Really good day pipe tracing etc ...

[Refueler]

My 38ft racer has a lot of pipes running under bunks that when I bought the boat - seller was unsure of what was what ... he always gave boat to Yard to maintain etc .. so he only knew how to 'sail it' ...

We knew that it used to have hot water from calorifier - but that was removed when engine rebuilt.
It has a second FW bag 100ltr plumbed to the existing stainless steel FW tank .. why ?? It gives over 150lts !!
It has an LPG cabin heating system that he said was disconnected.
It has a shit-tank but where - he didn't know !! The piping / valve setup is a mess ...

Today Alex and I decided to lift up bunk cushions, open up EVERYTHING we could ... make a real effort to trace pipes .. but after we did the Yanmar 2GM Layup procedure ....

For those who don't know .. Yanmar provide a good layup system once a bit of antifreeze has been fed through the filter and exhaust system ...

Open drain at base of block - let out all water from block / manifold ... (yard had already added Antifreeze to blow through exhaust etc. but I wanted to go the full procedure myself). It was obvious that thermostat had not opened when they did it .. as only clear water came out.
Once water stopped running out ... it was open up thermostat housing - remove thermostat ... start pouring in antifreeze - watch for it exiting the drain at engine base ... once antifreeze coming out - close drain and then carry on pouring in antifreeze till full up to thermostat housing. Stop and replace thermostat (after cleaning of course) and bolt back up the housing.

Drain ...



Thermostat housing ..



Thermostat out ..



Funnel into thermostat space ...



Antifreeze coming out of drain ..



Antifreeze up to thermostat level ...



I'll break the post now ... nest install next post !

 

[Refueler]

Ok ... I have mentioned before that the port seaberth in main cabin has two underbunk stowage areas .. one has the later added 100ltr flexi bag FW 'tank' .... it was plumbed to SW by installers used by previous owner .,. which I corrected later .. but TBH - there's no need for it as the designed original FW tank is good ... I will be removing the flexi bag and removing the T piece in the FW line.



The fwd stowage space is filled with expanded foam .. for what ??



Then it 'dawned' on us ... once we started closely inspecting pipes .... its expansion foam insulation surrounding the now disconnected Hot Water tank ...
We have no real use for such a system ... the sinks only have single input from cold FW to one and cold SW to other .. there being no change over valve etc. If the sinks still had the option - then I woulod consider how to re-instate ... but TBH - I've never needed such .. a kettle has been good enough !!

Next was to try and figure out the shit tank and vlave system ... a real mess of vlaves and pipes like someone just scrambled them together and threw them into the undersink space ....



The system as we see it ....

My second least fav bog - Jabsco with its single lever change-over pump. This has an extra inlet valve added. Oh for the simplicity of the baby Blake I have on my 25ftr.
Ok - then we have outlet from bog goes to a 3way valve at the back .. hard to see in photos .. but this valve cannot be used without first moving handle of the overboard valve .. they hit each other ! There is also another pipe that connects the Henderson MK5 to apparently empty the shit tank to sea ..

The 3 way appears to give the options of :
1. Direct out to sea
2. Re-directed to shit tank
3. Hand pump to empty shit tank to sea.

You would think this would be simple and easy to figure out ... but myself and 2 others have tried to figure exactly what position that 3 way needs .. but so far its defeated us. The bog if not careful backfills ..
I have suspicion that the 3way may have been installed wrong and the internal 'ball' is not aligned properly to the pipes. The backfill is from shit tank or pipework.

OK .. next post !!

 

[Refueler]

Episode 3 ...

I have mentioned before that this boat has an old AGA LPG cabin heating system. sadly - I cannot get a manual for it - I contacted AGA in Sweden who made it and they could not provide saying its too old ...

We traced the pipes and actually found extra valves in the propane gas lines .. GOOD. The actual heater is obviosuly a touch corroded at base of the 'water' tank - but all seems solid.
The pipes we though were disconnected - are from the engine hot water system .. the cabin heater pipework is still intact.

Looking at the setup - that boat must have been like a sauna when it was in use ..

The main sea berths have full length radiators running along them .. you can see the wood facings proud of the bunk verticals..



In forecabin - sitting on top of FW tank - insulated of course are radiators - one each side of centre V ..



There are also pipes running alongside engine back towards transom .. we could not figure those out ...





But we think they feed aft radiators that we need to find ... would make sense considering the radiators heating rest of boat.

Looking at they system and finding that the gas lines do have isolation valves - with installing Gas Alarms - we may try getting it to work again. The corrosion we have found - only affects the water / liquid part of the heater itself .. and appears to be surface only ... alarms will be installed anyway.

A very rewarding and productive day !

More posts to follow as we work through more items on board !

I know some are start warning against LPG and all sorts .. let me say this - I appreciate and understand intent. But I am not stupid and would never risk others or myself on board.

 

[Refueler]

Next visit ....

Plan is to install better mains electric into the boat. At present it has a house plug fly lead in the transom locker ... so the mains lead has a garden domestic socket on ... plug together and close transom locker lid on the lead.

Standard blue RV socket will be mounted outside transom locker in cockpit to take standard plud used in marinas.

Because the present arrangemny only goes to a single wall socket on front of engine bay ... I intend to run cable to provide a number of sockets through the boat - possibly with accompanying USB