Its over already?

 Is the season over already?

Wow, it flew by.  This was of course the COVID season of socially somewhat distant boating.  With not much else to do, we were out on the boat a lot -- I think the SmartCraft display indicated nearly 70 hours of engine run time and 420 miles of distance covered.

Mechanically the boat performed well overall.  We had a couple of minor issues involving generator cooling water being impeded and two incidents of the toilet pump running endlessly, but both issues were transient.  The port batteries are nearly dead, 2-3 times we had to use the emergency crossover function to get the port engine to start, although they seemed to recover later in the season when it was cooler.

The only real project this summer was a new anchor bridal, which worked OK although it got some griping from the admiral who thought it was too long.  I also re-mounted the TV antenna.

Weather wise I think it was a pretty good season -- very hot early, and scorching on the 4th of July weekend, one of the few times where I felt like being in the air conditioning on the water was worth it.  The water temperature read 85 degrees around the 4th of July, very early and very warm.  We didn't have as much of the August rain, clouds and cool down as we've had in the past.  We also didn't have the intense heat we've had in September, either.

The generator cooling water issue started in June.  Lynn and I took the boat out and anchored in Carson's Bay, which is shallow and weedy.  We were anchored in about 12 feet of water and running the generator for vacuuming.  I was actually finally re-mounting the TV antenna after last year's high water.  The generator cooling water output slowed to a trickle and we saw some steam, so I shut it off thinking it had ingested a lot of weeds.

When I checked the strainer I was surprised to find almost no weeds, but still poor water output.  I assume that there was something kind of big wedged into the through-hull.  Running a few miles at planing speed didn't clear it, and diving the boat at anchor wasn't a great option.

I got clued into a product meant for winterizing, some kind of thing which fits into the strainer and lets you use a shop vac to blow out the raw water line.  They wanted $100 for it, so I managed to gin up my own version using a length of pipe and some Sugru and a shop vac accessory adapter.  It didn't really help.

The good news was that the problem kind of seemed to go away on its own, with the obstruction clearing and water output returning to normal....then getting worse again, then getting better again without any coherent reason.

My current thinking is that there might be some more permanent obstruction, like zebra mussles or something else.  I plant to remove the hose section between the through hull seacock and the strainer, which will let me get right at the opening and seacock internals.  The hose will be replaced with a new section as the old one is probably iffy to put back on, especially after working it off.

I'd like to install a clamshell grate over the through-hull.  I think the existing opening is just a hole, and the clamshell grate offers a large surface area that no single weed could block, plus nothing can get stuck in the through-hull and running the boat should naturally clear it.  But this is a complex thing to get installed, the boat has to be out of the water and 3 screws sunk into the outside of the hull and in theory one totally through the hull for bonding to the DC ground.  I'm half tempted to not bother with bonding since fresh water ought not involve too much galvanic corrosion.

The batteries are another item for next season.  The port pair, which run house power, are on their last legs.  No crisis this summer, but I did need to use emergency cross over on about 3 occasions to start the port engine.  4 seasons probably isn't bad, considering the sitting over the winter and the heavy abuse from a hot engine room and the fridges running for hours.

I'm half tempted to extend the port batteries to 3 in parallel, stealing one from starboard.  This would require basically replacing all 4 batteries, but I don't think the starboard batteries need replacement.  Although it probably is smart to do them all.  Going with 3 batteries in parallel for port would also require coming up with a pair of short jumper cables to get them connected.

The hardest part about battery replacement is the weight of the batteries, making them weird to get on and off the boat and into the engine room, and of course removing the old ones.

Twice this summer, close but not always exactly after, pumping out the head we had incidents where the vacuum pump ran non-stop.  It self-cured after a period of time, although I did break down and buy a vacuum gauge for troubleshooting and finding potential leaks.  I never got to the point of actually using it, though, as these incidents self-cured.

Getting the TV antenna back on was tough, I spent about an hour trying to fish out the RF cable from the hard top.  I just could not get it out.  I ended up buying a hole saw meant for an impact driver and opened up the mounting hole to about 1.5" and it was easy.  I re-mounted the antenna using a piece of EPDM rubber as a gasket.  I actually bought a HDTV indoor antenna on a lark, and I'm going to see if I can mount this more permanently inside the boat with the idea it might actually work better.

The only other project type thing was making a new bridal for the anchor chain.  The one I had been using was a length of dock line with a snubber, and it was too short.  I made a new one with a length of rope from the old anchor rode.  It still uses the snubber, but the snubber clears the anchor chute so that the load is totally on the anchor chute.  Lynn complains that it's clumsy to work, but it's not that bad.

All in all it was a pretty trouble-free season.

Mid-winter dreams

I've come to think of New Year's as the time to start planning for boating season.   It's a little absurd, because even under the most ideal conditions the boat won't be on the water until at least mid-April and really mid-May is still optimistic.

I don't really have anything substantial to do this year to get ready.  Two years ago I refinished the cockpit teak table and had the foam replaced in the bow sunpad, in addition to making a bunch of phone calls trying to ID a mechanic who had some idea how to diagnose our uneven fuel consumption (answer:  none of them had a clue).

Last year it was refinishing the cockpit carpet backing (again, this time more or less permanently) and then making a new flag staff out of some stainless tubing, and then a last minute updating of the anchor chain to make use of the original 25' of chain from the original anchor and rode setup the boat came with.

This year?  Replacing the bungee line that connects the Lilypad to the boat, as the original from about 5 years ago is badly frayed in spots, and chasing that thing down in the wind is not something I want to do.  And that's already done.

The old one was made with a product called "EZ Splice", which is a kind of clever product that uses a splicing gizmo the line passes through.  Steel pins are driven through it and through the ropes, creating a firm splice a lot more easily than more manual methods (which are probably stronger).  You can only "pin" the bitter end, and you've got a line that will cinch.  An online review as critical, saying the breaking force was substantially less than the line itself, but I don't use it for anything so critical, plus there's no way to manually eye splice half-inch bungee cord, it can't be unwound and re-braided like actual rope.

In making much smaller eyes in much smaller (1/4") bungee, I kind of invented my own method which is a combination of brass nails and Ancor adhesive-lined shrink tubing.  I use two pieces of closely sized tubing, one at the bitter end and one about 3 inches down the line (or roughly 2x whatever eye size you want).  

The heat-shrink glues and gets quite hard on the line.  Next I make the loop, and drive the brass nails through, about 3 per side.  The last couple I've tried to enhance the strength by spiral wrapping stainless wire around each end of the loop and the entire loop in addition to the nails.  Then 1 or two larger size lengths of heat shrink go over the joint.   The spiral wrapping is problematic, as it's kind of hard to get it as snug as I'd like.

Near as I can tell, this makes a pretty strong connection.   Testing the newest one I made for the Lilypad connected to a fixed object and I can stretch the main line of the bungee without any apparent movement in the joint.  The bungee has a slight advantage (over say rope) in that it has give in it, which reduces shock forces which might strain the joint.

