Rover

Progress

27 October 2013 | Boat Haven, Port Townsend
Eric
It's been a long grind on the hard in Port Townsend, but we're seeing progress. Rover wasn't really a "project boat", but it was suffering from deferred maintenance. I've done some of the repairs and we've hired some skilled professionals for other work. Like many projects, the first step is disassembling the old stuff before the new stuff can be created. In the creative destruction phase, chaos moves toward a maximum, and then order starts to return.

The major projects included the anchor locker and windlass; below water line hoses; and the rig. In addition there were lots of details.

The anchor chain locker had suffered from salt water, and the windlass motor and control circuit were also significantly corroded. I worked with Todd Flye of "On the Flye Fiberglass" to design a fiberglass step to replace the rotted plywood forepeak floor. It improves the flow of chain into the locker and also provides a step to facilitate climbing out the hatch. Todd spent about half his time on removing the old rotten stuff, and about a week creating molds and building the new parts. We're happy with the result.

Several of the systems on the boat use salt water. The engine, generator, and air conditioning system are the big ones, but we also have a watermaker and a deck washdown. There's several through hull fittings with a valve, and then a hose that connects to a filter, then a hose to a manifold with valves, then mutiple hoses to the various systems. These hoses tend to be pretty large diameter, and to have pretty long runs. If a hose breaks while the valves are open (as they are when the systems are running), a lot of water can enter the boat rapidly. Think about an inch and a half diameter hole, three feet under the waterline. Most of the hoses were original from '99 and several were starting to fail. We decided to replace all the below waterline hoses. It turns out there are a lot, and they're mostly under the sole. Each through hull is also grounded, and most of the ground connections were also corroded, so they were also all replaced. Owen Galmukoff and Anders from Galmukoff Marine did almost all the work (along with servicing other systems) and I did some of it. This week we had all the sole boards open, Anders in the engine room, Owen in the middle bilge and me with my head in the forward bilge. We hit maximum chaos, and Linda retreated outside of the boat to clean and repair the ball bearings in the sail track. Hoses and ground lines aren't very photogenic, but I will say that the new stuff looks and feels much better. and we'll sleep much better once we're in the water.

In parallel, the propeller, transmission, engine and generator have been serviced; the engine transmission and shaft have been aligned; wind generator re-installed, windlass motor and control box have been rebuilt; and the dive compressor has been removed to be sold. At this point, the tide has turned and we're putting things together more than we're disassembling them. The next big push will be the rig.
Comments
Vessel Name: Rover
Vessel Make/Model: Valiant 42
Hailing Port: Seattle. WA
Crew: Eric and Linda
About:
We're making a big change to a cruising lifestyle. Eric retired in 2012 after 32 years in R&D (mostly) at HP. Previous passions included flying and bicycling. Linda will retire in 2013 from Oregon State University. She's been active in Zonta, was a Scoutmaster, and is a champion baker. [...]
Extra: Linda was barrel master and Eric participated in the Jackson Street Vintners; a group of friends that made wine from 2000 to 2013
Rover's Photos - Main
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