Electric Bilge Pump Ready

This past weekend was very productive. I got some work done on the electric bilge pump. Everything was previously mounted on a wooden board but got a piece of plastic board and remounted everything on it. The pump is at the bottom, with the float switch just above it. The next float switch, I used a yellow plastic scraper to mount, is for the bilge alarm. At the top, you can see all the wires, it's a relay switch. For the most part, everything is mounted the way the boat came. If you look closely at the closeup of the wiring/relay, you'll see a yellow and brown wire that isn't connected to anything. It was previously wrapped in electrical tape. It goes to the bottom float switch but no idea of its purpose. It's kept tied high from any possible water contact.

I still want to work on the manual pump by replacing the rubber pieces but the screws holding the flappers inside the unit doesn't want to budge. Going to try spraying some PB Blaster to see if that will help loosen things up. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be much I can do with it.

After the bilge pump, I worked on mounting the base the Airhead is sitting on. All this time I've had the Airhead, it wasn't really secured. I had a small tube of LifeCaulk on hand, put a bead of it around the hole the old holding tank sat in, then screwed down the base. The vent hose was also not attached to the Airhead itself. I haven't used the head yet, so didn't have a need to. I got the hose cut down enough to connect everything together and now it's ready to use.

Didn't get any other pictures, but this is just screwing down the Airhead base. Predrilled the base for the screw to pass through but a smaller hole drilled below for the screw to bite into.

A Little Bit of Sailing

This weekend was good. I went to the boat, but instead of getting to work on the bilge pump setup, I decided to take my dinghy out on the water. I've had the dinghy for awhile now, but only used it one time. That one time was to row to a liveaboards boat and help apply new name decals.

This time, decided to rig up the two piece mast. There was absolutely no wind when I dropped the boat in but thought I'd go see if I could find some. Slight breeze started and thought I'd give the sail a try. Had to hook up the boom, sail and lines while floating around. But once all setup, I had enough wind to move the boat a little.

I asked a friend of he was coming out to his boat and he invited me to go along with him and his other friend on his Shannon 28. Been awhile since I sailed so I said sure. Rowed over to his slip at the nearby marina and off we went.

Really enjoyed the time sailing in his boat too. I feel like I needed that motivation to get my boat ready to go too.

After the sail, I rowed back to my marina, lifted the boat out of the water and into the dinghy storage. All the other stuff for the dinghy I stored back on my boat. I looked around at some of the work I need to do but it was about time I headed back to the house.

Great day and fun to get out on the water again. Ready for the next visit to get to work.

Ready to go

No wind at first

Motoring out on the Shannon 28

Back on land at the end of the trip.

Bilge Pump - Relook

Looking in the bilge again. The auto pump setup is attached to a piece of wood I wanted to replace with a plastic one. I also thought to replace the float switch that activates the alarm as the plastic housing broke. Looking it all over, maybe a couple other things could be worked on too. At the bottom, it looked like there's another float switch, maybe used to activate the pump.

The wiring goes to a little box at the top of the wood piece then down to the float switches and pump. I found out it's just a relay. Maybe there's a way to simplify the setup and remove the relay.

The manual bilge pump isn't really useable now either. I started taking it apart to replace the gaskets but the screws holding the flappers inside it won't budge and will need some more work.

Relay

Bottom float switch went to alarm.
Bigger one was at the bottom of the wood.

Bottom of the bigger switch

Alarm float switch

Down inside the bilge.

Did a quick look online at float switches. They can get expensive. Will research more in the meantime. Best to have at least one working bilge pump if I ever get to launch the boat again.

I recently put in a new cutlass bearing. I think there was only one length for the size I needed and found out this one is sticking out a little. May need to redo this, but maybe it could still work. I don't know yet.

Another Year - Refit Continues

Not much of an update. Cold weather, rainy weather, it all slows things down.

I recently finished installing the second solar panel and associated wiring. I really like how it all turned out. I like that I can now keep the batteries happy even while I'm not there. I'm glad I decided to do this now than wait until the boat was closer to launching.

These combine the two 100W panels

Setting up the MC4 connectors on those wires were pretty straight forward. A couple times I had to watch out that I had all parts in place before fastening everything together. Once, I almost forgot to run the wire through one of the cable pass-through fittings.

