Just Say NO To Silicone

The previous owner of my boat seemed to have a love affair with that clear household silicone and used it a great many places on the boat.  You know those salon windows that leaked...yep, it was there.  It also covered the seams on just about every other port or hatch on the boat.  Well guess what...they all leaked.

This is NOT for boats!

Yesterday I noticed some water was leaking in over in the galley near the salon windows that I had rebed.  I know those don't leak so I started looking for possible culprits.  Around one of the mounts for the handholds that reside above the window I noticed some deteriorating silicone sealant and, yep, that appears to be the leak.  I removed the hand-hold, slowly removed all the silicone from the hull and the hardware, and bed it properly with butyl tape. I need to wait for the next rain but I'll bet that will take care of the leak.

Today I noticed that one of the two hatches I had yet to rebed, the small forward facing one in the forward port stateroom had started to leak.  So I went about the labor intensive process of rebedding that hatch.  Normally these hatches are not that hard to rebed, you remove the screws, take a putty knife to sever any sealant that is still holding on, then clean up the frame and opening and reinstall with new sealant.  The reason why it was so labor intensive was due to the fact I had to remove all the silicone first.

You see, this household silicone is like putting a band-aid on a broken arm.  You might think it does some good, but in fact it does not and it makes more problems down the road.  Very little sticks to silicone and silicone can actually interrupt the normal curing process for other sealants.  Paint and gel coat won't stick to areas that have silicone on them without cleaning every last molecule of silicone off of the surface.  A more proper bedding compound for the hatches, such as 3M 4000 UV, won't work unless the silicone is completely removed.

So, I spent a couple hours picking off little bits of silicone and cleaning the surfaces thoroughly with acetone.  Once I finally got all of the silicone removed, rebedding the hatch was pretty easy.  Apply the new sealant, press the hatch in place, and secure with the screws (the screws are really only there to hold the hatch in place while the sealant cures).  Now, if all the other hatches are any indication of my success, this hatch should no longer leak.

My public service announcement here is...if you own a boat, or ever think you might own a boat, do yourself a favor and properly rebed your hardware.  Doing it right doesn't take much more time than doing it wrong. Doing it right will save you a ton of time in the long run since you won't have to re-do the repair in a few months and won't have to clean up the mess you made with the silicone.  Please leave the household silicone at the hardware store...or your land-based home.  And as I mentioned on my Facebook page yesterday...if you do use this stuff on your boat, please don't ever sell that boat to me.

If It Fails On A Boat, It Is Probably Corrosion

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I'm running out of things to try in fixing my deck light. Short of replacing the entire wire, the connectors up at the fixture are the only other possible failure points. So, for my first try today, I decided to replace the connectors.

Of course, I already know that the wires up at the fixture are pretty short (I had previously repaired the positive lead), so I'll need to add a length of wire along with a new connector...or I'll never be able to get a bulb connected. I don't have any "boat approved" 14 gauge wire on the boat, fortunately there is a place nearby that is supposed to have a bunch at much better than West Marine prices named Genuine Dealz.

I plug the address into my phone's GPS and head over. My phone directs me to this nondescript warehouse that almost looks like it is abandoned, except for the two cars parked near an open door. No signs or any other indications I'm in the right place, but I park and poke my head in the open door. Inside there are a lot of spools of wire and other electrical parts. Definitely a low-budget, mostly internet based operation. There were a couple nice employees that confirmed I was in the right place. I told them I was looking for some 14 gauge wire and a few connectors. They hooked up their giant spools of wire and made me a 100 foot spool while I waited. Given their prices, I ended up buying a couple spools of the marine grade tinned wire and some additional heat shrink connectors to extend my parts stock.

I return to the boat with my supplies and construct some 5 inch extension wires with spade terminals on one end and butt splice connectors on the other end. Best to assemble what I can on the ground instead of trying to do it all while swinging from the mast.

After doing what I can on the ground, I once again get out the Bosun's chair and go up the mast. Instead of using my harness, I borrowed the Bosun's chair I had used before from a friend here at the dock (I have to admit, after trying a few different chairs and harnesses, Jesse has the most comfortable one I've found). Another friend, Bill, here at my dock has an interesting rig to allow you to pull yourself up the mast. He has rigged up a couple fiddle blocks, one with a jam cleat and becket and a lot of 1/2 inch line to create a 4:1 purchase system. With this, and a rope climbing ascender, someone can pull themselves up the mast while only having to lift 1/4 of their weight. This setup made it easy and comfortable to go up to the deck light as many times as I have over the past few days.

Bill's mast rig with an eye splice I did for him.

I make my way up the mast to the light, pop the light out of the holder, and carefully unscrew the lugs on the back of the bulb enough to remove the bulb. Then the surgery begins. I cut off the existing spade connectors and strip the wires so I can attach the butt connector that is already attached to the new spade assembly. I make sure that the stripped wire is clean and in good condition. I then crimp on the new wire assemblies. This all sounds quite simple...but imagine doing it mostly one-handed while sitting on a swing hovering 20 feet over the deck of the boat. After the crimp is solid, I use a BBQ lighter (they work a bit better in the wind than the average lighter) to carefully shrink the heat-shrink end of the butt connector for a weather-tight seal. Now I have longer, weather-resistant connections for the deck light. I reattach the bulb and snap it back in the holder. The moment of truth arrives...will this Hail Mary attempt work or will I need to pull a new wire.

I make my way back down the mast, wriggle out of the Bosun's chair and head over to the electrical panel. I flip the switch....and...the light comes on!  Yes! It appears that a connector was the issue after all.

