What did you do to your boat today

YYZRC

@SimcoeRinker400 not that it's much consolation, but I was also in the literal poop last weekend as I had to disconnect the discharge hose from the poop tank when working on the water heater. Went through an entire bottle of Spray Nine disinfecting the bilge.

GMSLITHO

finally in the water 

LaRea

71:  Replaced both anchor windlass foot switches
106:  Replaced AC controller for salon port AC
Added 20 more items to punch list - now at 112 active 136 total

Awkward:  the boat spewed bilge water onto the pier contaminated with hydraulic fluid from punch list items 19, 35 and 104.  We drove down Friday afternoon to appease the marina staff with freshly baked salted caramel brownies.  I hope it worked!

Grahamu

Today was the final day of taking everything off our Rinker, I think we have removed over 300 Lbs of stuff over the last 3 weeks from the boat and deck boxes.  Survey and seatrial on Tuesday for the next owner and if all goes well we move on to our next adventure.

Aqua_Aura

We also removed the last few items from our boat today which the turned into our port captain letting us take his dinghy to our outpost dock and join the party in progress for the evening.

johnny44

Extensive search for a water leak in the engine room. Narrowed it down and finally found it - that pesky steering pin that has been discussed on this forum in  multiple posts. (Thanks to the forum I went in having an idea where to look!)
Looks like the leak may have been there since I bought it last year. Boat will be hauled this week to fix.

While I was looking around the engine bay, I came across this - one of the exhaust down elbows. This is excessive buildup correct? All of the elbows have a slight amount of buildup, but this one definitely caught my attention. Open to any feedback. Thanks!

Dream_Inn

Definitely excessive buildup.  You may need to just replace those clamps, or possibly just tighten them and clean it up.  Good find.  The more you're in the engine room the more you'll find stuff before it breaks.

YYZRC

@johnny44 are you replacing both pins?

rasbury

I had a similar issue, well exactly the same! When I put my motor back in I did have a set of those same clamp tight so when the engine is running it was filling the bilge with water- but was leaking on the back side socould not see it. Once I tightened those up I've been dry since...and if that is the problem you don't need to pull the boat- can't really confirm that is your only issue without the boat in the water and running.

johnny44

Ahhh...there's so many pros to having twin engines. However, herein lies one of the issues with twins: double the work (also equal to double the $$$)!

Short answer is no, only replacing the one that is leaking. The mechanic thinks the other one was done 2 years ago before I bought it (the boat is at the same yard). We are hunting down all of the work orders for the stuff that was done prior to my owning it. If it wasn't done, I will get to it in the fall. It isn't leaking now. I plan on removing the drives this fall and doing an overhaul. 

When boats are for sale, I always read in the description that the boat was maintained with an open checkbook. I really try to maintain my boat with an open checkbook, but sometimes reality sets in and more often than not, that checkbook is forced to close unless there is an emergency.  Plus, @YYZRC - I am trying to save some $$ to buy one of your Captain Helm Covers! 

YYZRC

Nice. How are they replacing the pin? Merc method or JR Marine method or removing the transom assembly completely?

Highly recommend that you have them install a stainless pin. 

johnny44

Definitely not the JR Marine method. I know that they are removing the drives. I want to go down and watch the repair so I can learn something.

@rasbury - the boat is being pulled to replace the steering pin. Just happened to see the elbow when I was looking for the leak at the transom. I only ran the boat 1x so far this year. While the tech is doing the steering pin, he can trouble shoot the elbow gasket as well.

rasbury

People swear my the Jr marine hut when I did mine I had pulled the motor but I guess I would have considered it. I was not leaking there and just did it as a precaution since I could get to it. I also replaced with a ss pin...good learning experience for sure. Motor comes out pretty easy as I can't imagine doing it with the motor in...

GMSLITHO

I went the JR marine methoud it worked fine but it was a really big job I spent a lot of hours under that swim platform ,If I were to do it again I would replace the transom assembly for all the work involved 

YYZRC

If you have the space to move the engine(s) forward, it’s actually not a bad job at all. A crude rig made up of a couple 2x10s across the gunwales and a cheap Amazon chain hoist was all I needed. 

