Spares & Repairs Underway
We received a new starter motor to keep in our spares kit, and now I need to install it and check it out before packing it away. While this may sound like an over kill, I can tell you that after years of receiving new gear that doesn't work there is no way to know if its OK unless it is checked out. The upside to fitting and testing the starter is I now know that I have the tools and ability to change IT. I have to say tools are as important as the spare parts, you can have all the spares in the world, but you will need some way of fitting them.
If “IT” quits working and you don’t have the capacity or the tools to repair what ever “IT” is, and
if you don’t have a spare “IT,” you and your crew will need to be able to survive
without “IT” for the rest of the voyage
So what’s the best
thing you can do about “it”? Perhaps the thing on the top of the list for anyone
contemplating an offshore voyage is to make totally sure that all systems are
in excellent working condition before leaving the dock. Not an easy thing to do
if you don’t use your boat regularly, for reliable systems it really appears to
be use it or loose it. Progressive maintenance and tweaking things as they show
signs of wear and tare and the odd drop of oil and polish help grease the
wheels so to speak.
The larger the
boat, the more complex the systems can be and with this added complexity you
have a higher potential for failure. Bigger is better, but only if it works,
the same can be said for newer, it’s good but only if it works. Another problem
creeping into system reliability is the fact manufactures are building obsolescence into a lot of systems
they now produce. So if you have a component that is warranted for 3 years make
sure you have a spare when you’re nearing the end of the third year. Unfortunately this forced retirement of components
could end up making it too expensive for some of us to keep maintaining a vessel
properly. Instead of being able to refurbish system components sadly
replacement is the only answer due to being deliberately designed that way. The
flow on effect will be that some people will be forced into two options, retire
from boating and sell the vessel or go to sea with a vessel that is not in the
best shape.
I would like to bring
up Plan B, what happens when one of your systems fails to function. In this day
and age where one component can be a major part for several systems you need to
be sure you have that component as a spare and know how to change it. Of course
there is still the option of keeping systems separate and spread the load so to
speak. Whether you loose functionality due to the separate units not
communicating together is purely conjecture.
What are the crucial systems onboard your boat? Is it something that
could compromise the safety of the crew or the vessel like a leaking rudder or
propeller shaft? Perhaps it’s reduced performance like damaged rigging. What
about the loss of the chart plotter GPS now that electronic navigation is
usually the primary source of positioning. A head pump failure could certainly make
life uncomfortable for all on board and the loss of cooking facilities could
make the crew contemplate mutiny. There are a lot of systems onboard a cruising vessel that can compromise safety or
make it uncomfortable for all on board. On a vessel with a large complement of
crew the loss of the auto pilot would not be a serious life threatening
problem. Uncomfortable and tiring yes but with the right crew rotation on the
wheel a serious problem can be averted. However the same failure on a vessel
with a crew of two could compromise the safety of the crew due to fatigue and
the inability to trim sails and make rig adjustments without two on deck. So it’s a case of identifying your primary
systems keeping in mind the number of crew and passengers on board. Some service systems may become of primary
importance once the crew numbers decrease.
If you want to take
one spare of everything you’re going to need a bigger boat. The solution is to
identify the most probable failures in each system crucial to satisfactorily
completing the voyage. You will also need to have the tools, ability and parts on
board to repair these systems. Even if you do have the ability and parts is the
boat going to be stable enough to allow you to undertake the repair. You already
have a good idea what you need for the essential boat function, items like
hull, steering, rig and sails. Consider these systems very carefully; a failure
here can be disastrous. The keel bolts working loose, broken steering cable,
hydraulic steering pump failure, a failed gooseneck, cracked boom or a broken shroud
will all require immediate attention. All have the capability to affect your
performance and have the ability to threaten the safety of vessel and crew. Even
though we are not racing the loss of performance is a big problem, and may lead
to major change of direction or port of call if the vessel cannot be sailed on
certain headings.
