MikeBrazier
Member
+2 (update Update UPDATE
)
MiToS re-built/fit- versilcraft Mystery43
- Thread starter vas
- Start date
)
vas
Well-known member
hi,
didn't realize it was two weeks from my last update!
Yes, things don't look that good down here, will see how it goes. MiToS or my work is not directly affected but we'll see the long term consequences of the referendum and possible MOU that will follow (if and when) A thread in the Lounge is doing an excellent job in following and discussing the issue, so won't comment in here.
As far as work progress is concerned, things went a bit slow (again!) as wife is away for 10+ days now so I have to take care of everything around here (and taxi the kids around a bit...)
Anyway, port engine heat exchangers cleaning, reassembling and painting is done. All waiting to be refitted, except for the air one that is already back in place.
I've not fitted the others as a rusted and completely scrap wastegate was identified, exhaust manifold removed, waiting for pointers from LateStarter1 on sourcing decently priced one from somewhere as I was quoted a eye watering 700euro for a new one and with capital control in place there's no way I can buy it using paypal or my credit card (mind wouldn't pay that sum even before capital control...) Effectively without the exhaust manifold in place the coolant heat exchanger cannot be refitted and I don't see much of a point fitting the gearbox and oil exchangers as fitting the coolant exchanger later on will be an interesting exercise with all others in place.
In the meantime, I finished cleaning the engine room (means scraping and removing ALL paint from all surfaces down to clean plywood again using a heatgun and scraper...) on the port side and part of the stbrd one.
Son came and helped in hoovering, checking and painting the cleaned areas in two coats of a light grey colour (actually quite close to the hull colour)
The point of scrapping and cleaning all paint off the bilges was mainly to make sure that all ply and iroko is sound. And it is!
Another reason for all this hard work was to unblock and clean the scuppers (iirc the term) between the frames making it possible to empty the bilges from one pump at the lower level (ie further aft)
Tomorrow I'm planning to finish scraping the remaining bits around the keel (both sides) so that I can finish with the skin fittings for the engines and the genny. New diesel pipes from filters to the engines are made and new bonding wire ready to be fitted. Hopefully I wont have any more disruptions and will manage to finish off with the engine room fittings by next Tuesday. Got to also install the bilge pump for the e/r, wiring is ready, just fitting the pump and the el. float switch.
In the meantime, I'm picking up the sandblasted portlights (frame only) from the machinist and hopefully will be able to fit them in place sometime next week (after Alekos paints them)
Tried (unsuccessfully!) to remove the 40yo primer, black, grey and then white colour out of the engine intake grills, so gave them also for sandblasting
Finished taping, checking, polishing and fitting the 20 cones for the railings. They look good, v.happy with them.
Cleaned, checked, straightened the stanchions. Bearing in mind that I'm "lifting" them as they are now sitting on top of two layers of 18mm ply and a 20mm thick iroko capping and wanting to keep the geometry and setup, I decided to cut an inch (ok not usually working on imperial units, but my German right angles have imperial units inside and metric on the outer side...) out of them making sure that some of the stress and mount marks on the top of the cone disappear inside the mounting as well as cleaning the end giving sound and solid alloy to bolt and secure them through the cones. Off cuts look like this, lots of corrosion where ss headless screws were tightened on them:
railings look like this:
Still have a wee problem with the bow section which is a V shaped one with the anchor light on the tip which always looked wrong, very wrong. Test fitting it with everything right to the mm, it was again completely off centre. After a great deal of headscratching I did the obvious, measured the two "legs" of the V; port side was 95mm longer (in less than two metres ffs!) than the stbrd...
Don't ask how they managed that, but I'm cutting the extra piece of the port side and testing it again once I finish with the other work.
Note that it's also bent towards the stbrd side, so a heating and vice mounting with pulling and pushing the two sides is in order.
