First cruise

After several 12 hour days of work fixing, cleaning, storing and making small changes it was time for our first shakedown cruise. Give us chance to scrape some of the rust off, and to try out the new stern thruster that Hurst marina installed for us over the winter. 

Engine fired right up and off we went, down the river for about a half hour then back to port. Calm winds when we left, but of course the wind had picked up by the time we got back to the dock.

Since this was my first docking of the year I was bound to be a little rusty. Wind on my stern was not too bad, but I forgot to compensate and did not kill our forward momentum enough before pivoting to enter the slip. Bit of a tense moment with the first mate yelling into the headset (rusty on using these as well) when the hull almost kissed the corner point of the dock, but the stern thrusters saved the day and got us off the dock. Nice when something pays for itself the first time you use it. From now on its free!

Really happy with the install that Hurst did for us. We were fortunate to have their senior tech, Corey, doing the work. Nice clean install. One of the major reasons for us choosing to stay at Hurst was the quality of their service support. They have been really helpful for us getting ready for our trip.

We initially were not planning to get a stern thruster, as our experience last summer showed us we could get by without one. However, we met some loopers who told us one would be very helpful on the ICW where current is often a factor when docking. Very glad we decided to put one in.

Our bow thruster was a Sliepner (IMTRA) tunnel thruster, while the new stern thruster is made by sideshift. I wanted to have unified controls, and something that would be good for Louise, so I went with IMTRA controllers. 

Now we just need to find places to store all our stuff. Running out of places to store things.

During our shakedown cruise, I noticed that the lower tach was erratic. A quick check of the wiring showed that the nut on the ground post was loose. Tried to tighten, but it would not tighten. Then I noticed a stack of washers under the nut. The treads on the ground post were stripped in one area, and to compensate someone had used a stack of washers to move the location on the post where the screw was. Unfortunately, the nut was only held on by a thread or so. I added a couple of more washers so now the nut has enough threads to bite, but will have to look for a better long term fix. Seems like everytime I cross an item of my to-do list, another item gets added.

Some upgrade projects

 Stove replacement

The boat came with a propane-powered stove and oven. This is very common on boats, as many people do not like to use a generator, and so use propane for cooking instead.

There are a couple of downsides to propane. First, you need to keep the tanks full. The boat has 4 propane tanks, so we had lots of reserve, but experience from our backyard barbeque was that the tank always seems to somehow get empty no matter how closely you monitor it (perhaps procrastination has something to do with this, but who knows).

Second, we don’t like cooking with radiant heat. We have used induction for over 20 years at home and on our previous boats, and really like it. Because the cooking surface does not generate the heat, it is safer than a radiant system. We first installed it in our house when our kids were small as a safety thing, and found we liked the way it performed. Like cooking with gas without the gas. We also don’t use an oven that often any more, these days anything that has to be cooked in an oven we cook with our air-fryer.

Therefore, we decided to replace the propane stove.

Removing the stove and associated hoses was fairly easy and was accomplished in less than an hour. After removing the stove, I was pleased to note that the cabinet was in good shape, and that I would not have to fabricate a slide-in replacement (this was a possibility). Our plan was to install a top rack to hold our portable induction cooktop, which would create a lower storage space we could use for our air-fryer and other small appliances.

Making a cabinet back was pretty simple, its just a piece of plywood that I painted white. I installed some cleats at the back of the cabinet to hold the back in place, and mounted the back with screws. I want this panel to be removable, as its always nice to be able to access stuff on a boat.

The induction tray was made out of solid cherry, as this is what I had at home, and it matched the existing cabinets. To build it, I made templates out of poster board on the boat so that I would have exact measurements to work with back in my shop. The induction tray was installed, and we used it just like this for a summer, as I did not yet have time to make doors for the cabinet. 

The air-fryer and blender are held in place with wooden cleats screwed to the floor of the cabinet, and I plan to install some straps to keep things from moving around. 

I made a set of cabinet doors over the winter from solid cherry. I matched the style of the existing doors as closely as I could. The cabinet doors were a rail and stile design with a raised panel, of which I have made many over the years. Once finished, I applied four coats of clear polyurethane. 

