27 December 2008

Final touches

The Repowering Project: Day 33, last day (Sunday)

The engineer investigated the problem with the starter solenoid, and found that the modification to the electrics to make the engine "above earth" had a minor logic error. The solenoid was earthed to the engine rather than the negative pole of the battery. Since the engine is only earthed when the starter solenoid is operating, this created a Catch-22 where the solenoid was only earthed if it had already connected, which it couldn't until it was earthed. What remains unexplained is how it worked even occasionally - the engineer thinks it is some capacitance effect.

That was the good news. Later in the day when the engineer was finishing off the job of securing all the new cables and pipes to make sure they stay where they should, he noticed to his horror that there was water dripping slowly but steadily from the platform on which the new water trap is mounted. His first thought was that the hose clamps on the exhaust needed tightening, but as the mate was assisting with this operation, she pointed out that there couldn't be that much water remaining in the exhaust line hours after the engine had last run. The water had to be coming from the water trap itself. Could it be leaking at the bottom, she asked, thinking that this was a horrible prospect. However this reminded the engineer that, right where the water was appearing, the water trap has a small tap which allows it to be drained. The manual helpfully tells you that you should use the tap to drain the tank when you "lay up for the winter", assuming that you are sailing in waters that freeze over. What it fails to say is "ensure that the tap is firmly off before installing the trap, especially if it is going to be almost inaccessible after installation". The engineer had to do very clever things with socket wrench extensions to get to the tap, but he finally succeeded in turning it off hard, and to our relief, the dripping duly stopped.

By late evening we had the boat in reasonable order again, ready for our return to Melbourne for Christmas. There are of course still things to be done, but she is sufficiently ship-shape to sail.

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