Water We Doing About Winter?

Big Duck has very basic plumbing.

Freshwater tank
Demand pump

Water heater (currently 120vac only, but plumbed for engine heating)

Galley

Head

Shower

To winterize I need to drain both the freshwater tank and the hot water tank and then push RV antifreeze through all the hot and cold pipes. This means loosening many hose clamps, pulling the hoses off and reconnecting them to various other places/things.

My travel trailer had a simple system for winterizing. A separate feed at the tank to pickup antifreeze out of a bottle and a hotwater tank drain and bypass. I wanted a similar system for the boat so I wouldn't hesitate to un-rewinterize for cruises during nice winter weather. This was also a good time to update the hoses.

The trailer used T's and valves with hard plastic water lines. My boat water goes thru 5/8" hose -- the same size as standard garden hose, so I used garden hose fittings.

I had a bunch of plastic fittings already, so I used all plastic. We'll see how they hold up for the hot water side. Worst case we'll get some water in the bilge and I'll get the metal fittings.

So now, to winterize I can easily switch the valves to drain the hot water tank rather than filling it with 6 gallons of antifreeze and then bypass it. Then pull the intake hose off  the copper line that runs from the tank, stick it in the gallon of RV antifreeze, turn on the pump and bleed each hot and cold faucet until I see the pink stuff coming out. I'd already installed a drain valve on the water tank and to protect the line from the pump to the tank I feed a little antifreeze back into it.

Then I remembered a little tool in my toolbox that I had seemed awkward to use...thought I'd give it another crack. It's a gizmo that makes hose clamps from wire. Nice thing about the finished product is that there's no bulging screw and no metal tab protruding to gouge your hand on.

A close up here of what my practice clamp looks like. The booklet says it will even do a hydraulic fitting. Unlike the standard hose clamp, they're not reusuable - you need to cut them off. For my 1" OD hose I need about 20" of stainless wire for each clamp.

And while I was in there, I decided to make the bypass out of clear tubing that would allow me to not only see the fluid moving but it also make a tighter bend so I could use a shorter hose.

So I decided that once I got the hang of it, the Clamptite tool wasn't so bad after all - especially on hoses that are easy to get to.

http://www.clamptitetools.com/

I Thawed So

This is a follow up to:
http://72land-n-sea.blogspot.com/2011/11/recreational-refrigeration.html

I know the small chest freezer can easily maintain freezer temps but I wondered how low it could go. I set it to max cool and the thermometer said -40°. I thought, 'that can't be right, maybe it's reading in Celsius or something?' (look it up)

But the idea is to use the freezer as a cooler on the boat...freeze plastic bottles of water at home on the trailer, then unplug it and use it as a cooler while boating...and drink the cold water as the ice melts in the bottles. We haven't actually used it that way yet, but tests in the garage show it's an excellent idea - good for 3 or more days depending on how much water is frozen. This was done with the thermostat originally set at zero degrees - it may last much longer at -40 but I wonder if starting out at that temp wouldn't freeze my beer or other refrigerator stuff. I have a couple more months of Winter to figure that out even if it takes a case or two of brew.

But the next thought was what about using the freezer AS a refrigerator on longer cruises; we run the generator quite often for air conditioning anyway? But this would mean I'd need to get a different thermostat because the one on the freezer only goes as high as 10° and I'd like to be able to set it at 38 or 40°.

I wrote to the maker, Danby, with my idea, asking about a different thermostat. They would have nothing to do with me messing up the original innards of their freezer.

I bemoaned my lack of progress to my son-in-law and he said, "Just get a remote bulb, line thermostat."

After poking around on the internet I decided to take a chance on a $24 mini unit - includes shipping from China.

The China thermostat has no wires attached. To feed it 120 volts for it to work, I bought a cheap two wire extension cord and cut off the female end. I stripped the wires and secured them into the connectors on the back of the thermostat.

To control the power to the freezer power I bought another extension cord, this time a 3 wire job with the wires easily identifiable so I could pick out the hot wire.

I cut the hot wire, stripped the ends and secured them into the back of the thermostat.

The remote bulb had to be wired as well, to it's connectors at the back of the unit.

I plug the 3 wire extension cord into the wall and the freezer plug goes into the female end of the 3 wire cord. Now the thermostat can dictate when to send power to the freezer.

The thermostat reads in Celcius so I had to make myself a chart to know where to set it. I can set the temp where I want to freezer to kick in and how many degrees it should go before it cuts the power. This defines the working range of the freezer/refrigerator. I set it to kick on when the temp reaches a high of 38°F and it will stay on until the box is cooled to 34°. There's a light on the display that tells when the thermostat is passing cooling current. The thermostat is also capable of managing a heating circuit. The power, heating and cooling circuits are all separate so with 120 vac working power, this unit can be used to switch anything from low voltage dc to 240 vac as long as it's within the working power range.

This rig is the cat's pajamas. It's so satisfying when things come together like this. Next is a timer to see what the compressor run time is to bring the temp down to 34° after opening the top to get out a beer...this will take research well into the summer for accurate results.

Ducking Into Winter

It's time to tear into the innards of Big Duck to see if I can get the leaky fuel tanks out of her belly. But first, The Duck's motor needs to be put to bed for the winter. Here's how I dehydrate Big Duck's motor.

Drain the manifolds

Drain the block

I like to wiggle a screwdriver in the holes of both the manifold and block plugs after I take them out to loosen any scale that might be blocking drainage.

Remove both hoses from the raw water pump

Remove the hose from the thermostat housing to the water pump. Actually all that's really needed is to remove the hose at the pump, but it's easier to undo it at the thermostat housing first, then just take it off.

and lastly, I crack the cover on the raw water pump.

Did I miss anything?