Being an engineer, I now wanted to know why this was the failure. When I was up on the mast, I did some tests, including pulling on the connectors to make sure they were well crimped, so I wanted to know exactly what the failure was. The first thing I noticed is that the crimp on connector on the ground wire is not the right size.  The wire is 14 gauge and the crimp on connector is red for 18 to 22 gauge wire...but it seemed solidly connected.  The red connector is also not sealed so weather (or on a boat, salt water, could theoretically make it's way into the connection and wire. I stripped a little bit of insulation off of the wire and found that the ground doesn't appear to be tinned wire and there was some corrosion over an inch down the wire from the connector.

Top: Bad Ground spade, Bottom: Good power spade

Checking the resistance from the spade to the cut and stripped end of the wire on the ground connector I removed, I found resistance in the 18 mega-ohm range. That's a lot of resistance. In comparison, the positive connector I removed, that I had previously replaced and only replaced again because I wanted a longer length of wire, showed 0 ohms of resistance. Clearly the ground connector is the issue.  Pulling on the wire using pliers, I was able to pull the wire out of the connector.  I found the charred and corroded remains of the wire. I guess the insulation was what was holding the connection together as well as it was.

So, it seems that corrosion slowly turned the connector into a resistor and then the heat and corrosion eventually weakened the wire to the point it would not provide enough power to light the light (I think it was more carbon and corrosion than wire).

If you have stayed with me this far in this story, here are your tips (or my lessons learned) should you run into a similar issue with electrical on your boat. First, always use heat shrink connectors anywhere corrosion may be an issue (is there any place on a boat where corrosion isn't an issue?). The combination of the shrinking and the oozing of the "glue" that seeps out as the result of the shrinking should go far to protect connections from corrosion (you can see the difference in the two types of connectors in the picture above). Next, if it looks corroded on the end, it is probably corroded where you cannot see it and it is worth replacing even if it seems to be connected. And finally, always assume it will take 10x longer to perform a task on a boat than you think it should. I'm sure there's a joke in here about how long it takes for a boater to change a light bulb...and it being 3 days by the time you fix the things found along the way.

Lessons Learned - A Day of Living in a Boatyard

I haven't done a lessons learned post in a while and, after seeing a post from my friends over at ZeroToCruising doing a play-by-play post from a recent passage, I figured I'd give you a typical day in my life at the boatyard so you can draw your own lessons from it...so here goes.

Woke up at 6:00am to a cabin that is about 60 degrees.  It would have been 45 if I hadn't had the small electric space heater running in the cabin.  With the boat on the hard, there is no good way to run systems that require raw water...such as the reverse cycle AC (heater).  After about 30 minutes hiding in the warmth of the bed, I decide I need to make the trek to the bathhouse.  I get dressed, move the space heater from the cabin to the salon, and head off for the morning ritual.  At least they seem to have turned on the heat in the bathhouse now, the past weekend it was pretty cold in there.

Returning to the boat, I decide I need my morning coffee.  I turn off the heater so I can use the electric kettle to boil some water.  The boatyard only has 15 amp service (normal wall socket) so I can't run multiple high-load electric items at the same time (I bought an adapter so I could plug my 30 amp cord into a standard 15 amp extension cord).  After the water boils, turn off the kettle and turn the space heater back on.  A check of the weather and it says the high today may make 60 degrees F...much better than the rainy 50's the past couple days.

I turn on the propane and make a ham, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich on the stove.  Using the stove top helps impart a little heat in the boat, at least temporarily.  While eating breakfast, I check my email and do the drawing for the book giveaway.  I write a quick post for the blog announcing the winner using the boatyard WiFi.  I then open up my list of tasks so see what I have in store today.  I check off installing the new fresh water pump head that I completed yesterday (after verifying there are still no leaks this morning) and figure out what I can do today.  I'm almost half way through the list.

Since it is still cold outside, and a little damp from the rain during the night, I spend some time cleaning up and organizing the boat (a task that seems to always be desperately needed). It finally starts warming up some, so I go outside and check on the dinghy to see if the sealant helped (more on this in another post).  I decide to clean it as well as take care of some rust streaks on the boat hull.  I go get the long hose attached to the spigot across the yard, attach my sprayer, and drag it back over to the boat.  I also dig through the boat looking for my rubber gloves and the cleaners for the dinghy and hull.  About this time the clouds start moving back in and the temperature drops, so I go back inside.

I look at options for my destination heading south, trying to find a big enough city I can find parts and supplies, but small enough that the marina dockage fees aren't too expensive.  While I'd love to be on the hook more, when I'm doing lots of work on the boat it makes sense to be at a dock (as well as to have an address where  I can ship stuff). I also need to figure out options to get me and my help back to Deltaville (my victim volunteer deckhand has a boat here in Deltaville and while I'm doing work on the boat I keep dragging my car along).

After making a chicken salad sandwich for lunch, I notice the sun is once again out and go back and continue my work outside.  I clean the oxidation and bottom paint dust stains (the dust is insidious in how it can stain things) off of the dinghy.  I apply the On and Off gel to the rust stains on the boat, wait a few minutes, then wash off...making sure not to get any on my new bottom paint (it will apparently remove that as well).  It does an OK job, the streaks are no longer rust color, but just a dull black ghost of the previous stains.