Of course, none of this is really meaningful "boat" maintenance -- the bummer with outdoor marina storage in Minnesota is not having access to the boat.  Otherwise I have a laundry list of stuff:

• Sanding and painting the stern and outdrives with copper-free anti-fouling paint
• Replacing the foot switches for the windlass
• Adding an ammeter for the house batteries
• ...and more

Some of this could be done on the water in the marina (other than painting below the water line), but it always competes with summer use or risks some kind of screw-up that might blow a good weekend.

An end to an easy season!

I'm due to make a final trip to Thanks Sweetie to finalize my owner's winter preparation.  I've hauled off all the linens, towels, and dumped all the food and liquids that weren't worth keeping, and the only thing left is removing the wet towels holding the water from defrosting the fridge.  I'll leave two large tubs of damp rid for the marina guys to open when shrinking the boat, and then it's just counting the days until spring again.

This season was pretty remarkably hassle-free.  The Vacu-flush system worked all summer without any issues (besides a little smell from the vent), and no other systems gave me trouble.  I did have a mystery problem at the end of the summer with the electric grill blowing it's fuse, but upon disassembly and tightening electrical connections it started working again.  I had thought maybe the element was cracked, but it wasn't.

I got out a lot during the week this summer, which is really the most magical time because of the glow of sunset.  It was also fun to be out with friends and not my family, a "guy's night" if you will.

We made it to Lord Fletcher's 3 times this summer, with no docking problems -- thankfully we had dock boys to help each time, but my close handling skills seem to also have improved a lot.  We struck out once when we wanted to go because it was packed and there was an hour wait, but really the only loss there is not spending $100 on bar food.

I also did probably a "record" amount of on-plane running this summer.  It's kind of amazing how much smaller the lake is when you can run at 30 mph instead of 8-9 mph.  It feels more than 3x faster.  It uses a crazy amount of gas, and we're out $1600 for about 300 gallons of fuel consumption this summer.

But in many ways, after 7 years of boating on Minnetonka, the lake has shrunk from experience, too.  The north half is kind of gross for swimming (relatively speaking), except maybe in Maxwell Bay and Crystal Bay.  Crystal, though, is a bit of a runway for traffic from Coffee Cove to the Arcola Bridge, so other than the NE corner, not exactly great anchorage.  But really the lake has lost some of the mystery it once had.

We *still* haven't done an overnight on the water, something I still want to do.  It's a ton of compromises, from needing to run the generator for several hours (and all the noise) to killing the fridges for the night so we don't lose the port battery array.

On the subject of the port array, which runs house power, I think we're getting to the end of those batteries.  I haven't had a start failure, but I did have a fairly weak-sounding crank after about 4 hours at anchor with the stereo system running loud.  The stereo sucks a lot of power, so that may have been a bigger issue.  I'm already noodling what's involved in replacing those batteries and how much larger I can go in terms of AGM cells and still fit the battery tray footprint.

Back on the (high) water

Thanks Sweetie is back on the water for the 2019 season, earlier than I expected considering it had been stored off site for the winter to get some needed maintenance complete.

Over the winter we had some longer term and recurring maintenance done that was mostly dependent on a haul-out.  Our marina is capable of only the most basic maintenance, mostly oil and gear lube changes and winterizing and the nearby marina which serves as its preferred shop for more complex engine and mechanical work has stopped being available to other customers besides their own.

We got lucky last year after not being able to get any response from the "preferred" vendor to make a relationship with this year's storage/maintenance facility, Indoor Boat Storage.  They have a really talented mechanic who sorted out our fuel consumption problem (detailed in previous blogs) and it made sense to have them perform some remaining and recurring maintenance -- pull and inspect the drives, replace the drive bellows, the generator exhaust hose, as well as the biannual replacement of water pump impellers on both propulsion engines and the generator.

It was an expensive diversion from the marina's storage, which is inherently cheaper since there's no hauling off site.  Indoor Boat charged more overall and for winterization, but there was no easy way to get the drive service and impeller replacement done at the marina so it was a cost that I had to bear.

I was worried that spring delivery would be late -- the storage facility is 30 miles away, and there's always a mad rush and queue to get boats back into the water, and with ours on the larger side it's a bigger time commitment.  I got lucky and called the same week as ice out and was pleased to get a commitment to deliver the boat on May 4th, within about a week of when the boat would have been back on the water even with on-site storage.

As it turned out, I scheduled this for the same weekend as a trip to Chicago.  This isn't really an issue, the storage people plus the marina can handle the tie-up.  As it happens, the storage people were delayed (and quite apologetic about the delay) and didn't deliver the boat until the Monday following the planned previous Friday delivery.

I didn't mind the delay since I was out of town, and as it happens it worked to our benefit because the snowy February and somewhat rainy spring has the lake level quite high.  This can complicate launch, especially from an off-site delivery which uses a public boat ramp and requires transiting the relatively low bridge in our bay.  The delay of a few dry days allowed a couple of inches of drop in lake levels, insuring channel clearance.

More importantly, it guaranteed we'd fit in under the slip cover.  Out boat is, to borrow a related maritime phrase, "panamaxed" to our slip. ("Panamax" refers to ocean freighters built to the maximum size to clear the Panama canal, which is smaller than many modern ocean freighters).  The slip is 34' x 12' and we are 33' 6" x 10', and the slip cover is proportionate to this.  During normal summer water levels we have about 18" of aerial clearance between the high spot on the boat (TV antenna) and the frame.

But with the lake up nearly 8" at maximum, I was really concerned we'd be risking not fitting under the frame and cover.  This isn't totally fatal, as the frame and cover are removable, but then I lose weather coverage probably incur a fee for removal and reinstallation when water levels went down.

The delay helped here, and the water levels declined and we fit in with just enough clearance.  We had intensive rain two days after delivery, and the lake went up two inches.  I was really concerned we'd start pressing against the canvas cover, but a visit yesterday indicated we have a good 6" before this happens, and then the solution is just to remove the TV antenna and lower the all-around light staff.

Right now we are probably danger close to clipping the TV antenna if we move the boat out of the slip, but with our schedule this weekend and fairly cold weather we won't be taking it out this weekend and hopefully the lake will start dropping again.  The outlet of the lake is into the Minnehaha Creek and the watershed district which controls the dam has been restricting outflow due to the creek running "bank full" and flooding some low lying areas along its path.

With any luck, we'll have dry weather, the watershed district will keep the dam at least at 250 cfm (if not 300 cfm at some point).  Several warm sunny days will also help, driving some evaporation losses as well which will help get the lake back closer to nominal normal water levels, 949.4 ft above sea level.  It's 949.88 at current writing, about 6" over the datum and probably 8-10" over typical summertime levels.

What's nice is that the water levels are my only big worry with the boat this summer, having had nearly all my mechanical issues sorted out.  It doesn't mean the boat isn't without potential projects, but the ones I'd really like to do are way too expensive to ponder for this year -- MFD/sounder replacement, cockpit carpet replacement, and anti-fouling painting of the stern and drives (which requires a haul-out anyway).

I did get some cheap self-service stuff done.  The aging cockpit carpets got their lease on life extended this spring.  The first year I had the boat, the carpet backing, a black rubber coating was crumbling badly.  I sprayed it with "Plasti-Dip" then, which helped encapsulate the rubber and stop the decay.  But spray Plasti-Dip proved frustratingly poor in coverage (I used 4 cans I think), and it was starting to wear.  I discovered the paintable version of Flex Seal, and used it to re-coat the carpet bottoms.  Much better coverage and a more durable, silicone-like rubber which ought to outlast the carpet itself which is pretty worn and hard to get anything like "clean".

