Terra Nova: Flooding

[GrandpaSteve]

Just looking at the pictures - the top part looks right, but something is different about the bottom support arm compared to the factory replacement. It would not be the first boat to take an alternative approach to the alternator bracket problem. It may be fine. I attached a picture of mine on an M25XP.

 

[supersailor]

First outing since the attempted glub. A surprising amount of stuff is working. The alternator is dead but three big batteries were able to keep the fuel pump going for the hour and a quarter of the parade on the fourth. An important event actually getting out with a useable boat.

She won't be at the rendezvous but this is a start.

 

[Loren Beach]

Do the flags spell out some triumphant message?


Loren

 

[Rocinante33]

Keith said I needed the alternator bracket upgrade. Looking into the matter, I went to the Catalina site and the upgrade pictured there looks exactly like what I have on my M-25. The shot they have of the original looks very different. Can anyone confirm that this is the right bracket?

You are right. I said that, but I was wrong

You have the right bracket but the tensioner arm was installed incorrectly. It is bolted to the gear cover. That way it could still break the gear cover which would be a disaster. Change that to look like grandpa Steve's and you will be good to go. The belt might be oversized and likely needs to be replaced when you bolt the bracket on correctly.

Sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion earlier when I saw it and it just didn't look right.

 

[supersailor]

Keith, I came to the same conclusion myself when I looked at the Catalina site. This is why I do all the work on my boats myself. I found a bill for this. It was done by a yard! Going through this boat, I would find something badly done and then find an invoice from a Professional for the work way too many times. I want to know when I have a problem who the S.O.B was that did it and what he did so I do the work..

It also appears that he didn't use the hose and adapter for the cooling. I'll have to see about getting one. It will be corrected with the new alternator. Thanks.

 

[Christian Williams]

I would find something badly done and then find an invoice from a Professional for the work way too many times.

Yep, and I think it's because the time required to do "simple" jobs on old sailboat is often the same for pros as it is for us. That is, far more time, discomfort and knuckle-skinning than expected as result of frozen components, worn out ancillary gear, lousy access, faraway suppliers, and so on.

We don't want to pay, so they give us shortcuts.

I smiled when reviewing the bills of a young worker who rebuilt Thelonious's head a few years ago. I think the PO paid abut $1,000. The invoice said, "Removed hoses with extreme difficulty" , replaced deck hose fitting with most extreme difficulty possible, "after long effort replaced corroded toilet bolts" (or similar).

Sounded less like an invoice than a suicide note.

To do it right, it's either pay up or get in there and face the music and dance.

 

[supersailor]

Just got a couple of shots from the Harbormaster of what she looked like when I arrived on the scene.

Hmm, The photos were flipped properly in the photo program. Can't seem to eliminate the images now. Why am I getting double sets?

 

[Christian Williams]

We're hoping the upgrade Sean in working on will fix this issue On this iPhone, the photos are correct--but the doubled photos are sideways. Also,
the only reply option is "reply with quote".

That is one scary photo. Yikes.

Just got a couple of shots from the Harbormaster of what she looked like when Wearrived on the scene.

Hmm, The photos were flipped properly in the photo program. Can't seem to eliminate the images now. Why am I getting double sets?

 

[Christian Williams]

And on my desktop at home, there are only two photos--and they're sideways.

Ugh.

 

[Loren Beach]

Upright photo

Even correctly displayed it's a disturbing picture!
Yikes.

 

[supersailor]

The survey has come in and I'm still tearing her apart. I spent a bunch of time taking a seatback off to uncover the bottoms of the Navitech rods. For those who haven't seen them yet, here they are. The high water came to the middle of the aluminum slug. I will pull the other one tomorrow and wash the compartments out and thoroughly soak them with LPS2 and add marine grease. The next step is to wash out the inside of the mast. Loren and I have come up with a jazzy system for doing that. Will post it later. The Ins. Co. is about to take over. I'm going out now for lots of estimates. The damage on this boat is far less than I would have expected but it has been a heck of a lot of work.


The Mable Bay Rendezvous was my R&R and the gigantic king bed that looks like it was designed to te

st the princess helped greatly It had stepstools on both sides.

 

[supersailor]

I guess it's catchy. Another boat sank near mine night before last. It's a 20 foot angler's boat. It was found with the first four feet of it's bow sticking straight up in the air. All of the mooring lines were snapped off. It was pulled out with a crane yesterday. It had been launched the day before. The angler (not boater!) couldn't find his drain plug so he went over to the hardware store and bought some putty to replace the plug. It seems to have lasted about 12 hours. Enuff said!

 

[Loren Beach]

Oh Wow

I guess it's catchy. Another boat sank near mime night before last. It's a 20 foot angler's boat. It was found with the first four feet of it's bow sticking straight up in the air. All of the mooring lines were snapped off. It was pulled out with a crane yesterday. It had been launched the day before. The angler (not boater!) couldn't find his drain plug so he went over to the hardware store and bought some putty to replace the plug. It seems to have lasted about 12 hours. Enuff said!

