Hunter, a new to us old timer, a Broom Ocean 37

[Alicatt]

I kept the very sharp bread knife at the helm just in case we got hung up.
We kept communication going between us and I always asked and checked before I engaged gears when leaving the locks. I know my wife has a poor sense of balance so I do take that in to account.

 

[billskip]

I always asked and checked before I engaged gears when leaving the locks

So did I, and was constantly telling her not to lean out...didn't have to after that....definitely was not amusing at the time, lesson learned....kids on boats huh!
My Dad took me (5yrs) and my sister (7 yrs) on to my uncle's boat moored on the Thames at Putney on the club's trots, it was high tide on the ebb and dad popped down into the cabin...splash!! dad heard it and called to my sister stop throwing things into the water...she said Billy's fallen in....all I remember was the being under water, my dad was in and caught me as I was by this time quite a distance down stream...

 

[Alicatt]

That’s amazing worth a thread on its own.

The Whitlock system is quite smooth and you don't feel any play in the system, even with all those shafts and universal joints in it.

The drive box for the auto pilot is just below the lower helm and right beside the steering shaft after the bevel gear, there there is a small cogged wheel on the shaft which is driven by the control box via a bicycle chain, I'm back onboard later this afternoon I'll try and get some pics of the bits.
The function of the autopilot differs slightly than that what I have in Pinta manuals, this looks to be a remote control system rather than the manual leaver you have to use to engage the drive, plus there is a "sensitivity" dial that you can turn up or down the amount of off course correction the system gives.

This is the drive box: you can see the silver spiral wrapped cable, flexible drive really, coming into the box on the left, that takes the differential from the heading to the required heading and via the drive alters the steering via the chain drive to the line shaft from the helm


This is the other end of the chain drive where it is coupled with the line shaft, you can see the universal joint at the top of the pic it comes from the helm into the bevel transfer box, then the U-joint on the right is on the line shaft going aft to the junction box from the upper helm

I have 2 manuals for the autopilot they are similar but different and both different from how the one works on the boat but similar enough that I got it to work

 

[Alicatt]

Back from Scotland now and got back to the boat yesterday and today.

Found I had connected the AIS to ... well I don't know what as I lost track of the coax cable in the wiring loom, I think it may go to a defunct transducer for the original echo sounder, will have to suss that out further but traced the proper cable from the antenna, it went to the Sailor VHF in the saloon so pulled that back and put a new plug on it for the AIS, so the AIS is now working great.

Checked out the pressure gauge that I was unsure of, it is for the gearbox and the local engineer confirmed it, says it is working ok. he went over the systems with me both of us filling in the parts the other did not know, he has only worked on the vertical Perkins 6354 engine but knew of the horizontal one but had never seen one before, he called it a bus engine well he is correct in that as they were used in buses and also in rail cars as well as in some boats. My father had a BMC truck with a Perkins 6354 in it the guys that drove it commented on how economical it was, and the one long trip I did in it towing a motorhome back to Birmingham from Glasgow we averaged 33mpg for the round trip Loch Lomond to Brum and back.

Now the fuel tanks' gauges, the main tank still says full, the aux tank says more than 3/4 but not quite full, the main tank sender is open circuit and the aux tank is working the levels in the tanks are balanced and the same, about 5cm from being full, does not look like much has been used for the trip back adding it all up we did around 200km and there is a huge amount of fuel left, The tank is 16" deep and I have used about 2" of fuel from it plus what ever the previous owner had used from it as they had not been filled since last May when the boat was put back in the water and sailed to the broker.

One more trip this Thursday and Friday to Bocholt and back and then laying Hunter up for the winter,

 

[Sticky Fingers]

What jobs do you have planned for the winter layup?

 

[Alicatt]

Was discussing that with the technician, giving the engines and gearboxes a good servicing, Jan is a good pair of hands and as his own boat is three in front of Hunter and two behind Casper I know where to get him

Wood work, lots of varnish removal and then oiling the teak hand rails, first is removing the mast and making it pretty again. Electrics, lots of left over redundant cables and wiring that needs either removed or repurposed, install a shower sump/pump for the fore cabin as it just drains into the bilge at the moment, shower head has been removed so it can't be used until it gets sorted, thinking about a black and grey water tanks and how they could be fitted, lots of room under the engines but would that be too hot there, have to think about it.

Next year a trip to UK and get the topsides professionally painted along with getting all the windows properly sealed on re-installation. We have been away from the boat for a month now and the weather here has been bad, Hunter was dry inside, so the work we did cleaning out all the drain holes that were blocked and running some silicone around the tops of the trim has worked wonders.