Dream_Inn

Interesting @YYZRC , how did you do the slide forward?  Were the boards actually sitting on the gunwales (looks like some weight is also on the center post)?

Rich_

4 boats in. 2 Waverrunners to go

YYZRC

Dream_Inn said:

Interesting @YYZRC , how did you do the slide forward?  Were the boards actually sitting on the gunwales (looks like some weight is also on the center post)?

On the gunwales, I laid down a towel (to prevent damage) and a 2x6 on top of the towel. The ends of the beam had a 24” long 2x6 on them as well (running parallel to the hullsides) so that the beam couldn’t roll over. Once the engine was jacked up I just slid the beam forward on the 2x6 until the engine was on the temp mount I built. 

The center post was so that I could monitor beam deflection with the 1000lb motor. It wasn’t actually necessary in the end. 

I also had an engine leveller that was moderately helpful but not necessary either. 

Pic of the temp mount:

rasbury

I have the same cumalong as I had to move it around for something...did the same thing...

rasbury

Completed a lot of stuff.

I removed all the suspected bad fuel, 70 frigging gallons. I threw 5 gallons back in loaded up with sea foam. Raised and lowered the boat to slosh that around as best as I could and then sucked that out. That electric fuel pump really worked very well. After I got the batteries back in I pumped all tge fuel out of the fuel rail and spun a new fuel water separator on there. 

I played around with the battery wiring a bit. It is very confusing how they work with the battery selector. The house battery I now have with a positive and negative connection. The starting battery in addition to the obvious plus and minus  has one heavy hot wire for the generator on the smaller post. There is no ground for it and must be grounded some other way. Then there is a smaller hot and ground wire which I really have no clue what that controls. I did check to see that battery one on the selector switch is the starting battery.  The generator has a separate battery switch, should I keep that off? I put other stuff back together..fuel line etc. and should hopefully get to the ramp this am and at least see if it's going to run ok...I'll bring it home if it does and get to the ramp early Saturday am for a real run. If it does not run I will remove the plug and shove it off the trailer...this will be my last chance to run the boat on my 6 month "vacation" as I have to start back to work on Monday.  I'll be working for a company that sells and services ambulances and other emergency type equipment so looking forward to the new challange...

GMSLITHO

good luck with everything and congratulations on the new job 

Aqua_Aura

Got a large chunk on my swim deck repaired for the new buyer and then helped a friend get his boat running and then on the trailer so he could finish getting it fixed. This is a photo of the plug another friend made then finished it with gelcoat and sanded. 
  

YYZRC

How hard was it to get the pop up cleat out?

Aqua_Aura

It's a 1 1/4" or maybe 1 1/8" socket but turns out they were loose enough to use my fingers. It's a little tight but with some fancy maneuvering I got in there. 

We are gonna add a little more gelcoat and then final sanding with 2000 grit wet sand paper. This is the gelcoat match from spectrum, close enough 🧐

YYZRC

Looks like there was no sealant on the holes! 

Aqua_Aura

Yes that is correct 🤷🏽‍♂️. There were no signs of any water intrusion but it will get sealant when it gets put back on. 

johnny44

johnny44 said:

While I was looking around the engine bay, I came across this - one of the exhaust down elbows. This is excessive buildup correct? All of the elbows have a slight amount of buildup, but this one definitely caught my attention. Open to any feedback. Thanks!

So if you look closer at this picture, you will notice a missing clamp. Eureka! 

Anyone know what size these stainless clamps are?

Aqua_Aura

Not sure on clamp size however don't be too quick to think that's the fix. The other clamp should have still been enough to not leak. Put the new clamp on and make sure they are both tight. Clean off the build up and check for leaks. 

YYZRC

Here’s the Merc part number for the clamp: 54-815504272

johnny44

@Aqua_Aura agreed. Fingers are crossed, but I will keep an eye on it.