The only downside was that the coating shrinks as it cures, and this made the carpet a bit of a pain to get snapped down, requiring a pliers to stretch it to get the snaps snapped.  But it's in, and it should hold up for at least another year or more until we decide if we want to invest in a replacement, which ideally with be an EVA foam like "Sea Deck" which is glued down and semi-permanent. It runs thousands of dollars custom installed, so it will probably be something I will have to do myself with a knock-off version sourced from E-Bay.  But not this year!

The other project I managed to knock out within a week of returning to the water was extending and repainting the anchor chain.  I replaced the original chain and rode combination last year with an all-chain setup, 125' of new 5/16" chain.  It runs much better than the rode through the windless in addition to supplying a pound per foot in weight, which aids in anchoring and anchor hold.

I still had the old rode and 25' chain.   I had cut the rode from the chain and washed it in the washing machine -- it's like new now, but I probably won't ever reinstall it as we have little use for an anchor setup which would exceed 100' of anchor rode, and certainly not a situation where I would need to play out 150' of chain plus any length of rode.  The lake isn't deep enough we'd ever need this, and where it technically might be, we'd never anchor, nor would we anchor out deep enough and in poor weather where such a scope ratio would make sense.

The 25' of chain seemed a waste to throw, but connecting it to the new length of chain in a way that would run through the windlass was a challenge.  Sourcing a machine shop which could weld the links proved difficult, so I thought I'd give a "monkey link" a shot.  These are galvainized half-links of chain which link chain segments, and mate together to form a continuous link.  Small barbs extend through and are hammer peened down to make the link connector solid.  It was kind of a challenge to hold the link on my tiny vise anvil and hit them hard enough with a ball-peen hammer, but I managed to do it and only hit my hand once.

The 125' chain I painted last year got sprayed neon green at 10' intervals, with the last 10' painted neon orange as a warning indicator.   This worked great, with the conceptual error on my part of painting the "first" 10' up to the anchor green as well.  Unless you count closely, you have no visual indicator that the anchor is almost up, it's just another green segment.

So the overall plan was to extend the chain with the original 25' and paint the entire 10' segment closest to the anchor a unique color.  I ended up painting the 25' segment "stop red" and the first 10' of the 125' segment white for contrast.

The real problem with all of this was the need to take the entire chain and anchor off the boat.  The issue was that I had connected the bitter end of the chain with a large stainless caribiner to the anchor eye inside the anchor locker.  When I did this last year, it was a major challenge.  There's an access port, but it's about 8" in diameter and the anchor eye is deep inside the anchor locker, deeper than I could get my arm into.  Some deep frustration, blue tape and a boat hook got it done, but removal seemed impossible.

I bought a "grabber", a tool with a set of jaws and a 4' handle with a grip that activates the jaw thinking I could use it to grab and release the carabiner.  This proved worse than the installation.  I finally got clever, however, and realized if I could get he anchor locker strut removed, I might get my arm another 4" into the locker and be able to actually grab the carabiner with my hand.  It worked like a charm, and I was able to get it released and bring it home.

I applied two coats of paint over the next day, and brought it back to the boat when I went yesterday.  I'm thrilled to report that not only did the monkey link pass through the windlass with no problems, I was also able to easily reconnect the carabiner, reconnect the strut to its mount without losing the screws and it's all back, ship-shape as they say, and it's done for the season or longer, plus I know I can disconnect it at some point in the future when the paint wears off.

I primed the chain where I neon painted it last year, but didn't prime the new paint areas.  The red 25' length will probably never get played out, so the only wear it will see is in the anchor locker, but the white enamel will probably wear quite quickly, and even the primed areas neon painted are wearing, mostly because you can't get a very durable neon spray paint, in addition to the general wear factor of the anchor rollers, water and windlass.  But knowing it can be re-done fairly easily is good.

Other than that, I'm kind of coasting into boating season with everything pretty much ready.  I'm sure the Vacuflush system will give me some kind of trouble this summer.  The toilet-to-pump hose length I think is somewhat permeated, but this is an impossible replacement job.  I've got vague ideas of trying to coat it with Flex Seal or EPDM roof sealant on the inside, but that will be a desperation move and I'm not sure what this would really involve -- probably multiple passes with a rag on a strong pull string to dry the interior, and then pouring the lining liquid into the hose.  The challenge here is probably using up couple of gallons in the process @ $120/gallon, not making a colossal mess doing it, whether you can get it sufficiently coated to the hose interior, and whether it would "work".

But that's not a project for this year, right now it's waiting for the weather and some good boating!

Pinhole problems

We've lost a ton of snow in the last two days, but despite that it's hard to see how we will be back on the water before May with a foot or so of snow still on the ground and the lake likely still iced over pretty thick.

But even so, the mechanics are hard at work, making me even poorer getting the boat back into a known, good state of repair.  I had the drives pulled and other than the starboard trim sensor and some kind of pinhole in the same drive's bellows, the drives are in good shape but will have the bellows replaced.

The generator is getting a new exhaust hose, and everything else in the way of basic maintenance (water impellers) is being done.  So when we finally do hit the water, the boat will be in decent shape and not at risk of any breakdown, especially with all new injectors and the fuel system fixed.

It's still kind of after-the-fact frustrating that I didn't get some of this picked up in the mechanical inspection or have the knowledge to negotiate the likely costs.  Experience is a mean teacher.  I'm definitely going to negotiate this next time -- whatever the price offered is, cut 10% because they expect it/overpriced the boat, and then another 15% to make up for deferred maintenance unless the owner has proof that these items have been done.

I'm not sure my seller would have agreed to cut his price by $25k, but it would have been an interesting negotiation.  The challenge is if he refuses and you have to walk away, the supply of boats of this vintage/quality/hours isn't super high and it would have been tough to find another one.  My guess is he would have given me half of the next 15k.

So expensive

While it was great to finally connect with a mechanic who could fix my fuel consumption problem and address other issues to put us on a glide path to a manageable mechanical status, I'm not realizing how expensive it all is.

I got new fuel modules, fuel lines and fuel injectors out of my engine fuel consumption problem fix, and I'm kind of seeing the $2200 in cost as a bargain compared to some of the cost with a total engine failure or other major mechanical problem.

Where it's getting really expensive was choosing to store the boat off site to have other mechanical issues addressed.  I'm looking at something like $4500 in cost for storage and basic mechanical support (oil and lube changes, some cleaning, etc).  This is normally maybe $3300 at the marina for the same services.

And none of this includes the drive examination or other minor stuff I ticked off to Indoor Boat Storage.  I'm looking forward to being back to Greenwood next year, even though it is probably lesser service.

It all makes me wish I had been more aggressive in my bid for the boat -- even without better more detailed mechanical survey information, I should have looked at the $5,000 list of misc. mechanical items and turned around and asked for another $10k discount to cover what was found and what wasn't found.  I probably wouldn't have gotten it, but might have gotten half of it.

Of course the challenge was what if the guy said no?  Do I just go ahead as I already did or do I walk away and then spend forever finding another boat as nicely equipped and in as relatively good of a condition?