I check my email and get some good news.  The sheave kits for my genoa car rollers have made it off the slow boat from England and are in.  The anchor roller I had a local machine shop make is also ready. Yay.  I drive to the store and machine shop and gladly drop about $250 (U.S.) so I can get the last parts I've been waiting on.  I get back to the boat and look at the parts (basically plastic rollers).  The anchor roller should be perfect, but the sheave kits are different than the original so I go try and install one to see if it will fit.  The instructions are useless as they don't depict the exact model I have, but I figure out how to make them work using a subset of the parts they supplied (the kit apparently fits several different genoa car models now).  Of course, while I'm putting the sheave in, a gust of wind comes out of nowhere, grabs the plastic bag of parts and flings them off the boat.  At least I'm in the yard and not on the water...so I can climb down and retrieve them.

Now that it is "standard time" it is starting to get dark at 4:30pm and the wind is increasing and getting colder so the other sheave and the roller will wait until tomorrow.  I take a walk around the yard and chat with the other guy crazy enough to be living on a boat in a boat yard.  He tells me it might go below freezing tonight.  Yuck.  I go back to the boat and turn the space heater back on to try and increase the heat before the space heater can't keep up with the temperatures.

With it getting colder, I decide I had better take my shower early and so grab my towel and shaving kit (soap, shampoo, etc.) and head to the bath house.  The bath house seems to have plenty of hot water, which is really nice when it is cold outside.  The water in the yard isn't the best as it seems a bit salty, but works fine for a shower.  Guess I should mention that I do NOT fill my boat tanks with the water from the yard as I don't want questionable quality water in my tanks.  It is now dark outside, the moon is not yet up, and the lighting in the boatyard is not very good.  The result is that I step in a deep puddle of water on my walk back to the boat.  On the boat I clean up my shoe, and debate what the gray substance is that has stained my now wet sock...probably mud combined with all the colors of bottom paint and other chemicals that have been used in the yard over the years.

I make a shopping list and head to the store (one of the advantages of still having the car, this isn't a whole-day ordeal).  I come back with several bags of groceries and carefully place them on the transom, climb the swim ladder to get on the boat, and then shuffle the bags inside.  After a brief fight with the top loading refrigerator (one of these days I'll learn the secret to organizing it) and hiding other items in various storage locations about the boat, everything is stowed.

I then get the spaghetti casserole (basically lasagna made with spaghetti noodles) that I made a few nights prior (when it was really cold and I figured using the oven would be a good source of heat as well as food) out of the fridge, temporarily turn off the space heater so I can microwave a slice along with some canned corn for dinner.

I have my usual evening call with my wife and she tells me of some weather phenomenon that may bring very cold temperatures and snow to the east coast in the next week.  I guess it is the result of an unusual typhoon that is now heading toward Canada or Alaska and will shift the jet stream south.  The scientist they were interviewing suggested that the unusual weather activity may be the result of global warming...resulting in local cooling.  In any case, it sounds miserable and just gives me more motivation to head south.  The Caribbean is looking pretty good right now.

I spend a little more time looking around on the internet, researching my next stop, and figuring out if there is anything special I need to pay attention to when we splash the boat, and then take a break and watch a movie.  I move the space heater down to my cabin and note the thermostat says it is a balmy 56 degrees in there.  I come back up and type up most of this from my notes while my cabin warms up...at least a little.  While working on the post, the salon temperature drops (boat hulls are just not well insulated) so I decide I'll finish the post the next day.  I make one more trek to the bath house in the cold evening air and then climb into bed around 10:30pm.

Lest you think it is all pina colladas and sunsets, there is a price to pay for this lifestyle.  Actually, this is one of the better days as I was able to get the parts I needed and may be able to launch the boat soon.  The day before I spent a fair amount of time chasing a phantom problem with my fresh water system after replacing the head of one of the fresh water pumps.  And today, the boatyard water pump has failed and so there is no water, hot or cold, in the bathhouse.

So, there you have it.  A brief look at a random day in my life at the boatyard.

So, Whatever Happened with the Engines?

Remember when I told you about having work done on the engines? I wouldn't blame you if you didn't as it has been a long time.  So, to recap, the mechanic was cleaning the heat exchangers on all three engines (two Westerbekes and the Northern Lights generator), sending a fuel injector pump on one of the Westerbekes off to be rebuilt, replacing a rusted exhaust mixing elbow on the generator and removing a rusted and broken stud on the manifold that attaches to the elbow.

A Westerbeke 42B4 waiting for it's heat exchanger.

Well, after initial disassembly and removal of the heat exchangers, pump, mixing elbow and manifold, the mechanic said he would have the exchangers cleaned up in a couple of days and the pump would probably take a week or so to have rebuilt and returned (it was sent to a shop in Orlando that is supposed to be good at such things).  They would come back and complete the job once the pump came back.  The mechanic also wanted some money for the parts so he wrote up a bill for the work that had been completed thus far.  My normal rule is to pay for parts once they arrive and pay for labor once the job is complete, but since this was a recommendation by a friend, I went ahead and paid the tab to date.  This was probably my first mistake.

The Northern Lights Generator waiting on it's exhaust system.

So, I waited.  And waited.  I didn't hear back from the mechanic.  After a week and a half I gave him a call.  I was told the pump would be in on that following Monday and they would call me and let me know when they would be back to complete the work.  So I waited some more.  Monday passed with no call, so did Tuesday.  On Wednesday I gave him a call and he now told me that the pump would be in tomorrow (Thursday).  On Friday I gave the mechanic a call and he said all the parts were in but it was too cold to work since the temperatures were in the 40's and 50's.  I can understand that working in the cold can be miserable...but being from Colorado I really didn't consider this all that cold...especially if you were out of the wind in the engine room.  He would call me and set up a time early next week.

I ran into him in the marina parking lot in the middle of that week and he said he would be over to finish up the work on...I think it was Thursday or Friday.  So on the agreed upon day I waited and he again failed to show up and failed to give me a call.  I got a hold of him and he again said he had everything but it would be Monday before they could come finish up.  Sigh.

