Author: Jenay Hansen

No more mold!!! So excited to share this latest update. My debate from the Previous article about how to insulate the V-Berth was resolved! I wanted to get Armaflex SA but it was going to be at least $89 a 3x4ft sheet! I found a dealer that was trying to get rid of 1 inch thick Armaflex SA! They sold each sheet to me for $50! I bought 7 sheets so I could not only use it for the V-Berth but also in the main cabin seating area.

Next step: Finishing getting the latex adhesive they used to glue the carpet to the fiberglass walls in the V-Berth. This has been incredibly hard as even with 3M Adhesive Remover it comes off in tiny flakes.

Here I go! Lol even with the mask airing out a boat enough to get the smell of the adhesive remover out is near to impossible. I lost a fair amount of brain cell over the course of this project.

Finally Adhesive has been removed! Yessss! Now to cut and apply the sheets of insulation. I decided to use the old carpeting that was on the walls as a pattern to cut the new insulation.

Unfortunately the carpet wasn’t even cut to the exact right size! It was cut close to the size then the extra carpet was sort of crammed into the crannies. But I did my best.

One sheet cut and placed. I then continued the rest…

I now have it almost completed! Only problem is that since the walls of the boat are slanted the flat corner of the bottom of the sheets is left with a gap. There is a space between the bottom and the insulation… Next problem for another blog post 🙂

 

 

 

Lol So just installed a boom into my bilge to absorb the diesel and oil which has collected there over the last 40 years… After dropping the boom into the bilge with a red bungee cord my boyfriend decided to state the fact that it looks like I just dropped a giant tampon into my bilge. Lol too funny not to share.

This is how the bilge looked before I put in the boom… You can see how much diesel and oil is down there!

Thankfully I have the boom in there to absorb up the oil/diesel then the next step is hand pumping out the water that is left behind after the boom is properly disposed of(asking the guys at the dock how to do that). I had to buy a portable handpump because something is wrong with my manual handpump that is installed in the boat (another project for another day). Its always good to have a backup anyways 🙂

  After that its about cleaning out the walls of the bilge and figuring out what the is up with my manual handpump and to see if that electrical box at the end of that hose that you see in the bilge means I have an electric bilge pump… The specs of this boat say its an engine driven bilge pump (so the engine belt is what gets it going so the engine has to be running) but when I turn the batteries on and off I can hear something shut off and turn back on like a motor. I think it is a bilge pump but that wouldnt make any sense if its engine driven…. Hmmm oh the mysteries of a boat.

Well one project at a time (or I guess really 3 or 4 at this point)…

Yes owning a boat is as much work as I had thought it would be. Loving every second of it! So now to move onto the bathroom problems… So here is my bathroom: 

Looks reasonable? Yeah it works fine. Hosing isnt up to code with the rule that says you have to have 2 metal fasteners on each attaching end of pipes. But toilet flushes and sink works. There is a leak in the window that drips down into the cabinet below and then pools on the counter top but windows are for another blog day.

My problem with the toilet is that everytime you use the pump handle to get sea water to fill the toilet bowl the water comes out the pump and around the handle base causing a cascade of sea water to build on the bathroom floor everytime you flush. As I am sure you can guess Stagnant salt water isnt the most pleasant of smells. There is a drain on the bathroom floor but weirdly it was placed on the highest point in the floor. So water collects on the opposite side.

How to fix it?…. Hmmm well I got on a sailing forum and asked that very question.

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/268009-what-kind-manual-pump-toilet-2.html

I asked what type of toilet it is, if the parts that I need are generic and so can get any seal to work. I received tons of responses. Including the type of toilet this is. Its a Raritan PHII from 1981. One of the most reliable toilets and a great piece to sail with. A few people said they have used theres for 20 some odd years and its still working great! So its a keeper! Just bought a $78 seal replacement kit for it. I am replacing all of them. Comes with I think about 16 different pieces. That being said…doing it myself is going to take some focus and serious planning. Lol to be continued when the parts arrive…. Now to just get all my windows to stop leaking…

 

Diesel in my Bilge PumpSo problem number 500. Lol actually loving all the learning I have been doing to understand and get to know my boat! Project number unstoppable is the bilge problem. There is a fair amount of water/diesel mixture in my bilge and I have just after reading through an old survey of the boat realized that I only have a manual pump which when I used it doesnt seem to remove any of the water. As well as I have an engine driven Jabsco Type 1 Capacity 1500 GPH. So now does that mean the bilge pump only works with the engine running because its a sailboat that would seem a little ridiculous. Plus when I switch the batteries on and off I can hear something start up which I was assuming was the bilge pump….

Questions include:

• Can I dry vac the bilge water out?
• Did the owner after the survey was taken upgrade to an electric one that runs off of my battery?
• Why doesnt the manual one do anything ( is it not at a high enough level)?
• The survey says there isnt a bilge overflow warning anywhere. Did that get replaced too? If so where is it?

After posting on my favorite forum of sailing information: http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/268001-bilge-pump-overflow.html#post3701401

I received a couple suggestions:

• Use dry vac to get bilge mixture out
• manual pump maybe clogged from diesel and debris

 

Sailboat made it! Fenders are too small apparently and although my boat didnt float away and my mast is still upright I did come away with a few straps on my haul. 

Now to address the leaks in the windows! 3 of my 3 windows on the boat were leaking…

Here is what the outside looks like on one of them… Obviously I need to replace all the windows but have no idea when and how to do it! Time for a forum and google searching.