KevB
Active member
Two weeks without an update... I can't last much longer 
MiToS re-built/fit- versilcraft Mystery43
- Thread starter vas
- Start date
vas
Well-known member
Two weeks without an update... I can't last much longer
apologies, have I got news for you? (is this still on UK TV, was when I was there 15-20yrs ago...)
Yep!
some good some bad.
Start with the bad...
Managed to steal an evening on Sunday to remove the seal on the port salon window, clean it properly, and use the proper windscreen mastic to reseat it and waterproof the lot. Problem is that cleaning the bleeding seal inside out, removing traces of paint that went through the masking tape at places took me the best part of 3h. By that time I had the window frame literally on the air, BUT it was dark. So got some lights out, the mastic gun loaded and started working. I overdid the squeezing of mastic on the front and bottom side of the seal and when eventually screwed it in and mastic started squeezing out it was all over the place (i.e. between 2-6mm outside the seal) By that time I decided to sort out the sticking of the sliding mechanism on this port window (perfect timing!) took me another half hour and undoing a dozen M5 (iirc) bolts and eventually fixed it.
At that point it was 7:30pm, my daughter was having her first big party with 20odd kids at home and I'd promised i'd be there by 6...
So packed up and decided to let the mastic to dry a bit and return the next day to sort it out.
You can imagine the rest of the story... Monday was plain hell, Tue managed to go there for an hour to realize the extend of the mastic that was squashed out of the seam and tried to remove some of it. Mastic too fcking strong taking parts of the top coat with it
Not too great a problem as I can use some masking tape to create a unified stretch where I can apply some mastic at 2-3mm thick and smooth/fade it out.
Option two is masking it again and Alekos getting another bit of topcoat on that strip (but you probably need an airbrush for it!)
Anyway, p1ssed off as it really wasn't necessary and was an elementary mistake!
When I get to do the stbrd side, I'll surely apply some blue masking tape all around the seal BEFORE removing the screen and seal so that any excess mastic will stick on this tape and can later by simply removed with no harm. That's what I did when I replaced the windscreens over the final topcoat.
No pics to show my stupidity, sorry
On the plus side, I bid for a s/h 24HD Garmin radome (spares or repair) last week and got it for 211quid +40something delivery. Picked it up (hardly fitted the wife's seicento!) in it's proper Garmin box with all the support, seals etc. Opened it up to find a brand new untouched item, mounting bolts never used, shiny BUT with a cracked cover on top. Crack is in a cross pattern, one side is around 200mm other approx. 50. Undid the cover, and noticed that the "deflector" U shaped thing that spins around is bent where the lid was squashed on it and the one of the two bolts securing it on it's axle popped out. Axle, belt, pulleys all look right and spin fine.
Wonder how easy it is to remove the spinning thing, to strengthen it and then hook it up to my GPSMAP3006 and see if it works. Slightly worried as I don't understand/haven't ever studied how radars are implemented and therefore cannot assess how vital/clear/impedance sensitive are the two (if I can see properly) thin wires going up to the spinning bit. In other words, can I undo them safely and do my job? If everything is fine (which I assume it is the case) I'll just have to repair the "lid".
Being plastic (I guess these fancy and difficult to glue thermoplastics) I'll have a go at one of the motorbike fairing repair companies and see what they come up with. If price's right I might buy a new lid, but I'm afraid that local Garmin will charge me more for the lid than i paid for the whole lot
Few pics of the radome (btw, it's bloody massive!)
lid from inside:
bent spinning thing:
detail with popped bolt and marks from the plastic lid:
Ah, forgot to mention that since the spinning thing is rather slow spinning, I guess there wont be any problems with slight unbalanced spinning bits and it doesn't seem that the support is mission critical (always open to other ideas)
cheers
V.
Last edited:
vas
Well-known member
another update with lots of pics, not so sure when the next one will be though
Pics of the port side mess (mainly bow and bottom, aft side looks ok):
It's clear that I'm only going to be using the sbrd side to go to the bow
did the stbrd side properly today with blue tape and all that, looks much neater, will have to go again within the next couple of days to cut the extra sealant and clean up:
Quite happy, had an extra half hour so tried scraping the slightly flaky paint off the passarelle ram. Not much point being white on a grey hull with a ss passarelle... Turns out that it's doable - probably need another hour and a half to strip it and polish it:
(last pic was with a thin wirewool type of synthetic pad, will need a pass with the polishing cloth and should be fine)
Also tidied up the salon, cleared and dumped some old tins of pain/epoxy/whatever, cleaned up the ply floor to check if there's going to be any water dripping in from the windows. If it's clean, I can progress with bringing the corner seating in and starting with the finishing off in the salon.
