Boat Work

Please come to my house today to put on my lower unit.

Yesterday I got off my ass and put the panga in running order.   I have no intention of buying a new outboard for the skiff.  

My Panga had been sitting at my house since my return from David, several weeks ago.  It had spent many months in front of a fiberglass guy's house, he was going to give me a quote in May to rip out the floor and replace it with planks of treated pine.   The 3/4" marine plywood floor is topped with a ridiculously thick layer of fiberglass.  Extropolation of the weight of a section that had been removed last December yielded an estimate that the boat would be a thousand pounds lighter.   I should have tended to that while I was tooling around on the skiff.

Oh well, you can't change history.

I called a mechanic to have him bring out and install a new lower unit I had bought.  Actually I bought an entire engine as the price for the whole thing was barely more than the cost of repairing my lower unit.  A few days later a friend's boat sunk and I notified him that I had a parts engine.  He got a $2,000 computer and an $800 starter for $475.  I got an $800 lower unit for $475.  I could have probably gotten him to buy his parts for more than the $950 the engine cost, but, what the hell.  Is everybody happy?

I called Casa Verde, one of my favorite in town hangouts.  Why is it a fave?  It is frequented by a lot of cuties just passing through, by friends who live on sailboats, moored in the south anchorage, shuttling to town in their inflatable dinghies, and it is water front so it gets a breeze and water views sure beat looking at the street.

Oh yeah, Casa Verde.  I had the lower unit, the part that sticks in the water with the prop, a battery, a bilge pump and switch contraption and a gas tank.  

Putting on a lower unit is not a big deal, one slides the shifting rod into the matching orifice and installing a few bolts.  Nevertheless it was easier and cheaper to have the mechanic, who had the bolts, come out than to take a water taxi to town and then back home with the parts.

The mechanic called to tell me that he had arrived.  I  could see him coming over a mile away.  He asked me to come down.  I walked down to the dock, he had nothing to say. Back up a hundred stairs.

He called me down many times, could I turn the flywheel?  Did I have a set of pliers? Pliers? What kind of hack???  Now I had to watch.  The drive shaft is stuck?  Put it in gear and turn the prop, bonehead.

The lower unit was installed and he asked me to start the motor.  "Is there oil in the lower unit and in the engine?" "I didn't check."  Jesus.   "Do you have a screwdriver?" Back to the house.

The boat was pulled into water deep enough to get the lower unit in the water.  Outboards need the water to cool.  Shit, back up to the house to get the keys.  The engine was lowered, but the battery was dead.   I inspected the wiring and found that while the fiberglass guy was "watching" my boat he had hastily stripped a couple of wires and twisted them together without so much as a wire nut. Both wires were floating in the water.  Well, that battery is toast a short does more than drain the battery, it fries it.  Yeah, well, Texas toast is fried.

The little battery I had been using to power the bilge pump in the skiff didn't have enough juice to start the motor.  It made more sense to tow the boat to town to work on it than to run for a battery when surely something else would be needed.

It was a long slow ride on a relatively cool, sunny day.  Chow Kai, the only waterfront hardware store closes daily from noon to two.  At our rate it would be well past two before we arrived.  

I picked up a new battery, didn't pay for it and told Shakey to keep my ticket open.  Back in for new terminals.  The mechanic attached the wires.  The gas wouldn't prime.  In for a new primer bulb.  Still wouldn't prime.  One hose at a time was disconnected and a clogged one was found.  The plastic lining had dissolved and formed a plug.  Cutting off a couple of inches, the line was cleared, but now too short to attach without a strain.  I bought a new line and installed it while my mechanic worked on a generator on the dock that someone was trying to start.  He kept asking me for tools, my tools, that were in my boat, while I was trying to work.  Get your fat lazy ass in the boat and fetch them yourself, I am doing the work I am paying you to do.

Then I put the battery in the console, managing to rip out the clip for the wire to the bilge pump.  The wire was all corroded, probably wicked up the entire length.  As far back as I could strip it was virtually dust.  I put on a new terminal anyway and pull new wire manana.

I primed the bulb and fired her up and she ran smoothly and quietly but I immediately shut it off as the water discharge from the cooling was not pissing into the ocean. There really isn't a risk of damage as the computer will shut down the motor if it starts to overheat but there was no point in just idling it.  Damn, I hope it's not the impeller.  Impellers are made of rubber and can dry out and crack if the engine is not periodically started.  Nope, a simple probe with a wire, cleaning out the opening, fixed it.

The interior of the boat was filthy, but the hull was far worse.  Months of being idle resulted in dense, thick coverage of barnacles.  I bought some plastic scrapers and hired an Indian to scrape the bottom of the boat.  The scrapers were not nearly up to the task and were quickly torn to shreds.  I reluctantly bought a steel scraper, which I feared would fuck up my $600 anti fouling paint job, but the boat was cleaned and the paint looked none the worse.

I ended up giving the mechanic $30 for what I should have paid $10, the agreed upon balance to put the lower unit back on but I was feeling magnanimous.

Eventually I took off for home.  The steering was stiff.  I had best lubricate the steering rod before I destroy my teleflex steering cable and control box.   The low cost of acquisition of tiller operated two strokes is the primary reason they are the most popular way to power boats around here, lower maintenance is a factor for people with money who have lived here a while. Keep it simple.

My trip seemed slow, but my phone GPS reported that I was travelling at 18 MPH.  That speed just seems slower when riding in comfort.  Even six miles with the plug out was not enough to drain all the water out from under the floor.

Today I shall go off to town, run some new wires for the bilge pump and clean the interior.

I am still waiting on my bank card.