Things that broke, in chronological order (2024)…

And what we did or didn't do about it...

Kabola furnace ship hot water loop, inop.

• ·       We never did find the fix for this.   Costica (Kabola genius) was aboard to help diagnose while we were still in Anacortes.

Windlass

• ·       Turned out to be the breaker (Doh!).   Just closed the breaker and voi-la!   It worked.

Thrusters (bow & stern).  When we moved to Lithium batteries and installed new chargers, we forgot to account for the AGMs on the thrusters, so they had no chargers.  

• ·       Installed AC-DC chargers (bow and stern) that run off the inverter.   Not ideal, but it was expeditious.   Woody came to Campbell River and brought two chargers and installed them – Thanks, Woody.

Propane system for the gas cooktop.   We had an intermittent very low flame to no flame if multiple burners were on.   Though, sometimes, it would work fine.

• ·       Turned out to be the safety valve in the acme nut on the whip.   The solution was to ream it out as it is redundant with the safety valve on the tank itself.   This one took about 3 weeks to track down the fix.   Finally resolved when Bill & Nicki joined us in Ketchikan.  Thank you, Bill.

Alternator stopped charging.

• ·       Turned out to be a fuse on the back of the Alternator.   It was a 10A automotive-style fuse.   After consulting Art, he suggested replacing it with the proper fuse, which was a 15A.   Did that and it’s worked since.

Vibration in drive train.

• ·       I figured, I’d dinged the prop on something.   We hauled in Wrangell, and the prop and bottom looked like new, no growth and no scratches on anything.   We measured the shaft for runout – it was perfect.   We measured the prop and discovered that to consecutive blades of the four total, are 3/16” shorter than the other two.   That is enough to cause a thrust differential and wobble.   When we haul over the winter, we will look into this further.

Generator wouldn’t start.

• ·       Turned out to be a loose relay in the generator control box.   No idea how it would work its way loose as its very tight.   This was found and fixed in Ketchikan as we were on our way south.

Engine oil & fuel service.

• ·       Not really anything that broke, we just changed the oil, filters, and fuel filters at about 275 hours while we were in Ketchikan.

Water leak over settee in the salon.

• ·       This was tracked down to water ingress at port forward tender support staple.  I taped it temporarily.   Will rebed and cross-brace the staples to prevent splay-out.

Dinged the flybridge arch with the davit trying to launch the tender.

• ·       This is 100% on me.   I swung the davit into the arch and took out a silver dollar-sized chunk of gel coat.   Darn!

Starboard Stabilizer Fin stopped working after a kelp encounter.

• ·       This broke on the way into Victoria on our way back.   We had snagged some kelp, but we cleared that, and it still wouldn’t work.   Tyler from S3 Maritime looked at it in Anacortes and adjusted the potentiometer.   There is nothing he did that should have fixed it, but it started working.   Tyler suspects the Wesmar “brain” may be failing.   If so, that’s an expensive fix…