A Midsummer Nights Dream

Figure 54
Going to a dual battery ACR
enabled system

We put the Constance Marie in the water mid-June. It's starting to get really hot out.  Weather forecasts for June shows that this will be a more windy month than usual.

ACR stands for Automatic Charging Relay.  I wanted to upgrade from one battery to two.  The ACR automatically combines battery banks when charging and isolates the batteries  when discharging.  The start isolation  option protects electronics on board from voltage sags and spikes during engine cranking.

The ACR has two load connectors on its back panel.  "A" connector goes to the positive terminal of the Starting battery and "B" connector goes to the positive terminal of the House battery. Both batteries' negative terminals get connected to a common bus bar.  A 2 amp fuse is between the House Battery and the ACR and between the ACR and the Start Key Switch.

Like a Tick On A June Bug

Figure 52
Garmin 740 mounted above the pedestal over the binnacle

For this month, the major task is to add some needed electronics to the Constance Marie.  By all standards, installing a Garmin and using a hand-held radio for communications is no where near as elaborate as many of the boat systems in our yard.  The Constance Marie is a not a blue-water boat and I doubt She has ever been offshore far enough to lose site of land.  Her home is in the northern waters of the Chesapeake.  Heck, don't even need bottom paint because the water is all fresh until you basically hit the Rock Hall area.  Remember, we have those five great rivers joining together south of the peninsula.



Figure 53
Tie-wrapping of harness and transducer cable

Well, I thought long and hard about how I was going to install the Garmin and the transducer.  I bought it at a great price at the Annapolis Sailboat Show.  Plan A was to place the transducer as far forward as I could go.  I have 20 feet of cable to play with and did not want to get an extension cord for it.  I tried to get an electric sander underneath the head's sink to the left in the corner where the bulkhead meets.  The hull seemed pretty flat there to get the 22 degree or less angle I needed for the transducer to work correctly.  Just could not make it work so we went to Plan B.  Plan B positioned the transducer on the port side storage as far forward as I could get it.  I ran the transducer cable back along the port side storage inside the galley, through the storage cabinet where I have the Battery Switch, into the battery box and through the bulkhead into the engine compartment elevating it be tie-wrapped to the conduit of wires leading to the Instrumentation Panel in the cockpit.

One of most stupid things I did last year was to not run the transducer cable up through the pedestal and binnacle while I had the behind the engine compartment opened up and was working on the muffler and rear drain hoses.

LESSON LEARNED:  Think ahead and try to anticipate the needs of future projects so that you can plan better their approach rather than going to extremes with creative ideas.

Hardware inside the pedestal is tight because the steering is done via a vertical chain leading to a cable system to steer the quadrants leading to the rudder. What I decided to do was to cut a 1 1/2 inch hole through the cockpit floor and run thick walled PVC pipe up to the binnacle.  Hey it's my old boat, not yours!  I did in in such a fashion where I could permently seal the pipe through the floor but disassemble it in two places above the floor of the cockpit for when I needed to gain access.  I then cut some plexiglass and tie-wrapped it to the stainless steel support holding the cockpit table wedging it nice and secure.  I then hooked up the Garmin  to the plexiglass and connected the cable emanating from the verticle PVC pipe.  When not in use, just push the cable into the pipe and cover it. Went back to the transducer, added the polypropelene to the transducer overflowing the angle flange and gently lowered the transducer into its pre-set positioned.  We now have replaced the knotmeet (which I left in the throughhull) and depth gage.

Mother May I?

Figure 51
Frayed lines on the Main Sail Sheet

Last year I noticed that the main sail sheet was frayed and so I decided to replace it now.  The "traveler" system on the Constance Marie is rather unique.  Unlike most boat with tiller setups, the Constance Marie  does not use a traditional horizontal traveler.  As you can see in Figure 51, the main sail sheath system is pretty cool.  40 feet of 1/2 inch line. The Constance Marie is outfitted with Schaefer vangs, and blocks.  I prefer Schaefer because they are durable, reliable and moderately priced compared to its competition.  

You can see just below the block to the far left, the frayed sheet.  This system is meant to control the angle of the mainsail so that you can maximize the wind efficiently. I have no interference moving around and the galley entrance is not incumbered with a horizontal traveler like so many other boats are designed. Way to go Mr. Cherubini!  The Hunter 27 is a very easy boat to sail.  My wife is just over 5 five feet and she skippers the boat as well as I do working the Genoa and Main Sail sheets.  




