Working through The List

Progress on the "to-do" list has been slow but mostly continuous up to this point. Speed has been hampered somewhat by the current weather pattern.  Not sure if this is normal, but the pattern is either cold and windy or warm and rainy.  I have to admit that this year my joints are not terribly happy with the weather and folding myself up into the nooks and crannies of the boat has been trying at times.  Yet every day the boat closer to the way we left it.

One issue I've dealt with was a minor fuel leak that the caretaker for our boat recently found.  Apparently over the course of the year (or at least a good portion of it) a tablespoon or so of diesel had made its way into the bilge. We initially tried getting a local company to fix the leak, but they were unable to find anything.  The only "problem" they could identify was that the Racor fuel filter "may" have leaked and offered to rebuild it for a pretty hefty sum.  Since I was unconvinced that this was the problem, I decided I would check on it when I came down. I crawled down into the engine compartment and was rather quickly able to find that the fuel supply hose was showing age and was seeping just a bit.  In the process of removing the hose it became fairly apparent it was the cause. The hose was replaced, new fuel filters and accompanying gaskets were installed and the system was checked for any signs of leaks.  None were found.  I checked fluid levels and then started the engine.  Despite the age and hours on the motor, it started right up and ran like a top.  I let it run for a little while and repeated my leak check and it all checks out great now.

Identifying some of the Kidde recalled extinguishers
(image linked from Kidde recall web site)

Then there is the fact that 5 of the 6 fire extinguishers on board the boat were made by Kidde. Just in case you weren't aware, there was a recall of around 40 million Kidde fire extinguishers. Given boats are required to have working fire extinguishers on board and I had no idea how long it would take to get any warranty replacement, dealing with them was high on my list and one of the early things I checked when I returned to the boat.  Fortunately, I found that none of the extinguishers on board were impacted by the recall and the boat was good to go on that front.

The rainy weather helped to point out another issue, a leak on the boat. The aft berth overhead hatch was leaking.  It was the only hatch that I had yet to re-bed, so it isn't isn't much of a surprise that it would be the one to leak. On one of the few relatively warm and dry days I was able to pull the hatch, clean it up, and re-bed it.  Rains that followed tested my work and confirmed that the leak has been fixed.

Failing West Marine lifeline netting

Another item that I didn't expect to deal with was the lifeline netting.  When I arrived at the boat I was quite surprised to see a number of holes and broken strands in the netting.  At first I thought someone had come along and vandalized it.  But after tugging on it a bit myself, I found the netting to be quite brittle.  Obviously this netting, sold at West Marine, is not UV protected and a couple years in the sun has all but destroyed it.  If anything were to fall against the netting, I have no doubt that it would give way and whatever it was supposed to prevent going overboard would end up in the water.  Since it was now useless and looked ugly to boot, I spent quite a bit of time removing all of the netting that we painstakingly added just two years ago.  So, if you are thinking of adding netting to your lifelines, I think I can safely say you should avoid the stuff sold by West Marine.  Given how long it takes to properly install, you will really want a better netting. Look for netting that clearly states it is protected against UV.

So, work continues, in between rain and wind storms.

Hold It!

Here we go again on one of the least-pleasant things to work on in a boat. Ever since I had the black water lines replaced in Deltaville, I've had issues with these systems.  A few things were obviously broken (like the toilet seat and bilge pump hose) but others were random leaks that we had yet to resolve.  One in particular that has been an issue was a leak at the bottom fitting of the starboard side holding tank.  If you pumped a little water into the tank it appeared to work just fine.  But once above a certain level, the pressure would cause a leak.

