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What did you do to your boat today?


HewesYourDaddy

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Well, gave up this (and all social media) for Lent, so glad to be back with everyone.  Happy Easter!

 

They closed down the boat ramps here, so I decided to change my lower unit oil.   Just did it in November and had some water in it, so replaced the upper gaskets hoping that was the only problem.    

 

Found more water in it this time, so going to have to get the lower unit resealed, and will have the tilt and trim seals replaced too.   When I pressure tested the lower unit, I had lube coming out everywhere.   Guess its a good time to check this stuff!

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9 hours ago, Shallowminded6 said:

Looks great. Thats an awesome skill to have. How hard is it seweing that stuff together and figuring out your pattern etc.?

I’m still learning but it takes a bit of time. Fitting it isn’t that hard but it takes a lot of steps. You start with building a big giant rectangle and drape it over the boat and secure it on the ends. I gathered up the middle and sewed in a curve to give it an arc fore and aft of the center console for drainage.  Then you pinch, roll, and gather up the slack into four “darts” pointing st the center console that get secured with little spring/pony clamps. Mark those clamp jaws on the inside of the fabric, connect the dots on the inside, apply double sided seam stick tape and line up your inside marks on top of each other. Sew down the line, trim the slack off the inside of the dart and sew the remaining 1” flap of the dart flat. It takes time and a lot of fitting on and off the boat but as I get better I’m a little more brave in clamping more than one dart at a time.  My sewing machine is upstairs too so I’m getting a workout up and down. I probably have 30-40 hours in that section but I’m somewhat new at this and have to think about it a bunch. 

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10 hours ago, JakeK said:

I’m still learning but it takes a bit of time. Fitting it isn’t that hard but it takes a lot of steps. You start with building a big giant rectangle and drape it over the boat and secure it on the ends. I gathered up the middle and sewed in a curve to give it an arc fore and aft of the center console for drainage.  Then you pinch, roll, and gather up the slack into four “darts” pointing st the center console that get secured with little spring/pony clamps. Mark those clamp jaws on the inside of the fabric, connect the dots on the inside, apply double sided seam stick tape and line up your inside marks on top of each other. Sew down the line, trim the slack off the inside of the dart and sew the remaining 1” flap of the dart flat. It takes time and a lot of fitting on and off the boat but as I get better I’m a little more brave in clamping more than one dart at a time.  My sewing machine is upstairs too so I’m getting a workout up and down. I probably have 30-40 hours in that section but I’m somewhat new at this and have to think about it a bunch. 

Sailrite offers a lot of free instruction...this video has largely been my go-by:

 

 

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12 hours ago, JakeK said:

I’m still learning but it takes a bit of time. Fitting it isn’t that hard but it takes a lot of steps. You start with building a big giant rectangle and drape it over the boat and secure it on the ends. I gathered up the middle and sewed in a curve to give it an arc fore and aft of the center console for drainage.  Then you pinch, roll, and gather up the slack into four “darts” pointing st the center console that get secured with little spring/pony clamps. Mark those clamp jaws on the inside of the fabric, connect the dots on the inside, apply double sided seam stick tape and line up your inside marks on top of each other. Sew down the line, trim the slack off the inside of the dart and sew the remaining 1” flap of the dart flat. It takes time and a lot of fitting on and off the boat but as I get better I’m a little more brave in clamping more than one dart at a time.  My sewing machine is upstairs too so I’m getting a workout up and down. I probably have 30-40 hours in that section but I’m somewhat new at this and have to think about it a bunch. 

Good for you taking that on. Im not sure I would even of attempted it. Let us know how much it ends up taking to make it. Looks good man keep up the good work. 

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Dropped the boat off today to the shop to have the lower unit resealed and the tilt/trim seals redone.   

 

You know how depressed your dog looks when you are walking away, leaving it at the vet?  I swear that boat looked as forlorn as ever to be back at the shop.  I suppose she still has lingering memories of that last surgery.   

Its just a shot, girl.  Nothing major this time. . . . You will be back on the water in a week or so. . . .

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5 minutes ago, HewesYourDaddy said:

I decided I was bored enough to change the water pump on my Suzuki, yesterday afternoon. The engine is 7yrs old with about 130 hours or so on the clock. Not too bad looking on the inside. Then I woke up and found a tree had fallen across the corner of my shop during the severe weather. 😑

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OUCH !!!  Hope everyone is safe...

