Stuffing Box Repacking

This morning is blustery and cold, so it's a good day for "inside" work. This morning's project is to repack the stuffing box. This needs to be done occasionally, when the adjustment nut seems to have more resistance than normal when tightening to control the water ingress. (If you're not familiar with what a stuffing box does, think of the drive shaft going through the hull of the boat to the propeller. The hole around the shaft needs to be filled with something soft to allow the shaft to turn without too much friction, and allow some water to come in for cooling and lubrication of the shaft. The stuffing box nut allows you to control the amount of water by compressing the stuffing around the shaft.) Above are the tools I needed to do the job: a knife to cut the new stuffing to size, a corkscrew pick to get the old stuffing out, a wrench to turn the nut on the stuffing box, and a hammer to just tap the locking nut to keep the nut from turning after it's adjusted. The piece of PVC pipe is used to help push the stuffing into the stuffing nut around the shaft.

Davit Crossbar

This week I installed a crossbar on the davits, which serves several purposes: it adds rigidity to the davits, it provides an installation point for the solar panel, and it allows me to move the stern light to a higher position to be visible even when carrying a dinghy on the davits. 

Flag

Up until now, we have flown the flag from a staff on the stern railing, however, with the installation of the solar panel, this will no longer work. So, today I added a flag halyard to the backstay.

Silence Emerges!

The winter cover came off yesterday! Now we just need to do some general cleanup, and get the sails aboard for sailing. I'm hoping for a nice day for our maiden voyage of the season.

Hand Priming Pump

Last season I had some problems with the engine fuel supply losing its prime, and the fuel flows back from the filter to the fuel tank when the engine is off. It's not a big problem if I remember to turn the fuel valve off each time I stop the engine, but if I forget, then I have to re-prime the system. I have suspected that I might have an air leak in the hand priming pump, and this week I noticed some fuel leaking around the pump diaphragm. So, today, I replaced the hand pump and I'm crossing my fingers that this solves the problem. I'll know in a few days...

You're all probably tired of seeing engine projects, and this will be the last one for a bit. This work is all part of being ready to sail, so for me it's part of the zen of the process. I hope to post some actual sailing soon!

Update: replacing the priming pump didn't fix the priming issue, so I have more investigating to do.

Liferaft

 

We just ordered a new life raft (the old one can no longer be serviced due to it's age). I hope to never see this deployed!

Sea Water Pump

Old boats need some ingenuity to keep running. This is the sea water pump for the engine, which provides cooling water to the heat exchanger. When I replaced the impeller this season, one of the bolts stripped the threads on the pump housing. (I hate it when that happens!) The impeller needs to be replaced every 100 hours of operating time, so these bolts get used a lot.

Parts for old engines become scarce and expensive. This pump can still be replaced for about $600.  I figured it was worth a try to tap new threads into the housing for an oversize bolt, and in this case it worked beautifully. Now, I'll just reinstall the pump and it should be good for another few decades.

Success!

By adapting a 7/8" hose to the 3/4" hose, I was able to easily slip the hose onto the fitting. It's not ideal to add another connection, but it solves the problem.

Disappointed!

Not all days are easy on a boat. Today's project was to replace some old coolant hoses, but the new hoses are really tough to get onto the fittings. Now I'm trying all the tricks, like soaping the fitting, and putting the end of the hose in boiling water. No luck so far.

Winter Cover

 

The winter cover will come off in just 2 weeks!

Canvas Work

 

Today, I'm making a new cover for the companionway. One more project almost ready to check off the long list.

Installing a Bus Bar

Today I'm installing a battery bus bar to allow the hookup of the solar charger, an inverter, and a 20 amp cigarette lighter outlet. This will support charging for the boat batteries and the laptop, and whatever else needs charging.

Passage Planning

We are hoping to make a pilgrimage to Bristol this summer, to the yard where Silence was constructed.

Solar Panel Installation

 

Preparing for the installation of a 300 Watt solar panel. On sunny days this should cover most of our electrical power needs.

EPIRB Registered and Installed

 

We are preparing for our next adventure! Stay tuned...

Flying Spa Creek

Flying around Spa Creek, Annapolis last week... follow the link for video.

https://youtu.be/jbCFj1sDEds

Honga River

 From our fall cruise around the Bay in 2019...

Flying Back Creek

Click the photo for video...

New Interior

Last summer we replaced the upholstery on Silence!

Nav Display, Mark II

I'm making progress on a new display for the nav station, using a Raspberry Pi and a touch screen.

St. Michael's, MD

Labor Day Weekend, 2015, at anchor in St. Michael's.

A good weekend...

It was nice to wakeup to this day.

Cooking with gas!

The real test!

WiFi Bridge

Just started working on my WiFi instrument bridge...

Propane Tank

New Batteries

With some help from Raul, I replaced our two house batteries yesterday. Man, these things are heavy.

Haulout Complete

 At the top, you can see the guys have lifted the boat to paint the centerboard. I took the opportunity to mark the lift cable so that I can tell where the board is when we sail.

Silence is back in her slip, and the stove installation was completed this week. Most projects are done, and the deck is scrubbed, so now it's time to sail!

Haulout

Time for bottom painting, and a laundry list of other maintenance items...

Doughnut

I made this teak trim ring, a.k.a., a doughnut, to finish out the entry of the pipe through the countertop. A couple of hours of carpentry in Raul's shop, and a little more time to sand and varnish. With this, I now have all of the pieces needed to finish the project!

Swinging Pipe

Kato Marine fabricated this curvy 1-1/4" stainless pipe to connect between the deck and the galley cabinet. The propane fuel line and the solenoid wiring will run through the pipe. This picture shows the "dry fit", to find the correct orientation for the backing plate at the top. The plate will be welded to the tube and then we can install. The other pipe is the path for the centerboard cable, from the deck through the water line.

Annapolis Yacht Club

This is AYC at sunset. Storm clouds were passing through the area... I took this with my iPhone and processed it with Pixlromatic.

Wireless Display

This is an Arduino WiFi shield. I'm planning to build a bridge from my instrument bus, set up a web service for the NMEA data, and display it on my iPhone. This will be very cool if I can make it work.

Propane Stove Retrofit Progress

 Above, you can see the PVC mock-up of the stainless steel pipe where the gas line will come through from the deck and go through the countertop.

 Here is what 30 years of cooking and no cleaning looks like! This is the area behind the stove, which is very hard to get to.

After a little cleanup! It's hard to believe the builder put such beautiful wood behind a stove where it would never be seen.

 The teak propane locker in it's place on deck.

The new stove, nice and shiny!

Propane Locker Complete!

The construction of the propane locker is complete. Over the weekend we trimmed the lid and rounded the corners with a router and then did final sanding down to 320 grit. The first coat of Armada has been applied in the bottom picture, bringing out the grain of the teak. More coats to come!

Adding the 5th Side!

The lid is built, now we are glueing it on with epoxy. The whole box will be attached to the deck with two draw latches, so that it can be removed for access to the propane tank, and I can take the whole box home for varnishing each winter...

It's three-dimensional!

It's taken a long while, but two weeks ago we finished the sides of the Propane Locker. Check out the joint that we used to get a nice clean corner on the box. This profile was produced with a specialized router bit. It took a bit of work to understand how to adjust the height and depth, but the results are worth all the work. Since these pictures were taken, we have constructed the panels for the top of the box, and begun crafting the wood parts that will go inside to support the propane tank.

Glue-Up Results

Propane Locker Construction

The first board glue-up was a success, so today we glued up the other three sides. I'm an expert at biscuit joints now!