Figuring it was knocked loose when the hoses were replaced, we tried tightening the nut on the bottom, but that didn't fix it like it did with the other tank.  Yesterday we decided that we would loosen the fitting and see if we could reseal it without having to remove it or the whole tank. Removing the tank would require disconnecting four fittings and the tank sensor and then wrestling it out of it's perch in the locker and that would be a very time consuming process and likely break one or more of the other fittings.  We loosened up the fitting and were cleaning it up when we discovered the likely source of the leak.  The fitting actually had a small crack hiding in the threads.  In the process of wrestling the hose back off of said fitting, we made the crack worse so you can now clearly see the issue in the picture below.

The new fitting with the homemade gasket and
the old fitting with the crack.

This fitting is actually nothing more than a 1.5 inch plastic through hull fitting.  We got lucky and found a new replacement fitting at a reasonable price at Sailors Exchange in St. Augustine.  The next trick was to figure out how to install it so it would seal well without removing the tank from the boat.  But before we could do that, we needed to get the old one out of the tank.

The only access to the inside of the tank, other than the fittings, is via a cleanout access panel on the top side of the tank. With the tank installed, access to the access panel isn't easy.  I put on my best MacGyver hat to come up with a solution to remove the old through hull.  I took a scrap piece of vinyl hose that would just barely fit inside the fitting and used that to guide the fitting up to the inspection port. Tada.

The old fitting was bed in place with some sort of sealant.  Of course, applying sealant and getting the fitting back to the hole in the bottom would be a sketchy operation at best. I could see sealant all over the inside of the tank except where we needed it at the fitting. When I was looking at various fittings for plastic tanks I noticed most used gaskets.  Figuring this ought to work, I took some of our left over gasket material from the bimini project and proceeded to make a gasket for the base of the fitting. Now, if the surface isn't too uneven and I can get the clamping pressure right, we should have a seal.

Naturally, the new fitting inside diameter was just a tiny bit smaller than the old one, so I couldn't force the vinyl hose into the new one to help guide it back into position.  Channeling my inner MacGyver one more time, I decided to snake a piece of scrap electrical wire through the vinyl tube so I had a line that ran from the access panel down through the hole in the bottom of the tank.  I slid the fitting over the wire and dropped it into position, guiding it with the wire.  The fitting slid right into place.  Viola.

Knowing that over-tightening a gasket can be just as bad as under-tightening one, I threaded the nut on the end of the fitting and tightened it only hand tight.  We decided that the hose was actually an inch too long and cut it down for a better fit that would put less strain on the fitting.  I slid the hose onto the fitting, tightened up the two hose clamps to hold it in place and we were ready to test the repair.

New fitting installed.

We fill the tank with about two inches of water.  It looks good at first, but eventually a small drip is seen at the fitting.  I use the wrench to give the nut on the fitting a quarter turn and then wipe up the drip.  This appears to have resolved the leak.  We fill the tank to the top and check again.  Still no leak. After letting the water sit in the tank for over four hours, not a drip of water was found. Yay!

We may finally have all the holding tank issues resolved.  I guess only time will tell.

Bedding Hardware

As anyone that has owned a boat probably knows, mounting (or re-mounting) hardware on the exterior of a boat isn't as simple as just screwing it into the hull.  In many cases there will be some stress placed on whatever you intend to mount, so drilling all the way through the hull and putting a backing plate on the hardware is required to distribute the load across the fiberglass.  And, of course, holes invite water leaks. Even in simple or more cosmetic hardware, simply screwing into the hull results in a hole that can cause problems if water enters...and you are on a boat so chances are water will enter.  For a boat like mine that is "cored" (the fiberglass structure is strengthened while keeping weight down by placing a lightweight substance like cork or foam between two layers of fiberglass), water getting into the fiberglass laminate can result in expensive repairs.

To prevent water from entering the hull, you "bed" the hardware.  All this really means is that you put some form of sealant on the hardware around the hole so water hopefully won't get in.  This sealant can take many forms and different options may be used depending on what you are attaching to the hull (one obvious difference would be items above or below the waterline).

