Boat Maintenance … Part 4380
Wednesday 20th - Thursday 21st March, 2024
If you own a boat, then you already know that every day is a boat maintenance day. We’ve owned Cotinga for 12 years now, which is about 4380 days … and even when we aren’t on the boat I’m always thinking about it … hence the title.
There are a few things that we need to get done before we head out next week for New England, to make sure the boat is set up to be left on the dock and to try and be as ready as we can be to make a quick get away when we return. Yesterday we took our dirty clothes, towels, sheets etc into the full service laundry at the marina, which is good but expensive. However, it is the only option around here. We brought two propane tanks in to be refilled and picked them up today. We carry three 10 lb propane tanks, each of which last us about 4-5 weeks. However, you can’t get them refilled in French islands and we were down to our final tank. We suspect the French islands use butane rather than propane. ) We defrosted and cleaned the freezer and fridge, which was a bit yucky. Gloria made an inventory of our non-perishable goods and we shopped to re-stock our supplies of tinned goods (tomatoes, olives etc… and beer).
Perhaps the most interesting job was described on our list as “service the steering system”. In recent weeks we have noticed a click as we turn the steering wheel from one side to another and you can feel a slight clunk. This is worrying, because apart from a fire, a steering failure is the worst breakdown I can imagine. In fairness we have some back-ups, because if we break a steering cable (which has happened to us once in the past), the wheel won’t function but the auto-pilot would still work because it is connected via a bronze fitting directly to the rudder post. We also have an emergency tiller that fits on top of the rudder post. Nonetheless, we wanted to figure out what was going on. We can access the steering gear from a panel in the back of the quarter berth or from the large cockpit locker (lazarette) … once all the crap has been cleared out of it. By looking and listening from various angles, whilst Gloria turned the wheel, I was able to figure out that the noise is coming from the joint where the autopilot hydraulic drive connects to the bronze turning arm. When this is disconnected the noise goes away and the steering system as a whole looks fundamentally sound, which is great news. It seems that there has been some wear in the bronze fitting where the stainless connecting pin is located. It’s not much, only a millimeter or two, but enough to cause a knocking as the pin shifts from one side to another. We figure this is only likely to get worse. So we checked on spare parts and could buy a replacement bronze turning arm for US$635. We also talked to our friend Darrell and he suggested over-drilling the hole and fitting a bushing. This seemed like an excellent idea and I was able to find a machine shop in the boatyard that was willing to do this … for about US$350. At this point I emailed Gloria’s brother Rod, and he says that he believes we can do this ourselves using his lathe and drill-press, for a lot less money! He had some good ideas about what materials to use (Delrin rather than bronze) and we are now planning to fly the fitting home with us next week. Rod - you are my hero … thanks!
Unfortunately, we think we probably need to de-scale our toilet outflow pipe again … but that’s a job for another day ... or one for Rod when he returns with us. (I was just kidding ... honestly!)
Mike
This was painted on a concrete buttress on route to Le Chameau, Les Saintes
No comments:
Post a Comment