Final and slightly more serious issue with the railings is that the cabling for the anchor light goes round the stbrd side railing for just under a metre and then down the first stbrd stanchion, inside the cone and through the capping down to the anchor locker where it meets the power supply. Easier said than done, actually a pain to organize and do, will have a go once I manage to remove the actual anchor light that is currently secured extremely well onto the railing
Finally decided with George how the bathing platform will be constructed, iroko bought, sliced and already epoxied in shape based on the negative mould (form) done out of plain softwood. Two sections fully done with 11 10mm thick strips bent in shape, Hard work, but the only way to make sure you have a decent shape to work with. Tomorrow George is test fitting them in place, next will be temp mounted, bow-stern oriented support beams will be fitted and ss supports made. After that it's a matter of dismantling the lot, taking it back to the workshop and making the 8 teak panels of the 3.6X1.5m platform. Weight estimated to just under 100kg.
Work carried out in two steps, first the 6 strips, then the next 2:
back in the yard to test fit them before adding the last three layers that take the slope of the transom:
and epoxying the last three:
hopefully I'll be able to report again early next week with some decent progress. Deadline for getting back in the water is slipping to the end of the month.
cheers
V.
didn't realize it was two weeks from my last update!
Yes, things don't look that good down here, will see how it goes. MiToS or my work is not directly affected but we'll see the long term consequences of the referendum and possible MOU that will follow (if and when) A thread in the Lounge is doing an excellent job in following and discussing the issue, so won't comment in here.
As far as work progress is concerned, things went a bit slow (again!) as wife is away for 10+ days now so I have to take care of everything around here (and taxi the kids around a bit...)
Anyway, port engine heat exchangers cleaning, reassembling and painting is done. All waiting to be refitted, except for the air one that is already back in place.
I've not fitted the others as a rusted and completely scrap wastegate was identified, exhaust manifold removed, waiting for pointers from LateStarter1 on sourcing decently priced one from somewhere as I was quoted a eye watering 700euro for a new one and with capital control in place there's no way I can buy it using paypal or my credit card (mind wouldn't pay that sum even before capital control...) Effectively without the exhaust manifold in place the coolant heat exchanger cannot be refitted and I don't see much of a point fitting the gearbox and oil exchangers as fitting the coolant exchanger later on will be an interesting exercise with all others in place.
In the meantime, I finished cleaning the engine room (means scraping and removing ALL paint from all surfaces down to clean plywood again using a heatgun and scraper...) on the port side and part of the stbrd one.
Son came and helped in hoovering, checking and painting the cleaned areas in two coats of a light grey colour (actually quite close to the hull colour)
The point of scrapping and cleaning all paint off the bilges was mainly to make sure that all ply and iroko is sound. And it is!
Another reason for all this hard work was to unblock and clean the scuppers (iirc the term) between the frames making it possible to empty the bilges from one pump at the lower level (ie further aft)
Tomorrow I'm planning to finish scraping the remaining bits around the keel (both sides) so that I can finish with the skin fittings for the engines and the genny. New diesel pipes from filters to the engines are made and new bonding wire ready to be fitted. Hopefully I wont have any more disruptions and will manage to finish off with the engine room fittings by next Tuesday. Got to also install the bilge pump for the e/r, wiring is ready, just fitting the pump and the el. float switch.
In the meantime, I'm picking up the sandblasted portlights (frame only) from the machinist and hopefully will be able to fit them in place sometime next week (after Alekos paints them)
Tried (unsuccessfully!) to remove the 40yo primer, black, grey and then white colour out of the engine intake grills, so gave them also for sandblasting
Finished taping, checking, polishing and fitting the 20 cones for the railings. They look good, v.happy with them.
Cleaned, checked, straightened the stanchions. Bearing in mind that I'm "lifting" them as they are now sitting on top of two layers of 18mm ply and a 20mm thick iroko capping and wanting to keep the geometry and setup, I decided to cut an inch (ok not usually working on imperial units, but my German right angles have imperial units inside and metric on the outer side...) out of them making sure that some of the stress and mount marks on the top of the cone disappear inside the mounting as well as cleaning the end giving sound and solid alloy to bolt and secure them through the cones. Off cuts look like this, lots of corrosion where ss headless screws were tightened on them:
railings look like this:
Still have a wee problem with the bow section which is a V shaped one with the anchor light on the tip which always looked wrong, very wrong. Test fitting it with everything right to the mm, it was again completely off centre. After a great deal of headscratching I did the obvious, measured the two "legs" of the V; port side was 95mm longer (in less than two metres ffs!) than the stbrd...