Makes me wonder if the old ORC reg about having a "softwood plug" adjacent to every thru hull might not be a good idea for boats other than ours. Of course if the fellow launched without the drain plug it's debatable whether he would have have another plug for the opening in the first place!

Kinda harks back to all those old photos and stories (and nowadays UTube videos) of runabouts being launched at ramps without plugs in and immediately filling with water. Funny stuff back in the 60's and still good for a chuckle.

Take care,
Loren

ps: thanks again for the photos of your boat's rigging anchors. Identical to the design of the fiberglass interior sections in our Olson with the Navtec rods threaded into aluminum bar stock.

 

[toddster]

^Continuing off-topic, but "a friend of mine" with a Hobie 16 once made about three spirited tacks across the river and back before noticing that the boat was going slower and slower... And the lee hull seemed to be taking an awfully deep bite... Ran it up on the beach, and sure enough, "my friend" discovered that "somebody" had neglected to screw in the plugs during launch. "Yeah, just eating a sandwich here. Ignore that water running out the back of the boat!"

 

[supersailor]

The boat has been washed out a dozen times and now things are starting to go back together. One of the things I've been looking at is the bilge pumps. If mine had been higher capacity, I wouldn't be in this situation. The current ones are Jabsco diaphragm pumps. Does anyone out there have any good experience with other higher capacity pumps?

 

[bgary]

bilge pumps. If mine had been higher capacity, I wouldn't be in this situation.

I've sometimes wondered (over the years, and more recently following your adventure) why we depend on 12v bilge pumps when we leave our boats.

I mean, we have a battery-charger that runs on 110v, we frequently plug in fans or dehumidifiers that run on 110v... why don't we have compact and powerful 110v pumps, with enough capacity to keep up with a blown thru-hull, somewhere on the boat and plugged in when we leave our boats on shore-power?

 

[bgary]

What I get out of the Terra Nova story is two hose connectors on all seacocks. I leave mine open too.

Agreed, and agreed. But... I still worry <grin>

 

[Christian Williams]

Good point. It depends on what you take away from Bob's experience of "inattention."


I once let my motorcycle fall over in the shed and the handlebar went right through the side of the pocket cruiser I was rejuvenating. Took me a month to rebuild the whole side of the boat. So I know about "inattention."


What I get out of the Terra Nova story is two hose [clamps]* on all seacocks. I leave mine open too.

*what I was trying to say

 

[Loren Beach]

Sometimes, Stuff just happens

One take-away is the combined effect of "Murphy" and "entropy".

Our club now has a spiffy new dredge, which in simpler parlance is a large steel box/barge with a huge 6" pump and diesel engine in it and an inlet for outside water to be brought in for pressurizing the packing seals on the main shafting where all the sand is being pulled through. (the slurry pipes are not as vulnerable.)

Couple of years ago when we were operating the prior machine, after a several days of shut down in operations, I and my one person crew showed up and found almost two feet of water inside. Bit of a surprise it was. Yes Indeedy. :0

We engaged the small 12 volt centrifugal pump we use for incidental water while operating normally, and then tried to figure out what failed with our two (2 !!!) AC powered "sump pumps" in the dredge, each with its own float switch. We found that one float switch had stopped working and the other was mounted wrong and initially failed.
The de-watering was done quickly and no harm done to the diesel (water level just lower than the dip stick and barely starting to cover the 8D battery box.) We were pretty motivated, as well.

The cause was a bad ball valve on the sea chest that would not quite seat, and one of the crew had loosetened the hose from that part due to several days of freezing temps and the need to preserve the high-pressure pump mounted low on the bottom. A small seap took time to add up, but add up it did!

After the crisis was averted, I replaced and reconfigured the mounting for both float switches and they tested out perfectly... and last year we sold that old dredge... and instructed the new owenrs about its many quirks.

My point, and I thought that I had one, is that total 100.00% assurance that all water will always be kept out is not realistic. But we do the best that we can! And that's good enough most.... of the time.


Regards,
Loren

 

[supersailor]

Yea Loren, Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you are not.

There was almost 30" of salt water inside the bottom of the mast. The thought of all that salt inside for the next several years was not inviting. Loren and I cobbled together a plan for washing it without going to the top of the mast while at Maple Bay. The idea was to inject water at an unused halyard exit. The rig I came up with is shown in the attached picture. The dock hose was attached to a small high pressure sprayer normally used to clean driveways and to a small flexible hose that would fit through the halyard exit. All was held aloft by the flag halyard.

I was able to fill the mast to just above the boom level with this rig. The water was allowed to drain completely then the cycle was repeated a dozen times. I am confident I got all the salt out. The best thing was the materials cost was $3.58 plus a scrap piece of small hose.