And what a year it has been! Got the starter rebuilt ($75) and it worked great. However, just before launching last season (2011) discovered the main fuel tank was leaking into the bilge. Drained it and ran all summer on the auxillary tank (plus two plastic cans). All was fine until first day back at work in August … got a phone call, “Hi, this is the marina calling … your boat is taking on water, can you come do something about it?”
Threw the trailer on the truck, raced over to Horseshoe Bay, pulled it out of the water (they had pumped it!) Discovered 2-1/2 gallons of salt water in the oil pan, drained it, changed the oil, ran it up, repeated several times, all seems ok. Just in case, drove over to Alberta one Sunday/Monday to pick up a replacement engine. (Immediate problem was that the ‘hot’ line to the bilge pump had corroded.)
Figured it was time to replace the gas tank, so gutted the cabin to the hull, cut open the deck with the circular saw, pulled the old tank, got a replacement built, installed it, and had Stewart’s Yacht Services do the deck replacement fibreglass work (nice job, good price!) I built a new sub-deck for the port side seating, fixed the starboard side cabinets, pulled the auxillary water tank out, removed the head and holding tank, and painted the interior deck. Pulled all the faux fur headliner, reassembled the cabin.
Still have to connect the new gas tank, replace the batteries and main cables, re-route the interior cabling (lights, etc) which were hidden by the faux fur headliner, and test the engine again. Also plan to install access hatches to side compartments (outboard of the stringers) to make it easier to check and drain (think I had taken on about 700 lbs of undetected water there!)
Hoping I can launch this summer, but between the cold & wet weather and the 7-day-a-week work schedule there’s not much time to work on it! Oh well, once the new building is complete (3 years?) hopefully I’ll have some time to work on it!
Posted on April 2nd, 2012 by revjim
Filed under: Boating | Comments Off
Getting closer to launch day … got the leg back on (successfully, I think!) and tried to fire it up … got one cough, then the starter wouldn’t engage! Finally bit the bullet and pulled the starter off the engine – a LOT easier than I feared – and it is crap: bad bearings/bushings, etc, etc.
However, once I find a ‘new’ one and install it, we should be good to go. Shift cable completely replaced, new gymbal bearing, a better prop, new DSC radio (push the red button for 3 seconds and it automatically issues a digital MAYDAY, complete with GPS coords!) … hopefully this summer I can not only cruise smartly and smoothly up to the gas dock, I can get underway again without any problems!!
Posted on June 8th, 2011 by revjim
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Been experimenting with writing a program in C++ to access mysql database on the server. Wow – I had forgotten (due to being spoiled by Ubuntu linux) just how complicated and frustrating it is to install developer software on Windows! However, old scar tissue served as the needed filters, and I finally got a solution that works … VC++ 2010 Express combined with MySQL 5.5 using the old API’s … perhaps a little messy, but it works fine! Cheesh!
Posted on February 28th, 2011 by revjim
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Dad-gum alternators! Trying to remove one from the boat engine … I don’t think it has been removed since the motor (Ford 302 V-8) was built in 1975! The hinge bolt is firmly corroded to the alternator housing – even an air-driven torque wrench can’t move it! Need to replace the solid-state electronics, as the voltage regulator got cooked with the overheating issues last summer. Cheesh!
Also, major work on the leg … seal shields on the ‘sealed’ main shaft bearing disintegrated, throwing shrapnel into the the u-joint bladder, causing salt-water leak … cleaned the shaft, replacing the main bearing and seal … the u-joints seem ok.
Posted on January 27th, 2011 by revjim
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Just back from an overnight trip to Secret Cove … left Horseshoe Bay Sunday at 3:20, stayed at the Secret Cove Marina (excellent food!) and back today. The boat purred all the way up and all the way back, even shifts properly after a 1:45 run!
Posted on August 16th, 2010 by revjim
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IDIOTS! I sometimes wonder how the City of Vancouver staff can get dressed by themselves in the morning! All traffic off the Lion’s Gate Bridge is being routed along West Pender … which makes sense and is ok, EXCEPT there is a movie being shot on West Pender near Burrard, closing most lanes. Do these people not talk to each other??
Posted on May 9th, 2010 by revjim
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Haven’t heard from Telus, but the phone “seems” to be working ok … at least I’ve had several calls come in, haven’t seen any “0 Min, 0 Sec” calls. (Did however notice the phone do a ‘spontaneous’ reboot a few days ago … figure that Telus forced an update!)
Posted on March 19th, 2010 by revjim
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Picked up a new Motorola Milestone last week … love the phone, but it has a serious glitch: incoming calls often go directly to voicemail.
From the debugging I have done, I think I know what’s happening … and how frustrating is it not to be able to talk to a Telus engineer who is supposed to be working on it!
Symptoms:
- the calls go directly to voicemail on first ring
- debugging shows that this is only on “Forward when busy” … even when the phone is NOT busy.
- call is NOT shown as a “Missed Call” in the log, but rather an answered call with a duration of zero time
What I think is the problem: the phone is answering the call so fast that that the network sees the ‘busy’ status too early, directs the call to voicemail, and the phone sees the connection being dropped immediately.
sigh!!
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by revjim
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Finally had a chance to play with the aging laptop (Acer Aspire 9400). Shuffled partitions around, converted them to ntfs, installed Ubuntu 9.10 in dual-boot configuration.
All went well, even got the wireless running without too much grief!
LOVE the speed of linux on this system … it’s like a 10x improvement on WinXP Pro .. I can see all my Win files … lovin’ it!!
Posted on January 5th, 2010 by revjim
Filed under: Computing | 5 Comments »
Note the comparative sizes between the boat and the Ranger …
Safe for the winter ...
Posted on October 6th, 2009 by revjim
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