71 Ericson 29

[Veronica Manganese]

Thanks

Oh, well you could download the installation instructions from Indigo and crib from those. Or at least from the block diagrams at the end for hose connections. But we don't know how your raw water pump will be attached/driven.

As for hoisting with the boom - many have done it, though no manufacturer will say that it's safe. I think a key point is that there will be a lot of stress on the boom if you suspend it by a halyard clipped to the end then hoist a large weight in the middle. It would be safer to run the halyard from the same point at which the weight is suspended. That is, the halyard should bear the weight, not the boom.

Good advice. Will keep y'all posted. Am looking forward to taking the time to delve more deeply into this forum...
VM

[lat 64]

hi!

Veronica,
I pulled my engine with the main boom. The key here is to be safe of course.
I hooked up both(For safety) halyards back to a point on the boom at just where I lashed up the block gear to hoist the engine. The engine weighs ~320 lbs, so you don't want to drop it on your toes. The gel coat gets scratched up too if you don't watch it.

I have Fresh-water cooling. Make sure like the others say to install any new gear in the engine room with due consideration to having to work around it when you have to fix some deep problem. I relocated my heat exchanger away from the engine. and made good access for maintaining it. I like to sit and stare at the engine compartment for a few beverages to imagine all the configurations I can. Quality time

Welcome,
Russ

[13jeff13]

I hate this expression, but I totally feel your pain.

I paid for a full year in advance on my slip (because the owner gave me a 10% discount if I would pay for the year in advance) in September of 2010. I hauled the boat in January 2011. It was on the hard for the next full year. So I paid for a full year and used the slip only for 3 months.

When September 2011 rolled around, I paid again, because it is such a great slip, I didn't want to lose it. The boat didn't go back in the water until February. So again, I paid for a full year, but missed the first four months.

The marina owner is a really good guy - he said "If I knew you were going to be out that long, I would have talked to you about subletting the slip and we could have split the proceeds." Yup. I had that same thought - but I just didn't know how long it was going to be on the hard.

Ah, what the hell, it's only money.

I paid for a Full Year in June.. only 10 months,, as our marina starts the year in April.. But it was to keep the Fire Under My Butt To Stay Focused,,, Fresh Water Installed this week,, Pics to follow...


Jeff.

[13jeff13]

I paid for a Full Year in June.. only 10 months,, as our marina starts the year in April.. But it was to keep the Fire Under My Butt To Stay Focused,,, Fresh Water Installed this week,, Pics to follow...


Jeff.

Goal Setting and Keeping your eye on the prize,, Accounts for a lot of success in the boating world,,,, is what I Have Found.. and Other Thing in Life.

[toddster]

Through-Hull Size?

Where were we? Oh yeah, still waiting for the new prop shaft to arrive. So I popped off the old gate-valve seacocks in order to replace them with modern stuff and opened up a whole new can of worms.

The intake through-hulls on my boat are 1/2-inch fittings (ID = 1/4-inch) and the drains are 1 1/4-inch. Nobody makes parts compatible with the 1/2-inch through-hulls any more, so one way to go is to get new 3/4" fittings (which will require glass work, since they won't fit into the old countersunk holes.)

Anyway, the A4-specific question is, are these old 1/4-inch ID fittings in any way inadequate for cooling water flow? They have worked for 40 years... Just wondering if this could be a factor in the decision tree.

[ILikeRust]

First, 1/4" ID sounds too small to me to begin with. Even if it's not, I would think it's too easily prone to being clogged by marine growth or sediment.

My boat had a similarly small raw water intake - I think it was about 1/2" pipe nipple. I replaced the entire through-hull setup with a brand new Groco 3/4" mushroom through-hull and a through-bolted adapter flange.

See the following excellent "how to" articles - these are what I followed in replacing mine:

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/seacock_primer

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/replacing_thruhulls

[toddster]

Yes, the drawback with upsizing, other than throwing away perfectly good fittings, is that new through-hulls would not fit the old countersunk holes for the old flush fittings. I'd have to patch the holes and re-drill (and incidentally, no longer have flush fittings). Not to mention cutting huge holes in the liner just to be able to drill holes for the flange. (Although I suppose that I could drill them in a completely different place.) And my simple bolt-on upgrade turns into another month on the hard. I seem to be leaning toward upgrading the drains to flange-fittings but leaving the intakes for another season.

I guess what I'm looking for is any specific instance where the old stock 1/2-inch through-hulls proved inadequate for the A4.

[sastanley]

toddster...keep in mind the inlet and outlet for the water pump is a 3/8" NPT fitting, so that is usually the restriction point. I changed every brass fitting over to cast instead of machined and put 5/8" hose everywhere on the raw side to improve flow, but the water pump is still the restriction.

I have 4 thru-hulls in my boat..some were pipe nipples glassed right into the hull and some were real 'thru-hull' fittings, like the 1/2" bronze scoop engine intake. I replaced the two pipe nipples (they were flush, now they aren't, but it's a cruising boat!) and left the two other fittings (one being engine intake). The 1/2" marelon seacock accepted a 5/8" marelon hose barb. You have a hull liner down where the thru-hulls go?

