Queen's Visit Day

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Queen's Visit Day

The other day, with the help of Drake and newly arrived gf, Erin, I got the jib down and folded - thanks Erin - and tied up to put into the dink, for a ride ashore to the sail loft. Below, you can see the huge and rather heavy bundle sitting waiting, to be placed.......

here, in the dink, along side. It was so heavy, and awkward, that I even tied a rope on it, in case I dropped it overboard, instead of into the dink. And there was almost no room left in the dink for my big butt!

I have been struggling for 2 days on the Westerbeke generator. It is not putting out enough cooling water from the exhaust, and seems to overheat and shut down. I run it to charge the batteries, and to get the 110v AC refridgerator cold, which is a pain, and that is why I have bought a 12 volt system for both the fridge and the freezer. The 12volt systems will be automatic and run on the batteries. With the wind generator and the solar panels installed, with careful use of electricity, I may not have to run the generator at all someday. But for now, it is at least a once a day chore.

The way it works is this: The engine has an enclosed cooling system, with antifreeze and water, just like any other engine, but instead of circulating thru a radiator with a fan blowing air thru it, it goes thru a seawater heat exchanger; the seawater is sucked in thru a hole in the bottom of the boat with a valve, called a thru hull, thru a strainer to get out any trash or seaweed, and then once thru the heat exchanger, it is pumped out with the engine exhaust. When it is running correctly, it makes a regular and steady gurgle type noise as it exits at the stern. (It also serves to cool down the exhaust, as well.) BTW, the Perkins engine works the same way.

So, when it is not cooling properly, the engine has an overheat kill switch, and shuts down. The first thing to do is look into the sea strainer, for trash. Often, if it has shut down, the pump has been spinning with no water flow and you find it has eaten the blades of a rubber pump inpeller, and that is the job I have been doing - getting to the pump, removing it, and opening it to replace this impellor. Well, I got it all out last night, and the impellor is fine. And I have to put it all back together again, and then figure out what is impeding the water flow.

I dove on the boat the other day, quickly, with just a face mask and saw nothing sticking out of the thru hull from outside, but eventually, using the foot pump that fills the dink with air, was able to blast out the obstruction. Well, I guess it is not completely cleared, and now have to come up with another solution.

This is the raw water pump, removed and sitting on the salon table. I was disappointed to find the impeller in perfect shape, after all the work to remove the pump.

This is the Westerbeke, with the sound proofing cover removed on the front and top and rear.

There is another thru hull close by, which is piped to cool the air conditioners, and I am in the process now of removing its hose to compare the free water flow when I open each thru hull. if there is considerable more flow in the 2nd, I will re-pipe the generator hose into it. It is a real pain to get an old hose off of its fitting, as anyone who has worked on a car radiator or heater can tell you. And that is where I stand right now with the project.

On a brighter note, on one of my walks to the hardware store, yesterday, I took the camera and this is one shot of Annah Foster on anchor. She looks so lonely and vulnerable sitting there to me. I am just not used to leaving her alone yet, and always have a moment of apprehension when returning in the dink, if I cannot immediately spot her. It is just the same as locking your front door and driving to town, but imagine returning to find your house down on the other end of the street! She can move while I am away, if something causes the anchor to drag, and I am just going to have to get used to it.

A close up -

So, back to the trouble with the generator, and I am holding off running the engine for a couple reasons. It heats the engine room and I have to work in there, and I want to have some hot water for a shower, so I can get to shore for the queen's visit. So, check back, there might be a picture or 2 of Queen Elizabeth II.

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About Annah Foster

Annah Foster is a 1980'ish Morgan 462. She is a USCG Documented vessel and the year on the document is 1979, which I believe is the year the keel was laid. She is known as a ketch, which means she has 2 masts, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder. She also is a center compartment boat, which means the helm is located between the 2 masts, which are, by the way, the main and the mizzen. She is equipped with roller furling on the jib/genoa sail which is the big triangular sail on the front. Her empty weight, or rather displacement, is 33,000 lbs, which is fat for her length. Mr. Morgan believed in thick fiberglas for strength and I am told that at places it is often found to be 2 inches of solid fiberglas. Her keel has encapsulated lead weighing 8,000 lbs.

She boasts 2 staterooms, - v-berth forward with separate head and twin beds aft with separate head, including the famous bathtub. The configuration of the aft stateroom could easily be changed with a change in the mattresses to an almost queen berth, port to starboard, but currently she has twins, running fore and aft, with 2 large mattress cushions separating them. There is also a ladder and sliding hatch aft for egress in an emergency, to the aft deck, which I call the back porch. I bought some director's chairs for it and have sat there many evenings enjoying a drink and sunset. The aft deck is also the location of the propane gas grill, storage for the 2 outboard motors, Yamaha 4hp 4cycle, and a Yamaha 15hp 2 cycle, which power a new Apex Lite 10'6 inflatable dinghy, which can hang from the installed davits.

The main sail has 2 reefing points on jiffy reefing and the mizzen has 1. No lines lead to the cockpit but the jib, main and mizzen sheets.

She has a Switlick 6 man life raft mounted aft the mizzen mast. And, an emergency tiller aboard.

She is equipped with a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel engine, powering a Hurth transmission and turning a 4 bladed Max Prop, which feathers when sailing, and reverses pitch in Reverse so that she has the same thrust as in Forward. One unique design flaw is that the propeller shaft exits the boat at 3 degrees off center, making the port prop walk in reverse, even worse. The engine is equipped with about a 90 amp alternator with a very good voltage regulator.

She also has a Westerbeke 5.7 kw diesel generator, which produces 110 v AC power, and charges the batteries thru a 40 amp charger. I also have a Honda 1000 watt gasoline powered generator for emergency 110v, and an automotive battery charger aboard.

She came with an old Windbugger wind generator, not quite perfectly mounted. Stowed in the V-berth, there is a replacement AirX marine wind generator and 8 foot mast waiting to be installed, along with the controller, and 2 solar panels, which are half the possible wattage the controller can handle.

She has 3 4-D AGM batteries for the house bank and a type 18 start battery - all are 12volt.

The 4 gallon water heater will heat with both engine cooling water and 110v AC power and is equipped with a mixing valve to prevent scalding.

Tankage - Water - 110 gallon port and 85 gallon center tanks
Fuel - 175 gallons
Range when new at 2250 RPM is almost 800 nm.

Currently, her refridgerator and freezer are 110 volt AC, with several holding plates each which must be manually started and stopped. She has waiting to be installed, 2 Cool Blue 12 volt systems, with automatic controls, but truthfully, I don't know where the new holding plates will fit.

Electronics -
She is equipped with 2 VHF marine band radios, one at the helm and the other at the nav station, with repeater at the helm, and a hand held low power VHF 'walkie talkie'. Also, at the nav station, she has a Single Side Band HF radio - SSB with a Pactor 2 modem making her capable of downloading NOAA weather fax and Sail Mail emails and Grb files. onto a dedicated IBM laptop. She has as primary a Raymarine E-80 Chartplotter at the helm and a smaller Garmin Chartplotter for back up at the helm, a handheld Garmin Chartplotter, and an older Furuno GPS at the nav station. She has an older Raytheon black and white 24 nm radar at the helm, with a repeater at the nav station. She has a RapidFix 406 EPIRB, emergency locator beacon, that is hand activated. She has a new Clarion AM FM CD player, with input for computer or MP3 player on 3 sets of individual speakers - cockpit, salon, and aft cabin.

For those who do not know me, I named her for my parents - Annah Margaret and George Foster Doak. It is through their beneficence that I am able to live this dream and I felt that I should dedicate my boat to honor their memories.