Recently got a couple junction boxes for the boat. One will be used for the trailer. I'll need to rewire it whenever I get around to replacing the brakes.

The other junction box was setup for the wiring that will go to the mast. When the mast goes up, I'll be able to hook up the wires to the junction box. Should be easy enough to do when the time comes. I got connectors on the wires, then started flipping breakers to see what the wires went to. I also got connectors on the wires on the mast itself. There's no connector on the RF line yet and may wait for the mast to be up. Not sure when that'll happen.

sorting connectors for trailer plug

Little Solar Update

I've been using a 50 watt solar panel to keep the batteries topped up. This weekend I decided to put up one of the 100 watt panels on the side.

I first drilled a couple holes for the little kick stand that helps keep the panel positioned. I first setup the panel to the outside of the stanchion as it normally would but since I'll still be in the yard awhile, I turned it around so the panel would mainly be over the boat.

Normal setup

Still well inside of the hull side

While set for charging normally

This is where I turned it around

View from the cockpit

So far I really like how this is looking. I'm happy I chose this position for a solar setup. I'll still have to put up one on the port side. This would do well for a cruising setup.

a couple updates

I've been in and out of town lately.

Went to Sacremento for a week for visiting wife's family, then not long after, we were in Vancouver, B.C. to visit more of wife's family, then we were near Long Beach, CA for a wife's work trip for a month.

Trying to get back into working on Rhapsody. At least since returning from the latest trip, I have mounted the AIS transponder under the nav desk. Now, I think I just need to find a splitter to share the masthead antenna or route a cable for a new dedicated antenna for it, but not necessarily on the mast. Testing it at ground level, in the truck while sitting in the marina, it gets pretty good reception and signal does get out just fine.

and that little red board is just a bluetooth audio amp that I connect with my phone to listen to some music while I work.

I have also been installing some insulating material in the starboard side quarterberth. That uses up the material I had on hand and frees up a little space I have on the boat. Still a little more to do but it's coming along.

Still At It.

Been four months and no posts, what gives?

Well, "life" is what happened.

Not to worry, I've still been plugging away on the boat when I can, so maybe I can say a little about what I've been up to. (and, no Matt, this isn't a 12 part mini-series)

The main reason I haven't posted any updates is that there's little progress going on at any one time. I mean, how many times can I really post "still working to scrape off bottom paint" before that gets old... believe me, it's getting old for me too. Since progress is slow on paint removal, I'm looking to hire someone to finish that part, then I'll do repairs of deep pitting/holes before applying a barrier coat and bottom paint.

Back in December, I signed off on the last paperwork I needed to retire from the military, only my actual retirement date was April. You'd think that now I'm retired, I'd have plenty of free time to work on the boat, right? Nope, wrong. So. Very. Wrong. I'd say now, I have less free time than I did before. Mainly because I have a 1yr old. Wife still works so I'm at the house most of the time watching the little one. She is getting to be quite the handful and SUCH A DADDY'S GIRL. I can't do much without her right beside me wanting to be picked up.

So, I still only get one day a week, Saturdays, to visit the boat. Most Saturday's anyway. Because of my retirement, I had to get a new drivers license and re-register my vehicles in Virginia since I can now no longer keep Tennessee. That ate up a couple weekends getting vehicles inspected & emissions testing. Then another weekend was my daughers first birthday. Basically, it ended up being about a month I couldn't get to the boat. Other weekends it was just slow progress in some part because of the weather (RAIN) but worked on other smaller things instead.

While I was going to wait until the boat launched, I decided to go ahead and get solar on the boat. Nothing setup just yet. Since I can get to the boat only one day a week, which is the only time I can charge the batteries, I figured solar woud be good to use to keep the batteries topped up the rest of the week. I'll post more on that later.

I also got an AIS transponder. I've been testing it the last few visits to the boat using one of the antennas on the truck. Works pretty good and hope to install that in the boat soon as well. I plan to post more on that later as well.

Not much else to it. Just wanted to show that I'm still at it, when I can. Soon, wife and I are going out of town for a couple weeks to Vancouver, BC, so that'll eat into the boat work too. Wife has plans on visiting other places too.

At this point, I'm not sure if I'll launch this year but I'll keep at it.

It'll launch one of these days.