I understand your issue with the countersunk holes..can't you find marleon fittings that are flush? - check this link - http://www.forespar.com/boat-marine-...hru-hull.shtml

When installing new seacocks, you'll need a sealer of some sort, since the threads are not tapered like pipe threads. I used the white thread dope straight out of the Lowe's plumbing section and it worked fine, but it is messy.

Make sure you've read MaineSail's articles if you need a refresher.

[toddster]

One could buy new flush fittings, but the heads would not be the same size as the old ones. I'd still need to glass over the old holes, drill new holes, and countersink them... with tools that I don't have.

The through-hulls are accessed by going into a locker, then sometimes opening another hatch to a concealed bilge, and then reaching sideways... If the boat were loaded for cruising, you'd have to shift gear every time you started the engine or used the toilet. Unless you just left everything open all season.

If I were to go for wholesale relocation of the through-hulls, I'd look at arranging things so that the valve stems exited through the sides of lockers. That way you could operate them without opening or moving anything. Perhaps in recessed boxes, like the engine control panel. Somehow, I doubt that I'll ever have that much time on my hands...

[toddster]

Just Bragging A Little

Since it came up elsewhere, I recently finished re-wiring the whole boat. (Just a few details to finish up here and there.) The main thing was to build adequate main AC and DC panels where there previously were none, and to build some cabinetry to get them into the main cabin. I got really tired of crawling down into the sail locker to try to sort out the old rats nest of wires. I think the nav station is about finished in this pic, except for a few bits of fiddly trim. Note LED strip lighting behind a little hardwood valence strip in front of the panels. Separate dimmers for white lights and red night lights.



I had planned to go with the new red (+) yellow (-) scheme, but the spool of cable that I ordered didn't come that way and I didn't want to wait two weeks for a replacement. Also, the device manufacturers seem to use all kinds of different schemes, including some yellow (+) and some black (+) and some yellow (signal). So I just tried to label everything clearly. Also, those adhesive-backed cable tie supports started falling off on the first hot day. I've since replaced them with screw-on cable clamps, but since I couldn't screw them into the hull, the cable routing was a bit more restricted.

[Loki9]

Damn nice work. My boat will never look that good, at least not while I own it. I just don't have the skills.

[JOHN COOKSON]

Toddster
Here's what I did to support wires when I didn't want to make a hole.
Stretch the wire and support it with tape maybe at 1 foot intervals. Secure the wire with blobs of silicone sealer and let dry overnight. Next day remove the tape.

TRUE GRIT

[romantic comedy]

Todd, is that a voltage meter in that panel? What brand is it?

I had one that looks like that. Actually I had 3 that look like that. They all broke within a year. They disappeared from the West catalog.

I have a house use ammeter, and the voltage meter in a similar panel. Not quite as well made and pretty though.

[toddster]

Todd, is that a voltage meter in that panel? What brand is it?

I had one that looks like that. Actually I had 3 that look like that. They all broke within a year. They disappeared from the West catalog.

I have a house use ammeter, and the voltage meter in a similar panel. Not quite as well made and pretty though.

Those are both Blue Sea gauges. The volt meter is at least 10 years old. The ammeter is new. They both fit the same cut-out and bolt pattern.

[toddster]

Update: Beats working.

Just an update on various issues, since it beats working on reports, and I'm too tired to grind the bottom any more tonight

Still no new through-hulls. According to UPS they were destroyed in a train wreck last week, somewhere in Montana. But they didn't tell anybody because they wanted to be sure.
Ain't the internet great? I googled it and found pics. They're in there somewhere:


Seems like I've been grinding on the hull for months! It went from green, to red, to blue, and now it's almost all white! Not far to go, but I can only keep it up for a couple of hours at a time.

Through some mental lapse, I failed to take detailed pictures, but as I sanded away the old bottom paint, clues to past injuries emerged. As noted above, the shaft, cutless bearing, and prop appear to have been replaced with mismatched stuff at some point in the past. I'm guessing the rudder must be second-generation too. The trailing edge of the keel was a bit jagged, but it turns out that the aft 6 - 8 inches of the keel was really beat up and filled with lots of bondo-like stuff. Enough bondo fell out of the trailing edge to make several shark-bite divots appear. This happened a long time ago, because it was under many layers of red ablative bottom paint, but on top of the original hard blue paint. Anyway, I've ground it down to laminate, wrapped some cloth around the trailing edge and have been filling and fairing with cloth and west system stuff. A couple more rounds to go, I think.

So, the boat backed into something? Maybe it dragged anchor and went into the rocks stern-first?

New shaft, prop and bearing waiting on the bench. I won't mess with it until the inter protect 2000 and the new bottom paint are on.

Also, as long as I was into new tanks, and re-routing the FWC system, I went ahead with pressurized water and a new water heater. It will fit just behind the bulkhead that the FWC will be mounted on. So does adding the extra heat exchanger into the system have any noticeable effect on engine cooling? I'm changing so many variables that I'll never know.