Shit Happens

Not normally would I post negative things, mainly because its mostly small stuff that happens all the time and it don't make good reading, but today is different.

Over the weekend we were away when we got home yesterday the weekend winds had destroyed my canopy. So this morning's first job was to get that back up.  Not so difficult until I slipped an whacked my knee so now that is all swollen up and very painful.

It gets worse.............

I was grinding on deck with deck boards down, all of a sudden a massive explosion, lots of misty smoke and a burning in my eyes nose and throat.  Immediately I realised the batteries that were under where I was working was the reason.  I grabbed the hose and went in with it running just in case there was a fire, but fortunately not.

So this is the result.

 

The list so far is 6 wrecked traction batteries, 1 destroyed shunt, battery box has been blown apart and on the lid was my almost new power drill.  When the lid blew off it must have hit the drill on the underside of the deck metalwork, because this is what it looks like now.

It looks like its been run over by a truck

So that was my seriously expensive day.

Skeg

I had a week off last week so no noticeable progress although some background stuff has been done but not blog worthy.

One of the background jobs was picking up the skeg plate form the local fabrication firm last week. They pressed the curve on it for me. After a heavy chamfering session 

I set and clamped the job up

 

I wanted to do this weld job in one pass hence the heavy chamfering so I switched to 1mm mig wire and cranked up the amperage.  It's been a while since I used 1mm and it seemed so think compared to .8mm

The result........... 1 skeg.

I have offered it up just to see what needs to be done next.  Upside down welding........ remember, my favorite!

Fuel Lines

Now I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent, able to read and able to follow verbal instructions.  So why couldn't I find the fuel return outlet.  Handbook says on the side just under the last injector, despite a lot of head scratching and several phone calls I still couldn't see it.  Eventually I got a phone call to say the engine had been modified and this outlet was now routed through a fuel cooler and could be found on the gearbox oil cooler.  Sure enough there it was.

So a bit of modification to the fuel return pipe due to the new location and it was connected.  Also connected were the engine fuel inlet and the fuel supply and return for the generator.

While I was covered in diesel I decided to refit the heater fuel pump as the way I originally fitted it caused it to resound through the fuel tank.  This was very worthwhile and is now barely audible.

On the end of each copper fuel run I soldered an olive where the rubber pipe connects.

The jubilee clip goes on past the olive

It Lives

I didn't get as much done today as I expected.  I took the skeg assy. to an engineering firm for bending.  Once its back I'll be able to show you this.

Later on I connected up the calorifier to engine pipes.

Propper insulated calorifier pipe

I filled the engine with 8.5L of oil down the oil hole and 5L antifreeze + 4L of water down the water hole.

Then.................................................

Ignition

More Wiring

The plan this morning was to get the final bit of ply that form the back wall of the kitchen.  To do this meant running some wires, which turned out to be loads of wires.

So today has been all about wiring.  On the engine there are 3 multi-plugs and the Vetus kit came with 3 corrisponding wire which in turn connects to the instrument pannel.

I rerouted the original placing for these wires only slightly which made it easy to run the subsequent loom I made up using 25mm flexible conduit.  This was run around the engine and out through the bulkhead.

Another smaller loom was made to carry the wires for the pump out pump, the diesel fuel tank sender and the toilet tank sender. This was run in 16mm flexible conduit and followed the same path as the other loom.  The heavy start wires were also connected.

The thick black and red wires go off to the bow thruster batteries.

Once the engine loom was run I couldn't help connecting it up.  It all lit up and the warning beeper went off.  I shan't be able to ignore that!  So I just had to flick the ignition key and it turned over.  Enough of that for now though as it needs oil, coolant and the diesel supply connected.

The ply still needs to be fitted, Oh well.

It's A 'Prop'per Boat Now

I have done some more wiring to connect the start battery and alternator to the bow-thruster battery.  These 2 batteries will be charged by the main alternator and the other alternator will be dedicated to the domestic batteries.  This arrangement  saves the need for a split charge system. 

This afternoon was the more interesting bit of the day.  I finally got the cap head bolts to mount the Bullflex coupling to the adaptor that marries to the gearbox flange.  This is a very strange setup.  There are 4 x 7/16 UNF bolts and 2 M10.  Most peculiar!  Once mounted I offered up the drive shaft measured it up and cut it to length,  Once that was done I temporally mounted the prop.

 Water lubricated bearing will need connecting to a
water supply that will supply 45L per hour

 21 x 16 RH

I shan't be leaving the prop on as there are "apparently" a few freelance metal collectors around. 

My friend Damien came over this evening and put some plugs on my Cat5e cables.  These are for the inverter.  One cable is is for the PC interface and the other is for the remote control.

Since installing and wiring up the inverter the other day it has been powered up charging the batteries.  It feels like the boat has life now.

All Powered Up

On Friday a box full of cables, big isolators and fuses arrived.  All the cables had been made up as I requested with soldered and crimped ring terminals.  As much as I wanted to play at the weekend I resisted.

Today was wiring up day.  I connected up the 6 x 2v battery cells, run the 50mm² negative cable from the batteries to the shunt, then 2 x 25mm² cables to the inverter, run the 50mm²  positive cable from the battery to the 400amp fuse, then a 50mm² on to the the 600amp isolator then 2 x 25mm² cables to the inverter. From the domestic alternator to the inverter I ran 1 x 25mm² positive and negative cable, and to the 12v domestic fuse board I connected the already installed 80amp supply cable to the inverter.

The isolator will be fixed in place at a later stage

Also connected were the trickle charge to the start battery, the sensing wires for the battery voltage and temperature.  The sensing wires feed information to the charger side of the inverter to optimise the battery charging.

I connected the AC in, AC1 out and AC2 out.  The inverter has to be switched on to manage the 240v.  The AC comes in and is given straight out to the fuse board via AC1.  Only when the shore power or indeed the generator are providing power then AC2 is fed.  This is so something like A/C or in my case an immersion heater can be run.  If the AC in is cut the inverter switches over and AC2 is dropped to save battery and drop non essential systems.  I also wired up the immersion heater.

Cover off.  White wire is Cat 5 for the PC interface

All covered and tidied up and

Additional wiring is also in and ready for a Victron battery monitor  and a Victron remote control panel for the inverter.  All that needs to be put in will be the cables for the solar panel when I decide what I am going for.