Six Year Report, The Boat

Having completed some maintenance and adding a few major goodies at the end of year five, this year has seen just small repairs and maintenance. The always reliable Cummins Engine now has 7,400 trouble free hours. We put 750 hours on last year, a bit below our 1000 hour a year average.

 With the new solar panels there were some charging issues to resolve, once done i added two more AGM batteries raising my capacity fifty percent.

On two instances i grossly miss diagnosed problems, spent a bunch of money and grief on things that turned out to be simple, all in the lessons learned department. On both malfunctions a broken “O” ring was the culprit, one in the generator Racor filter and one in the stabilizer ram.

After years of packing around piles of charts i realized i had not opened one since i left, harsh realization for an old school paper chart guy but true. With four computer navigation systems onboard, everything from my ships computer to my phone is nav and gps equipped. i decided to pass the charts on, first tried the Selene Owners site and other cruising forums with no luck, just pay for shipping was all i wanted for the complete set of charts from Seattle to Thailand.. no takers, then i tried to give them away locally, again no takers so it was great angst that i dumped them in the dumpster, my ol US Power Squadron buddies would cringe. To add insult to the old salts i put a new ice maker where the charts once held domain. i now open that locker every day rather than never in 6 years.

So the “things we love list” goes the solar panels and ya, the ice maker. With the current rolly anchorages the Forespar Rolex stabilizer system has risen to the top of that list. My cruising buddies have all been over peering at it in wonder. For another year the sturdy Mercury 25 hp outboard has performed flawlessly although the dinghy is getting tired and is on the replacement list next year.

Recently i had to tow a buddies boat as he had bad fuel and no fuel polishing system, a lacking he will surely correct, putting the ESI fuel polishing system high on the “don’t leave home without it” list.

My FCI water maker is a jewel and if found out by just adding another membrane i can raise the production 50%, yikes 75 gallons an hour! My friend ordered one like it and they threw in my membrane in his shipment, i will get it installed soon. If finances allow i might replace my smaller H2O maker as well, it quit years ago and just takes up space. For my crew a water maker is essential and having a backup would be good as well as one small enough to run off the inverter while underway without the gen. maybe Santa will drop on by.

Ten years and six of rugged cruising have taken their toll. I now have rebuilt all major pumps, the windlass, the stabilizer rams and many other things, none of which gave out early, just a lot of ware. Eventually i will get the interior wood work a tune up and repaint the blue hull, but not this year.

This last rally put us in a week of beating up wind in up to forty knots of wind, no fun. Although there are times i envy the sailors sliding downwind in the trades, this last jaunt proved once again that a good full displacement, pilot house trawler is where i want to be!