Changes Made To Our Hatteras 48 LRC
Hull #42 While cruising around in the Bahamas I decided to make a list of all the work we had put into this boat since we bought her. The list looked like something that other LRC owners may like to see, but first I would need to add some explanation & reasons for making these changes. It turned into a pretty big job, but I did have a little fun with it also. Almost everything about a boat is, without a doubt, A COMPROMISE. What we did with this boat is probably not exactly what would be right for yours. I just offer this as FOOD for THOUGHT. Now that we are as finished with the things we wanted to do on our boat, it feels good to relax, look at her, & remember how it was then & now. I now think of this boat as a CRUISING MACHINE, & not just another cruising boat. We have been all over the Bahamas on this trip. We have not touched a dock in over three months. Making all our own water, filling our own scuba bottles & spending days at a time without seeing another boat. We are still about half full on fuel & my wife says we have another 3 months of supplies onboard if we should need them. -------------------------------------------------------RADAR
Replaced radar with Raytheon R41 raster scan radar. Wired it to the GPS's NEMA output. The Raster Scan Screen was well worth it when cruising in Maine, New Brunswick, & Nova Scotia. Much nicer than peering into the rubber tube to keep the light out. ---------------------------------------------------------GPS
Installed MAGELLAN 52OODX In the Master Stateroom we installed a 90db two tone alarm, connected to the GPS's "Anchor Watch" alarm system. It WILL wake you up if you drag. Wired GPS's NEMA output to the Radar. This puts your latitude, longitude, course, speed, distance & course to way point onto the Radar Screen (which is sometimes more convenient to see). But most important is the way it draws a circle around the way point & draws a line from you of screen to it. The circle makes it easier to tell what you are looking for, from other targets on the display. Also made up a Wire & Plug from the GPS (NEMA output) to any IBM compatible COMPUTER. I use this with one of my HAM programs, but will also work with most ELECTRONIC CHART PROGRAMS. GARMIN 75 HAND HELD Wired the GPS to ships batteries on Fly Bridge. -------------------------------------------------------DECK FITTINGS
FIXED (or maybe should say FINISHED) THE INSTALLATION OF DECK FITTINGS (Hawse Pipes, Fishing Pole Holders, Anchor Winch Foot Switches, Flag Pole Holder, so on). For some reason HATTERAS just cut holes through the BALSA CORED DECK & mounted items, WITHOUT SEALING THE EXPOSED BALSA in any way This lets water into the balsa core, where it can run all over the place without being seen. If the balsa is wet for a long time it just ROTS AWAY (which is what we found near most fittings). We had to remove these items, clean the balsa core material away from hole (if it had not rotted away) Sand & prime the area with Epoxy & then fill all around hole with a half inch or more (must extend back far enough to reach & seal around mounting bolt holes) of an Epoxy cab-o-sil mixture.AFT FLAG POLE HOLDER
Needed much strengthening & leak repair. It was only screwed into the top layer of the deck, not all the way through the CORE & definitely not SEALED or Reinforced in any way. With holder removed, removed any BALSA wood that was not rotted away, cleaned & sanded between deck layers. Then primed surfaces with epoxy & filled area with an EPOXY CAB-O-SIL mix while holder was place protected from epoxy with wax paper. After this set up the pole holder will almost stay in place without any fastening, but we through bolted it with machine screws, nuts & washers. It is far stronger than the POLE now & will not be CRACKING the deck again. ------------------------------------------------------------REMOVE TEAK
Bow Pulpit. Removed teak, built surface back up with cored fiberglass sheet & epoxy, then Imroned & applied nonskid. Zero maintenance, always looks good & not slippery anymore. Teak Steps to Fly Bridge. Stripped down, sealed with several coats of epoxy, filleted corners, Applied Imron & nonskid. Zero maintenance, always looks good & not slippery anymore. ------------------------------------------------------------SCUPPERS BESIDE PILOT HOUSE DOORS
