Repairs
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sun 16 Sep 2012 18:11
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One of the banes of a seafaring life is the
constant need to repair broken equipment. The maritime environment is a harsh
one to be sure, and we have lots of complicated gear on board much of which
seems to be poorly designed, under-engineered, badly sited or all three
together. The result is a lot of time spent fixing things which have stopped
operating, usually at an inconvenient time. All our acquaintances have the same
experience - a huge amount of time must necessarily be spent on repairs and
maintenance, every moment of it begrudged unless you regard DIY
engineering as an enjoyable pastime in its own right (which I most certainly do
not).
We've actually had a fairly easy time
recently, but here in Tonga a couple of things have failed. The weather
here has been truly horrible (never let anyone persuade you to spend money on a
holiday in Tonga!!) and our autopilot control head situated on the steering
pedestal got very comprehensively soaked by rain in a tropical downpour.
Despite being allegedly waterproof it has managed to absorb some water and
stopped, potentially a diastrous state of affairs - we have never forgotten our
1500 miles of handsteering, 4 hours on and four hours off, from the Caribbean to
New England, and never will. So this failure led to a couple of hours
dismantling the pedestal to get at the control head, and a couple of days trying
to dry it out, so far unsuccessfully. This is most unwelcome and inconvenient,
but luckily unlike most boats we have another control head inside the boat,
so we are still mobile and will be able to get some sleep on
passage.
I also found a salt water leak from our generator.
I was dreading it being from the salt water pump again, but examination
(requiring lying on top of the running generator wearing a headtorch and
using a mirror on a stick) revealed that astonishingly the end plate on the heat
exchanger had fractured. The generator is fresh water cooled like a car
engine, but unlike a car which has a radiator to cool the fresh
water, a marine generator uses sea water in a heat exchanger to dissipate
the heat from the fresh water. Fresh water runs through narrow tubes in a salt
water jacket. the jacket is a large tube, each end od which is sealed by an
O-ring, a rubber gasket and a metal end plate. I have spare O-rings and
gaskets, but had never dreamt that it would be possible for a flat bronze plate
under little pressure to crack, ever. So I have no spare. But for some
reason one has cracked; the other is perfect. Of course the one that chose to go
was out of sight and difficult to reach.
So with no spares, and the generator essential, it
was necessary to jury-rig. Here is my attemp under construction on the galley
worksurface:
 I have to use the smooth Corian worksurface to get
a purchase for the vice, so the spoon is there to keep sharp tools from
scratching it. I have cut a circle out of some rigid marineply. A hole will
shortly be drilled in the centre for the fixing bolt with a variety of washers
and some sealant to hold it all in place. Amazingly it works, and we have power
again. We will get to Fiji and then I'll have to get some parts sent up from NZ
for a proper repair.
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