Oh joy, Look what I found......#$%

S

starcrafttom

Active member
So when you look at the carnage of a avalanche , car wreck or even a " quick boat project" its best to start at the beginning. So grab adult drink and catch up to me and lets take a look at this down hill ride. ( its not that bad but I am bored )

So the boat has been sitting for almost a year. We last used it in June just before heading off to Scotland, wales and Ireland. Great trip and glad we went last year. Now its time to get ready for this season and the Great yearly gathering in Friday harbor. Boat has been on the built in battery charger and should just need a quick wipe down as we cleaned and tuned last year just before we put her away. So this is were the train wreck started. Go to start the main and no joy. Just a click click. But the kicker turns over. ???? they are on the same two batteries thru a switch. ??? So I dive into the hell that is bad grounds. 3 days later and a good amount of Rum I find a rub on the main power wire coming from he battery to the big honda ( 225 honda 4 stroke). This is a three wire cable encased in rubber that passes thru a 2 inch tube from the motor thru the stern of the boat. Included in the tube are the fuel lines, control cables (2) and two computer control wire bundles. Well when I cut that rubbed spot open I found that water and salt got in and completely corroded the 2/0 awg wire in half. There was just enough wire to get the Starter Solenoid to click or for me to get a 12 volt meter reading, until I put a load on it. So the big break thru to find the bad ground was to use a set of jumper cables to jump from the positive side of the battery to the starter solenoid and then turning the key.

So on to part two of this tragedy. Shopping. So I decided that the key to fixing this is to cut the three wires from the battery ( Main power, second power for electronic on the motor and ground) and install new 2/0 battery terminal ends. Sounds nice and I have an extra 4 feet of wire in the harness to play with. But have you tried to get a terminal end for over 1 awg? good luck. Now try that for a 2/0 awg WITH a 90 degree ends?? 9 stores two days on line and I could not find an exact match. But tom just go to honda you cheap bastard!!! Well I did go to honda to see how much a 10 ft three wire power cable is. If its even 100 bucks its better then this headache . Well Honda wants , and I shit you not, $758 for the cable and the all the fuse boxes the stupid bastards have attached to it in a " kit" ARRRRRRRRRRRRRH. morons.. all engineers need to be beaten often.

So Now I have the end parts that I think I can make work if I can bend them with out breaking them. So lets do this right and clean up the battery area and install an couple of buses bars and get all of the crap off the batteries themselves. So while I am cleaning the area and the pass thru in the stern I find ROT at the top of thru hull. If you do not know my boat it has an off shore bracket at the stern. just above the bracket the installers drilled a 2 inch hole thru the stern. The boat was built in 1984 so its ply wood between fiberglass sheets. Now if can see this in your mind i can tell you how this problem started the second the guy with the drill did not think this thru. The stern is not 90 degrees but canters inward at the bottom of the boat. So if you cut a hole in the stern with a hole saw by placing the saw square to the stern , the way you do, you will end up drilling at a 3 degree up angle towards the bow. The problems with this is that once you seal the thru hull with a gasket any water that does get on that 2 inch wide "shelf" will not drain off. Its going to just sit there until it finds a way in. The off shore was installed in 2005 ??? So it took a while. So far I have dug out an area about 3 inchs wide and about 3 1/2 inches deep. yeah me. more to come after i get it all dug out and dried out.

So what started as a" Quick motor check " is not even half done and has about a week to go if I dont find any thing else. Hope you all are having more fun then me.
 
Sounds like you have something to keep you busy for a little while. Kind of a good thing these days. Good thing is you can fix it yourself and know you did it right.
 
Thanks, Tom. I feel so much better after reading your plight-story. The next time I run into one of these "simple project turns to hell" deals (probably real soon now), I will feel better thanks to you......at least I will know I am not suffering alone :D.

Isn't this just the way of boats. I guess they're a bit like spouses.....your job is to love 'em.
 
Great story telling Tom, that is the day in the life of owning a boat. Water has a way of finding it way into dry places.

How were the edges of the 2" hole sealed by the hole driller ?
 
Tom, Sorry for your "Ouch" and glad you a re able to dissect and diagnose, and then be able to do the repair.