It's kind of the existential problem with buying a boat.

Finally a fuel consumption solution

So we FINALLY gained some explanation for the fuel consumption problem on the starboard engine.

As it turns out, it's a kind-of well understood problem with the Cool Fuel III module (which apparently cools the fuel?).  It has a problem with peeling paint on the inside of the module, which clogs the fuel system and potentially fouls injectors.

My fix involved new injectors (at Mercury's expense), some new fuel hoses to fix cracked fittings and a new fuel system module.  The down side is that the port engine is also vulnerable to this and needs the fuel system module replaced and the injectors (Mercury's expense) to be safe.

I have no idea how deep I am into labor and extra parts for all of this, but the outcome will be engines in very good shape that I shouldn't have to worry about.  I can also run confidently at planing speeds.

Almost at the bitter end

It's hard to believe the summer season is nearly over.  It seems like just yesterday we were planning for the 4th of July.  It's been a really great summer in so many ways, I'm not sure I can remember all the highlights.

• Replaced the anchor chain-and-rode combo with all chain.  Has worked perfectly, easy up and easy down.
• Made it out 3 times with Marc Luers this summer, including grilling hamburgers on the boat twice.
• Had evening cruises with the VanFullerBents, including my second public dockage ever and first ever in Wayzata to eat at Baja Haus.
• Lots of weekends sleeping on the boat
• The water has been swimming temperature all summer, very warm the last month.  I'm kind of convinced that the temp gauge is off by a few degrees, but hey it's been just fine.
• Everything but the starboard engine and the vacuum toilet has worked flawlessly all summer

The starboard engine problem appears to have a solid solution.  I finally got another mechanic to look at it.  I called and complained to the marina and they forwarded me to another shop, "Indoor Boat Storage" and they quickly identified the problem as a bad fuel sender creating excessive fuel pressure.  This should solve the newer stalling problem and the long-term fuel consumption problem.  In fact, I kind of expect it to be finished today or tomorrow.

The toilet vacuum pump was just the duckbill valves.  The "old" ones were crusty from urea crystals -- probably not flushing enough, and most people replace them yearly.  It was real simple to replace them -- I did it in about an hour without a ton of effort.  I do worry that the head-to-tank hose is on its way out and it will be a real bitch to replace, but I'm also thinking I won't worry about it until the system totally refuses to create vacuum or leaks into the bilge.

I'm going to store the boat with Indoor Boat Storage this year, too.  I will get my outdrives serviced and inspected and maybe a couple of other items done as well.  I suspect Aaron won't be happy about this and I hope it doesn't alter our ability to keep the slip.  I doubt it should, since Aaron realizes that keeping us in the marina without access to reliable service is a problem.

Mid-summer already

It's mid-summer already.  The mostly good news is that everything has basically worked.

• Fuel consumption is still a problem -- starboard engine continues to burn about 35% more fuel than port.  Worse, we've had the engine stall three times within about 10 minutes of startup.  
• The first time happened when we got caught in a horrible rain storm, which was pretty scary because we were in about the biggest water on the lake.  It seemed like it wouldn't restart at all, but that was because I had the engine in gear and in the chaos of the rain I didn't think about that.
• The second time happened after raising anchor in a calm, secluded bay and the engine restarted and ran fine right away because I knew to make sure it was in neutral.
• The third time was in the same bay, and it would start but stall right away.  It finally restarted and ran, but not until we had to clear a channel and get into another bay.
• The stalling is a major annoyance because we get power steering via starboard engine and running on one engine is a bear by itself, let alone without power steering. 
  
  STILL WAITING for service at the "neighborhood" maintenance provider preferred by our marina.  We had a late ice-out and they were delayed launching boats (or so they said) and couldn't provide an estimate of any time.  I finally broke down and called the marina to complain, they said they would call and see what they could find out.  I feel like I will ultimately have to switch providers if I don't get service.  I know there can be delays, but I feel like a year to get reasonable maintenance response is a big problem.

• I started to dig into the stereo to find out why the factory AUX port didn't play in the cockpit.  That was a major hassle that didn't get anywhere.  I did find out that the entire control panel needs some level of disassembly, including 12v and 110 panels, if you want to do any maintenance.  I can get the head unit out, but DVD and CD changers are mounted in a way that makes them non-removable without a major disassembly project.
  
  Of course I found out the hard way that pulling out the head unit also unplugged the antenna whose cable is too short to plug back in and slide the head unit back in.  I had to buy a short extension cable to reconnect it (and spend 2 hours finagling to try to fix it without it).
  
  I also managed to somehow disconnect the in-cabin speakers, but that's not really a problem at this point.  I did rig up another AUX port using an extension cable (3.5mm <-> RCA) and now it plays in the cockpit, the why escapes me.
  
• The biggest win has been replacing the chain and rode setup with all chain.  Not without its frustrations, the first length of chain was short by 35+ feet and required shipping it back and delaying replacement by a week.  I finally got the right length, painted 10' depth markings with fluorescent green pain over self-etching primer and the last 10' in orange.
  
  The only two mistakes I made -- not securing the bitter end of the chain inside the anchor locker initially.  My son decided to "try" the hand crank for the windlass, ended up loosening it and dumping 35' of chain before I stopped it and tightened it back up.  I could have lost the entire chain & anchor!   I got a big stainless carabiner and secured the chain to the in-locker D-ring, which was a funky bit of engineering because you can't reach the D-ring through the access port.  Securing it was sort of a strategic error, I should have re-purposed the original 25' length to the D ring and then used a monkey link to link the 25' to the 125'.  Now I have a real hassle if I want to disconnect the chain.  Fortunately, I can't see why I would want to.
  
  And the good news is that the windlass runs GREAT on all chain, no more jamming like the rode used to do.  And the chain holds so much better, and even my home-brew anchor snubber works fine.  A short length of 5/16" dock line extra-wrapped around a snubber with a carabiner to attach to the chain once the anchor is dropped.  Takes the load off the windlass, and my anchor crew seems to get it.
• The toilet system has worked great.  Pump outs work, and the toilet flushes fine.  I have started to see some slight (every hour or so) loss of vacuum resulting in a vacuum pump cycle, but it stops on its own.  I picked up some spare duck bills and gaskets in case it gets worse.  It shouldn't require more than that unless the factory toilet->tank hose has started to rot (which it probably has, but not bad enough to be a problem.)  Actually using the toilet probably inhibits rot by keeping it wet and plugging any permeation.
• The fridges, old and new, keep on keeping cold.  No problems, which is great.  Those things are spendy and a pain to install.  I expect the cockpit one will quit eventually, but so far so good.
• We still haven't anchored out all night yet, but it's kind of nice having all-night air conditioning at the slip with shore power.  It's been a hot summer and I'm not sold on long-term generator run time and at-anchor AC.  I did make a "screen door" for the cabin.  It's hokey, but it would work.

Winter round-up

It seems kind of weird, but it's time to start thinking BOATING! again, even though we just got through with 2 weeks of sub-zero temperatures and have another 5 days or so of more coming.

