Spillover Fridge/Freezer..Re-purposed cooler

Having a fridge on the boat was one of the very first things that we did back in 2011 when we got the MJ. I picked up a Norcold SCQT kit at Fisheries Supply in Seattle while preparing to bring her back to Richmond. The Gulf had a huge cooler with an opening in the galley and an opening in the port Lazarette for putting the ice in. Both top load holes were around a foot square. The cooler had a stepped interior with slopes leading to a drain that emptied into the bilge. Pretty standard double fibreglass walled filled with blown foam 3 inches thick. I closed the rear opening sealed it up with caulk then layered the interior with foil covered air filled plastic insulation, and installed the evaporator plate high in the aft side. This arrangement worked very well for us keeping the fridge at the prescribed temp of 3 or 4 degrees C with the temperature control at the lowest setting. That is at 1 on a 1 to 5 dial with 5 being the coldest. Three years ago we bought a Dometic freezer and had that running in the aft Lazarette. It draws 6 amps per hour when running and the fridge draws 3.5, so that is a pretty big drain, although our battery bank easily managed it for a couple of days. The freezer is quite small..18 liters and takes up a big chunk of the Lazarette so I decided to attempt a modification of the existing cooler to turn it into a spillover style freezer/fridge using the Norcold that is already installed. Now I realize that this plate is designed to turn the cooler into a fridge only and not marketed as a freezer unit for that size of cooler. The original cooler is close to 7 cubic feet. As the Norcold unit never worked hard at all to maintain fridge temps, I bet that it would freeze in a smaller space that was well insulated, and the spillover style would accommodate fridge temps. As it is not possible to just remove the evaporator and re-insulate the cooler (without having the system recharged by a pro etc.), I had to add closed cell foam to the cooler and build a dividing wall between the freezer and fridge. So a lot of measuring and 3 x 2 foot x 8 foot sheets of Dow blue board and 3 x 2 foot x 4 foot sheets of formica and a couple of tubes of silicone caulk and a bunch of construction tape later I had a double compartment fridge freezer set up ready to try out.

Fridge after insulation added

                                                                           

                                          

The dividing wall is made up of 1/4 inch plywood with 1 inch of foam on each side covered with formica. Made in 2 sections caulked together midline with the spillover and return holes in the top section. All of the interior cooler walls were covered with foil covered plastic bubble wrap insulation and then 1 inch of closed cell foam. All seams were taped then formica was glued on to the foam and the seams once again caulked and or covered with vinyl tape. I cut some foam templates for shelves which will be installed using HDPE 1/4 inch material. I had to rebuild both of the top load covers and install lips that will allow for a positive seal, with the freezer door having spring hinges and a positive latch to secure the foam seal. The spillover hole and the return air hole are 1 1/4 inch and I may make them smaller...I turned the compressor on after I had placed the temperature probe into the freezer. Probe was $15 from Amazon..has internal and external sensor as well as a clock and 3 feet of line so it can snake around. I checked it on the home freezer for calibration, as well as the old mercury thermometer on the boat.

Freezer

                                                                  

The freezer compartment is smaller than the fridge. After the addition of the extra insulation and the divider, I added 6 inches of insulation to the floor of the freezer so it is around 2 cubic feet and the fridge is 3 cu.ft. I will likely add more insulation to the freezer but initially when I had the temp setting at the level 2 mark and the whole thing empty, the temp went to -9 c after 24 hours in the freezer and was 2-4 in the fridge compartment. When I came back to check it the compressor was not running, but I cannot estimate the duty cycle yet.
I filled up as many containers as I could fit in the freezer as well as one in the bottom of the fridge and left it for 2 days. When I came back to check 90% of the water was frozen solid in the freezer. Only the very top container situated where the warmer air is pushed back into the freezer is located did the water not freeze. The container in the fridge bottom was not frozen, but very chilled. So far this is working out well. I would like the freezer temp to get a bit lower at least to -12 -15 or so. I doubt it will go down to -18 though, but then I haven't properly fitted the door, and can still add more insulation to help it a bit.

The fridge cover..R7.5 foam plus whatever the air pocket foil provides. The bottom of the lid rests on the weather strip in the top of the fridge and the sides fit snugly in the opening. 

The two shelves glued and pressed into place made from hdpe board with 1 inch lips screwed on with epoxy as well. The shelf is 11 inches wide by 8 inches deep. 

The freezer lid in the lazarette. I glassed on the hinge platform to avoid drilling into the top of the freezer box. The hinges are spring hinges aka screen door hinge so they apply a positive force to the lid at the back while the anti rattle SeaDog latch holds down the front.

Seadog Latch

The lid is R7.5 of foam topped with 1/4 plywood which covers the top and sides and is glassed in place. The bottom of the lid is pressed onto weather stripping that sits on the interior lip. The lid is then positively pressed down to form an additional seal to the outer box top with the air filled insulation same as what is seen on the topside of the lid.

So far the cost for this project has been quite moderate, $100 or so for new parts. Some incidentals from inventory, and of course the existing evaporator. Add that in would be an additional $700. The fridge has been working seasonally for 7 years now in this climate so it will be interesting to see how it will hold up ( the compressor ) with the increased duty cycle if that occurs.

After finishing with the lids I turned on the compressor to see if there was improvement and was happy to see the temp had dropped to nearly -15c. 