Removed plastic items that were bedded with sealant & screwed to boat (can leak & looked cheap). Built new Scuppers as part of boat with cloth & epoxy, Imroned. Looks good & can never leak. --------------------------------------------------------GELCOAT CRACKS
Repaired all gelcoat cracks. Ground or sanded into boat deep enough to make sure found the bubble, void, or whatever had caused it to crack (90% of cracks have a flaw under them so do not expect many to return in the future as they all should have shown up by now). Primed with epoxy & filled with cab-o-sil, chopped cloth, or cloth if large. Imron Painted boat except for hull & fly bridge. Painted & applied nonskid to all decks. -----------------------------------------------ENGINE ROOM
Added 4 ea. four ft. 2 bulb florescent light fixtures. Cleaned, primed & painted from ceiling to bilge with white epoxy paint. The brighter lighting & white paint were a BIG-BIG-BIG improvement in visibility & ease of cleaning (Oil just wipes off high gloss Epoxy Paint). REMOVED & REINSTALLED, in a more convenient place, many things while painting. I think this boat had always been professionally maintained, which is not always a good thing.The electrician does not give a damn (or does not have enough total boating experience to know) if the wire he is running will be in the way of changing a zinc or gaining access to a through hull If a wood worker happens to break a shower fitting on back of shower he will just tape it up, rather than tell you, then it will leak back there forever or until you start wondering how the clean fresh water gets into your bilge. We do all our own work and leave no such trails behind. Anyway, after a few years the wires & hoses start looking like cobwebs. By mounting some things on walls & repositioning others, it is now easier to get around in engine room. Added an AUTOMATIC HALON FIRE EXTINGUISHER SYSTEM (1,000 cubic feet) to the engine room. Left the large C02 system in the boat also. It was cost effective to do this versus removing the two large CO2 bottles, Hydro-testing them, refilling them & reinstalling them. Now have two automatic systems in the engine room. --------------------------------------------------------12 VOLT DC SYSTEM
The 48-LRC is a LONG RANGE vessel, but Hatteras didn't do very well on the CRUISING (anchored out) part (UNLESS YOU WANT TO RUN, FUEL & MAINTAIN A GENERATOR 24 hrs A DAY, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK). The boat had 3 8D's on one engine that ran the entire 12 volt system. So one 75 amp alternator (on one engine) was running everything while the other alternator did nothing. There was a 12 to 110 Dynamotor (12 vdc motor turning a 110 vac generator) to run the old power hungry refrigerator when a generator was not running. The other engine had 2 8D's that were only used to start itself, run the alarm System & be backup for the other battery bank system. (one 8D is more than enough to start a 4-53 Detroit). The 8D's are starting batteries, so replaced all of them with 12 ea. 6 volt GolfCart batteries (True DeepCycle batteries). Three golf carts are 1/2 inch too long to fit into a Hatteras battery box, so had to cut the ends Out of the boxes & epoxy them all together like a long trough. This allowed 9 golf carts to go where 3 8D's had been. Where the other 2 8D's had been we installed 3 more golf carts (total of 12) plus a good sized starting battery for the 8 KW Northern Lights Gen.(which has its own 25 amp alternator that only charges this battery). We tied the Port & Starb. 12 volt systems together creating one large HOUSE bank. We still have two banks though. One is made up of 12 Golf Carts (over 1,400 ampere hours) with two 75 amp alternators (one on each engine) to charge and maintain them while underway (before only had one alternator charging house side). The other system is the starting battery on the 8KW gen. & its 25 amp alternator. (Have considered putting a separate battery on the 15KW gen. also, not sure it would help that much.). By combining the systems the batteries are only cycled half as deep, last twice as long between charges & they can be charged twice as fast without hurting them, am sure that their over all life is much longer also. Enough said about WHY I did it this way. Different 12 volt systems are always being debated during cockpit parties. I am not sure there is any right or wrong way, they are all compromises.CHARGING
