Launchpad McQ's Catalina 30 Atomic 4 Saga

[ronstory]

Ok, your posts have been fun, perhaps in a dramatic way... which I can sometimes appreciate. ;^)

Neil is spot on... as he often is.

Your engine should have been shipped fully crated in a full plywood box on a pallet. Think Anvil case... minus the latches. Yes, this cost more than $10 of bubble wrap... but reduces the drama. So far in my life to date, drama has have both "more and less" fun... but ever has been never cheap.

My recommendation is call yourself lucky that all the damage is just external stuff and you can fix for less than a few bucks.

Now is the time for a drama-free moment ... and demonstrate a working engine in your boat. This will be called on MMF a 'Woo-Hoo' moment.

[Launchpad McQ]

We're almost there....I hope. I was able to wrestle the engine down the dock on a convertible moving cart and pulled up next to the boat. As always, the problem was a lack of available help when it came time for a 2nd set of hands. The marina is large but most of the boats on my dock are infrequently visited. I got the boom supported with the main halyard, chain hoist in place, and the engine in slings just in time for one of the young, capable, liveaboard-ish dock neighbors to walk by with his girlfriend-ish partner both looking pretty hungover. He remembered seeing me pull the engine two years ago and offered his congratulations: "Oh man! You finally got it back here! Awesome! I'll give you a hand!....just let me go get some breakfast (at almost noon) and I'll be back." all the while his girlfriend-ish looked entirely uninterested in anything that could delay breakfast. Well I expected I'd be doing this solo anyways....



It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I went slow, stopped a few times to reposition the strap on the boom a little more forward each time, and with minimal drama, the engine was sitting back on some fresh motor mounts:

[Launchpad McQ]

[Launchpad McQ]

Just when things were going exceptionally well, the universe had to find its balance. I went to climb up the companionway ladder into the cockpit for a celebratory beer when the screws holding the ladder brackets to the facia wood pulled out and the ladder when sliding out from under me. The bottom fell out like I had dropped from a hangman's gallows and luckily my inner thigh caught the companionway edge instead of my knee cap or jaw before I went tumbling into the salon from 6' up.





This bruise took a month to heal

[Launchpad McQ]

At long last, here we are. Early March 2021. Seven years after first looking at this engine and wondering why it wouldn't start and what to do about it. Without all of the help and encouragement from this group, Don, Ken, and my wife, this boat would've become a cocktail party side note of my life: "Oh yeah, we owned an old boat in San Francisco once. It was a debacle! We dumped a whole bunch of money into the thing and couldn't even get the engine to run! You know what B.O.A.T stands for right?...."

You're pretty much caught up to where things are currently but the story isn't over. I'm sorry it's not the "Woo Hoo!" moment that @ronstory (and I) were hoping for with a freshly-uploaded video of me motoring out of the marina to the sound of a smooth running A-4 but that's not where things are yet. I'll keep the updates coming as I work through some issues. First of all, it appears I have a significant engine/prop shaft alignment issue to fix. (Hopefully not Shawn's infamous "Indigo" thread 'significant' issue but issues nonetheless) Last week when I tried to re-mate the prop shaft/coupling to the engine, the shaft would only turn by hand about 3/4 through a rotation. Additionally, it was extremely difficult to even get the shaft to slide forward to meet the engine. (Stuffing box nut loosened all the way and no prop shaft zincs interfering)



I had a diver take a look and he thinks the shaft appears to have a slight bend and he says the cutlass bearing rubber is torn and pulled out. I replaced the cutlass bearing when I hauled out in 2019 and the engine only ran for the one trip back my home port so I can only imagine this is damage from the ill-advised trip with a horribly misaligned engine/shaft that I chronicled in detail back in post #72. I guess this means that I'm heading back for another haul out

[Launchpad McQ]

Words of wisdom or condolences would be most welcome

[edwardc]

Look at it this way: You must be getting really close if Murphy had to resort to such dirty tricks as collapsing a ladder out from under you!

