Yesterday began by popping over to Alameda Marina to bring Aphrodite back to Brisbane. The new bimini was completed and it was time to get going on some other major projects that need to be completed before our departure to San Diego. These included:
1. Strengthening the stern rail so that it would be strong enough to support the 15hp dinghy outboard during passages. The original stern rail just wasn’t structurally strong enough to support that amount of weight. By the end of the afternoon that was completed and the new stern configuration just doesn’t budge at all when you put a load on it (like standing on it..);
2.Replacing all the original pneumatic winch switches (Aphrodite has 3 electric winches, 2 Harken ST53’s and 1 Harken ST44). One of the original switches had become problematic and since the last time this had been “repaired” had become downright dangerous. This is probably because some loose sealant had become lodged in a small breather hole that should equalize out the air pressure in the switch due to changes of atmospheric pressure or temperature, the consequence being the switch turning on by itself when the weather got really warm and heated up the air in the pneumatic switch. Not a problem at all when someone is standing by or when there is no jib-sheet on the winch, but a potential disaster when one has forgotten to turn off the electric winch breakers and left the boat with the jib-sheet wrapped neatly around the winch… Solution here was to replace all the pneumatic switches with new non-pneumatic Harken switches (actually windlass switches, given the arrow on the button);
3. Extracting and repairing the leaky muffler. This was by far the biggest job and by far the biggest job I’ve undertaken on the boat so far. The easy part was getting to the muffler itself, which lies buried under the port side engine mount, though this did necessitate removing the companionway stairs and the panelling around the back of the engine compartment. Removing the hoses to the muffler was harder, since one of the hose-clamps was facing the wrong way (maybe we should have removed the other end first). What was really hard though was removing the vertical adapter from the muffler so that the muffler could slide forward through the hole in engine mount that it came through when the boat was constructed. After fighting with this for a while yesterday, it was finally freed today by the application of a very large hammer and a good deal of patience. See photo. Now we just have to see if it can be repaired in time.