Wish you the best in the repair, and I really do hope you are done and we get to see you at FH-CBGT.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

SSC_CPR_and_Patient_015.thumb.jpg
 
Boats...sigh...a hole in the water you pour money into. That rot needs to be addressed pronto. That sucks and hopefully, it won't go too deep.

I've been looking at trawlers lately and the thing that keeps bringing me back to keeping our boat (besides the epic tanking of our life savings) is two things: simplicity of care/maintenance and the risk of hidden rot. Any boat we contemplated is built prior to 2000, some in the mid-80s and I don't want to purchase a money pit.
 
Localboy this is not the first time I have fixed rot in this boat. Thats just part of owning a boat this age. Like finding rust in a vw . You know its there somewhere.

On the markets. We pulled all of one 401k in first week of Feb. Should have done the other one but we had to transfer it first. And thats the lesson of a private 401k and a state ran one. The first one is run by a for profit company. They pulled all xthousands of customers stock and placed it in cash early. The state one susan still had from the UW just did nothing but run on auto pilot. I am sure your plan did the same. The people running the first one looked at china and said " hey this may not be a big deal but it will interrupt the supply chain, lets pull out and see what happens. If we are wrong we will buy back in. Thats what anyone would do. I still do not think that this is a big deal death wise. But I did think that the panic by the press and people ( driven by the press) would be a problem. The panic part is worse then I thought it would be but the death part is still not a very big deal.
 
Tom,

Ouch--sorry to hear about that cascade of issues!

I prefer an epoxy. Both of what you have are polyester resins. The reason for epoxy, is that it adheres better to wood, and forms a better structural bond. (several times as strong as polyester).

Routing out as much as possible of the rot, and then coating what it is left with non thickened epoxy, will allow the epoxy to penetrate the wood, and seal it off. Wet wood will form a bond with epoxy--not so with polyester.

For the filling, I for your project, I would choose, West Systems, epoxy, with appropriate hardener for the temperature. The "neat" to paint the entire area, including the glass--then thicken it with a mixture of 50% Cabosil (Fumed Silica) and high density filler (also West Systems).

An alternative which I have not used, would be to use Six10 by West systems. It is supposed to be "non sagging". I probably would coat the surface of the wood, with another thinner epoxy before using the six 10, but the easiest may be to just use it, and figure there will be enough adhesion to the glass around the cut out area.

In any case put masking tape around the outside of the hole, to prevent "spill out". You can also use a mylar film, or even wax paper to help contain any epoxy product in place. For example if it starts to sag out of the hole, then line the hole with the film/paper, and then put a "stopper' to support the film or paper. The "stopper" can be a wooden plug, or a tight wad of paper. (No pun intended,--I would not pay the Honda price either!)

In case you want to discuss, I have sent PM with Phone #.
 
I love reading Dr Bob's advice on this stuff. 8) Great to pick someone's brain who has been there, done that... Dr Bob, you are a great asset to this on-line community and I have enjoyed our conversations/PMs over the years.

Tom, can you get to the hole requiring filling easily enough? There are thick epoxy resins that come in tube and mix in the applicator. The applicator allows them to be "injected" into spots. Don't know they difficulty in your repair, just throwing out ideas that may make filling difficult to reach spots easier.
 
starcrafttom":1k8wzdje said:
So what started as a" Quick motor check " is not even half done and has about a week to go if I dont find any thing else. Hope you all are having more fun then me.
Click to expand...

I can empathize emphatically, seemed I was constantly starting a miner repair that turned into a major project: repairing bulkheads, anchor locker repair, etc., etc.; the list is endless. That’s one the reasons I sold the boat, miss boating don’t miss the boat but find myself looking for another.

When will the chaos end!!???
:disgust
 
So a little update. I decided to use West marine systems epoxy. After talking to my father I decided to pour the void in 1 inch lifts to avoid over heating and bubbling. i also used a filter to get the very top to set up on a 45 degree so future water will not pool in this spot. I still have the lower spot to do but susan has me on bed rest. about a week ago I had a couple of jack stones removed and a sample taken from my prostrate. I am all good as are lab test but had to spend a 4 days with a catheter draining my bladder and the blood. I had been clear for a few day but after climbing in and out of the boat 30 times I started to bleed again.
Check out page 9 and 10 of my album.
 
Taking care of Tom is number one priority: especially in these times! Hold off until you are completely healed. The boat will still be there!
 
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