What lessons for this week

Javelin

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Location
Southwold
www.southwoldboatyard.co.uk
As usual a grand mix of lessons learnt.

Leaky side window in the hull of an Oyster 435 was found to have only 5mm overlap with the window frame.
Need to be very careful when positioning as the hole allows 3mm fore and aft movement with the possible result of only a 2mm overlap.
No wonder it leaked.

Needed to design a freeflow 100ltr holding tank for a southerly to fit in a redundant hanging locker - Tektanks may be pricey but their service is superb and given the complicated drawing I sent the proposed result looks really promising.

Beware of buying new Electronics that may have sat on the shelf a while.
A customer saved some money on a Raymarine e90w plotter but the internal software was well out of date and needed flashing with up to date software.
The gps needed to go on a separate backbone rather than through the network switch which resulted in ten miles of extra wire until we get in a 5 way plug - shame they didn't supply this rather than four 5m cables, grr.

When calibrating an oldish Cetreck 730 autohelm don't go too close to the end stops otherwise when is does its own calibration routine there's a chance it'll try to go beyond the end stop which resulted in a blown hydraulic hose.

The lower rudder bearing on a sun Odyssey is a actetal ring inside a big rubber bush pushed up into a recess in the hull.
The issue in this case was corrosion of the stainless rudder shaft inside the acetal bearing which essentially seized it to the shaft,
this resulted in the acetal rotating inside the rubber which wore away quite quickly.
New replacement is £350 ish with the chance of it happening again.
So we've come up with a new design which will fix the shaft corrosion at the same time.

One customer wanted new standing rigging which was fine as the existing was looking distinctly old.
There was specifically bad corrosion inside the silly white plastic coating that's supposed to prevent wear on the cap shrouds (same applies to guard rails - don't do it, its dangerous !!)

Another wanted new standing rigging but didn't want the forestay changed even though it was the same age but he insisted that as it was inside the furler spar "it will be fine" I didn't agree but the customer is always right??

The very expensive lewmar winch service kits (£40) don't include some of the serviceable parts like the bearings, plastic wear washers, spindles, but they do include bits for winch sizes you don't have - daft.

Splicing the core with Marlow 12mm covered dyneema halyards is hard work but worth it in the end :)

Fell off my chair when I saw a quote for a genoa cover from North at over £750 for a 40'
 
On the final point, I spoke to my sailmaker about a genoa cover and despite them costing more than getting him to supply a UV strip he didn't recommend them which chimes with my observations of covers flogging and so chaffing the sail underneath.
I gave up our cover because of wear. This was not caused by flogging but by the friction from repeated hoisting and especially lowering, since it was hard to slacken the lines effectively.
 
I just can't get over why such a relatively simple cover should be so expensive.
Material costs, about £50 to £60 and I'm sure their material costs would be much less.
Would take me (and I'm slow) maybe four to five hours to machine.
Another hour or two to sew lacing loops.
So at our full yard rate that would be a total of £250
£750 looks pretty steep to me.
 
I've learned that you can cut the cockpit of a Westerly Centaur with a jigsaw, that angle grinders used in the boat create a lot of dust and that when you ask on the forum about filling a hole in your hull you get helpful replies, thanks guys!
 
The sun came out with the usual response that owners remember that they have a boat, they need it antifouled and put in the water, oh and while you're at it can you service/repair ............
They have had all winter to sort it but wait until the week before Easter.
We know its going to happen but it's still dammed annoying.

We took five boats out that have been in for the winter for a quick wash and re-antifoul.
Looks like International trilux won the cleanest prop award and Seajet the best antifoul although cruiser Uno was pretty good.

The first three masts I've sorted have all had corroded VHF/hawk antennas.
Silly design using an alloy lower tube with a SS whip - result is, sorry that'll be £70 for a new one and pray its the same cable otherwise we'll have run another one.
We're trying to source a better version to avoid this problem in future.