Temp Gauge

It dropped down to -14.8 when I lifted the fridge lid and the compressor turned on. The freezer was empty for this test so I imagine with pre frozen foods and a few cold shock PCM packs all will be hunky dory. 

Picked up some stackable wire baskets to fit in the fridge side in order to utilise that space better....

Freezer tray

may still add some more insulation to the exterior of the cooler in the lazarette but will call it done for now and move on to the next..... October 15,2020..after two journeys with this unit..8 weeks this spring and the same just ending with warm days in the mid twenties centigrade the unit worked as expected. Fridge didn't freeze and freezer didn't thaw. Chicken and beef rock solid and ice cream bars good. There was frost buildup on the evaporator plate though so I am considering closing the two air flow apertures in the divider as I think the moist air is being drawn in from the fridge which is opened much more frequently...will post next year. The duty cycle on the unit appears to be no greater than with the original installation once the set had been attained though this is difficult to ascertain with the basic hardware provided. I tried to get some input from the Norcold tech but they were not helpful. 

We have used the freezer for 6 months over the past year and a half. I added some more insulation to the freezer and that helped with the frost build up this last trip. The freezer stayed at -12 and there  was no thawing. I keep four 8x10 phase change cold packs in with two on top of the food to maintain the chill. The power draw is minimal with the solar making up the loss readily. I don't think my batteries went below 85% and we anchored for 3 or 4 days at a time without cranking the engine.

Update 2023...

Still working.

DIY Watermaker vs..brand name version.

VERSION 1


 Watermakers eh? Well not wanting to go to docks all the time or not wanting to plan trips around docks or other land based water sources is the main reason, and cost is usually the main reason not to. Our first was a Katadyn 40 E survivor model that I bought from the Binnacle store in Halifax. The reason being it was the best price I could find in North America, offered free shipping and only 5% sales tax. No brainer there. I got it and installed it and we are still using it 5 years on with no problems.
 Katadyn 40 E

I also got the fines filtration and rebuild kit with March lift pump. This is a great little machine that with adequate care will provide trouble free water for two people that will run off of solar power alone taking only 4.5 amps per hour. It is a noisy thing but not horribly so like the constant drone of a generator, but this is a personal opinion and varies with location and boat size. Ours is under the cockpit and so difficult to conceal the sound. However running while motoring offsets this negative so we were happy. On longer journeys ie; all summer, the necessity of running it every day to keep up was tough. We like to anchor for 2-3 days at least without turning the engine so if the sun don't shine our power supply begins to wane quite rapidly. We figure we need ten gallons per day so the machine has to run 6 hours every day minimum. We looked for creeks on a regular basis. If the machine was quiet I could see running it for 16 hours every 3 or 4 days, drawing 40 amps out of the battery bank plus the solar if sunny..but just couldn't tolerate the noise for that long, and didn't want to leave it running while away from the boat, although did do that a few times, but then you worry. Now we have a reliable back up. I use it when single handing for drinking water mainly on short excursions of two to three weeks. When we used it on a three month sojourn it was a constant background scenario ie: making or getting water. Conserving, scouting creeks for laundry, hitting the docks. I did enjoy the creeks, though.

VERSION 2

This year we decided to get a bigger output machine, and thus began to investigate the DIY schemes that I had been reading about for years, as well as looking at the production models for 20GPH machines. After much cogitation I realized that I was not up for the $10,000 price tag on a new Spectra. Or the $7000 to $8000 for an engine driven model. There are quite a few out there and some are quite complicated ie: lots of electronics. I went with the simplest method I could find which is a   pressure vessel a  membrane   and a  pump.  ( there are many pumps..some use the General Pump WM 2515 which is stainless and cost about $1000. The one I use is bronze for $275). Then I had to figure out how to power the pump. Initially I figured to go 12 volt, but that would require very expensive motor and switching stuff and more solar power etc. Then I thought 110 volt, but I would then need a good inverter and all the cabling etc. which would push the cost as well. Next up was a 110 volt motor driven by a Honda or similar generator. Again cost and storage and gas. Nope. Then I looked at engine driven..the so called 'Hail Mary' install because of hidden costs, bad installs, etc. Our engine compartment is by no means easy to access for this sort of thing, it is all heads in the bilge sort of stuff, and there is precious little space. After much fooling around though I found a spot. I would need a pto shaft to fit the front of the crank fan. I called the Betamarine people to see if they had shaft extensions for my engine..they did, and if my plan would negate the warranty..it would not. So I ordered the stub shaft and drive pulley from Gartside Marine in Sidney. They had a few problems getting it in from the UK but eventually I got it and installed it so that I could then design and build the pump base and get it glassed in. Thinking of how to mount the pump was complex. Most of the info online suggests that the pump must be ideally attached to the engine as like an alternator to avoid stress or extra gear like idlers or having to remove belts each time you make water. After much looking about I saw that I could mount the pump dead center below the crank pulley which is the best place to hard mount one as the engine movement is pretty well limited to sideways rather than up and down movement due to torque so having the pulleys aligned like that allows the v belt to move side to side and absorb the torque. The engine runs pretty smoothly and so this seemed to be an acceptable method. To work then...I needed to get an electric clutch .( about $225  ) Then I would need to mount the assembly and line it up under the crank pulley. I needed to build a base for the high pressure pump that would allow for belt adjustment.

