Update for March Activities

Hey, that's not a boat photo! My reader's are pretty quick witted so I thought I should state this right up front, it was not an ideal March for powder and paint on the Dragon Lady but we soldiered on and completed two items that were on the schedule, completed the demo portion of another, started a third and....started another big project not on the list!

I had contracted some friends and actual marine professionals at YES (that is Yacht Electronic Systems) to help with the installation of the fridge and complete the battery installation while I focused on some other items on the list. Just let me take a minute here to say again my kudos to Andy and Ruark at YES who helped me with this part of the project. THANKS, YOU GUYS WERE GREAT! and their only answer to my requests was...YES! Contact them for your yacht electronic needs at 410-271-5470 YachtES@verizon.net )
It was very cold the day that they arrived, I think it was the coldest day of the month, grey and windy with the threat of rain or snow so when you see a pic of them below you will understand why the multiple layers of clothing, all you could see was hands and noses. So here is the new fridge...

One of the three house bank batteries is sitting in the black box directly below the fridge and the compressor is to the right of the battery on the upper shelf below the fridge. Some detailed photos follow.

Here is the battery and the refrigerant lines coming up from below.

Here is a view from above of the compressor installation.

The following are some photos of the details that were done in preparation for the installation of the fridge. The following photo is of a key item called a keel cooler that is used to transfer heat from the fridge into the water beneath the boat. This action is just like a ground sourced heat pump and pumps heat into the bay instead of into the air like the fridge in your house. This is a very energy efficient system that keeps battery usage to a minimum and has the added benefit of keeping the cabin cooler and more quiet as there is less heat from the cooling system being pushed in the tiny living quarters of Dragon Lady.
This is the keel cooler, follow the photos to see how it is installed.

Here is the hole that I drilled into the hull.

 Here is the hole from the outside.

 Here is the keel cooler hanging outside, waiting for lot's of goop and a wooden fairing block to make it fit fairly to the hull.

My thanks to friend Mike Johnson for helping with this installation, it really is a two man job to get one of these into place, the copper tubes are very delicate and a sharp bend can be fatal to the system, of course that can be remedied with $$$$$. I used to work for Mike at Eastport Yacht Sales eastportyachtsales@comcast.net 410-903-1830 and I continue to count him as a good friend. If you need to buy or sell a boat give him a call.

 Here is the keel cooler in dry fit mode.

Here it is with the fairing block and a lot of goop.

Here are Andy (standing) and Ruark trying to stay warm and get the stuff hooked up.

And here is the interior of the beast, 6.4 cubic feet of cool space for storage of chilly drinks on a hot summer day.

The other three batteries were also wired up on the same day and connected to the fourth battery. This house bank of four 110 amp hour batteries will be more than adequate to run the fridge, interior lights and fans for a weekend overnight trip without having to run the engine at anchor to keep the batteries charged.

The three batteries with be covered and retained as shown below.

I will complete this installation by building a hanging locker above this space. With the addition of some doors, sanding and painting this entirely new section will be complete.

On to the next project. Demo time! Lets get rid of the old, not working, crusty and rusty cabin heater. Here it is with a step removed.

And here it is g.o.n.e. Those hoses were hydraulic hoses not regular heater hoses so they were an absolute bear to get out through the holes in the bulkhead as they were very, very stiff and hard to handle.

I also started on the galley shelf rework. Here is the original shelf back in place in its original location after I have cleaned it up in preparation for reworking it into a liquor locker.

It will be lowered as shown below and holes will placed to in it to accommodate wine and liquor bottle stowage.

 These are some pics that show modelling of the space needed and used so that I can be sure there will be room to do this per my sketch.

This shelf is now undergoing painting and varnishing and will be in place for a photo shoot in the next blog. And of course there is always the expected task that somehow grows beyond the scale, this is a boat and so this is to be expected. As I was giving a closer inspection to the windows in the forward face of the pilothouse I reassessed my original intent of some minor rework and decided to rebuild them!
The windows that were on her are shown below, they were wood frames with stainless plates on the outside. The problem was that the wood frames had aged and no longer fit correctly. I was going to repair them and move on to the next project but once I removed them I realized that they needed more than repair.

So I began the unexpected task of building new frames which I redesigned to (hopefully) provide a better watertight seal and last longer. In addition, I will be replacing the clear plastic windows with tempered glass. Currently the special order glass is expected to arrive later this week, the windows have been dry fit are complete and undergoing the multistage primer and paint process.

Here the two opening windows have been removed, the center window is fixed and in good shape.

Here is a detail of the stainless window frame with a lot of silicon sealant all around it which indicates past leak issues and attempts to keep them watertight without actually fixing the root cause.

Here is a look at the window opening after the window was removed.

A close up of the window frame and poor fit of the plastic window to the wooden frame as well as a lack of adequate sealant.

 Here is the new frame under construction.

 Here is a section view of a portion of the new frame. Note that it is being built from Oregon Pine, a type of vertical grain Douglas Fir, very rot resistant, light and strong.

 Somewhere under all those clamps is a frame undergoing glue up. Yes, more epoxy!

Here is a dry fit of the new frames.

So, one day in the middle of all this a nice day popped up so I installed the speakers for the stereo.

Here is the process of cutting one of the 5" diameter holes for the new Polk speakers. I used a dremel tool with a special bit and fixture.

The hole is cut.

The mid range speaker is in!

A tweeter is in! The wiring will be covered by a wooden trough and painted to blend in with the pilothouse.

As part of the process I have decided to move more of the electronics that are fastened to the overhead of the pilothouse and put them down on the main shelf at the helm station, that means moving and removing more wiring. Note the less-than-fine condition of the non-marine fasteners used to restrain the wiring. The metal clips actually disintegrated as I removed the screws that were holding them in place.

And the wiring for the windscreen wipers also had some critical faults as seen below, a screw that was used to fasten the engine instrument panel to the helm station had cut through the casing on the wire and allowed salt water to corrode the wire, which is a good reason why the wipers did not run.

Those wires will be replaced when I install the new wiper system. Also, while removing wires I removed the port running light, it was shown from the outside in an earlier post with some surface corrosion that made me think it might be time for replacement. Here is the inside, full of corrosion to the fixture but surprisingly the connection to the bulb was in good shape. In any case the entire fixture will be replaced.

Okay, that's all for March. I will send another post next month and hopefully we will have a launch date by then.

Dennis