My first boat - buying tomorrow fingers crossed (advice pls)

[Seastoke]

Tony with the money you saved when bought , find a local marine engineer , to service the boat engine and drive , spend the day with him so you can ask questions and get to know your boat , one day you will need to work on your boat when you on the water and ask him what spares you should carry on the boat , good luck .SS

 

[julians]

Tony with the money you saved when bought , find a local marine engineer , to service the boat engine and drive , spend the day with him so you can ask questions and get to know your boat , one day you will need to work on your boat when you on the water and ask him what spares you should carry on the boat , good luck .SS

Sound advice,it seems to me that the boat needs a proper going over by someone who knows what they're doing , to get it to a state where you can be confident to go out in it.

Full service and engine and drive, check throttle works, check gears work, check engine runs correctly with no over heats, stalls etc, check safety equipment (bilge pump,fire extinguisher), check steering.

Etc

 

[Bigplumbs]

I wasn't really thinking of rain water, that can be mitigated against by decent covers as you say, I was thinking if a thru hull fitting fails ,or the outdrive bellows fails letting in water.

I know it's unlikely but these things do happen.

If that happens I am afraid a bilge pump and the amount of power in one battery is not going to stop things unless the leak is incredibly small

 

[Bigplumbs]

Ref post592
Do not as suggested "just touch the wire to battery."
All items in the engine compartment were originally supplied "spark protected" fuel vapours + spark = boom!.
Seen it happen several times.
Be careful make sure there no vapours in bilge.

Have you seen how the engine is located on this boat and the cover/hatch it is under. How on earth do you think you would disconnect the battery ever is you theory was true. Why do you think this engine with the cover etc off would have vapours there. If there are of course ventilate.

 

[Bigplumbs]

I had a 22ft sterndrive boat sink in 20ft water because the bilge pump was not working .

Or the Battery ran out

 

[stelican]

Have you seen how the engine is located on this boat and the cover/hatch it is under. How on earth do you think you would disconnect the battery ever is you theory was true. Why do you think this engine with the cover etc off would have vapours there. If there are of course ventilate.

Because I know I've been there and have more knowledge in my finger tip regarding boats than you seem to have in your entitity.

 

[julians]

If that happens I am afraid a bilge pump and the amount of power in one battery is not going to stop things unless the leak is incredibly small

If it just slows the rate of fill up and buys an extra hour then it's worth having

 

[paradave]

I imagine a through hull failure, on a moored boat, would start slowly rather than being instantaneously catastrophic but have not experience it myself.

 

[Bigplumbs]

Because I know I've been there and have more knowledge in my finger tip regarding boats than you seem to have in your entitity. If you are going to have a pop at someone at least use the correct word....... Did you mean Entirety

You are very funny . You are the person who's boat sunk but you claim you know what you are doing..... Yup that is how it works

 

[stelican]

	You are very funny . You are the person who's boat sunk but you claim you know what you are doing..... Yup that is how it works 600 miles away in some one else's care. Put you on ignore now

 

[limecc]

I've been there and have more knowledge in my finger tip

Always better to listen to people with real experience

Good. Enough of you opinions go and play with your toys

? ?

 

[Nito]

I imagine a through hull failure, on a moored boat, would start slowly rather than being instantaneously catastrophic but have not experience it myself.

You’d like to hope so! When I was messing about trying to cure a slow leak I had in the summer from one of my dripless seals, I pulled the stator connected to the bellow away from the shaft fixed rotor, a procedure also known as ‘flushing’.

My goodness, the volume of water that comes in is staggering. Granted it’s probably a 2” or so hole through the hull but wow, I got the impression there and then that it would ‘t take long to overwhelm the bilge pump. It’s quite scary. Any sort of ‘catastrophic failure’, well put it this way, I don’t think you’d have long. I’ve read of people stuffing towels in the shaft log and using sealing tape etc, which saved the boat which must have been an amazingly heroic effort given the rate the water comes in at.

I’m religious about closing seacocks when not in use. Just a hose failure could be game over with an open seacock. A snapped hull fitting would be even more alarming, especially if it occured below the stop valve. Reading stories on dzr failures freaks me out. One of those suction type push through jobbies would probably be just the ticket to keep on board in the event of a failed skin fitting/snapped stop cock valve (and I keep meaning to order one in the right size.)

A failed bellow on an outdrive boat would be equally scary, more so because you’d likely not be able to get to it. I’ve also heard of transom shields becoming corroded and leaking.

Ho hum, not something you’d wish on anyone but I’ve heard about and seen evidence of boats that have suffered these types of failures. Best to be prepared.


IIRC, we have about 12 holes through our hull, (3 inlets for engines and genny, 1 underwater exhaust for genny, speed sensor, depth sounder, sidescanner, another depth sounder, toilet in and out and 2 aircon cooling fittings. That doesn’t include the rudders, shaft logs and the tiny trim tab hydraulics, never mind holing the hull on something!