April Showers Bring Mayflowers

Figure 49
The Helm area, well, if you dropped
food on it, the three second rule
would be too long!

With April's warmer weather, I took a break from working inside on the features of the Constance Marie and decided to address Her finish.  I would start with the Helm area.  Needed to replace the four stainless steel hinges, clean the dirt, sand the teak pieces, fix the compass binnacle, replace the teak footers that you step onto to get into the boat, placed a new motor support for the dink's engine, cleaned up the ladder and teak steps and put a new stern light on.  The Constance Marie has no bimini.  That project is for next year.  The original knotmeter and depth finder were not working, so I knew that I would want to get them replaced prior to mid-summer. 

April is a busy time around the boatyard.  Manlifts (Fig 50A) be;pw are brought in to allow folks to check out their anchor lights.  Boats are being launched into the moorings field. 

Figure 50
A little sweat equity and She is
starting to look like a real Lady

I shopped around on line looking for 3 1/2 inch stainless steel hinges.  Went to the usual places on line and around our town, but could not find anything under $30-60 for each!  No way Jose!  I was shopping at Lowes and noticed the gate hinges and there they were!  Stainless Steel 4 inch hinges for $9 each.  And believe it or not 2 of the four holes lined up with the others.  I would patch the others before bolting in the hinges applying a good seal of silicone. I noticed that the yellow life ring in Figure 50 was mounted on the inside rather than outside.  I reversed it and made the starboard seating area much more comfortable.

Figure 50A
Yep, that's the Constance Marie
35' down the main mast. 

Beware The Ides Of March

It's the beginning of March and looking for projects that I can complete indoors.  The key switch was unreliable and the tachometer was faulty as well.   I wanted to keep the same instrumentation cluster that Westerbeke provided.  The plexiglass was was all scratched and there was no cover over the key switch.  The upper left hand corner and bottom right hand corners of the instrumental panel were broken off.  Below you see the repaired instrument panel casing.  I used JP Weld as the moldable ingredient to build up the corners.  I created some "corner moulds" using stiff cardboard and poured in the JP Weld like it was cement being poured into columnforms.  Let it cure for 48 hours in my basement.  A little sanding and some black paint and we were as good as new. 



Figure 47
Instrumentation Panel



I then went down to the local hardware and had them cut a piece of Lexan 2'x2' 1/8 inch and came home and measured it to fit.  I needed it to be pliable so that I could get it back into the original position on the face of the instrumentation panel.  If you look closely, I made 45 degree 1/2 cuts at each of the corners so that the corners would not be pressured during the installation of the Lexan.  Figured it would be a good way for any water to drain out if condensation appeared.

Having accomplished this, turned my attention to the Johnson key switch that Andy had located last year to replace the one that was not working reliably.  This switch is the kind where you put the motor key in, push it and  make a quarter turn to the right to warm the glow plugs.  Then after the presribed time (depending on the outside temperature), you then complete another quarter turn to crank the engine. The switch was a little sticky.  I took care of this with some dry lubricant, the same stuff you use on your masts to help the sails hoist easier.



Figure 48
Into the ABYSS - The backside of the
Helm's Instruments Panel

Next, I turned my attention to the rear of the instrumentation panel seeking to understand why the tachometer was not working well.  I sat down at lunch and reviewed the engine wiring schematics in the Westerbeke Owners Manual.  Located the "brown" wire in the harness that goes from the harness to the alternator.  Found a loose connection and presto, we have RPMs being indicated.  Of course I did this with continuity checks while not running the engine.  Remeber I am a rookie at all this stuff. :)









Welcome 2014!

Figure 45
Chilling on a chilling day.

Have you ever been so passionate about something that you lay in bed at night trying to fall asleep and you can't because you figuring out how you are going to get something done.  That is me.  I keep going over the portals and hatches that need to be repaired  But these will have to wait.  We have to ensure that the structure of the boat and essential features are functional.

Well, it's January 2014 and the club had some fun events during the holidays.  Aside from some of the members being comforted by our great fireplace at the club, we had a great Commodore's Ball, a huge turnout for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner and our Christmas fund-raiser for the local kids.



