A question of philosophy

[Twister_Ken]

Two rival philosophies on boat maintenance:

Preventative maintenance.

Or...

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Which is the true faith? Discuss.

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This question is sponsored by the idiot that took out a perfectly good bilge pump (at no small cost to skin of knuckles), dismantled it, cleaned it, replaced all servicable parts, reinstalled it (at no small cost to skin of knuckles) and found that instead of sucking water out of the bilges, it was blowing air into them.

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[kindredspirit]

"a" is obviously right.

Just because "bilge chappie" made a boo boo doesn't invalidate the argument. (Although some people can go over the top, e.g. my next door neighbour with his DIY ! )

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[Spacewaist]

A stitch in time, saves nine. NM

.

<hr width=100% size=1>A pontification from the Panjandrum of orotund bloviation AD2003

 

[Twister_Ken]

How does one identify...

...when that one stitch is needed?

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[tcm]

The true faith is clearly "preventative maintenance". This is the route to full familiarity with all aspects of boating. It is through adopting this policy that the author clearly knows about bilge pumps, their workings and non-workings. Should someone wonder why their newly-fixed bilge pumps seems ineffective, an easy test will be to apply a small amount of washing up liquid to the bilge water which will gratifying prove the situation that only someone who had idiotically reversed their operation could or would suspect.

Bilge-wise i am engaged in a similarly jolly project, hunting for an ingress of water, which is leading me a merry dance through first trying to locate the source of the water, which tastes like diluted salty bleach, and hence could be from the sea, the freshwater, or the grey water pipework, damnit. I have to temporarily block up the limber holes, but had no Plasticene, so used a cut-up apple which works quite well. However, i still cannot find the source. Yet.

In any case, I hope the inference isn't that following a policy of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" would result in a perfectly working bilge pump? The slothful and non-fiddling skipper would be at a loss to understand what had gone wrong when the bilge pump did go wrong, why all this water, where to locate a replacement, how to dismantle it. Meanwhile the inveterate tinkerer will diagnose the problem immediately as the bilge pump that he earlier dismantled, that has now unsuprisingly and conclusively busted. He'll know exactly where to get a replacement, and why next time it perhaps ould be a better idea to do things like spray WD40 on shiny components instead and then frowningly wipe it off. He may suspect that the bilge pump would never have gone wrong if he'd left it alone, like say the engine hours meter which looks a lot harder and needs very small screwdrivers I bet, but is normally left well alone. Still, we'll happily never know.

And yet and yet. The true reason for Preventative Maintenance is our parents. We saw them dismantle things, and fondly imagined that they knew what they were doing. They silently attended to bicycles, cars and household equipment. We watched in awe as they dismantled and sometimes repaired various items, "Why are you doing that Dad" "Never you mind, just watch" but we got bored and went elsewhere. Yet Dad never fixed the telly, or anything truly complicated. In fact, they had no idea what they were doing, just as we don't now. Youngsters watch in awe as i quickly attack some harmless piece of equipment, even though the appearance of competence is for the most part created through detailed knowledge of the contents of the toolbox.





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[snowleopard]

if it ain\'t broke...

either you just fixed it or it's about to break!

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[Rowana]

Re: How does one identify...

This is the $75.000 question !!

I earned my living for the last umteen years looking at what maintenance should be done on offshore oil platforms. As you can imagine, the costs involved are extremely high, but the consequences of a failure on a piece of equipment could be even higher.

In your bilge pump example, what would be the consequences of failure? If there was no other means of getting rid of the water, then the boat would sink eventually. I would suspect however, that there would be more than one pump, most likely of a different type, manual & electric for example, then the consequences now become much less critical. Then of course there is the traditional bucket.

So perhaps now we do not require the same level of maintenance, and can run our bilge pump until failure. This poses another question; how do we define failure? Perhaps it is when we notice a reduced flow from the pump, or we have to pump much longer to get rid of the same amount of water.

On top of all that is the fact, as has just been discovered, that not all maintenance activities result in restored functionality. It is also a quite well understood phenomenon that failure rates on certain equipment types are higher just after maintenance; the so called "infant mortality".

But at the end of the day, it all boils down to how you feel you are looking after your own particular pride and joy, and whether you get satisfaction from doing this type of maintenance. The "Feel-Good Factor"

Does this help ?

Jim

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[ParaHandy]

It's a battle against the sea .... there's too much of the stuff and you're not going to win. If your boat wasn't in the sea, then it wouldn't matter what you did or did not do. You can't lose.