• I have been refinishing the cockpit table.  It was worn but has cleaned up nicely.  I made a huge mistake, actually a couple, when refinishing it.  The first was refinishing the top first, and this one was made worse by the second, not separating the halves of the table when refinishing it.  I ended up with some ooze on the front which required some re-sanding and re-application of a couple of more coats of varnish.  Fortunately it will just be a minor hassle and will still look quite nice.
• I brought the sunpad cushion home with the idea of replacing the foam, which seems to have lost some cushion and is probably dry rotting a bit.  Lynn and I discussed replacing it outright with a new pad, cut larger to cover more of the bow.  I suspect this will be really expensive, although it would give us a larger cushioned area.
• I will probably replace the anchor line/chain combo we have now with 100' of chain.  I'd like more than 100', but most of our anchorages are 30' or less and we can get away with 2-2.5:1 scope with our current chain and rode setup, and probably closer to just 2:1 when the total tackle package weighs in around 90 pounds.  The overthink with this is whether to add the original 25' chain to the end of the 100' link by having a link cut and welded or whether to add 25-50' of rode at the end.  This would give me 125' of all-chain.
• Considering bottom paint -- the existing bottom paint is shot, and with the problem of zebra mussles in the bay it probably makes sense to have the bottom painted with anti-fouling paint to minimize this.  I think the outdrives should also get painted.  Downside (besides the outdrives) is expensive and time consuming.
• Probably not going to look further into a raw water pump washdown system, at least not a fixed installed one, this year.  The through-hull aspect is complex and probably expensive to have installed.  I may look at buying the pump and making some kind of enclosure for it, though, as fresh water for cleaning would be nice.
• I would still like the MFD upgrade to get mapping, depth/temperature and engine data.  Working with the guy I found has been impossible, he doesn't know the products well. It's also expensive, but the right way to do it is probably a Mercury data interface and two MFD displays from what I can tell.  Punt to 2019.
• Stereo upgrade?  It would be kind of nice to have bluetooth ability.  This isn't necessarily impossible, as it's reasonably priced and within my skillset.
• Carpets -- they still look like shit, but at least the backing is intact after coating with plasti-dip last season.  Would like some kind of sea-deck solution but will probably do nothing for this year.
• What I probably WILL do is pay money to Bayside for a more thorough investigation my boat's fuel consumption and get them to do a test drive as well.  I need to contact them soon so I can get this scheduled.

Fall round-up

It's been a while since I updated, and since we're pretty close to the end of the season, I thought I'd wrap up what's been done and what the current issues are and what expectations have and haven't been met.

• The pump out hose replacement got completed.  It was a chore getting the old hose off the fittings -- a combination of scraping with an old knife and cutting the spiral wire was required, essentially cutting the hose loose.  The old hose had visible dry rot cracking, which I'm hoping the toilet-to-tank hose does NOT have as that hose will be very, very difficult to replace considering its routing.  The new hose is vastly superior in flexibility and ease of use and the first test of pump out was a success.|
  
• The latest "big" problem is the asymmetrical fuel consumption between port and starboard engines.  The starboard engine is consuming 50% more fuel than port, confirmed by a second full fueling that showed 61.5 gallons added starboard, and 41.3 gallons port.
  
  I made a service call to the nearby marine mechanics who couldn't provide an explanation.  They didn't put more than an hour into it, but they were able to exclude any problems associated with leakage or engine malfunction codes from the engine computer.  I don't have an obvious engine malfunction that's causing this problem, but I don't have a very good theory as to why its happening.
  
  The leading contender I have is the deferred outdrive maintenance (mild dings in props and skegs) leading to inefficient prop loading.  The steering wheel is not centered when running straight, either, and this could be evidence of this as well in addition to contributing to greater starboard engine load (or could just be a cosmetic misalignment between the wheel position and the steering mechanism caused by cable stretching).   I plan to get detailed photos of the outdrives and props at haul out and have that work done, steering alignment checked to see if it has any effect, but probably none of it will be done until spring.
  
• The galley fridge failed about a month after installing it.  I replaced it with the same model against my better judgement, but there just weren't many choices easily available or known to fit the cabinetry or cabin entry.   We had a brief panic 3 weeks ago when it appeared to stop working *again*, but we're not sure what caused it as the cockpit fridge was partially defrosted.  The new fridge returned to normal function, so hopefully it will continue working.
  
• Never did any of my battery monitoring projects.  A lot of my labor and money bandwidth went into fixing broken items (vacuflush pump, pumpout hose, refrigerator, new TV).  I'd also call the mystery of fishing wire to the helm a big part of it.   Until we start overnighting on the lake, our use cases seem to make it less useful.
  
• Never overnighted on the lake itself.  I feel somewhat disappointed by this, but it's easy to see why we didn't.  One, the dog.  If the dog is with us, he has to have access to shore for potty breaks.  Two, the slip gives us power for air conditioning.  We could run the generator for that, but it's noisier than we expected and probably not a great idea overnight.  Three, there's a certain convenience to access to land -- groceries, restaurants, etc.
  
• Never got updates maps for the navigation system.  The local "marine electronics expert" has been frustrating to deal with -- hard to get ahold of and worse, hard to talk to.  Doesn't give me options I want and does a bad job explaining the difference between products.

Out of the toilet, into the bilge

If it's not one thing it's another.   During an otherwise uneventful Saturday cruise I began noticing sewage odor.  I kind of thought it was the result of not using the blue formaldehyde deodorant at pump out (I had ordered the sewage dissolving kind from Amazon and didn't apply it until that same Saturday).

Once everyone was off the boat, though, I got the ugly reality -- the septic tank had filled and had discharged into the bilge (I'm not sure how just yet).

I came back early the next morning and brought the boat to the gas/pumpout dock and found out what I had kind of suspected -- my previous 2 pump outs didn't actually pump anything out.  The pump out is drawing air, you can hear it hiss as it tries.  I pulled the fitting normally for the macerator discharge and we managed to get the pumpout hose into the tank itself and drew out about half so it's not totally full.

So the hose between septic tank and pumpout needs to be replaced.  The challenge here is access to the back of the pump out fitting on the hull.  The hose snakes up behind a bulkhead over the port gas tank, so it's not reachable at all from the engine room.

My first idea was to pull the hull fitting and pull the hose out, but after talking with Bob at Bayside Marine that sounds like a non-starter.  The cutout is likely no larger than the fitting barb (about 1.5", the ID of the hose), meaning neither the hose nor the hose clamps would clear the opening.

After looking at pictures, it appears the fitting is behind the wet bar.  The hope right now is that there is an access panel behind some part of the cockpit wet bar setup, either behind the garbage cabinet or behind the fridge that will allow access to the hull and this fitting to disconnect the hose.

If I can get access through there, it should be doable.  If not, off to the boat yard it goes for repairs, which include a variety of options including widening the cutout with some kind of access panel with the fitting over it or possibly relocating it with a new hull fitting.

Of course we're not out of the woods yet with a new hose alone.  Even if that solves the pumpout issue, I'm worried the septic tank itself is compromised somehow via ovepressure, because I don't have a great explanation as to where all the sewage came from.  Leaking from fittings alone doesn't explain it in my mind, so I think there will have to be some post-hose testing with food coloring to check for leaking.

