Tonight, I went to the boat for an oil change. I read somewhere that it's good to do an oil change annually or every 50 hrs on the engine. I have a Yanmar 2GM. Watching this video on Youtube was helpful to see how to do this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kiwfbL7H74
Here, you can see the oil fiter with the date of when it was last changed.
The last time I went to West Marine, I got this oil extraction pump. It looked pretty good out the box. The plastic container is hard.
The dip stick is on the side and down low of the engine in a not so easy place to see from the front. Thankfully, there's a removable panel on the sides of the quarterberths to reach it. I put the tube in there and got pumping and it worked out well.
Here you can see the stream of oil going into the container.
Filled up pretty well in about 15-20 min.
Once the oil got into the container, I switched out the oil filter with a Fram PH3593A I picked up at Walmart. Everything seemed to go well. Hopefully the engine will run fine after this.
This is my first winter since I bought the boat. I was reading different things online thinking I should probably do something about it. I found some safe RV antifreeze used for waterlines. As far as I can tell, the main water lines on the boat are dry. I don't know when the last time water was put in the tanks. I thought I would go to Rhapsody to at least winterize the engine.
I did this last night. I went to take off the hose from the raw water seacock by first releasing the two hose clamps holding it. The hose wouldn't budge. I grabbed the hose to wiggle it off, then realized, the whole seacock was moving. I moved it back and forth and also twisting it as I looked at it. I then thought to myself that it needed to be replaced. The seacock, as all of them on this boat, are mounted on what looks like a 1/2" piece of wood. The wood on most of the seacocks, that I've seen, look to be in fairly good shape. This one, the raw water seacock, the wood is soft and falling apart a bit.
Now, I'm researching parts, procedures and price on new assembly's. Since I know I have to get this one replaced, I may end up replacing others.
In the first link, it shows the "preferred and non-preffered" installations. The triangular one being preferred... all of mine looks like the other one. I'm looking for parts between Jamestown Distributors, Defender, and West Marine to get the better price. For the most part, they carry the same items. I'm also looking at using fiberglass board to use as a backing material instead of wood again and getting a Groco flanged seacock. Plenty more research needed.
I wasn't expecting to work on seacocks any time soon. I was hoping to get the boat in the water soon and do some sailing before doing any major items. Since the raw water seacock looks bad enough to cause the boat to sink, it has moved to the top of list of things to do.
It was suggested to me that the water lift muffler (metal can behind the engine) needs to be replaced. Looking at pictures I've had before, I could see that there were signs of leaking in the past. It was suggested to me that I replace the metal can with a fiberglass one as it should last longer. I'm sure I'll uncover other things to fix or replace soon. I just hope I can get them done to get it in the water and enjoy the sailing part of owning a boat too. :-)
Replacing all the seacocks will turn out to be an expensive project but as long as it's done right, it'll last a very long time.
Here's a short video showing the movement of the seacock.
Update 17 Nov 2012,
I was researching different things to replace the raw water valve/seacock for the engine intake. I'm starting to consider going with a regular round through-hull and flanged seacock. This post I found on a forum makes a good point of growth getting under an external strainer and the difficulty that comes to trying to clean and clear it.
This is the space showing where the strainer was removed.
Update 25 Nov 2012
For Thanksgiving day, I looked over the engine and got it running and was able to get the antifreeze through the engine's water system. This short video shows how it was setup.
I started a college class this past week, English 102, that will last until end of December. I'm not too crazy about it but if I'm ever going to get a degree, I need it. So, this leaves less time for boat related work (or anything else for that matter). But I'll fit it in some how.
Yesterday and today, I painted the starboard side handrail and I think I built enough varnish on it to be even with the port side. I started the port side before so I was working on getting them even now. To me, it looks like I got enough to build them up a few more coats without using mineral spirits to thin out the varnish, then I should be done with them. Then the tricky part of mounting them back on the boat.
Between the varnish work I did yesterday and today, I went through the same process. The weather was nice to work on it on the back deck both days. I sanded down the handrail with 220 grit sand paper then used my small shop-vac to vacuum up the dust. The varnish was still cut a little with mineral spirits, what I had left over from the other day. I applied varnish down the whole handrail. I measured it the other day while it was sitting in the living room. This rail is 11 ft long. By the time I got to the end of the handrail, I checked where I started and it was already drying. It wasn't just sticky but actually dry to the touch. I decided to apply another coat and let it dry. When this second coat dried to the touch, I moved it to the living room to dry the full 24hrs recommended on the varnish can. All of this, each day, probably didn't take more than 30 min to do.
Like I said, I did the same process yesterday and today. I'll get another few coats of straight varnish and it should be ready for the boat.
Here's pictures to show how it came out. I really like how the grain shows up on this handrail since I did use teak cleaner/brightener.
And this is showing it spread out in the living room. The wrenches hold the rails up by its bolts while it drys for the full 24hrs. The other pieces shown are the port side rails (came in two pieces) that are laying down waiting for the next coats of varnish.
I did a little bit of varnish work today on all the handrails today. On the handrail that I used a teak cleaner on came out nice. This first picture is after one coat of varnish.
On the other pieces that I already had a coat of varnish, I sanded them down a bit to smooth out the finish.
I then varnished the other pieces too. This picture below, I have one of the piece I had varnished before with the one I used a teak cleaner on. The one I used the cleaner on, did come out a little brighter then the one behind it. They still look pretty nice with fresh varnish. I think altogether, I have 2-3 coats on. The next couple coats will have less mineral spirits and more varnish as I work towards straight varnish for the finishing coats.
Today I was switching out the tires on the trailer. The owner/manager of the storage lot stopped by to take a look at what I was doing. He looked at the trailer fender all rolled up from the previous tire that had the tread peel off and ruined it. He happened to have an angle grinder and cut off the part of the fender that was rolled onto itself. You can see what the ruined part looked like in this post. As of today, there's still a couple tires I need to switch out that I can do later. The boat/trailer isn't moving just yet.
Part of the time I was working at the boat, I was putting the standing rigging that I replaced on the mast. Once everything was back on the mast, I went to the store and got some plastic wrapping. I wrapped up the rigging and lines to the mast then tied the mast higher on the trailer like it was when I bought the boat.
I also cleaned up the last piece of handrail from the top side. I bought some teak cleaner and brightener. I thought it might get the handrail to look better than the other pieces I did so far. It's hard to tell if it was working when the wood was still wet. I used the cleaner then brightener and did fresh water rinse after each part. I thought it was looking good but still hard to tell.
These next pictures show how the handrail looked once it was drying off. Now, it does look a lot better than before. I think tomorrow might be the day I start putting varnish on this piece. I'm thinking I'll be able to notice the difference in the wood once the varnish is applied. So far, it looks pretty good. Overall, everything seems to be working out pretty good. The boat/trailer is closer to getting ready to travel. I've had a few people at work express an interest in going out on the boat once it's in the water.