 

[TonyBerkshire]

The Stereo Memory would have been wired directly to the Battery so that the Stereo maintained all its tuning once the main Isolator was switched off. In all honesty not that important and that is if you still have the original Stereo which I doubt. Unless boat Stereos are bespoke marine ones they tend to only last 3 - 5 years due to the salt air. I say this because if a new stereo was ever fitted the end of that positive could well be connected or might just be laying loose (hopefully) insulated near the stereo.

What I would do is before you connect the red wire. Switch on the Bilge pump assuming you have a switch, Pour some water into the Bilge so that if the bilge pump has a float switch it will activate. Then just touch the red wire to the Battery terminal and see if the pump fires up.

Please remember however that with boats of this age both the Stereo and Bilge pump could have easily been replaced at least once since it was new and sometimes people wire the new stuff up in completely different ways.

As for maintaining radio tuning and automatic bilge pumps etc my thoughts are that when I leave my boat I want all electrical items turned off.... Why because it can easily be many weeks or indeed months between use and the last thing you want is turning up to your boat turning the key and you have a very weak or flat Battery........ As a friend once said to me you cant push start a boat .

Also if a Battery ever goes completely flat it can be revived to a degree for certain uses but that is a 'damaged' weak battery which is not a good thing to have on a boat.

On my boats of this size one of which is kept on a mooring I have a second battery on the opposite side of the main battery sitting there doing nothing, connected to nothing should I need it.

You are right. Checked the glove box (if that's what it's called on a boat? ) and there is a new Sony stereo in it with removable faceplate, USB, Bluetooth etc. Even had a remote in there still sealed in its original packet. Think the previous seller might have fitted it before selling to this one.

Can I connect a second battery?

 

[colhel]

Can I connect a second battery?

If you've got room and it can be secured, yes. The usual set up is to isolate the engine start up battery when at anchor so as not to drain it. In a boat like yours, is there much that can drain the battery when the engines not running? Another option would be to get battery monitor and if necessary, a larger capacity battery.

 

[Bigplumbs]

If you've got room and it can be secured, yes. The usual set up is to isolate the engine start up battery when at anchor so as not to drain it. In a boat like yours, is there much that can drain the battery when the engines not running? Another option would be to get battery monitor and if necessary, a larger capacity battery.

If you have space yes you can. I bought a second battery of the same size as my original Together with a plastic battery box. Make sure you mount it securely preferably on the other side to the first battery to maintain balance in the boat as batteries are heavy. I then adapted a set of good quality jump leads and put battery terminals on the end of them. The batteries I have are the double terminal type with one standard terminal and a second threaded terminal with wing nuts each side. I then have the two batteries wired in parallel but the second battery does not have the positive connected with a good insulator over the bare terminal. if I get an issue with the first battery I just connect the red on the positive on the second battery and away you go. If you ever need to charge the second battery you can just run on that for a trip and it Should charge it up.

getting to your boat with all the family full of expectations and having a flat battery is no fun.

you could of course keep one in the back of the car in case. My boat is on a tidal swing mooring which we access from a small blow up dingy so one on board is less faff. For me it is important to reduce the faff and stress associated with boating

 

[Bigplumbs]

Link below showing the double terminal type of battery. This one is a leisure battery which if your starting current requirement can be handled by this battery would do.

Lion Leisure Sealed Marine Battery - 100Ah | Euro Car Parts

 

[Nito]

Or consider one of these,

Much lighter, portable, can charge devices and handy to have for any other vehicles that need jump starting.

GB70 2000A NOCO Jump Starter | Halfords UK

We have one in the wife’s car and have helped countless people out. So much easier than messing about with jump leads. Also worth considering some sort of battery maintainer, I use Noco ones also, available from Halfords.

 

[colhel]

	600 miles away in some one else's care. Put you on ignore now

I wonder if some of the old regulars took more drastic action and just left the forum.

 

[Bigplumbs]

Or consider one of these,

Much lighter, portable, can charge devices and handy to have for any other vehicles that need jump starting.

GB70 2000A NOCO Jump Starter | Halfords UK

We have one in the wife’s car and have helped countless people out. So much easier than messing about with jump leads. Also worth considering some sort of battery maintainer, I use Noco ones also, available from Halfords.

I have a couple of those type of thing but when I came to use them they were dead for some reason. I understand that several people carry them but that one is quite expensive. I wonder how many times it will crank a large engine before it is 'gassed out'. I see it will deliver 2000 Amps but cant seem to see its capacity noted anywhere.

 

[steveinnice]

Or consider one of these,

Much lighter, portable, can charge devices and handy to have for any other vehicles that need jump starting.

GB70 2000A NOCO Jump Starter | Halfords UK

We have one in the wife’s car and have helped countless people out. So much easier than messing about with jump leads. Also worth considering some sort of battery maintainer, I use Noco ones also, available from Halfords.

Agree, use one all the time. Its handy if you are working on something in the house ,no need to drag a dirty heavy battery into the house . I use it to test wiring up before connecting up to the main battery "just in case " also it's a back up if you need a jump while out at sea. Mine is more like this.


Halfords 6-in-1 Jump Starter Power Pack | Halfords UK