On Monday they finally showed up with the pump and coolers.  Things were looking up.  After several hours in the engine room they told me they were missing some parts, but they had them at their shop in St. Augustine.  They didn't want to go get the parts so they would be back Tuesday at 2pm to finish up.  Well at least that was some progress, but it amazes me that after all this time and claiming they had everything that they were once again missing something.

You know what happened next.  Yep, I waited around for an hour and a half on Tuesday before I gave up.  No show, no call...this was getting to be a little too predictable.  I caught up with him again in the marina parking lot on Wednesday and asked what was up.  This time the explanation was that the delivery guy failed to drop the parts off, but they would have them and be over to finish up on Friday.  To my surprise I got a phone call on Friday from the mechanic.  No, he wasn't going to be able to make it...but at least this time he called.  He was apologetic and said he would be over Saturday morning to finish up.  That would be this past Saturday.

To my complete shock, they did show up on Saturday.  They weren't even very late.  Also to my shock, he announced that both he and his assistant were quite hung over.  Really?!?!  How professional.  I asked if it would be better if they come back when they were feeling better, but he insisted that they would be fine.  They worked for several hours getting things back together (I thought this was just a bolt and some clamps...guess I could be wrong...or the hangover slowed them down...a nice thing when you are getting billed by the hour).  The starboard engine, the one with the new pump, was difficult to get started.  I think at one point they realized that they had forgotten to turn on one of the fuel valves...sigh.  We eventually got everything bled and got the engine started.  The generator and the other engine were much easier, once they got the coolant filled and everything back together, both of those engines started without too much fuss.

Now the things we were originally trying to address were making the generator reliable if it wasn't too expensive (it's not a high priority here since I want to go solar anyway), fixing the fuel leak, and solving the issue with one of the engines running warm.  The generator is now working and not leaking...but I'm not sure what percentage of the bill was the generator so I kinda doubt it was cheap.  The fuel leak appears to be fixed, so that is one in the plus column.  After running the engines a bit, the starboard engine is again reading higher than normal temps if you rev it up.  Sigh.  And it was smoking a bit more than I recall it had in the past (I don't recall any smoke in the past).

I ask the mechanic about the temperatures since the cleaning was supposed to help and he said that the heat exchangers didn't look very bad even before he cleaned them.  What?!?!  I guess cleaning them was just another way to get some more money out of the job then?  He offered to go check the engines with a laser thermometer and I told him that was probably a good idea.  He checks and we find out that both engines are running at just about exactly the same temperature...172F at the coolant entry into the heat exchanger.  So Mr. Expert Diesel Mechanic...why didn't we do this before we took the coolers off to have them cleaned? I think that could have saved us a fair amount of time and money to find out that 190 on the gauge is actually 172.  I guess it is my fault as I should have thought about actually verifying the problem before attempting any fix...and I know better than this but I think the boat is somehow hypnotizing me or maybe I'm just a bit overwhelmed by the size of the "the list" and the shrinking time frame to get things done.  This is lesson number 2...don't EVER believe a mechanic that doesn't actually run tests first.  "Oh, marine diesels are simple systems and it has to be xxxxxxx"...yeah, right.

Anyway, the engines are back together now and seem to work.  One important problem solved (fuel leak), one less important problem fixed at a higher cost than I really wanted to spend (the generator), and one problem that isn't really a problem and I just need to remember to do the math on the reading until I can trace down the issue (the false higher temp reading).  At this point I certainly don't want this mechanic looking into that.

And the one time the mechanic was prompt and communicative...when he brought me the final bill this morning.  He even had a little bit of a discount added with a note of "Good will"....heh...maybe that is the slow moving hangover discount.  I could have brought him a bill for my hourly rate for all the time I waited on him and he never showed...that would have cut the bill in half at least (my hourly rate in my current occupation exceeds the combination of his and his helper). But I just wanted him gone so I paid the bill and sent him on his way.  That was my experience with Marine Land Diesel...don't think I'll be using them again.

Oh, and now my electric hot water heater doesn't seem to be working.  It's conveniently located in the starboard engine room...hopefully they just accidentally switched off a breaker or bumped into a fuse down there...but that is a task for another day since there is warm water for showers in the club house.

At least the engines all now run...yay!  The final lesson I should take way from this...I should trust myself to be able to do these jobs even if I haven't done them before.  I'm sure with a little help from the internet, I could have figured out how to do this stuff myself, probably done faster, and certainly a lot cheaper.

Creaking Dock Lines

While I've spent some time on boats, I've never lived on one parked at a marina for a couple months straight (our boat has been tied up in this marina since December) so I was not aware of how much dock lines can creak and groan.  But the other night the winds were up a bit and our boat was regularly tugging at her dock lines.  And each time a line pulled taut, it would creak or groan.  This is not something that is conducive to sleep, especially when one of the cleats  is attached to your bedroom.  The sound travels through the line and straight into the boat.

So, after a rather sleepless night, I decided to do a little investigating since I'm sure I'm not the first person to experience this.  Sure enough I found a number of discussions on the subject and various remedies.  The cause is apparently friction and can normally occur in a few key ways.  Rubbing against the boat seems the most obvious, especially if you have lines running through hawse pipes (holes in a boat designed for anchor and dock lines to pass through the hull to a cleat or storage).  They can also rub a bit against the cleat itself and lines can also creak due to internal friction.  None of these are good as the friction causes wear.