For example, the Bratfud lad wi' his airse in the air licking up his bilge water (does he use a straw as if drinking a cordial?) is a case in point. If he wasn't in the sea, he'd know, wouldn't he? Actually, they can train dogs to do almost anything these days. Why can't somebody train a dog water taster? This pooch (it'd have to be a dachshund or scottie - something pretty small) would be hired out and off it would scamper into your bilges and if it wagged its tail you know its fresh water, otherwise not, and if it collapses .. well, expect a visit from RSPCA ....


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[jimi]

Also another philosophy, destructive maintenance. ie tinker, break it, fix it then need to get a wee man in to sort the wretched mess out ..

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[tcm]

Re: Destructive=preventative

Of course, destructive maintence is essentially preventative maintence by another name. In the (likely) eventuality of the thing proving impossible to fix or getting busted by one's own so-called skills, a range of skipperish comments are needed before the wee man can be summoned. I mean, you can't really say, oops, damn, I've just lost some of the parts overboard on account of fixing it on the quayside/deck, now I'll have to get another whole unit, silly me. That would look ridiculous. Suitable pronouncements include
.
There's no manual tsk,
It needs a special tool that would cost a fortune or take ages to arrive
The wiring diagram is incorrect, as usual
It's on the 240volts side so it wouldn't be wise without specialised equipment
The manual doesn't corespond to the component
The manual is in another language for goodness sake
The parts aren't available in the chandler, can you believe it.
If we go any further it might invalidate any warranty
I've simply had enough of them telling me the wrong information, let's see them do it.



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[tcm]

Hm. I hope Para's scottie-dog-training scheme doesn't sum up his approach to boat maintenance. Or maybe it does? Perhaps he has a trained chimpanzee on board to help tighten the sheets and leap ashore, and trails a minature porpoise which flaps its tail to inform him of the speed and clears the prop whenever necessary.

Damn. These seem quite good ideas.




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[ParaHandy]

Ha ... the Tarka Mohr seat's built on Sunday ... Ohhh yess. Will need to do some destructive testing with incapable drunken people. Wood has been specially treated to resist "gaseous" attack ........... Looking for appropriate inscription similar to those metal plates "in memory of etc etc" you find on park benches but less funereal ....

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[ParaHandy]

Minimalist philosophy ...

at least, don't get into something you can't get out of ... errmmm, well .... like boats .....



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[Chris_Robb]

Damage It Yourself

Had to put a new chain stripper on the Lofrans Winch last weekend. Beacuse the old stripper had been packed out with washers to get it to fit in the right place, I didn'nt realise that the stainless bolts were too long for the holes in the aluminium casting. Anyway - tightened up the bolts - suddenly all goes easy. - all gone buggerup - the castings holding the screws had sheared off. - so now, no-where to fix chain stripper.

Off to find new winch - unless anyone has any bright ideas. I presume you cannot weld cast ally

What was a nice simple job .....



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[tcm]

Re: messing about opportunityrself

Could you re-thread the bolt holes for bolts a bit bigger diameter (and shorter)? Or, ahem, get someone to do it.

Note: in describing the job to be done you describe it in the passive: "the internal thread has been stripped" or if you wish, in the third person "some idiot seems to have stripped the threads, so..."

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[Chris_Robb]

Re: messing about opportunityrself

Problem is the thread in the casting didn't strip - it sheared off from the main body of the winch becaus ethe bolt was too long. - or rather I sheared the bloody thing off because I was Cak handed....

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[tcm]

Re: blame opportunity

Fool! Not for breaking it, of course, but for blaming yourself in the first instance. Hitting it repeatedly with a massive hammer is only just your fault. Since you didn't hit it with hammer, try:

1) "Items such as this should be durable, and capable of being maintained and used by non-experts, for goodness sakes, hm? After all, it's supposed to be an anchor windlass"

2) "the manual didn't say "if using these holes, don't use too-long screws" did it. No. Crap manual, as usual." (This a bit useless cos it doen't say "don't hit with hammer")

3) "The material used for the casting seems very weak. Not suitable quality if it could be pulled apart with a spanner and a normal non-gorilla-ish person. I mean, that can't be right can it?" (note, engineeringwise this is a great argument since it probly ain't supposed to withstand suchandsuch treatment, but it is indubitably "not right" as far as you're concerned that it is broken and you are upset, so if they say "ah but...." you can round on them with "oh so it's SUPPOSED to break is it? Surely not?!"

4) any of the above works better if SWMBO goes to supplier (with broken item if poss) and explains problem, and supplier takes pity and mebbe offers solution or replacement. Hide in the bar whilst his happens.



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[Chris_Robb]

Re: blame opportunity

Its all the suppliers fault - if he hadn't supplied an 8 mm stripper 3 times instead of a 10 mm stripper - none of this would have happened.......

what stripper ... where.......

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