Hang in there, you're almost there!

[Surcouf]

Look at it this way: You must be getting really close if Murphy had to resort to such dirty tricks as collapsing a ladder out from under you!

and sadly, you can't even blame the kids (whose shoes we could see) for the ladder, unless they already know how to use a screwdriver for a prank...

[ronstory]

Ye-ouch! Sometime gravity is not your friend.

This this adventure has turn into something like Greek tragedy, and the most recent cause could be from tempting the fates in post #122 (attachment #15685).

*IF* that had been me, having a sparkplug wire loosely draped on the reversing gear cover over water would of had me shortly thereafter calling Ken for another set of sparkplug wires.

With the fates somehow missing that opportunity, they then restored to "Hold my G&T and watch this" moment and then loosened the fasteners for the resulting human gravity experiment.

I would immediately throw something valuable over the side (and curse loudly and with great drama) to appease the them. We need to help stop this vicious cycle. ;^)

[Launchpad McQ]

On the plus side, I just made good on the promise that after all this rebuild work, I'd convert to FWC. Being the Catalina 30 variety, I ordered the new BLDC 60G Indigo FWC kit. It arrived on Monday and I was able to bring all the parts out to the boat on this trip so it's ready for install when I can find the time. I don't think a new thread in the 'Cooling' section of the forum is warranted for this project because FWC installations seem to have been well documented there. A couple observations before I start with the install:

1. I didn't get out the laser plumb bob, but I think if I had measured real close, I might've just barely had clearance to accommodate the MMI flywheel-driven setup. Especially since I cut in a teak door on the front of the engine compartment to aid in viewing the flywheel/timing setup. I remember hearing rumors somewhere that someone with a C-30 had a flywheel-driven setup? Not that it matters in my case since I've already purchased the Indigo kit but has anyone seen an example of that or is this urban legend?
   
   
2. I realize the heat exchanger needs to be installed with the cap at the highest point in the system but where have most C-30 owners mounted it for 'clean' hose hose routing?
   
   
3. Is the use of ethylene glycol (yellow) still considered the proper coolant for this application?

[ronstory]

Not a C-30 owner, but can provide a recommendation for #3.

I would suggest a propylene glycol version like Sierra (usually can be found in Napa or Wallyworld) or similar. IME it works just as well as the old ethylene version but much less toxic. That way if should even get into the bilge when we are way and the auto bilge pump does it thing... I don't fret about the barnacles.

https://peakauto.com/products/antifreeze-coolants/automotive/sierra/

[Launchpad McQ]

Howdy y'all. Hope everyone's well. I finally found some time to give a quick update. As I mentioned in post #125, it seemed very likely that my cutlass bearing was somehow restricting the rotation of my prop shaft. A haul out was in order. I called the yard where I had previously hauled out in 2017, but they were not accepting DIY customers back "due to COVID." Yet again though, the economics of paying non-DIY yard rates to haul, replace the cutlass, and launch just didn't add up for this old boat. Not to mention the problem of how to get the boat to the yard without an operating motor in the first place. Real chicken-and-the-egg paradox there.

I started to explore the idea of removing the shaft from the boat while in the slip, plugging the stuffing box (obviously) once the shaft was removed, and then replacing the cutlass bearing in situ. I'm no commercial diver and had no interest in doing that myself. Unfortunately, no other commercial divers in the area had any interest either. As it was explained to me, their insurance doesn't cover opening up any holes below the waterline while the boat is in the water. Makes sense, but to be honest, I was surprised to learn they carried insurance in the first place. I just assumed if my boat sank somehow while he was cleaning the bottom and changing zincs, I'd be submitting a claim from mine. Anyway, while explaining my predicament to a fellow boat-owning friend, he offered his electric air compressor dive "hookah" rig and dockside assistance if I wanted to give it a go. With (yet another) FleetWeek fast approaching, and my determination to be out on the water with our family for the airshow, I decided to give it a shot. At the last minute, he got called to work so he dropped of the air compressor rig, gave me a quick how-to, and wished me luck. There I was again doing something I had no business doing, with no prior experience, by myself, with major consequences for failure.