Don't ask how they managed that, but I'm cutting the extra piece of the port side and testing it again once I finish with the other work.
Note that it's also bent towards the stbrd side, so a heating and vice mounting with pulling and pushing the two sides is in order.
Final and slightly more serious issue with the railings is that the cabling for the anchor light goes round the stbrd side railing for just under a metre and then down the first stbrd stanchion, inside the cone and through the capping down to the anchor locker where it meets the power supply. Easier said than done, actually a pain to organize and do, will have a go once I manage to remove the actual anchor light that is currently secured extremely well onto the railing
Finally decided with George how the bathing platform will be constructed, iroko bought, sliced and already epoxied in shape based on the negative mould (form) done out of plain softwood. Two sections fully done with 11 10mm thick strips bent in shape, Hard work, but the only way to make sure you have a decent shape to work with. Tomorrow George is test fitting them in place, next will be temp mounted, bow-stern oriented support beams will be fitted and ss supports made. After that it's a matter of dismantling the lot, taking it back to the workshop and making the 8 teak panels of the 3.6X1.5m platform. Weight estimated to just under 100kg.
Work carried out in two steps, first the 6 strips, then the next 2:
back in the yard to test fit them before adding the last three layers that take the slope of the transom:
and epoxying the last three:
hopefully I'll be able to report again early next week with some decent progress. Deadline for getting back in the water is slipping to the end of the month.
cheers
V.
KevB
Active member
As ever, amazing commitment to the project. Well done.
rafiki_
Well-known member
I don't envy you the paint stripping with a heat gun Vas. A job for a British winter, not Greek Summer. Huge respect for your stamina.
longjohnsilver
Well-known member
Thanks Vas, more great progress, launch date looms?! Hopefully this year?
vas
Well-known member
mildly pissed off as I prepared a massive post and forum crashed on me
anyway,
got some progress to report on three fronts, e/r, bathing platform and portlights.
on the first, whole keel section is fully cleaned, scrapped, checked and coated with at least two coats of paint. Port side of the e/r is fully cleaned, scrapped and also painted that goes all the way around the stuffing box, under the battery tray etc. Ready for adding the bonding cables going engine/stuffing box/p-bracket/rudder/transom anode.
Need to clear the identical parts on the stbrd side, but since I'm not removing and fully cleaning the stbrd engine heat exchangers now, I'll skip the hull side on stbrd side and do it during the winter with decent weather, it's simple too tiring working with a heatgun at 36C ambient temps unless I'm there working around midnight...
bilge pump and electronic float switch:
slightly pointless pic of lazarette bilge cleaned and painted but still needing to remove the rusty 2inch pipe connecting the two 250lt water tanks. To be done tomorrow hopefully:
and the lazarette to e/r door:
Bathing platform work is progressing albeit with massive headscratching sessions since I got the general concept, but all the detailing has to be drafted on the spot after long discussions with George. Only way to really do it tbh! Two curved pieces are currently bolted and epoxied on to another on the transom, will be removed tomorrow and will be living in the floor of George's workshop for the next two weeks whilst the remaining of the puzzle is built. The five iroko beams are prepared, matched and fitted to the curved piece. Will need tapering from halfway where the steel rods will be mounted and aft. Too tired to explain how it's going to be built in detail, just wait for the next installment
caught on the twenty pic limit, second post below
cheers
V.
anyway,
got some progress to report on three fronts, e/r, bathing platform and portlights.
on the first, whole keel section is fully cleaned, scrapped, checked and coated with at least two coats of paint. Port side of the e/r is fully cleaned, scrapped and also painted that goes all the way around the stuffing box, under the battery tray etc. Ready for adding the bonding cables going engine/stuffing box/p-bracket/rudder/transom anode.
