Boat Jobs You Don't want to do Again

[Stemar]

Yesterday's one was refitting the windlass on my own.

It's a vertical shaft job, with the motor and gearbox below the deck, so I had to align the shaft and persuade it that it really does want to go in, then lift it further to get the nuts on the bolts, This involved reaching into the chain locker (cat, so it's shallow - no chance of climbing in) and lifting with one hand. while I fiddle with the other. Not going to happen - the motor assembly is around 15kg, and I'm not going to win World's Strongest Man any day soon. I eventually managed to do it with wood blocks and a lever, but what I nightmare. Hindsight's a wonderful thing - I should have cleaned up the threads on the studs with a die; it would have meant I could wind the nuts on by hand instead of having to use a spanner 1/6-1/3 of a turn at a time.

Too knackered to do the wiring afterwards, but that'll be simple by comparison.

What's your nightmare job?

 

[Boathook]

Grinding fibreglass and any other work that means be bent in half to do the work or awkward to get at. Possibly means packing up boating!

Luckily the good times boating are more than the above at present.

 

[Clancy Moped]

Cleaning out rat 5hit and pee after a week-long visit from Roland, you'd be surprised at the amount he could produce. Thankfully headlining was his preferred food, not wiring or pipework.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

Cleaning sludge, grit and slime out of my fuel tanks.
Before (Half-way through with 100 micron mesh.)

After. (30 micron filter.)


Fitting the cooling water anti-syphon hose to the skin fitting. So inaccessible I had to send an agile 13-year old into the cockpit locker to do it.

 

[Stemar]

So inaccessible I had to send an agile 13-year old into the cockpit locker to do it.

I could have used one of them, but I haven't got one, and all my (30-40 or so) kids are %0+ miles away.

 

[ChromeDome]

Complete antifoul removal.

Last time was 6 years ago and I swore never ever to do it again.

Hence, to change to a different antifoul regime 2 years ago, I had it dry-ice blasted ?

 

[capnsensible]

Replacing my old British Leyland diesel engine with a new yanmar.

 

[Biggles Wader]

I could have used one of them, but I haven't got one, and all my (30-40 or so) kids are %0+ miles away.

30-40 or so kids? Thats even more than BJ

 

[[2574]]

As one ages the pain of DIY comes in to balance with the pain of paying….and then paying becomes less painful….

 

[mjcoon]

30-40 or so kids? Thats even more than BJ

Or Jacob Rea-Smog...

 

[john_morris_uk]

The worst job I’ve done in years was stretching out at full length under the cockpit of our daughters little 7 metre Pandora to chisel away the remnants of the rotted ply and fibreglass sheeting under her cockpit floor where water had got in and then cutting a new piece of ply and bonding it underneath on thickened epoxy and sheathing the lot with layers of glass woven matting and epoxy from upsidedown and underneath. Some areas were only accessible at full arms length in far distant corners. I’m hoping I never have to do such a job again.
On our own boat the job of replacing the stem head fitting (accessible only through a tiny hatch in the dwarf bulkhead at the f’wd end of the forepeak) is a job that I don’t want to do again either

 

[PhillM]

Anything that includes smelling diesel. I hate the smell and it takes ages to clean up if its spilt.

 

[Birdseye]

Complete antifoul removal.

Last time was 6 years ago and I swore never ever to do it again.

Hence, to change to a different antifoul regime 2 years ago, I had it dry-ice blasted ?

got to agree with that one.

 

[Koeketiene]

What's your nightmare job?

1. Blocked heads
2. Replacing a teak deck

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Very similar to Stemar but lying in a cockpit locker with my head at the lowest point trying to fit a Lewmar autopilot motor to the bottom of the pedestal and shaft with only one arm and through a small inspection hatch, impossible to lift the motor with one hand let alone align the splines on the shaft. It took over 8 hours to finally get it all together. If PD was still posting he would testify to the constant streams of Anglo Saxon emanating from the boat.

 

[mjcoon]

1. Blocked heads
2. Replacing a teak deck

Yes, I was going to cite my spending much of a night near the start of a flotilla trip ladling the content of the heads into a bucket with a cut-down 2L water bottle (so much for single-use plastic!) and surreptitiously emptying the bucket into the harbour. Turned out the holding tank outlet valve was permanently closed and the handle just turned without doing anything useful. So the sewage belonged largely to the previous crew and we had taken over a boat with an almost full tank. So no wonder it was back-flowing...

 

[johnalison]

I find washing-up quite a challenge.

 

[Blueboatman]

Poking at recalcitrant electronics?

All the work but nothing to show for it ( except a receipt or two for a replacement??)

At least with barnacle bashing and laminating in a new stout bit of deck hardware , you have a better faster stronger boat under you

 

[Hydrozoan]

I’ve been happy if occasionally frustrated with - and often tired by - quite a lot of wiring and freshwater plumbing, and I've removed and myself resealed two windows. But quite the worst job, within a few years of getting the boat, was replacing the heads pipe-work with sanitation hose - or 'wrestling with snakes' as Mrs H and I came to know it. Despite starting in good time we finished late on a Sunday night with a long drive home - and when it had to be done again recently, with a seacock replacement, it was done by the yard.

 

[rotrax]

Yesterday's one was refitting the windlass on my own.

It's a vertical shaft job, with the motor and gearbox below the deck, so I had to align the shaft and persuade it that it really does want to go in, then lift it further to get the nuts on the bolts, This involved reaching into the chain locker (cat, so it's shallow - no chance of climbing in) and lifting with one hand. while I fiddle with the other. Not going to happen - the motor assembly is around 15kg, and I'm not going to win World's Strongest Man any day soon. I eventually managed to do it with wood blocks and a lever, but what I nightmare. Hindsight's a wonderful thing - I should have cleaned up the threads on the studs with a die; it would have meant I could wind the nuts on by hand instead of having to use a spanner 1/6-1/3 of a turn at a time.

Too knackered to do the wiring afterwards, but that'll be simple by comparison.

What's your nightmare job?

I was fitting a horizontal windlass. I got the nuts off OK but was unable to reach to start the threads when fitting the new one. A Hanse moored alongside. It had two young children on board.
Armed with cake I asked the parents who sent the ten year old over who was able to get in the space and start the nuts!

Result!