Sojourn’s Repower Underway

I’ve embarked on a sojourn of a different sort – repowering Sojourn. As I write this, she leans slightly to starboard in her slip, burdened by 340 pounds of cast iron sitting on her cockpit seat.

I had planned to get a chain fall, some additional muscle and some other tools to remove the old Volvo MD7A, but the decided to go down and get started. I disconnected the control cables, wiring, exhaust, fuel and cooling hoses.  I then removed the bolts from the motor mounts and prop coupling and the motor was free, save the forces of gravity and being something of a square peg behind a round hole – or was it the other way around? By calibrated eyeball, the opening was about 2 inches shorter than the distance from the bottom of the flywheel to the top of the valve cover.  Further, the flywheel was too low in the hole to get a three-jaw puller on it.

To expose the flywheel, I tied the main halyard to the alternator bracket and hoisted, tipping the engine up, giving me the clearance I was hoping for.  The three jaw puller I borrowed from work must have weighed 45 pounds and seemed adequate to remove the wheel from one of those earth movers you see on Big Machines. After applying most of the muscle and all of the cajones I had, it would not budge.  I had screwed so much energy into it that I was having visions of it popping off and subsequently harpooning the forward bulkhead.  In fact, I damaged the crankshaft stud pretty badly.

Plan B was to remove the valve cover, rockers and injector lines. Now, at least, it was a smaller peg.  And, it was halfway out of its hole.  I decided to keep going.  I tightened the halyard a little more and gave it a tug.  The engine practically popped onto the battery box.

The impatient man in me wanted to keep going so the engineer did a seat of the pants calculation.  340 pounds.  7/16ths halyard. 5 inch winch. 12 inch handle. Some friction. – about 70 pounds of armstrong.  I figure I give it at least 50 pounds of armstrong on the last crank when hoisting the sail.  A 7/16 line, even as old as this one should have 1000 pounds of breaking strength. I went for it.

The impatient man re-rigged the halyard, tied a line between the end of the boom and the halyard to keep the engine from swinging toward the mast and proceeded to crank the winch.  As soon as it pulled free of the battery box, the whole boat listed to starboard with the engine swinging likewise.  I think I heard a goose in a very good Homer Simpson voice say “Dohhhh!”  The impatient man tied a line between each of the cabin top winches and the halyard.  This worked very well. I continued cranking the winch as the old Volvo emerged from the companionway.

Before I knew it, Sojourn’s old engine (and perhaps someone’s new anchor) was sitting on the starboard cockpit seat and there was an  empty hole under the cockpit.

That Which Sunk a Ship

Some time ago, I had been offered this Cal 34-2.  It was a bigger financial bite than I felt I could chew. A week after buying Sojourn I got an email.  The last line read, “28 years of memories gone aground on a lee shore during a midnight storm.”

She was tied to a mooring ball in the north part of Puget Sound. The three mooring lines all chaffed and then parted.  She ran aground.  She was a total loss save a few keepsakes rescued before going to the grinder.

That Which Sinks Ships

It seems probable that I am the new owner of a slightly used sailboat engine, not because (as the previous owner claimed) it was under powered for the 36 foot sailboat it went into, but because the sailboat it was installed in sank!  Now that I’ve satisfied myself that the engine is still viable in spite of that, I’ve been pondering what might have caused the this boat to sink?

The timing alone offers some clues.  It had to happen in the last 4 months given the date of manufacture.  It likely happened in the last 2 months as repowers rarely happen overnight. I was told by the previous owner that it had been sitting for about a month.  Given his omission of the subject at hand, who knows?  But,given its placement in the shop behind some of the kind of stuff that seems to collect in shops, perhaps. That places the time of sinking in January or February.  Perhaps it was a Christmas break project.

Was the sinking related to the repower itself?  On one hand, there are a lot of external forces that might cause a boat to sink in Puget Sound in the middle of winter.  We get fairly intense wind storms and had at least two spells of temperatures in the 20’s this year  In fact, the Everett marina was frozen solid twice that I observed this winter.   Perhaps the docking lines chafed to the point of parting and it ran aground. Perhaps something froze and broke. 

On the other hand, this was likely a 30 year old boat as suggested by the fact that it was getting a repower.  What are the chances of it surviving 30 years, only to sink during or right after a repower? As I would hate to be the 2nd owner of this engine to suffer this fate, this bears consideration. By the way, does any one know if the old man in the sea likes red wine as an offering? 

If I make the assumption that it was related to the repower, the next question is: did it sink at the dock or underway?  I’m a freshly minted sailboat owner and, at least this winter, was eager as they come. I only made it about 1 in 6 weeks in the middle of winter.

So, assuming the dock, possibilities that come to mind are: A makeshift plug for the prop shaft came loose.   The battery was disconnected and an unnoticed slow leak caused her demise as the sump pump sat idle. A coolant hose was propped up above the water line, only to fall with the motion of a wave with its seacock open.  Perhaps the exhaust transom fitting hadn't been secured and a storm came up.   All things that I am going to pay attention to as I embark on Sojourn’s repower to be sure.   Which one caused the actual demise?  Perhaps Holmes could do a better job of sleuthing, but my guess is it was a combination of some leak due to a temporary situation with the repower and a turned off or disconnected sump pump.

Experienced sailors and vicarious sojourners alike, it would be fun to read your thoughts on this.  Please comment below.

My curiosity led me to Google it.  Here is the first link I found that opened quickly.   http://auburnpub.com/lifestyles/article_4428699d-e5f2-5e9f-b4ea-28bb54a3860e.html.

In summary, that which sinks sailboats most often is below water line fittings, of which I have seven – that I know of.