Need to clear the identical parts on the stbrd side, but since I'm not removing and fully cleaning the stbrd engine heat exchangers now, I'll skip the hull side on stbrd side and do it during the winter with decent weather, it's simple too tiring working with a heatgun at 36C ambient temps unless I'm there working around midnight...
bilge pump and electronic float switch:
slightly pointless pic of lazarette bilge cleaned and painted but still needing to remove the rusty 2inch pipe connecting the two 250lt water tanks. To be done tomorrow hopefully:
and the lazarette to e/r door:
Bathing platform work is progressing albeit with massive headscratching sessions since I got the general concept, but all the detailing has to be drafted on the spot after long discussions with George. Only way to really do it tbh! Two curved pieces are currently bolted and epoxied on to another on the transom, will be removed tomorrow and will be living in the floor of George's workshop for the next two weeks whilst the remaining of the puzzle is built. The five iroko beams are prepared, matched and fitted to the curved piece. Will need tapering from halfway where the steel rods will be mounted and aft. Too tired to explain how it's going to be built in detail, just wait for the next installment
caught on the twenty pic limit, second post below
cheers
V.
vas
Well-known member
Finallly portlights were painted by Alekos, checked, matched and fitted yesterday morning but I run out of time (and cool weather...) to finish off with the also black matt painted rings on the port side. Sbrd side looks more complete and the bow portlight on the stbrd side shows why I had to get all 10 270mm dia tempered glass to the local CarGlass company who are fitting the darkest available tint film on them for 110euro, not bad!
cheers
V.
cheers
V.
davids0865
Member
Respect, I started to wonder how many thousands of manhours have gone into this fab project so far and my head started to hurt.
To be honest, if I had to do what you have done to go cruising, I would have to do something else.
I can only imagine just how that first overnight anchor will feel after all the trials and tribulations, incredible no doubt.
So huge respect and best wishes for an early refloat.
To be honest, if I had to do what you have done to go cruising, I would have to do something else.
I can only imagine just how that first overnight anchor will feel after all the trials and tribulations, incredible no doubt.
So huge respect and best wishes for an early refloat.
davids0865
Member
Respect, I started to wonder how many thousands of manhours have gone into this fab project so far and my head started to hurt.
To be honest, if I had to do what you have done to go cruising, I would have to do something else.
I can only imagine just how that first overnight anchor will feel after all the trials and tribulations, incredible no doubt.
So huge respect and best wishes for an early refloat.
To be honest, if I had to do what you have done to go cruising, I would have to do something else.
I can only imagine just how that first overnight anchor will feel after all the trials and tribulations, incredible no doubt.
So huge respect and best wishes for an early refloat.
longjohnsilver
Well-known member
Vas, she is looking fabulous. I really hope the problems in Greece don't cause you too many problems in getting her finished. I'd be happy to join the jfm MapisM syndicate to help provide parts from the Uk or anywhere outside of Greece if it helps.
D
Deleted User YDKXO
Guest
Wow looking great, vas!
wakeup
Active member
VAS,
She is looking tremendously good. Can't wait to see here on the water.
She is looking tremendously good. Can't wait to see here on the water.
Firefly625
Well-known member
+1,
your work is coming together rather nicely Vas. Can't wait to see MiToS floating again!
MikeBrazier
Member
Thanks Vas, that has provided my much needed my MiToS fix.
I hope you manage to sort the engine issues out without any major problems, as others said, she is looking very good indeed.
Mike
I hope you manage to sort the engine issues out without any major problems, as others said, she is looking very good indeed.
Mike
vas
Well-known member
thanks david,
very very bad idea trying to calculate costs/time/pain. I just wont do it
thanks, capital controls are softening already, decision is made NOT to buy anything right now, use her smoothly this season and assess situation over winter.
Hopefully most of the kit that was needed was already bought.
Actually the things I'm missing are:
- Kalhenberg horn, discussed with Toby, got a great offer but as with the other items in the list, I cannot accept spending any more money right now as the situation is far from stable and wont be for some time.