Before setting off
into the ocean, prudently consider your bilge pumps, and while those who know
me may think I have a fascination with bilge pumps I do know when there is
water in the boat these are the most efficient way to clear the water out of
the bilges quickly. Being in the bilge trying to clear the water with a bucket
while in a sea way is firstly not an easy thing to do and can be slippery and
dangerous.
Depending on the
weather, during the first few days of a voyage you are likely to have more
water on board than you’ve seen before. If you haven’t pulled up the floorboards
and thoroughly cleaned the bilge the chances are that you will find the
strainer or pump blocked with the remains of a fur ball that has accumulated there.
The cause of blockages does not stop at fur balls, any work over the last
couple of months or for that matter years if not properly cleaned up can just
add to the collection of debris in the bilge, particularly nasty items known to
have quickly brought damage to bilge pumps are screws, sawdust, cable ties and
last but not least hair.
Chances are you rarely
use your manual bilge pumps, and I know from experience if the diaphragm is
more than a couple of years old, it won’t last when you really need it. Clean
the bilge, and by that I mean really clean the bilge, this may
mean you get the garden hose in there and wash the muck that accumulates under
the floor boards into the sump and pump it out, refurbish the manual pumps, and
take along rebuild kits. Take along a whole spare electric pump(s) ready to
install with extend wires and lugs on the cables if necessary. Have the pumps
all set up ready for an easy hot swap. If
you have a back up/primary engine driven pump check the PTO/ clutch and give
the pump a new impellor and grease the bearings and fill the grease cup if
necessary, put several litres of water in the bilge and by pumping it out it’s
a great place to see how the pumps perform. While talking about impeller style bilge pumps
it’s a good idea to check the internal cam, that’s the bump that you can feel
or see inside the pump at the inlet and outlet ports. This is important for the
correct operation of the pump, if this cam is worn the pump will certainly not
operate at its rated output. Make sure your pumps are in good order, I have
heard of some boats that have had to have someone pumping intermittently for
most of a voyage.
Where do you place
systems like electrical, instrumentation, information, communication, plumbing
and refrigeration? Some people place these into the support system category as
they are less likely to threaten the over all safety of the boat. But there is
nothing like a failure to upset the crew and this is certainly a quick way to
plunge crew moral into the dumps. Those of you, who sail with a significant
other as a crew member, I will let you in on the fact that this can be
disastrous and will certainly reduce the fun and quality of the rest of your voyage,
remember the old saying ‘Happy Wife, Happy Life’.
If the engine won’t
start or run long enough to recharge your batteries, what systems will stop
functioning? Cruising boats or should that be crews, are becoming more reliant
on electricity the loss of power can certainly be a problem. To start with there is the loss of a GPS
position, navigation lights and radio communication. Perhaps visibility is
reduced and there isn’t enough power to run the radar, the list is getting
longer and longer. Another problem to add to the growing list is that your gas
stove probably won’t function any longer without power, well that is unless you
have the right components so you can bypass the solenoid. Tea and coffee isn’t
very tasty when made with cold water, and a cold can of beans and biscuits for
dinner doesn’t bring joy to many crews.
Below is a list of things that have happened while under way that I have
either heard about or have been involved in. You could ask yourself what if
these things happened to me.
1.The
engine refuses to run for any length of time due to ongoing fouled fuel filters
from the muck in the bottom of the tank becoming stirred up now the boat is
away from the dock and is in the ocean proper.
2.Some
time during the past twelve hours the battery switch was left in “BOTH”. There
was no procedure to check the battery levels before they became critically low
and now “BOTH” will not turn over the engine.
3.Your
fresh water pump has failed, how will you get water from your tanks?
4.The propeller
shaft bearing/packing has been leaking for a couple of days. The electric bilge
pump that was keeping up with the ingress by running intermittently every couple
of minutes has sucked up an old cable tie blowing the oversize fuse and will no
longer run after clearing the cable tie and a fuse replacement. You now find
the manual bilge pump fatigues crew members quickly due to an ineffective pump
position.
5.The
short flexible hose connecting the gas bottle to the gas regulator starts to
leak; the good news is there was minimal gas loss by turning off the gas bottle
tap. But how are you going to cook now?
