As a boat owner, you know there is always something to do. Just when you feel caught up another job pops up. Some of them keep you from using the boat, others are just another item on the list that you can put off until you are ready to get at it. You have the freedom to set the priorities. Weather can also play a part in how much you get out on the water.
This season has been no different. Yes, we have been held up by the weather at times. Our current slip is exposed to wind and if it is out of the north my wife has a hard time getting to the lines before the wind pushes us off. Total knee replacement has the effect of slowing a person down some!
So far this summer we have had some water pump issues. In the early spring, our air conditioning system was giving us a hard time, shutting off frequently. I had noticed lots of strange-looking seaweed or slime floating in the water at that time. I found the cause when I removed the sea strainer basket. It was covered in a slime that was restricting water flow from the pump to the condenser. It was a thick goo that took some water pressure at the hose nozzle to clean off. After that, I installed a back flush adapter on top of the sea strainer. I can use it to force fresh water back out of the strainer and flush out the air conditioner system, just as you flush out your engines after use. I flush out the system every few weeks. We leave the air conditioner set at seventy-eight degrees while we are gone to help avoid mildew in the cabin.
Speaking of the air conditioner, leaving it on led to another problem that took me some time to figure out. After a day of boating, we would come back to the dock and get the boat cleaned up so we could leave. That included leaving the air conditioner on and shutting the batteries off. Every time we came back to the boat there would be water in the forward bilge, and I would sponge out a couple of gallons. I could not figure it out, wondering if there was a leak either in the hull or cabin. It always seemed that we had rain before using the boat again, even though there was a cockpit cover installed when we were not using the boat.
And then one day I found out what was going on. We arrived at the boat for a day out and I went below and turned on the batteries. When I did, I heard the cabin sump pump kick on. It dawned on me right then and there that the house batteries had to be left on. The condensation from the air conditioner had to be draining into that sump pump housing and with the batteries off the housing would overflow into the cabin bilge. After sponging out the bilge again, we left the house batteries on when we were not aboard and did not have to sponge out the bilge anymore. I have looked through the entire factory manual that came with our boat and there is not a single mention of that fact!
The last pump I had to deal with (until the other engine pump starts leaking) I covered with “Belly of The Beast” in Long Island Boating World. There was a two-week delay in getting the boat operational again as I waited for the new raw water pump to be delivered from San Diego. The weather was to blame once again.
That pretty much brings us up to now, and my latest little boat update. When I replaced the outdated and partially failed electronics last year, there were a few bolt holes and one cable-size hole (one inch) that I wanted to fill. In the past I was able to do similar repairs using Marine-Tex, so I used that again. I thought the color was very close to the boat gelcoat. Either way, it is still better than looking at holes in the console.
o accomplish this, I used some tape around the holes to keep from spreading the Marine-Tex where it was not needed. For the larger hole, I made a tapered plug out of an old piece of the console that I cut out when I installed the new electronics and then epoxied that in place after a dry fit. I mixed up the Marine-Tex and applied it to the holes and seam of the tapered plug using a wooden stick. We left after that to let it cure.
When we came back the next day it had set up and I removed the tape and started to wet sand. using one thousand grit sandpaper it took me a few hours of careful sanding and I could tell I would need to apply another coat on some areas. I mixed up another batch that I applied and started waxing the transom while I waited.
Right about then an old friend stopped by, and we sat in the boat talking for what turned out to be over two hours! Time flies when you’re having fun! When we were done talking and said good night multiple times the second coat of Marine-Tex had set up, so I started to wet sand again, this time it went much faster as there was not much left to do. The sanding left an extremely smooth surface that after applying some Woody Wax looked like new.
Except for the color match. Maybe in time, it will fade like I have seen it happen before. As it is now, it’s a good five-foot job. Meaning from five feet and with my eyes you can’t see the color change! Still, it is better than having the holes because they really stand out. If it bothers me that much, I could get some gelcoat to match. Or take another step back!