- ss letters from petem, discussed, helped me finalize and sort out curves and details on the files but again same thing...
- garmin autopilot, I can live without it for this year as well.
- finally the two wastegates. Got a final negative reply from Athens from two scrapped engines that were thought to have good wastegates, so capital controls will help me keep the revs, speed and consumption low making the wastegates unnecessary
Other systems that are necessary and can be obtained/fabricated locally being worked on.
Guy making the matresses came today for final measurements before bringing the bow cabin funny shaped mattress for test fitting on Wed.
Today was an important day as MiToS has again after almost a year its own power source. 4X180Ah service Banner batteries and 2X180Ah cheaper start ones were lifted up the aft deck and lowered to the clean new battery tray. For the sad ones with good memory, the battery that busted in the winter and the chemicals had no effect whatsoever on the epoxied ply battery tray, so I only needed to wipe it clean and get the new batteries in.
Service ones connected, missing another pole to get the starter ones in operation.
Since I talk electrics, I should also note that all bonding is finally in place waiting just for the through bolts securing the rudder stock for completion. Bonding goes from engine, to stuffing box, to p-bracket, to rudder stock to end at the transom anode. Also joined the port to the stbrd transom anode closing the loop so to speak...n
Considering how to connect the wires coming from the main el.panel to the bilges More reasonable solution seems to be soldering and heat shrinks, any reason not to?
Tomorrow's task (at 37C ffs!) is to get the engine batteries connected, check that all the el. systems function as they should and get the final two exchangers on the port engine and try cranking it after 3yrs. Not starting just cranking...
Which bring me to two Qs (usually I post them separately, but thought I'll try through the main thread for a change...)
Q1
Do I use proper diluted ready made coolant for the system or just plain water? Someone told me that paraflu type of coolant liquids tend to solidify and leave deposits on the coolant system and around the thermostat. Mine definitely had some!
Q2
The spaghetti mess of cables that run around the battery tray and bulkhead with old original manual charger featured also a split charger. I assume it was wired so that the port engine is capable of charging the service batteries. Currently I have an ugly thick wire coming from port alternator to the battery tray. So, after this introduction, do I really need this split charger?
I have a Victron 24V60A intelligent charger will there be problems if it happens to have the engine running together with the genny in which case two different sources will be trying to charge the same set of batteries?
something's silly with my notebook and cannot type properly so I'll stop with no pics this
time!
cheers
V.
petem
Well-known member
Vas, I've got a plan to get your letters done very cheaply (properly done too), will let you know when I get the opportunity. Would be good to at least get the MiToS and Versilcraft bits done.We can worry about payment later (would be good for my portfolio).
kashurst
Well-known member
I would put water in the cooling system initially. After being stood for 3 years its likely there may be gunge in the cooling system that may require you to take some bit off, (pump thermostat etc) to get it out. The law of sod will guarantee you will have to take an engine to bits if you put nice new antifreeze in it and then probably have to throw it away. By putting in just water all will be well, and then after a few months of running and you are happy everything is OK, drain it down and refill with nice fresh antifreeze for the winter.
BartW
Well-known member
+1 to this
Re Q2
There is absolutely no problem in wiring the Victron in parallel to the alternators, thats what I have in Ba. Sometimes both are active simultaniously without a problem
MapisM
Well-known member
I'd also second kashurst idea.
Maybe I'd use softened water if available, but that's more for the principle than anything else - even in the harder water, the quantity of calcium into just one refill of the circuit can't be a big deal, I reckon...
Re. parallel charging instead, are you saying that it runs fine just because that's how it's wired and it works, or do you have any way to monitor which component is doing what at any given time?
I mean, also my (ex-BA!) Victron is wired in such way that I could run it while also the alternator is running.
And indeed in at least one occasion I forgot to switch it off before turning the engine on, and the boat didn't explode, so I guess it's OK to do it!
But that made me wonder if the Victron has some sort of clever electronics that understands when some other component (alternator, typically) is recharging the same battery bank and reduces its own recharging power - otherwise the batteries could be damaged in the long run, I guess...?
