws and sealant, and found the inspection cover leads down into one of the keel compartments which is full of expanding foam. The cover has obviously been loose for quite a while, as the foam was black from old oil, diesel, and sea water. I dug out the stained foam, and made a deeper hole in the foam to see if it was waterlogged, but seems that only the top few inches were saturated, so I re-sealed the cover and increased screw size to ensure the cover does not come loose again. I opened a second cover into another keel compartment to check if it had the same problem, and while there was some water in the top foam layer, there was no oil or diesel, so after removing the waterlogged foam I sealed the second cover. I will need to do the same on the remaining keel compartments to be sure they are sealed and not flooded.

I have noted 3 drips coming down from different hatches, so every time it rains I dig a bit deeper to find the source. I have reduced two of them with some sealant on hatch rubbers, and surrounding teak gaps. The headliners are sagging a bit around these leaks, and around the mast and I have been avoiding that nightmare, but today I did a bit more investigation during the thunderstorms that passed. I removed the headliner in the galley around the worst leak. I did find the source of the drip, caused by a small gap in sealant around the hatch combing, which has obviously been there for 27 years, with each owner ignoring it until today. Unfortunately 27 years of a few drops of water each time it rains does some permanent damage, and the headliner battens and plywood are rotten under the drip, with a few mushrooms. It does not help that the builder used steel screws, which have now rusted, let go of the battens, or just broken off. The only way to take the headliner apart is to pull the rusted screws through the ply, and then out of the wood battens, so the damage is increased. It also does not help that the entire hull is covered in blown in foam insulation which needs to be cut back to find leaks. I still plan to leave the headliner replacement until I get to a country with cheap labour, but it looks like some basic repairs are needed ASAP, so tomorrow I am off to the hardware store for some marine ply, battens to replace the rotten wood, and a few packs of stainless screws.. Hopefully I will also be able to seal the leak with some sealant, and put an end to it forever.

After finding rot in the galley headliner I thought I may as well investigate the sagging headliner around the mast. I exposed the mast in the salon, and did find some rotten battens and ply around the mast, so will put that on the list of fixes. I also found an extremely corroded box in the mast full of extremely corroded wire terminals, so that helps to explain why the radar antenna is not returning a signal. This corrosion is not new, so I can't believe the radar has worked for years. I will cut back the wires and re-attach with new terminals, and then see if the radar works again. When I unscrewed the terminal box from inside the mast streams of water started flowing, so obviously there is rainwater trapped in the mast base, and I will need to see if I can reduce water coming in, but also drill a drain in the mast base so the water escapes into the bilge and does not fill the mast.

So after starting work at 8am with the plan to fix the bilge pump, I finally got to have breakfast at 7pm when it became too dark to continue working.

Money spent today :- $0
Hours worked :- 11
New problems found :- 5 (rotten headliners, loose inspection plate, bad bilge pump, corroded wiring in mast, water in mast)
Problems fixed :- 1 (loose inspection plate in bilge)

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by homeless

Fuel has been treated. I currently have one Racor inline, and have a second one mounted and ready to put inline.

I knew someone who, on a delivery voyage, ran out of filters...the fuel was that bad...

Here is a tip...

I ran out of fuel once 10 miles from home, glassy calm, ebb tide.

Luckily I had a Western District wheat farmer in the crew...as he said 'there is always some fuel in the tank'.. so he opened the drain plug on the tank... ran off a Coke bottle full.
We then broke the line between tank and filter... stuck the line in the Coke bottle and away we went.

So carry a bit of extra fuel in a 20 litre drum and have a way of sucking fuel out out of it directo to engine.

Also once motored for 8 or 9 days when we had run out of SW circ impellers ( long story) by using a bit of garden hose to go from sea inlet to shower sump pump and back to the engine... you can't have too many bits of hose and stuff on a boat.

Good luck with your project...

[homeless]

I have two separate 500 litre fuel tanks, 3 spare fuel pumps on board, 10 meters of 6mm diameter tubing, spare racor, and spare filter cartridges, so believe I can route around most issues, or polish enough fuel to get me out of trouble.

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by homeless

A month ago I bought a 50 foot 1987 aluminium yacht, on a mooring, in another country, with no inventory, no survey, no viewing, sight unseen. This is my first boat, and I intend to sail it for a year or two, then sell it for a profit...

[CLady]

I like this story. Guy falls in love with his 'blind date'. It isn't about the 'profit'.

[El Pinguino]

The OP will make a profit, just so long as he doesn't factor in his labour,the cost of materials and the loss of interest on his money....

Well ... maybe he will....maybe not...

[Winf]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I knew someone who, on a delivery voyage, ran out of filters...the fuel was that bad...

Here is a tip...

I ran out of fuel once 10 miles from home, glassy calm, ebb tide.

Luckily I had a Western District wheat farmer in the crew...as he said 'there is always some fuel in the tank'.. so he opened the drain plug on the tank... ran off a Coke bottle full.
We then broke the line between tank and filter... stuck the line in the Coke bottle and away we went.

So carry a bit of extra fuel in a 20 litre drum and have a way of sucking fuel out out of it directo to engine.

Also once motored for 8 or 9 days when we had run out of SW circ impellers ( long story) by using a bit of garden hose to go from sea inlet to shower sump pump and back to the engine... you can't have too many bits of hose and stuff on a boat.

Good luck with your project...

Couple of good Mcguyver tips there. Thanks.

[CLady]

If the quality writing of your boat buying/restoration adventure is any predictor, this boat is going to be very nicely refit and finished--you check your spelling, punctuation and typos. 'Enjoy reading your ongoing account of your precious 'find'.

[CLady]

Have you checked the bonding system in case a corroded/bad wire connection/bare wire is putting ur some current?

[Bill4]

I thought I had made a post in this thread but I can't see it

I just wanted to say, Homeless, you have bigger balls than me! I wouldn't recommend your boat buying strategy to anyone but it looks like you've done OK.

Some people are just born lucky I guess!

Pics, we need pics!

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Bill4

I thought I had made a post in this thread but I can't see it

I just wanted to say, Homeless, you have bigger balls than me! I wouldn't recommend your boat buying strategy to anyone but it looks like you've done OK.

Some people are just born lucky I guess!

Pics, we need pics!

Luck, my brother buys uses for years and makes a profit. I lose my shirt.

[tdominic_97]

Homeless, I am sure we would all love to see some progress pictures.

[JPA Cate]

Homeless,

It might be prudent to re-bed all your hatches. It is relatively easy to do, and then you'll know they're not going to let you down when underway.

Water gets into the mast from the halyard slots. So, what you want is (as you suggest) a way for the water to get out without compromising the connection box and without flooding the interior. In our case, the mast drains into our separate shower sump, the pump for it has a float switch, and is left in the automatic position.

Ann

[Pauls]

Hey Homeless,

Having had some experience with reviving submerged diesels, I'd suggest you pay particular attention to any idler pulleys on your belts. They use roller bearings which are commonly not sealed well enough to stand up to even short term immersion. The salt causes corrosion which results in failure after some hours of operation. To be clear, they run fine for a while, then fail.

There are also a number of roller bearings in your transmission. If you can I'd suggest disassembling it and inspecting the bearings. Same deal here, if the roller bearing have any corrosion it will run for a while but its days are strictly numbered.

Good luck on your project. It sounds great.

[homeless]

The teak decks need some work (hopefully just sanding) and the pilothouse needs to be stripped back to bare metal and repainted, so the hatches, dorade vents etc will be re-bedded then. No obvious problems with the hatches, just a few leaks that have existed for 27 years and were easier to clean up with a towel.