The new electric motor that drives the hydraulic pump
behaves exactly like its predecessor (it turns too slow and heats up). I didn’t let it run for a long time but long
enough to take the tension at the motor: 10v.
That’s not enough. An ammeter
gives a wooping 354A draw with the pump running. That will not do. The rig is sent for checkup at the hydraulic
shop close-by but I suspect that the conversion to electric that was done in
2009 did not yield the expected results:
Particularly suspect to me is that the electric motor is coupled
directly to the pump, yet the latter should turn at 1200RPM and the former
spins at 2700RPM. I might have to revert
to the original setup where the pump was driven by pullies to the main diesel
engine.
All the windows are in.
Even after optimizing the installation process (we did 7 of those…) we
couldn’t get under 3 hours a piece. If
you add the opening ports in the galley and head windows, it took a full 4 days
of work. It is quite a relief though to
have the boat finally watertight after almost 3 years.
We are also done with the welding. JP completed the job in about 7 days,
including one at the shop to fabricate the transom doors that we came up
with: We needed to find a solution to
the helmseat, which was originally based on the panel we removed. The brainstorm eventually yielded a removable
double door with the base open to let water out. I’m very pleased with the result; Now I only have to paint.
Reefer tests: One of
them is air cooled and the other one is a hybrid water/air cooled system. Since the boat is on the hard, I planned on
waiting to test the latter (I only need one refrigerator anyway!) so I started
up the air cooled one. After a little
while, it seems to work ok, although we’ll have to let it run for 24 hours to
know for sure. For now it draws 5A. What a surprise when the Ammeter still shows
-5A when the whole DC panel is turned off.
I have a flash and open the panel under the sole under which the second
reefer is installed. Of course it is
running: It was plugged directly on the
DC distribution bus, before the panel and without a fuse or breaker. Decidedly, this boat was wired artistically!
Shannan should finish the overhead panels within 3
days. Grandpa and I prepared the
reinstallation of the centerboard; It
needs to go in at an angle because there is a steel bar across the trunk that
prevents it from going in fully horizontal.
We had to modify the wood crate/support.
Appointment is taken for September 3rd. Until then, I have to fabricate HDPE plates
that are screwed on each side of the board to soften the rotation up and
down. The original ones were destroyed
during sandblasting. I’ll also have to
paint the trunk interior and the board with antifouling paint.