I used some aluminum plate and angle for this using two pieces of flat 5/16 thick plate to attach the pump and then the base plate which is a simple electric motor adjustable base...$40 at any motor shop( or less ). The metal was about $40 as well from a metal shop.  (I ordered the big parts from USA. Prices and ordering vary..you may find these parts in Canada for a good price if you look around or can buy wholesale. I got the rest of the parts locally..hose and valves pressure gauge and flow valve. Some in stainless steel which is considerably more expensive. Overall the parts ran about $3000. I made some mistakes of course which pushed the cost up, and could have likely found cheaper parts, but overall the cost was acceptable for a 20 gallon per hour watermaker. )

The pump with attached clutch on the base...

Some drilling and bolting and some fitting to get the clutch centered and this assembly is ready to go. All work done on the boat as I don't have a shop...The spot where it will sit once held the fuel tank for the diesel stove which had to be moved to a spot under the sink..which actually turns out to be a great spot for it. |I ran a line from the main fuel tank so I can fill it with the primer pump.

Once the paint was off I could glass the pump assembly in. Took a few placements and straight edge alignments but eventually the assembly was in place and glassed in.

This shot above shows me lowering the pump onto the glassed in base. It weighs about 30 lbs and is awkward to maneuver while heads down in the bilge, so the block and tackle made that part easy. I lowered it onto the bolts that I had set in place by tapping the holes for 3/8 bolts. Below the assembly is wired and belted. You can see the shaft extension bolted on the red crank pulley. The blue cast iron pulley and bushing was $50. The stub shaft was expensive coming from Beta, you could likely have one done at a machine shop for less. There are many variations for mounting and driving so each install will be unique. I was able to build the unit so as to be easily removed without detaching any hoses or major renos. I move one fuel filter without taking the lines off and the whole unit comes straight up via block and tackle suspended from the cabin top hatchway.

Below is the improved housing that I had built as the bottom only mounting was not strong enough causing the vibration to snap one of the bolts. This mount totally encloses the pump with four retaining bolts, 2 up and 2 below with side struts that hold the pump tight, The whole enclosure then bolted to the base which is adjustable. As I needed only to have sides and top welded on this was inexpensive. So far the water production has been greater than expected with approximately 25 gallons produced in an hour running at 1400 to 1500 rpm and 800 psi. The TDS measured 48ppm.

In the above picture the high pressure line is top. The high pressure SS elbow with HP SS swivel..plastic plug is to keep dirt out while maintenance performed. The low pressure SS elbow and SS hose Barb on the lower intake line. 

Above shows the adjustment bolt on the lower electric motor mount.

Get an idea of the size. 

Both pulleys are 7 inch diameter.

Since this I have installed a tensioner ..a Rosta R18 to ease the tensioning process and allow for simple disconnect by removing the belt. I do this in an abundance of caution. I could leave the belt on and freewheel it as does every a/c unit in every car but I figure that if I make it very easy to remove then why not decrease the number of moving parts. The Rosta tensioner..blue thing..is simple to adjust.

Short vid of the finished installation. Smooth running with just a bit of tension. The Rosta device works with stiff rubber instead of wound spring and is very easy to add tension. Once in place the tensioned arm maintains the belt tension while allowing for any engine movement to be absorbed by the rubber. These devices are widely used in industrial applications where frequent variations of torsion will wear out belts or equipment due to over tension or slackness of the belt or chain drives. Here it works as a very quick and easy belt on belt off and smooth run. |Once set up to the tension needed the belt can be removed by hand without tools in seconds. Adjusting tension is done by loosening the center retaining bolt then with a large wrench (1 3/8 ) bring up the tension to what is needed and re-tighten. These can also be used with alternators.

The pressure vessel found a spot right above the smaller Katadyn unit.

The lift pump which feeds seawater to the high pressure pump is seen here..it is a Jabsco mini water puppy which I got for $100  just because it had been on the fellows shelf for 30 years. Haha it works just fine. New ones run to about $400 or so. I used some plastic valves from the hardware store for the low pressure feed lines..cheap and easy. I used plastic conduit clamps to hold the hoses.

All the lines go to a spot between the stairs and the fridge. It is a little messy and I will be changing it up this winter, but for now it fits in there and provides space to work once the steps are out of the way. Many people have mentioned pulsations from the high pressure pumps and potential for chafe and whatnot. Pulsations are usually caused because of cavitation in the high pressure pump where there is not sufficient volume of feedwater supplied so the high pressure pump cycles air thus causing a banging sound and jerking of the hose. The  pump the maximum output pressure is 1500 psi at 1750 rpm. The membrane max psi being 1200 and the operating pressure for normal seawater RO being 800 psi, I have found that I can easily make water to spec for the membrane running at 1100 rpm. The pulleys I use are 1:1 ratio between the crank pulley and the electric clutch so it is quite simple math to achieve the output. The pump is 3 gallons per minute output at the rated max. I am feeding it with the mini puppy which puts out 1.8 GPM and there is zero pulsation with this pump. It runs very smoothly. I run water via the feed pump until the system and high pressure pump are loaded then engage the electric clutch at idle speed 850 rpm and then bring up the engine revs and adjust the flow control valve until the pressure gauge reads 800 psi. I run the product water into a pail until it has flushed all the old permeate out then switch it to my holding tank which takes 14 gallons. I can then transfer that water to my main tank which is 55 gallons and as well can draw the made water to the galley sink through a carbon filter for good tasting drinking water. Below you can see the various lines and valves...