Once the doors were installed, I used a shop-made jig to match the holes for the pulls. using one of the other galley doors, I drilled through the existing cabinet holes in one door to get an exact match for the jig.

Yeah, I know the colour doesn't match. Everything is made from solid cherry, which darkens in sunlight. In a month or two, the doors will match the upper part. That upper part started out the same as the lower, but spent 3 months in the sun on the boat last summer (in fact you can see the colour change if you look at the install photos above and compare those to the final result.

New fridge

The fridge that came with the boat worked, but our experience the first summer was that it was tired. During the spring, everything was fine, but in June, July and August, when things got hot, the freezer would not hold temperature. We discovered this when we had to throw out some food that had thawed in the freezer.

One reason why the fridge may not have been working 100% is that the fridge is built-in to a cabinet on the side of the boat. Although this cabinet is vented, the system is passive and may simply not be dumping heat quickly enough to keep up with the compressor. To try to boost the effectiveness of the unit, I added four 12 volt fans to the cabinet. Two of these were placed on the floor vent to draw air into the cabinet, and two were placed at the top of the cabinet to blow hot air out. Even with these four fans running, the fridge could not keep up and again we lost food from the freezer. Since we are planning to do the loop, this situation is not acceptable. We will need our freezer in many places on the loop, and once we get south will have to deal with warm days most of the time. Repairing the unit would be expensive, since the refrigerant is an old type. The available refrigerant keeps changing every few years in an attempt to prevent ozone depletion, but each time they switch refrigerants, this makes it difficult to repair existing units. I guess it is better to use lots of energy making new refrigerators than risking leaks of the older refrigerants destroying ozone. Therefore, our best solution was to replace the fridge.

As with other projects, I find it best to replace boat parts with the closest match (same make and model). In my experience, the extra you sometimes have to spend makes up for ease of installation. Wires, hoses, hole patterns and sizes match up so you don’t have to buy extra parts to make it fit, and don't have to use all the boat-yoga positions making the swap. The old unit was a nova kool. Based on the cutout size and size of the old one, there were three nova cool models that we could choose to replace it. We went with the one we did for two reasons. First, the freezer was a pull out drawer. We have this style of freezer at home and like it a lot. Second, the compressor is at the bottom of the unit, and there is a built-in air circulation duct to the design at the bottom, along with a fan. Hopefully this should help with our hot-cabinet issue. If not, we still have the other cooling fans to help dump heat. As a future project, I may link these to the fridge system using a relay.

Once the old fridge was removed, I adjusted the wires to the top fans, and cleaned up some of the cabling in the back cabinet by removing as many "zombie" wires as I could. I then connected the necessary wires to the new fridge and slid it into place. The new fridge is an inch shorter than the old one, so I will need to make a filler piece in my shop. Will do this later, as I will need to remove the fridge again in a couple of weeks to complete an electronics upgrade, so I can install the filler strip at the same time.

Drinking water faucet

We wanted to have a drinking water system on the boat. On our previous boats, we always carried separate drinking water, rather than drinking the water stored in the boat's tank. On this boat, we did not want to do that as we wanted to maximize space. We also didn't want to catch something from the water. So I installed a drinking water system from Acuva. It consists of a charcoal filter, a UV sterilizer, and a custom faucet. All installed under the sink in a couple of hours. Everything fits with standard compression fittings (home depot). Although the flow rate is somewhat slow, it is plenty for drinking water and for filling the coffee maker.

Boat Splashed!

The boat was launched for another season. The marina put her in the water and checked the engines. Bilges dry, so far so good.

When I got to the boat, was a bit disappointed to see that the winter work I had asked them to do was not complete. They were installing some dingy davits on the boat and had sold us a new dingy. The davits were on the boat and looked great from the outside, however the install was not complete as they had to cut some access holes and had not closed them yet. The davits were still wrapped, and no bridle was set up. The dingy was sitting deflated on the dock, in a bit of a foot-traffic area. Don’t know why, as they had the boat in the shop for a couple of months over the winter, and had lots of time to finish everything. I assume there was a good reason. Anyways, at least we are floating again, and I could start getting her ready for our big journey.