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55 minutes ago, Shallowminded6 said:

Thank god the boat was safe and unharmed!! Engine looks great. *** about the shop, hope its just gutter soffit and facia and nothing bad. 

Looks to be a little worse on parts not shown in pic. Roof sheeting, the end truss on the far side, shingles, etc. it was gett8ng really bad about the time I saw it and was leaving for work. I don’t know what I’m going to find when I get home. Lots of tornado damage in Sunbury and Dorchester, which are both across the river from my house. Some of the docks and boats had some pretty bad damage also.

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30 minutes ago, HewesYourDaddy said:

Looks to be a little worse on parts not shown in pic. Roof sheeting, the end truss on the far side, shingles, etc. it was gett8ng really bad about the time I saw it and was leaving for work. I don’t know what I’m going to find when I get home. Lots of tornado damage in Sunbury and Dorchester, which are both across the river from my house. Some of the docks and boats had some pretty bad damage also.

Sorry to hear that. Hope the repairs go well. 

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1 hour ago, HewesYourDaddy said:

Looks to be a little worse on parts not shown in pic. Roof sheeting, the end truss on the far side, shingles, etc. it was gett8ng really bad about the time I saw it and was leaving for work. I don’t know what I’m going to find when I get home. Lots of tornado damage in Sunbury and Dorchester, which are both across the river from my house. Some of the docks and boats had some pretty bad damage also.

I sure hope you find everything else at home to be in good order.  How did the impeller look ? 

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2 hours ago, HewesYourDaddy said:

Looks to be a little worse on parts not shown in pic. Roof sheeting, the end truss on the far side, shingles, etc. it was gett8ng really bad about the time I saw it and was leaving for work. I don’t know what I’m going to find when I get home. Lots of tornado damage in Sunbury and Dorchester, which are both across the river from my house. Some of the docks and boats had some pretty bad damage also.

I've got some customers up that way, and I've heard reports of loss of life from it, which I hope are only rumors. Be safe HYD, I hope all is well and remains well. 

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Tornadoes ***.  One of my good boating buddies got hammered last night in upstate SC.   Besides the garage, his house was largely intact and he and his family are fine.  I don't think any of his toys survived, though...but they're replaceable. 
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As far as what did I do on the boat, the weather was nice today and there's not much to do to help those Tornado stricken folks until the insurance companies assess everything.  I installed a NMEA 2000 fuel sending unit adapter and tied that into my network.  The wires were in rough shape on the sending unit - coroded black...I removed the sending unit, stripped back fresh ends (still black) and dipped them in white vinegar and salt solution for 30 minutes swishing them around occasionally.  then rinsed, and dipped the clean copper in a baking soda and water solution to neutralize the acid.  Rinsed again, dried, and tinned the fresh copper exposed ends with solder.  Crimped those with marine sealed crimps to the NMEA adapter and plugged into my hub.  Fired up the SIMRAD, did a quick simple calibration (will do a more complicated one later) and now my fuel is tied into all of my engine data on the network and I'll get estimated distance remaining, efficiency rating, etc.

I've had this boat for a year and had yet to figure out how large the tank was.  I've put 20 gallons in it before but I tried to assume that it was a 20 gallon tank because that seemed safe knowing a little about what the RF16s usually have in them.  While messing around with the sending unit, I shoved the phone down in the hole on video mode and found a stamp/label on top of the tank.  After cleaning that stamp and getting a decent photo of it, I was surprised to see that I have a 30 gallon tank in the boat.  That's good to know.  I'll drain it eventually and test it to see how much is usable and get everything calibrated to precision.

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Up next is tackling these rusty nuts on the main steering linkage.   I've been regretting this job since I bought the boat but it's time.  They make me nervous every time I launch the boat and I'm prepared to pull the motor if I'm going to have to get in there and do surgery with the welder. 
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On 4/13/2020 at 9:37 AM, whichwaysup said:

Dropped the boat off today to the shop to have the lower unit resealed and the tilt/trim seals redone.   

 

You know how depressed your dog looks when you are walking away, leaving it at the vet?  I swear that boat looked as forlorn as ever to be back at the shop.  I suppose she still has lingering memories of that last surgery.   

Its just a shot, girl.  Nothing major this time. . . . You will be back on the water in a week or so. . . .

My little boy acts the same going to the Vet. Puts me on a guilt trip big time. Lol

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