The boat had. & still does although never used, a LaMarch 80 amp Battery charger. It is not at all intelligent & will over charge if there is no load for a long time. This is not a problem if you use boat a lot though. What makes it useless for a CRUISING boat is that it only puts out full AMPERAGE until batteries are up to 3 volts or so & then starts regulating down. It would take many many hours charge system all the up like this. If you only want to run generator two or three hours a day you must have the more modern "3 STAGE" type chargers. Most good INVERTERS will do this. INSTALLED 2 INVERTERS, one with a 100 amp charger, the other with a 130 amp charger (total of 230 amps) They both charge at full capacity until batteries reach 14.2 volts, then keep regulating the current down while holding at l4.2 volts until it takes less than 10 amps to hold this voltage, then they float the batteries at 13.2 or so. It takes from two to three hours a day to keep batteries charged in the Caribbean (Tropics) You do not want to set around your boat until noon every morning, or get back to your boat late in the evening, to watch a generator run for 3 hours. I think I figured we are only using about 20% of the batteries capacity every 12 hours. I sized the battery bank so you can leave boat unattended for at least 36 hours (so you can land travel to a place, spend the night and return the next day, without finding someone to run your generator for refrigeration).110 AC POWER
Installed TWO INVERTERS. Tried just one Inverter but found problems when using many 110 vac devices at the same time when running the generator or connected to shore power. The Inverter has thirty amp. breaker on the AC side. If running Electric Barbecue, Microwave, so on at same time it was easy to go over this 30 amps as the inverter may be using up to 20 of these amps for its own battery charger (it puts out 100 amps at 12vdc). This would pop the breaker, turning off power to the inverter & causing it to start running all these things from the batteries (& not charging anymore). If you are at anchor & running on generator you have just stopped charging & started discharging batteries with no indication to you, I could have only run Inverter to a few select devices & outlets but that would have been a mess. I just added another inverter (130 amp charging capacity this time) to the other phase of the 240vac breaker panel. This new Inverter also has a separate 110vac 30amp input for the battery charger, allowing it to draw up to 60 amps ac. When there is no power coming into the boat everything that is 110vac works just as though the generator is running or you are plugged into the dock. These are "HEART INTERFACE" units & put out over 2,500 watts AC power each.REFRIGERATION
Boat had a 1979 side by side l8 Cubic Ft. refrigerator. I found that they were not very energy efficient in those days when trying to live at anchor on a trip to St. Martin with this refrigerator. Side by Side units also waste a lot of space (too many small, short shelves). Installed a 1993 18 cubic foot unit with freezer on top (with ice maker). When we transferred our stuff we could see that we had gained a lot of space. This cut our generator run time from six hours a day to two or three. (before we were almost giving away water (from watermaker) because of the long generator run times, now I have to make sure it is on whenever I run Generator just to keep up). The 1996 refrigerators are supposed to be even more efficient yet. By the way.. I had COLD PLATE Refrigeration on my previous boat with its SALT WATER PUMPs, Raw Water Strainers, Freon lines (& leaks), Cold Plates (& their need to be defrosted often in the tropics) & so on. If you know refrigeration you can make a good living repairing all the broken cold plate systems at the popular anchorage's around the world! This is much better, just like being at home, with the same amount of care & maintenanceyou give your home system (clean it once in a while). Cold Plates were great in their day, but these new refrigerators are so efficient & reliable there is no reason to have one unless a standard refrigerator will not fit your boat or you have special needs.GENERATORS