Delivered a 1960's 54' powerboat that needed a haul-out and wash/paint.
At 30 tonnes shes a bit big for our hoist so I set off for Lowestoft for a lift at ABP.
She usually cruises at 20knts since we re engined her last year but once out of the harbour 8 knts was the limit.
Something was very wrong with the starboard engine.
Out of gear all was fine and at low speeds all seemed fine but above 1/4 trottle the Stbd engine fell away badly.
So using minimum revs on Stbd for steerage I nursed her to ABP and got her lifted where we found......
goldenarrow.jpg


Inside that mess of rope is an expensive but in this case useless rope cutter !! and as a result the propshaft had been pulled aft as you can see by the clean section of shaft at the P bracket.
Inspection inside showed that this flex in the coupling had been enough to snap the earthing wire.
The photo was also before washing down - she's been in since last May and the anti foul was Seajet Shogun and the props were just burnished with no coating.

Fitted two boats with the Digital Yachts long range Wifi and Wifi router.
Easy to fit, really nice quality gear and having tested the first one the results were great.

For those with older selden booms with clew cars that have little 20mm wheels - Struggled to get them so had them made by DC Marine in Norwich who also make our one off rudder bearings.

Was asked by two owners for cruiser Dyneema Main halyards - yay the message is getting through :)
Although one wanted sk90 Dyneema for reefing lines which was a bit over kill.

Lots more but the posts getting a bit big so will end for now.
 
This week has been a nightmare for one reason and another.
The boat I delivered last week that had the rope round the prop, had been "fixed", painted and readied for the season.
So off I went to pick it up and bring her back from Lowestoft.
Launch and little trip down the river went ok until we got to the lifting bridge.
We were a little early so tried to hold position in the river when suddenly lost all drive forward and aft on Stbd engine, so shut it down.
30 seconds later port engine temp started to get high, checked water out of exhaust and it had stopped so shut Port down as well and drifted gently to the wharf next to the grain silo.
To cut a long story short after a quick on the water rebuild of the stbd shaft coupling we discovered the key had sheared.
Our yard engineer turned up by car and fixed that and then we looked at the port engine water issue which was down to an air lock in the centrifugal water pump.
We missed one bridge opening but caught the next and it was plain sailing after that. That is until I got back to the yard when I discovered my new nick name was Jonah.

We discovered a big issue with the oyster 435 steering system.
At some time the cables had been put on the quadrant the wrong way resulting in one of the cables riding off the turning sheave.
The previous owner had not realised this and noting that the cables were slack had re-tensioned them.
On inspection the port cable was 3/4 cut through and had worn a groove in the sheave shaft.
We decided to check the whole system right back to the steering binnacle and we were glad we did as the chain drive had a broken link in it as well.

The new owner had a survey carried out on the Oyster in March 2014 before he committed to buy the boat.
After he bought it he was in no great hurry to get in the water as the boat was in our yard so work was scheduled for April 2015
We discovered that the surveyor had not picked up on any issues with the steering other than saying it was in "serviceable condition" or a number of other issues we found and fixed, including lifting teak deck in various places, leaky windows, a seized rod kicker and various other deck fittings with shot bearings, sheaves, badly worn running rigging etc.
We called in the surveyor to show him the stuff he'd missed and he said "hmm thanks for the info, but my survey is only valid for 12 months"!!!
The fact that the boat hasn't moved in 12 months apparently has no bearing on the situation.
I think this story has a few more miles in it if the colour of the Owners face is anything to go by.

Five masts stepped, seven boats launched plus three lifted out, the weather was kind so all went well.
Fitted a new North furling Jib, really nicely built and a lovely shape but boy for £2800 it Bl***y well should be!

Tensioned up a rig on a sun odyssey 34 to our usual 10% before launching.
Tested it again after launching and it had dropped to 4% - I think we need to investigate further on this one!
 
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One of the hardest factors to deal with is managing expectations and assumptions.
An owner buys a boat after looking at it a couple of times.
Schedules in work to be done like new electronics, new standing / running rigging, sails etc
This can add up to £10k to £20k very quickly.
We decide on a finish date and when the date arrives is often where our problems begin.
One case recently the owner fully expected the boat to be ready to sail direct to the Med.
I call this the charterer factor. Turn up and sail off.
This owner assumed that Sea trials were part of the deal.
Others prefer to do this in combination with us and most do it themselves.
Nobody it seems wants to pay me £200 to go out sailing for a day, to sort the boat out in the real bouncy, leaning over world (which is a great shame).

What invariably happens is they go out and find an issue and come back and complain, which we have to try and fix without trying it out in anger.
The much worse scenario is folk who sail off and find an issue and don't tell us directly but moan to others.