I've gone recreationally scuba diving a couple times in warm, clear, tropical water but I quickly learned that going underwater in a marina in cold, low-visibility water to do underwater work with tools is something totally different. Thankfully I had a 4/3 wetsuit from a failed pre-having-kids attempt at picking up surfing. My slip-neighbor saw my stupid plan unfolding and offered her help to shove the tapered wood bung in the stuffing box from inside the cabin while I went under the boat to remove the shaft and also "make sure I didn't drown." I got in the water and instantly panicked. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face as the cold San Francisco Bay water filled my wetsuit. I was only a couple feet off the dock when I paddled back and grabbed onto the dock finger as fast as I could. My slip-neighbor just stood there laughing to herself "well that was, um, fast" (I could tell the pun was intended) while I continued to over-breathe the dive regulator so hard the air compressor on the dock immediately began to refill the tank that I had just sucked empty with a few breaths. "Give me a minute, its creepy down there!" I yelled back. I kept a hand on the dock and stuck my head underwater while the sediment I had kicked up getting in the water dissipated. After a couple minutes the visibility improved enough where I felt comfortable swimming under the boat to the keel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-lXgIrwv5w

(Look closely at :38 seconds in the video and you'll see the ripped cutlass bearing rubber herniated out the front of the bearing)

Spoiler Alert:

[Surcouf]

funny and well written!

Commercial divers earn every cent of their pay check for sure...

[Launchpad McQ]

Good evening Moyerverse. In the latest installment....

As inferred from the previous post, my early July amateur attempt at commercial diving astoundingly worked. I was able to pull the shaft/prop combo out of the boat, remove (demolish) the old damaged cutlass bearing, press in a new cutlass bearing using the same tool/technique I had used previously when the boat was out of the water, install a shiny new Indigo winged prop on the shaft, and reinstall the whole shaft/prop assembly without sinking the boat. A-ma-zing. With the self-imposed SF FleetWeek deadline nearing, I franticly attempted to get the boat "bay worthy" to be out on the water for the airshow in early October when my wife wisely put the brakes on the whole thing. As gently as possible, she helped me understand that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the best idea to have the maiden voyage of our recently repowered vessel be on the busiest weekend of the year in the San Francisco Bay, with two young children who can't swim, two grandparents in their late 70's, and the Captain (me) possessing very little sailing skills. Touché wifey. It started to set in that the dream I had for the past 8 years would elude me for yet another year, and I actually relaxed a little bit. I could now just enjoy the weekend with family and focus on finishing up the final engine work later. I bought airfare and hotel for the whole family, pricey land-side tickets to the airshow, $80 Uber down to the waterfront, only to discover that my kids had absolutely, positively, zero interest in aviation whatsoever. If there were a hand-to-face emoji option I would put it here. This almost decade-long dream I had concocted of our children ooooh-ing and ahhhh-ing as the Blue Angels' F-18's screamed overhead asking me "Daddy do you fly airplanes like those?" evaporated as our daughter fell asleep and our son didn't even bother to look up while he preoccupied himself eating dry Cheerios out of a ziplock bag.





As we all piled into another $80 Uber back to the hotel (this time a little more tired, buzzed, and ear-ringing than the ride in) I was thankful that we hadn't been on the water all day now facing a 3 hour sail back to the marina with literally hundreds of other boats in close proximity.

[Launchpad McQ]

With the Fleetweek airshow dream-turned-disapointment behind me, I recently began installing the FWC kit that I had purchased from Tom (Indigo) a while ago. As you can see in the picture, I sourced a couple of pieces of that fancy plastic "King Starboard®" and used 3M 5200 to epoxy them into the engine compartment. This provided me with sufficient backing material thickness to screw the fasteners for the heat exchanger and electric pump into without visible nuts or screw heads showing through to the cabin.



Blue=raw water
Green=coolant