Routine maintenance of ancilliary eqpt

Nick_H

Nick_H

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www.ybw-boatsforsale.com
We've had a couple of issues recently, both of which were fairly easily resolved, or at least didn't impact us much as they were sorted by the charter captain during a charter, but one involved a lift out and the other resulted in new domestic batteries, so both were quite costly.

Both of these could have been avoided by routine servicing, but when most people talk about servicing they mean engine and gearbox/drives, and maybe the genny. If you have your car serviced they check the other systems on the car, but you don't hear of anyone offering boat servicing covering things like bowthruster, crane, air conditioning, batteries, windlass, heating, calorifier, pipework etc. Also, it seems the structure of most boats only gets checked (by the new owners surveyor) when it's sold.

So, do others on here undertake preventative maintenance on any of these things, or do we all wait till they fail and hope it's not in the middle of our summer holidays?
 
What a bummer - unsched lift out and new batteries.

Apart from engine service - no. I get the engine anodes changes annually even if I run over 12 months between the normal annual. Of course anodes for trim tabs , hull and thruster although this year the tabs nor the thruster needed changing - Did the thruster as new type of prop fitted.

Frankly these days is so quick to get bits that I like to leave well alone ie if it 'aint broke do'nt fix it'.

You can check battery performance. Others who have had heating overhauls have nearly all have had subsiquent problems. What I do is run everything when I visit even if not putting to sea. That means heads, showers, radar, plotter VHFs , heating, genset even the upper/lower helm dash lights and nav lights.

Only things I have needed to replace are grey water pump - 3 yrs ago, Fridge elect change over dc/ac switch last year , Fire alarm diode last year , Bog motor - last year and FW pump this summer - oh and Princess fitted a new dimmer fuse for my saloon lighting which failed the evening before i attended their summer BBQ :-)
 
Don't start me on dimmer switches, I have 3 on the boat and have had to replace all 3 this season at 75 quid a pop, just as I did last season, and the season before. I seriously think they're programmed to last a year and a day.
 
I tend to do the routine maintenance when the weather is **** and prevents us from going out - especially over winter. Everything from generator down to brushes on the bow & stern thruster.

Engine anodes I do every 6 months as at 12months they are getting quite low and it gives me a good excuse to give the starboard side of the engine a good inspection (as that requires panels off in the 3rd cabin on an Elling). This winter, I need to do the brushes on the alternator as they were getting short last year (but I didn't have time to get some when I was fitting the alternator regulator).
 
Good advise from MJF with regards running and checking everything. I would include openening and close all valves then you know that they work.
David
 
I guess they are 'standard' princess fit.

Cannot remember the make but mine have been fine until the fuse went - thats the real small spade type held within the switch itself. i did not even know there was a fuse there until I was shown... The dimmers are push button and a simple press lights up 100% and a hold down brings up the voltage from low to high. Steady green light when on and flashing when off top see them in the dark. Flash red when volts drop under 10.5v (I think as happened on one anchor night episode)
 
well, re car. I have a relative who never services the car;he has now done 230k miles in it !Japanese car, though.
 
Interesting mjf, although i'm sure I tried changing the fuse once and it still didn't work. They have many different failure modes though, so it could be that a fuse change would have saved some of them. I don't believe its a voltage/supply problem on my boat as I have very few bulb failures, I think it's just a really sh!t product by Gewiss.
 
Yes its Gewiss. I have had no downlights fail at all and this June failure of the dimmer was a first - I thought it was a £100 replacement and I mention it in passing to Princess service guy who said 'give me your keys' and it was fixed 5 mins later.

I'm actaully quite impressed with the dimmers as the electronic job at home were over £200 and sometimes humm..
 
Nick_H said:
We've had a couple of issues recently, both of which were fairly easily resolved, or at least didn't impact us much as they were sorted by the charter captain during a charter, but one involved a lift out and the other resulted in new domestic batteries, so both were quite costly.

Both of these could have been avoided by routine servicing, but when most people talk about servicing they mean engine and gearbox/drives, and maybe the genny. If you have your car serviced they check the other systems on the car, but you don't hear of anyone offering boat servicing covering things like bowthruster, crane, air conditioning, batteries, windlass, heating, calorifier, pipework etc. Also, it seems the structure of most boats only gets checked (by the new owners surveyor) when it's sold.

So, do others on here undertake preventative maintenance on any of these things, or do we all wait till they fail and hope it's not in the middle of our summer holidays?
Click to expand...

It's difficult in the Med to keep on top of maintenance, especially if you charter, because you're on the boat so seldom and, when you are, you want to use it. FWIW, I tend to have a blitz early in the year and then only do things as they break after that. Of the things you mention, I do keep a regular eye on battery levels because months on shorepower does fry them over time and I do take the windlass apart every season and give it a squirt of WD40. Also, I get an aircon specialist to check the aircon once a season. The chilled water temp is adjustable, the blower filters need cleaning and you should check the water pipes for leaks. For me the aircon is vital so I always get a bloke in to give it the once over. As for the other items you've mentioned, I don't bother with them either. One item not on your list is the galley fridge. I get the same bloke as checks the aircon to check the gas pressure on the fridge as I've found it loses pressure over a couple of seasons. And one other deeply unpleasant job that always seems to fall to me is to clean out the filters for the shower wastewater sump once a season
 
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