2026 Spring Work
2026-04-29 15:56
Spring is a time for crawfish, festivals, sailing, and scrambling to repair boat things before we go on a voyage. The past few weeks have been particularly productive. Enough so, that I decided to write it all up.
Like all good maintenance periods, we break things as we fix other things. The worst new problem this Spring is that our engine refused to start while we had a cockpit full of charter guests.
The next weekend, we had boat mechanic and all around good dude Josh over, and he helped with a few engine-related things. We got the engine running, mainly by getting some gunk and air out of the fuel/water separators, but I also think it had to do with the current the engine was getting from the battery.
I had been having a weird thing with the starting battery for the generator since they replaced it, and Josh figured out that a fuse was blown even though it showed as an closed circuit on the multi-meter. I would have never thought to test it beyond that, but it basically blew enough of the metal to act like a little reistor, allowing some -- but not all -- of the battery voltage to ge out. It's good to find that a lot of weirdness can be traced to one issue, especially one as simple as a fuse. Of course, the matching fuse at West Marine doesn't quite fit right, but a properly-fitting replacement is on the way.
While he was there, Josh re-installed our watermaker, whose components had been almost entirely replaced (for free!) by the Schenker distributor in America. Thank you Ricard.
Now, you're surly saying to yourself, that's pretty nice -- tallying all of your boat maintenance accomplishments while your boy Josh is obviously the one who deserves credit. And you're not wrong, but let's proceed to the things your Captain here did on his own.
First, I ran a new main halyard. This took way longer than it should have. I wanted to pull it through from the end of the previously existing halyard, and I went through a few ideas of how to attach them. I ended up sewing the ends together with enough thread to strangle a couple of seagulls. I didn't want it all pulling out somewhere mid-mast.
The original main halyard had had it.
The problem I created for myself was using some tape to keep the two ends still relative to each other. Because of the tape, the line wouldn't go through its line clutch, and then trying to pull it through with a screwdriver, I knocked a piece of the line clutch loose.
That leasts to solo repair two, where I disassembled the line clutch, got the roller back in to its proper place, and then got it put back together. This particular clutch is more complicated than you think.
After that, I removed the thread and tape, re-sewed the line, and pulled it through without much trouble and without any help at all.
Third, I replaced the thermostat on the freezer. It worked sometimes and not others.
This is must-have boat repair equipment that I wish I had bought years ago.
There's a camera and a light at the end of a bendable stiff cable. It plugs in to your phone and shows you what it sees on the screen. Here, the screws for the freezer thermostat are below it and screw up into the cabinet. I wouldn't have ever gotten the right bit for the screw (smallish torx) if I couldn't see it.
View of that screw from the camera.
Fourth, I replaced the windlass control/chain counter in the cockpit. Last Summer, we used the method where we mentally decide "that's enough chain," and then keep letting it out for like another minute. What, am I going to mark the chain itself like it's 1980? No need any more.
Windlass controller
Fifth, I replaced a few lights and switches. Everything there is working as expected again.
Sixth, I fixed the controller for one of the electric winches. Before the fix, we had to crank the winch with a handle. It really was the 1980s on this boat for a minute there.
Finally (so far), I replaced the sea water pump that feeds a faucet in the galley and the heads. When I flush, I want to flush a ton of water through there, and while we're underway, it just makes sense that it's sea water.
Marina security patrols the docks while I worked.
If you followed the link above, you may have linked to some seasonal photos too. If not, there are related photos over here.