Next, I'll work on freeze-proofing the galley, head, shower and water heater. But until I get to it, I'll keep a space heater running in the cabin.



A Few More MPH

Merlin and I took to Lake Murray while wife Suzy was partying in LA at a wedding. We were anxious to see how our latest additions to Big Duck worked out...bigger (cupped) prop and hydrofoil.

I've learned how to get The Duck off and back on the trailer solo. The key is just take it slow.

Once we got settled in the water, Merlin and I puttered down the lake for about 10 miles. It was about 50° with full sun...quite enjoyable. Merlin makes a good lookout.

I kind of snuck up on going full throttle, noticing that she was much smoother and quieter at the slower speeds than before. Very, very nice at about 6 mph, sometime hitting 3+ mpg. As I took her up, there was much more bow rise than I expected even remembering that I had moved her manual trim adjustment to full bow up. I finally gave her all she'd take and she approached 24 mph maxing at 3600 rpm. Her fuel burn was about 15 gallons/hr. This is quite satisfactory but I'm pretty sure we can do better with the trim in the middle position. I really need to have someone else aboard so I can eyeball the engine while going fast just to see how things are doing down there - also need to check to see if the linkage is providing max throttle.

We anchored at 'Pebble Beach' for a spell and even tried becahing her, but the slope was too shallow to allow jumping onto the beach from the bow so we just had dinner and a few brews.

Got the urge to do some more exploring so Merlin and I took a sundown cruise - it was a most pleasant evening and we continued on past sunset...Merlin still keeping a sharp lookout.

We found a nice cove and dropped the hook for the night. By now the temp was dropping so I closed her up and started the generator to get the heat going. Merlin took this as a sign that his day of being lookout was over.

At this point I relaized I hadn't returned the sleeping bag to the boat after having used it elsewhere. I gave the thermostat a little nudge warmer and left it on the 750 watt setting. It was so comfortable below that I didn't even use the quilt that Suzy has stashed aboard. The generator quietly ran all night without needing a fill.

I'd been up and down during the night, remembering to feed Merlin, and myself, hook the charger to the cell phone, check the re-wiring I'd done to the fridge, turn on anchor light, start the motor to keep the engine room from freezing in the 20° temps, have another beer...might be the reason I didn't get up until almost 10am.

We cruised again until after 12, then headed back to the dock.

In my smaller boat(s), I could bring the bring the bow between the side guide poles on the trailer easily and let her coast up onto the bunks. Big Duck's guides are only as wide as the boat and the bow is flat and full width. To get her between the guides she needs to be precisely positioned. On previous approaches to the trailer I'd been going too fast and she'd hit the guides and bounce or grind. This time, even with a tailwind, I bumped her in and out of gear, even giving her some reverse at the last minute to bring her to a stop, then stepped out on the bow, grabbed a trailer guide and manually moved her in position.

In the past, I was only able to get the boat to within 6 or 8 inches of the bow stop because as the boat is pulled up the ramp the stern settles and the bow comes up away from the stop.

This time after attaching the winch strap I jumped off the bow into the back door of the van and backed the trailer down a little farther to aid winching. I had also replaced the "V" bow stop with a roller and added a pulley to double the mechanical advantage and with this procedure she was within 1/2" of the stop at the top of the ramp.

And to get her that last 1/2", I turned around in the parking lot and pulled forward DOWN the boat ramp, then downhill, I could winch her up to the stop.

I never thought I'd be able to manage this 28' boat alone but it gets easier with each outing; but now it's time to winterize and see about getting new fuel tanks in her.

Fitting A Solus Prop On An Old Aquamatic Drive

Why would I want to put an aftermarket prop on my boat? Because I love to explore shallow water and I go through several props in a season. Volvo props are $270, Solas props are $120. So for me, the cheapest is the best. And because I might have to change one with the boat in the water (which I have done) I have made it as easy as possible.

Here's the original setup.

15 X 15 Volvo Penta OE prop on my 250 drive.

It is secured to the outdrive by a cone nut, locked on by 'bendy tabs'.

To remove the prop, you push the bendy tabs back flush with the propeller, then block the prop from turning with a piece of wood and unscrew the cone nut.

I made a tool instead of using a screwdriver.

So off with the OE prop and on with the Solas. The first obstacle was not being able to get the bendy tab on with the new Solas propeller. There were not enough splines sticking out for the inside of the bendy tab to get hold of.

The solution was to reduce the length of the line cutter by about 1/8"

The 250 original line cutter to the left. A taller 280/290 line cutter to right which won't work.

250 Line cutter now shown with about 1/8" removed from propeller side.

Now the bendy tab would fit on the splines.

I'd need to make a 1/8" spacer to use a genuine Volvo Penta propeller again, but that's no problem.

Spacer that can bring the line cutter back to it's original measurements.

The next challenge was to find a way to actually bend the bendy tabs with the new propeller installed. There's no side clearance to get a screwdriver in there...

I'd need something that would slide between the cone and propeller housing that I could pull back on to bend the tabs.

But I didn't like the jerking, so I made a lever that would give me a positive feeling with a definite stop when the tab was properly bent.

The button goes into the hole in the cone and the arm at the bottom goes under the tab. Now just a little pressure on the bar and I can tell the tab is bent up into the slot. This was just the ticket!

You don't really need al these fancy tools to get the job done - I made them up so I could easily change the prop while in the water.

BTW - Solas makes several "short hub" props that will work this way.

There's the 'regular' 3 blade. There's a larger diameter prop with larger blades and there's a 4 blade. All of these props are built on a thru hub housing but with a hub to fit Volvo.

Sponge/Scrubber Holder

Needs a little clean-up, but looks to be what I need - from a scrap piece of PVC with string trimmer loop (melted mushroom ends secure the monofilament).