This is showing the mess of lines which include the test lines from both watermakers, the pickling hose uptake and concentrate diversion lines as well as the lines to the filters..30 micron and 5 micron. At the top you can see the high pressure line coming to the gauge and then the high pressure stainless steel flow control valve ($200 from hyseco).These high pressure lines are way overbuilt, and you can get by with a lesser and cheaper type of line that is rated lower. Stainless steel is the gold standard however you can buy many regular fittings for the cost of one ss. For example SS 1/4 inch npt swivel is about $60 cdn. High carbon is $2. So I am about 50/50 with some of each. I needed BSP adapter fittings for the pump because it is built in Europe and those fittings are both expensive and special order from most hydraulic shops in SS. They carry the regular steel though, usually..Newline or Greenline. The quick connect seen there is to facilitate changing to the 40E watermaker and for adding the pickling solution. When using the 40E I do not need the lift pump and it is too much for the 40E to suck raw water through that apparatus so I can switch the intake directly to the prefilters for that machine.
This next shot is with the stairs in...

Tight squeeze but so far all good. This project has been a steep learning curve for me although overall I feel good about it. I know how it all works and can replace each component without much difficulty should the need arise. Now we have plenty of water for cleaning showers laundry etc. at no additional costs besides filters. The system is not automatic for sure, I need to monitor the process, need to flush afterwards, and need to pickle from time to time when we have gone to dock, but that is really nothing. Pickling I use potassium metabisulfite or food grade glycol with absolutely no additives in it like alcohol. You can get the glycol at RV stores or usually Walmart. The metabisulfite I get at the grocery store in the wine making aisle. You can buy it at the chemists also. Sodium or potassium don't matter.

Since over wintering  2020 spring and fall  I no longer use the chemicals but prefer glycol. The reasons are that it is easier and works well. After flushing with good low TDS product water first, then filling the system with food grade glycol with o% alcohol. I re-activated both systems with the Katadyn unit being pickled for 14 months to no ill effect. I had one small issue with the larger element when the TDS rose to a quite high level, greater than 1200 ppm..I thought I had perhaps shocked the element due to cavitation when I had revved the pump higher than the feed pump could supply the HP pump. As it turned out I had allowed my rinse water to gradually build up TDS by reusing it. Once I dumped it and used good low TDS water to rinse the system the TDS came back down to under 100ppm. Moral being..use fresh rinse water.

Now summer 2021 and have returned from a month out. Watermaker working well. We don't worry about water these days. I always flush the system after each use and change the filters. The filters clean up with a few dunks in Bay on the end of a rope and hang in the sun for a few days to UV the bugs. The filters last a long time. After the cruise I pump the system full of 'Absolute Zero' no alcohol food grade glycol. Make sure it is the no alcohol one as they sell the same brand name with alcohol right alongside. I use a gallon and that cost $12 cdn at Walmart.

I finally got around to moving the filters and the controls.

this gives more space around the stair and puts all but the flow valve in the cubby. Still allows for the water tank to be easily removed for any serious maintenance in there. Both watermakers are functioning well and over winter with no ill effects when pickling with alcohol free food grade waterline antifreeze. I actually hadn't used the 40E for more than 18 months but it came back online with little fuss and produced water with a respectable 250ppm of nacl. The bigger engine driven watermaker still comes in with less than 100 ppm.

Flushing with fresh water and changing the filters after each use is important. The filters have lasted        through  two seasons actually with two sets in use cycling them through use, rinsing and hanging in the sun.

Refitting

These are the adventures of renewing  our small sailing vessel MaryJane. Purchased in 2011 she is our second sailboat.   Specs  New engine, power sources, mechanical stuff, a long list that is not yet finished but keeps us occupied. Eventually we will have to embrace some more sedate hobby, but for now this is it. Along with gunk holing up and down the coast from our home port in Richmond, BC.

 A Gulf 32 Pilothouse Motor sailor 'The MaryJane'. The 1982 cutter designed by William Garden and built buy Capital Yachts, now defunct, of San Francisco. We are the fourth owners, and we have spent the last few years fixing her up, with plans to cruise the north Pacific waters of BC. Lily found the boat on the internet and I went down to Olympia, Washington and checked her out. The price was right so the project began. Bringing a 1980's boat up to a usable state requires a bit of work, and just where to start sometimes is troublesome. First off was fixing up what the surveyor found wrong...mainly minor stuff. Ground fault plugs for AC, etc.

Haul out at Olympia, Wa. There were quite a few jobs that we tackled the first couple of years...a new lewmar windlass new G4 chain and new rode..200 feet of each plus remodeling the anchor locker door and adding forward scuppers. The original had the deck water run off through the anchor locker. This had caused flooding for the PO when he failed to clean his anchor chain and the miniscule scupper in the locker plugged. I raised the bow area and glassed in the triangle door there and put a hatch in instead. We also installed a Norcold refrigeration unit in the cold box, replaced the defunct Ardic furnace with a new Espar furnace. Removed the Dorado vents and repaired the incipient rot there and replaced with two Vetus vents. Eventually we replaced all the plexiglas windows with custom laminated glass with sliders on the four side windows. We replaced the black water tank and hoses. Re-painted the deck non skid surfaces with two part epoxy paint. We added a new sounder as the original unit calved. Inside, the forward bulkhead interior facing had to be replaced due to the afore mentioned flooding. New woodwork in the saloon ceiling and new LED lighting in the galley. I did a lot of rewiring and fusing. pulled yards of old wire going nowhere out. I replaced the fuel feed hose with type A hose. Added a vetus anti overflow device and new deck pipe. New anti surge device as a backup. Installed an FM antanae. Prior to the new engine install we had installed a larger alternator and replaced the injectors. Put in a new hot water tank. Re built the fuel filter assembly. Replaced the fuel tank sender. Replaced all the taps. Replaced all of the 110 ac plugs with GFIC plugs. The list goes on.