A few years ago while cruising with my sailboat in Venezuela I heard some one on the SSB radio say, "Two of the worst things that you could have on board would be an ONAN GENERATOR and or a ZODIAC INFLATABLE" (they were trying a new glue & material, not hypolon, & the seams were coming apart). He said "if you had both your whole boat was AS GOOD AS BROKEN and to stay in port." I agreed with him from what I had seen of these two products in the five years I had been cruising. One definition of cruising that you want to stay far away from is "REPAIRING YOUR BOAT IN EXOTIC PLACES". Old man ONAN (7.5KW) got us on our first trip out with this boat (Florida to St. Martin). I repaired it in Nassau (both injectors bad) & then it broke the Armature Shaft in the electric side of the generator. I finally replaced the generator in Puerto Rico with a NORTHERN LIGHTS 8KW unit. That was in spring of 1993. Since then we have put 1,000 hrs on the Northern Lights with zero problems. All I do is change oil & filters (oil & fuel). I will torque the head bolts, adjust the valves & replace the raw water pump impeller at end of this trip to Bahamas. That should take care of it for another 3 years. Wish I could say the same for the 15 KW ONAN. I do use it some but also work on it some. It is nice to have a Back Up Generator & the 15 KW is nice if we have guests & want to Air Condition the whole boat while cooking.MAIN ENGINES
(Detroit 4-53N, Borg Warner 3 to 1 reduction gear) Both engines seemed to be running fine in Florida & South from there. They had had about 2,200 hrs or so on them & had just passed the mechanics survey OK (he did recommend pulling the heads for a better look at things because of their age). We made a trip from Florida to St. Martin & then up to North Carolina with no problems (had to wash some black exhaust from transom occasionally though). During cold winter months in NC engines were hard to start, took a lot of cranking. When they did start they smoked a little & left a little oil on the water around the exhaust pipes. A possible LOW COMPRESSION problem that only showed up in cold weather. I pulled the Head from one engine & found the PISTON LINERS to be pitted from rust. The Piston Ring grooves were almost worn off also (meaning they are worn out). At this time I bought a complete set of manuals for 4-53's & got to know the boys at COVINGTON DIESEL a lot better. They sell & install all the Detroit diesels that Hatteras puts into there boats (including these). They told me these engines should go over 6,000 hrs but that it is the setting around that ruins the liners (and compression). Since these are 2 stroke engines the intake ports & exhaust valves may be open at the same time on a cylinder after the engine stops. Since the exhaust pipes are at, or in the water (especially if there are waves on the water) air is WAFTING through these cylinders a lot of the time. IF BOAT IS NOT USED FOR A WHILE TRY TO BLOCK OFF THE EXHAUST PIPES & MAYBE WRAP A PLASTIC BAG OVER THE AIR INTAKE SILENCER. A balloon or rubber ball in exhaust was suggested. Keeping some heat on can also help with condensation on the liners. Block Heaters, Heat Lamps so on. Anyway, since we had all winter we did a fairly complete overhaul on them. On top of the normal stuff, bearings, liners, pistons & rebuilt head, etc. we, 1. Replaced injectors 2. Replaced freshwater pump's 3. Replaced fuel pump's 4. Rebuilt Raw Water Pump's 5. Installed oil pickup tube in pan to get extra half gallon out on oil change. 6. Replaced all hoses. Fresh water, oil, transmission oil, etc. 7. Removed reduction gear & fly wheel to replace rear engine seals. 8. Replaced exterior seals on Reduction Gear's (front seal most important), while they were off engine's. 9. Installed new bearings in Alternators. (this is a rebuild, as these are brushless alternators) 10. Painted Block, cleaned & painted all parts before reinstalling them. 11. While engines were jacked up, cleaned, primed & painted bilge's with epoxy paint. 