6.The
Admiral comes on deck and tells you the head doesn’t seem to be working.
7.Entering
the busy shipping channel all the daisy chained instruments (GPS depth speed
wind etc) stop functioning and the vessel position on the chart plotter
disappears thanks to a short in the active GPS antenna power cable
8.After doing
the dishes the captain forgot to completely finish the job and most of your
cutlery went over the side with the dirty dishwater; you have limited other
utensils.
9.The power
for the ballast tank pump has failed and by staying on this tack you won’t make
land fall any time soon.
10.The
single electric winch for halyard and sheet control has seized, how do we now
hoist the sails and control the sheets.
Get your crew and
sailing friends together as a group discuss the following systems and recognise
the most likely failures you could experience in each. Once you have established
that the existing systems are in a good condition, insure that you have the
skill, tools and bits and pieces to deal with a failure.
· Hull ·Rig ·Sails ·Steering · Engine · Plumbing
·Navigation · Instrumentation · Electrical · Communications · Refrigeration · Information
Is your idea of
fun repairing crucial boat components in the ocean? If it isn’t then rebuild
and service your systems before leaving the dock. From first hand experience repairing
crucial boat components in the ocean is not fun and it’s not an easy thing to
do unless you get becalmed. Strangely
enough that never seems to happen when things start to go pear shaped. The strategy
of taking along a repair kit for one of the systems that is showing the first
signs of wear and not rebuilding it before you leave port is not very sensible
or practical. Rebuild it now; carrying a heap of spares is not a substitute for
well maintained and reliable systems.
Check over your
motor fuel system pipes. All those rubber hoses have a habit of getting brittle
with age and fail when you least expect it.
What ever you do don’t over look the little hoses between the injectors,
these are usually a lot smaller diameter than the standard fuel pipe sizes. Some
times the engine will fail to run due to sucking air into the fuel system, but
the really annoying problem is when one of the pressure pipes cracks and sprays
the whole engine compartment in fuel. I don’t know what it is about the smell
of diesel in a rough seaway but it has been known to accelerate the route to
sea sickness. Check your motors secondary fuel filters, these are the ones
attached to your motor. These filters are often put on the motor during the
last stage of assembly and are painted with the rest of the motor. The flow on
problem is they are now camouflaged and some have never been changed until they
are so blocked they no longer pass fuel.
When underway
boats tell you when they are not happy. Judge this for yourself but I have
found most things start to make a noise before they fail. Keep your ears open
and when you hear a new or strange noise, check it out. One of the boom bails
on our vessel was starting to fail; the day before it failed I could hear a
high pitched squeaking noise coming from the boom. The problem was trying to
isolate where the noise was coming from but with persistence we found the
culprit before it parted. When setting up your boat try and make it quiet down
stairs, search out sources of noise and find ways to make them quiet. This way
any new noise is a signal that some thing has changed and needs looking at,
even if it is not failing. If the weather permits take a walk around deck and
look at all of the rigging connections, shackles pins, blocks and check for
chafe on sails and sheets at least twice a day. Take a screw driver with you
and make sure there are no screws loose on the furlers or boom fittings. It is
much better to catch something before it fails than having to deal with it
after it has. One system that has been shown to have a high failure rate is
steering, someone needs to inspect the steering system (cables or hydraulic
fluid & leaks) and rudder bearings, cotter pins in the quadrant on a daily
basis when under way, put it on the daily checklist.
You do have a underway check list don’t you?
If not perhaps while you have the crew around discussing the probable failures
it would be an easy thing to make notes and nut out a daily check list. Keep in
mind a walk around check isn’t a major investigation it’s a visual check. It
can be likened to the checks before you start the motor, check the fuel filter
water separator, oil, coolant and belt(s), then once the motor is running
ensure the exhaust is spitting water. Most of it is simple and a no
brainer. When doing walk around boat
checks its things like looking for chafe and loose items, broken strands of
rigging wire, it’s only when checking under covers and below decks it may
become complicated. You may need to wait for some crew to be on shift, for
example when bunks are built above machine spaces like the steering space. Another
good management tool is to take a reading of systems when running. Any changes
in the data will show problems developing.