The quick fix seems to be to wet the lines and that helps lubricate the fibers and help prevent the friction and the noise. I went out with a jug of water and soaked each of the lines and they immediately quieted down.  Of course this is not a permanent solution unless it rains a lot...in which case you likely won't be getting the noise anyway.  There are various chafe guard options from ones you can buy to making your own out of old rubber hose and similar materials.  This should work if your lines are rubbing on the boat, but I don't know how it would work for noise at the cleat and I'm pretty sure it won't work for the internal noise.

Many of the dock lines I have came with the boat and are rather old and I have no idea the last time they were washed (BTW...you need to wash dock lines regularly to remove dried salt that causes excess wear).  Because of this they are also fairly stiff to handle and use.  I had heard one recommendation to soften lines by soaking them in a bucket of water with some fabric softener.  Since the water worked for quieting down the lines, I decided it was time to give the fabric softener idea a try.

I grabbed some cheap fabric softener at the store and started soaking some spare lines I had in a mixture that was fairly heavy on the fabric softener.  I let them soak for a couple hours and then pulled them out to dry a little.  I then swapped out the lines with ones in use and gave them a soak as well.  The last couple days I haven't had any more creaking, so hopefully that will help for a little while.  In the end I probably need to get some new dock lines as most of the ones I have are rather old and some are not in the best of shape...maybe I can find ones that are better about creaking...who knows (if you do...please share).  And for those following along that are still in the earlier stages, hopefully this info will help spare you a sleepless night at a dock.

Of course, the ideal solution is to not be tied to a dock so long...but while all the work is being done, I will unfortunately be tied up a bit longer.

Thoughts on the First Two Weeks

I know more than a couple of people that follow my blog are dreaming, thinking, or preparing to go cruising themselves.  In fact one of them sent me a private message asking how I was doing and was wondering what my thoughts were thus far.

Honestly, I've been so busy trying to get things done that I didn't even realize I hadn't posted since Monday. Apparently I'm not alone...even ZTC's Mike S. took a little bit of a break.  Before starting the charter biz, they used to post daily...and that is unbelievably impressive to me at this point.

This week started with replacing a binding transmission control cable on the port side (the control is on starboard, so this is a long cable that runs all the way across the boat).  Then there has been a musty smell coming from the forward berth AC unit (and with lows in the 30's here in Florida, the reverse-cycle heat is definitely needed) and that started an interesting exploration into the cause.  I'll write more on all of that later.

In general, thoughts and emotions have run the gamut.  It is certainly exciting to be embarking on this new adventure.  I've had some fun working on the boat and resolving problems like the fresh water manifold and some interesting failure modes with the lights (sorry, still haven't written that up yet).  I've learned a lot about diesel engine maintenance with more to come next week when the fuel injector pump and heat exchangers return for installation.

There has also been a lot of frustration with problems I was unaware of until I started really digging into things.  While I didn't expect the survey to catch everything, there are clearly some items that should have been obvious to the surveyor that were not caught. In fact, with the surprises, I've only managed to tackle a few items from the original list.  A few people have mentioned that I might eventually throw out the list and I can see why they said that. I'm definitely learning that I don't know squat about owning a big boat.

I am glad I am staying at a marina right now.  The facility is nice, clean, and reasonably priced for a catamaran on a monthly stay.  They have a swimming pool and hot tub, free coffee, a nice large screen TV in the lobby, wireless internet access (that seems to work most of the time), a free pump-out station, and are in a nice protected area.

The best part are the people.  Very friendly and helpful.  One person, Rupert, that has been living aboard over 15 years hires himself out as a boat handyman and has been helping me with a variety of tasks including the engine maintenance and control cable replacement.  If you intend to do something like this, I highly recommend finding someone like Rupert to help get you started and I'd bet there is someone like this at most marinas. I've also been invited to dinner and go see movies with others in the marina. Boat people are a pretty good group of folks.

The hardest part for me right now, though, is being away from my wife and dogs. With a few curves that were thrown at us, they are back in Colorado working to wrap things up there. Daily phone and video calls help, but it would be much better to have them aboard.  I miss them and can't wait until they join me aboard (although I will probably head back to Colorado once or twice to help out there before that happens).

So, that is how the first couple weeks of living aboard have gone.  Not cruising yet, but making progress towards the goal.

Why is it Raining in my Bedroom

It's not fun to wake up in the middle of the night to a water drop hitting your forehead, but that happened to me.  The hatch directly over the bunk seems like a cool idea...you can look out and see the stars at night and on warm days you can get fresh air in the boat.  But it apparently comes with a downside.

Now you might be thinking the hatch is leaking...but it wasn't raining and hasn't for at least a day.  The key is that it was cold outside. Yeah, cold.  Not Colorado cold, but pretty cold by Florida standards...I think the low was somewhere in the upper 30's (Fahrenheit).  It makes perfect sense now that I think about it, but at 2am who is thinking.  Add in the fact that we've not spent time on boats in colder climates, and I just never thought of it as a possibility, until now.

Yes, if you put a person in a small plastic cocoon and then drop the temperature on the outside of that cocoon, the water in your breath condenses on the inner surface.  Since the hatch is the thin spot in the cocoon and has nice sharp bends, the condensation forms and flows to the low point and...splat...right on the forehead.

So, for those that haven't experienced this phenomenon, this is your public service announcement.  You can create rain indoors on a boat in the middle of the night.

Monday evening the temperature is supposed to drop again, this time the prediction is down to 29...that seems pretty darn cold for Florida.  I guess I need to keep the heat up (above the dew point) and keep air moving so I don't have rain...or ice...coming from the hatch.

Hey Buddy, How Much for That Boat?