12. Replaced one ring gear. 13. Rebuilt both starters. After completed we BROKE THEM IN HARD to make sure rings wore in properly. While doing this I found that when operating at full throttle, if I shut one engine down, the other did not loose any RPM's. By removing the Buffer Screw from the Governor it was possible to force the injector rack to full throttle, overriding the governor. They both gained over 100 RPM (do not remember exactly) when I did this. This is not good for Detroit diesels, they like to be ran with a good load on them. If not they can have incomplete combustion which WILL CARBON the engine up & may dilute the crank case oil with half burnt diesel. The SPARE PROPS had never been used so I had 2 INCHES of PITCH added & during next haul out we replaced them. NOW they still turn 2,500 RPM at full throttle, but when one is shut down the other looses about 75 RPM. Engines start RIGHT-NOW, even in cold weather. There is not even a hint of smoke from the exhaust & no oil in exhaust water after starting. After over 1,000 hours of us we have never had to clean any exhaust dirt from transom. (I think we burn a little less fuel also?). We now run between 1700 & 1800 RPM ( 7.5 kts, 4.0 to 4.5 gph?) or quite often run 1900 or less on just one engine (6.5 kts, 3.0 gph or so I suppose?). I do not think running on one engine saves much fuel, other than what you would normally save when going slower. Any gain you have by not turning the other engine over is lost by the drag of the other wheel & the boat CRABBING sideways a little. I do it whenever we want to go slow for, Trolling, Nice scenery, Slow down to catch a tide, so on. Or just to save hours on the other engine because we are in no hurry that day. It is quieter & probably good to put some extra load on the engines once in a while. Borg Warner says it is OK (my sailboat had the same gear & I free wheeled it for 17,000 miles) if they do not get hot. They get warm, but you can hold your hand on them.DRIPPLESS SHAFT SEALS
We took advantage of the GEAR being off the engines & out of the way to install Teflon Drippless Propeller Shaft Seals. The bilge's are so flat in this boat that the bilge pump leaves a lot of water in the bilge. This is dirty, smelly, & not good for the boat. Now WE HAVE DUSTY BILGE'S....BILGE ALARMS
This boat has SIX separate BILGE'S. Each with their own pump, pump switch, & High Water Alarm Switch. There are manual switches & indicator lamps (on bridge & Pilot house) for each pump also. If you have water entering a bilge & everything is working properly you may not realize it for a long time. The pump keeps pumping it out & only lights the RED IDIOT LIGHT while the pump is running. There is little reason to get into the bilge under the Queen size bed very often. But, if you have a small deck leak on the BRIDGE, or the spare shower is leaking, & other places that may surprise you, this is where it goes. The hose that goes from the pump under the engines to overboard had a leak that was, in effect, transferring water from the engine bilge to the bilge under the bed (from the old shaft stuffing boxes). Hard to find, but first you have to know to look for it. Six small diodes (about 20 cents a piece) connected from the IDIOT LIGHTS to ground through an alarm will let you know (AUDIBLY) whenever a pump comes or. We installed a switch to disable this whenever you are cleaning bilge's or whatever. With the help of this I think we have found all the odd ball little leaks there were. If a bilge starts getting any water into it, you will know about it soon.RUDDER BEARINGS
All the LRC's & I think most Hatterases built during that period used a Bronze BUSHING to support the top of the RUDDER POST. These are held in place by THREE SMALL (1/4" I think) BOLTS with very little in the way of washers or backing. They eventually work loose & start wearing bigger holes in the PLYWOOD that the bearings are bolted to. This allows the top of the RUDDERS to FLOP AROUND causing vibration noise, poor autopilot performance, & can only get worse. I met a man that traveled around for Hatteras repairing this problem in the 80's for those who noticed it & complained. Too late for us now I am sure. Some have just backed it with an aluminum plate & maybe bigger bolts or something. I didn't like this as there is, by now wear on the RUDDER POST & the BUSHING that allows for movement also. I suppose you could find another bushing & then shim it