Update:  7/12/2016

I went out Monday and indeed there is an access panel behind the cockpit fridge that allows access to the pumpout fitting and hose.

I reviewed the hose choices and went with Raritan SaniFlex, and I should have a 10' length arriving tomorrow.  I also stopped by West Marine and bought new stainless hose clamps (4) for clamping the hose to the fittings.  I was also cursed into buying the extremely overpriced Sealand vent filter from West Marine -- I've surely fouled the AirForce knockoff I bought from Amazon and Amazon was out of stock until August.  But I plan to rehab the AirForce as a backup, and I wish I had kept the one I tossed when I rebuilt the vacuum pump.

The other good news is there was no new sign of leakage, almost no odor in the bilge (the slightest trace, which I assume is just because the whole thing wasn't fully washed) and a test flush of the head didn't produce any leaks and did produce proper pumping action.

I suspect the replacement task will be putzy, but not hard in any sense.  As I see the biggest wildcard will be removing the old hose from fittings and the boat and getting the just right length of new hose.  I'm not sure how exactly to cut it, I think I will need to use a hacksaw.

Generating some anxiety

One of the desired features I wanted in a boat was a generator -- it makes long anchorages more practical from a power perspective and provides power for higher power accessories like air conditioning and normal 110 volt appliances.

We got lucky and our 310DA has a generator, a Kohler 5ECD, but it didn't come with the generator noise shield and we're finding it to be louder than we'd like.  From what I can tell, the noise is actually engine running noise and not exhaust noise.  The noise from the exhaust is muffled by the "wet" exhaust system which mixes exhaust gasses and raw cooling water and is generally acceptable.

From what I've been able to determine, there's two solutions.  One is an aftermarket sound shield, a custom-sized "soft" frame-based structure that surrounds the generator and muffles the noise.  The other is the Kohler OEM sound shield.

The aftermarket solution is $1250 plus my labor to install it.  It has a number of challenges, mostly correctly marking the openings necessary to accommodate the inputs and outputs and then the challenge of mounting it.  The manufacturer also says the generator should be mounted on a separate base to effectively isolate noise.  While there is a pan underneath mine, I don't think it's mounted on any separate mounting point.

(As an aside, I often find myself wishing I had photos of these things when I don't, and think to myself I need to just take a 5 minute detailed video of the engine room, slowly panning over everything.  This way I will get at least a glimpse of something I'm thinking about if not a decent still I can extract.)

As it happens, the OEM sound shield is still available from Kohler but it's extremely expensive, over $2000 and probably half that to retrofit it to the boat.

Finally done fixing?

Are we finally done fixing?

The new fridge went into the cabin last weekend.  It was pretty simple and straightforward, with the most complex part finding which orgami-like orientation would get it through the cabin door.  It fit, but I mean barely.

It also fit the cabinet opening...kind of.  Width and height wise it was a perfect fit, however it's "too deep" by about an inch.  The fridge ships with flanges meant to secure it to the cabin opening (the parts saved from the old fridge were not needed), and these stick out about an inch, maybe a little less.  I just used longer screws to secure it for now.  I will probably make some kind of trim pieces to fill in the gaps.

What's annoying about this is that there doesn't seem to be a standard for marine appliance sizes.  The old fridge (Norcold DE0051) had a sloped bit at the back of it, and it's like Sea Ray designed the cabinet to fit the fridge, taking into account the slope, as if all fridges ever made would have this kind of unusual shape.  It'd be nice if Norcold recognized this kind of variation and made the flanges adjustable in some way front-rear to take into account variations in depth.

Anyway, at this point EVERYTHING in the boat works, with the caveat that we haven't used the hot water heater and my son broke the coffee maker carafe.  How long will this last?

Anyway, now I can move on to either just using the boat or tackling some other more minor items.

• Replacing the factory CO detector.  It's expired, and while I have two home models in the boat, the factory one needs to be replaced to be legally compliant and for general good sense.  The cover comes off easily, but's not obvious how the rest of it is removed.  No visible screws or attachments.
• Need to get the all-around light fixture bulb replaced with an LED so we don't drain the battery if we anchor out all night.  This will require a ladder or collapsing the bimini to get to it, or maybe both.
• The stereo needs some investigation.  Previous owners added some weird dimmer control that does some weird fading which I think has altered the stereo output, and a side effect is that aux in doesn't play in the cockpit.  This is a big job involving pulling out the stereo and sorting out the outputs.
• TV reception is pretty crappy.  Need to sort out where any amp is, is it working, and other mysteries of RF cabling.  Like the stereo, this may involve MCP loosening and pull out to see what's behind there.

The electrical front specifically:

• Still dreaming of Balmar Smartguage battery monitoring and possibly ammeter setup.  I think the wire route to the cabin goes through a PVC pipe (helpfully foamed up with expanding foam).  Need to confirm this (and the viability of punching through the foam without wrecking anything).
• I'm feeling newly enthused about adding solar to the top of the bimini, with a partial attachment for structural integrity to the radar arch.  Some challenges include the right panel with the right dimensions, enough output to be worthwhile (I'm thinking 5 amps), how messy wire routing would be, panel weight, and the Lego mess of mounting frame and hardware.

Fantasy projects -- these are things that I'd like to do, but complexity and cost make them more challenging:

• New MFP/chartplotter and sonar.  Found a local guy who knows it all and have talked to them.  Need to narrow down brands and how much junk I can afford to add.  I will probably be selling off my reloading gear to finance it.
• Tapping the air conditioning raw water supply and adding a washdown pump plumbed to the fresh water spigot.  This would make a lot of boat washing tasks much simpler. The challenge is finding the right fittings to split the supply.

Mechanical projects:

• I think I really do need the prop and skeg work MarineMax recommended.  I find that my steering isn't as true as it could be, although some of this may just be never being able to perfectly balance engine RPMs.  It's not really an issue until you get to planing speeds.  I'll wait on this until the off season.

Anyway, I guess we're never done with stuff to do.  I'm sure the cockpit fridge will eventually crap out, for example.

It does highlight my bargaining problems.  I probably should have bargained higher when I bought the boat, asking for another $10k in concessions to offset the $7k I put into it and the other unexpected stuff (most of which has been relatively cheap and easy).  Live and learn, I will add this to my book of knowledge if there's a next time around.

This fixing business is getting silly

Last Saturday we had our first real summer day on the boat -- it was hot, the water was warm enough for swimming, and it was like you want it to be and at the end of the day I noticed that the VacuFlush head had no vacuum.  After double-checking the obvious, I went into the engine room and sure enough the vacuum pump motor is running...and not stopping.

So I shut it off and dived into the Internet to sort out what to do.  I'd known, sort of, that the system's rubber "duck bill" valves were wear items and could cause vacuum problems.  My research suggested both duck bills and pump bellows (they can dry out and crack over time).  I ended up ordering a rebuild kit with duckbills, bellows, and O-rings and tracked down some decent exploded diagrams so I'd know how it all went together.

The repair was easy enough, although it took about 2 hours to do, mainly slowed by the difficulty in separating the motor from the eccentric crank and removing the bellows bolt.  The motor shaft and eccentric are held together with a set screw, which was really tough to loosen.  The bolt wouldn't budge at all without being put in a vise to allow enough torque.  I think the motor should have a keyed shaft and the eccentric a matching key slot; this would simplify removal.