In the process of shopping for our future home afloat, this is a very common question on my mind. Of course, the real question I grapple with is "What is that boat worth?" Being a novice boat buyer, I entered into this process not really knowing much about the market.  Having gone through two contracts as well as a couple other offers and a lot of market analysis, I figured it was time for a "what I've learned thus far" on the subject.

Now before you go thinking what I write below is gospel, remember that we only started looking at boats in earnest in April (that's about 6 months ago folks). Also remember that we are shopping for used live-aboard catamarans in the sub $200,000 (US) category. And some of this is rather obvious, but I've found that with all the info swirling around on one's mind, sometimes even the obvious statements are worth mention.

The first thing that I've learned is that every used boat is unique.  They may have looked the same when they rolled off the assembly line, but they were probably unique by the time they were sold and certainly are by the time they are re-sold one or more times. Comparing live-aboard boats is a lot like comparing furnished houses combined with cars.  Each one has unique furnishings and touches, included equipment, as well as different levels of wear...and then they have engines and batteries and other vehicle aspects too.  This makes attempting to determine a reasonable value for a boat a very difficult task. I think most brokers, be it house or boat, learn the standard capitalist answer to the above question...you know...the "it's worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it" answer.  That's great in your college Capitalism 101 course, but doesn't really give you much of a place to start when looking at boats. 

A near "bristol" condition FP Tobago.

We tend to start like we do with houses, looking at comparable sales or "comps" as they are usually called in real estate.  Seems reasonable, but there are a couple problems with it.  First, there are far fewer boats of a given type than there are houses in a neighborhood, so a comp list of recent sales often must go back years instead of weeks or months as you would for a house.  Another issue is the wide variance in condition and equipment. Obviously a former charter boat with minimal 1990's electronic equipment (often not working), original sails and upholstery, etc. would be a far different value than a non-chartered boat of the same age where the owner has updated the equipment and interior as tastes and technologies have changed.  And yet another differentiator is location. If you are lucky enough to find a number of "comps" it is not likely they were sold in the same area in which you are looking. Boats in less tropical climates tend to age better than those subjected to the tropical sun, and this impacts the value.  Boats located in hard to get to remote locations or places people don't really want to spend as much time in tend to sell for less just as boats in hot boating markets or where the supply is limited relative to demand fetch a higher price.

Leopard in fair condition when we saw it.

So, you collect what data you can and try to come up with an average.  What the average boat, in average condition, with average equipment should cost...approximately. As a software engineer with a minor in mathematics, I prefer looking at hard numbers. In my many attempts to figure all of this out, here are some rough guidelines I've found seem to hold true...at least for the catamarans in the price range I've been looking at sold in the United States (this excludes boats in "restorable/salvage" condition, see definition below).

• Boats sell for about 12% less than they are listed on average.
• Boats used in charter take about a 10% hit in price.
• Location can make a 10% difference in price 
• US non-tropical locations near the top
• Remote (harder to get to) tropical locations near the bottom
• The condition of a boat can make about a 30% difference in price (not including salvage).
• 3 years seems to be a reasonable time frame when collecting "comps".
• There is little difference in price between older and newer versions of a given model, prices are mostly based on condition.
• Buying a boat with the equipment you want is cheaper than buying a cheaper boat and adding all the equipment yourself.

As condition has such a large impact on price, it also helps to have a common definition of the condition of a boat.  The following seems to be a pretty "standard" definition of several surveyors and surveyor organizations.

• Excellent/Bristol Condition: A vessel that is maintained in mint condition or "Bristol fashion" – usually better that factory new, loaded with extras (very rare).
• Above Average Condition: A vessel that has had above average care and maintenance and is equipped with extra electrical, electronic, and other gear.
• Average Condition: A vessel that is ready for sale (or ready to sail) requiring no additional work and normally equipped for her size.
• Fair Condition: A vessel that requires typical recurring maintenance to prepare for sale.
• Poor Condition: A vessel that requires substantial yard work (in excess of normal maintenance items) and is devoid of extras.
• Restorable/Salvage Condition: A vessel where enough of the hull and engine exists to restore the boat to usable condition.

So, with this information you can start to get an idea of what you might end up paying for a given catamaran when all is said and done.  Here's an example using a fictitious catamaran:

• You are looking at a 1995 WidgetCat (I told you it was fictitious) in above average condition and started it's life as a charter boat (engines both have 5000 hours).  They are asking $190,000
• Assuming you don't have comps available, you look at the available listings:
• 1993 WidgetCat $220,000
• 1994 WidgetCat $180,000
• 1996 WidgetCat $200,000
• The average asking price is $200,000 so the average sold price is probably around $176,000.
• Since the specific boat is a former charter, expect 10% less than the average.
• Since the specific boat is in above average condition, expect 7.5% more (30% range gives 7.5% per step with average being the starting point).
• So, the final sales price for this 1995 WidgetCat should be about 2.5% below average (10-7.5) or about $171600.

Obviously this works a little better the more accurate data you have, for instance actual sold comps instead of average asking price.  But, hopefully it will give you some idea of where to start.

This isn't any sort of guarantee, and for every rule there is an exception. Also remember I'm of very limited experience in this area...so take this for what it's worth (and for what you paid for this advice :-) ). And, as I stated earlier, every boat is unique.  All of this calculation of averages and estimates are just that, averages and estimates.  I guess the Capitalism 101 answer is ultimately correct...but I hope this helps folks figure out where to start the negotiations.

 So, what do you think?  For those that have purchased boats, does this sound like what you found?  For those just starting to look, does this help any? Anyone out there want to comment on differences with the monohull market or different price ranges? Am I just an engineer trying to apply some order and logic where there obviously isn't any?