up a little higher (if there is room) so that it rode on an unworn spot on the rudder post? We REPLACED the bushing with a BALL BEARING pillow block, held in place by 4 ea.1/2" bolts. Since this is Set Screwed to the rudder there is never any wear anywhere. The rudders are rock solid now. There is no vibration & the RUMBLING noise (especially when running in following seas) is gone. The auto pilot does a much better job now because when it tells the rudders to move a certain amount, they do. It was very flat going from West End, Grand Bahama to Nassau on this trip so I tried the 18" RCA satellite dish. It worked almost 100% of the time. The pilot could NEVER have done this before. I had also replaced the three worn 9/16" Pins used in the rudder linkage. This helped the Pilot out as it was easier for it to make small adjustments & see the feed-back from them.GENERATOR EXHAUST SYSTEM'S
8KW..... When putting together exhaust system on New 8KW generator we increased the exhaust through hull size to 1 1/2". The rest of the system used larger hose but had been necked down here. 15 KW..... Hatteras had ran 2" exhaust hose all the way to the Water Lift Muffler & then brought it down to 1 1/2" through muffler & over board. Sounded like a JET PLANE or big COMPRESSOR running, SHOOTING a MISTY EXHAUST SPRAY over TWO FEET behind boat. If the sound & embarrassment were not enough, the SALT SPRAY would build up on the DINGY until quite thick. You and or your guests would get WET just trying to get from dingy to swim step Original "IRON" water lift muffler was also rusting through. Replaced Muffler with a modern fiberglass one. Replaced riser pipe, hoses & through hull fitting with new 2" items. Now it sounds like a healthy 4 stroke diesel rather than a jet engine.REMOVED ALL GALLEY MAID JUNK FROM BOAT!!!
HEAD PUMPs Many Hatterases have the Galley Maid Macerator pump's on the Heads. They look like an old STARTER motor with a pump housing on both ends (POSSIBLY OFF A MODEL A FORD). The smaller end pump's Sea Water into the Head, the larger end is a macerator pump used to pump the waste to where-ever. I had trouble with them very soon. After seeing how expensive the parts are & seeing that a rebut unit (exchange) was about four or five hundred dollars (depending on the length of warrantee you wanted (all the way up to 2 years, NO MORE) I had NOTICED MANY PEOPLE CARRYING THEM up & down the docks so I ask around about them. Most people had had trouble with them (there were a lucky FEW), but they didn't know of any ALTERNATIVE. I was already, using a WATER PUPPY in place of half of one unit that just DISINTEGRATED when I tried to repair it down island some where. It was a jury rig. but worked perfectly; The whole WATER PUPPY costs less than one or two parts for the Galley Maid (maybe $80). I had been using these pump's for years & KNEW that with such intermittent use it would last many years (and a kit to repair it costs less than the sales tax on a rebuilt Galley Maid unit). We eventually replaced both Galley Maids by making a small board that fit the same bolts that mounted the Galley Maid. We mounted a Water Puppy ($80) & a Jabsco Macerator ($140) to this board & threw the Galley Maids away (they were not worth carrying as a spare). That was in the spring of 1993, it is now the spring of 1996 & we have never touched either head again. We live on board so they see a lot of us. Had trouble with paper forming a ball in the macerator input & eventually blocking the system. My wife tested different brands of toilet paper (with chop sticks & a glass of water) & found that "SCOTT 1000" falls apart as soon as it gets wet. This solved that problem & have had no others. The Jabsco Macerator intake can be adapted to fit the Heads existing hose with standard white PVC pipe. (it will pass an occasional facial tissue, etc. just not a steady diet of the tougher paper).ANCHOR SYSTEM
