Tiresome spring projects

Although I have said there is far less to be done on the boat this year than most years, that doesn't mean I am off the hook entirely. Since it was so nice out today, and it's a Friday, I headed over to Shilshole to see if I could make some progress on a few of my outstanding projects.

I also know I keep saying that I will take pictures when I do these things so that it makes more sense to look at; but I forgot the camera again today. I'll have to go back sometime and do a marathon photo updating session to cover everything I've done (although, unless I go back and disassemble some things, you won't get any of those neat step-by-step "in progress" shots that other people seem to manage so effortlessly).

As usual, I got about half way through about three different projects, halted on each of them by lack of some particular part or tool close to hand. I had intended to get the bow nav lights all wired up, pull out and dissassemble/fix the water pump or failing any obvious fix to replace it with our new spare, and to either wire up or at least scope out the wiring territory for the ignition system, which I am replacing with a two-station push-button setup to replace the key/lock switch that has gone out. I figured if I had time I would tidy up a bit, organize my electrical tools and supplies into one of the new dryboxes, take a gander at the PSS shaft seal to identify or rule it out conclusively as the source of the stern leak, and try to troubleshoot the radar (which turned up a "no signal" error when I fired it up late last month).

I got the nav lights done.

That took longer than I had hoped mostly because I was working up on the pointy end trying not to drop anything overboard. In my haste to remove the busted pulpit last year, I cut and pulled out the wiring running through it to the bow lights. Mandy and I re-installed the fixed pulpit a couple of weeks ago (with a good deal of pushing and pulling to get it bent back into shape, and the liberal application of 5200 to keep it that way!) and Mandy had done the time-consuming work of threading new wiring through the tubes again, but now it all had to be hooked up.

To avoid a situation where I would have to cut the wires to remove the pulpit again, I used fully insulated male/female disconnects, which I can unplug from inside the anchor locker if the pulpit has to come off in the future. I used heat shrink tubing to seal them up (it gets pretty wet in there) and then taped them for a belt and suspenders approach. I also zip-tied the wiring up out of the way along the toe-rail bolts, as previously it had simply been dangling around waiting for a length of anchor chain to rip it up.

I managed not to drop anything valuable in the water, and checked to make sure the lights worked when I flipped the switch: success!

I then went back and cleared out the starboard cockpit locker, which is necessary in order to fit myself into a space where I can get at the water pump or the backside of the engine control panel. Normally those are Mandy jobs since she fits much more tidily! But most of the stuff in there needed a good airing out anyway.

I first disconnected the ignition switch and made sure I knew which wires did what... still a little fuzzy on the "On" position but I at least isolated the wires I need for the push-button starter. Looks like the start button I got will fit handily into one of the available blanks on the panel! I may get a different one, however, with a built-in guard cover, as this might be a little too easy to bump into. Either way, I got stalled at this point because I didn't have any disconnects of the appropriate wire guage. I also needed to leverage myself out of the pit to trace the engine-side wiring, to install a switch in the system inside the boat, to prevent anyone from wandering by and starting her up from the cockpit. It's a laborious process to unfold myself from the cockpit locker, so I decided to just move on with the water pump.

Checking the old pump, it looked like the motor was probably shot, so I unmounted it to install the new one. Got all the wiring sorted out (had all the appropriate connectors this time!) and made sure the new used pump we picked up worked (it did) and then yanked the output hose to connect it. No dice... the old pump is a Jabsco with slip-on flange connectors, while the new one is a Shurflo with screw-on fittings (proprietary, from the looks of it). I hooked everything back up to the old malfunctioning pump, because the water tank is above the level of the pump and is perfectly happy to gravity drain itself dry, flooding the interior in the process.

So; shopping list now consists of 12 guage disconnects and Shurflo hose adapters.

I sorted out some of the electrical gear as I had planned but it got depressing pretty fast as I realized how much I needed to replace... a lot of corrosion was evident (which is why I got the dry box for the stuff this time around) and what was good enough to keep didn't take up too much space in the new box.

Didn't get to the radar at all. Not looking forward to it, as that could be expensive. It's brand new though, may be covered under warranty, or it may just be a bad connection somewhere.

Oh, and I discovered a split in the holding tank vent line, right where it joins the thru-hull in the cockpit locker... that made my stay in the confined space even more enjoyable than I had been expecting! I'll probably just tape it up, as I'm not sure there is enough slack to cut and re-secure it, and more splices=more potential leaks in the future. It's not as if it carries sewage itself, at any rate.

All this the day before the opening day of boating season. Unfortunately, it's supposed to rain. I usually go down and watch the races in the Montlake Cut, but I think tomorrow I'll be paying for playing hooky today by working instead.