Lessons Learned - Shopping and Video

Continuing with the idea of occasionally posting "things we've learned thus far" here is a tip we figured out while looking at a bunch of boats.

After our first boat shopping trip, one of the things we quickly discovered was that we had a hard time remembering details about the boats we saw one after another.  So, after our first trip, we decided that we need some better means of remembering.  I thought perhaps it would be helpful to start taking videos.

I started using my cell phone to take video of the interior and exterior of the boats we thought we were more interested in.  T hese were far from professional grade cinematography, just shaky panning around rooms and wandering through the boats.  But it did what we wanted and found it helped jog memories about details.

I also found it did a bit more.  We've been able to go back to the videos to answer questions that we had later.  It's very handy when you are no longer near the boat in question.

So, if you go shopping for a boat, try taking a video that pans around to explore the space.  It doesn't have to be excessively slow or a long filming, but anything captured you may find handy when you have that lingering question in the back of your mind.

I also have a question to ask of you. Would you be interested in seeing the videos I've taken of some of the boats?  As I've said, they are just shaky cell phone videos, but if there is enough interest I'd be willing to annotate them and remove/replace the audio tracks so they could be posted.  Leave a comment and let me know if you would be interested in seeing them.

What We've Learned Thus Far - Boat Brokers

I wish I had more interesting things to write about right now...like all the tasks of refitting a boat...but alas we are still searching for the right boat.  We have a lead on one, but nothing will happen with it until October at the earliest and, until we have one purchased, we will continue to search.  In the meantime, I've been slowly working my way through the generous gift of books from my friends at The Retirement Project (btw: really excited for them right now, they are moving their boat to the coast to start their new life).

Some of the books I probably should have read before we started shopping for a boat.  The "Cruising Catamaran Communique" was a bit dry but provided some good information on what to look for in a catamaran and how to interpret some of those confusing specification numbers.  The book I'm reading now, "The Essentials Of Living Aboard a Boat", chronicles what one guy learned in his first live-aboard boat purchase.  His early experiences and thoughts got me thinking about what we've learned thus far in the boat buying process.  Then I wondered if it might be fun  to periodically touch upon the highlights of what we've learned thus far. So here goes...the first installment...

Boat Brokers

When we first started looking at boats and were searching all the usual places (like Yachworld and Sailboatlistings), I wrote a post about the pain of trying to shop for a boat from Colorado.  Just a few people had found our blog at that point, and one suggested we try to find a buyers broker. Seems like a pretty obvious recommendation, doesn't it...so why hadn't I thought of it? We used a realtor when we bought our first house, so it would seem to make sense to do the same for our first on-the-water home. While we may pay a bit more for a boat to help cover the commission the broker(s) receive compared to a "for sale by owner" sale, what we would hopefully get in return is someone to help us newbies with finding the right boat as well as guiding us through the process.  Since we are so far from the ocean, having "boots on the ground" in a market where boats were actually available hopefully would help us pre-qualify options and reduce the number of wasted trips to see boats that wouldn't suit us.

One thing I didn't think would be a problem would be finding a broker.  The economy isn't that great, so finding someone who wanted to pocket 5~10% of a $100 to 200 thousand dollar purchase shouldn't be that hard, right? Well, apparently most catamaran brokers must be immune to the effects of the economy as we had a hard time initially finding one.  We searched online for broker recommendations and sent out a number of introductory emails, but got few responses. We did receive a response from a broker at the St. Petersburg location of The Catamaran Company when we asked about a specific boat he had for sale.  When we asked if he would like to act as our buyers agent, he became unresponsive for a time, blew off a scheduled call with us, and then finally passed us on to another Catamaran Company broker out of St. Augustine.  We are glad he did!

Within a day of receiving the email that we were being passed on to a different broker (apparently we weren't worthy of the St. Petersburg broker's time...at least that is the feeling we got), we were contacted by Pete Gulick from the St. Augustine office.  We quickly set up a time for a call to "get the ball rolling".  He called right on time (a refreshing change) and we discussed what we thought we were looking for.  We later set up a trip to see a variety of boats he thought might fit our desires and to help us narrow down our options.  Since that time, he has worked tirelessly to find us a boat and filter out the "lemons" so we weren't wasting a lot of time looking at boats that just wouldn't work for us.

While we don't have a boat yet, it has definitely not been for a lack of Pete's trying to find the right boat for us.  It is just plain difficult when there were only 50 or so boats of your top model choice that were ever made.  In fact, when a "for sale by owner" boat popped up that looked like it might be a really good fit for us, he was the first to suggest that we should pursue it and said he would be happy to help answer questions and provide suggestions. I think he has a good balance of providing help and suggestions to novice buyers without being overbearing or pushy.  He seems genuinely interested in getting his customers the right boat for them and not just what gets him the biggest paycheck.  A very welcome change from the stereotypical used car salesman type you might expect.

So, What have we learned so far when it comes to boat brokers?

• While brokers are paid by the seller out of the proceeds of the sale, a buyers broker should have your best interest at heart.  Be wary if the broker is only interested in selling you his listings (they get both the buyer's and seller's portion of the commission that way).
• A buyers broker seems to be a very good idea for a novice boat buyer as they should help guide you through the process, paperwork, etc.
• A buyers broker is even more important if you don't live, or plan on spending every weekend, in a location where the types of boats you are looking for are available.
• A broker has access to some resources not available to the public and can provide things like the selling prices of similar boats (what the real estate profession often refers to as "comps"). [updated]
• Finding a good buyers broker can take time and persistence.  Don't settle for one that isn't 100% in your corner.  For all the bad ones, there are good ones out there.
• Not all brokers for a given company are the same, judge each one on their individual merits.
• So far, Pete Gulick at The Catamaran Company in St. Augustine rocks!