Addition of Bimini and Dodger, and below Lily at the helm leaving Tzoonie Narrows, heading for the Skookumchuk. We took a shortish trip up to the Sechelt Inlet in June of 2014. The first time there with the boat. We had done a kayak journey there a few years earlier camping for a couple of nights. This time going through the Skookumchuk Narrows which is a bit of fun! You must watch the slack carefully as this is a long stretch of turbulent water. going in we reached speeds of 8 knots with the flood just starting. Coming back we aimed for the slack at the end of the ebb but due to a strong NW storm  the ebb was held back some and we hit 10 kts heading to the final bend. No way to steer.. had to just go with the flow which luckily spit us out. I thought we were going aground on the rocks for sure. Interestingly when we first sailed into Tzoonie Inlet we met up with some friends who also have a Gulf 32. Totally serendipitous meeting.

2015 I installed a wind generator-the Air Breeze  model. This machine is an internally regulated generator which performs well once the threshold wind speed is met. About 8 kph it starts producing amperes related to wind speed. I purchased the mounting hardware kit from a supplier in Florida as I couldn't find the individual components here in Vancouver. I am sure they exist here but locating them was near to impossible. Stainless steel in 316 grade with accessory rubber washers etc. The rest of the tubing and wiring was no issue though and with the swivel base mount that came with the kit I am able to lower the whole apparatus by myself to the dock and remove the generator for maintenance.      Wind Gen

This shot also shows the solar panel on the back side of the bimini, though hard to see. Spring 2017 at Wallace Island MP.

We found this Sail-o-mat windvane from a fellow who was upgrading his boat to a larger size. Still in the box unassembled for a fantastic price. We don't really use it much around these parts but it is great when we do. Very easy to set up and adjust. All aircraft grade aluminum, and lightweight. Windvane

Above is a short video of the windvane working away out in the Strait.

Fast forward to 2016...After adding the wind generator last year and the watermaker this spring I found the battery capacity too low for the output of the generator when it is really working so new battery bank had to happen. The original bank that came with the boat were two 75 AGM as house and one 90 AGM as start.I had already parallelled all of those together for the house and added a 55 AGM for the start, but the three originals were nearly eight years old and just did not have enough capacity with all the gear we have been accumulating. We were able to get a discount for the old lead and at the same time decided to put up some solar panels. Settling for one 100 watt panel for now, placed on the bimini. The very thin and flexible panel sets very nicely on the back half of the bimini and the power line was fed down through the radar tower. I have added the bigger of the old AGM batteries to the start bank with the idea of having a battery to power the outboard. This method will keep the battery topped up rather than leaving it stagnant until needed. After much research I determined that there is no harm in mismatching battery size and age when in parallel as long as the type is the same. In series the stronger battery will drain to the weaker but in parallel there is only an additive effect. Later I got a small 50 watt solar panel to charge this battery.

The first thing that worked well with the solar panel was the watermaker.    40E    The solar puts out around 6 amps at peak and the H2O uses around 4.2 amps per hour so they work well together on sunny days. The katydyn 40E is a little small..putting out only 1.8 gallons per hour. This is adequate for two people but you must operate it each day to avoid falling behind. If you do laundry on the boat we may have to run it longer. It isn't a problem to run it but it is noisy on a small boat so we try to operate it when the engine is running or go for a paddle to avoid extra noise when at anchor. It is good to not have to run for water all the time though.

Now we have two banks with 440 AH in the house and 145 in the start. We have changed most of the lighting to low power draw LED. With the Dometic portable freezer going 24/7 and the fridge going 4 to 5 hours and the watermaker going 4 hours daily we have enough capacity to keep everything happy for a couple of cloudy and windless days. If we are in a motoring mode then no issues. Along with the new battery bank we put in a larger capacity ACR bus to combine all the batteries for charging. As well as larger fuses in the primary and secondary runs.

After  our summer trip to the Broughton Island area we have found a few more items to add to our 'recommissioning' list. The first was that the propane stove had to go. I like the simplicity of gas, but not all the accessories and condensation etc. So we have gone diesel for a cook stove. Settling on the simple ceramic top rather than one with an oven. We never used the oven except to store the pan anyway. Now we have one fuel supply only. No exhaust inside, and no condensation plus more storage space both in the galley and in the aft lazarette where the tanks were kept. I chucked the barbecue as well..became such a soot monster for the Bimini. Don't miss it, though have often considered a big external gas powered crab pot, haha but that is just stupid!

New Wallas 85dt stove. Control switch on the right runs on diesel.

So long Hiller range circa 1980.

I fired up the new cookstove last week and it is very nice. Dry heat that draws cabin air. and exhausts out the back. |This makes the stove able to double as a heater on those chilly mornings instead of firing the cabin heater. I installed a separate tank for the stove but plumbed it from the main tank via the polishing pump so filling is easy.