Too Good to Be True

I’ve both found screaming deals and wasted time and money on Craigslist.  But, on balance, I have had a favorable experience. This deal…well, time will tell. 
Sojourn’s 13 horsepower, 1974 Volvo Penta MD7A is tired. She smokes when cold.  She doesn’t start without a can of assistance if the outside temperature is below 50.  Incidentally, I fearlessly bought her with two thoughts in mind.  First, that I can rebuild nearly anything.  Second, this is a hands on learning experience.  I didn’t fully appreciate the scope of the second.  The jury can decide which of those the cost of Volvo parts applies to most.

Video of Sojourn’s old MD7A

So, for the last couple of months, I’ve been monitoring Craigslist to get a feel for future repower possibilities. I wasn’t planning on acting before next winter, just getting a feel for the market and possibilities.  Then, to my surprise, a Beta14 showed up one morning at an attractive price.  I nearly sprained my pinky hitting send on my reply email! A few hours later, I was standing in front of it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I’m an engineer and a sailboat owner and it was shiny and red and beautiful!
The alleged story was that it was under powered for the 36 foot boat it had been installed in, which seemed at least logical.  After gathering a battery, a cable, a fuel line and discovering that the switch was corroded there was one glorious puff of black smoke and then musical, mechanical, diesel purring.
All of the fluids looked as one would expect in a brand new engine. I only had three reservations which, in the end, didn’t prevent me from buying it.  1. Was it stolen? 2. It had some unusual corrosion, at least to my amateur eyes. 3. Last, but not least, was it too good to be true?
On the first point, the transaction took place at a business with lots of employee and non employee onlookers, so I dismissed it.  On the second, I chalked up to salt air.  On the final, this is where it gets interesting.
I brought it home, fired it up and started going through it.  At first, it appeared it might even be a better deal than I thought.  I found the date of manufacture sticker.  10/10 – only 4 months old.  I also noticed that all of the paint was still on the pulley grooves.  I ran it until the thermostat opened.  The previously virgin looking oil turned a little milky.  I’ve seen this before in engines that don’t get fully warmed up often enough, so I wasn’t alarmed.  I changed it, brought it back up to temperature with no more milk.  I also noticed that the pulley grooves were now partially black – this motor didn’t have much time on it at all.

Next, I moved on to the electrical.  The alternator didn’t work. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  It only took me a minute to realize this picture was saying “gurgle gurgle gurgle.” I took it apart to find the conductors between the brushes, the regulator and the diodes were gone!  There were only rusty nubs where the conductors used to penetrate the substrates of the various components.
Experienced sailors no doubt have filled in the blanks.  Later, my friend Ben, an experienced sailor, confirmed the worst of the three scenarios running through my mind - the boat had sunk during or after repower.  He had in fact concluded that upon first inspection, but felt is was still a good deal and didn’t want to burst my bubble so he kept it to himself.
So, in answer to the third point, yes.  My fantastic craigslist find, in all likelihood, went down with a ship.  Time will tell if it turns out to be recovered treasure.

A Neighborly Visit

One of the things I enjoy about time in the marina is the neighbors. 

I’m not actually sure if this neighbor is a fella or a gal, nor whether the hissing could be interpreted as chatting or something else, but I enjoyed the visit nonetheless.

A neighbor

RSS Primer

I’m finding that surprisingly few of my friends know about RSS.  It is a handy way to follow a blog like this.  So here is a quick primer.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. If you care to know more about what RSS is, you can read this wiki page on it. If you would like to know how to automatically get updates in Microsoft Outlook or Feedreeder, read on.  These are the two I’m familiar with.  I’m sure all of the others are very similar.

To get started open this article in a second instance of your favorite browser (I prefer Chrome) so that you can keep reading this one. You can do so by clicking here. Click the posts icon to the right.  Then click on Atom.  The screen will turn to gibberish. Copy the address from the address bar.

If you are using outlook, right click on RSS feeds in the tree on the right. Select “Add new RSS Feed”.  Paste the address you copied into the window and accept. You are off to the races!

If you are using FeedReeder, open it and press F3.  The address will usually auto populate.  Click OK.  Change the description if you like. 

Now, anytime I add a post, you will automatically be notified.  Here is what it looks like in FeedReeder. 

 

 

Happy Sojourning!

Topping Off the Batteries

Tuesday is usually Jack’s Pokemon league night, and I usually watch the girls.  On this particular Tuesday, my wife called at about 4:30 and informed me that she negotiated a play date with a friend in lieu of Jack’s Pokemon league. I had the evening to myself. What I really think she negotiated was a little time with an adult, for which I can’t blame her. 

To go up to the boat or not to…. what a stupid question!  Besides, I needed to check on critical supplies. This evening, the critical supply on my mind was the Black Box of red wine kept in the galley. In case you are wondering, I find boxed wine works better than bottles on the boat – more efficient storage, longer shelf life when opened, etc.

Seventeen minutes later, I was pulling into the Everett Marina parking lot. A few minutes later, I was satisfied that my mission was accomplished and diminished some of that critical supply in a coffee mug.  I put on a little B.B. King and proceeded to have an existential experience.

The marina was a rare and delightful sanctuary of tranquility. The water was mirror-like, disturbed only by my own movement.  Steam from the paper mill rose directly toward the heavens. The sailboats were silent, taking a break from the usual wind chime of halyards bumping against masts.  Birds were lazily gliding on laminar air. I took it in for – well, I don’t know how long.


In my new relaxed state, I donned my headlamp and proceeded to tinker on Sojourn. I fixed her knot meter, checked the juice in her batteries, made plans for a new GPS mount and, in general, just puttered. When I finished my wine and my puttering, I went back up on deck and took the, now, night time scenery in again and, then, headed home.

As I left the marina, I felt profoundly rejuvenated - like I had just topped off the batteries that maintain my sense of well-being.