Maybe I'd use softened water if available, but that's more for the principle than anything else - even in the harder water, the quantity of calcium into just one refill of the circuit can't be a big deal, I reckon...
Re. parallel charging instead, are you saying that it runs fine just because that's how it's wired and it works, or do you have any way to monitor which component is doing what at any given time?
I mean, also my (ex-BA!
) Victron is wired in such way that I could run it while also the alternator is running.And indeed in at least one occasion I forgot to switch it off before turning the engine on, and the boat didn't explode, so I guess it's OK to do it!
But that made me wonder if the Victron has some sort of clever electronics that understands when some other component (alternator, typically) is recharging the same battery bank and reduces its own recharging power - otherwise the batteries could be damaged in the long run, I guess...?
vas
Well-known member
thanks Pete, but the guy doing the inspection is coming this week and I need to have the name of the boat in place. Checked with a local firm and got an amazing quote of 35euro for cutting all the letters in 316 shinny 1.5mm steel. Chickened out on the 2mm as I'm afraid the curvature of the transom wont be accommodating.
So, sorry, had to take the local option on this...
fair point, close to my logic of only doing a proper clean and heat exchanger dismantle and service on only the port engine, If I cock up, I still have the stbrd to get me out of trouble.
OK, so are you guys suggesting that split chargers are a pointless invention? Somehow I'm not convinced...
Will do some more studying when I have time, but for the time being I'll just let the split charger live on the boot of my car (for some reason..)
Temps had been rather harsh over the last 4 days and after an exhausting Wednesday working 12h at 35-38C and no wind, I took another short 3day break by the sea swimming and sleeping, back ready for the final run to relaunch.
A few pics of progress:
Working on the lazarette, decided to remove the 40yo stuck open valves with proper plastic quarter turn spherical stuff. After a lot of sweating portside tank (got two 250lt each) was back to clean 1 1/4inch threads, but stbrd needed an awful lot more heating and eventually the steel components gave in and were removed BUT the soldering between the galvanized tank and the copper 1 1/4 thread bit cracked letting water drip (found out after fitting all the new bits back in place and filling the tank of course...)
Tried soldering once but stupidly hadn't emptied fully the tank and made a mess of it, so now got to find a thin tube to suck every bit of water out of the tank before soldering again. Not a task I'm keen to do at these temps, but we'll see...
Also in the lazarette, rudderstock used to have an extra reinforcement - as it goes through the 15mm hull ply and an extra 15mm reinforcing strip running all along the stuffing box to the transom. This third ply patch was falling apart and I had it removed some time ago. Found some 18mm marine ply leftovers from the toe rail construction and crafted the 4 relevant bits to wrap around the rudder stock having proper mounting points for the 6 through 8mm ss screws that bolt it all together. All epoxied and screwed in place and painted on top. Only work missing is drilling the holes and bolting them down (and securing the bonding through them as well)
Sorry couldn't find any pics of the lot painted, will do at some point with all the pipework and cabling in place.
On the bathing platform front, frame is complete, tested and waiting epoxying, just waiting for some cooler weather to do it!
George is working on the four teak panels that will fit on top, first already complete, others should be ready within the week.
Port engine refit is complete, just need to source one rubber hose from the engine seawater outlet to the new custom exhaust elbow. They are around 350mm apart at an approx. 135degree to each other making finding a proper hose rather difficult. I can use a spiral rubber hose that can take any shape but I'm slightly worried on the longevity of such an option. Unfortunately the bores are 40mm and I cannot get a flex exhaust hose (from a smallish engine) to dimension (either 38 or 45 dia iirc)
following pic shows the wastegate valve and stem stuck nice and solid in the exhaust manifold:
Next pic shows the elevation difference between the new exhaust riser to the side outlet. Well over 350mm, quite safe I believe for the turbo, shame wastegates are both foobared...
running out of time and hit the 20pic limit, so off to bed, early start tomorrow
cheers
V.