Replaced Old, Heavy, Slow (15 fps), Weak(l 5001b), Rusting steel cased (the part below deck) GALLEY MAID ANCHOR WINDLESS with a Maxwell Nealson 3500 lb winch. About 30 fps, all mounted above deck (no leaks) & no iron/steel to rust, Saved the Base Plate from the Galley Maid & threw the rest away. The new winch mounted through the old plate still mounted to the Bow Pulpit. Did have to build up (with fiberglass cloth) the area beside the base plate to fit the new chain feed hole & build a fair lead (with large PVC pipe & a heat gun) to guide the chain through Bow Pulpit. Took a while! Replaced 200' or so of 5/16 chain with 400' of 3/8 High Test chain. Had to build an extra chain locker under the V-berth for the extra 200' Used large diameter PVC pipe to guide chain into lockers. Replaced 60lb CQR (we drug it from St. Martin to Nova Scotia & back) with a 110 lb. Bruce. Had to work over the Bow Roller to accommodate the larger shank & to hold anchor securely. Had to install stainless steel plates to bottom of Bow Pulpit to protect it from anchor. Now instead of, "Dropping the anchor, dragging it until you have to pick it back up and reset it, & so on" we just "Drop the anchor, Back down on it hard & shut off engines". Really like it when must anchor close to other people as it sets very fast & lets you anchor exactly where you plan to.FRESH WATER SYSTEM
Boat had a Galley Maid 12 volt fresh water pump. It looked like the Head Pump's (OLD starter motor with a strange WORM type pump on one end). It was failing but when I priced the parts to rebuild the pump & found I could buy ($140) a top of the line SUREFLOW continuous duty pump. These are very good pump's, I know of one that has been in LIVE ABOARD use for over 10 years and still works like knew. They use much less current, take up less space, will run TWO SHOWERS simultaneously, & can be rebuilt for just a few dollars (never knew anyone to use a rebuild kit, although we all carry them). NO CONTEST, THREW THAT GALLEY MAID ITEM AWAY ALSO. One, sort of, problem that the SUREFLOW pump's have is that the Pressure switch is an interregnal part of the pump. I suppose they have to build them this way as a single unit & easier to install. This switch, being close to the PULSES of water pressure, will see these pulses as having reached cut off pressure & turn off the pump prematurely. When pulse pressure has past the switch, it will turn the pump back on as the pressure has dropped to that point between pulses. This causes the pump to CHATTER ALONG at what sounds like half speed until the pressure is high enough between pulses to not turn the pump back on. A SOLUTION is to mount a Pressure Switch Far from the pump & close to the Accumulator if you can. I used a "SQUARE D" switch just like they use in your PUMP HOUSE at home. It has very large contacts & the CUT IN and CUT OFF pressures can be adjusted separately. I think I set this one to 20 Lbs. & 40 Lbs. or so. You can take about HALF A SHOWER before the pump will come on, then it will run for about 3 gallons worth, & that will finish the shower. I like it. Mounted the new, smaller pump on the wall, back out of the way. At this time I also REMOVED an alternate FRESH WATER PUMP from the boat. It was a large 240 VAC JET TYPE CENTRIFUGAL PUMP like would be used on a WELL or maybe a "swimming pool system". Problem was it only worked if you were plugged into a dock (where you would have marina water pressure) or had a generator running (240 VAC). Biggest problem was it took up a lot of useful space in the Engine Room. The only time & had found a use for it was when the Galley Maid was "tits up" & had already solved that problem. NOW we are starting to have a little ROOM TO MOVE AROUND in the engine room. Next came the FIVE GALLON (approx.) fresh water accumulator. It is a good one with a bladder inside that you Pre-charge to your pump's CUT ON pressure. Only problem I had was that it had been mounted on the floor when there was plenty of open areas on side of fuel tank or on hull (another example of PROFESSIONAL WORK, they just do it quick & dirty). Sanded a spot on a fuel tank and epoxied a piece of wood to it, then mounted tank to that. MORE FLOOR SPACE. Have one Water filter mounted near the pump that filters all water before use. Use a plane 5 micron dirt type element in this one. Installed another filter under the kitchen sink that filters only the COLD (drinking) water to the sink & the water to the Ice Maker in the refrigerator. Here we use a CHARCOAL FILTER element. The elements are standard ones that you can find anywhere (SEARS, etc.). There was a filter under the sink but NO ONE knew where to get an element for it. Installed a double filter unit (that takes the same elements as the others) on the WATER MAKER'S salt water input. Nice to only have to carry one style off filters as you will not end up with too many of one & too few of another.BOTTOM BLISTERS