If part of the deal is to deliver the boat back down to the Orwell. Burnham or similar then that does give us the chance to get her sorted.
We can calibrate the sheets, deck leads, rig, Auto pilot, box the compass and thoroughly test any new systems and then be able to communicate findings to the owner.
Trouble is that's a 2 man day so nearer to £400 so for a sub £5k job we wouldn't be able to carry that easily.

Recently I did go out with an owner of a Rustler 32 for a morning and a bit.
The subsequent mods I recommended and carried out in the words of the owner transformed the boat and made it fun again.
This included a 2:1 main halyard and harken roller top sheave, as he was having a hard time hoisting the main as he's now in his late 60's
Reducing the friction of his slab reefing system.
Eliminating the excessive weather helm he's been suffering with for apparently many years.
Re organising the mainsheet and traveler system.
Produced a cruising tuning guide giving genoa sheet lead and traveler positions for various conditions.
Fitting a VHF command mic in the cockpit.
In my view that was a win win scenario as we got a bit more work but more importantly we ended up with a very happy customer who now uses his boat far more.
 
This week we're wasting money trying to fix slightly leaking, oldish, Jabsco manual toilets.
3hrs at £27.50 ph to find that the service kit didn't fix the issue and that there was a hairline crack in the top pump housing of toilet No1 and another crack next to one of the screws on the lower housing on toilet No2 that had been over tightened at some previous time.
The service kits are £30
A new pump assembly is £50
A new toilet around £80 - do the math....
We fitted two new toilets in the end.

Whilst we're on Jabsco, I also had to replace a Fuel transfer pump which had failed.
Fitted a new one, tested and all was fine.
Next day, phone call, "pump failed" hmmm
A quick test and found the internal 20amp fuse had blown.
Turned out they forgot to turn the transfer seacock on so pressurised the fuel in the pipe in a second and bang fuse blown.
Armed with this info I looked at the old pump's internal fuse, yup you guessed it......

Ovni 435's topsides were sprayed with Awlgrip top coat this week and is looking very good.
All the corrosion now gone which existed under almost every fitting and round the stanchion bases.
New modern windows complete with smart alloy internal trim were supplied by Seaglaze which look great but came without fasteners as these are considered extras ?!?!
Found that the limber (drain) holes in the base of the stanchions had been filled at some point for some strange reason, resulting in little pools of water where the base meets the toerail.
As luck would have it another Ovni visited the Harbour last week "Magic Hen" and I had a look and noted that she too had had the limber holes filled as well.
So it appears it was the manufacturer who had done it.
For what reason I haven't a clue.

A bit embarrassed this weekend.
I replaced my rudder bearings on my own boat last summer.
Thought all was fine as I'd done around 400 miles and although it felt a little stiffer than normal there was no more wobble feeling so thought all was good.
Headed off for Harwich on Sat morning for our first shake down sail of the season and things had seemed to stiffen up somewhat.
By the time I got to Harwich the top bearing had seized to the shaft and the bearing housing was turning in the outer tube.
Some banging and copious amounts of fairy eased things slightly for our return to Southwold.
Looks like I'll have to lift her out, inspect and start again.
First thought is this new bearing material I decided to trial is not as impervious to water as first thought, grrr.
 
We invited the Ovni 435 owner down this week to help with his boat.
We invite all our customers down to help as it does a number of things.
The customer,
1, learns how various elements of the refit work and how to do many of the jobs thought as part of some black art.
2, See's that yes there is actually work being done to his boat for which he pays for on a weekly itemised invoice.
3, Saves a bit of money doing jobs we'd otherwise have to do.
4, Experiences that work on boats is sometimes painfully slow and awkward.

We dressed his mast with new standing rigging and checked the running rigging, sheaves, cleats, terminals etc.
Also we changed to led lighting.
Struggled with the tri colour and Anchor light for a while but it turned out to be a simple polarity issue.
With many LED's you have to get the polarity right or otherwise the light simply won't work but confusingly some other LED's appear not to be effected.
So yet again we have another French yacht where the Earth is Blue and the yellow green and Brown are the live feed.

