More maintenance!

Did a couple of necessary repairs and upgrades over the weekend:

1) Replaced the broken exhaust elbow with a new one. The tricky part was to get all the hoses off the old part, and back on the new part. Also the bronze fittings were really snug and I was a bit concerned that I would crack the cast iron elbow by applying too much pressure. In the end it all fit ok, engine is running smooth and no exhaust fume is escaping into the cabin no more!

New Elbow

2) Replaced the old single wire stanchions with double wire stanchions that comply with offshore recommendations. The tricky part was that the sockets were all different so I had to drill many holes and tap threads like a champion. The next step will be to install new lifelines. The old ones are of the vinyl coated variety with lots of rust stains where they pass the stanchions. Yikes! Not something you want to depend your life on.

3) Replaced the mast boot and the partners. The old partners were kind of worn and allowed the mast to pump quite a bit on a beam reach, and the boot had cracked from age in some places. I bought a Spartite kit, which forms a continuous barrier around the mast and should completely stop it from pumping. Spartite is some sort of 2 component epoxy, that is applied while still liquid and then cures in place. The tricky part here was that it needs to be poured in the gap between mast and deck. For the still liquid mixture to stay in place before it cures, there must be no leaks to down below, otherwise the whole goo goes down into the cabin. Now, forming that barrier is quite tricky as there is very little space in some places. The kit comes with some sort of a playdoo clay that settles in corners and crevices. I thought we did a pretty good job, but just to be sure I positioned the best crew of all in the cabin below to watch, equipped with paper towels etc to stop any drops. Then I poured just a tiny bit and watched the level. From downstairs I got the all ok hail and I went to pour some more. And some more. That's when all of a sudden the level started sinking at an alarming rate, followed by a cry of disgust from down below. The stuff must have broken some crucial barrier and was now emptying out of that hole. Argh! I rushed below and helped putting wipes and tape in place to stop the ingress. In the end it wasn't so bad, except the blue sprinkles all over the place, in my hair, face and pretty much everywhere. No picture of that mess, sorry :-)

I should have just waited until the stuff settled a bit, but I was afraid for that to happen too quickly and then I would have ended with a solid piece of plastic in the mixing bucket, and none next to the mast. The instruction said you have 7-15min under normal conditions. And that was a pretty warm day to begin with, so I figured less. So hurry hurry, but in the end I could have waited. It was still pretty easy to pour after 10min or so, more like honey. Oh well, next time.. The mast boot was comparatively easy, just roll the self adhering tape around a couple of times, install the clamps and voila!

4) Installed the hardware on the boom for the 2nd reef. We figured that we really need the 2nd reef installed permanently, quite often we do see winds above 30kn here which absolutely requires 2nd reef. 

5) Cleaned up the mess from the spartite experiment. 

6) Drank some beers!