UPDATE: Sadly, I can no longer recommend Pete Gulick (and can't say I could ever actually recommend the Catamaran Company).  A number of issues have arisen post sale that cause me to rescind the recommendation.  I apologize to anyone that may have taken my recommendation and used their services with less than satisfactory results.

Charter Day 4 - Part 2, The Return Trip and A Decision

So, when I left off we were at anchor, but not a comfortable anchor.  Even in this "protected" cove, the wind was coming over the land and blowing us around pretty good.  We accomplished our impromptu goal of heading somewhere and anchoring (even if it was just for lunch so far) so we decide to pull anchor and head back.  No reason to spend an uncomfortable night when you have better options, right?

So with my wife at the helm motoring slowly forward, I begin to haul up the anchor.  Do you recall I mentioned that there is no windlass on this boat?  Or that we had out more rode than we needed?  Well those two bits of information combine to make for a bit of a workout. Good hand signals are a necessity when doing this, and so is remembering that you can't hold the boat still by hand when being blown by 20 knot winds (note to self: don't have wife shift into idle with high winds). After a little work and a couple mistakes that caused us to lose ground, the anchor was back on board AND I still had all my fingers.  I'm definitely proving this lifestyle will be healthier for me than sitting behind a desk all day.

We might have been able to sail the channel from the anchorage to the main part of Tampa Bay, but it was rather narrow and we didn't want to chance it.  We decide to motor down the narrow channel cut into the shallow bay until we hit the deeper water.  We then unfurl the main just as we did for the trip down and we are again sailing.  This time we did add a bit of headsail as well.

Our course back to the marina puts us close hauled for much of the trip.  For those not familiar with what this means, basically we are sailing at an angle into the wind.  This means the wind "feels" stronger as you are moving into it.  The position of the sail on this point of sail also means that a larger percentage of the force created by the sail is perpendicular to the direction of the boat, causing the boat to heal a bit more.  Heading into the wind also means you are heading into the waves.  Of course by now we pretty comfortable with the boat so none of this is an issue.  It does teach me that a mono-hull, or specifically the angled deck when healing, can be more fatiguing to sail than I expected it would be.

On this trip we were accompanied by some dolphins, but they seemed to try and avoid being seen by my wife.  I'd see them on one side of the boat, she'd run over to look, and they would switch sides.  Not sure if they were having more fun playing in the pressure wave or playing hide-n-seek with my wife but both they and my wife seemed to be having fun.

Other than the dolphins, the trip back to the marina was uneventful and we made pretty good time under reefed sails.  We made it back to the marina just after 5pm.  From the time we left the marina to the time we returned was around 8 hours total.  A couple hours of local practice, the trip down and back, and a little time spent at anchor for lunch sure added up.

We got a lot accomplished and did learn quite a bit on this little trip.  We learned that yes, we can manage to navigate ourselves.  It wasn't that far and it was within sight of land at all times, but it was something we hadn't done by ourselves before.

In addition to my wife being initially uncomfortable with the heeling of a mono-hull, we also learned that heeling can be quite a bit more fatiguing than we estimated.  On our trip down when we were on a broad reach it wasn't too bad, but the close hauled course coming back caused some deck angles and bounce that really do make it difficult to just sit or stand at the helm.  Walking around and working the lines isn't any easier.

Now I don't know if it was the relatively short length of this boat or the difference between a mono- and a multi-hull, but this Catalina 309 was what I could only describe as "squirreley"... more so than the J22's we learned on.  At anchor it seemed much less stable than the cat, "sailing on the hulls" or swinging thru about 120 degrees.  And when it swings so the waves hit the beam instead of on the bow, it can really rock the boat.  We also found the boat very easy to oversteer when tacking.

So it seems we have fulfilled one goal of our trip - an important decision has been made at this point.  While the mono-hull sailboat has that classic, sexy look; the practicality of comfort in most conditions has us voting in favor of a catamaran for a long term live-aboard platform.

Grades, Practice, and Oops.

We heard back from the sailing school.  I got a 100 and a 95 on the first two tests and my wife got 99 and 91.  Since anything over 80 was passing, I'd say we did rather well.

We've passed our first two classes and are studying for our third but I thought it would be a good idea not to lose those practical skills, so as a last minute idea this past weekend we rented a boat for an afternoon of sailing.

Unlike most of our classes, we again had a reasonable amount of wind.  We did all the usual maneuvers.  At one point I was having some fun doing figure 8's around two of the reservoir center-line buoys.  We even hove-to so we could enjoy our sandwiches for lunch.  It was good to get out and sail again.

Everything went well...until we came in to dock.  Now, I remember in the first class that the instructor said when you get on and off the boat that you have to commit to one or the other.  I was at the helm and my wife was ready with the dock line...but when she stepped onto the dock she was leaning back a bit and fell back so she was half on the boat and half on the dock.  Well, when one doesn't commit to one or the other she found that you are automatically committed...to the water.

It took a bit to secure the boat (an unsecured boat seemed especially dangerous with someone in the water around unforgiving docks) and then get her out of the water.  Docks don't have safety stairs and the easiest option was to use a neighboring boats swim platform (we did try using a line on the winch to create a makeshift ladder stair first).  Other than a bruise, the only damage I think was her pride.  She's a trooper though and all is well.

Overall, other than the unanticipated swim, it was a good day.  So, I guess now it is back to studying for our next class.