Broad Ambition - TLC Time Again

[BroadAmbition]

Wednesday evening through to Sunday evening.  Purdey dog is now eating normally once again

arrived onboard late with a fair amount on t van including Wizards table saw, the refilled propane bottle.

Thursday morning off to Dunhem washrooms to collect our 3 x sheets, they were proper heavy

Paul T arrived to assist, I would have been stuffed without his help, especially carrying those 8 x 4 sheets and getting the first cuts straight on the table saw

The galley deck – Completed, however we need to face off around some of the bulkheads so I have taken some Teak home for the Wizard to make up some skirting boards, I’ll fit / varnish in due course

Wheelhouse – Completed, I had to put in a removable deck brace above the Beta as that large deck plate is now two pieces – Much easier to lift up, all ring pulls are in place, used my plunge trimmer to good effect.  The Step on the Port side now looks proper sad as of course as it doesn’t match.  Robin is on the case to source some suitable laminate, then I can remove the lino and replace it with a matching finish. Paul T gave the whole of the engine bay a good hoover out whilst the original boards were up.

We only just had enough, in fact in two areas I had to cut and bond to keep the pattern correct, one area I did a lap joint, this is under the aft settee so won’t be seen.  Both the long narrow boards in front of the Stbd settee – I had to fasten on butted joints, they are near invisible and are fine imho.  All sound proofing mats were transferred over

Stbd Fwd cabin - new window hopper is in place – Needs a tweak of hardwood fitting then the lot needs varnishing

Water tank gauge / sender has gone faulty, I messed about for ages gaining access to and partially removing the sender – This tested fine so it must be the gauge, ordered a replacement.

I fitted a dressing board behind the new W/C, It needs a upstand dressing bead attaching then a handy shelf that can be used for a toilet smelly etc.

The remainder of the polished s/steel runners were fitted to the new rubbing strips, borrowed a dinghy off Richo's to accomplish this one

There is still plenty left on the 'To Do' list

Griff

 

[BroadAmbition]

Here I am again. Another maintenance weekend onboard Broad Ambition. Purdey dog in attendance this time. Right, sleeves up
 

Griff

[Andrewcook]

Hi Griff what ever you have got to do keep cool  as this weekend is going to be very Hot and beware Purdey might want to take a dip in to the River to keeping her self cool.

[BroadAmbition]

He’s here again!
Down for the day arrived at 0900. Yet more varnishing, wood butchering & upgrades. Home tonight
 

Griff

 

[BroadAmbition]

From Robin :-

I’ve just watched a fascinating video of Charles Sterling (of Sterling Power). He compared very expensive 12v marine fridges to a cheap 240v one. He ran a test over 24hrs to see which consumed the most amp hours from batteries and which was most efficient at cooling. The result was the 240v (despite the losses from the Inverter) proved almost identical in how many Amps it consumed verses the 12v one. This was down to the compressor being more powerful and efficient running at 240v than a smaller one running at 12v. It’s shown what we did was no bad thing and has saved many hundreds of pounds verses a marine version.

Griff

[ChrisB]

But. Don't be tempted to to fit domestic to a sailing boat especially if seagoing as they can't handle the heeling and pitching, often needing a down period of many hours in the calm of a marina before working again.

I would also expect that marine fridges are manufactured from materials more suitable for a salty environment.

[BroadAmbition]

Well our previous 12v ‘Marine’ fridge wasn’t. Only difference was the compressor and wiring

This 240v one has much less mild steel / tin and more plastic so should cosmetically last a lot longer as that was what did for the ‘Marine’ 12v version. 

Griff

[NeilB]

1 hour ago, BroadAmbition said:

From Robin :-

I’ve just watched a fascinating video of Charles Sterling (of Sterling Power). He compared very expensive 12v marine fridges to a cheap 240v one. He ran a test over 24hrs to see which consumed the most amp hours from batteries and which was most efficient at cooling. The result was the 240v (despite the losses from the Inverter) proved almost identical in how many Amps it consumed verses the 12v one. This was down to the compressor being more powerful and efficient running at 240v than a smaller one running at 12v. It’s shown what we did was no bad thing and has saved many hundreds of pounds verses a marine version.

Griff

That's exactly what I've done with my freezer, replacement 12v was £610 plus no stock, 240V from Argos was £150, plenty of stock and choices in the under £200 range.  Apart from the voltage they looked virtually identical.

[JanetAnne]

Though there is also the price of the inverter and associated costs to put in the equation

[BroadAmbition]

Correct. However we already had all the kit. Most craft have inverters fitted nowadays. Ours is only 1500w and manages fine. Just a junction box, small length of twin n earth, installation was a breeze

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Houston - We have a problem 

The waste tank gauge or sender has packed up. Not a big issue. What is a big issue is that while I was exposing the cables to take an Ohms reading of the sender, the whole thing came away from the top of the tank. All five securing screws rusted through leaving the threads in the holes. This means every time toilet is flushed we have tank smell coming into that cabin ( mine on this occasion). Also with an inoperative gauge if it overflows  it will do so into cabin. 
 

