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Back for more punishment!
In reply to an offer to come sailing last week, one of my Haumuri crew who had moved to Auckland a few years ago, replied yes as he was in town.
He also asked if I knew anyone who wanted a boat for free.
I thought about it (yeah right!), and said yes I do, me!
I knew the boat from this guy, and the previous owner, so knew it had been a good boat.
It had been sitting unused in the marina for 3 or so years, so it would need a tidy up at least.
We went sailing which was a slightly forgettable experience, then agreed that the last cold beer in the boat shed fridge would be a fair price, so shook hands and clinked bottles (I had the second last one).
I do need to declare that it is fibreglass, so doesn't totally qualify to be discussed on here so I'll keep it to the point.
It is a Whiting Reactor, 25 foot built in the early 70's, moderate displacement, sleeps 4-5 at a pinch with a kero stove in the galley.
The interior is tidy for it's age, ready to go away for the weekend.
There were about 60 of these built and were highly regarded. There are a couple advertised for around $10K NZ.
Being fibreglass it doesn't leak a drop, so the fact the batteries were completely flat was not a problem as the bilge pump (with no float switch anyway) was not required to operate . It had about 2 litres of water in the bilge.
So far I've;
-removed the batteries and put them on charge just in case. They are deep cycle and remarkably have recovered back up after 3 days on a charger at 2 amps and powering everything on board. They still have the price tag on them ($700 for 2). I dodged the first bullet there. When the isolator was switched on the CD player started playing classical music like it was last week when last powered up,
-Pulled the main and furled headsail off, lightly water blasted and gave them a scrub with 1-20 bleach solution the rinsed off. They are in good nick, ready to go,
-measured all the other sails, including a very new hot pink Gennaker (bonus),
-Waterblasted the deck and cabin, with most of the grime coming off,
-Tried the outboard (2013 Suzuki 20 hp, 4 stroke on a transom bracket). Thank god it is electric start!
I've been going through the fuel system slowly to start with in the evenings while reading anything I can find online about these things.
I dumped the old fuel in the tote tank and filled it with some new stuff from the boatshed for my other outboard.
I bought a new priming bulb as it wasn't going hard when pumped, but this hasn't changed anything. $29 spent.
There is fuel coming out of the low pressure pump when cranking which was good to get rid of old fuel up to this point.
I've found a fuel system schematic online, which I going to follow through the fuel path over the weekend. The likely failure points are fine filter in the inlet to the high pressure pump (fuel injected motor), and the pump itself which doesn't like water apparently. This thing is expensive too, so I've watched a YouTube video on stripping this and cleaning it out.
I'm going to have to do this from an inflatable tied to the transom as it is impossible to access this thing from the cockpit.
New spark plugs tonight without any more life from this thing (there was spark when checked). $18 spent.
Total spend so far is $47
In my future;
Get this outboard operational,
Scrub the seaweed and mussels off by getting in the water,
lift out for full hull tidy and antifoul,
Service the winches, which are gummed up,
Go sailing and decide whether I like it enough to sell Upcycled,
if not, flip it.
In reply to an offer to come sailing last week, one of my Haumuri crew who had moved to Auckland a few years ago, replied yes as he was in town.
He also asked if I knew anyone who wanted a boat for free.
I thought about it (yeah right!), and said yes I do, me!
I knew the boat from this guy, and the previous owner, so knew it had been a good boat.
It had been sitting unused in the marina for 3 or so years, so it would need a tidy up at least.
We went sailing which was a slightly forgettable experience, then agreed that the last cold beer in the boat shed fridge would be a fair price, so shook hands and clinked bottles (I had the second last one).
I do need to declare that it is fibreglass, so doesn't totally qualify to be discussed on here so I'll keep it to the point.
It is a Whiting Reactor, 25 foot built in the early 70's, moderate displacement, sleeps 4-5 at a pinch with a kero stove in the galley.
The interior is tidy for it's age, ready to go away for the weekend.
There were about 60 of these built and were highly regarded. There are a couple advertised for around $10K NZ.
Being fibreglass it doesn't leak a drop, so the fact the batteries were completely flat was not a problem as the bilge pump (with no float switch anyway) was not required to operate . It had about 2 litres of water in the bilge.
So far I've;
-removed the batteries and put them on charge just in case. They are deep cycle and remarkably have recovered back up after 3 days on a charger at 2 amps and powering everything on board. They still have the price tag on them ($700 for 2). I dodged the first bullet there. When the isolator was switched on the CD player started playing classical music like it was last week when last powered up,
-Pulled the main and furled headsail off, lightly water blasted and gave them a scrub with 1-20 bleach solution the rinsed off. They are in good nick, ready to go,
-measured all the other sails, including a very new hot pink Gennaker (bonus),
-Waterblasted the deck and cabin, with most of the grime coming off,
-Tried the outboard (2013 Suzuki 20 hp, 4 stroke on a transom bracket). Thank god it is electric start!
I've been going through the fuel system slowly to start with in the evenings while reading anything I can find online about these things.
I dumped the old fuel in the tote tank and filled it with some new stuff from the boatshed for my other outboard.
I bought a new priming bulb as it wasn't going hard when pumped, but this hasn't changed anything. $29 spent.
There is fuel coming out of the low pressure pump when cranking which was good to get rid of old fuel up to this point.
I've found a fuel system schematic online, which I going to follow through the fuel path over the weekend. The likely failure points are fine filter in the inlet to the high pressure pump (fuel injected motor), and the pump itself which doesn't like water apparently. This thing is expensive too, so I've watched a YouTube video on stripping this and cleaning it out.
I'm going to have to do this from an inflatable tied to the transom as it is impossible to access this thing from the cockpit.
New spark plugs tonight without any more life from this thing (there was spark when checked). $18 spent.
Total spend so far is $47
In my future;
Get this outboard operational,
Scrub the seaweed and mussels off by getting in the water,
lift out for full hull tidy and antifoul,
Service the winches, which are gummed up,
Go sailing and decide whether I like it enough to sell Upcycled,
if not, flip it.
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