When I installed the H2O maker I plumbed the intake off of the engine intake line, as the boat was in the water and I wasn't pulling it out soon. However as we found during our journey there was a problem with debris and crustaceans taking up residence in the through hull causing restriction to the engine cooling system. The worst that occurred because of this was a broken bolt on the thermostat housing that I caused while sleuthing the first overheating event. The overheating was not damaging as I caught it right away, however it demonstrated to me that I needed to overhaul the through hull fittings and create a separate intake for the watermaker. We decided that if we were to continue with our plans for extended coastal cruising that some more serious refits were required. The engine was nudging me for attention. The powerhouse has never let us down since acquiring MaryJane, but I have done consistent maintenance and have changed out the injectors as well. There is diminished compression though and she complains at high rpms. So as the engine is 35 years old we decided it was time. The end of the summer brought us back down to the lower mainland and up the Fraser River to Shelter Island on September 15, and now she sits on the hard. I got to work right away and by early October the engine was pulled and sold to another boater in need of a working machine. I considered rebuilding the block but in the end figured that was a lot of money to spend for an old engine. The new engine which will also be a Kubota block (Beta 35) arrives in January. Meantimes the engine bed is rebuilt, and new throughhulls installed.


Getting ready for the new Beta 35 install DIY.

old V1501

I did not take pictures of the engine

old beds..3 mounts!

removal, but with the aid of the buyer it went smoothly. I had it all disconnected and with a chain block lifted it using the boom, which I supported with a second line over the spreaders to take the weight. I used a heavy line looped around the boom which I then attached the main halyard and the second 1/2 inch line to thus isolating the boom.
I then used my small chain block come a long to swing the engine out over the cockpit. The yard forklift then was able to pick it off and place it in the buyers' vehicle. Whole operation took 20 minutes. Set up took a bit longer.

The Gulf 32's Universal 5432 was set up sitting on three mounts. Two at the back and one at the front. The new engine is smaller and lighter with more HP and has four engine mounts and so required significant re-modelling of the engine bed. With the spec sheet in hand I began by building a jig and fixing it to the shaft. I then

mounted a small laser pointer to the shaft to mark the angle for the engine bed. Once that plane was established I fabricated out of plywood a riser which I bedded onto the old stringer. I then laid up the mat and woven roving and painted the works with bilge coat paint. I had to place a 4" spacer onto the shaft and then the flexible coupler to allow the engine to fit onto the new beds. I was able to buy the proper threaded lag bolts from a local supplier and dropped the engine in and lagged it down. The alignment was remarkably easy due to the extensive measuring prior to laying up the risers. I needed to adjust the aft port mount down a quarter inch or so to line up the centered shaft with the engine flange. Final gauge measurement of the marker bolt while turning the shaft through 360 degrees was within a couple thousanths so I was pretty pleased. The final engine run up would be the real test though. The Beta man had thought my prop may be a bit large for the engine so we were still a little concerned with that.

new beds made of plywood and fiber-glassed in with mat and stitched woven rovingcloth layed to the shaft angle

new paint job

 All the plumbing throughhulls are replaced with up to date valves and fittings and a few new through hull fittings installed as well. The black water holding tank is also pulled and new valves installed for the intake and discharge lines. The bronze through hulls are still good and the New Zealand valves of ultra strong composite mate perfectly. These ball valves replace the 1980's cheap gate valves of molded plastic that have performed perfectly for the past 35 years! Though they are no longer compliant with marine standards, and so for any resale opportunities in the future they had to be upgraded. The original installation with plywood backing plates slapped on with a glob of goop would never pass inspection these days though, and the plywood was rotted through..crumbling off when the bronze nut was freed. Luckily I only had to remove one through hull on the head discharge. I will do some fibreglass repair and install the new hull fitting soon, going with a composite fitting here as well. The original bronze through hulls were installed during the lay up so that they are fully embedded. This made removing the fitting a bit tricky, but on the positive side once drilled out and replaced with composite through hull the entire fitting becomes one with the hull. No uneven expansion and flexing.

new composite through hull valves. The one on the left is a Tru Design from New |Zealand. ABYC compliant with all composite fitting sitting on glassed in backing plate of 3/4 plywood. The other is Forespar Marelon from USA. It is mated to existing bronze through hull from original install. The former is feeding the watermaker and the latter feeds the engine cooling system. March 2018...I have since taken the Forespar seacock out and drilled the through hull fitting out because it was too small -only 1/2 inch- for the new engine. I have installed a 3/4 inch Trudesign through hull fitting and ball valve instead to meet the Betamarine minimum requirement for the engine. I also removed the old 1 1/4 inch through hull exhaust fitting and replaced with a 2 inch trudesign composite fitting to take the 2 inch exhaust line from the engine. 

looking down into the holding tank compartment with the tank out and the old plastic gate valves removed. The one bronze through hull visible there is for the head direct discharge. |The taped area is where I removed the other discharge through hull because I could not free the nut and while attempting to I broke the seal to the hull so had to pull it out. 