During our survey, there were a few items noted that needed to be re-bed.  A couple handrails were found to be loose and the moisture meter detected some slight moisture around one of the stantion bases.  All of this is above the waterline so I did a bit of research on what would be good to use and figure I could do this without an experts oversight.  People mention 4000 and 5200 (a couple adhesive sealants from 3M designed specifically for marine use), as well as various forms of silicone or silicone-like substances.  The important things seem to be that the material be resistant to UV (imagine that...boats sit out in the sun), be flexible, and able to tolerate the marine environment (water, salt, etc.).

After doing some reading, I decided to give butyl tape a try.  It sounded fairly easy to work with, adheres well, can be removed without damage, and lasts a long time.  The down side appears to be that you are supposed to compress it fairly slowly, so it takes some time and patience to mount each piece. Since this will be my first attempt at rebedding hardware, easy to work with had me sold. And, of course, there are good butyl tapes and bad ones.  I found someone that sells what is supposed to be good butyl tape and his web site has great instructions on how to use it so I decided to order some.  You can check out the web site below:

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/rebedding_hardware
(if you want the Bed-it butyl tape, you can order it at the end of page 3)

A lifetime supply of butyl tape?

For my first re-bedding attempt I decided to fix a pair of...hmm...can't really call them pushpit rails can I?...handrails on the back sugar scoop stairs and swim platform.  These were noted as loose on the survey, are obviously loose, and may be the source of some water I'm finding in the engine room bilges. No huge structure or disassembly of the interior to contend with so they seem like a good first place to try.

I remove and clean the starboard side rail and around the mounting holes.  I take about an inch worth of the tape and roll it into a relatively thin rope shape and put it around the bolts on the rail like it shows to do in the above web site.  Reinsert the bolts into the mounting holes, apply the backing washers and snug up the nuts.  As advertised, the butyl tape slowly squishes.  I spend the next several hours, while working on other projects, periodically (every half hour or so) going down into the transom to tighten the nuts just a little bit more.  The web site said this could take days and not to rush it and I didn't think I did, but the rail seemed to be tightened down as far as I think they should be after just 4 or 5 tightening attempts.  Even though I didn't put a particularly big band of the stuff on (somewhere between 1/4 and 1/8 inch diameter was used) a large percentage of it did ooze out from under the rail's mounting flange. Using my fingernail to sever the connection between the oozed butyl and what was still under the flange, I carefully removed the excess.  And as advertised, this stuff is sticky...at least sticks to my hands, itself, the railing, and the gel coat of the boat.

After the first tightening, it is just starting to squish out.

Fully bedded, still need to clean up a bit.

I would like to tell you that the port side railing went just as easily, but when I went to remove the nuts, I found one of the bolts had been snapped off and there was no bolt or washer.  So, in true boat project fashion, I find another issue while fixing one (actually...guess I should be happy I only found one more project...seems I usually find two or three).  Guess I'll see if I can find a welder or machine shop that can put a new bolt on the railing for me.  I put some tape over the holes where the broken railing was, put the broken railing in the trunk of my car so I can take it to a welder and it won't get scratched up in the meantime.

As for the bedding, it was pretty easy and if this stuff really doesn't harden or loose it's stickiness, I have high hopes that it will be a good solution for a long time.

A Tale of Many Leaks

Leaks are never a good thing on a boat.  Over the past few days, I've certainly discovered my share of them.  Thanks to a recent rain, I found three portholes and two hatches that leak in heavy rains.  Ironically, the two that the surveyor mentioned might leak...stayed perfectly dry.  At this point I'm pretty sure at least two need to be rebed, the others I hope just have something on the gasket and if I open, clean, and reseal them that will resolve the issue.  Guess I'll find out the next time it rains.

Remember that red stuff in the bilge that I thought might be transmission fluid?  Well, it was actually diesel (either my sense of smell is going or this was the least diesel smelling diesel I've ever encountered). During my survey, the surveyor noted diesel in the bilge but did not see any leaks so he thought it may have just been a filter change that had gone bad.  Well, no such luck.  After having someone that knows more about diesels than I do come check things out, they found the injection pump is leaking.  In fact, 3 of the 4 pistons in the pump leak.  So that will be sent off to be rebuilt as it is certainly above my current skill level.