Looking for a set of davits to put our new tender on, missed a good set at a good price in Italy, by the time I persuaded the pusser to open the coffers they had gone

Get our youngest to put new hinges on the radar arch one snapped when putting the arch back up, also getting a support made to hold the arch up a bit so we can get on and off the cockpit without having to crawl under the arch and still try and keep the arch under 4m, the bridge that we have to go under only goes up to 4.1m and the cockpit tent just fits under the bridge, boat is 4.4m high to the top of the radar arch

Tomorrow (Wed) provision the boat and get her ready for one last cruise, taking our grandson and granddaughter to Bocholt and I'm going there to get new glasses - well that was the original excuse for this last cruise, Bocholt is about 20minutes drive from the house and about a 5hour sail

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Sounds good

 

[Greg2]

Sounds like a busy winter!

I would suggest a switched pump for the shower as the sumps inevitably overflow at some point - I have one in my garage that I removed from our last boat and it will be joined by another during the winter.

When talking about installing tanks I assume you mean the space in the keel when you say under the engines? I would think carefully about that as it does enable access under the engines with a bit of wriggling but be careful as I nearly got stuck in that space!

Decent used davits don’t appear on the market too often so best to move quickly if you see another set. I kept a pair from a previous boat for that very reason and five or six years on fitted them to our Hardy.
.

 

[Alicatt]

For all that the Ocean 37 is quite a bit bigger than our Placom 750, I miss the large lazarette that is on the Placom, you could almost put a double bed in the space.
I have a switched diaphragm pump on the aft shower it fairly empties the shower tray, way faster than the shower head can fill it too, it was something I did when we were laid up wating on the registration docs.
That thought had crossed my mind about the access to the engines, with the Racor fuel filters in way of the most obvious way to get under the engines and into the bottom of the bilge not 100% sure I could get in there.

 

[dunedin]

Re davits, is it a particularly heavy dinghy? If not perhaps a new set of the Plastimo davits would do the job. That’s what we have.
Raided the old dinghy parts box and put better three part pulley system at heavier rear end of dinghy, which has (2 stroke) outboard. Worked well for us.

 

[Whopper]

Cleaning out the fuel tank would be a good idea for next year.

 

[Alicatt]

Not a heavy dinghy, she weighs in just under the 40kg plus 13kg for the outboard, just looking for something in keeping with the style of the mother ship.
I could use those snap davits onto the small swim platform we have, there are options until we get the right thing.

 

[Alicatt]

Cleaning out the fuel tank would be a good idea for next year.

That was done as part of the servicing before we bought the boat, they also fitted the Racor fuel filters at the same time.

The sender in the tank you see in this pic needs replaced it is open circuit, the wires to it check out ok

 

[tr7v8]

Ye gods that takes me back a bit to Clive Neighbours (late of this parish) Broom. I did various work on it, including fuel filters, refurbing the cooling stacks & a few other jobs. Someone else did the head gasket as I didn't have the time. Various trips on it, culminating in a delivery trip up to Brooms where he put it up for sale before decamping to Espana.

 

[Greg2]

That thought had crossed my mind about the access to the engines, with the Racor fuel filters in way of the most obvious way to get under the engines and into the bottom of the bilge not 100% sure I could get in there.

The way in was in the centre at the front of the engines. I could lower myself in so I was standing in the bottom of the keel with my head in the saloon then drop down to a crouch and wriggle my head and shoulders aft so I ended up lying in the keel. I am 6’5” and having done it on a hot day to clean up oil under the engines I got stuck and genuinely thought that only the Fire Brigade and an angle grinder would get me out!

I got out by staying calm and ignoring the pain as I manoeuvred my carcass back to a more sensible location and never tried it again!

On a serious note, whilst it is doable size and flexibility are key factors so if in doubt don’t do it!
.

 

[Alicatt]

I'm not so tall at 5'8", it's more the girth and 68 year old joints.
One of the things I did in my yoof was to go potholing and caving, remaining calm is a necessity when you take a breath and you feel the weight of the mountain above you pressing on your chest
Under the forward saloon seat is a two level storage area and the lower section goes back against the hull to the port side looking in there I saw a plastic bag with something in it Waaaay out of reach, so I leaned in and wriggled on a bit further until I could get the bag. It was tight in there and my hips were past the rim of the seat, head down and no leverage to get back out, words like Oops were going through my mind as I tried to squirm my way back up, took my wife hauling on my hips to get back out.
The plastic bag contained an old rusty grill pan, must of been there for a long time as the plastic bag was going brittle.

 

[Greg2]

I did a bit of pot-holing in my youth too and remember only too well getting a bit stuck in a ‘squeeze’

I had a bit of a better find in the same two level storage area under the seat - a case of sparkling wine forgotten by a previous owner!

 

[Alicatt]

No drink found on board … so far
The broker gave us a bottle of champagne after exchanging contracts, just spares and so in the two level storage

 

[Alicatt]

Moored up in Bocholt for the night. Youngest daughter and family came for dinner onboard


Arch down to get under the bridges and La Folie following on.
Weed was bad, normally make about 8km/h at idle, had to give a good bit of welly to get the boat above 6km/h, we let La Folie overtake as she has better protection on her rudder and propeller