 Holding tank for black water reinstalled. (more or less..still awaiting one small fitting from Tru-Design for the direct to overboard valve) The valve on the right. The red hose is the vent line. White is the deck pump out.

www.trudesign.nz 


I have now got to the end of January 2018. The holding tank is back in place hooked up to the new valves. New y valve in the head and new anti syphon valve in as well. The head sink drain I replumbed to the through hull that had previously accommodated the knotmeter transducer thus no new hole bored for that. As planned our new engine arrived Jan 31. However on inspection we found some transport damage so I sent it right back to be repaired.

 In the meantime I have repaired the through hull hole for the propane tank cabinet overflow and drilled out the old bronze through hull for the wet exhaust. A new two inch composite through hull hose barb is now epoxied in place to accept the wet exhaust when installed. I had to get a new waterlock as well for the new engine as it takes the 2 inch size hose. I chose a Vetus waterlock and am hoping the can style that I got will just fit in appropriately otherwise I will need to exchange it for a narrow model. Waiting for the engine to come back again now.

So doing all of the little jobs I can think of, cleaning up wiring and rerouting bilge hoses. Checking all the potential issues that may arise stalling the relaunch at end of March.

So received the engine back again and dropped it in. Neighbor helped to wiggle it through the companionway but otherwise very easy to hoist it in using the boom and chain block. the horizontal come along eased the back and forth while lining it up.

 Here is engine all hooked up and ready to go. Below is a shot of the high rise and waterlock and stuffing box.

 Below is a shot of the filters on the right and the stove fuel tank in the middle with the hot water tank at left. There are two banks of filters. Each bank has a primary and secondary filter and can be switched over while the engine is running should it be required. There is also the engine filter which should remain clean theoretically with all the pre-filtration. Below you see at the top of the picture the main aluminum 330 liter fuel tank. At the bottom is the plastic 10 liter stove fuel tank which will receive fuel via the Walbro transfer pump as needed. To the left is the hot water tank.

 Another view of the engine. I added the overflow coolant chamber seen below at the top left as the engine doesn't come with one. $13 at Lordco.

 Bottom paint finished. Didn't spend alot of time on the bottom this year, but will definitely have to scrape it all down next time. There was a bit of flaking of the old soft paint which I prepped by sanding down and priming with heavy cuprous primer. Will see how this black aquagard soft ablative works. Cost was about 170 a gallon at the store..later I found some cheaper!! damn 145 oh well I used just over a gallon for two full coats to the hull and a third coat around the high turbulence areas.

 Fresh anodes. Not really sure how effective binding the large doubleplate anode to the pintle plate is but that was how the PO had it rigged...they also connected it to the cutlass housing. Don't know why because the housing is isolated from the shaft and prop and there are not noble metals there, so I did not attach the anode there. I have a shaft anode at the distal end of the shaft. Last one lasted two years. The previous keel anode was still complete on the port side but 50% gone on the starboard. I also painted the prop with ablative paint, just for the hell of it. I don't imagine it will stay on for long but will be interested to see.

 Cleaned her up a bit and ready now to go in the water tomorrow March 16, 2018.

I am hoping for a straight forward re-immersion and commissioning of the engine. I have a couple of things to work out once tied up at the dock, I need to re-position the transmission lever to give me a push for forward gear. Need to fabricate a small piece to facilitate this. In the meantime will need to remember the opposite action.

 So she is back in the water and all is well in that regard, no leaks. Started the engine up readily after three cranks. Helps to prime and bleed the lines first. Only problem appeared once running...the tach not working and the charging light is on with the buzzer blaring. Of course not being fully informed on tachs and such other than how they work, I was trying to figure this out while at the loading dock while also monitoring the engine performance. Those buzzers are loud! After some time looking without seeing anything amiss I motored over to our spot on the dock close by and continued to search for the fault over there. Not finding the fault I shut down until the next day whereupon I found that the lead to the excitation post at the rear of the alternator was just hanging on by a couple of strands and came loose when I wiggled it. Thinking I had found the culprit I affixed a new spade end.

Any how, back on the water looking for the wiring issue I see the repair work when they replaced the broken alternator. Instead of taking the alternator off the support and then undoing the leads, which is the normal, because it is very difficult to get your fingers in behind without either moving the alternator or finding someone with really small hands, they just cut the leads and then spliced some old wire they had laying around. As you can see they spliced a chunk of red 14 gauge into the brown yellow lead which according to the manual is supposed to go to the tach sender post. Then on the other lead the blue black wire, they found a bit of staight blue wire and fit it on to the  lead. However some how they attached the end connectors on reversed. The exciter lead should have had a spade terminal and the tach should have had a ring terminal. The mechanic after cutting the leads then reversed the ends so that the leads were then reattached at the wrong posts. Well after spending several hours checking continuity on all the leads which entailed deconstructing and accessing and removing and you get the picture, I called the owner of the franchise that sells Betamarine engines and we further sleuthed the issue over the phone. He couldn't figure it out until I described the wire colours and where they were attached to the alternator. Then I too saw the discrepancy.


He sent the spares pack gratis as an apology.






Our spot at the docks at Shelter Island is not prime, being on the inside of the dock in the shallows, and parallel parked in between a couple of cruisers with about 3 feet on either end to maneuver in and out. Wow..coming in the first time there were a couple of folks on the dock who came to my assistance and even then due to a short bit of breeze the back end got swung out and I had to do a 180 degree turn and come back in the other way. This is actually what I wanted as there is only one way in and out so it worked out serendipitously. For us to get out I pretty much have to wait until high slack tide and hope there is no wind. I have about a boat length wide of space before the keel will drag bottom so this makes it a bit more problematic getting in and out. Hopefully a better berth will come up soon.