It was also less messy, so I'm assuming the system worked well, longer than I thought, before it quit.  No goopy solids, although enough residual crud to make it kind of gross.  Lots of nitrile gloves and shop rags.

I will say this fixing business has gotten out of hand, though!   The good news is the VacuFlush is fixed.

I also took out the broken fridge.  Came out easy, but there was a moment of panic until I realized I needed to remove the door to get it out of the cabin.  I set aside the "feet" it sets on the and flange assembly, they may be added Sea Ray parts not on the fridge from the OEM.

The new fridge is in at West Marine, so with any luck I'll have it put in this weekend.

Then will we be done with fixing for a while???

First weekend of summer

It's been a month and a half since the boat went in and there's a lot to update.

Fixes complete:

• The spotlight -- I finally got it fixed.  When I dug into it the first time, I learned a few things.  One, there's an inline fuse for the spotlight, a 10A automotive-type tube fuse, which I managed to blow by shorting out the power leads.  Two, this thing is poorly sealed and the connections were pretty corroded.  This did fix the up motion on the spotlight, so I at least had both axis of rotation working.  After cleaning the connections, I thought I had good voltage at the light itself, but since there was still no light I assumed the bulb was bad.  I tracked down a replacement cheap on the internet ($30 vs. $85 for the same bulb from Marinco).  Still no light, and when bench tested (why didn't I do this first?) the old bulb still works.
  
  The second time, I finally had the brains to short the hot lead directly to the spot & flood circuits and the light lit, which meant the switch was bad.  Tracked down a replacement switch and got it replaced.  The replacement is lighted like the old one, but required shorting power and the illumination lead with a jumper since the original control package has no separate power lead for the switch light, as the OEM switch is connected internally.
  
• Water system -- That's fixed and works fine now.  I was sucking air on the input side.  The pump had been replaced in about 2010 or so, based on the manufacture date of the pump.  It has a mesh filter inline on the suction side to keep tank silt out of the lines.  It's integral to the fitting, but the way the pump was mounted you couldn't fully tighten the fitting without the filter getting in the way.  I moved the pump about 1/2" so the filter could clear the mounting surface and once tightened water flow returned to normal.
  
• Squeaky Belt -- this was a dodged bullet!  We lost a bolt from the bracket on the belt tensioner pulley.  I retensioned the belt with no effect on squeaking.  My marina owner came out and listened and found both the bolt missing and found the bolt.  We got it back on and the squeak went away.  I'm glad this was easy, because we could have lost a belt and had some real problems.
  
• New TV installed -- I put in a new 32" flat panel TV.  This was mostly straightforward and I was pleased that we generally get broadcast channels, although reception can be dicey.  Sorting out reception means seeing if we have the amplifier the parts diagrams says we have and what kind of shape the cabling connections are in.  It may be that the existing antenna (and amp, if it exists) just aren't great for DTV broadcast, but sorting this means getting behind the main panel which is not trivial and right now is a lower priority.
  
• Rug life extension -- Our poor cockpit rugs are kind of gross, and when I lifted them to clean some dead bugs discovered I'm suffering from the dreaded disintegration of the backing.  I took them off the boat and coated the backs with 6 cans of white Plasti-Dip rubber spray.  This should encapsulate the backing and provide a more durable wear surface.  6 cans should be workable coverage, but just barely.  I discovered too late that I should have used the "paint on" variety for thicker coverage, and more likely, I should have used a white elastomer roof sealant.  But what I ended up with seem decent, and the rugs got a good scrubbing with a hose and detergent, so they are about as clean as they will ever get.  We'll get at least a season out of them before eventual replacement with SeaDek or some other flooring.
  
• Grill element replaced -- this fixed the grill, and we have enjoyed burgers off it at anchor. It works slick and will be a great way to make hot food on the boat.
  
• Pending fixes -- the icebox/fridge in the cabin had the door fall off.  The door pin sockets pulled out of the door.  I think I can fix them with some epoxy.  I ordered a replacement fridge for the cockpit, which ought to be an interesting installation.  In theory it should fit as the dimensions are identical to the original and its from the same vendor, but I suspect some fitting will be required.
  

Overall, it's been a good experience.  We've been mostly cruising at about 9 mph, which keeps fuel burn low.  This speed was impossible in the Yamaha, especially on open water.  It was kind of a plowing speed on that hull, and we got beat up bad in open water.  But this boat's size, power and hull make that speed stable and easy to manage, and I generally prefer cruising slow for the scenery and lack of noise/wind.

This weekend it's projected to be in the high 90s, which means the lake should be warm enough for swimming and give us a real taste of what summer on this boat should be like.

Shakedown cruises

We finally had some free time and good weather and got to do a couple of "shakedown cruises" to find out what it's really like.   The TL;DR is that it's a BIG boat to run, the slip is tight, most stuff works but some needs troubleshooting.

• Really a huge watercraft to operate.  Much more intensive to dock/drive at the slip.  Getting back in the slip Saturday was not so bad, but Sunday had a cross-wind that made aligning with the slip a challenge.  The channel at St. Alban's Bay is so narrow I need the whole thing, which led to some waiting/station keeping.  There's a little bit of playing chicken, but because I'm bigger than most others they seem to back down...so far.
• Sucks a ton of gas  We must have used 20-odd gallons this weekend on some fairly low-intensity cruising.  Planing speed is a gas guzzler!
• I now see why prop/skeg work was recommended, the boat doesn't track true at speed, but I'm not sure if this is just drag/alignment side effects or more or less normal compensation to wind, current, etc.

Pretty much everything works as expected, but there's a list of shit that needs sorting out already.

• This shouldn't be my main obsession, but the dumb spot light is still bugging me.  I cleaned the switch connections and got the down control back, but the light won't light.  I checked the power at the light and it was OK on testing, but with a bulb won't light.  Replaced the bulb same thing, checked the power yesterday and get no light.  Back to more intensive testing.
• Water system -- leaking air in the lines and making water flow irregular.  This will be a PITA to sort out, but maybe it's something simple like a leak in the filter or a clogged filter.  Have to pop the hatch to investigate and that's not possible on the water with people.
• "New" (as of Sunday) belt squeak on the port engine, need to check the belt tension.  Hopefully it's not a pulley or a water pump.  My uninformed guess is belt tension adjustment "break in".
• Galley main fridge is dead.  The replacement model is $750, which is steep, kind of holding off on that as the drawer fridge works, but need to keep DC fridge on as it is DC-only.  Trying the marina out as a replacement source just for the PITA part of it all, but it looks to be a dead easy swap out.
• Center isinglass zipper that was fixed is backwards.  There's some small chance I just put it the overhead canvas piece backwards, but the snaps align when the side glass is in and I don't think flipping it 180 degrees is possible or will help.

