Pachuca Circumnavigation: Binnacle Work Completed

The Cobra steering pedestal came back from the spray painter looking as good as new.

New Scanstrut instrument pod

Rear View

We then assembled the binnacle on Thursday morning and concluded that the legs of the new stainless steel frame were too short because the instrument pod prevented the full opening of the compass cover and obstructed access to the drinks holder. Greg and I removed the frame without disturbing the steering pedestal or teak wood work then Bruce and I returned the frame that morning with a request that 100 mm be added to the vertical tubes and the slot for the wiring be lengthened by 20 mm. By noon the next day we had the revised frame on board and Bruce had no trouble sliding the feet through the teak holder. Greg arrived after lunch and spent the afternoon mounting the instrumentation.

The binnacle work had cost an obscene amount of money and effort but the result was most satisfactory. We had solved the problem of mounting the Navman GPS onto the instrument pod by having Zelko fabricate and ingenious wooden support that would be screwed onto the surface of the pod. The photo shows the autopilot panel on the left, the Navman GPS in the centre, and the anchor windlass switch at the right. (It was the problem of siting the new windlass switch that had led to the re design of the binnacle in the first place.) The instruments are now all fully protected from the weather and the cabling is invisible, passing from the inside of the pod pod down the legs of the frame.

During the week Greg also installed a bright adjustable LED light in the steerage section beneath the cockpit, with the switch at the navigation station instrument panel. What luxury! A nice piece of flooring too keep me out of the bilge and a bright light to see what I am doing is a far cry from the section being a no-go area protected by a wall of batteries.

My attempt to connect the boat to shore power failed with a light on the new panel indicating incorrect polarity. Greg took the cable home and swapped the non-standard connector that I had been forced to use with my old boat wiring with a standard (and legal!) one. And, shame on me, Greg confirmed that I had wired the plug incorrectly with polarity reversed.

Bruce and I re mounted the boat's stainless steel nose plate. It was a perilous job that could have ended in disaster with the slightest mistake but we managed it with no dramas. Bruce's wife "Dolphie" had done a marvelous job of treating the metal with Ranex rust converter then polishing it to a high luster. It was the original nose plate, which showed the scars of previous battles with anchors, but to me it added character to the piece.

Applying Sikaflex to the bow plate

Plate in position

One day Bruce noticed some deterioration in the rubber boot and clamps around the PYI dripless shaft seal that had installed in Mexico in July 2010. A mechanic was called and removed the unit and noted some pitting on the metal face. He took shaft seal away either refacing or replacement. The rubber boot and clamps will be replaced, and Bruce will do some repair on the fiberglass at the end of the stern tube.

We then had to remove the base upon which the engine covers slides in order that he may sleeve two holes in the bilge barrier at the front of the engine compartment. That led to another day of distraction typical of this project. We cleaned the oily area below the engine so well that I had to finish the job of removing dry specs of material using a vacuum cleaner. We then found the beginnings of wood rot in parts of the engine cover assembly so we cleaned, sanded, then treated the wood with several coats of "Awlgrip". In lifting the base one of the layers acting as a slide for the cover parted and we saw that it had been held together with tiny nails and a layer of Liquid Nails, something totally unsuited for a marine environment but was probably the standard when the boat had been built in 1983. We put the base back into place, used 2-part "Megapoxy" to re glue the slide, then put the engine cover back into position to ensure that aligned the track correctly and to apply force to the glued surfaces.

We had a look at the engine while it was exposed and noted that once again the rack holding the oil filter had become loose with the top bolt loose and the bottom bolt missing altogether. After some discussion I agreed to bring in an experienced Volvo mechanic that Bruce knew. The next day the mechanic visited and we had a very productive discussion on the engine and how to manage it. I have commissioned him to service the engine, which will exclude an oil change which he deemed unnecessary since fewer than 10 hours have been put on the engine since I changed the oil and filter less than a year ago, and the oil looked brand new. I will also engage him to align the propeller shaft after the boat is back in the water. One thing that I liked about the man is that he had no hesitation in explaining anything I asked, such as how to change the engine coolant.