First job was cleaning. I started at the top and worked down, cleaning before I put on the canvas (much easier this way). Last year we bought some cordless cleaning tools, a power brush and pressure washer. The pressure washer is not super-high-pressure, but it does a great job on the boat. 

This shows a before-and-after of the deck.

Spent a couple of hours cleaning the flybridge, then installed the canvas. What a job! It seems like all the zippers are about 1/32” too short, and all the snaps are off by about the same. This is understandable, since the canvas maker wanted the canvas to be tight, but closing a zipper or snapping a fastener takes 3 hands. To make it even more fun, everything is done overhead so you get noodle-arm trying to get the zippers started, as well as carpel-tunnel in you fingers. And, of course, the wind is calm until just the moment when you unfold the biggest piece. Took about 2 hours just to get the canvas up. Oh, did I mention that the marina removed our front venturi-screen for winterizing (I guess it helps with shrink-wrapping) but had not yet put it back? I put up the canvas anyway, since the forecast was for rain all weekend.

With that job done it was time to turn to systems commissioning. The electrical system came back to life without incident, and both air-conditioners started up (could not test the cooling as it was not warm enough in the boat yet). So far so good.

Then I tried the water system. The system was empty (I guess they blow it dry for winter). I went around the boat closing the various faucets so I don’t get sprayed with anti-freeze, then put some water in the tank and started the pump. Everything seemed to go really well until it didn’t. The pump ran well but would not build back-pressure. Sigh.

Did some troubleshooting. For this kind of thing (electrical is similar) I always start at the source and work my way forward. 

Tank has water in it, check.

Pump has 12 volt power, check.

Pump strainer is clear, check.

Does the pump work? To test the pump, I disconnected the outflow hose then ran the pump briefly, spraying water everywhere in the bilge. Ok, the pump works. 

Between the pump and the manifold, we have an accumulator tank. Louise and I both dislike this, as it produces an undulating effect on water pressure - and water temperature - while showering. To see if there was a blockage here, I reconnected the hose at the pump, and disconnected it after the tank just before the manifold. Run the pump briefly spraying water in the bilge. OK, no blockage at the tank. 

At this point I am pretty sure the problem is the pressure switch on the pump. Rule pump motors are amazingly well built, but for some reason the pressure switches fail regularly. Easiest way to test this is to swap out the pump (carry a spare). At the same time, I removed the accumulator tank and replaced the hose between the pump and manifold (less connections). System runs perfectly. 

OK, bad pressure switch. Since the old pump is actually still good, I kept it as a spare, but ordered a couple of pressure switches as spares since I suspect one will fail in the future (this was also a failure point on a previous boat)..

Once the system was full and there were no leaks, I could check all the faucets. No hot water from our sink faucet, and the bathroom faucet leaked like crazy. I know it’s a boat and I should say head, but I think bathroom so that’s what I say and write. Have fun in the comments.

Bathroom faucet is 20 years old, so easiest to just replace it. Canadian tire had them on special so picked one up and swapped it out. Sink faucet was brand new last summer, so I suspect the cartridge failed. When you winterize things this happens. Bought the faucet at Home depot, so easiest thing is to get a replacement from Home Depot. Nooooooooo. In their infinite wisdom, HD does not carry the replacement part for the faucets they sell. I guess that way they can sell you a faucet instead of just a part. Off to the plumbing store. I get to the plumbing store and they do not have the cartridge, nor can they get one. The guy at the parts counter told me that the big box stores sell brands but not the parts, and some brands (like the faucet I bought) are impossible to find parts for. Will see if I can find something on Amazon.

Last job was checking the shower sump. Float switch and pump working, but the duckbill had failed. New duckbill in place and now I can shower.

Overall pretty happy. Everything came back to life, and was able to fix the few gremlins I encountered. 

Now to get to work on my 5 page list of things to get done before we can leave.