I have to meet with the workmen this morning first thing and put a stop to installing the SSB radio. Because Zephyrs hull is so think--2 inches--they would have to take off several layers of the fiberglass to allow the grounding plate to be set at the proper thickness so it can make the correct connections to ground the radio. At least that is how it was explained to us. That will require another workman to take a BIG chunk out of Zephyrs hull so the plate will fit and redo a good bit of fiberglass. The installation cost will sky rocket to an easy $5,000 with all the work that will need to be done. That is just not in the budget at this time. We are currently racking up fees of $1,000/working day while being here. Another $5,000 is off the charts. The radio can stay in its box till later when we will have it installed. Tracy came to the collusion--and I agree with her--that we will just get a satellite phone. It will allow us to keep in communications with all the parties we need to and we can still use the computers to download off the internet. Next year, or when ever, we will have the radio installed.
Yesterday morning, Jack--the electrician--went back at the electrical. The lights had failed to work the previous evening so he went looking for where to hook it up. He pulled on the last wire and shabang, the hot water pipes burst. Zephyr has several ways to heat water. The engine, with the electric water heater and with a device called a Paloma propane water heater. The pipes to the Paloma burst. The fittings had all corroded to next to nothing. The inside diameter of the hose had shrunk to less than the size of a pencil. The original diameter of the hose is over 1 inch. Water flooded out and down into my nice dry bilge( I'd just cleaned it out last Saturday). After a short time, the flood stopped. At the time, we had no idea where the hoses led only that the water in them was warm. Apparently, the water from the electric water heater goes up to the engine and the Paloma that then out into the boat. That is the reason why the engine always felt nice and warm to the touch. Jack got another piece of hose to try and fix the problem, but with all the corrosion, plus the fact that the Paloma heater is relatively unsafe to use--runs on propane and is in the engine compartment with no venting--we have taken it off line and will eventually remove it. If we need hot water while cruising in the future, we can either boil it on the stove or run the engine. If we run the engine, it will also recharge the batteries at the same time.
I dried out the bilge again last evening, but when I checked later, there was more water--not much-- down there again. So some hose is still leaking. The search goes on.
The riggers showed up to install the stem fitting(holds the anchor and genoa sail) at the bow. They pushed and poked and banged and took it back to the vise and finally got it to fit. They didn't drill the holes necessary to finish the installation as they have to be done at just the right angle and I think frustration during the fitting had taken over. I know it would have on me.
We had a new electrician--Troy-- on Zephyr yesterday. Jack brought him over and introduced him. He went to work, along with an engine guy, to find and fix two of the alarms in the engine compartment. Zephyrs engine comes with three alarms. One is for oil pressure. If it fails, a buzzer on deck goes off(the cats hate it). A second one is on the fresh water cooling system. If it gets to hot-pump fails-the same buzzer will go off. The third is hooked up to the exhaust system. If it gets to hot--the impeller(little rubber wheel that pumps water through the engine)fails to go around pumping water and the engine gets to hot, the buzzer goes off. Pretty much, if the buzzer ever goes off, run for the switch and turn off the engine. Some thing is wrong. We can diagnose the problem after the engine is off. Two of the alarms were not hooked up properly. The oil pressure alarm was the only one wired correctly. Now they are all hooked up and running. At least I hope so. You don't really want to hear the alarms go off. But hey, better they work and not go off than don't work and really need to go off. It can destroy an engine(insert lots of money here) fast.
We think Jack is getting tired of the frustration Zephyr is causing him. Plus, I'm sure the yard has lots of other boats that need his knowledge and ability. That may be a reason why he brought Troy over. Nice guy, Troy. Apparently just new on the job and fresh out of school.
Well, today should be an interesting day. I don't think the yard is going to be to thrilled when I tell then to scrap the SSB. I guess I'll find out in about an hour.
Have a great day everyone!!
4 comments:
When we met in Newport you were pretty happy with your boat selection.
Would you change anything now that you have the benefit of hindsight?
Is the cost inline with what you were thinking?
Would you go newer and smaller if you had it to do over again?
Dave in Boise
For what wee need for off shore cruising, yes, the Liberty 458 is ideal. What has been the big surprise is the condition of systems inside her. The survey we had done was a joke. Virtually every system he "inspected" and said was great has actually been crap. We've spent almost 6 weeks on the electrical alone. It was said to be perfect. The transmission would have been impossible to tell since the boat wasn't in the water at the time of the inspection. He never really inspected the rigging but at 26 years any fool would know it needed to be changed.
Yes, the boat is fine, it is just time for its mid-life refit. She will be a much better boat when she is done.
It's time to get a new clock. What Jack said about the shape of the electric wave making your clock run faster is correct -- but that also tells me that whomever made your clock made it as absolutley cheap as they possibly could.
The electricity that you get from the power company comes in the form of a nice smooth sine wave that changes polarity 60 times a second. Your clock is counting the peaks of these waves and, for every 60 that it counts, it advances the time by one second. It's not the most accurate method of timekeeping -- the power company is in the business of selling power, not keeping time -- but it generally works.
Your power inverter on the boat however, is not suppling the same smooth sine wave that is provided by the utility company. Instead it, like all but the most very expensive power inverters, is providing you with what is called "modified sine-wave" power. Instead of the smooth sine-like curves you get with utility power, modified-sine wave looks like a square wave with flat tops. For most applications, this works fine. Computers generally have no problems with modified-sine wave power. Your clock however now finds that instead of one clear voltage peak like it gets with utility power, there's now this flat plateau... and what happens is that it gets confused and counts each flat-topped peak multiple times. Thus that's why the clock runs faster.
Had the clock manufacturer splurged on an extra $0.20 of parts, they could have built a quartz crystal into the clock that would keep much better time and would run fine on modified-sine power.
Time to get a new clock.
That is what Jack said. A wave here a wave there. Nice to have an understandable explanation. When I went to bed last night it was off by 50 minutes.
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