Back at home, using a small washer got the rotating thingy secure again (didn't yet bother to straighten it though) and hooked it up to my Garmin 3006C chartplotter. First couple of times were disappointing as it was slowly turning and stopping and the plotter hadn't picked it up. Eventually secured the cables properly and plotter picked it up!
60sec warming up and even had some scan!
Problem is that through the office window with a slightly hideous church opposite blocking the view and all being quite close, it did manage to get something that resembles the plan of the area. Verdict, it works!
So next task is to get the lid for a repair, thinking if I should stick to white or get the hull grey in the lot instead. Will depend on condition.
I've got a video of the thing spinning with the lid off, it does make some noise imo it's coming from the toothed belt.
I'll post it once I get it down from 30MB into something reasonable for comments.
cheers
V.
Pics of the port side mess (mainly bow and bottom, aft side looks ok):
It's clear that I'm only going to be using the sbrd side to go to the bow
did the stbrd side properly today with blue tape and all that, looks much neater, will have to go again within the next couple of days to cut the extra sealant and clean up:
Quite happy, had an extra half hour so tried scraping the slightly flaky paint off the passarelle ram. Not much point being white on a grey hull with a ss passarelle... Turns out that it's doable - probably need another hour and a half to strip it and polish it:
(last pic was with a thin wirewool type of synthetic pad, will need a pass with the polishing cloth and should be fine)
Also tidied up the salon, cleared and dumped some old tins of pain/epoxy/whatever, cleaned up the ply floor to check if there's going to be any water dripping in from the windows. If it's clean, I can progress with bringing the corner seating in and starting with the finishing off in the salon.
Back at home, using a small washer got the rotating thingy secure again (didn't yet bother to straighten it though) and hooked it up to my Garmin 3006C chartplotter. First couple of times were disappointing as it was slowly turning and stopping and the plotter hadn't picked it up. Eventually secured the cables properly and plotter picked it up!
60sec warming up and even had some scan!
Problem is that through the office window with a slightly hideous church opposite blocking the view and all being quite close, it did manage to get something that resembles the plan of the area. Verdict, it works!
So next task is to get the lid for a repair, thinking if I should stick to white or get the hull grey in the lot instead. Will depend on condition.
I've got a video of the thing spinning with the lid off, it does make some noise imo it's coming from the toothed belt.
I'll post it once I get it down from 30MB into something reasonable for comments.
cheers
V.
Keith-i
Well-known member
That's interesting, I didn't think the HD domes worked with the older 3006 models.
vas
Well-known member
wasn't sure either, Garmin may be excellent on many things but clarity of compatibility issues with older gear isn't one of them!
My experience with radar is practically nil, ok, have seen them running on other craft, never used one, but my understanding is that what i'm seeing is okayish. Will try it at the boat but will be a few months...
FWIW, when the 3006C fires up, it lists it on the network without issues and with the right name.
Maybe the new xHD wont work with mine, dunno.
cheers
V.
jfm
Well-known member
Vas, thanks, good going.
The radar image looks monochrome, not coloured. Is that what you were expecting? I though HD/xHD provided different colours based on signal strength.
If you decide to paint the radar dome black, I'll send you if you want a set of Garmin xHD decals in silver (grey-sliver, not chrome-silver). I'm having my radar painted black currently, so I had the Garmin decals made, perfect copy of OEM original font, and I had spares made. The word Garmin is 343mm long x 50mm high
The radar image looks monochrome, not coloured. Is that what you were expecting? I though HD/xHD provided different colours based on signal strength.
If you decide to paint the radar dome black, I'll send you if you want a set of Garmin xHD decals in silver (grey-sliver, not chrome-silver). I'm having my radar painted black currently, so I had the Garmin decals made, perfect copy of OEM original font, and I had spares made. The word Garmin is 343mm long x 50mm high
vas
Well-known member
re radar image, considering it was through a 1m wide opening with a bldg. 20m in front and a ledge halfway up the radar, I thought the image was fine
actually, zooming in the pic, it features a couple of colours, as I said, haven't studied radars yet, I hope it's fine
thanks for the kind offer, my decals are 307X44mm, and was actually thinking of keeping it with no decals if I decide to go for a coloured version.
tbh, i'm slightly worried on how the repairers are going to deal with the crack, I'm afraid the med heat + dark colour will boil the thing and crack/delaminate it!
otoh, if I go for a white look, i'm pretty sure that Alekos will be able to match paint the top masking the sides and make it look like new (only seagulls and 80ft+ long vessels will be able to see the top of it
cheers
V.
