Vosper Thorny croft wave beta 3 stabilisers

[Natural law]

Hello all,
I purchased a 2002 ocean pacifico 38m steel hull aluminium superstructure called MY Ligaya in late 2019. it was a commercial A+ class but virtually all the certificates had expired and most of the manuals were missing. It was about to be sold at a firesale auction. I foolishly thought I would be able to rebuild it. Now wiser and much more the poorer -some 3 years later - I'm still trying to rebuild it!. I am in the process of completing maintenance that has been neglected for many years and have all but succeeded except one issue is stumping me. It is fitted with a Thorny-croft wave beta 3 stabiliser system which appears to be functional but doesnt work...What I mean by that is the control box on the bridge works, the logic bord seems sound , the hydraulics have been flushed and changed i just cant get it to work so am thinkig an electronic issue... i cant even find a TC electrician to employ who knows the system. Anybody out there -now retired - who used to work on these, any ideas? how i get a copy of the manuals as Ocean Pacifico is now bust!

Any suggestions/help greatly appreciated.

Ps I'm a little worried about doing 5200nms with the system inop!!!

 

[jfm]

There is quite a bit of expertise here on vosper’s mini fins from that era. The control head might be the same. Can you post pictures of yours? I can’t see your control head in the online pictures of Ligaya.

 

[Natural law]

will do when I get back in the morning, Much appreciated.

thank you

 

[Natural law]

Hi Jfm and all
My apologies for the later than anticipated reply!

Not sure how many pictures i'll be able to post in one post so I apologies in advance of all the next posts and photos....

thank you

Mike

 

[Natural law]

Actually I'm struggling to post a single photo, not sure how its done- give me an engine anyday!

 

[vas]

maybe pics are too big (in pixel size/MB) and the system wont accept them? How are you trying to upload?

 

[vas]

how about dragging a reasonably sized pic into the post reply window?
works fine for me (on MS windows10 and chrome, and pretty sure works for most ppl everywhere only file size must be small(ish)

V.

 

[Natural law]

yes thats what I tried, thought I could drag and drop... but didnt work. Will try and make them smaller and try again...

 

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[vas]

Mike,

that's a newer solid state controlled system. The one that JFM knows and I now own was old school analogue head unit (as in the pic I posted earlier today) which I've converted to solid state.
Good to see that some sensors are the same though (talking about Penny and Jiles angle sensor)

Can you be a bit more specific on what doesnt work please?
there must be either a PTO on the engines, or external pulleys to a pair of hydraulic pumps that circulate oil to the controllers and return the oil to the tank.
I guess you have got that lot working, no leaks, right?
Then it's the control head that will get the fins moving.
Assuming the boat in the water and marina a bit lively it would try to move the fins even docked (with not much success I'd imagine)
Obvs if the boat on the hard, it will be difficult to see anything happening as the sensors wont register any listing or general moving.
sorry if I'm teaching you things you do know, but we'd need a few more bits of info to be of any (admittedly v.limited!) help.

one last note, where is this Penny and Jiles sensor fitted? is it the top of the fin shaft? don't remove it! but it seems to me that someone has fooled around with the central screw (probably tightened it!) which is not meant to, it's the internal bush to the shaft coming out on the other side and should only be carefully regulated to enable easy/smooth rotation without wobbling...

V.

 

[Natural law]

 

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