Headed for the home stretch

Sometimes I start out feeling excited about something only to have the what have I gotten myself into anxiety take it's place. Occasionally I've had to block out feelings of such anxiety. I am happy to report we've reached the light at the end of the tunnel stage which brings a relieved excitement.

Wednesday we closed on the sale of Vela Via adding some much appreciated cash flow.

Today I got a call from Race announcing completion of the engine work and he is confident we'll see good use out of them. I am looking forward to a real sea trial when we launch.

Work on the transom is progressing. Everything is cleaned up and ready for the new core material to be glassed in. We deliberated a little about using synthetic core instead of marine plywood but decided to go with the plywood. Each hull penetration will be isolated such that bolts go through nothing but glass eliminating the risk of wood being exposed to moisture.

Bernie made good progress down the starboard side with the buffer and cutting compound, it's about 30% done. I am disappointed that I didn't get a picture of her doing that but I am pressing for another such photo op!

The genset work is progressing. Several pieces of the sound shield sit on a cart at Accurweld in Washougal. They will be replacing the rusted out sections with new metal. I've removed excessive corrosion from the rest of the parts, applied some corroseal, JB weld and Rustoleum enamel. I've got the seawater pump apart, heat exchanger apart, oil drained and filter removed and am awaiting parts to put it all back together. Numerous rusted fittings are also being replaced.

Genset showing major corrosion, sound shield removed.
Home made gantry to lift the genset, drip pan removed.
 
Corrosion (rust) removal in progress
Top of alternator housing with heavy corrosion removed, remaining material quite thin in spots

JB Weld applied to restore alternator housing thickness

Parts with corrosion treated with corroseal
I took advantage of the port engine being partially dismantled which provided good access to the failed pre-heat relays. The main cummins engines use air preheats instead of glow plugs. There are two 50amp heaters on each engine and the relays provide the switching for them. There is an electronic controller that determines when to use the pre-heats depending on ambient engine temperature. This aids cold engine start and reduces cold engine smoking (stink potting).

Preheat relays on port engine before
The old preheat relays


 
We avoided an electrical fire! The last trip to the boat we had the space heater running and it caused some overheating of the GFCI outlet on the starboard circuit. We found this out by tracing a burning wire smell. A direct short was about to occur as two wires were melting together. The breaker would likely have tripped and prevented a fire.
 

Burnt connectors are a sign of poor connections

The back of the GFI showing signs of heat.


Another item high on the list is the propane sniffer (leak detector). The insurance company gave me the go ahead to keep the current factory installation and forego putting the tank in a sealed locker provided that I install the sniffer. There are two detectors with one installed in the bilge and one at galley floor level. If propane is detected by either sniffer at or above 20% of an explosive concentration the unit will shut off the flow of propane.

Propane sniffer installed in the bilge.

Sniffer controller installation in progress.
Most of the effort for projects like installing a propane sniffer system involves the thinking on where to put the components and how to run the wire connecting them. So far I have all of it figured out. All that remains is installing the control panel. The panel is designed to switch the negative side of the propane solenoid valve but the boat is wired to control that on the positive side. I'll install a relay to get around this problem. The controller will control the relay using the negative switching and the relay will control the solenoid using positive switching.

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