MarieK
Member
Thanks for the update Vas. Just a small contribution but whatever you do with radar dome I would defo keep the decals, either paint top white and keep existing or avail of JFM's kind offer. Radar without decals just looks too homebrew
jfm
Well-known member
Thanks Vas. Yes I can see it is working in colour on the close up. Light blue means weak signal/soft target like leaves and rain etc. I'd expect to see some red, but you can fiddle with all the settings when you get out on the water. Main thing is that it works!
No-one will see the repair. You could just cut a 250mm disc of white 2mm plastic sheet and glue it on with sika flex
No-one will see the repair. You could just cut a 250mm disc of white 2mm plastic sheet and glue it on with sika flex
vas
Well-known member
yes you are right, but will probably stick to the originals and get Alekos to repair/paint the top of it.
I'd probably not do that J, although I wont be able to see it, I wont be happy. I'll do it properly
Haven't even managed to get to the boat, but visited George at his workshop yesterday to establish if moding the sofa cabinets to accommodate the stereo is feasible. Turns out it very much is with (relatively) minimal effort. So it's going ahead once I get the time to measure and finalize dimensions. Did a 20min pshop of how it would look, not bad and i'll have it just by the sofa plus sitting on the aft deck would make the phone on a 2.5-3m range of the stereo with nothing in between!
I'm lucky as all the speaker cables (nice thick ones installed last spring) can be rerouted in 10mins to the new spot and lengthwise they need less than half a metre shortening, no big deal. Power is a slight issue, but I'll route a new cable straight from the el.panel which is over a metre away and disable the existing one.
So from this:
we are getting this (yes I know perspective is wrong, but it's 1am and cannot be bothered to do anything better...):
cheers
V.
BartW
Well-known member
Vas, just a quick note,
do you intend to place a hifi, in the traditional format like car hifi ?
just asking because so many new things available right now, ,
I have Sonos, all driven from Ipad or Iphones, etc.
Amps for the waterproove speakers are somewhere hidden.
no cetral controll unit anymore,
CD players is history
perhaps you already have the units, may have forgot / missed that info, then pls ignore
do you intend to place a hifi, in the traditional format like car hifi ?
just asking because so many new things available right now, ,
I have Sonos, all driven from Ipad or Iphones, etc.
Amps for the waterproove speakers are somewhere hidden.
no cetral controll unit anymore,
CD players is history
perhaps you already have the units, may have forgot / missed that info, then pls ignore
vas
Well-known member
Bart,
always open to REASONABLY priced suggestions.
I emphatically dislike i* devices, something compatible with apple products is a massive minus for me. OK, I could admit to hating them!
I'm keen on Bluetooth and NFC.
I do have holes for the salon speakers (and I do have some half decent 2way speakers for the holes) and I also have speakers for the f/b.
I have an ancient head unit which I'm planning to replace with this sony bt and nfc radio cd. Tbh, the radio will be used occasionally and the bt most of the time.
OTOH, what you're proposing is on another league and different logic altogether and unless I'm missing something wont be able to setup 3 zones for less than a few grand (which I'm not paying no matter what ) So looks like a non-starter for my needs.
open to corrections or other suggestions, but it seems to be quite hard to beat a 100euro machine with 4x17rms and bt and usb. Space is not that big anyway, don't want massive soundlevels so happy to work with that.
cheers
V
always open to REASONABLY priced suggestions.
I emphatically dislike i* devices, something compatible with apple products is a massive minus for me. OK, I could admit to hating them!
I'm keen on Bluetooth and NFC.
I do have holes for the salon speakers (and I do have some half decent 2way speakers for the holes) and I also have speakers for the f/b.
I have an ancient head unit which I'm planning to replace with this sony bt and nfc radio cd. Tbh, the radio will be used occasionally and the bt most of the time.
OTOH, what you're proposing is on another league and different logic altogether and unless I'm missing something wont be able to setup 3 zones for less than a few grand (which I'm not paying no matter what
) So looks like a non-starter for my needs.open to corrections or other suggestions, but it seems to be quite hard to beat a 100euro machine with 4x17rms and bt and usb. Space is not that big anyway, don't want massive soundlevels so happy to work with that.
cheers
V
BartW
Well-known member
Oh now I remember you have the Sony
Although my business and daily job is in sound (pro), I've absolutely lost track of everything related to hifi
I just notice that we and all our kids and friends use some of these modern desctop players, connected via Wifi or Bluetooth, or as a docking station for their smartphones.