Figure 46
Thanksgiving Dinner at the Club

I have been busy researching the internet and determining what vendor I will buy what parts off of.   I discovered that I could get some pretty good deals through Amazon Prime which provided me a one shop stop for reviewing items.  I always compared prices among 2-3 potential vendors before selecting.  I wished I had access to the all the experience of the club members over the years as to where and what items were found to be reliable from which vendor.  Something to think about for the future.  It would be nice to have an online database in our club website. 

The Second Time Around

We pulled the Constance Marie from its moorings on October 18th.  It was a Friday and Indian Summer was in full splendor.  I was planning to do the haul-out on Saturday but opportunity presented itself and Robert, one of our tractor drivers, said I had a 30 minute window to get the boat to the loading ramp and out of the water.   Wow!  Mad Hatter take two,  jumped into the dink, motored out, secured the dink to the sloop, motored Her back to the dock and we pulled her out and put Her up on her boat stands all inside 30 minutes. Unfortunately, never had a chance to lay any ground cover under the boatstands. Not good. Come winter and spring, this section of the boatyard turns into quagmire of muck and yuck. Well, I retrieved the power washer and gave the old girl a good bath. One of the benefits of sailing the northern waters of the Chesapeake is that it's all fresh water...no barnacles, no annual bottom paint. Five fresh water rivers feed the region. The Susquehanna, the North East, the Elk, the Bohemia and the Sassafras.  At the headwaters of the North East River is a favorite spot for the Bassmaster Pro Elite tour. 

Figure 43
High and Dry

Anyhow, after the Constance Marie was cleaned up, we winterized Her.  You can do this in stages over  1-2 days or spend two-three hours and get it all done in one day.  I like to run the engine and get everything warmed up.  My buddy Denis changes his oil with his boat still in the water.  Makes sense and I think I will do that prior to the end of next season. 

Lesson Learned:  Remember to put some paper towels and a plastic bag around the filter when to catch the oil that will flow from it.

Using the replacement oil filter that was in The Beast's A-Kit (spare parts), I installed the new oil filter remembering to put some oil on the o-ring at the bottom of the new filter so a good seal is made.  This engine is 33 years old but just resurrected, so its important to change that the oil is changed each year.  Never give an old man something that he can whine about.  Same thing with an old engine.

I basically did the same with the transmission fluid, although on The Beast this is easier said than done as the the tranny is located just in front of the stuffing box near the rear of the engine and down below.

Next was the fresh water cooling system which uses a 50-50 solution of anti-freeze and water year round.  We rarely, if ever violate the -5 rule but I insist on using anti-freeze (and Pink Piss) with the capabilities of -55 degrees.  This year I drained the anti-freeze and added the more concentrated mix.  Old engine, runs hot.  

Figure 44
The Beast Ready for Winter

I turned to the topping off the diesel fuel tank.  Most of us at the club go over to the nearest working marina and fill it up, but I know that I was only about a gallon down so I used a yellow five gallon diesel can to do it.  I added some Stabil for diesel engines to ensure that we control the critters and condition the fuel for the winter.
In addition to the oil filter, you have the water/fuel separator and the separator sediment bowl has to be cleaned out.

In addressing the fuel filters and its elements, with the fuel injectors it is important to bleed any air out of them by running the engine for a few minutes. I closed the thru hull sea cock.. Removed the water intake hose from the sea cock and placed it in  a five gallon bucket of fresh water.  Before re-starting the engine, I checked the zinc pencil in the primary heat exchanged and cleaned it.  I cleaned the raw water sea strainer and started the engine  to draw the fresh water through the sytem. As the bucket near emptied I filled it up again with the a mixed solution capable of -55.  I just don't trust the weather as last winter it went to below -5 with the wind chill and gaskets inside heat exchanges failed dumping coolant all over the engine wells.  Once the bucket was just about empty, I killed the engine.  She was all set for the winter.

It's recommended by the manufacturer, but I did not remove the impeller and did not disconnect the propeller shaft coupling from the transmission.  I will inspect during spring commissioning.  I made a list of the spares (filters, gaskets, etc) that I used in the A-Kit so I can re-order them piece-meal.  I swapped out the start and service batteries and put the original battery back in for use in the winter.  Of course, fully charging it before doing so.  Whew!  On to the next task! 

Lesson Learned:  Don't forget to use a trickle charger keeping your service battery (or replacement) charged up for the winter.  A battery charger is good too while working on a project on the boat but don't leave it hooked up for the week if you are not there.