Maintenance

In addition to preparing the boat, we are busy getting the house ready to sell and reducing the load that will go into storage.  Also, we are doing some personal maintenance to prepare for living aboard.  On Feb 15th Maurice had a total hip replacement.  He doing fine, but we had to take a hiatus on boat preparation.

Compression Post

With Nauticats you do not often find design defects. The fit and finish is usually close to perfect, and everything is over engineered. Therefore, we were surprised to see a slight warping of the flooring near the main mast compression post. Further investigation revealed that the compression post did not squarely sit on the stringer below the flooring. With years of force being applied, the portion of the post not supported was causing the floor to deflect. After inspections by the rigging and fiberglass experts, Buster Phipps of Phipps Boat Works was called to solve the problem. After the main mast was removed, Buster carefully removed the settee bench and flooring to gain access to the stringer at the base of the compression post. In the accompanying photo, you can see he has glued & screwed an oak block in place. The flooring is in clamps in his shop being returned to its original shape. The post will be trimmed and shimmed to achieve its original placement, and then the floor and settee bench will be reinstalled. The post will then be fully supported, with no visible indication that there has been a repair.

Walker AIRSEP

On my first inspection of Serenity's engine, I noticed the lack of a robust positive crankcase ventilation system. Also, no matter how hard I tried, I could not keep a light film of oil from appearing on the top of bilge water. Walker engineering (http://www.walkerairsep.com/) claims to be able to mitigate those issues and provide better air filtration. A bonus item is a filter minder (see: http://www.filterminder.com/ and Cruising World, December 2009, Time for a New Filter?). Installation was tight, note I had to ease some of the sound insulation and use a hose with a pre-bent 90 to allow for the top of the engine enclosure. The fitting to allow oil to return to the crankcase was engineered perfectly, and was literally drop-in. After I get a few miles on the installation, I will report back on whether this was a good investment or not.

Sign Your Work

Digital Prop reinstalled the prop cleaned and tuned. I like it when people sign their work. Also note from the photo that Serenity's bottom has been soda blasted. Next spring a barrier coat and bottom paint will be applied.

Bottom Work

One of the bigger winter projects is getting the bottom soda blasted, then barrier coated before she goes back in the water for what hopefully will be a very long time. While we're at it, the old speed log and depth finder transducer have been removed in favor of a new Smart Transducer with speed, depth, and temperature.

Where's My Prop

One of the projects is getting the prop "computer tuned." The jury is still out on this project (and expenditure), I will let you know verdict when she is back in the water.

Keep the Boat in the Water, and the Water Out of the Boat

Serenity is on the hard for the winter while numerous projects are attended to.