The good news stuff:

• Generator works fine -- ran it quite a bit this weekend for testing.  Louder than I'd care for -- "annoying" my wife says, but it is what it is.  She thinks we should be able to run it all the time, but doesn't understand the power load on the batteries and the need for microwave, AC and grill. Really will need to sort out the battery monitoring stuff long term.
• AC works fine -- ran that as well.
• Replaced the cabin lighting with new LEDs.  All very bright and run cool. Dumped old LEDs and two halogens in the process.  Much improved.
• Stereo works acceptably.
• Added two battery powered CO detectors (one is supposed to be AC/battery backup).  No CO detection at anchor with generator running.
• Dash electronics all work, including the smartcraft gauges and sensors, including GPS speed, air and water temp, and depth, although depth doesn't seem to sample that fast.

Still on the radar screen:

• Main cabin TV replacement with something DTV compatible.  50/50 the antenna setup works for DTV, but it's worth a shot.
• Battery monitoring -- ammeter and Balmar gauges.  Kind of pushed back due to complexity of wire runs, mounting and the generator.

Right now the water, belt squeak and the dumb spotlight are the priorities.

Longer term, thinking seriously about a custom screen enclosure with a sun shade top/extension, possibly with a screen front.  The camper canvas will not be practical due to lack of ventilation.

Splashdown!

Splashdown!  The boat is finally at the marina!

I was with the crew from the brokerage yard when it went in, and we piloted it to the marina and got it tied up.  Some random observations:

• It hauls ass!  I didn't think a 33', 5" boat that weighs 13,000 pounds could go so fast but it did 35-40 pretty effortlessly.  Smooth and quiet.
• Shifting was remarkably smooth.  I have little experience in a stern drive, but this had none of the clunky shifting I associated with a stern drive previously.
• It feels really big and seems high on the water.
• Learning to slip it will be kind of challenging.  Close-in maneuvering and figuring out how to use the twin engine setup will take some practice.
• There's less storage for "stuff" than I would have expected, stuff like boat canvas, spare lines, life vests, etc etc.  I think some of this is just lack of time to explore and plan organization.
• As much as I've read the manual, etc, sitting in it makes me feel like I have no idea how it works.  Always an interesting contrast between reading about something and actually doing it.

The brokerage/shop removed the old boat vinyl name and graphics from the stern.  This was unexpected but kind of nice, as it saves me some manual labor.  They also did the summerization package, which flushed and filled the water system so I didn't have to wrangle with the marina on that.

A month away, countdown to launch

It's now one month or 31 days until launch of Thanks Sweetie.  There's not much to report on other than the boat being out of the shop (covered last time) other than some minor items.

I spent my first dollars on boat related accessories this week -- fenders, screw-in snaps and some more water saddles, which aren't boat specific but proved to be a popular floating accessory last spring.

The fenders I told myself were a necessity and they sort of are.  I bought 6.5" fenders the first year we had our boat from Costco.  Fenders are strangely expensive and the no-name ones I bought from Costco were fine for our old boat which was much smaller.  But the new boat has both fender holders on the bow rails and it seemed natural that we would put fenders in them, and I bought a set of 6 8.5" from Overton's which had a 15% sale going on.  They were priced reasonably as fenders go, cheaper than the very expensive Taylor Made models that seem to dominate most retailers.  I also bought them in a cobalt blue which sort of matches the hull color.  The white ones tend to scuff and look dingy, so I figured a slight color mismatch was better than dingy in the long run.

I don't entirely know if I will really need them longer term -- we don't really dock many places, and transient docking or rafting doesn't seem all that likely for us, but they will probably be useful for the first few dozen docking attempts with this big boat.  I think tied up properly in the slip they won't really be needed -- the right rope lengths will hold the boat away from the slip and pilings.

I only need to replace one snap for the cockpit cover, but of course you have to buy a bag of 8 minimum.  I opted not to buy the needed epoxy for filling the spot where the old one pulled out, I need to see what the stripped hole looks like and whether I need to ream it out and then fill it and whether I should use a putty or a two-part liquid epoxy.

The water saddles (also from Overton's, 15% off) were kind of an impulse sort of thing but we have one I bought last year and it proved *ideal* for floating in the water.  It keeps me floating with just my shoulders at water level.  Now we'll have two others for guests.

I also picked up a spool of 1/4" bungee cord to make lanyards and retainer lines for them.  It dawned on me that instead of drilling a hole and using a short stub of ABS for a grommet that I could just make a loop of bungee which would fit over the notch of the saddle.

Escape from the shop and ready for launch

When we bought Thanks Sweetie we had a mechanical inspection that showed a laundry list of things in need of repair.  Most of them were wear-and-tear/periodic maintenance items that would need to be done sooner or later -- annodes, burned out light bulbs, worn bottom paint, impeller service, etc.

This all came to us thanks to a $995 maintenance inspection we paid for, which was given to us as a repair estimate by the dealership's shop who was providing brokerage.  We got a 10% price break when the seller accepted our initial offer and because most of the items were kind of wear and tear, periodic maintenance we didn't use it as a basis to try to negotiate more money off.  I assumed up front that something would need to get fixed and that it wouldn't be in like-new condition completely.

So we ran through what needed to be done and what we thought could be put off or done ourselves.  It's always a complex internal negotiation -- paying someone else to do it is easy, but it's also easy to bite off more than you can chew or not have the boat ready to run when we dunk it.  I spent 20 minutes on the phone with the shop accepting and rejecting the itemized estimate schedule and off it went.

Last week I got a call from the shop -- your boat's done, and since you won't launch for a month or so (actually 36 days from this writing, as if anyone's counting..) we'd like you to pay now.  I told them to email me the itemized invoice and I would call back with authorization.

Wow!  It was way more than I mentally expected.  In my mind, it was a little over $4000 but came to over $7000.  What the heck...  So I sat down and built a spreadsheet with columns for the estimates and the actuals for all requested repairs and the over/under of parts and labor for each itemized repair.  The tale of the tape was that parts were nearly $1000 over the original estimate, with three repair orders having parts overages of $250-$375.

I called the service contact back and complained about the gaps.  One overage was the result of data entry error on the invoice (charged for more parts than they used), two parts were completely mispriced on the estimate, and another was a "hidden" part not visible until disassembly.

After some back and forth about liability for erroneous estimates and concern that the estimate was deliberately misleading to enable the sale through their brokerage, the shop adjusted the invoice down by about $700, although in a byzantine way but cutting out labor charges for the most part -- ironically, the one item they came in UNDER the original estimate on.

I mostly felt like this was a victory, if a pyhric one.  Had they followed good shop procedure and just called me about the deviations, they might have gotten away with charging me more and in some ways I think I walked away with a better deal than had the estimate just been accurate.

I'm still somewhat perturbed by the process, though.  Having the brokerage and shop under one business umbrella is a huge moral hazard for them and allows them a lot of information asymmetry that can be used against me, and I kind of wonder what they didn't tell me to unload the boat and whether the inspection was all that comprehensive.  I'm not going to use this shop for any further maintenance -- they're 30-odd miles from my marina, and I have options closer with a shop the marina has a relationship with.

But I'm not on a campaign to bash the shop, either.  They did give back to me pretty easily (even if they had to) and it's not impossible a lot of it was just honest mistakes.

But regardless, we launch in 36 days and I can't wait.  It's going to be pretty early in terms of seasonality.  The lake is nearly ice free now, but it will still be dubious weather for active boating.  The good news is I will be able to get after the small-scale stuff like lightbulbs and the new boat name vinyl without bumping into actual boating season.