On the boat I have 5 different zones with Sonos, NOT in the cabins, there I have simple Sony I Phone docking station/ clock radio's
Sonos has a amp model for connecting to existing speakers, I have (3x)these for the speakers in Cockpit, Flybridge and bowbed,
but tbh these waterproove speakers sound rubbish compared to the desctop Sonos speakers we have in the salon
Have a look on there site how the system works, don't remember prices, look online...
iiirc It's designed towards i-products, but should work on android and others aswell.
we have a onboard Ipad that we use ao for music, (diffrent in each zone if you like),
or kids use their Iphone in "their zone" the app is foc
Although my business and daily job is in sound (pro), I've absolutely lost track of everything related to hifi
I just notice that we and all our kids and friends use some of these modern desctop players, connected via Wifi or Bluetooth, or as a docking station for their smartphones.
On the boat I have 5 different zones with Sonos, NOT in the cabins, there I have simple Sony I Phone docking station/ clock radio's
Sonos has a amp model for connecting to existing speakers, I have (3x)these for the speakers in Cockpit, Flybridge and bowbed,
but tbh these waterproove speakers sound rubbish compared to the desctop Sonos speakers we have in the salon
Have a look on there site how the system works, don't remember prices, look online...
iiirc It's designed towards i-products, but should work on android and others aswell.
we have a onboard Ipad that we use ao for music, (diffrent in each zone if you like),
or kids use their Iphone in "their zone" the app is foc
petem
Well-known member
Any news Bart?
rafiki_
Well-known member
Or Vas???
longjohnsilver
Well-known member
petem
Well-known member
Sorry, quite right. Any news Vas?
vas
Well-known member
I guess Pete is not having a very interesting/thrilling new year's eve today
I'm in Athens for the last week, just had a massive argument with both kids wanting to go back to Volos as it's snowing heavily up there, .5m snow in town all the way down to the sea, all their friends are out enjoying themselves, etc etc.
Struggling to find something interesting for them to do and avoid driving tomorrow to Volos, will be up on Friday and should manage a few pics with snow on MiToS
So, to answer the original question, news are that there are no news!
Did spend a morning cleaning the lazarette and preparing for painting down there, but probably need another couple of mornings to finish that job off. In doing so, I noticed that after some serious downpours there was some water dripping down from between the iroco capping on the bulwarks in the aft deck and the aluminum sandwich lining panel under it and down to the bilges. So masked with duct tape all seams to check there's no other leaks somewhere (shouldn't really be, but just to be safe) and will be buying (or designing and ordering) some properly shaped rubber seals to fit around the panels before bolting them down. This is imho a smart move as the cuts are never perfect and they do show if you're picky whereas with the seal the joints will be simply perfect. Further, I'll be able to remove the panels when I need to without having to struggle through silicone and various other sealants.
A few pics will follow probably tomorrow, got to rush out with the kids to keep them happy (somehow, wish me luck!)
happy new year to everybody!
cheers
V
rafiki_
Well-known member
vas
Well-known member
Good luck with your children Vas, and a very Happy New Year to you and yours.
thanks Paul,
survived, drove through snowcovered Greece today (under a wonderful sunshine!) and i'm now back home2.
Snow everywhere but MiToS, paid a visit only managed to find this pathetic tiny patch of snow on the port side deck towards the bow. Very disappointed!
A few pics from today :
and xmas eve:
Ah, one point for Pete, MystereMarcus and Alf:
guys, got some leak on the stbrd side salon window aft. Rain water gathers in the slide where the window normally opens and some of it manages to go IN rather than OUT from the gutter. Always thought it was a sealant issue, but now that I got both frames properly sealed and bolted down, I get some water dripping in serious downpours. Now following pics show the slide/gutter (call it as you wish) where the window pane moves. I can see some holes on the U formed ss strip (maybe 3mm dia) they seem to be 3 pairs iirc along the length of this section.
Now, I wonder if there was meant to be some sort of synthetic material to help the glass pane slide and doubling as a sealing agent for this strip. I vaguely remember removing some rotten/disintegrating "thing" out of that gutter when I was cleaning the frame in the summer and I wonder if the water coming in is due to this thing missing.
So guys, could you please check when you're next there if there's something in there? A few pics would be nice
This is what this gutter looks like now:
next pic you can see the slide marks either side of the holes as the glass rubs down there:
Happy New Year to ALL!
V.