I also discovered that our fresh water system has a leak.  Under the sink on the Leopard 38 is a rat maze of plumbing for the fresh water system.  At the end of this is an interesting plastic manifold that directs output from the pumps to the accumulator tank, a bleed valve, and the two main cold water lines.  One of the cold water lines had a drip.  What's worse is that it appears that someone tried wrapping some black, sticky stuff around the fitting to seal the leak.  Of course, that didn't work.  The one thing that bothers me about this is that the surveyor didn't pick up on this as it seems a pretty obvious "quick temporary fix".

The leaking fitting with the black stuff pulled back

Since this appears to be a fairly standard plumbing repair, I dove right in to fix this one.  Step one, remove the black gooey stuff.  It appears to be some sort of rubbery tape-like substance.  This might be the inferior grade butyl tape I heard about when researching how to bed hardware on a boat.  In any case, it doesn't stop a drip in the pressure system.

The leak appears to be where some PEX tubing is connected to the plastic manifold with a brass barbed fitting and a clamp. The interesting thing is that just above this connection is another PEX pipe that is connected with the press to fit fittings.  There also looks like there might be a little crack in the plastic where the brass fitting is threaded.  Since the whole manifold is held to the wall with a couple plastic clips, I try to pull the manifold out to get a better look.  Big mistake.  The grey PVC is much thinner than the PVC I'm used to and at 14 years old, it was very brittle...and snapped.  So, now I get to recreate this manifold.  Oh, guess I should mention that this boat, built in South Africa, is made with metric parts and that includes pipe and hose diameters.  

The old manifold, broken

So, off to the hardware store I go.  Of course, US hardware stores typically only carry US/imperial size items...and this makes sizing some of the parts interesting.  Fortunately, most of the fittings are of the type that we can merge metric tubes with imperial connectors (just crank the hose clamp a bit tighter, right).  After the requisite 4 trips to the hardware store (why do all plumbing jobs require a minimum of 4 trips to the store?), over the course of two days (mental note: stop starting projects after noon so I have time to get back to the store before they close), I finally have all the right sized parts to complete the project.  After spending a couple hours cutting PVC, cleaning and assembling the manifold, this is the result.

You will note I went with the easy press on connectors for both PEX lines, so I can easily disconnect if I ever have to, instead of the barbed fitting that was there and was the one leaking.  Due to the size differences in the fittings, the new manifold doesn't quite snap into the old holder on the lower end, so I drill a couple holes in the old clamp and turn it into a zip tie holder so I can "belt it in".

Other than having to re-seat one of the PEX pipes in the connector, the installation went well and now is leak free.  I have running water again.

Installed and Leak Free

Oh, and one last leak...a propane leak.  When we took possession of the boat and opened the propane locker, it had the smell of propane.  Sure enough, when I checked the weight of the bottles, I found both were empty.  Since the propane system was checked during the survey, the bottle was apparently left on and all the contents slowly leaked out from a leak between the bottle and the electric shut off valve. Sure am glad this boat has a propane locker and the propane didn't just empty into the bottom of the bilge.

I went and got the bottles filled and proceeded to test the connections with some soapy water.  Sure enough, found bubbles at a fitting just before the regulator and also at the tank connection fitting.  After retrieving some pipe joint compound (liquid not tape) I was able to resolve the issue with the regulator fitting.  The tank connection fitting was easier to resolve.  The prior owner added one of those propane tank gauges (I assume to serve as an adapter from the older style propane fitting that requires a wrench to the one that can be hand tightened) so I simply removed it.  Now the system seals.

So, that is how I spent several days working on leaks and why I wasn't posting on the blog as regularly as I would like.