There is still a lot of disagreement among people about WHAT CAUSES BLISTERS & WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM.. All I can give is my HUMBLE opinion. My opinions are nowhere near perfect, but have developed over the years from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE's, doing a lot of talking around & spending months LIVING in BOAT YARDS (much of which was watching BLISTERED BOTTOMS DRY OUT). Peoples OPINIONS are often based (or BIASED) by WHO you are talking to. The YARDS will give an opinion that will help THEM, NOT YOU, the most. The (or a) MANUFACTURER will always give a COVER THEIR ASS answer. OWNERS will give an opinion based on RUMOR & supported by HEARSAY, also effected by, I DID IT THIS WAY & YOU KNOW I WOULD DO IT THE BEST WAY. SO ON You get the idea. I had a 48' Fiberglass ketch built for me in 1985. In 1988 it had bad Blisters. Most people seemed to BLAME the NEW MATERIALS at that time. (20 year old boats never got blisters, was often heard). I personally sanded all the gelcoat off my sailboat (70 hours) & let it set for over six months. Then applied a very thick barrier coat (1000/2000). The SURVEYOR liked the job, as I sold the sailboat while it was drying out. THAT was hanging around a boat yard for 8 months to long. You see a LOT of BAD WORK being done by supposed PROFESSIONALS during times like this. Anyway, this boat (my 48 LRC) had just had a blister repair job (gelcoat removed, dried out, faired out, & barrier coat applied) in the six months before I bought the boat. It also had (I was told & given by the SALESMAN) a BOTTOM GUARANTEE for 3 or 5 years. When it developed Blisters in 1995 I found that this guarantee was actually just an ESTIMATE & had never been paid for by the YARD (RIVER BEND in Ft. Lauderdale). I checked with Hatteras & found that they had paid for a Blister repair job on this boat in 1987. It was given a barrier coat then. Hatteras felt they had done all they could. So, the boat was dried out & a barrier coat applied in 1987, & again in 1991, & was ready for it AGAIN in 1995. Looks like EVERY 4 YEARS to me. Time to research this a little farther. At this time it seems to be generally acceptable that blisters are caused by Poor Craftsmanship by the manufacturer. I agree with this theory. There are many errors that can be made causing many different kinds of blister problems, but if the fiberglass materials are used PROPERLY there will be no blisters. After talking to everyone I could find that had experience with blisters it appeared that the only way to be sure you NEVER HAVE BLISTERS AGAIN was to Peel an eighth of an inch or more from the bottom of the boat, open up every MANUFACTURING DEFECT you can find (all air bubbles, resin lean(dry) areas, so on) & blisters that peeling did not remove, then let the boat dry for as long as it takes. Then PRIME, FILL & FAIR the bottom with WEST EPOXY & CAB-O-SIL (not interlux 417/418, Red Hand, or whatever). Then apply a layer of Bias Ply E cloth, with West System Epoxy (or Vinelester Resin?). As the Cloth is being applied trowel on an Epoxy-Cab-o-sil mix (at least 2 layers) to fill the weave of the cloth. Some YARDS just sand into the cloth until it is fair. This is a big waste of material & leaves a much weaker & thinner BARRIER. This is probably all that has to be done, but we applied 14 gallons of 2000 (Interlux's Epoxy Barrier Coat) over the 40 gallons of West System Epoxy & then 5 gallons of Trinidad bottom paint. We chose this method because we could not find anyone (Yard. Jobber, etc.) that had ever seen blisters return after this was done. It Seemed to be the only SURE WAY to get rid of them. We used over 250 8" disc's of 24 grit sand paper & many hours of work with a $200 sander, that weighs way to much. The Yard I was hauled at said they "would have to charge $20,000 for the job we did". Yards do not charge 20K but they do use BONDO type materials & other things that are cheaper, easier to sand & so on, but also absorb water & have no barrier qualities.The End