As an example look at the current draw for the auto pilot when working,
any slow increase in the amount of current drawn while operating over a couple
of days can be an indicator some thing is becoming tighter, or the boat is
becoming badly unbalanced.
Redundancy: a part
in a system that has the same function as another part and that exists so that
the entire system will not fall over if the main part fails. While easy to say
it’s not always easy to attain redundancy in all systems. Due to the nature of
use, operating long distance from shore self sufficiency and redundancy needs
to be engineered into the systems. It is quite common to see dual types of
battery charging, perhaps large motor driven alternators with back up
alternator regulators, wind generators, solar systems and separate battery
banks for radios and emergency motor starting. Simple redundancy in the
plumbing system, if the fresh water electric pump fails a manual hand or foot
operated will avert problems until repairs can be made. Electric fuel oil feed
pumps are inexpensive these days and can be permanently plumbed and wired in.
With a little thought given to the plumbing and filters they can do service
either being a lift pump if the mechanical pump fails. Or if the source of the fuel is doubtful used
to remove contaminants in the fuel while under way.
The navigation
system is one system I have put time into setting up and installing some redundancy.
As a back up for the chart plotter I have a laptop that is set up to run a
navigation program. Well it’s set up to run a couple of different
navigation/charting programs on the laptop just incase one becomes
corrupted. The laptop can be connected
to either the integrated instruments or can be used stand alone using a hand
held GPS. I have a plug permanently wired in so the hand held GPS can be used
to input position data should the primary and secondary GPS receivers both fail.
Having a second depth transducer installed and the cables run incase the
primary transducer fails, it can be connected up quickly if needed. A second
depth instrument does service as a slave display but can be put into service as
primary with a quick change in the set up. So we should not be with out electronic
position and depth information for any length of time.
Tools and spare
parts and what to do about them, in the planning stages before setting off ask
the professionals; well it doesn’t have to be a paid professional, start with
your sailing friends. I am sure you will have an idea who has had the right
answers the most times in the past. Then if you do get stuck there is always
your local boat builder, sail maker or your favorite diesel mechanic. Get their
opinion of what you are likely to need in the way of spares and tools. When it
comes to tools make sure you have the big ones, nothing is more frustrating
than not having the spanner or socket to do up the very large nut on the rudder
shaft or tighten up replacement sea cocks. If weight is an issue go through the
tool kits and spanner rolls and remove the spanners and sockets you don’t have
nuts/ bolt sizes on the vessel, but you want to be sure.
Spare Parts: What
will you need? This is a list from my boat and includes items we consider important
for cruising but this list should not be considered comprehensive. There are a
lot of items not listed like seizing wire and grub screws and special fittings
for the furler for example. It’s not easy selecting tools to take and you could
easily take way too many. Like the list of spares there are tools I haven’t
listed like the wood working tools stored away incase we want to do minor
cabinetry repairs.
As every vessel is
unique even the production line models have various options during the build,
so if you have deep pockets then head off to the dealer with a list of parts
you feel should accompany you on your travels.
