wkearney99
Guru
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2018
- Messages
- 2,189
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Solstice
- Vessel Make
- Grand Banks 47 Eastbay FB
Seems like we've all had our sudden "great, this thing broke" experiences.
How about a thread for only new unexpected repairs? We've all had plenty of past stories, but let's keep this thread to recent, unplanned surprises.
I'll start with one from the 'no good deed goes unpunished' perspective.
Sea strainer for AC needed cleaning. Globbed up solid with debris. Possibly dead jellyfish and the mossy sort of slime we get on the Chesapeake. Lots of nastiness. Cleaned the strainer basket on the dock, but had to scrape the chunks off the inside of the strainer glass. Opened the seacock to float the crap out, into the bilge. Caught most of them but a few washed into the center bilge section. Got the chunks and figured the bilge pump would clear out the cruddy water.
Except the pump didn't start when the water was high enough.
Gave it a smack with the hose sprayer and it started. Great! Water clears and... the pump doesn't stop running. Percussive therapy doesn't discourage it either. Let it run, dashed off to Westmarine and $311 later got one to match.
Came back to find the existing one either burned itself out or the float turned it off... never to return to life.
Same pump, less trouble, right? Ah... no. Looks the same, but the base is different such that the new pump has bumps under it that won't fit the old tray. Oh, and now it comes with a universal threaded fitting to allow different hose sizes, yet one's too small and the other's just a bit too large. Looks like the old hose would have fit the new smaller fitting, but had been stretched a bit to fit the old pump's output. And there's not enough slack to slice off the end... So now the hose is just slightly more-bigger.
Those split loom wire wrapping coils sure look nice, but they're tedious to un/re-wrap.
A few splices later, some heatshrink and the new pump responds properly when I use the dock hose to test it.
So, yeah, a quick "l'll just clean the strainer" turns into 2 hours of delayed departure. The joys of boat ownership!
How about a thread for only new unexpected repairs? We've all had plenty of past stories, but let's keep this thread to recent, unplanned surprises.
I'll start with one from the 'no good deed goes unpunished' perspective.
Sea strainer for AC needed cleaning. Globbed up solid with debris. Possibly dead jellyfish and the mossy sort of slime we get on the Chesapeake. Lots of nastiness. Cleaned the strainer basket on the dock, but had to scrape the chunks off the inside of the strainer glass. Opened the seacock to float the crap out, into the bilge. Caught most of them but a few washed into the center bilge section. Got the chunks and figured the bilge pump would clear out the cruddy water.
Except the pump didn't start when the water was high enough.
Gave it a smack with the hose sprayer and it started. Great! Water clears and... the pump doesn't stop running. Percussive therapy doesn't discourage it either. Let it run, dashed off to Westmarine and $311 later got one to match.
Came back to find the existing one either burned itself out or the float turned it off... never to return to life.
Same pump, less trouble, right? Ah... no. Looks the same, but the base is different such that the new pump has bumps under it that won't fit the old tray. Oh, and now it comes with a universal threaded fitting to allow different hose sizes, yet one's too small and the other's just a bit too large. Looks like the old hose would have fit the new smaller fitting, but had been stretched a bit to fit the old pump's output. And there's not enough slack to slice off the end... So now the hose is just slightly more-bigger.
Those split loom wire wrapping coils sure look nice, but they're tedious to un/re-wrap.
A few splices later, some heatshrink and the new pump responds properly when I use the dock hose to test it.
So, yeah, a quick "l'll just clean the strainer" turns into 2 hours of delayed departure. The joys of boat ownership!