Fortunately I have cobalt drill bits onboard. Also fortunately we are in Wroxham. Off to nearest n dearest for some replacement s/steel screws. Then drill out holes, clean up the seal, re fix etc. then look at getting an ohm reading to determine if faulty sender or gauge. Hopefully it’ll be the gauge 

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

Then drill out holes, clean up the seal, re fix etc. then look at getting an ohm reading to determine if faulty sender or gauge. Hopefully it’ll be the gauge 

Ah now I can save you a job there Griff. You definitely have an ohms reading, it's there look 

[BroadAmbition]

Ah yes. Thanks. I have to put the meter on cables then swing the arm to determine if it’s operational 

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Sorted. Sender tested fine.  Rubber seal is good. Cleaned up, CT1 applied, new s/steel screws fitted. Need to order replacement gauge

Griff

 

[Andrewcook]

Hi, Griff and Family you are always the Man of the moment as to Sniffing out the problem before it got out of control now sorted till the New Gauge sender Is fixed. Now underway on your Norfolk Broads travels once again hopefully without any further interruptions with your family on board Broad Ambition.

[BroadAmbition]

Beta at 3’516 hours. Which means a minor service was due at 3’500 hours.
 

Oil, oil & diesel filters, clean air filter completed just now,  all good

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

There are currently twenty eight items outstanding on our 'To Do' list.  Admittedly a few of those items are 'Wish List upgrades'  The majority are not.

So as per the norm, we intend to get the items list reduced somewhat.  Therefore there will be a full complement of the four owners onboard tomorrow evening through to Sunday night or early Monday morning latest.  No Purdey, no guests, no entertainment officers or domestic engineers.  Therefore we should be able to crack on handsomely.  We will need to spend Saturday overnight on a wild mooring (Good)  to enable the tv reception problem to be diagnosed as no signal in t wetshed

I'm hoping we can get about eighteen items attended to between us, we will see

Griff

 

[floydraser]

So by my maths and experience of these things that'll be:

28 items - 18 items = 10 items + X items

Where X is the amount of items created/discovered while attending to the 18 items. 

[BroadAmbition]

Where X is the amount of items created/discovered while attending to the 18 items.

Isn't that just always the way?

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Update after the latest maintenance weekend.

Me, Bro and JT arrived onboard late Friday evening with Robin joining us Saturday

With there being four of us onboard all at the same time (A rare event) we got plenty ticked off.  Even managed to sail out of t wetshed down to 'Griffs Corner' wild mooring on the Ant for overnight Saturday which gave us the opportunity to fault find / muck about with the coax and tv tuning which was a success

This lot got firmly ticked off:-

Inspect, grease all points on steering gear / cable,  Inspect,  grease all points on steering gear / cable,   Deep clean Vetus raw water strainers x 2,   Gas locker – Check low level escape pipe / clean out,   Deep clean Port n Stbd deck lockers,   Sort out wiring on mast multi pin connector,   Remove / clean Vetus charcoal filters for waste tank,   Re charge 2 x Auto greasers,   Replace both Fwd bilge pumps, secure with s/steel strapping,   Fit engine coolant expansion tank system,   Fit replacement waste gauge,   Investigate reception interference and run new tv coax,   Strip transom coaming, apply teak stain and 6 x coats of varnish,   Fit earthing cable between digital arial plate and ring main to main earth point,   Fit alarm magnets - Sort out onboard alarm notifications.  Grease all points on drive and prop shaft

Griff

 

[BroadAmbition]

The waste tank gauge packed up a couple of weeks ago.  This sent us back to the last century in having a 'Wonder Tank' once again.  New gauge fitted.  This matched the new water tank gauge that failed a month prior to that (The two on the top left).  The new replacement gauges are digital and led lit, much better.  Thing is the remaining gauges are backlit white with filament lamps.  So we fitted some red lamps - it improved things but one of em is now pink!

The AMP gauge has never been connected (Sterling digital display to take care of the amps system).  It is there for cosmetic reasons and to balance the dash up.  We have been considering changing this over to a rudder indicator but the gauge and sender are eye watering in the open wallet department.  Upgrading the remaining original gauges is about £60 a go too so that can wait.  The Tacho gauge will be even more of course

Griff

 

 

 

 

 

[BroadAmbition]

The transom coaming has got somewhat tired of late along with the top interior face and top shelf.  The face and shelf I flatted back, the coaming I took it back to bare timber, two coats of Epiphanes teak stain followed by four coats of varnish, two more required

Griff

 

[BroadAmbition]

Another long standing upgrade was to fit a remote high level coolant expansion tank system.

Jason Hatch advised us to fit one back in 2007 as we installed the then brand new Beta but I knew better of course and didn't bother

Sigh, I should have listened.  Every time the Beta gets up to full operating temperature, the coolant expands, the cap lifts to relieve pressure as the expanding hot coolant has nowhere to go it is dumped down the overflow hose into our drip tray.  When the engine is cold we have to top up the heater exchanger chamber with coolant.  Then the cycle repeats itsen.  Goodness knows how much coolant we have wasted over the years

It is now completed, I have msged our Jason so he can extract the urine and say 'I told you so' - He did so within minutes

It was nearly straight forward apart from the blanking plug (10mm Allen key) in the top of the thermostat housing.  Try as I did I just couldn't get the thing out, mild steel in aluminium - Stuck fast.  If I had applied more pressure I would have broke sommat.  So off t van, come back with the 'A Team' shifter - A impact driver (Makita).  I went very gently to begin with eventually up to full power both on tighten and undo - it still would not budge - (Insert rude word)

There was only one thing for it - Heat.  Snag, blowtorch back in Donny not in shed.  Thing is heating up Aluminium one has to be proper careful at the best of times.

Solution, wait until we got back into the Wetshed Sunday midday after pootling back up the Ant.  It would be heated  through via normal combustion.  Apply Impact driver - Wizzed itsen out (Allen bit still stuck in the plug though).

Eureka - Not just a pretty face this kid

Jobs a gudden

Griff

 

[BroadAmbition]

QRT

UFN

Out

Griff