Tools
Rig severing
tools, hacksaw, bolt cutters, rig wire cutters
Hand crimp tool
Socket set -
Metric and SAE
Allen keys- Metric,
SAE and Torx
Spanners open ended
and ring (box) - Metric and SAE
Screwdrivers: set
of Phillips, and flat with spares, jewelers (precision drivers)
Vice grips 2
standard jaw, and 2 long nose
Punch kits: hole,
pin, drift, center, cold chisels
Electrical wire
cutters, wire strippers, insulated lug crimpers, un-insulated lug crimpers
Multi-meter
Thermocouple (a
sensor used to measure temperature)
Soldering iron
Pliers: regular,
channel, needle nose, multi grip, channel locks (water pump pliers)
Pipe wrenches
various sizes (get some large sizes)
Vice on wooden
base that can be clamped down
Adjustable
spanners various sizes 4”-18”
Hammers engineers,
claw, gasket
Tap and die kits,
metric & imperial, drill bits
Rivet gun
Hacksaw and spare
blades
Map gas blow torch
Hot knife
(electric)
Drill and bits
(hand operated & electric)
FIDs and splicing
tools
LED headlamp
Funnels
Grease Gun
Supplies:
Batteries for
whatever uses batteries
Cable ties: small
and large
Shackles:
stainless and rated galvanized
Wire rope grips
Turnbuckles,
rigging screws, spare rigging wire, termination
Cotter pins and
rings
Line assorted
sizes/lengths of Dynema / Spectra
Blocks replacement
sizes
Chafe material (anti
chafe material)
Sealant (for
various jobs)
Gasket material,
various types & nitrite sheet for fuel tank gaskets
Duct tape, masking
tape, rigging tape, emergency rescue tape
Lubricants: Teff
Gel, Marine grease, Inox, lanoline grease, lanoline spray
Bottle of acetone
Epoxy kit,
including glass and filler
Hose clamps;
assorted sizes, types
Boat wash acid
(phospheric acid)
Dielectric
silicone (silicone grease No 4 or 111)
Screws, S/S self
tapping pan head & counter sunk, wood screws pan head & counter sunk
Nuts and bolts
various sizes relevant to the sizes used on the vessel
Hatch seal rubbers,
glue to install seals and hold down closures
Polycarbonate for
hatch replacement
Rivets for hand
rivet gun, monel, aluminum in assorted sizes
Paints, varnishes,
antifoul etc
Sail
Repair
Batten material
Webbing
Sail cloth various
thickness
Sail makers palm
Sail makers
needles
Leather
Whipping twines
various thicknesses
Wax
Sewing thread
Stitching awl
Motor
Impeller for motor
raw water pump & Gasket/O-ring for the plate
Lift pump (fuel
lift pump)
Parts &
Service Manuals
Coolant Treatment
Yanmar coolant
Marine Diesel Fuel
Treatment (Fuel Doctor)
Belt water pump
& alternator
Lube oil (enough
for 3 changes & empty oil containers to put used oil)
Gear Box oil (ATF)
Fuel line hose,
1/8 “5/16” & 3/8”
Lube Oil Filters
Oil filter wrench
Fuel Oil Filters
Racor 500 FG
Element number 2010 10 Micron water separator
Air Filter Element
<washable in kero/turps & re oil
Thermostat &
Gasket
Circulating Water
Pump
Coolant
Alternator,
alternator regulator, starter motor
19 mm & 13 mm
Hot water hose, 300 PSI and -30 C to 90 C temperature
Joiners for hot
water hoses (plastic/brass/bronze barbs)
Propeller and zinc
Electronics
Autopilot rudder
reference unit, drive motor, fluxgate compass
Spare GPS antenna
Zincs
Fuses, circuit
breakers, indicator lights
Wire and
connectors, heavy duty cable and lugs
Electrical tape
Bulbs: Internal
lights, Masthead/Stern lights/Nav, Anchor, Foredeck light
Spare antennas for
VHF & HF
Misc
Spare Parts:
Cooking Gas
Regulator
POL fitting &
braided stainless hose
Pumps
Fresh water, Bilge,
Sump (shower), Washdown,
Water
Maker
5 & 20 Micron
sediment filters
Charcoal activated
water filters (chemical/chlorine removal)
Pickling/cleaning/flushing
mixtures
Tubing 5/8”
Hose Clamps
Feed Pump plus a
diaphragm kit, valve kit and switch kit
Plumbing fittings,
tap washers, drinking water filters, drinking water tubing
Toilet
Duck Valves
Flush Ball seals
Vacuflush head; vacuum pump and service kit, bowl seal gaskets,
ball seal, ball shaft, water valve, ball cartridge insert.
Outboard
Spark plugs
Propeller
Propeller nut
Shear pins
Split pins
Plug spanner
2 Stroke oil
hi
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