We built up the two Pro furl Furlers onto the new forestays.
Pro Furl are nicely engineered but they do insist on having 4 stainless steel grub screws holding each of the seven furler sections.
Each has to be coated before assembly to stop corrosion which is a pain.
There's very little loading on these joints so nylon or alloy grub screws would have worked just as well without the inevitable corrosion issues in future.
The Forestay swayged eye terminals also had to be drilled out .5mm as the standard base pins of the pro furl were too big to go through.

We cut out the hole for the new bow thruster and the scalloped area aft of the main hole.
We've found the scalloped method is far superior to the simple eyebrow in front of the hole method.
It reduces drag significantly and also reduces internal noise in the fore peak.
We'll hopefully get this finished next week.

I spent ages trying to talk a customer into using a Dyneema main halyard last year eventually conceded, tried it and has now gone dyneema mad and ordered more halyards and even reefing lines out of dyneema.
I'm happy with the Halyards but not so keen on the reef lines unless we reduce the diameter otherwise its overkill.
Looks like I'll get some more dyneema core to core splicing practice though.

A fishing boat came out for a yearly wash and re anti-foul - the bottom was ok-ish but the prop was clean, the owner had used Vaseline apparently and it seems to have worked, at least for last year.
ovni_1.jpg

ovni_3.jpg
 
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Beware of buying new Electronics that may have sat on the shelf a while.
A customer saved some money on a Raymarine e90w plotter but the internal software was well out of date and needed flashing with up to date software.
But that's a trivial 5 minute job. Surely worth it if you save some money?

The gps needed to go on a separate backbone rather than through the network switch which resulted in ten miles of extra wire until we get in a 5 way plug - shame they didn't supply this rather than four 5m cables, grr.
Not sure I understand this: What sort of network were you connecting the GPS to?
 
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Beware of buying new Electronics that may have sat on the shelf a while.
A customer saved some money on a Raymarine e90w plotter but the internal software was well out of date and needed flashing with up to date software.
But that's a trivial 5 minute job. Surely worth it if you save some money?
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?426083-What-lessons-for-this-week/page2#ijYKbwgm5G4eiJ8A.99

Yes agreed a trivial 5 minute job but only once you've spent an hour or more trying to work out why this brand new piece of kit doesn't work and then you decide to check the software release numbers and only then discover it's three updates old.

Oh and it was a new seatalk to e90 if I remember rightly.

Anyway this week has been all about more coming out than going in.
It's May and we're stuffed to the eyeballs with boats out of the water and even more waiting to come out.
This is usually our breather time after the Easter rush but not this year.

The Ovni is out of Shed 2 and the mast is up - the new wires from Sta-lok were as usual spot on however the toggles on the 6mm wire intermediates and aft lower shrouds are 3mm narrower than what was originally fitted and won't fit on the chain plates.
So as an interim we'll use the old toggles and seek a solution next week.
Sally a 1930's pretty 25' racing yacht had a new engine squeezed in, was launched and driven up the river to our pontoons.
All was well until our engineer checked the oil and found a trace of water on the dipstick.
Investigation found it was the old anti siphon which was blocked with salt crystals, panic over.

Fitted new 12mm Dyneema halyards and 10mm reefing lines to a 52' Hoek cutter.
The owner wanted white rope and I found the rope cover really tough and made core to core splicing really hard.
In the end I did a cover-less splice on the halyards but used a hard eye.
We had a little leak we traced to the pushpit mounting on the capping rail.
The fix was a nightmare job of removing the pushpit and all the electronics hanging off it.
Lots of cables run inside the tube and through the capping rail.
The leak was from a gps antenna wire with a dodgy rubber grommet that entered the pushpit tubing some 5 feet away from where the down tube entered the capping rail.
Water was just following the wires into the hull and collecting in a locker 10' forward.

Had a very expensive gas cooker (£3500) delivered for fitting.
The box had been crushed a bit and on inspection the top plate was bent and one of the ceramic burners chipped.
So we sent it back and two days later we got another delivered.
This one was even worse, the door was misaligned, the ss surround was bent, it looked a real mess, so it was sent back.
This time we sent our own car down to deepest Essex to pick one up and all was well until we wired everything up and found the ignition unit had been wrongly wired at the manufacturers and the tilt lock was on the back of the oven requiring you to lean right over to lock or unlock which to us was plain daft.
We fixed it!
 
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