Back to getting ready for the shake down cruise. Once the weather warms up a bit we will take off for the islands and check all of the stuff out. Not anticipating any major issues, but need to restart the water maker and shake out the sails.


Once in the water again the engine ran smoothly at the dock but I didn't take it to sustained WOT as I wanted some calm water and a few hours on the engine first. After running her down the river and doing the break in routine of fifteen minutes of 1/3 throttle then fifteen of 2/3 throttle I checked all the fittings etc and then ran the engine at 1800 rpm across the strait. Next day after further checks and re torquing the shaft bolts we ran it up to temp and pushed it to the WOT stage to see if we could get the spec rating of 2800 RPM. After a few minutes she was up to 2700 and change. The riser exhaust started to burn off the paint and and stink pretty good but the gear was running smoothly and it appeared that the prop was in the ok range. I was happy and the dealer ok'ed the install. I may replace the prop with a slightly smaller one in the future but for now there is no issue.


 I have rearranged the shifter so that the action is like it was before..and changed out the fuel filters. Should have done that before but it slipped under the radar. I have replaced the head pump as well, and so far the new plumbing is all performing as expected. I am now considering how to place a transfer line from the watermaker to the main tank. Manually transferring water in the 6 gallon jug is a pain that I need to avoid.

Update...found that there is enough room for a 50 liter tank in the cubby alongside the watermaker. In the picture below the watermaker is mounted on the bulkhead aft of the filter. The tank is well secured from any movement with struts and straps. The small March transfer pump is attached to the sole in front of the tank..you can see the four bolt heads there. To access the machinery that shares this space requires detaching two hoses from the base of the tank and pulling out the tank. The small March pump came with the watermaker as a lift pump, however I found it was not necessary for that purpose but works quite well to transfer the made water to the bow tank.

In the meantime while our spring departure date approaches I have stripped and recoated the galley floor, put in some brass lifting rings where there used to just be finger holes..keeps so much dust and lost items from falling into the engine well. Put the headsail back up the other day and gave the decks a good scrub down. Pretty much down to little jobs now. Lily busy getting all our gear organised and making provision lists. Cleaning up everything after a winters worth of work she is looking pretty ready.

After taking the engine out for its shakedown we found that the mechanical fuel pump had some difficulty supplying fuel at 100% efficiency. I spent a day at anchor re-configuring the Walbro polishing pump to work as a booster pump. Found that the engine would work fine with the mechanical resident pump but occasionally would starve and stall necessitating the electric assist. I like to keep the Walbro for polishing and transferring fuel and priming after filter changes. It is a good quality pump with built in filter and has a demand chip in the circuit so will operate passively, but I think is overkill for this application. I have a smaller marine grade Airex pump that I will install and wire to the ignition. This is what the Beta folks advise doing in their manual so will comply.

I think the fuel feed problems are likely due to the lower fuel pressures when the tank gets down to half full. Now we should have no issues, and enjoy redundancy as well. I have likely put way too much gear on this little issue but what can I say. After year of operating and having the occasional stoppage even after installing the Airex I finally found the cause or the stoppages after they had gotten nore frequent and after I had done everything I could with the filters. I rechecked all the lines that I had installed and all the factory lines, which is just one that goes from a block on the bell housing to the mechanical lift pump and from that pump to the filter then to the high pressure pump in the engine. There are five clamps on that hose line and one of them had been removed..the one at the input to the mechanical lift pump. These hoses have a protective sheath that goes over the rubber hose and the clamps so you cannot readily inspect the clamps and this clamp was off with the sheath pulled up over it...I scratched my head quite a bit over that. You cannot accidentally knock those clamps off. At any rate once found and repaired the engine no longer hesitates at all.

This year (2019) after finally finding and fixing the air leak, we had also built another watermaker. I, being a sucker for punishment, took on the fabrication  and installation of an engine driven 20GPH watermaker. Haha. See the blog entry. So we took off to check out our work. The first iteration needed more work, so we came back and I made some adjustments. Going down the river the second time I hit something with the prop...I noticed a sudden change in sound from the engine...initially thinking maybe something else but kept going anyway, sailing over to Clam bay. I was thinking that I had picked something up..had done that before snagged a submerged chunk of branch that got wedged behind the prop. I fixed that by releasing the shaft from the engine and the piece fell out, so I first wanted to check that possibility. We were heading up the coast so I did not want to go back to the dock unnecessarily  so when at anchor I viewed the propellor. Long story short we headed back after a bit of sailing up to Club Jed and back. The perturbing noise didn't occur til the RPM exceeded 1500 so it wasn't too bad, but.. then the watermaker drive broke again so we headed back. I had the boat hauled and pulled the prop --had it to the prop shop where it was tuned up. Meantime I had the watermaker platform beefed up. So now we headed back out to check everything out over ten days in the southern Gulf Islands. Turns out the harmonics that the prop had exhibited at 1100 rpms after the new engine install also disappeared with the prop tune. The WOT produced the engine spec of 2800 RPM and it was beautifully smooth. The new watermaker pump base also held firm and the water production exceeded anticipated volumes. So all good. We are going to head up to the central BC coast waters next spring and hopefully will have all our systems functioning as we want them.